blogs.sltrib.com - The Vault: A blog about opening government, unlocking doors and uncovering secrets

Archives

Bios

Who are these guys? Read all about Matt Canham, Nate Carlisle, Robert Gehrke, Dan Harrie, Matthew D. LaPlante and Jeremiah Stettler.

More Blogs

Tribune Blogs Index

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Anchor dropped on bloggers

Imagine receiving a bill for $18,000 just because you don't work for "legitimate media."

That's the bill the U.S. Coast Guard sent two bloggers, according to another blog — this one on the Website of WIRED*. There's no word on whether that blog is "legitimate media."

We at (WIRED) DANGER ROOM cried foul. All sorts of news organizations now recognize bloggers as leading practionioners in the journalism field. And isn't there a bit of a contradiction, launching a "social media" push while denying legitimate requests from social media journalists?

This gets even more interesting when you read what documents the two bloggers requested.

Here in Utah, there's been discussion of whether to recognize bloggers as "legitimate media." That discussion centers on another potential government boondoggle: the Utah State University football team.

* I'm borrowing this photograph from WIRED, too.

— NC

Labels: FOIA

Monday, September 29, 2008

Ask the candidate

A columnist for The Capital Times of Wisconsin offers a good set of open-government questions voters can ask candidates this season. The complete column can be found here, but I've pasted a sample below.

Do you favor disclosure of communications between the White House and agencies regarding administrative decision-making and information disclosure?

What are the appropriate limits of executive privilege in the disclosure of information?

Federal law protects only corporate whistle-blowers who reveal financial abuses. Should the law be expanded to protect the rights of private-sector workers who report violations of public health and safety laws?

How can we ensure public access to health and safety information?

At the state and local levels, government still throws up many obstacles. Problems include overcharging for records, delays in responding to open records requests, problems getting police and prosecution information. Legislators provide information about bill drafts to some interest groups while withholding information to other groups or members of the public, and they are
trying to limit access to court records online.

Meanwhile, local officials abuse laws allowing closed meetings, particularly when discussing economic development. Ask your local representatives about policies regarding closed meetings for economic development.

— NC

Labels: Candidates, FOIA, Open and Public Meetings Act, open records

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

SPJ weighs in on bailout plan secrecy

The national Society of Professional Journalists doesn't normally get involved in politics and policy -- certainly not in something like the proposed $700 billion bailout of Wall Street being pushed by the Bush administration.

But in a posting on its website this week SPJ says its leaders are "concerned" about the proposal.

"In particular, SPJ is at odds with Section 8 of the bill, which would yield broad, unfettered and unchecked authority to the Treasury Secretary," the post says.

The section in question reads this way:

"Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency."

SPJ President Dave Aeikens said, "Secrecy is what got us in trouble in the first place, and now the administration wants to make the fix secret too? Americans demand more accountability and transparency in their government, not less, especially when $700 billion of their own money is at stake."

-- dh

Friday, September 19, 2008

YourSpace could be TheirSpace

Salt Lake City Police Chief Chris Burbank has seven friends.

At least, that's what his department's MySpace page said this morning, a few minutes after the I received an e-mail announcing the creation of the site.

Right now, the page is pretty blank. But in the release, Burbank promises "pictures, videos and blogs about and by the more than 700 men and women of the Department on our MySpace page.”

Ooh. I can hardly wait.

In the meantime, if you're considering "friending" the SLCPD, you might also consider what that means — they'll be able to access all your photos, blogs entries, music and a list of all your other MySpace posse members.

I'm not saying you've got anything to hide, but do you really want Burbank leafing through all those photos you took in Cancun last summer?

Yeah, I didn't think so.

-mdl

Labels: Police, SLC, spotlight site, technology

Thursday, September 18, 2008

USU lashed for abetting censorship

Utah State University hosted U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalis recently and a journalism faculty member is steaming mad about it.

Not that Scalia appeared but that the school bent to his demands that no video cameras be allowed into the "public event."

Read associate journalism professor Penny Byrne's opinon piece here,

Noting that Scalia's appearance was part of a conference titled "Freedom and the Rule of Law," Byrne took the school to task.

