Transparency News 4/11/17
Tuesday, April 11, 2017
National Stories
A bill encouraging Colorado citizens and state agencies to resolve public records disputes outside court is headed to the governor's desk. The Senate passed the bill Monday 35-0. It offers mediation as an option when a citizen wants to challenge a government agency's denial of his or her request for public records. Under Colorado's Open Records Act, such challenges must go to court — an expense that deters many from pursuing their requests. The new bill keeps that court option. But it also requires the record-keeper to contact the citizen to determine if the dispute can be resolved outside of court, including through mediation.
McClatchy
A coalition of nonprofit groups on Monday sued the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to obtain logs of visitors to President Donald Trump's homes. The lawsuit accused the Secret Service, which maintains the logs, of violating the law by ignoring several requests for lists of visitors to the White House, Trump Tower in Manhattan, and the Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida. Monday's complaint was filed in Manhattan federal court by the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, the National Security Archive, and archive researcher Kate Doyle. The plaintiffs had requested the logs under the federal Freedom of Information Act. Similar litigation by CREW in 2009 prompted the Obama administration to disclose White House visitor logs on a delayed basis, and according to the complaint led to the release of 5.99 million records.
Reuters
Agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives used a secret, off-the-books bank account to rent a $21,000 suite at a Nascar race, take a trip to Las Vegas and donate money to the school of one of the agent’s children, according to records and interviews. Agents also used the account to finance undercover operations around the country, despite laws prohibiting government officials from using private money to supplement their budgets, according to current and former government officials and others familiar with the account.
New York Times
When government officials consider whether to classify national security information, they should not aim for perfect security, according to new guidance from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. Instead, classifiers should seek to limit unnecessary vulnerabilities, while keeping broader mission objectives in view. "A Risk Avoidance strategy -- eliminating risk entirely -- is not an acceptable basis for agency [classification] guides because it encourages over-classification, restricts information sharing, [and] hinders the optimal use of intelligence information in support of national security and foreign policy goals," the ODNI document said. Rather, "All agencies should reflect in their classification decisions a Risk Management strategy -- mitigating the likelihood and severity of risk -- in protecting classified information over which they have [classification authority], including clear descriptions in their classification policies of how the strategy is used when making classification determinations."
Secrecy News
Editorials/Columns
OK, this is weird. Both state and federal authorities claim to be investigating the case of a Chinese company that took $1.4 million in state tax dollars to build an auto parts plant in Appomattox County — and then vanished, raising the prospect that the company never really existed beyond paper in the first place and the state simply got snookered. Yet more than a year after all this came to light, at least five key people who were involved in the failed deal have yet to be interviewed. What’s up? Are there really investigations going on?
Roanoke Times
It's time to reestablish the balance between citizens and their elected representatives. While expressing anger is important, it's seldom as effective as sharing a great idea. We have in front of us the opportunity to tap into an energy and level of engagement that most us have never seen before. And elected officials at all levels of government would be wise to follow the example of city leaders who are partnering with citizens to find real solutions to real public problems.
Myung J. Lee, Governing
