Waldo Jaquith's blog

Why FOIA Matters

For those of you out there who think FOIA is just a tool for the media to use to annoy public officials, I’ve got news for you: In this day and age access to information about not only what your government does but how it makes its decision can literally have life or death results.

Not a good year legislative year for access advocates

The 2008 Virginia legislative session was not a good one for defenders of freedom of information.    Bills that would have improved public access to information died.  Bills that chipped away at Virginia’s FOI Act through small exemptions passed into law with little opposition from lawmakers.  To make matters worse a couple of really bad access-damaging bills were passed into law.

And all of this was not for lack of effort by VCOG, the Press Association and other open records advocates.

ACCESS BILLS TO WATCH AS OF FEBRUARY 15, 2008

 If you think Big Brother is watching you, the bill that passed the House on Monday tells you it's true.

The Virginia Fusion Intelligence Center is where state local and federal officials are secretly gathering and  analyzing information on the citizens of Virginia and beyond. Apparently they are busy also worrying about hypothetical situations where someone could ask them for information they don't want to give out.

I write in response to the article the Free-Lance Star "Spotsy ordered to release 4 e-mails." While there are certainly heartening parts to Judge Beck's decision, I fear that once again a failure to interpret the letter of the law of Virginia's Freedom of Information Act will result in future withholding of records that should be public. Judge Beck stated county officials did not have to disclose the blacked-out portions of a Sept.