From Lexington Herald-Leader:
She is either due your thanks for doing everything in her power to protect children from obscenity or she is due your disdain for wantonly taking away the constitutional rights of the people of Jessamine County.
She never meant to do the latter. She absolutely meant to do the former.
This report, which will be updated as events warrant, provides an overview and analysis of issues related to the processing and distribution of congressional information by the Government Printing Office. Subsequent sections address several issues, including funding congressional printing, printing authorizations, current printing practices, and options for Congress. Finally, the report provides congressional printing appropriations, production, and distribution data in a number of tables.
From the Electronic Frontier Foundation:
Today the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) posted thousands of pages of records detailing behind-the-scenes negotiations between government agencies and Congress about providing immunity for telecoms involved in illegal government surveillance.
The documents include drafts of legislation and communications between Congress and the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) about amendments to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). They were released as a result of litigation that started back in 2007, when Congress first debated granting immunity to the telecommunications companies for taking part in massive, unchecked surveillance of Americans’ telephone and Internet communications. EFF used the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to request information about communications between the DOJ, ODNI, Congress, and telecom lobbyists.
FOIA Release: Draft legislation to amend FISA
FOIA Release: Correspondence about amending FISA, bill summaries, and other documents
From OMB Watch:
In a 16-10 party-line vote on Nov. 5, the House Committee on the Judiciary approved H.R. 3845, the USA PATRIOT Amendments Act of 2009. The legislation contains several important reforms of controversial surveillance powers granted in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Republicans on the committee claimed that “the legislation would hinder law enforcement and intelligence agencies in fighting terrorism.”
From OMB Watch:
On Nov. 5, the House Judiciary Committee began markups on a bill that would codify standards for when and how the executive branch may apply the state secrets privilege in civil litigation. Although the Obama administration has promised certain limitations on its own use of the privilege, civil liberties and open government groups continue to call for legislation to address the privilege. Ultimately, the committee approved the bill on an 18-12 vote and referred the legislation to the full House.
The State Secrets Protection Act of 2009 (H.R. 984) was introduced by Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY). The purpose of the bill is to allow executive branch secrecy claims to be examined in a secure manner. The markup was the first time the committee had addressed the issue since the bill was referred to it in June.
From CNN:
The good news: data from governments and other organizations is increasingly open and online. The bad news: it’s rather dull.
The result? A booming interest in data visualization, which can transform boring stats into compelling graphical presentations explaining our world.
From The Guardian:
The legal system is often accused of lagging behind the technological curve – indeed, it is only a couple of years since a high court judge made headlines by saying: “I don’t really understand what a website is.” He later said that the remarks were taken out of context.
Once in a while, however, the courts get ahead of the curve. Eight years ago, for example, America took the pioneering step of making every court document available online to the public. The grand plan was, understandably, hailed by transparency advocates and freedom of information campaigners.
From the New York Observer:
The New York State Senate’s chief information officer team just launched an early version of their Open Legislation Portal today.
The site allows users to search for bills by sponsor, committee, recent actions, and recent votes. You can also search by keyword, like, say, “bicycle” and find relevant bills and data available in four different formats.
From Bloomberg:
The Federal Reserve said a U.S. judge erred in ruling that the central bank should identify companies that received emergency loans last year, according to court papers filed to overturn the decision.
U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska improperly used the standard of “imminent harm” to a borrower’s competitive position rather than a lesser standard of “likely harm,” according to papers filed yesterday by Fed lawyers led by Senior Counsel Yvonne Mizusawa.
From SLA’s Public Policy blog:
At a press conference on 29 October the Governor’s Office announced that Governor Patrick is considering closing the State Library of Massachusetts as a cost-saving measure. The State Library of Massachusetts now has an online petition to collect support to ensure that these collections remain freely accessible to all members of the public.