The FOIA blog

Another Take on Treasury and Citigroup

OutoftheStorm News has this piece about the Treasury's efforts to dodge transparency on the assistance the government gave Citigroup.  It's an interesting article -- I just wish the author would have finished his thoughts and stated what "the root causes of the current crisis are" because reasonable minds may have different answers.

Political FOIA Requests Come From Both Sides

Sam Stein of the Huffington Post has this article about FOIA requests from political parties.  It should come as no surprise that both parties make them and use the information in their quest for election.

Names of Unsuccessful Pardon Applicant Must Be Released

Politico's Josh Gerstein reports that the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit has ruled that the names of unsuccessful pardon applicants must be released in response to a FOIA request by journalist George Lardner Jr.

Treasury: Citigroup > Taxpayers

AllGov reports that the Department of the Treasury has decided to withhold a large amount of information concerning its dealings with Citigroup and the $301 billion of securities that the government decided to guarantee in 2008.  The release came as a result of a FOIA request made by Bloomberg news.

It looks like someone who knows FOIA, believes in transparency and isn't afraid of bureacrats and big business needs to be in charge of FOIA decisions at the Department of Treasury.  Actually, that person should be in charge of all high level FOIA decisions -- I know those on the right doesn't like the term, but we need a FOIA Czar to implement President Obama's FOIA policies.

Country Musician Bear Kill Video Released

I'm not sure this will make it to the tops of the charts at CMT, but the Fish and Wildlife Services has released this video to SHARK of Country Musician Troy Gentry killing a tame black bear.

Banks Ask Supreme Court to Block Fed From Releasing Details of Emergency Loans

Bloomberg News reports that the Federal Reserve will not appeal the decision in a case brought by Bloomberg News that the government must release details of emergency loans  it made to large banks in 2007 when the U.S. economy was crashing.  However, the banks, the recepient of the taxpayer aid, have asked the Supreme Court to review the decision and bar the Federal Reserve from making the release of the information.

If the Supreme Court accepts the case, it will be an uprecendented fourth FOIA case to go before the Supreme Court this session.

Cuban Offers to Pay for Faster FOIA Processing

The AM Law Daily has this piece on MarK Cuban's FOIA lawsuit with the SEC.  The SEC is dragging its feet on processing the request on a timely basis; so Cuban has offered to pay.  The SEC's Melinda Hardy is quoted as saying the SEC is now worried about wealthy individuals paying to have their requests processed first.  The answer to Ms. Hardy's worries is simple -- just process everything in a timely basis (and stop trying to redact everything) and you won't have a processing disparity between rich and poor.

Bloomberg Gets The Cold Shoulder From Treasury Department

According to this article from Bloomberg News, it wants to know details on the government's aid to Citigroup, one of the banks taxpayers saved after the economy tanked in 2007.  The Treasury Department citing a number of FOIA exemptions has denied the substance of the request and refuses to even discuss the exemptions with Bloomberg. It's one more sign that bureacrats at Treasury and Justice don't understand the President's call for transparency.

OGIS Story on Federal News Radio

The Office of Government Information Services ("OGIS") also known as the FOIA Ombudsman is highlighted in this story on Federal News Radio.  Miriam Nisbet, OGIS Director and Rick Blum of Sunshine in Government Initiative are interviewed.

New York Teachers Contemplating Reverse-FOIL NY State Suit

This article from the Wall Street Journal discusses the New York City Teachers Union's threat to file a reverse-FOIA style lawsuit under New York state law to prevent the state's Department of Education from releasing data on the effectiveness of teachers in the state.

I find the clash of transparency of public data and the imperfect science of attempting to quantify teacher effectiveness via statistics interesting. 

Update:  The suit was filed and the State is holding off on release until a judge rules according to the Wall Street Journal.