Price tag for protecting government secrets at record $11.4B
WASHINGTON — The price tag for safeguarding government secrets rose by 12% in 2011 to a record $11.4 billion. The year-to-year estimate covers 41 executive branch agencies, but it excludes money spent...
View ArticleGroups decry secrecy surrounding Manning court martial
Media and civil rights groups are objecting to the lack of disclosure in the court martial of Pfc. Bradley Manning. The 23-year-old from Crescent, Okla., is accused of giving classified information to...
View ArticleN.J. high court: Legal clinics are exempt from records law
TRENTON, N.J. — New Jersey’s Supreme Court says a Rutgers University legal clinic doesn’t have to release documents under the state’s Open Public Records Act. The Rutgers Environmental Litigation...
View ArticleGay-marriage meetings didn’t break laws, says N.Y. court
ALBANY, N.Y. — A state appeals court has rejected a challenge to New York’s year-old same-sex marriage law, ruling closed-door negotiations among senators and gay-marriage supporters, including Gov....
View ArticleS.C. judge: Autopsy reports aren’t open records
SUMTER, S.C. — A judge has ruled that written autopsy reports are not subject to South Carolina’s open-records laws. Circuit Judge Clifton Newman ruled this week that the reports should be considered...
View ArticleIowa high court: Univ. can shield sexual-assault records
IOWA CITY, Iowa — The University of Iowa can conceal hundreds of pages of records related to its widely criticized handling of a 2007 sexual-assault incident involving two football players, the Iowa...
View ArticleN.Y. governor doesn’t use state e-mail, avoids disclosure
ALBANY, N.Y. — Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who promised the most transparent government in history, doesn’t conduct any state business on a state e-mail account or through his personal e-mail, according to a...
View ArticleFederal judge grants Tenn. mosque’s petition to open
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A federal judge ordered a Tennessee county yesterday to move ahead with opening a Muslim congregation’s newly built mosque after a two-year fight from opponents. The Islamic Center...
View ArticleManning largely barred from discussing WikiLeaks harm
FORT MEADE, Md. — A military judge yesterday largely barred an Army private from presenting evidence at his trial that the mountain of classified information he’s accused of leaking did little harm to...
View ArticleFla. appeals court: Student complaints are on the record
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — The identity of students who submit complaints about teachers to public schools, including colleges and universities, are public records and must be disclosed to citizens, a Florida...
View ArticleIll. governor: Public to get more notice about meetings
WHEATON, Ill. — Gov. Pat Quinn has signed legislation to improve the public’s access to information about government meetings. The law requires public bodies holding an open meeting to post information...
View ArticleN.J. high court: Rutgers board violated open-meetings laws
NEWARK, N.J. — Rutgers University’s board of governors violated some state open-meetings laws at a special session held in 2008 to discuss athletic department policies and conduct, the state Supreme...
View ArticleColo. court bars release of shooting suspect’s univ. records
DENVER — Tightening the secrecy over the year Colorado shooting suspect James Holmes spent studying neuroscience, a judge has barred the University of Colorado-Denver from releasing any records about...
View ArticlePa. environmental agency must release files to newspaper
HARRISBURG, Pa. — A state appeals court has ordered environmental officials to turn over documents related to gas drilling requested by an eastern Pennsylvania newspaper under the Right To Know Law...
View ArticleCampus struggles with transparency after movie shootings
DENVER — Last week, University of Colorado-Denver officials assured reporters that students and faculty were free to talk about the former graduate student charged with killing 12 people at a movie...
View ArticleJudge refuses to lift gag order on Univ. of Colo.
DENVER — The judge in the deadly Colorado theater shooting case refused yesterday to lift a gag order that prevents the University of Colorado from releasing information about former graduate student...
View ArticlePa. instant messaging may avoid public-record disclosure
Editor’s note: This story by Brad Bumsted of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review was transmitted by the Associated Press. HARRISBURG, Pa. — Trainers are telling state workers learning a new phone system that...
View ArticleFood-safety advocates want cantaloupe farm identified
INDIANAPOLIS — Food-safety advocates called on federal officials yesterday to release the name of an Indiana farm that recalled its cantaloupes amid a salmonella outbreak that has killed at least two...
View ArticleColo. won’t reveal suspected ineligible voters
DENVER — Citing an ongoing investigation, Colorado Secretary of State Scott Gessler said Aug. 21 he would not allow public inspection of the list of nearly 4,000 registered voters he suspects are...
View ArticleMass. court: Unseal search warrant in rape case
BOSTON — A search warrant in a statutory-rape case against a prominent real estate developer should be unsealed and available to the public, the state’s highest court ruled yesterday. Ruling in the...
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