From Deseret News:
SALT LAKE CITY — Last year, an attempt to change Utah's Government Records Access and Management Act led to a raucus Capitol Hill rally, outraged editorials and citizens throughout the state up in arms.
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Read More… from Utah Senate committee approves new GRAMA bill
From the Mail Tribune:
SALEM — A bill that would close off the records of those who hold concealed handgun licenses in Oregon easily passed the House, but its future in the Senate is, again, questionable.
It's the fourth time the House has passed such a bill, but each time the bill died in the Senate in the 2009 and 2011 sessions.
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Read More… from Future of bill to protect concealed weapon permits uncertain in Senate
A few open government and FOIA news items selected from many of interest that we might or might not have drawn attention to earlier:
"Why I'm Suing the FBI, the DoD and the CIA"
Over the past year, I've filed dozens of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests with the FBI, CIA, Department of Defense, and other government agencies in hopes of prying loose documents I need to support my investigative reporting efforts on a wide-range of issues and policies.
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From Summerville Patch:
Raising the hackles of watchdogs throughout the state, Rep. Chris Murphy of Summerville has proposed amendments to the state's Freedom of Information Act statute "to protect the integrity of the criminal trial process" and to bring it in line with federal and neighboring state laws.
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From The Roanoke Times:
A state Senate committee killed legislation Wednesday that would put concealed handgun permit records off-limits to the public at local courthouses.
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From NextGov:
The Homeland Security Department monitors social media sites, blogs and online comment threads to gather "situational awareness" about threats and emergencies, but it doesn't pull identifying information about average citizens out of those comments unless it's a "life or death situation," officials told a House panel Thursday.
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From The Wall Street Journal:
New York City has been cleared to release performance reports for thousands of teachers after a state court on Tuesday declined to hear a final appeal from the city’s teachers union to keep the information private.
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Read More… from Teachers’ Ratings to Go Public After Union Loses Appeal
From ACLU:
Today the ACLU filed a batch of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to learn more about the government's practice of reading people's email, text messages and other private electronic communications without a warrant.
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Read More… from Is the Government Reading Our Email, Texts and IMs Without a Warrant? You Bet.
Here are several interesting items of note in the last couple days regarding costs associated with fulfilling public records requests—and the fighting thereof.
Granted, if not these then at least some agencies likely have used or will use costs—actual or estimated, reasonable or outlandish—as a way of deflecting criticism when requested records are not searched for adequately or are ultimately not located, and that is unacceptable.
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From Wired:
A Senate staffer was tasked two years ago with compiling reports for a subcommittee about the number of times annually the Justice Department employed a covert internet and telephone surveillance method known as pen register and trap-and-trace capturing.
But the records, which the Justice Department is required to forward to Congress annually, were nowhere in sight.
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