Past FOI News
The FOI Center is designed to be a central repository for IRE information
about FOI activities and links to other valuable FOI resources.
Providing examples and guidance for new FOI requests ideally will
help speed the process and improve the success rate.
March, 2007
Health Department fail to protect children from lead poisoning
Sharon Coolidge of The Cincinnati Enquirer worked on getting public records from Cincinnati. Her two year battle led all the way to the Ohio Supreme Court, where the Enquirer won in March of this year. The records were turned over in April. The city had used HIPAA as a shield against turning over the records. The Ohio Supreme Court decided Ohio law over-ruled the federal laws. She analyzed the city health records and found that "Cincinnati's Health Department is failng to force property owners to fix their buildings, leaving hundreds of children at risk for lead poisoning." The investigation revealed 300 cases in which children had been poisoned. City officials pledged that property owners who refuse Health Department orders to clean up poisonous lead hazards will find themselves in court.
Freedom of Information award
Scott Reeder of the Small Newspaper Group's Springfield, Ill., Bureau, won the Freedom of Information award in the 2005 IRE Awards for "The Hidden Costs of Tenure." Reeder filed 1,500 Freedom of Information Act requests with almost 900 government entities, then worked full-time for two months policing those requests to get a remarkable 100 percent response rate. With this information, he was able to show that the state's 20-year-old law aimed at making it easier to dismiss underperforming teachers had failed and been thwarted by the state's powerful teachers unions. The data he amassed showed that of the state's 876 school districts, only 38 were actually successful in firing a teacher.
Public Access to Vital Records Threatened by Terrorism Prevention Act
The Society of Professional Journalists found the implementation of a provision in the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Act of 2004 requires minimum standards for the use of birth certificates by Federal agencies for official purposes. The Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Protection Act was passed in response to the 9/11 Commission’s recommendation that "the federal government should set standards for the issuance of birth certificates, and sources of identification such as drivers licenses". Concern has been expressed that the provision will make it harder for reporters, activists and genealogical researchers to access vital records. Another problem seems to be the confusion among some federal, state, and local officials about what Public Law 108-458 actually prescribes.
Public records difficult to obtain
Abraham Hyatt and Leslie Griffy of The Tribune found that cities throughout San Luis Obispo County don't follow state law when it comes to public records requests in an investigation for Sunshine Week, an annual celebration of the nation's freedom of information laws. Six of the county's seven cities don't honor requests for records that the law says they must. "Information access laws, often called "sunshine" laws, were established to ensure that the public has access to documents produced by government - records that show everything from the last time a street was paved to how tax dollars are being spent." The California Public Records Act, which is similar to federal laws but applies specifically to state and local agencies, helps the public access a wealth of information from cities, counties and school districts.
March, 2006
Sunshine Week
The Coalition of Journalists for Open Government analyzed FOIA requests and denials in 2000 and 2004 and found the government's presumption has changed from openness to secrecy. This year's Sunshine Week will be March 12-18. See more IRE resources on public records.
RCFP finds cases disappear into hidden dockets
The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press' quarterly magazine, The News Media & the Law, reports "more than 450 cases in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., were completely hidden from the public through the use of a hidden docketing system that two federal appeals courts have declared unconstitutional." The report includes a chart, a how-they-did-it sidebar and a glimpse into secret docketing in a Florida case.
Federal cases shrouded in secrecy
Michael J. Sniffen and John Solomon of the Associated Press used court records to show that despite the Sixth Amendment's guarantee of public trials, nearly all records are being kept secret for more than 5,000 defendants who completed their journey through the federal courts over the past three years.
Wash. court records improperly sealed
Ken Armstrong, Justin Mayo and Steve Miletich of The Seattle Times used court records to show that since 1990, at least 420 civil suits have been sealed in King County, Wa. The investigation found that at least 97 percent of the judges' sealing orders disregard rules set down by the Washington Supreme Court in the 1980s. The package includes a sidebar about how they did the reporting and the CAR techniques used.
January, 2006
TRAC sues for release of information
David Burnham and Susan B. Long, co-directors of the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, are suing the federal Office of Personnel Management for "unlawfully withholding information it normally provides the public about some 900,000 of its civilian employees, including those working for such agencies as the EPA, OSHA and FEMA." The suit was filed under the Freedom of Information Act.
