Free Republic

A new law is designed to give Pennsylvania citizens more information about what their elected officials are doing. Gov. Tom Wolf on Wednesday signed into law a measure requiring state government agencies, school districts, and local municipalities to post their meeting agendas on their websites 24 hours in advance for public review. They also are required to make copies of the agenda available at their meetings, listing items that will be or may be the subject of deliberation. The new law’s purpose is to enforce the “right of the public to be informed and present at their government’s proceedings,” according...

Acting Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt ordered Thursday that federal land managers consider public access when selling or trading public land. “This order will help ensure that the Bureau of Land Management considers public access to public lands,” Bernhardt said in a statement. “It requires that before the BLM exchanges or disposes of any land, they must first consider what impact the disposal or exchange of land will have on public access. The Trump Administration will continue to prioritize access so that people can hunt, fish, camp, and recreate on our public lands," he said. This order will address...

Dozens of people rode their ATVs and motorcycles on an off-limits trail in southern Utah on Saturday in a protest against what the group calls the federal government's overreaching control of public lands. San Juan County Sheriff Rick Eldredge said from 40 to 50 people, many of them waving American flags and some carrying weapons, drove about a mile down Recapture Canyon

Obama Administration task force closing in on deadline for 'health care' for nation's shorelines, waterways IRVINE, Calif. USA - October 5, 2009 - A recently published administration document outlines a structure that could result in closures of sport fishing in salt and freshwater areas across America. The White House created an Interagency Oceans Policy Task Force in June and gave them only 90 days to develop a comprehensive federal policy for all U.S. coastal, ocean and Great Lakes waters. Under the guise of 'protecting' these areas, the current second phase of the Task Force direction is to develop zoning which...

"Robert De Niro" wasn't kidding. As impersonated by Josh Robert Thompson, he warned in the opening minutes of his live TV call-in talk show "Dining With De Niro" that he only wanted to talk about food -- "manly" foods like beef. He discouraged viewers who wanted to discuss "feminine" foods like cupcakes or muffins. Many of his callers were not having it. One caller blurted out an anti-Semitic obscenity. Another used the N-word while shouting out that "everyone who lives in Highland Park" loves black people. "Come on," said Thompson, as he glared at the camera and fired off a...

MALIBU, Calif. - Just off the Pacific Coast Highway, where the Santa Monica Mountains tower over the ocean, some of Hollywood's biggest stars have settled into a slice of heaven. Steven Spielberg. Danny DeVito. Goldie Hawn. Over the years, they have joined the lucky few who call Broad Beach home. Their front yards open onto a mile-long, sandy stretch of California coastline. They spent millions to get here, and they'd like to be left alone. Alan Latteri didn't spend a dime, and nobody's heard of him. But he figures he has as much right to the sand, surf and...

Teachers' union, citing claims of bigotry, objects to Hutcherson's church on school grounds. Antioch pastor should find new meeting place,openly-gay union leader says. As usual, in the People's Republic of Seattle, the First Amendment rights of churches are coming under attack.

Appeals court upholds TV producer's indecent exposure conviction 5/12/2005, 5:35 a.m. ET The Associated Press LANSING, Mich. (AP) — The Michigan Court of Appeals upheld the indecent exposure conviction of the producer and host of a comedy show on Grand Rapids' public access cable channel. Timothy Huffman, 47, was convicted of misdemeanor indecent exposure in Kent County in January 2003. He was charged after a viewer complained about a sketch that aired April 7, 2000 on "Tim's Area of Control" on the GRTV channel. The three-minute segment consisted of a full-screen close-up of a man's genitals displayed in front of...

KENMORE, Ohio (AP) - A northeast Ohio family hoping to see choirs perform holiday music on Christmas morning instead saw adult programming on the local public access television station. "I turn it to Channel 15 and there's this naked lady on the screen - I mean full-frontal, get-the-hell-out-of-here pornography," said David Umana. "When I tell about Christmas 2004, I'm betting this will be one of my best stories." Umana's 15- and 17-year-old sons had left the room about 8:30 a.m. Saturday, but he and his wife, Karen, saw the porn and called Time Warner Cable to complain. Chris Thomas, the...

Michael Moore fictional movie 9/11 to be shown in Tucson, AZ on public access. We need to get DVDs and contact our local access networks so we can take advantage of this loop hole. I know some here on FR wanted to hand out DVD "good idea" but I think we get wider exposure using our right to public cable and free TV access. We need to contact our local cable and free public TV to get this to happen. Come on FR we can do this.

A Tucson woman has succeeded where director Michael Moore failed: She is making sure the anti-Bush documentary "Fahrenheit 9/11" gets on television before the Nov. 2 election. Radio producer Elaine Higginbotham has Moore's permission to air the controversial film on local public-access television.

BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) - The California First Amendment Coalition on Saturday recognized two newspapers and a veteran reporter among those who received honors for fighting to provide public access to information. A community Web site and public officials in San Diego and Santa Clara County also were among the winners of six Beacon Awards. The honors went to: - Denny Walsh of The Sacramento Bee for a career spent rooting out information that public officials did not want to see in print, from deals that enriched politicians to special treatment from the federal judiciary for well-placed figures. - A website...

RENO, Nev. - Call them the ``Outhouse Brigade.'' A group of northeast Nevadans feuding with the U.S. Forest Service over control of a remote national forest road near a trout stream is vowing to defy the agency and drive up the road to clean out a public outhouse. The Forest Service, concerned about the effects on the threatened bull trout, has forbidden vehicles from using South Canyon Road since the Jarbidge River flooded and washed out most of it in 1995. A coalition of anti-federal activists and a local citizens group in Elko County dubbed the ``Shovel Brigade'' began trying...

"Democracies die behind closed doors....When government begins closing doors, it selectively controls information rightfully belonging to the people. Selective information is misinformation." So spoke Judge Damon Keith in Detroit Free Press, et al. v. Ashcroft. Judge Keith was discussing closed immigration hearings in the wake of 9/11. He might have been talking about the public's lack of access to legal information databases, especially case law databases. Although many courts now publish case law on the Internet for free, thousands of older cases are not available to those who cannot pay. Hundreds of public libraries across the country provide online access...