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Secret files relating to the disgraced Prince Andrew, the Royal connected to child trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, will be locked away until 2065. Unless Prince Andrew lives until 105, he will likely be dead by the time the files are released. The restrictions came to light after historian Andrew Lownie requested access to them for an upcoming biography on the British royal family member. Last year, Andrew paid £12 million (around $15 million) to Virginia Giuffre, who accused him of sexual assault while she was 17 and underage. As The National Post reported, the denial of access forms part of a...

Lawmakers are considering sealing the governor’s travel records. Republicans say it’s about the governor’s safety and security while Democrats say it’s about the safety of the governor’s political ambitions. Lawmakers readied the bill Monday for a final vote on Tuesday. The bill would make all travel logs of the governor, the state’s cabinet members, legislative leaders, and the Chief Justice exempt from public record requests. Also, the bill is retroactive, meaning if signed into law any records regarding protection, travel, and potential threats in the past, present and future would be sealed. “That’s what the bill is about, safety and...

If you've seen news reports about suspicious state contracts or chemical waste pits or officials' text messages in the Waco biker shootout, you may notice a recurring theme: government records obtained through the Texas Public Information Act. Fortunately, our state’s public information law, created in the early 1970s, presumes government records are open unless a specific exemption in the law keeps the documents off-limits. The public has a right to know. That means all citizens - not only journalists - can access government records. "It's very easy," said award-winning reporter Melissa Correa of KRGV-TV in Weslaco, recently explaining her use...

TORONTO - The Ontario government has been working on plans for high occupancy toll lanes on three Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area highways since 2013, but has kept most of the details secret. When the NDP filed a Freedom of Information request in early 2014 for detailed information on the work, which includes traffic models, most of the documents were to be blacked out or not released at all, according to a report obtained by the Toronto Sun. Ministry of Transportation staff prepared the note to give senior bureaucrats and the minister’s office a heads-up about the NDP’s “contentious” request....

6 days before tax day liberal Christmas in 2013 Lois Lerner was emailing with one of her fellow cronies and warning them to be careful, “we need to be cautious about what we say in emails”.

Dannel P. Malloy came into office as governor two years ago saying he's committed to "open and transparent" government, but recent events have put that assertion in question. "Transparent" and "transparency" are the words that leaders use these days to assure citizens that they'll be well informed about government operations and decision-making, and that they'll have ready access to government records. ... But then came last Tuesday. That's when The Courant revealed that the staffs of Malloy and top state prosecutor Kevin Kane had been working secretly for weeks with legislative leaders to draft a bill to block public disclosure...

Less than one day into his term as president, and Barack Obama is already illustrating why those who did not vote for him voted as they did. Obama is an extreme hypocrite. Notice, for example, this summary from http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090121/ap_on_go_pr_wh/obama_executive_pay concerning his desire to loosen up restrictions on releasing information under the Freedom of Information Act. Obama stated that "Just because a government agency has the legal power to keep information private does not mean that it should" and "For a long time now, there's been too much secrecy in this city." The order that he issued Wednesday is an attempt...

....[Chancellor Biddy] Martin wrote that the request by Stephen Thompson, the state GOP's deputy executive director, was a legitimate request under the open records law. But she said the university decided to exclude some records for privacy reasons,.... "We are also excluding what we consider to be the private email exchanges among scholars that fall within the orbit of academic freedom and all that is entailed by it. Academic freedom is the freedom to pursue knowledge and develop lines of argument without fear of reprisal for controversial findings and without the premature disclosure of those ideas," she wrote. Martin added...

If you thought it ended with ObamaCare, think again. By “it,” we mean the irresponsible act of Congress to ramrod massive legislation through its chambers with far more regard for incestuous political praise than public service, only to find out, after the fact, that assaults on our Constitution and our individual freedoms were buried in the thousands of pages that this same Congress didn’t have time to read. Bob Beauprez (R) is a former Congressman from Colorado, now political commentator, who can only sum up what he is witnessing in the past 18 months under an Obama, Reid and Pelosi...

EXCERPT "I think they should but they won't. They intended exactly what they did. "They were looking for the result they got yesterday," she said of Fox. "I am just a pawn. I was just here. They are after a bigger thing, they would love to take us back to where we were many years ago. Back to where black people were looking down, not looking white folks in the face, not being able to compete for a job out there and not be a whole person."

http://www.investigativeproject.org/pics/289_large.jpg SNIPPET: "A government agency sponsors a community outreach program, but limits media access solely to representatives of the community involved. In doing so, the most powerful press representative present was a publisher who has repeatedly endorsed two groups the United States has designated as terrorists. That's what happened last October when the Commerce Department co-sponsored a "Muslim-American Business Outreach Meeting" with the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee in Dearborn, Michigan. Documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) revealed that 75 people attended the invitation-only event. Most were touted as local Muslim and Arab-American business and community leaders. Invitations indicate...