November, 2005
Media use of FOIA
Editor and Publisher reports that The Associated Press leads news organizations in using the Freedom of Information Act to obtain documents from the Pentagon. A log of such requests from 2000 to early 2005 was compiled by a San Francisco-based activist. The AP filed 73 such requests, followed by the Los Angeles Times with 42 and The Washington Post with 34. Trailing far behind among major newspapers was The New York Times with 21, USA Today with nine and The Wall Street Journal with six. On the TV side, CBS News led with 32 queries; Fox News followed with 22; and NBC with 21. CNN made just 11 inquiries. The request was sparked by interest in whether former New York Times reporter Judith Miller had ever made such a FOIA request. She had not.
November, 2005
FOI audit carried out in S.C.
Jim Davenport of The Associated Press wrote a series of reports detailing the costs of public records and abuse of executive sessions, as part of a statewide FOI audit completed by The Associated Press and the South Carolina Press Association. The investigation found that a quarter of elected officials say they have broken state law by letting their closed-door session stray beyond what they promised the public they would discuss while out of sight and earshot. When asked about open meetings and open records most city or county officials in South Carolina became suspicious. "Police and sheriff's departments around the state turned out to be the biggest source for denial. More than a dozen law enforcement agencies, about one-fourth of those visited, refused to provide copies of incident reports that residents should be able to review without delay."
November, 2005
Requests to seal divorce records on the rise
Tresa Baldas of The National Law Journal reports that corporations are increasingly requesting that judges seal "the divorce records of top executives to protect trade secrets or crucial financial information from leaking out, or simply to avoid embarrassment." The article cites examples from across the country, including California, New Hampshire and Connecticut.
August, 2005
The Society of Environmental Journalists has released an anecdotal study of reporters' experiences with the Freedom of Information Act based on interviews with 55 of their members. The experiences are important indictors the problems reporters increasingly face in getting information from government agencies. (PDF document)
July, 2005
Federal
shield law: IRE joins other journalism organizations
in endorsing a federal shield law to protect journalists, their sources
and the public's right to know. IRE has compiled a list of resources
to help its members keep up with the issue with information on the
proposed law, debate and those who support and oppose the idea.
April, 2005
FOI rulings: IRE filed amicus briefs
in two recent court cases that were decided in favor of the public's
right to data. The Connecticut Supreme Court upheld a ruling that
allows access
to geographic information system data, while the New York Court
of Appeals ruled the state's Department of Transportation must release
its list of most dangerous intersections to Newsday.
April, 2005
2004 IRE award winners — FOI category
Medal
- "Cries
for Help," WTHR-Indianapolis; Angie Moreschi, Bill Ditton
and Gerry Lanosga
Judges' comments: WTHR's investigation into problems with
Indiana's child welfare system led to a new law opening child
abuse reports and child neglect reports after a child dies. Instead
of resting on its laurels, the WTHR team then tested the new law,
leading to yet more important disclosures. Along the way, when
a state agency failed to obey the new disclosure laws that WTHR's
reporting had spawned, the station went to court and forced compliance.
The relentless reporting forced substantive changes at the agency.
View a clip from the
story
Finalists
May, 2005
New evidence casts doubt on convicted killer's guilt
Scott Glover and Matt Lait of the Los Angeles Times use scores
of documents shedding doubt on the guilt of a man convicted of killing
his mother over 20 years ago. Among the evidence discovered was
a bloody footprint found at the scene that didn't match the convicted
killer's shoes and a mysterious phone call made from the crime scene.
The footprint was attributed to Bruce Lisker at trial. But a recent
analysis
by the Los Angeles Police Department concluded "that the footprint
did not match Lisker's shoes, suggesting there was another suspect
in the house at the time of the killing." When the reporters contacted
eight of the 12 jurors, "five said the new information about the case
would have prompted them to acquit Lisker." The former prosecutor
in the case, after being shown the findings by the Times, said,
"The bottom line is I now have reasonable doubt." The story includes
PDFs of 14 documents ranging from a rap sheet of a jailhouse snitch
to an inventory record listing the contents of the victim's purse,
which includes the $120 that was alleged to have been a motive in
the murder.
April, 2005
San Diego Union-Tribune provides information on accessing
the government
The San Diego Union-Tribune compiled
resources to help California citizens make use of federal and state
freedom of information laws. The feature includes links
to public agencies, details
about what kind of information is public and instructions on
how
to make public records requests.
