Putting open data to use
From FCS: On Jan. 21, 2009, President Barack Obama's very first executive memorandum declared a commitment to "transparency and open government." Those principles led to the Digital Government...
View Article5 tips for an airtight approach to ACA sunshine rule
From Law360: Law360, New York (June 10, 2013, 10:14 PM ET) -- Less than two months remain before drug and device makers must report virtually every item of value — from speaker’s fees to pastrami...
View ArticleThe case for a secrecy beat
Editorial from Columbia Journalism Review: Despite the recent blockbuster leaks about spying on the phone records of millions of Americans, and President Obama’s stated willingness to discuss the...
View ArticlePillars of secret government stand as vows to make government more...
From The Washington Post: WASHINGTON — It’s as if the United States has two governments, one open and one very much not. President Barack Obama leads both, trying not to butt heads with...
View Article"FOIA Terrorist" Jason Leopold shares his transparency secrets
From MuckRock: Jason Leopold has used the Freedom of Information Act to break a number of major stories, from the drugging of Department of Defense detainees to the Biblical justifications the Air...
View ArticleMackinac Center, ACLU officials push for greater government transparency
From MLive.com: Improving local and state government transparency was the driving focus of a Wednesday discussion sponsored by a well-known conservative think tank.read more
View ArticleTax writers promise 50 years of secrecy for senators' suggestions
From The Hill: The Senate’s top tax writers have promised their colleagues 50 years worth of secrecy in exchange for suggestions on what deductions and credits to preserve in tax reform.read more
View ArticleNEFAC open government news for July 2013
From New England First Amendment Coalition: The NEFAC Report -- New England's monthly right-to-know dispatch. This month:Electronic Chatter Among Officials at Public Meetings Raises Issues of...
View ArticleFederal food stamp program lacks transparency
The lack of transparency regarding the federal food stamp program, known as known as "SNAP," short for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, was the subject of this strong column by writers...
View ArticleSeattle-area Housing Authority institutes transparency reforms
Settlement in Knight FOI Fund case resolves tenant’s open meeting complaint, but public records issues are still pending. COLUMBIA, Mo. (August 6, 2013) – A public housing agency serving suburban...
View ArticleSen. Feinstein wants to limit who can be a journalist
From Watchdog.org: The most recent congressional threat to the free press in the United States comes from California Democrat U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein.read more
View ArticleAbility to police U.S. spying program limited, says FISA court chief judge
From the Washington Post: The chief judge of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court said the court lacks the tools to independently verify how often the government’s surveillance breaks the...
View ArticleBradley Manning sentenced to 35 years in prison
From The Washington Post: A military judge on Wednesday morning sentenced Army Pfc. Bradley Manning to 35 years in prison for leaking hundreds of thousands of classified documents to the anti-secrecy...
View ArticleCountries with more established FOI laws have better human development, still...
From Investigative Reporters and Editors: Freedom of Information Act advocates have consistently claimed that institutionalizing the right to information will benefit countries, particularly in...
View ArticleU.S. spy network’s successes, failures and objectives detailed in ‘black...
From The Washington Post: U.S. spy agencies have built an intelligence-gathering colossus since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, but remain unable to provide critical information to the president on a...
View ArticleD.C. Circuit rejects FOIA access to White House visitor logs
From The Blog of Legal Times: The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled today that records of visitors to the White House were off limits to requests under the Freedom of Information Act...
View ArticleA special sneak Preview of OpenTheGovernment 2013 Secrecy Report
From OpenTheGovernment.org: Be on the lookout for the upcoming release of the latest version of our Secrecy Report. As regular readers may know, this report includes multi-year tracking and analysis...
View ArticleFOIA ombudsman not yet at full force, report finds
From Center for Effective Government: A recent report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that the Office of Government Information Services (OGIS) doesn't have a plan for conducting...
View ArticleThe government shutdown is terrible for transparency
From National Journal: Thursday morning's New York Times starts with a blockbuster story on Obamacare:"A sweeping national effort to extend health coverage to millions of Americans will leave out...
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