Defence officials' insulting remarks about the public had to be blanked out of government UFO files before they were made public, a memo has revealed. The Ministry of Defence had agreed to publish its full archive of reported sightings in response to a deluge of Freedom of Information Act requests. But the once-secret memo, published on its website, reveals "uncomplimentary comments" were edited out. Comments on international relations and defence technology were also deleted. Thousands of pages from the department's UFO files have been released through the National Archives since 2008, revealing details of reported flying objects and encounters with...

Energy The administration asked for public comments on a plan to expand offshore drilling. When they came in 2-to-1 in favor, the Interior Department sat on the news. Time for a "Texas tea" party? When you ask for public comment on a major policy issue, at some point you should make the results public, not hide them until you can figure out a way to spin the public reaction to support a conclusion you've already drawn. On its last business day in office, the Bush administration published a proposed draft of a five-year plan to lease areas in the Atlantic...

Science: For two years, our space agency has refused Freedom of Information requests on why it has repeatedly corrected its climate figures. A leading researcher threatens to sue to find more inconvenient truths. What's become known as "Climate-Gate" may be about to explode on this side of the pond as well. Chris Horner, a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, has threatened a lawsuit against NASA if by year-end the agency doesn't honor his FOI requests for information on how and why its climate numbers have been consistently adjusted for errors. "I assume that what is there is highly...

ClimateGate: Britain's Climate Research Unit now says it will release all its data. Does that include the data that have been shredded, deleted and denied publication? In a statement released Saturday by the University of East Anglia, where the CRU is located, it was announced that all unit data, including data that had been denied climate skeptics, would soon be released to prove this is much ado about nothing. Unimpressed by the news is David Holland of Northampton, a grandfather with a background in electrical engineering, who is seeking prosecution of the CRU scientists involved in suppressing and even destroying...

"General reaction seems to be that the CRUgate emails are genuine, but with the caveat that there could be some less reliable stuff slipped in. In the circumstances, here are some summaries of the CRUgate files. I'll update these as and when I can. The refs are the email number. Phil Jones writes to University of Hull to try to stop sceptic Sonia Boehmer Christiansen using her Hull affiliation. Graham F Haughton of Hull University says its easier to push greenery there now SB-C has retired.(1256765544) Michael Mann discusses how to destroy a journal that has published sceptic papers.(1047388489) Tim...

Last week, Vanity Fair magazine and the National Security News Service filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit in federal court seeking records related to a 1964 vehicle accident involving then-Navy Lt. John McCain. According to the complaint, filed Oct. 16 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, National Security News Service reporter Christopher Law, who is also working with Vanity Fair for this story, requested duty logs from July 24 and 25, 1964 at Portsmouth Naval Hospital. Those logs would indicate whether McCain, now the Republican presidential candidate, was a patient there. “Plaintiffs and Vanity Fair...

The Medford Mail Tribune has sued the sheriff for a list of concealed handgun licenses in Jackson County, hoping to determine how many are held by teachers. The newspaper said it wants to determine the impact of a ruling in another suit, brought by English teacher Shirley Katz. She has a permit and wants to be able to carry a gun to class. Sheriff Mike Winters said he would oppose the newspaper's lawsuit, filed last week. For both privacy and safety reasons, Winters said, "I don't believe it's anyone's business who possesses a concealed handgun license." The newspaper does not...

Circle of Six: The True Story of New York's Most Notorious Cop-Killer and The Cop Who Risked Everything to Catch Him. http://www.amazon.com/Circle-Six-Notorious-Cop-Killer-Everything/dp/1932857397CIRCLE OF SIX The True Story of New York's Most Notorious Cop-Killer and the Cop Who Risked Everything to Catch Him In 1972, New York City was plagued with protests, riots, and general unrest. It was during this defining year that one of the Police Department's most scandalous cases occurred: the murder of Police Officer Phillip Cardillo. On Friday, April 14, 1972, the police were summoned to Mosque Number 7 in Harlem, led at the time by the Nation...

Updated: 06:22 PM EDT Judge Orders Release of Abu Ghraib Photos By LARRY NEUMEISTER, AP NEW YORK (Sept. 29) - A federal judge Thursday ordered the release of dozens more pictures of prisoners being abused at Abu Ghraib, rejecting government arguments that the images would provoke terrorists and incite violence against U.S. troops in Iraq.