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National Stories
California Gov. Jerry Brown is poised to sign legislation that could reduce the public's access to basic government records that have long been used to scrutinize the actions of elected officials. The proposal, a late insert into the state budget that lawmakers passed last week, would allow local officials to opt out of parts of the California law that gives citizens access to government documents. Under that law, officials now must respond to a request for records from a member of the public within 10 days and are required to make the documents available electronically. The change, which Brown requested as a cost-cutting measure, would allow the officials to skip both requirements with a voice vote. The same vote would permit them to reject requests without explanation and would no longer require them to help citizens identify existing information.
Los Angeles Times
Google has asked the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to lift a gag order, saying it has the constitutional right to clear its name by discussing government data requests. The company filed a five-page motion before the court on Tuesday afternoon, arguing it has "a right under the First Amendment to publish" summary statistics about requests made under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
CNET News
The court-martial of the U.S. soldier accused of providing reams of classified documents to WikiLeaks in a case illustrating the challenge of keeping secrets in the digital age must decide whether tweets and Web pages can be admitted as evidence. Lawyers for Private First Class Bradley Manning, 25, who is accused with providing more than 700,000 files to the anti-secrecy website in the biggest breach of classified U.S. data in the nation's history, argued on Tuesday that Twitter postings offered by prosecutors do not meet the court's standards.
Reuters
Lawyers used grammar rules as much as Georgia laws in their arguments Monday before the Supreme Court over whether the state is required to turn over Kia Motors’ hiring records. Gov. Nathan Deal has said the records need to be kept secret to allow the state to compete with other states in enticing large employers to bring jobs to Georgia. Four members of the United Auto Workers labor union are suing to get access to documents the state has in order to see if the company had a stated policy to discriminate against union members. They say the state’s Open Records Act entitles them to the papers, but government lawyers contend a change in the law to protect proprietary information enacted after the suit was filed removes that access, which sets up the question of whether the retroactive provisions are constitutional. Russ Willard, a senior assistant attorney general, told the justices the General Assembly has authority to change the law retroactively because access to the state’s documents was just a privilege and not a right. “These are no rights that arise out of common law,” he said. “These exist out of legislative grace.”
Athens Banner-Herald
National Security Agency Director Keith Alexander told a House committee Tuesday that more than 50 terror threats throughout the world have been disrupted with the assistance of two secret surveillance programs that were recently disclosed by former defense contractor Edward Snowden. More than 10 of the plots targeted the U.S. homeland, Alexander told the House Intelligence Committee, including a plot to attack the New York Stock Exchange.
USA Today
When a senior FBI official told Congress the role the NSA’s secret surveillance apparatus played in a San Diego terror financing case today, nobody was more surprised to hear it than the defense attorney who fought a long and futile court battle to get exactly the same information while defending the case in court. “His lawyers — who all have security clearances — we can’t learn about it until it’s to the government’s tactical advantage politically to disclose it,” says New York attorney Joshua Dratel. “National security is about keeping illegal conduct concealed from the American public until you’re forced to justify it because someone ratted you out.”
Wired
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