“A six-year archive of classified military documents made public on Sunday offers an unvarnished, ground-level picture of the war in Afghanistan that is in many respects more grim than the official portrayal,” reports The New York Times. The documents were released online by WikiLeaks.org, but The New York Times, the British newspaper The Guardian and [...]
Archive for the ‘First Amendment & FOIA’ Category
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Wayne County, Mich. evasive with public records
May 14th, 2010 
Beth This WXYZ-Detroit report exposed the tactics employed by officials in Wayne County, Michigan’s largest county to avoid releasing public information. The story featured a 20-year Wayne County official whose own requests for routine salary information were stonewalled, as well as unions whose requests were simply ignored, causing them to file suit.
Eight deaths reported by homeowners with toxic drywall
March 2nd, 2010 Beth Homeowners with toxic drywall have reported eight deaths to federal consumer safety officials, though no direct linkage has been found. That’s according to a Scripps Howard News Service analysis of almost
2,700 drywall complaints to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, and 467 follow-up inspections by the CPSC, obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request.
Blacks three times more likely to be stopped in Toronto
February 9th, 2010 Beth Race Matters, a series by The Toronto Star, investigated why blacks are three times more likely than white to be stopped and questioned by police. “In each of the city’s 74 police patrol zones, the Star analysis shows that blacks were documented at significantly higher rates than their overall census population by zone, and that in many zones, the same holds true for “brown” people — mainly people of South Asian, Arab and West Asian backgrounds.”
Palin e-mails reveal a powerful ‘first dude’
February 8th, 2010 coulterj MSNBC.com investigative reporter Bill Dedman revealed the influence of Todd Palin, the husband of former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, during Palin’s time as governor. MSNBC.com staff combed through nearly 3,000 pages of e-mails to show Todd Palin involved in a judicial appointment, monitoring contract negotiations with a public employee union and passing “financial information marked marked ‘confidential’ from his oil company employer to a state attorney.”
Seniors exploited in care facilities
February 5th, 2010 Beth “Seniors for Sale“, a Seattle Times investigation, found that inside the state’s 2,843 adult family homes, thousands of vulnerable adults have been exploited by profiteers or harmed by amateur caregivers.
Judge orders Tacoma City Council to record executive meetings
January 21st, 2010 Beth The News Tribune (Tacoma, Wash.) won what may be the first court ruling of its kind in Washington state, when a judge ordered the Tacoma City Council to video and audio record its executive sessions.
Change in ownership allowed controversial gun store to remain open
January 5th, 2010 Beth For two years, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporter John Diedrich has been seeking documents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) on a local gun store that has been the subject of controversy. Despite heavy redactions by the agency, and differing responses to various FOIA requests, Diedrich was able to confirm the ATF recommended revocation of the store’s firearms license after a 2006 inspection.
Police failed to track government-owned take-home vehicles
December 3rd, 2009 Beth An investigation by Daniel Chacón of The Gazette (Colorado Springs, Colo.) found that the “Colorado Springs Police Department’s tracking of dozens of take-home government-owned vehicles is so incomplete no one can say if officers are using them to respond to emergencies, commuting or personal errands.” The police department was not aware of the issue until [...]
FBI tracked Studs Terkel for over four decades
November 17th, 2009 Beth Through the Freedom of Information Act, CUNY graduate student Valerie Lapinski was able to obtain previously unreleased FBI file of Studs Terkel. The file revealed that the agency suspected Terkel was a Communist. “The 269-page paper trail spans 1945 to 1990 – covering everything from Terkel’s McCarthy-era blacklisting to his involvement with Paul Robeson and [...]
