Public records

Earlier this week, Albany County District Attorney P. David Soares’ office sent a letter to Gov. David Paterson, asking him to waive executive privilege so a report on an investigation of former Gov. Eliot Spitzer and his administration could be released to the public.

“The public has expressed great interest in this matter,” the letter reads. “The People have put their trust in your Office, and transparency is the most honorable way of reciprocating that trust.”

The Associated Press announced it intends to sue the West Virginia Supreme Court for violating the state’s Freedom of Information Act.

AP claims the high court failed to comply with the law when it deemed e-mails, visitor logs and other records of Chief Justice Elliott Maynard were not subject to FOIA requests. The court did release information relating to other court employees.

Last week, the Tennessee Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously passed a controversial bill (SB 3755) that would not only seal all information about conceal-and-carry gun permits, but also penalize anyone, including journalists, who publish the information, possibly with jail time and/or severe fines.

In response to a Freedom of Information Act request from the Federation of American Scientists, the Marine Corps agreed to release all public access and unclassified doctrinal documents on its Web site.

A Seattle judge has ruled that Allan Parmelee, who is serving a 24-year sentence for having two lawyers’ cars firebombed, is allowed to continue his records requests for information about King County employees.

Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick today was charged with perjury and other counts after sexually explicit text messages contradicted what he said under oath regarding an affair with former Chief of Staff Christine Beatty.

The Supreme Court of Virginia will consider proposed rules that would regulate access to – and in one instance require the redaction before filing of – private information in court records.

On Tuesday, the Virginia Judicial Council submitted the rules, which were triggered, in large part, by the increasing availability of court records on the Internet. The 44-page document, drafted by a committee of nearly 30 officials, outlines the reasoning behind the proposed changes.

A committee formed by the Federal Judiciary to consider whether criminal plea agreements should be removed from public access on the Internet rejected the Department of Justice proposal that would have allowed for access only to the physical records at federal courthouses around the country.

The Advocate [Baton Rouge] must pay more than $200,000 to receive documents it requested related to the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s post-hurricane contracts, according to the agency.

FEMA said it would only provide the records if the newspaper pays the fee. The approximately $209,990 is what FEMA determined it would cost to research and compile the more than two million documents that the agency deemed The Advocate is asking for in its request.

President Bush has hardly made any progress in minimizing the huge backlog of unanswered FOIA requests over the last two years, according to a recent audit released on the eve of Sunshine Week.

According to the audit, performed by the National Security Archive, the order implemented by the president two years ago provided no financial support for agencies to improve the systems they already had in place. In addition, there was no way of enforcing the changes; so many organizations remained the same.