PUBLIC INFORMATION -- Steven Aftergood, whose Secrecy News blog tracks federal resistance to transparency, has called into question the ethics and motivations of WikiLeaks, the weebsite dedicated to outing information governments and other powerful institutions want to keep hidden. As Aftergood noted Monday, one of the nation's chief sources of foundation support for innovative online efforts to open government in the public interest has declined to give WikiLeaks a grant.
OPEN MEETINGS --
A Tulare County Superior Court judge could throw out a
lawsuit seeking to force the county Board of Supervisors to end its
practice of holding lunch meetings without notice or access by the public, reports David Castellon in the Visalia Times-Delta.
OPEN GOVERNMENT -- "California cities and
counties have destroyed millions of public records over the past
decade with almost no oversight," reports Tracy Wood for the Voice of OC. "And most of the shredding happens
because of policies designed to protect local governments from
lawsuits."
WHISTLEBLOWERS -- If you want University of California faculty and other employees to have the same protections from retaliation as their counterparts at the California State University in reporting waste, fraud, abuse, gross negligence or dangerous practices, contact the Governor by close of business Wednesday and urge him to sign SB 650.
FREE SPEECH/ASSOCIATION -- The U.S. Supreme Court today held that a public university can
require that officially sanctioned and supported student groups allow ''all comers'' in order to receive the
benefits of formal recognition. Such a requirement, a 5-4 majority led
by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg decided, does not violate the First
Amendment's guarantees of freedom of speech or association, reports Chris Geidner for MetroWeekly.
PUBLIC INFORMATION -- "Sarah Palin leveled criticism at California’s attorney general and others raising questions about her visit to a cash-strapped university, telling supporters that students had better things to do than dive through Dumpsters to find out how much she earns speaking," reports Garance Burke for the Associated Press. The university's foundation, which sponsored the event, said the net proceeds were $200,000. But despite a lawsuit the university has never released records of its costs.
FREE SPEECH -- The idea of making California motorists' license plates electronic mini-billboards for advertising to raise cash for empty state coffers has proceeded so far in the Legislature that one's left to conclude that if the state itself is not bankrupt, the quality of bill analysis under the Capitol dome may be. SB 1453's proposal is barkingly unconstitutional. And its First Amendment problem is not simply that, having created a space for commercial messages, the state could probably exclude none but the frankly obscene.
WHISTLEBLOWERS -- On a 49-26 vote, the State Assembly Thursday approved legislation authored by Senator Leland Yee (D-San Francisco) to protect University of California faculty and workers who report waste, fraud, and abuse from retaliation by their employer, reports the author's office.
PUBLIC INFORMATION -- "In a case triggered in part by the battle over same-sex marriage in
California, the Supreme Court ruled Thursday that disclosing the names
of people who signed initiative petitions generally did not violate
their right to free speech," reports Kathleen Hennessey in the Los Angeles Times. The decision will have little effect in California, where the names of those who petition to put measures on the ballot for an initiative or referendum or to recall public officials are exempt from disclosure under the Public Records Act.
OPEN GOVERNMENT -- The Assembly Higher Education Committee on Tuesday approved SB 330 – a reintroduction of last year’s SB 218 – to apply
the California Public Records Act (CPRA) to nonprofit 'auxiliary'
organizations that perform government functions at campuses of the University of
California, California State University, and California’s community
colleges, reports the office of Senator Leland Yee (D-San Francisco), author of both bills.
FREE SPEECH -- "An attorney representing
the city of Santa Cruz was hard pressed Tuesday to explain to a rarely
convened panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals what constitutes
a disruption worthy of being forced from a public meeting," reports J.M Brown in the Santa Cruz Sentinel. Several judges didn't seem to think a fleeting Nazi-style arm salute from the sidelines qualified.
WHISTLEBLOWERS -- "It’s illegal to demote or fire an employee for reporting hazardous
conditions at work," notes Myron Levin for Fairwarning.org. "But in California, (OSHA) safeguards for whistleblowers are
little more than words on paper, advocates for workers say. When
workers file complaints about retaliation, the investigations drag on
longer in California than in any other state, according to U.S.
government data. In California, complainants also have less chance of
getting a favorable ruling or a settlement than in most other states,
the numbers show." The problem: severe staff overload.
FREE SPEECH -- The parents of three of the four boys who were sent home from Live Oak
High School for wearing shirts depicting the American Flag on Cinco de Mayo filed a lawsuit today against the Morgan
Hill Unified School District, Principal Nick Boden and Assistant
Principal Miguel Rodriguez for violating their First and Fourteenth
Amendment rights, reports Lindsay Bryant in the Morgan Hill Times.