In a part of her piece seemingly addressed to the USU administration she asks:

"Why did you allow this to happen? How could you let anyone close the door of a public forum to anyone -- much less members of the press? A university? A place that should be standing for the greatest possible degree of freedom of expression? The greatest level of access to ideas?

I am ashamed for us. For all of us at Utah State University."

-- dh

Too many men on the field

I laughed pretty hard when I first read this article about the Utah State University athletic department reviewing its policy on bloggers and whether to grant them press passes.

Given the football team has won six games in three-plus seasons, you would think the Aggies would be begging for any attention.

You want to discuss us in front of an audience? That's great! Sure we'll let you! Can you play quarterback, too?

In my second reaction to the article, I wondered whether denying bloggers passes also amounted to restricting public access. Utah State receives tax dollars, after all.

Apparently, this issue has already been decided.

Games and access to them are considered intellectual property and universities and professional leagues have been given the right to control them, said Scott Reinardy, an assistant professor of journalism at the University of Kansas. In an e-mail, Reinardy explained:

As their product, they allow people to purchase tickets, broadcast on radio/TV/Internet, and allow journalists to write about it. It becomes a balance of controlling access and protecting their property. If every Tom, Dick and Harry were allowed to take photos/video, and then distribute it (particularly for profit), wouldn't that diminish the product? Is it any different than people who pirate movies by filming them at the local multiplex and then sell the videos?

Update: After reading this post, Reinardy e-mailed me to clarify he was not advocating for the access policy. He was just explaining the position of the athletic departments and leagues.

— NC

Labels: Sports

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Once the cat's out of the bag...

In an effort to sidestep Alaska's public records laws, HockeyMom-slash-MooseHunter-slash-Governor Sarah Palin sometimes used a Yahoo! e-mail account to conduct official state business.

If it's legal (and plenty of public records experts say it's not) that might not be a bad way to keep a secret -- unless, say, you've decided to run for the office of vice president of The United States of America, in which case you might start getting a bit more attention from Internet ruffians such as the hacker group known as "Anonymous."

Anonymous hacked into Palin's account this week. And although the booty wasn't substantial -- most of the messages in the guv's inbox were of a personal (and in some cases prayerful) nature -- the Palin-McCain campaign...

... er, sorry, I mean the McCain-Palin campaign, of course...

... quickly released a statement asking that "anyone in possession of these e-mails will destroy them."

Um.

Yeah.

Right.

And hey, while you're at it, would you kindly return any unauthorized copies of Pamela Anderson's infamous honeymoon video?

But in what may have been an even more audacious request, the U.S. Secret Service contacted The Associated Press on Wednesday and asked for copies of the leaked e-mails. As proof that the AP values its membership (in good standing) in "the media elite," the news-gathering organization declined to comply -- but did kindly point agents from the nation's premier investigative and protective service to a relatively new research tool known as "Google."

Where, as of Wednesday evening, you could find 1,780 Webpages featuring Palin's e-mails.

-mdl

Labels: secrecy

Misha's sad story

If you ask the folks at California's Six Flags Discovery Kingdom, Misha lived a rather charmed life.

After all, what kid hasn't dreamed of living in an amusement park?

Of course, Misha wasn't a cotton candy-loving child but an African elephant, who lived most of her life in the shadow of several super-fast, steel-track roller coasters. And although she was often bullied by the other animals in the thrill park's elephant exhibit, there wasn't enough room in the limited enclosure for her to run away. Oh yeah -- and she had an 8-inch abscess in her jaw that took four years to heal and often got infected.

Misha died last week at Utah's Hogle Zoo at the relatively young age of 27. Within three days, we were able to document quite a few of the more tragic details of her life in the Salt Lake Tribune.

How were we able to tell Misha's sad story so fast? Well, as it turns out, Six Flags was briefly owned by the City of Vallejo, Calif. -- which means her veterinary records were subject to the California Public Records Act.

