First Amendment & FOIA

Elise Young of northjersey.com reports that state officials refuse to provide complete public contracts with Ticketmaster. According to the article, the “arrangements give the state millions of dollars from seat sales and the non-refundable ‘convenience’ fees and other charges to fans.” In contracts obtained by The Record, the state’s take in transaction fees was removed.

Following a disturbing pattern of child deaths, Brad Branan of The Fresno Bee investigated the Fresno County Child Protective Services.   “Among California’s 20 biggest counties, Fresno County is one of the worst when it comes to meeting standards for child protection, The Bee found in an analysis of state data. The county’s Child Protective Services…

Nina Bernstein of The New York Times reports that, despite the Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s January 2004 statement that its officers would focus their efforts on detaining illegal immigrants with criminal records, the agency changed its quotas to facilitate the capture of non-criminal illegal immigrants as well. By 2006, only 9 percent of those detained…

Voice of San Diego reporter Will Carless reports that the county of San Diego has kept secret the results of an investigation into a report of improprieties in a program that provides wheelchairs and other medical services to children with physical disabilities. The investigation lasted more than a year and led to disciplinary action and…

Mark Pittman of Bloomberg.com reports that the Federal Reserve has refused their request to “disclose the recipients of more than $2 trillion of emergency loans from U.S. taxpayers and the assets the central bank is accepting as collateral.” Bloomberg filed suit against the Federal Reserve System in November for the release of bailout documents.