RSSFOIA Monday: End of April Edition
May 02
Uncategorized Australia, CREW, DoE, FOI, FOI Friday, FOIA, FOIA Friday, USEC No Comments
Editor’s note: Last week’s FOIA Friday was late through no fault of Philip’s, but due to MuckRock’s travel schedule and sojourn to Transparency Camp. We’ll be returning to our irregular broadcast scheduling presently. -MM
As April showers give way reluctantly to May weeds, the FOI requests don’t stop, and neither do we here at MuckRock. Most of the stuff we’re looking at can be found here anytime you like, and if you have any suggestions, please do send them on over to tips@muckrock.com.
Now to the news:
CREW Files FOIA Appeal Regarding Investigations of Rep. Mollohan: Our old friends at Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington—who you may remember from last weeks’ FOIA Friday—are back with another FOI request. After Representative Alan Mollohan was connected to $250 million dollars in earmarks that benefited his campaign nonprofits, the DoJ launched a four-year investigation. In January 2010, they informed him that the investigation was at an end and he would not be prosecuted in spite of clear evidence of his culpability. CREW want to know why he was never punished by the government for his illicit dealings.
19 months and counting: The saga of an Energy Department FOIA request: From the American University School of Communication comes this saga of delays, redactions, and controversies. Author Sam Tranum filed a FOI request with the DoE 20 months ago, seeking information on a $2,000,000 grant sought by private company USEC Inc. from the DoE. After receiving overly-redacted information and lots of stonewalling, Tranum tried to submit a fresh request in order to re-enter the appeals period. However, because his first request is still stuck in pre-decision purgatory, his second request was not processed. As of now, Tranum has filed a request on all correspondence relating to his request and hopes to figure out what the department has been doing with its long delay time.
The Curious Case of Cam Davis: In Cary, Illinois, a longtime village administrator, Cameron Davis, has left the service of the village in a manner that suggest he was ousted without being fired. Don’t pity the man yet, however, as a FOI request by reporter Katie Anderson reveals that Davis will pocket $123,000 and free healthcare for a year after leaving his job. The circumstances of Davis’ departure, as well as that pesky dollar amount, are causing controversy in Cary.
Big Tobacco wields FOI docs against Labor: We round out this FOIA Friday with some international FOI news, this time from the land down under, where the Labor government is seeking to legislate plain packaging for all cigarettes. British American Tobacco Australia (BATA), in an effort to fight back, has filed upwards of 19 requests for various documents and records. Some of the records they’ve received, they argue, show that the proposed legislation would damage the trademark rights of the tobacco companies. More important to their case is the argument that no public benefit is served by plain packaging, an argument BATA hopes will be bolstered by documents currently withheld by the Australian government.
