FOIA Files

Spreading the word for our friends, Investigative Reporters and Editors: COLUMBIA, MISSOURI – Investigative Reporters & Editors, Inc. is launching a new award – dubbed the Golden Padlock – recognizing the most secretive publicly-funded agency or person in the United States. It is calling on journalists and the public for worthy nominees. “This honor […]

Getting a Freedom of Information Act request filled can be a labor-intensive process, and many requests languish for days, weeks or months without any response at all, let alone a response that includes the requested information and documentation. A FOIA request for Internal Affairs data submitted to the police department […]

The American Civil Liberties Union just published a summary of their findings after a Freedom of Information Act request supplied them with the FBI’s Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide (DIOG) from 2008 and 2012. The ACLU calls their findings “distressing.” From the 2012 guide: In enacting the ECPA, Congress concluded […]

Jake Griffin at the Daily Herald published an excellent analysis this week of 2012 FOIA request denials from the of Illinois attorney general’s office. Appeals in response to denied FOIA requests jumped up 22 percent last year. AG Lisa Madigan’s Chief of Staff offered Griffin one explanation: That increase could […]

  Last week, the appointed school board behind Chicago Public Schools voted to close 50 programs citywide. Their stated goal: to balance a projected $1 billion budget deficit by trimming the fat and closing buildings that aren’t optimally “utilized.” But a report by the anti-closure advocacy group Raise Your Hand, the […]

Sauk Valley Media ran a letter to the editor this week that offers an interesting perspective into the FOIA system from a non-journalist applicant: Tyberius Mays, an inmate at Dixon Correctional Center in Dixon, Ill. The newspaper has for months been covering a series of transparency road blocks encountered by its […]

The Society of Professional Journalists went on the offensive Friday over “the possible weakening of existing Department of Justice guidelines governing investigations that involve the news media.” SPJ President Sonny Albarado sent letter to Attorney General Eric Holder in response to the “off the record” meeting Holder offered journalists to […]

Bruce Ruston of the Illinois Times commented on our post “SPJ Calls on Attorney General To Uphold Government’s Media Guidelines.” We wanted to share his thoughts with our readers: Friends, I have been invited to start blogging here, and so I will. My purpose is to prod the SPJ into […]

A seven-member board created to review concealed carry applications in Illinois could be exempt from the state’s Freedom of Information Act if Gov. Pat Quinn approves a measure that recently landed on his desk. WUIS.org reports: [T]he board’s records and activities would be off-limits to the public. The board would […]

As a transparency nerd, big projects like these are a dream come true. The Illinois Policy Institute released a roundup on the public accessibility of suburban government info yesterday, and it is thorough. It’s results? Troubling, to say the least. Three governments got a perfect score: Hanover Township, Kane County, […]