I ran out of space to talk about it, but CSCU also said at a hearing that they route media requests through their comms department rather than GovQA to facilitate relationships. I have a huge problem with that. FOI doesn't care who you are or why you want info. Media shouldn't get special treatment.

You've probably been told your FOIA request is too vague at some point. Language is subjective, but if agencies are making decisions that affect what's responsive, they should be talking to you. More about how that's an issue in our CSCU FOIC case here: insideinvestigator.org/transparency...

As Connecticut’s Freedom of Information Act celebrates its 50th anniversary, @foiakatherine.bsky.social for @insideinvestigator.bsky.social takes a look at how enforcement of the law has evolved. insideinvestigator.org/sunshine-on-...

Connecticut's FOI law turned 50 earlier this month. I'm a huge proponent of FOIA being a tool for all the public, but local journalists have unquestionably shaped the law. So what does FOI's future look like as local journalism dies? insideinvestigator.org/sunshine-on-...

I'm incredibly honored to be receiving special recognition from NEFAC.

Today is the 50th birthday of Connecticut's FOIA statute. The law gets some things right, but also has a glaring flaw: a lack of deadline by which agencies have to respond to requests. insideinvestigator.org/transparency...

I'm incredibly honored to receive a Pearlman award from CFOG this year. It's such a crucial moment for freedom of information and fighting to preserve public access to it is a fundamental drive in my work as a journalist.

Still looking to talk to media for this piece!

I'm doing a piece about how challenges to FOIA abuses have changed as local news collapses. If you work/have worked in a newsroom in Connecticut and have gone to the FOIC, I'd love to hear from you.

3 people died in custody at Garner CI in the space of a month last year. We turned to FOIA to try to get more answers about how that happened. After waiting a year, the investigation reports we got back were 60% redacted. insideinvestigator.org/three-deaths...

Just had DESPP point me to the general statutes in response to me asking them to explain why they're claiming the preliminary drafts exemption. So, your periodic reminder: agencies have a duty to prove to you that withholding info under that exemption is in the public interest.

FOI people: have you ever been told you can download documents responsive to a request a limited number of times? Just had an agency I can tell me I can only download an incident 3 times and I can't find any reference to whether this is allowed/has been addressed before.

Federal employees said they worry about the future of FOIA in the U.S., not only for their sake, but for requesters as well. www.muckrock.com/news/archive...

A few weeks ago I found DMHAS had a whitelist on a designated email for FOIA requests. While the issue had been fixed, it's a reminder to ensure that you're receiving confirmation receipts from public agencies when you submit FOIA requests. insideinvestigator.org/dmhas-fixes-...

Update #2: DMHAS recently sent out an email saying that FOI requests sent to its designated email addresses in the last 90 days were not received due to "a technical error" and requests should be resubmitted. I will be following up to try to determine how many requests were not received.

Update on this: I was told yesterday morning by a DMHAS spox that my request was being shared with their FOI person. Questions about how long the whitelist has been in place or how many times the delivery failure notice went out have so far been ignored.

Not a good look from DMHAS. Their designated email for FOIA requests (linked on their website) appears to have a whitelist. I got the same message from both my work and personal email accounts.

Say it with me folks: the names of public employees are public information. Reporting that information is not doxxing.

Last night's legislative adjournment was good for FOIA. Every single outstanding bill that added to the law's exemptions died on adjournment, including the exemption for most records produced by public universities. My roundup is here: insideinvestigator.org/legislative-...

We're coming to the end of CT's legislative session and an amendment to the bill that would exempt public universities from FOIA was filed recently. It's not an improvement.

Carr knew even before he went on the air the next day. The FOIA shows that he confirmed the compliance. He even sent the producers at Fox copies of the relevant documents before the interview.

SCOOP: In Feb, federal agencies "lost" many #FOIA requests but you probably had no idea. It turns out that the FOIAs disappeared due to an "insider threat attack" by 2 employees at a software company who were previously convicted of hacking into the State Dept 🧵 🎁 www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

This is sadly also not the worst FOIA bill this session. The legislature is trying once again to put pretty much all records created by public universities beyond public oversight by exempting them from FOIA.

An unwelcome surprise from yesterday's Senate session: a bill that would exempt complaints against police from FOIA disclosure until they've been adjudicated or investigated passed unanimously. It's vague and likely conflicts with other existing laws. More details here:

Requests for electronic records in Connecticut don't usually come with costs. They definitely don't come with the per page copying fee that applies to paper records. But a whistleblower and former DECD employee was just quoted $40K for an electronic records request. Link below.