OPEN GOVERNMENT -- "Berkeley is known as the free speech capital of the world,
but unlike a number of California cities, including Oakland and San
Francisco, it has no 'sunshine' or open government ordinance that
improves citizen access to city records and meetings," reports Judith Scherr in the East Bay Express. And a proposed sunshine ordinance developed by citizen reformers is not having an easy time getting accepted.
FREE SPEECH -- "Robert Norse's Nazi salute lasted fewer than
five seconds before he was removed from the Santa Cruz City Council
meeting in handcuffs, notes Paul Elias for the Associated Press. "But the Santa Claus-bearded gadfly's free
speech lawsuit against the city has lasted more than six years and may
be destined for the U.S. Supreme Court."
OPEN GOVERNMENT -- Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan's arguments as
solicitor general in several cases on government secrecy were at odds
with a promise of transparency made by her boss and top client,
President Barack Obama, reports Sharon Theimer for the Associated Press.
FREE PRESS -- "In the trial over the violent break-up of a demonstration, a former
deputy police chief testified that the club-wielding police who knocked
reporters down were acting outside of the rules set out by the Los
Angeles Police Department for dealing with reporters," reports Kie Akiba for Courthouse News Service.
FREE PRESS -- Terence Chea for the Associated Press reports that a judge has ruled that the University of California police illegally
searched the camera of a photojournalist covering a protest outside the
chancellor's campus home.
OPEN MEETINGS -- In reaction to the looming prospect of a budget-driven suspension of the mandate to prepare and post agendas for local government meetings governed by the Brown Act, the California Newspaper Publishers Association (CNPA) is asking the leader of the State Senate to head a measure to place on the statewide ballot an amendment to Proposition 59 of 2004 to make information about those meetings public as a matter of constitutional law, thereby removing local agencies' right to bill the state with associated paperwork costs.
PUBLIC INFORMATION -- The California Newspaper Publishers Association (CNPA) is opposing a bill that would remove from public access information the state believes would compromise the security of state information technology systems, and another bill that would allow the sealing of evidence bearing on the death of a minor child.
FREE SPEECH -- San Clemente city officials say they will abide by a federal appellate court ruling that the city's ban on leafleting windshields on parked cars violates the First Amendment. But they call the outcome a victory because they weren't ordered to pay the challenger's attorney fees, reports Fred Swegles for the Orange County Register.
OPEN MEETINGS -- Twenty-five years after the California Court of Appeal established that doing so was an unlawful serial meeting in violation of the Brown Act, a school board member is accusing his peers of using an unpublicized telephone poll to gain approval of action to be taken, reports Natasha Lindstrom in the Victor Valley Daily Press in Victorville.
PUBLIC INFORMATION -- The refusal by Sonoma County's sheriff to release the name
of a deputy who shot and killed a man following a high-speed chase two
weeks ago is being challenged by the local ACLU, reports Randi Rossmann of the Santa Rosa Press Democrat.
WHISTLEBLOWERS/FREE SPEECH AND PRESS -- The Assembly Judiciary Committee approved two bills on Tuesday authored by
Senator Leland Yee (D-San Francisco) to protect faculty and workers from
retaliation at the University of California and students from censorship at charter
schools.
WHISTLEBLOWERS -- The Obama Administration is cracking down harder on leakers than did its predecessor—in fact than any of its predecessors, reports Scott Shane in the New York Times.
PUBLIC INFORMATION -- The California Science Center (CSC), a public agency, has agreed to settle a lawsuit
with the pro-intelligent design Discovery Institute and release records
that it previously sought to conceal regarding its cancellation of the
screening of a pro-intelligent design film last year, reports Evolution News & Views.
FREE SPEECH -- The Muslim Student Union at UC Irvine is to have its official recognition suspended for a year for masterminding the orchestrated disruption of a speech by the Israeli ambassador earlier this year, report Deepa Bharath and Ellyn Pak for the Orange County Register.
PUBLIC INFORMATION -- The Associated Press reports that a judge agreed Monday to
unseal files in the case of a Sunday school teacher who was sentenced to
life in prison for murdering a young girl whose body was found in a
suitcase.
FREE PRESS-- Elizabeth Banicki reports for Courthouse News Service that Prison Legal News, non-profit publisher of magazines and books related to
prisoners' rights, will get $595,000 from the California Department of
Corrections to pay bills it says it accrued to comply with a
settlement agreement, the 9th Circuit, U.S.Court of Appeals has ruled.
FREE SPEECH -- Carol Williams reports in the Los Angeles Times that Redondo Beach city officials can prohibit day laborers from soliciting
work from passing motorists, thanks to a federal appeals court ruling Wednesday in a case
that has been eyed by other cities that have sought similar
restrictions.
