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Follow That FOIA! Extension Letter

January 15, 2013 FOIA Illinois 0

A letter requesting an extension for our request sent by Caitlin Q. Knutte, FOIA Officer & Assistant Attorney General in the Office of the Illinois Attorney General. See the full letter here: 22756 Extension Letter Transcription: January 10, 2013 RE: Freedom of Information Act Request 2012 FOIA 022756 Dear Mr. Loury [our president], Thank […]

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Follow That FOIA: Resolution

January 20, 2013 FOIA Illinois 0

Thanks for following our FOIA journey, folks! On Jan. 17, exactly two weeks after filing a FOIA request with the Office of the Illinois Attorney General requesting the names and contact info of the state’s FOIA officers, we got ’em, following a request for five more days to come up […]

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Transparency Advocates Sue Illinois Comptroller

January 20, 2013 FOIA Illinois 0

Tracking our own FOIA debacles almost caused us to miss big transparency news in Illinois–a suit brought against Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka a week and a half ago over the office’s failure to produce the state’s checkbook under a valid FOIA request. Transparency advocates over at For the Good of […]

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Grant Will Fund FOIA Project Expansion, Including App

January 23, 2013 FOIA Illinois 0

The FOIA Project will soon extend its tracking model to other agencies, starting with a test application applied to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. A grant awarded to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) at Syracuse University, which hosts the project, by the Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation will […]

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FOIA Request Uncovers Yelp’s ‘Mafia’-esque Business Practices

February 2, 2013 FOIA Illinois 0

The results of a FOIA request filed by MuckRock News investigating Federal Trade Commission complaints over questionable business practices uncovered 685 small business complaints filed against the business review site Yelp From The Daily Caller: Allegations against Yelp included spamming businesses that used its service, making harassing sales calls and […]

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Transparency-Friendly IAG Ruling Slowed By Bureaurcracy?

February 3, 2013 FOIA Illinois 0

The Illinois Attorney General’s office ruled in favor of county documents being turned over is being stymied by the slow flow of information about the ruling, the Galesburg Register-Mail alleges in a story it published Saturday. The paper filed a FOIA request  in July 2012 for court documents pertaining to […]

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Should DHS Need Reasonable Suspicion to Search Your Smart Phone?

February 10, 2013 FOIA Illinois 0

The result of a “Civil Liberties Impact Assessment” conducted by the Department of Homeland Security has concluded that it’s unnecessary to require border officials to identify “reasonable suspicion” before searching personal electronic devices. From an excellent writeup on the decision’s significance by Wired’s David Kravets: The memo highlights the friction between […]