Accurate, Focused Research on Law, Technology and Knowledge Discovery Since 2002

Category Archives: Freedom of Information

The New Administration: A Boon for Investigative Journalism

Via LLRXThe New Administration: A Boon for Investigative Journalism – This commentary by Michael Ravnitzky highlights the critical period ahead for investigative journalism under the new presidential administration. Controversial stances and policy shifts will provide many more opportunities than usual for journalists to uncover and report on critical issues, ensuring that the administration’s actions are thoroughly examined and the public remains well-informed.

Documenting the Assault on Disinformation and Hate Speech Research

“President-elect Donald Trump, Elon Musk, Rep. Jim Jordan, and other MAGA Republicans are engaged in an ongoing campaign to target researchers studying disinformation and hate speech. Philip Napoli–the James R. Shepley Professor of Public Policy, Director of the DeWitt Wallace Center for Media & Democracy, and Senior Associate Dean for Faculty and Research for the… Continue Reading

How to survive the broligarchy: 20 lessons for the post-truth world

The Guardian – Carole Cadwalladr – In the wake of Trump’s unnerving appointees, the investigative journalist and veteran of the libel court offers [20] pointers on coping in an age of surveillance… Journalists are first, but everyone else is next. Trump has announced multibillion-dollar lawsuits against “the enemy camp”: newspapers and publishers. His proposed FBI… Continue Reading

Police seldom disclose use of facial recognition despite false arrests

Washington Post via MSN – Hundreds of Americans have been arrested after being connected to a crime by facial recognition software, a Washington Post investigation has found, but many never know it because police seldom disclose their use of the controversial technology. Police departments in 15 states provided The Post with rarely seen records documenting… Continue Reading

Heritage Foundation Staffers Flood Federal Agencies With Thousands of Information Requests

ProPublica: “Three investigators for the Heritage Foundation have deluged federal agencies with thousands of Freedom of Information Act requests over the past year, requesting a wide range of information on government employees, including communications that could be seen as a political liability by conservatives. Among the documents they’ve sought are lists of agency personnel and… Continue Reading

Tracking Boating Accidents in the United States

Tracking Boating Accidents in the United States. First published August 12, 2024. Data through. 2023. Introductory documentation The US Coast Guard (USCG) maintains the Boating Accident Report Database (BARD), which serves as a central, national database of recreational boating accidents. The data come from submissions of CG-3865, a form that boat operators must file to… Continue Reading

NSA releases copy of internal lecture delivered by computing giant Rear Adm. Grace Hopper

FORT MEADE, Md. — “In one of the more unique public proactive transparency record releases for the National Security Agency (NSA) to date, NSA has released a digital copy of a lecture that then-Capt. Grace Hopper gave agency employees on August 19, 1982. The lecture, “Future Possibilities: Data, Hardware, Software, and People,” features Capt. Hopper… Continue Reading

Collecting federal .gov databases

“Please help us by submitting the agency name and url of your favorite agency’s queryable database. We will attempt to harvest that information for the 2024 crawl. We appreciate your time in assisting us in collecting those .gov databases. Please feel free to forward this email to other interested people/communities/lists. For questions, please email me… Continue Reading

OpenTheBooks.com – Every Dime. Online. In Real Time.

“At OpenTheBooks.com, we work hard to capture and post all disclosed spending at every level of government – federal, state, and local. In 2022, we filed 50,000 Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests and captured 25 million public employee pension and salary records. We also broke open the California state checkbook for the first time… Continue Reading

In November 2024, everything is at stake

“The cornerstone of democracy rests on the foundation of an educated electorate. That’s a quote from Thomas Jefferson, and it’s super-relevant to our situation today. Our schools aren’t doing enough to create an educated electorate, and most of our journalists are doing a terrible job. This is terrifying, because the 2024 elections could be the… Continue Reading

Trump presidential library?

Via Ben Amata: A Trump presidential library exists and appears to be only digital – The Donald J. Trump Presidential records are governed by the Presidential Records Act (PRA). Under the provisions of the PRA, Trump Presidential records are not available to public access requests for the first five years after the end of the… Continue Reading

The Man Behind Project 2025’s Most Radical Plans

ProPublica:  The Man Behind Project 2025’s Most Radical Plans  – As Donald Trump tried to disavow the politically toxic project, its director, Paul Dans, stepped down. But the plans and massive staffing database that he prepared — to replace thousands of members of the “deep state” with MAGA loyalists — remain…But then again, his resignation… Continue Reading