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Posts Tagged ‘FOIA’
Foreign FOI: How to request records in another country
**This article appeared in the 2015 1st Quarter IRE Journal** By Emilia Díaz-Struck, Central University of Venezuela The lack of information in one country does not mean that the information does not exist. Many times, stories connect with different parts of the world, and searching in other countries could improve the findings. Persons and companies…
Read MoreBeyond narco tunnels and border security: Tips and techniques for investigating stories along the U.S.–Mexico border
**This article appeared in the 2015 1st Quarter IRE Journal** By Celeste González de Bustamante, Border Journalism Network Geopolitical borders and the communities that thrive among them are unique places where cultures can be both connected and contested at the same time. Borderlanders, those who live on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border region, share…
Read MoreFinalists announced for 2015 Golden Padlock award
COLUMBIA, MISSOURI: Investigative Reporters and Editors is proud to announce the finalists for its 2015 Golden Padlock Award celebrating the most secretive government agency or individual in the United States. “There is a unique brand of courage displayed by public officials who deny, delay and circumvent the public’s right to know with a straight-faced sense of duty,”…
Read MoreFederal agencies fail FOIA test conducted by Syracuse University
Card If you report on the government, it may not surprise you to read that only seven of the 21 federal agencies recently FOIAed by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) have provided records more than two months after the requests went out. TRAC, a research center that administers the FOIA Project out of Syracuse…
Read MoreSenator puts hold on widely supported FOIA bill
A bill designed to improve the way the federal government handles an increasing load of FOIA requests – a bill that had gained bipartisan support – could be dying after a senator blocked the legislation. The FOIA Improvement Act of 2014 would “create a pathway for the federal government to modernize the administration of FOIA”…
Read MoreBehind the Story: How NPR and ProPublica exposed problems with the Red Cross’ response to Superstorm Sandy
Justin Elliott of ProPublica Justin Elliott, Jesse Eisinger and Laura Sullivan turned a vague tip about the American Red Cross’ inefficiency into a powerful report about the organization’s failings after Hurricane Isaac and Superstorm Sandy. The joint project between ProPublica and NPR revealed that hundreds of millions of dollars pouring in from donors in 2012…
Read MoreUniversity of Oklahoma releases parking tickets after student newspaper joins suit
A decision by the student newspaper at the University of Oklahoma to join its staffer’s lawsuit against the school caused officials to reverse course on their original decision to withhold parking ticket citations. OU Daily staff member Joey Stipek had filed the suit in May 2013 after his open records requests for parking tickets was…
Read MoreFerguson no-fly zone aimed at media
The no-fly zone in place during August’s protests in Ferguson, Missouri, was enacted to keep the media from shooting overhead footage from helicopters, according to a report by the Associated Press. The AP got its hands on audio recordings of conversations between the Federal Aviation Administration and local police officials. In the recordings, local authorities…
Read MoreBehind the Story: New Jersey reporter finds inconsistencies in 2008 death investigation
Chris Baxter Chris Baxter and NJ Advance Media wrestled out a compelling and untold story, let the digital presentation take the lead and came away with a “smashing” investigative success. Using a system he developed to keep tabs on lawsuits involving state police, Baxter came upon the stifled story of Kenwin Garcia, a Newark man…
Read MoreNew York newspaper asks judge to force release of license plate data
The Democrat & Chronicle is fighting a county’s denial to provide license plate information about seven newspaper employees and a couple government-owned vehicles, the paper reports. The Rochester, New York-based paper has reported that Monroe County is indiscriminately amassing license-plate information from high-speed cameras. During the summer, a reporter filed a Freedom of Information Law…
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