Police failing to notify schools about sex offenders
Ofelia Casillas of the Chicago Tribune investigated juvenile
sex offenders in schools, specifically looking into school knowledge
of the sex offender(s) in their school. They found that "some
principals were not told that young sex offenders had enrolled in
their schools, because the state system designed to notify them
is mired in confusion." They found more disturbing data when
looking into what types of crimes the juvenile sex offenders had
committed. "Of the juveniles registered, 41 percent were found guilty
of aggravated or criminal sexual assault, and 33 percent committed
aggravated criminal sexual abuse"
March, 2005
Dot com insiders made millions, while investors lost
Reporters Sharon Pian Chan and David Heath of The Seattle Times
used unsealed documents successfully won in state and federal lawsuits
to investigate Infospace's rise and downfall. At
its peak, Infospace was worth over $31 million, but a bad investment
on a Canadian wireless investment and questionable business dealings
led to the eventual collapse of the dot com giant. They interviewed
100 people, ranging from former employees, investors, experts and
regulatory officials. The three-part series details who
the winners and loser were, how
company insiders fled, dumping their stocks, making millions and
the series will feature the aftermath of the downfall March 8. Emails,
voicemails and documents
are also included in the series, as well as a piece about how
the series was done. The Seattle Times Executive Editor
Mike
Fancher wrote a column discussing the series.
Sunshine Week activities planned
At least two open government events are on tap in Washington for
Sunshine Week
– March 13-19-- for
those of you in town or headed this way. The first is the Freedom
Forum First Amendment Center’s annual FOI day, Wednesday, March
16, which will focus on access to information and likely include
a presentation by Sen. John Cornyn, R-TX, if he files an FOIA
reform bill in late February as anticipated. Geneva Overholser
is putting together a workshop the following morning, March 17,
at the National Press Club on use of anonymous sources and off-the-record
briefings. Also, the American Library Association will be sharing
information about Sunshine Sunday and Sunshine Week with its members
at their convention this weekend in Boston – and urging local
librarians to plan events in their communities that include inviting
journalists to talk about open government at open government workshops.
Pete Weitzel
The Associated Press
The New York Times has a First Amendment right to protect the
confidentiality of its sources by denying the government phone records
in certain instances, a judge ruled Thursday. Saying that secrecy
in government appears to be on the rise, Judge Robert W. Sweet refused
to toss out a First Amendment lawsuit the newspaper filed last year
to stop the Department of Justice from getting records of phone calls
between two veteran journalists and sources. Decision available at:
http://www.nysd.uscourts.gov/courtweb/pdf/D02NYSC/05-01129.PDF
January, 2005
FOI investigation finds most comply, but not entirely
Mark Chellgren of the Associated Press reported on an investigation led by the Kentucky Press Association and the Associated Press into "whether public offices are allowing citizens to view government documents. The investigation "showed most are obeying the state's Open Records Act, but compliance is not uniform." The results were mixed, varying from a smile for a city budget request to intimidation when requesting a list of current inmates at the Motgomery County Jail. Also included is a list of participants in the investigation, as well as a section on how the investigation was done. Jim Hannah of The Kentucky Enquirer, Gregory A. Hall of The Courier-Journal, Herb Brock of The Advocate-Messenger and Bill Estep and Lee Mueller, both of the Lexington Herald-Leader, followed up the AP story with their conclusions to the investigation. They found that cities responded the best to public record requests, while jailers were the worst. "Kentucky turned down requests to see a list of inmates seven out of 10 times, the Oct. 21 audit showed."
State official offers records in exchange for donation
Clark Kauffman of The Des Moines Register has an alarming
story about the sale of public records: "The head of the Iowa Department
of Public Safety says his
agency is prepared to consider whether it can make crime records
more readily available to the public if The Des Moines Register
makes a financial donation to his agency.... Techau suggested
the donation Tuesday during a meeting with three Des Moines Register
staff members to discuss the Department of Public Safety' policies
and practices in releasing information to the public from crime
reports written by the Iowa State Patrol."
See more updates from the Coalition of Journalists for Open Government or read The FOI Advocate, the E-Newsletter
of the National Freedom of Information Coalition.
|