🧵 The effort government puts into not complying with transparency is staggering, part infinity:

The CT AG's response to Avelo telling them to file a FOIA for their contract with DHS: it's a "callous back-of-the-hand." All I can say is, welcome to the club. This is EXACTLY how it feels when public agencies use FOIA as a dodge to delay answering basic questions.

Mass firings at FDA spared at least some workers furnishing government documents in response to FOIA lawsuits about covid vaccines. Those lawsuits were brought by Aaron Siri, an ally of HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s who represents anti-vaccine interests kffhealthnews.org/news/article...

It's impossible to enforce 'we will stop "illegal" ideas from entering the country's without viewpoint discrimination.

Illegal ideas.

Student journalists are anonymizing bylines, unpublishing stories, and resigning from newsrooms amid a crackdown on pro-Palestinian speech under Trump. "These are not normal times," the Student Press Law Center has warned. My latest for @theguardian.com www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Thanks to journalism & court filings, collected & analyzed by @laurenleharper.bsky.social, we know many agency FOIA offices have been closed entirely or drastically cut: freedom.press/the-classifi... TBD if Chairman Grassley or @durbin.senate.gov raises this today. cc @judiciarydems.senate.gov

Data on quarterly ICE interactions with CT police departments, required under the Trust Act, is now publicly available on CT Data. Pleased this is the outcome after I filed a FOIA for this data: data.ct.gov/Public-Safet...

Federal court says Missouri violated the First Amendment when it told pharmacists that they could not caution patients that two widely publicized nostrums, ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine (HCQ), might not be effective against COVID [Hamilton Lincoln Law Institute]

New Transparency Update: I'm hopeful that a bill that would audit FOIA response times will also include information on how large those requests are. Public officials love to blame large requests for long wait times but I can think of 4 reasons that's hogwash: insideinvestigator.org/transparency...

NEW FOIA Files newsletter is out! Trump Filed a FOIA Request. So I FOIAed His FOIA. www.bloomberg.com/news/newslet...

In the same vein, state libraries and legislative research offices contain a wealth of data and resources that are super helpful for journalists.

🚨 Concerns in Germany among journalists and civil society over Union (CDU/CSU) plans to abolish the Freedom of Information Act in its current form. 🧵1/5 Thread ⬇️

Encrypted messagjng apps like Signal relatively new as a technology, but for federal employees, they still fall under the FOIA and other records laws. The key issue is not the condition of encryption or which app or device its on: it is whether official government business is being conducted or not.

Colchester's school superintendent tried to claim that releasing his phone number (which is publicly paid for but which he transferred his private number to and uses for personal matters) would violate a personal privacy exemption to FOIA: insideinvestigator.org/colchester-s...

The Trump administration smearing Jeffrey Goldberg for doing journalism is yet another example of why we need a national reporter shield law. No journalist should have to worry about being target by government trying to distract from its own screw up.

There's "I don't know if it's worth FOI-ing emails because public officials were probably smart enough not to discuss it there" and then there's this.

👇 I hear a lot of legislators sitting in committees voting for bills that narrow FOIA saying they support the law but not a lot of legislators doing anything about records requests being ignored.

Jeez: 12% of state legislators said they think they should be subject to MA's public records law.

In a letter to Maryland lawmakers, RCFP expressed opposition to a bill that would shield complete autopsy reports from the public, arguing that it would “harm Maryland journalists and government transparency.”

For every huge national story about the administration you're seeing, there are dozens more about their community impact. I work for a 4 person newsroom. We do our best, but we're drowning in the pace that news is breaking right now. Support local journalism so we can do more.

U.S. Representative Jamie Raskin is encouraging all U.S. citizens to join him this week in filing formal demands for access to their personal data obtained by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and Elon Musk.

It's Sunshine Week, so of course CT legislators are voting for not only expanding the public worker FOIA address exemption but creating a task force to review the exemption that in no way looks loaded to advocate further expanding it: insideinvestigator.org/foia-exempti...

My special #SunshineWeek2025 Transparency Update has: 1. FOIA filing tips 2. sample FOIA language 3. a link to our new FOI directory Read it here: insideinvestigator.org/sunshine-wee...

The top Democrats on the House Judiciary and Oversight Committees have filed a FOIA request with DOGE seeking, among other things, records related to DOGE staffers' access to sensitive data, staffers' security training, DOGE security policies, AI models, and software: bit.ly/4iydwXp