July 3, 2021

Missouri Supreme Court: State can’t charge attorney fees for Sunshine Law requests (Missouri Independent)

Missouri Independent: Missouri Supreme Court: State can’t charge attorney fees for Sunshine Law requests. “In a win for transparency advocates, the Missouri Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that government agencies cannot charge for time attorneys spend reviewing public records that are requested under the state’s Sunshine Law. In a 6-0 decision, the judges ruled that a lower court erred by siding with Gov. Mike Parson in a lawsuit alleging his office improperly redacted records, charged exorbitant fees and knowingly and purposely violated the state’s open records law.”

Security & Legal Issues 0
July 3, 2021

KTLA: Judge orders LASD to turn over misconduct, deputy shooting records after L.A. Times’ lawsuit

KTLA: Judge orders LASD to turn over misconduct, deputy shooting records after L.A. Times’ lawsuit. “A judge ordered the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department to promptly turn over records on thousands of cases of deputy misconduct and on-duty shootings after finding the agency had failed repeatedly to honor a public records request filed by The Times.”

Security & Legal Issues 0
June 12, 2021

Roll Call: Pentagon renews effort to withhold more unclassified records

Roll Call: Pentagon renews effort to withhold more unclassified records. “Pentagon leaders are asking Congress to expand the kinds of unclassified information about military operations that the department can withhold from the public, continuing what has been an annual tradition for seven years and spanning three administrations. Officials with the Pentagon general counsel’s office are requesting that the Armed Services committees, in writing the fiscal 2022 defense authorization bill, prescribe changes to the Freedom of Information Act that would limit public access to certain data.”

Security & Legal Issues 0
June 1, 2021

Creating Records At Home, Part III: Various Devices (The Texas Record)

The Texas Record: Creating Records At Home, Part III: Various Devices. “Previously, we discussed Creating Records at Home, Part I: Microsoft Teams and Part 2: Zoom. In this article, we’re going to discuss the hypothetical situation of a records manager’s worst nightmare come true: employees creating records outside of the office’s network. A best practice for efficient managers is to analyze hypothetical risk to know how to prevent and address the risk if it were to ever occur.”

Around the Search & Social Media World 0
May 27, 2021

Remarkable Records: A New Blog Series! (The Texas Records)

The Texas Record: Remarkable Records: A New Blog Series!. “In the course of our work, we’ve become intimately familiar with the retention schedules for state agencies, public universities, and local governments. Our team keeps detailed lists of record series that need improvement and there are rarely times when we don’t have one of the schedules on the revisions chopping block. Some of us have adopted favorite records series, such as well-written descriptions or retention periods that support efficient workflows, but there are also some that are stinkers. So, we want to share some of the records series we like (or dislike) and why.”

Tweaks & Updates 0
May 2, 2021

New York Times: How the A.T.F., Key to Biden’s Gun Plan, Became an N.R.A. ‘Whipping Boy’

New York Times: How the A.T.F., Key to Biden’s Gun Plan, Became an N.R.A. ‘Whipping Boy’. “If there was one moment that summed up the current state of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, it was when the floor at the agency’s gun-tracing center caved in a couple of years ago under the weight of paper. The accident was not entirely accidental. The gun lobby, led by the National Rifle Association, has for years systematically blocked plans to modernize the agency’s paper-based weapons-tracing system with a searchable database. As a result, records of gun sales going back decades are stored in boxes stacked seven high, waiting to be processed, against every wall.”

Security & Legal Issues 0
April 25, 2021

GovExec: Trump, Defying Custom, Hasn’t Given the National Archives Records of His Speeches at Political Rallies

GovExec: Trump, Defying Custom, Hasn’t Given the National Archives Records of His Speeches at Political Rallies. “In the case of modern presidents, for the official record, we rely upon transcriptions of all their speeches collected by the national government. But in the case of Donald Trump, that historical record is likely to have a big gap. Almost 10% of the president’s total public speeches are excluded from the official record. And that means a false picture of the Trump presidency is being created in the official record for posterity.”

Around the Search & Social Media World 0
April 25, 2021

NextGov: National Archives Wants to Use AI to Improve ‘Unsophisticated Search’ and Create ‘Self-Describing Records’

NextGov: National Archives Wants to Use AI to Improve ‘Unsophisticated Search’ and Create ‘Self-Describing Records’. “The National Archives and Records Administration—the keepers of all government records—manages millions of digital records. But users have trouble finding the records they’re looking for, and the current manual metadata tagging processes aren’t sufficient. The agency recently held a virtual informational day outlining its goals for integrating artificial intelligence and machine learning into two ongoing projects: personalizing the catalog search function and automating metadata tagging.”

