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FOIA News around the Nation

May 2008

• The Student Press Law Center issued this press release to the US Department of Education, urging that FERPA laws not be expanded to invalidate open records laws at the state level, May 12, 2008.
• A parent in Colorado is upset that he is not being permitted to view footage taken on the school bus of a fight his child was in. May 12, 2008
• Information That Doesn’t Come Freely, May 11, 2008
• A Virginia school superintendent has given up spending taxpayer dollars to keep public records out of the hands of the public. May 11, 2008
• Charlotte city attorney Mac McCarley has a laundry list of people he thinks should not be making public record requests:
  "Disgruntled, unsuccessful bidders wanting to know everything about a bid process and the other people in it, bloggers wanting information for their shots at the government, the alternative press who has no particular sense of reasonableness in what they ask for, the gadflies and the Libertarians who will admit to you they are looking to bog down government, potential litigants shopping for a claim, political opponents of current officials, and then the idly curious." May 10, 2008
• Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick is starting to give up the ghost. May 9, 2008
• Some great advice from the American School Board Journal. May 8, 2008
• Cleveland Council blames old computer system for Joe Santiago's deleted e-mails.
  "Horse hockey" says Tim Smith, a Kent State University professor who teaches open-records law. May 8, 2008
• Shouldn't the records of those who work closely with minors be open to review by the public? May 7, 2008
• Trouble in Missouri: Lawsuit contends Blunt's aides ordered staffers to break the law. May 6, 2008
• The court of appeals ruled that employees' right to be free of harassment from the news media and the public outweighs any benefit in re-examining an incident where two firefighters died in California. May 2, 2008
• What to do when the need for public records outstrips storage capacity? Well, Arizona managed to figure out a solution. May 1, 2008

April 2008

• Shhh... April 30, 3008
• A huge disappointment for open records advocates in Iowa. April 29, 2008
• The Farm Service Agency must disclose individual farm files under the Freedom of Information Act. April 29, 2008
• A strong opinion about the leadership's honesty at Ohio University. April 29, 2008
• Gaining more access to the police records of campus police departments is a gradual process. April 28, 2008
• Public records offer a more personal glimpse into the lives of candidates for office. April 27, 2008
• No wonder they wanted to keep these bonuses hidden. April 26, 2008
• Should you have a right to know who is carrying a gun? Check out WikiFOIA's page on this subject: Concealed Carry Permits. April 26, 2008
• Legislative wheels turn out of view, April 25, 2008
• Text messaging is the newest hurdle for freedom of information advocates. April 24, 2008
• Public employees are getting killed when their DMV records are made public! Oh wait, that's not true at all... April 22, 2008
• An open records bill in Tennessee has been 'decimated'. April 21, 2008
• A controversial case concerning federal FOIA law:
  'In essence, prosecutors argued that once the executive branch says something is classified, courts are virtually powerless to review or disagree.' April 20, 2008
• $138 mistake led to release of 22 billion gallons from Lake Lanier. Whoops. April 20, 2008
• South Carolina joins the list of state's that exempt the identities of gun permit holders from FOIA. Take a look at WikiFOIA's page about Concealed Carry Permits for more. April 18, 2008
• The Democratic National Committee is digging for dirt on McCain. April 17, 2008
• Oklahoma State University tries to circumvent open records law. April 17, 2008
• Court considers limits on duplicative FOIA requests April 16, 2008
• After all that work getting through the Senate... April 16, 2008
• Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) announces Record Chaos: The Deplorable State of Electronic Record Keeping in the Federal Government. April 16, 2008
• Apparently, actor Wesley Snipes has been filing 'frivolous' FOIA requests. April 15, 2008
• Did the Governor's daughter really earn her degree? April 15, 2008 UPDATE: No, she did not. April 24, 2008
• A bill looking for exemptions to FOIA for contractors dies in ethics panel. Good. April 15, 2008
• The University of California is seeking an exemption to FOIA for academics who perform animal research. Cause California doesn't already have enough exemptions to the law. April 14, 2008
• The Missouri Department of Revenue want to charge $28 million for the state's database of driver's records. April 14, 2008
• According to a lawsuit in Washington, the state has illegally withheld records concerning the care of an abused boy monitored by social services. April 11, 2008
• A champion of open records urges all to join the fight to keep the government transparent. April 10, 2008
• If this is FOIA victory, what does defeat look like? April 9, 2008
• School Superintendent faulted for reading... public e-mails. April 7, 2008
• Lucky for the public there are city officials who know how public interest is served better than anyone else. April 7, 2008
• Town officials in Christiansburg, VA are getting a much-needed lesson in the state's open meetings requirements. April 6, 2008
• The Associated Press is using open records to check on the credit card spending of Veterans Affairs staff. April 6, 2008
• The Arkansas Education Association wants "protection" from the Freedom of Information Act. April 4, 2008
• According to a California sheriff's department, 'the public interest is better served by nondisclosure'. April 5, 2008
• Doesn't the FBI usually receive FOIA's? April 4, 2008
• Should homeowner’s association boards be subject to FOIA? April 4, 2008
• Yet another twist in Detroit Mayor Kilpatrick's fight to keep his text messages out of the public eye. April 4, 2008
• Details continue to be few despite FOIA requests to determine just how foriegn worker visa programs are working out. April 3, 2008
• National Nuclear Security Administration called kafkaesque. April 1, 2008
• The Federal Railroad Administration is making the investigation reports of major train wrecks available online. April 1, 2008
• Sometimes even soliders on active duty don't get appropriate replies to their FOIA requests. April 1, 2008
• Yakima County, Washington is upset about a bad grade they got. April 1, 2008

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