Astute to this fact, the non-profit In Defense of Animals procured the vet records of Misha and several other members of the Six Flags herd a few years back -- which meant that when The Tribune came looking last week, the records were easily to obtain.

-mdl

Labels: open records, zoo

Monday, September 15, 2008

Green sunshine

Here's a column that asks how transparent Sarah Palin would be as vice president.

Meanwhile, count me among those who had no idea the Green Party candidate for president visited Salt Lake City earlier this month. But when I found out, after the fact, I sprung to action.

I e-mailed the Cynthia McKinney campaign and immediately asked what I've asked other presidential campaigns: What are your views on the Freedom of Information Act and have you ever filed an FOIA request?

The McKinney campaing called me within 15 minutes!

A spokesman told me McKinney favors an open government and pointed out McKinney, while she represented Georgia in Congress, sponsored two bills which would have made records public: The Martin Luther King, Jr., Records Collection Act and the Tupac Shakur Records Release Act.

As you can guess, the Shakur Act would have released documents concerning the death of the rap star. The King Act would have released early documents relevant to the King assassination. Neither bill passed committee.

The spokesman did not know, off hand, whether McKinney had ever filed an FOIA request but said he would find out and get back to me. That was 11 days ago. Hey, she may be a minor candidate but she's still a politician.

— NC

Labels: Candidates, FOIA

Sunday, September 14, 2008

Secretive Sarah

A story in Sunday’s New York Times, doesn't hold out much hope for Sarah Palin being an advocate of open government.

The story can be found here.

Let me quote from the pertinent part:

"Interviews show that Ms. Palin runs an administration that puts a premium on loyalty and secrecy. The governor and her top officials sometimes use personal e-mail accounts for state business; dozens of e-mail messages obtained by The New York Times show that her staff members studied whether that could allow them to circumvent subpoenas seeking public records.

Rick Steiner, a University of Alaska professor, sought the e-mail messages of state scientists who had examined the effect of global warming on polar bears. (Ms. Palin said the scientists had found no ill effects, and she has sued the federal government to block the listing of the bears as endangered.) An administration official told Mr. Steiner that his request would cost $468,784 to process.

When Mr. Steiner finally obtained the e-mail messages — through a federal records request — he discovered that state scientists had in fact agreed that the bears were in danger, records show.

'Their secrecy is off the charts,' Mr. Steiner said."

-- dh

Labels: Candidates, secrecy

War of attrition

Everybody knows that newspapers and other traditional media are facing a financial crunch like never before. But why does that translate to more government secrets?

A couple of reasons.

True, journalists aren't the only ones that can act as government watchdogs. But most normal people just don't have time to follow government that closely. And the non-profit groups that used to also play that role have diminished and-- in the case of Utah -- all but disappeared.
As news organizations tighten their budgets, they not only put fewer reporters in the field, they don't engage in as many fights over public records because of the possible legal costs involved.

Check out this blog post from a recent National Press Club forum on the topic. Industry downturn spurs government pushback on information.

Not only do news organizations have less money to fight the battles, but government agencies know it and are taking the opportunity to limit public access to records.

-- DH

Labels: secrecy

Friday, September 12, 2008

Black markers are expensive

Holy sunshine! And I thought there were just philosophical and legal arguments for government transparency. Check out this financial fact.

It cost the federal government $9.5 billion to protect classified information in fiscal year 2006, according to Patrick Radden Keefe. His new policy brief calls for rolling back some Bush Administration practices and installing more transparency in the federal government. One of Keefe's points is that secrecy is expensive because you have to classify, store and protect the information.

I wondered how Keefe reached that figure so I followed his end notes. The $9.5 billion estimate came from a federal agency required to make a report to the president. And if you read the section of that report discussing the cost, you notice a sentence saying the estimate does not include the classification costs of a handful of military and defense intelligence agencies, including the CIA. A PDF of the 2006 classification report can be found here.

By the way, there also is a government report for classification costs in fiscal year 2007. That report estimates the cost was $9.91 billion in that year. A PDF of the 2007 report can be downloaded by clicking here.

