Sunshine Week

Sunshine Week is now a Cause on Facebook

Sunshine Week is now an official Cause on Facebook. New members are signing on every day to show their support for the Sunshine Week Cause and open government. As cause members recruit their friends, the network of people who want to preserve and protect their right to know what government is doing will grow stronger

To become a member of the Sunshine Week cause you first must be signed in to Facebook. Add the "causes" application if you don't already have it, and simply sign on. Your profile will reflect that you've joined.

COMING THIS FALL: Ronnie & Donnie help kick off The Sunshine Campaign to bring open government forward as a campaign issue at all levels of government.

America Votes: Science Idol Cartoon WinnerAnnounced by Union of Concerned Scientists

Jesse Springer, a graphic designer and aspiring editorial cartoonist from Eugene, Ore., is the winner of the Union of Concerned Scientists' 2007 "Science Idol: The Scientific Integrity Editorial Cartoon Contest" for "Truth," pictured here.

"Cartoons are a powerful medium — they can reach, and potentially educate, a tremendous number of people," Springer told the UCS.

"If I can draw some compelling cartoons that shed light on the negative impact of governmental interference with science, and more people become aware of the problem as a result, then perhaps we can start to see a change for the better."

Spotlight on Secrecy: Report Chronicles"Unprecedented Rise" in Information Limits

Simply stated: "Openness is an American value."

So begins a new report on the alarming rise in excessive government secrecy by the People for the American Way Foundation and OpenTheGovernment.org.

The report, "Government Secrecy: Decisions Without Democracy 2007," chronicles what it calls an "unprecedented rise in government secrecy."

"In the past six years, the basic principle of openness as the underpinning of democracy has been seriously undermined and distrust of government is on the rise," the report states.

Among the findings: the number of items classified has jumped from 3.5 million in 1995 to 14.2 million in 2005; various executive orders, memos and other directives have moved a general presumption of openness to one of a "when in doubt, classify"; there has been growth in information dubbed "sensitive" rather than "classified," effectively squirreling it away without review; FOIA delays and denials are growing exponentially; courts are regularly closing their doors to the public; federal prosecutors have subpoenaed reporters trying to force disclosure of confidential sources; and efforts have been made to reintroduce an official secrets act.

Read more…

CJOG Analysis of FOIA Performance Shows More People Waiting Longer for Less Information

A new analysis of Freedom of Information Act performance reports by the Coalition of Journalists for Open Government shows that service continues to frustrate requesters, despite a presidential directive ordering agencies to improve response and a Justice Department assessment that said changes made so far are encouraging.

"Why the disparity? It's simple: the Justice report looked how agencies are doing relative to self-established bureaucratic goals. Our analysis takes agencies' own FOIA reports and measures how they're doing in delivering information to the public," explained Pete Weitzel, Coalition coordinator. "What we're seeing is that all the basic indicators of efficiency — backlog, waiting time, requests granted — are still doing poorly. The only place where we saw numbers go up was in the amount of taxpayers' dollars spent."