Free Republic

Senate Republicans say they are willing to allow Christine Blasey Ford, the woman accusing Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of a decades-old sexual assault charge, to testify in a closed session without the presence of television cameras if that makes her more comfortable appearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday. Ford has yet to confirm her presence at a Monday hearing that could be pivotal to Kavanaugh’s confirmation. “She has the option of a closed session, with cameras or without. We want her to appear,” said Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), a member of the Judiciary panel. “We want her...

The state board that oversees flood control in the Central Valley plans to meet in a closed session Friday to discuss whether it violated an open meetings law. The California Reclamation Board has been criticized for approving a permit for 11,000 luxury homes near Lathrop even though the board's attorney warned that the action was illegal because the project wasn't on the agenda for that April 21 meeting. The Natural Resources Defense Council has asked the board to rescind that vote and reconsider the matter after giving proper public notice. The board says the NRDC petition amounts to "pending litigation"...

Closed meetings of official bodies normally are - and should be - anathema to journalists the public must depend upon to know what government officials are doing with the people’s business. So why the free pass from the media earlier this week for Senate Democrats who banished reporters and spectators, dimmed the lights and closed the doors of the U.S. Senate? This question is especially intriguing because Sen. Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-NV, and his Democrat colleagues demanded the closed doors to discuss senior government officials leaking information to journalists during the run-up to the War in Iraq. Reid and...