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National Stories
The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, along with 21 news media organizations and journalism associations, have filed comments asking the Department of Health and Human Services to proactively post granular datasets about “incredibly newsworthy” Medicare physician payments online. The call for data release comes in response to an HHS request for comments as it considers policy changes by its Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. A 1979 injunction, which was lifted in May after a legal challenge by Dow Jones & Co. and a medical data consulting firm prevented the release of Medicare physician payment information.
Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press
Florida news organizations are planning to attend a hearing on Monday to fight a judge's order not to publish the arrest report of a man accused of attempting to murder a 9-year-old girl at a Best Buy restroom. Duval County Circuit Court Judge Adrian G. Soud prohibited news organizations from publishing portions of the arrest report of James Patrick Tadros, who is charged with false imprisonment, criminal mischief and attempted murder, until he rules on the issue following Monday's hearing with news organizations.
Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press
Sauk Village (Ill.) officials say they have received so many Freedom of Information Act requests in the last year, it is beginning to weigh on village coffers and slow daily operations. Village Clerk Debbie Williams said Sauk Village has been asked to fulfill more than 100 FOIA requests in the last year, including 18 on Aug. 27 alone. Things started to get out of hand in the politically divided municipality about five years ago, she said. "There's no rhyme or reason to this," Williams said. "They're making a sham of the FOIA system." The village is considering adding a page to its official website publishing the names of the most frequent FOIA requesters including the cost and time spent by attorneys and staff on each request. Similar sites already exist for Chicago, Lisle and Oswego School District 308.
NWI Times
When asked under a Freedom of Information Act request by the Lansing State Journal to review their contracts, a Michigan Economic Development Corporation official said it would cost $1,700 just to allow a reporter to review the contacts. And an Michigan Department of Transportaion official said the agency would need tens of thousands of dollars before making the information available for review — information similar to what Department of Technology, Management & Budget offers online.
Lansing State Journal
After disclosures about the National Security Agency’s stealth campaign to counter Internet privacy protections, a congressman has proposed legislation that would prohibit the agency from installing “back doors” into encryption, the electronic scrambling that protects e-mail, online transactions and other communications. Representative Rush D. Holt, a New Jersey Democrat who is also a physicist, said that he believed the N.S.A. was overreaching and could hurt American interests, including the reputations of American companies whose products the agency may have altered or influenced.
New York Times
Supposedly venomous and embarrassing emails Eliot Spitzer allegedly sent from a private email account while serving as attorney general are at the center of an appeal that could decide whether the government has an obligation under the Freedom of Information Law to track down the personal correspondence of a public official who has left office. The appeal involves a former top official of American International Group (AIG), Howard Smith, who claims he has a right under the Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) to obtain the former attorney general's private emails, and one of Spitzer's successors, who says he has neither the obligation nor authority to obtain documents which are not under government control or custody. Oral arguments took place Thursday afternoon.
New York Law Journal
On Nov. 18, 20 members of the Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity at Arizona State University confronted three members of a rival fraternity at a Tempe, Ariz., apartment complex. The fight ended with a Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity member in the emergency room with a concussion and broken jaw. Tau Kappa Epsilon is now on probation from the university as a result. A year earlier, Sigma Nu fraternity at Northern Arizona University blindfolded pledges and spirited them off campus. The pledges were only made to repeat facts about the fraternity, but blindfolding them violated the university's anti-hazing policy. The fraternity was put on probation for a year. A student or parent would never learn about these disciplinary actions from looking at the Arizona State University and Northern Arizona University websites dedicated to Greek life, however. The discipline history of local chapters is not available online. The University of Arizona is the only one of the three state universities and the only member of the Pac-12 Conference to make fraternity discipline histories available online, The Arizona Republic has found.
USA Today
A Louisiana Republican has introduced a bill to put an end to taxpayers footing the bill for official, commissioned portraits of Washington’s movers and shakers. According to the Los Angeles Times, Rep. Bill Cassidy introduced the legislation – called the EGO Act, or Eliminating Government-funded Oil Painting – after reports the Environmental Protection Agency spent nearly $40,000 for former administrator Lisa Jackson’s portrait.
Fox News
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