— NC

Labels: secrecy

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Of Rats and Men

Under a new rule being considered by Utah's federal courts, records revealing that a criminal defendant has entered into a plea bargain with prosecutors would be hidden from the public.

The proposed rule comes as a response to growing concerns that criminals might target so-called "rats" for retribution. But critics like open government advocate Jeff Hunt have called the measure "an unjustified reaction" that "sweeps too broadly" and "goes far beyond what is warranted." (But tell us what you really think, Jeff!)

And in an editorial, The Provo Daily Herald warned that the case could "diminish public trust in the judicial system and potentially lay the groundwork for abuse." The newspaper noted that members of the public, unaware of the details of a plea arrangement, might conclude that prosecutors are going too light on criminals who, in fact, are secret rats. Not to be outdone by Hunt's persuasive prose, the Herald noted that "secret courts are one of the most feared weapons of any dictator." Whoa.

A few years ago, the city of Sandy tried to prevent the names of all of its law enforcement officers from being made public, arguing that police officers could be retaliated against by those they've arrested. That's a red herring, The Salt Lake Tribune successfully argued before the State Records Committee. After all, those who commit offenses don't need to do a public records search to find out which officer brought them to justice.

In this case, the same logic applies. Criminals don't need to file a FOIA to find out the names of the rats. They already know: It's the guy who was charged with the same offenses as you were but walked out of court a free man on the same day you went to prison. And if this rule is approved, criminals will have a new way of finding the rats: They'll be the guys whose plea hearing documents have been sealed.

-- mdl

Labels: court records, FOIA

'Indicators of growing secrecy'

The OpenTheGovernment.org has released its annual report on government secrecy.

For a PDF of the full report, click here. A press release with a short summary is below.

But in a sign that maybe things aren't so bad at the local level, there's an interesting story in The Washington Post about expenses submitted by Sarah Palin during her time as Alaska governor. The article represents a good use of public records.

-- NC

Press Release

Contact: Amy Fuller or Patrice McDermott, 202-332-6736

Report: Continued Expansion of Federal Government Secrecy Seen in 2007

WASHINGTON, Sept. 9, 2008 — Government secrecy increased across a wide spectrum of indicators in 2007, according to a report released today by a coalition of over 70 open government advocates. At the same time, the 110th Congress has moved toward increasing openness and accountability.

The findings of the 2008 Secrecy Report Card, produced annually by OpenTheGovernment.org to identify trends in public access to government information, include:

• Almost 22 million FOIA requests were received, an increase of nearly 2 percent over last year;

• The 25 departments and agencies that handle the bulk of FOIA requests failed to make a dent in their backlogs, although they received the fewest requests since reporting began in 1998; and

• The number of original classification decisions increased slightly after dropping two consecutive years, and the number of derivative classifications increased by almost 13 percent.

• According to Patrice McDermott, Director of OpenTheGovernment.org, “These trends indicate that citizens will have to wait even longer to know what their government is doing.” The report also cites indicators of growing secrecy, including:

• The government spent $195 maintaining the secrets already on the books for every one dollar the government spent declassifying documents, a 5 percent increase in one year.

• 18 percent of the requested Department of Defense (DOD) acquisition funding is for classified, or “black,” programs. Classified acquisition funding has more than doubled in real terms since FY 1995.

• $114.1 billion of federal contract funding was given out without any competition. On average since 2000, fully and openly competed contracts have dropped by almost 25 percent

• Federal surveillance activity under the jurisdiction of the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court has risen for the 9th consecutive year—more than double the amount in 2000.

“The current administration continues to refuse to be held accountable to the public,” said McDermott. “In recent years, polls have shown that a growing number of Americans believe the federal government is secretive—terrible news for our democracy. Until we restore openness and accountability to the federal government, it will be impossible to win back the
public’s trust.”

Labels: Candidates, FOIA, secrecy

Friday, September 5, 2008

Shining a light on a polygamy committee

After three years of asking, Tribune polygamy reporter Brooke Adams finally gained access to a meeting of the Safety Net Committee.

This committee is established to "open communication [and] break down barriers" between people living in plural marriages, law enforcement and other concerned parties, according to the Website of the Utah attorney general. That office administers the committee.

