National Security Archive: “Henry Kissinger’s death today brings new global attention to the long paper trail of secret documents recording his policy deliberations, conversations, and directives on many initiatives for which he became famous—détente with the USSR, the opening to China, and Middle East shuttle diplomacy, among them. This historical record also documents the darker… Continue Reading
Accurate, Focused Research on Law, Technology and Knowledge Discovery Since 2002
Category Archives: Freedom of Information
Using FOIA Libraries to Your Advantage
Via LLRX – Using FOIA Libraries to Your Advantage – This presentation by Lisa DeLuca, Assistant Dean/Associate Professor Seton Hall University Libraries, South Orange, NJ is an actionable resource for training colleagues and other professionals on how to locate FOIA documents as well as to navigate and effectively execute Freedom of Information Act requests. Continue Reading
Texas board rejects many science textbooks over climate change messaging
The Texas Tribune: “A Republican-controlled Texas State Board of Education on Friday rejected seven of 12 proposed science textbooks for eighth graders that for the first time will require them to include information on climate change. The 15-member board largely rejected the books either because they included policy solutions for climate change or because they… Continue Reading
Virtual Cloud Portals
Dark Clouds: Can Government Agencies Evade Public-Records Laws by Storing Documents in Privately Owned Digital Portals? Frank D. LoMonte, Adjunct Instructor, University of Georgia School of Law. Newsroom Legal Counsel, Cable News Network, Inc. J.D., University of Georgia School of Law, 2000. B.A., Georgia State University, 1992. “Laws enabling the public to inspect government records… Continue Reading
FOIA.gov updated
“The basic function of the Freedom of Information Act is to ensure informed citizens, vital to the functioning of a democratic society. This site can help you determine if filing a FOIA request is the best option for you and help you create your request when you’re ready. Start your FOIA journey: Learn about the… Continue Reading
Meet ‘New Elites’ Who Control Twitter’s Israel-Hamas News
The ‘new elites’ of X: Identifying the most influential accounts engaged in Hamas/Israel discourse. Oct 20, 2023 RAPID RESEARCH REPORT University of Washington Center for an Informed Public: “Since the first news of the attack on Israel by Hamas, we have seen anecdotal reports from users of X (formerly Twitter) that the platform has become… Continue Reading
What Went Wrong with a Highly Publicized COVID Mask Analysis?
Scientific America [read free]: “The COVID-19 pandemic is ongoing, but in May officials ended its designation as a public health emergency. So it’s now fair to ask if all our efforts to slow the spread of the disease—from masking, to hand washing, to working from home—were worth it. One group of scientists has seriously muddied… Continue Reading
Public Case Access
“This new Public Case Access site was created as a result of a collaboration between the Harvard Law School Library and Ravel Law. The company supported the library in its work to digitize 40,000 printed volumes of cases, comprised of over forty million pages of court decisions, including original materials from cases that predate the… Continue Reading
Using AI to Comply With Book Bans Makes Those Laws More Dangerous
Brennan Center for Justice: “In August, a public school district in Iowa reportedly used ChatGPT to help it comply with the state’s controversial book ban law. That law—like counterparts passed in Florida, Texas, Missouri, Utah, and South Carolina—seeks to limit discussion of gender identity and sexuality in schools by barring school libraries from carrying books that… Continue Reading
How to fix the internet
MIT Technology Review – If we want online discourse to improve, we need to move beyond the big platforms. Erik Carter. “We’re in a very strange moment for the internet. We all know it’s broken. That’s not news. But there’s something in the air—a vibe shift, a sense that things are about to change. For… Continue Reading
Introducing The Foundation Model Transparency Index
A new index rates the transparency of 10 foundation model companies and finds them lacking. Katharine Miller – Companies in the foundation model space are becoming less transparent, says Rishi Bommasani, Society Lead at the Center for Research on Foundation Models (CRFM), within Stanford HAI. For example, OpenAI, which has the word “open” right in… Continue Reading
I find documents officials want to keep hidden. Here’s how.
Washington Post: “As The Post’s FOIA director, I’ve helped expose government waste and wrongdoing, and published stories that led to new laws. This is the first installment of Revealing Records, a periodic column by Nate Jones about his work obtaining public records for The Post. Few things make a journalist happier than receiving a manila… Continue Reading
