FOIA Files

The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press now has available iFOIA, a free online system for creating, sending, and tracking federal and state freedom of information requests. The iFOIA resource, which is online at www.ifoia.org, is an extension of the Reporters Committee’s popular FOIA Letter Generator, which has been […]

Registration is now open for The Headline Club’s FOIA FEST on Friday, March 14. In light of Sunshine Week, the Chicago Headline Club is rolling out its annual FOIA Fest: a daylong conference starting at 8:30 a.m. at Loyola University’s School of Communications, 51 E. Pearson Street.  Admission is free. […]

  According to reports in the Chicago Sun-Times, “…..The Chicago Police Department can no longer keep misconduct records secret, a state appeals court has ruled.”‘ According to the report, ” The Illinois Freedom of Information Act doesn’t exempt “CR files,” which consist of misconduct complaints against officers and documents created […]

Attorney General’s Public Access Counselor (PAC) is an administrative agency that processes Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and Open Meetings Act (OMA) complaints filed by members of the public and the press.  The agency was given binding enforcement powers effective in 2010 and has received copious requests for assistance in […]

The Chicago Headline Club applauds the action by the Illinois Supreme Court which throws out the state’s eavesdropping law, which prohibited the recording of any conversation – public or private – without consent.             While the ruling removes all restrictions connected with in-person conversations, Headline Club President Fernando Diaz said […]

According to the report in The Daily Herald: The law allowing residents and business to request public records may be dubbed the Illinois Freedom of Information Act, but as municipalities are seeing more and more requests come in each year, officials say the cost to comply with the law is anything […]

The Illinois Supreme Court ruled Thursday that when it comes to public records laws, state’s attorneys are just like other government officials. The Associated Press reports that  the unanimous ruling forces county prosecutors to release public records under the Freedom of Information Act. The law is intended to improve government transparency. […]

The Citizen Advocacy Center is urging people, especially journalists and public watch dogs, to contact their state senators to urge them to vote against HV 3796. According to the CAC’s web site, HB 3796, is “problematic” and was only introduced last Friday afternoon.  It  passed the House on Memorial Day, and […]

The Illinois Senate today passed HB3796 that calls for changes in the state’s FOIA guidelines. According to the Citizen Advocacy Center: The bill adds provisions to the Freedom of Information Act to create a category of requests called “Voluminous Requests.”  This is in addition to the other provisions in the […]