CalAware Today

"It Is the Soldier" Salute Ignores Half Our History

FREE SPEECH/FREE PRESS -- Veterans Day marks a surge in the online circulation of a certain versified tribute to the military as the exclusive source of our freedoms under the Bill of Rights.  It's not clear why those who claim to celebrate veterans feel it necessary to deny the role of civilian contributors to our civil liberties.  And it's not even true to history.

Somewhere Mario Savio Must Be Smiling

FREE SPEECH -- The ACLU in San Diego has spelled out for a local community college president just how unlawful it believes the college's ill-treatment of several faculty members for their support of a student protest really was, and how other rules violate the civil rights of students and faculty in general.  These students treat protest (about the decline in state financial support) with the excitement of 50 years ago—and it gets widespread attention.

Brown Act Challenge to Council Ends Amicably

OPEN MEETINGS -- CalAware President Emeritus's Richard McKee's intervention led to the Patterson City Council's acknowledgment this week that it had overstepped the limits of California’s open-meeting rules, and a pledge to comply more fully with the law in the future, reports James Leonard in the Patterson Irrigator. McGee expressed admiration for the city attorney's grace under fire.

Recall Fizzles: Student Leader Wouldn't Censor

FREE SPEECH/OPEN MEETINGS -- The student body president at Sacramento City College, summarily removed and suspended for permitting a graphic anti-abortion display at a student forum, has been reinstated—because his recall election was taken at an unlawful meeting, reports Stephanie Rodriguez for SacCityExpress.com, the college's "student-run news portal."

Newspaper Suing for Report on Former Fire Chief

PUBLIC INFORMATION -- The Record Searchlight in Redding on Monday sued the Anderson Fire Protection District to obtain an investigator's report on the conduct of its former fire chief, reports Jim Schultz in that newspaper.

AG Taping Flap: What Does "on the Record" Mean?

FREE PRESS -- Two new items have emerged in the last 24 hours concerning the secret recording of journalists' interview calls by a former press spokesman for Attorney General Jerry Brown: the actual recorded call transcripts and a formal investigative finding by a top official in the criminal division of Brown's office concluding that, since press interviews are "on the record," no law prohibits the government from recording them unannounced.

CalAware's McKee Faults School Board Meetings

OPEN MEETINGS -- Richard McKee, president emeritus of Californians Aware, says the West Covina School District has violated state open-government laws several times, and in a letter addressed to Superintendent Liliam Leis-Castillo and the district's school board members, has accused the district of failing to provide accurate, specific information on agendas, reports Maritza Velazquez in the San Gabriel Valley Tribune.

Ten Counties Keeping Swine Flu Deaths Secret

PUBLIC INFORMATION -- "Who is dying of the swine flu? It's a simple question, but the answer has been hard to come by: Many counties across California and the nation are refusing to grant public records requests for death certificates of H1N1 victims," report Holly Butcher, Bethany Firnhaber and Julia James for Neon Tommy, the online news center of the Annenberg School of Communications at USC.

Whistleblower Air Marshal Appealing His Dismissal

WHISTLEBLOWERS -- A former federal air marshal last week finally got his day in court to appeal his firing by the Federal Air Marshal Service (FAMS) three years ago for disclosing "sensitive" but unclassified information to the media in the summer of 2003, reports Matthew Harwood in Security Management. The whistleblower says his disclosure protected the public from vulnerabilities that could have led to another 9-11 style attack.

Freedom of Speech Valued First Among Muslims

FREE SPEECH -- The deepest and broadest survey ever taken of Muslim attitudes worldwide shows that when asked what item they would put first in a constitution, the overwhelming response was freedom of speech, according to a report on the study in the Toledo Blade. Details on the study and the documentary.

Secrecy News Editor to Speak at Scripps College

OPEN GOVERNMENT -- Steven Aftergood, editor of Secrecy News and director of the Federation of American Scientists' Project on Government Secrecy, will speak on the topic "Secrecy and Democracy: Paradox and Policy" on Wednesday, November 11 at 7:30 p.m. in the Boone Recital Hall, Scripps College Performing Arts Center, Claremont.

Profs Seen in Protest May Face Criminal Charges

FREE SPEECH -- Three community college professors who may have been doing no more than showing solidarity with students peaceably protesting program cutbacks have not only been summarily suspended but may face criminal charges, reports KXTV in San Diego.

Judge Orders Release of County Retirees' Benefits

PUBLIC INFORMATION -- The Modesto Bee and two other petitioners have won their lawsuit to force the Stanislaus County Employees’ Retirement Association to release information on which retirees are receiving the most generous pensions, reports Ken Carlson.

No A.G. Secret Taping Law Violation? Not So Fast

FREE PRESS -- Was the practice of Attorney General Jerry Brown's former press spokesman quietly to tape record his phone discussions with inquiring reporters a violation of California law?  No, say the A.G.'s office and the First Amendment Coalition, in a rush to exoneration that ignores a central court decision.

Court: Buried 'Metadata' Part of the Public Record

OPEN GOVERNMENT -- Are metadata—the subsurface but accessible traces as to the sources, dissemination, editing and other textual history of a Microsoft Word document—part of the public record that must be disclosed under the California Public Records Act?  A Deputy San Francisco City Attorney has been saying No—release Word documents only as inert pdfs. But now Arizona's Supreme Court, for what it's worth, has ruled to the contrary.

AG Taping Should Cool Probe of ACORN Watchdogs

FREE PRESS -- Today's disclosure that a press spokesman for Attorney General Jerry Brown routinely and secretly recorded phone discussions with journalists should disable Brown's Justice Department from prosecuting self-appointed investigators who secretly videotaped their bogus consultation with a San Bernardino ACORN office staffer about getting help setting up a prostitution enterprise.

New Judicial Branch Rules, New Calls for Scrutiny

OPEN GOVERNMENT  -- With 5 p.m. Friday set as the deadline for submitting comments on proposed new rules providing public access to administrative records of judicial branch agencies, legislative scrutiny of statewide court administration is reaching an unprecedented pitch this week.

More Censure for (Alleged) Short Women Remarks

FREE SPEECH -- Political incorrectness has again landed an elected local board member in trouble with his peers, reports Tom Lochner in the Contra Costa Times.  And again, the taboo comments under censure concern the physical capacity of shorter women to be firefighters.

Norwegians' Personal Wealth Open for All to See

PUBLIC INFORMATION -- For those who think that disclosure of what California's government workers are paid—name by name—is a troubling invasion of privacy, San Francisco open government watchdog Kimo Crossman points out an Associated Press report of a much more radical sunshine policy in the law of Norway.

Four Profs Suspended after Budget Cuts Protest

FREE SPEECH -- "On Thursday, several hundred students at Southwestern College, a community college outside of San Diego, held a peaceful protest over budget cuts that are leading to the cancellation of more than 400 additional course sections next semester," reports Scott Jaschik in Inside Higher Ed. "On Friday, the students got a sign that someone was paying attention to the protest, but they didn't get the response they wanted: Four faculty members were immediately suspended and barred from the campus for using the campus e-mail system."

Comment: Time to Clarify Dangerous Old Spy Law

FREE SPEECH/FREE PRESS -- "In May, federal prosecutors made the dramatic announcement that they were abandoning their prosecution under the Espionage Act of two former American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) lobbyists for disclosing classified information," observe Washington, D.C. attorneys Steve Rosen and Keith Weissman, defendants in the case, writing in the National Law Journal. They say their experience is a clear example of how dangerous the World War I era Espionage Act can be to the political speech of private citizens—or the work of journalists.