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

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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 director is on record as wanting to prosecute certain journalists. Journalists, publishers, writers, academics are always in the first wave. Doctors, teachers, accountants will be next. Authoritarianism is as predictable as a Swiss train. It’s already later than you think…”

Police seldom disclose use of facial recognition despite false arrests

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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

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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

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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

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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

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“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.

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“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

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“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?

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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

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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

Unlocking History: How a Small Group of Researchers Dominates the Declassification Appeals Process

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Via LLRX – Unlocking History: How a Small Group of Researchers Dominates the Declassification Appeals Process – Attorney and FOIA expert Michael Ravnitzky shines a spotlight on people, process and procedural challenges with his illuminating article. A small core group of researchers and historians have filed most of the declassification appeals being reviewed by the… Continue Reading

Access to Justice as Access to Data

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Rostain, Tanina, Access to Justice as Access to Data (July 25, 2024). Forthcoming in the Northwestern Law Review, Volume 119, 2024., Georgetown University Law Center Research Paper Forthcoming, (2024). Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works. 2619., Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4905900 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4905900 This Keynote Address, delivered in celebration of the launch of SCALES, discusses… Continue Reading