Research & Opinion 0
April 24, 2021

IrishCentral: “Ambitious” digitization of Tipperary’s Famine-era records underway

IrishCentral: “Ambitious” digitization of Tipperary’s Famine-era records underway. “Tipperary County Council Library Service holds a vast collection of Poor Law Union Minute Books, Rate Books, and Workhouse Registers, encompassing virtually the entire county. In January, staff at Tipperary County Council Library Service undertook an ambitious project to commence digitizing its Famine-related Minute Books from the Poor Law Unions in Borrisokane, Cashel, Clogheen, Clonmel, Nenagh, Roscrea, Thurles, and Tipperary.” It looks like the site will launch in mid-May.

New Resources 0
April 23, 2021

Roll Call: Veterans hit by huge pandemic-related records backlog

Roll Call: Veterans hit by huge pandemic-related records backlog. “Since the beginning of the pandemic, the [National Personnel Records Center] has sat empty, with employees working remotely. And records requests, most of which require someone to physically search for documents within the building, have been piling up. Now, the backlog has grown to more than 499,000 requests, according to a spokesperson for the National Archives, which oversees the NPRC. The National Archives estimates that it will take 18 to 24 months to clear the backlog once the center is staffed at full capacity.”

Security & Legal Issues 0
April 8, 2021

Politico: National Archives can’t resurrect Trump’s tweets, Twitter says

Politico: National Archives can’t resurrect Trump’s tweets, Twitter says. “Twitter will not allow the National Archives to make former President Donald Trump’s past tweets from his @realDonaldTrump account available on the social media platform, the company told POLITICO on Wednesday, in the latest display of Silicon Valley’s power over communications channels used by the U.S. government.”

Tweaks & Updates 0
March 25, 2021

Houston Chronicle: Texas AG Ken Paxton refuses to release texts, emails sent during pro-Trump rally and Capitol riot

Houston Chronicle: Texas AG Ken Paxton refuses to release texts, emails sent during pro-Trump rally and Capitol riot. “The Texas attorney general’s office is attempting to withhold all messages Ken Paxton sent or received while in Washington for the pro-Donald Trump rally that devolved into a riot at the U.S. Capitol. Several news organizations in Texas have requested copies of the attorney general’s work-related communications. The Texas Public Information Act guarantees the public’s right to government records — even if those records are stored on personal devices or online accounts of public officials.”

Security & Legal Issues 0
March 16, 2021

GovExec: New Bill Would Increase Transparency of Presidential Records

GovExec: New Bill Would Increase Transparency of Presidential Records. “Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., chair of the House Oversight and Reform Committee, will introduce the ‘Presidential Records Preservation Act,’ which would update the ‘1978 Presidential Records Act’ by requiring the president, vice president, and other senior White House officials to ‘make and preserve records’ that document the president’s official activities. The ‘Federal Records Act,’ which oversees record keeping in the executive and legislative agencies, the judiciary and a few executive offices, has a similar provision.”

Security & Legal Issues 0
March 15, 2021

National Security Archive: “Still Interested” Letters Add Insult to Injury of Long-Ignored FOIA Requests

National Security Archive: “Still Interested” Letters Add Insult to Injury of Long-Ignored FOIA Requests. “The National Security Archive’s 2021 Sunshine Week Audit has found that many agencies still abuse ‘still interested’ letters – out of the 84 ‘still interested’ letters we received between November 2019 and the present, 17 provided fewer than 30 days to respond. Put another way, more than one in five, or 20 percent, of all ‘still interested’ letters the Archive received in the last year and a half did not follow OIP guidance.” I didn’t know much about “still interested” letters, but MuckRock

Security & Legal Issues 0
March 15, 2021

Citizens for Ethics: Judge stops ICE from destroying records of abuse

Citizens for Ethics: Judge stops ICE from destroying records of abuse. “ICE cannot destroy records of sexual abuse and assault, death reviews, detainee segregation files and other records it planned to dispose of, a federal judge ordered today in a case brought by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, American Historical Association and the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations.”

Security & Legal Issues 0

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