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National Stories
The California Senate voted to reverse changes to the California Public Records Act on Monday, leaving the final decision on the records law to Gov. Jerry Brown. The Democratic governor will have the opportunity to choose between two nearly identical budget bills, Assembly Bill 76 and Senate Bill 71. Brown's spokesman has suggested the governor will support the revised bill. Open government advocates and media groups spoke out against the original bill,AB 76, which would have made full compliance with the public records law optional for local agencies. The Legislature then simply revised SB 71 to remove the changes the original bill made to the public records law. Senators passed the new bill on a party-line, 28-11 vote, with Democrats in favor and Republicans opposed.
Sacramento Bee
A federal appellate court Tuesday gave the green light to a defamation lawsuit filed against the late conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart by former U.S. Department of Agriculture official Shirley Sherrod. A three-judge panel affirmed a court order denying Breitbart’s motion to dismiss the case against the District of Columbia’s law barring strategic lawsuits against public participation, or SLAPPs.
Blog of LegalTimes
A Massachusetts judge sealed the records of the district court overseeing the murder investigation involving Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez. Attleboro District Court Magistrate Mark E. Sturdy said all records relating to the death of Odin Lloyd, whose body was found less than a mile from Hernandez’s home in North Attleborough on June 17, would be kept from public view.
New York Times
With a business model built on the strengths of technology, the weaknesses of human nature and the reach of the First Amendment, mug shot websites are proving that in the Internet age, old assumptions about people's ability to put the past behind them no longer apply. The sites, some charging fees exceeding $1,000 to "unpublish" records of multiple arrests, have prompted lawsuits in Ohio and Pennsylvania by people whose mug shots they posted for a global audience. They have also sparked efforts by legislators in Georgia and Utah to pass laws making it easier to remove arrest photos from the sites without charge or otherwise curb the sites. But site operators and critics agree that efforts to rein them in treads on uncertain legal ground, made more complicated because some sites hide their ownership and location and purport to operate from outside the U.S.
Sacramento Bee
The clandestine National Security Agency is partly responsible for the modern PC era, a newly declassified document reveals, thanks to decades of custom computers built for one thing: espionage.
Fox News
Following a complaint from two senators, the National Security Agency has removed from its website two fact sheets designed to shed light on and defend a pair of surveillance programs. Users now trying to access the documents detailing surveillance under legal authorities known as Section 215 and Section 702 receive an error message when they try to load the fact sheets.
Politico
In a few weeks, New Yorkers will be able to see how much Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver earned through his outside employment at the Weitz & Luxenberg law firm. Fairly detailed statements about outside income, stock and real estate holdings will be disclosed in new detail after reforms passed in 2011 take effect this summer. The completed forms will be posted on the website of the state Joint Commission on Public Ethics, a watchdog entity created by the reforms. But the requirements don't apply to an entire class of public officials across the state: those serving on the boards of local authorities such as Industrial Development Agencies and Local Development Corporations. And while IDAs and LDCs have the power to issue lucrative tax breaks to businesses, the disclosure rules that govern board members are subject to local rather than state law.
Albany Times Union
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