Operation Something Bruin (South Carolina)

To Whom It May Concern:

Pursuant to the South Carolina Freedom of Information Act, I hereby request the following records:

Any and all copies of the following related to the multi-agency initiative entitled "Operation Something Bruin":
Written correspondence, contracts, agreements between agencies, budgets, investigative reports, press releases, digital media (photos, videos, etc), and documents related to internal investigations.

I also request that, if appropriate, fees be waived as I believe this request is in the public interest. The requested documents will be made available to the general public free of charge as part of the public information service at MuckRock.com, processed by a representative of the news media/press and is made in the process of news gathering and not for commercial usage.

In the event that fees cannot be waived, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not.

Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 15 business days, as the statute requires.

Sincerely,

Donald Triplett III

To Whom It May Concern:

I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on July 30, 2014. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed.

Thank you for your help.

August 21, 2014

Dear Ms. Pinckney,

Thank you for your reply. However, I would respectfully ask that you search again.

I have documents from a FOIA request that was sent to the National Park Service that shows that South Carolina DNR was actively involved in Operation Something Bruin. Some of these documents show email correspondence that involves representatives of South Carolina DNR (Chisolm Frampton, framptonc@dnr.sc.gov) and a meeting that South Carolina DNR agreed to host in December of 2012. Furthermore, some of these documents include draft press releases and agendas for a press conference in February of 2013, that references a Lt. Robert McCullough (McCulloughR@dnr.sc.gov) as the "public affairs representative" for Operation Something Bruin. I believe this is enough to show involvement in the Operation.

If you would like me to provide a copy of these documents for you, I would be happy to oblige. If you have any questions, feel free to reply or contact me by phone at (202) 643-4610.

I look forward to receiving documents responsive to my request.

Sincerely,

Donald Triplett, III