Adams writes on her blog:

...I was consistently and firmly told that committee members did not want the media to attend.

I had a problem with that. For one thing, the committee was previously funded by a federal grant: Your tax dollars.

Presumably, the committee will follow other provisions of Utah's open meeting laws, including publishing agendas in advance.

By the way, can you guess what publication Adams used to make her argument to the attorney general's office? Yep, the handbook on open meetings and open records... published by the attorney general's office. A PDF of that handbook is available by clicking here.

— NC

Labels: Open and Public Meetings Act, Polygamy

Thursday, September 4, 2008

State Records Committee hearing

September 11, 2008
9:30 AM - 1:30 PM
State Archives Building
346 South Rio Grande St.
Salt Lake City 84101
Contact:
Susan Mumford
801-531-3861
smumford@utah.gov

-- First Hearing – Dan Schroeder, Sierra Club vs. Utah Transit Authority. Mr. Schroeder is appealing the denial of records from UTA about communications between Ogden City and UTA since January 1, 2006.

-- Second Hearing – Jim Garside vs. Salt Lake City. Mr. Garside is appealing the denial of records from Salt Lake City Corporation concerning agreements between Lower Canal and Salt Lake City vs. Big Ditch Irrigation.

-- nc

Labels: State Records Committee

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

More access to justice court files

Good news for public access advocates today -- the Administrative Office of the Courts for Utah just announced the addition of 40 justice courts to the state court’s XChange service. XChange is a database of court case information that is available publicly for a monthly fee. Prior to the database expansion, accessing justice court case information required court users to contact each individual Justice Court.

For Xchan

ge, there is a set up fee of $25, plus a monthly charge of $30 per month for up to 200 searches during a billing cycle.

Title companies, attorneys, private investigators and newspapers like The Salt Lake Tribune, which use the system often, can absorb these costs pretty easily as part of doing business. But it does make it difficult for average, ordinary citizens to access the courts in the same way that big businesses are able to. That's why many sunshine fans prefer fee-free services. (A bit of good news here, though -- you can still access a lot of public information for free at The Tribune's voyeuristic internet endeavor, UtahsRight.com. And it's likely that crew is already salivating over a new chunk of easily-accessible public information.) Update: The public can also access Xchange for free at any district courthouse.

Justice court cases -- usually class B and C misdemeanors, infractions, and small claims cases -- don't typically make print in The Trib, but they are often the most pertinent to our (usually) mundane lives.

Let's say, for instance, that your house-sitter lets her girlfriends over to eat your food, drink your booze, and smoke pot in your basement (we're just speaking hypothetically, of course.) Chances are that when and if charges are filed against the young rascals, the case may find its way to the state's justice courts. And when you go to tell a judge about how you came home from vacation to find your house completely trashed and reeking of ganja (again, just speaking hypothetically, really) it'll likely be a justice court judge who hears your complaint.

-- mdl

Labels: court records

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

News that won't happen in Utah

The open government world is buzzing about a judgement levied against the town — And I use that word generously. — of Mesa, Wash.

Mesa, population 440, lost a long dispute with a former mayor over a records request. The state judge also imposed a $230,000 fine against the town for improperly handling the record request. That's a whopper in a records case and perhaps two-thirds of Mesa's budget, according to the Tri-City Herald.

But don't look for anyone in a black robe to make such a ruling in Utah. This state does not have a mechanism for such fines. The best you can hope for is a judge requires an agency to pay for a requester's attorney fees.

It can be a Class B misdemeanor for a government official to knowingly improperly deny a records request, but that's a big threshold and it's not clear if it can be applied to an entire agency that denies a request.

— NC

Labels: GRAMA

© Copyright 2008, The Salt Lake Tribune. All material found on Utah Online is copyrighted The Salt Lake Tribune and associated news services. No material may be reproduced or reused without explicit permission from The Salt Lake Tribune.

Feedback

The Tribune welcomes comments, thoughts, ideas, arguments, etc. Just keep it on topic and respectful, and have fun!