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National Stories
The Government Accountability Office has been tracking the problem of managing electronic records for years, issuing several reports detailing serious problems with email management. So in 2012, the Obama administration issued a directive for all federal agencies to manage their email electronically by 2016. The policy, called “Capstone," will allow agencies to automatically categorize email based on the position of the employee, thereby capturing the emails that are “likely to create or receive permanently valuable federal records.” Of course, the feds aren’t the only government agencies to struggle with how to manage email. States, counties and cities have had their share of problems with emails that have gone missing, been accidentally deleted or left on hard drives that crashed. One of the biggest issues has to do with which emails to save externally and which can be deleted. Does government need to save every email generated by its employees? And for how long?
Governing
On America’s 190th birthday in 1966, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the “Freedom of Information Act,” a law he described as crucial to the democratic principles of our country. And FOIA, as it now known, has since become a cornerstone of government openness and individual rights, and was most recently renewed in 2014. The idea is simple: provide American citizens with information and space to complain regarding the country’s most pressing issues: national security, policy making and ketchup packets. Yes, ketchup packets. A report from the collaborative investigative news site MuckRock has recently exposed just how some Americans are using FOIA: to complain to the CIA about its own employee cafeterias.
CNN
No, the United States isn't trying to build a military force of centenarians. It just seems that way after the Selective Service System mistakenly sent notices to more than 14,000 Pennsylvania men born between 1893 and 1897, ordering them to register for the nation's military draft and warning that failure to do so is "punishable by a fine and imprisonment." The agency realized the error when it began receiving calls from bewildered relatives last week.
Progress-Index
State Senator Chris McDaniel, who narrowly lost a Republican primary runoff to United States Senator Thad Cochran, the incumbent, asked the Mississippi Supreme Court on Monday for an emergency order forcing the Harrison County circuit clerk, Gayle Parker, to let him see original copies of poll books. Mr. McDaniel is trying to prove that some people who voted in the June 24 runoff also voted in the June 3 Democratic primary, which would be illegal.
New York Times
Last week the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals determined that while NBCUniversal reporters did not violate anyone’s Fourth Amendment rights creating the 2008 Dateline segment titled “Tricks of the Trade,” a lower court will have to review the originally dismissed defamation claims made by an insurance broker featured in the piece. Tyrone M. Clark and his company, Brokers’ Choice of America, initially sued NBC over video clips recorded with a hidden camera by Dateline crew members during an insurance brokers’ seminar in Colorado located on BCA property.
Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press
Major U.S. web companies urged regulators to restrict the ability of Internet providers including mobile carriers to strike deals for faster delivery of some web traffic and planned a publicity campaign about the government’s proposal. The Internet Association, which represents three dozen web companies such as Google Inc, Netflix Inc and Amazon.com Inc, made their case in a filing with the Federal Communications Commission, which plans to establish new so-called “net neutrality” rules.
Reuters
Press groups, prominent journalists and administration critics have all accused President Barack Obama of failing to live up to his commitment to have the "most transparent administration in history." To some, that pledge is now a punch line. But the commitment endures, newly appointed White House press secretary Josh Earnest said in an interview on CNN's "Reliable Sources" on Sunday. Earnest, who was a deputy press secretary before his promotion in June, cited "a number of steps that we've taken to give people greater insight into what's happening at the White House."
CNN
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