Transparency News 5/19/16
National Stories
A District of Columbia neighborhood activist is suing the Department of Justice to try to get information on what happens to the thousands of people arrested in the city each year. Denise Rucker Krepp filed her lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Washington. The lawsuit says Krepp is seeking data about arrests, prosecutions, plea deals and conviction rates. Federal authorities previously denied Krepp’s Freedom of Information Act request, telling her that prosecutors in Washington do “not track this information” and have “no means of searching for or retrieving” it. Krepp appealed and prosecutors said they would try to get the data but not in the format Krepp requested.
Washington Post
A former aide to Hillary Clinton when she was secretary of state testified behind closed doors for two hours Wednesday in the first in a series of depositions that are likely to raise more questions about Mrs. Clinton’s use of a private email server just as she prepares for an election campaign against Donald J. Trump. The former aide, Lewis A. Lukens, testified under oath about his knowledge of Mrs. Clinton’s private email system as part of a lawsuit brought against the State Department by a conservative legal advocacy group, Judicial Watch.
New York Times
In a Phoenix suburb in March, protesters parked about two-dozen cars in the middle of the highway to stop drivers on their way to an outdoor rally for Donald Trump and Joe Arpaio, the controversial Arizona sheriff. With posters that read "Dump Trump" and "Must Stop Trump," the protesters, in one sense, acted on their right to demonstrate against the Republican frontrunner and the sheriff who was sanctioned for refusing a judge's order to stop racial profiling. But Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey (R) saw it differently: The demonstrators prevented Trump supporters from expressing their political views. Inspired by this event, Governor Ducey signed a measure into law Monday that increases penalties on protesters who block traffic to political events.
Christian Science Monitor
One of South Carolina’s newest senators said Wednesday she is being bullied by proponents of open government. Two months ago, Sen. Margie Bright Matthews, D-Walterboro, placed a procedural hold on a House of Representatives bill that aims to strengthen the state’s Freedom of Information Act. The measure would create a review office within the Administrative Law Court that would decide appeals when a public body rules a document is not a public record. Those disputes are now heard in a regular courtroom. Bright Matthews says she was in favor of the bill until she saw its cost. Creating a separate office that calls for a judge and staffer adds up to about $141,370 a year. It seems like more bureaucracy, when the state can’t fully fund local municipalities as required by law, she said. Bright Matthews said the S.C. Press Association and several state lawmakers — including Rep. Bill Taylor, R-Aiken, who called Bright Matthews a “rookie” in his weekly newsletter last week — have tried to bully her to remove her opposition to the bill. “Citizens and newspapers are lobbying her to allow a vote for the FOI bill,” said Bill Rogers, executive director of the Press Association. “That’s not bullying; that’s democracy.”
The Post and Courier
An audit by the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government found it took anywhere from two days to several weeks for many government offices in the state to fulfill public records requests and more than a dozen failed to respond at all. The open government advocacy group released the findings of its audit Tuesday. It marked the foundation's first public records audit in four years.
Las Cruces Sun-News
