Sunshine Week

And You Thought Gas Was Expensive?

The cost of keeping secrets is at a new high — $9.91 billion.

That figure for 2007, a 4.6 percent rise over the previous year, is what the federal government spent on classification, according to the Secrecy News analysis of the Information Security Oversight Office's 2007 Report to the President.

"The ISOO annual report…presents a unique snapshot of declassification and declassification activity throughout the executive branch, though the data provided are often of uncertain significance and are cited with exaggerated precision," explained Steven Aftergood, director of the Federation of American Scientist's Project on Government Secrecy, which publishes Secrecy News.

"ISOO reported uneven compliance with basic classification system rules and regulations at several agencies," Aftergood added.

Original classification decisions, or "new secrets" as Aftergood calls them, were up 1 percent, while derivative classification, or information that had previously been classified and was classified in a new form or document, were up 12.5 percent for a total of 23,102,257 classification actions in 2007, he reported.

Read more of the Secrecy News' analysis and the ISOO report online.

Happy (Founding) Father's Day

Mark Mahoney, editorial page editor of The Post-Star in Glens Falls, N.Y., found an interesting way to tie in (no pun intended) Father's Day and open government on his "Your Right to Know" blog.

"Father's Day seems an appropriate day to talk on this blog about the Founding Fathers (get it?) and their vision for the citizens' government they created," he wrote.

Quoting George Washington, James Madison and Thomas Jefferson, Mahoney noted that, "They knew how important it was for you to fight for your right to know.

"We hope you do too."

Read Mahoney's blog here.

Sunshine Week Citizen Journalism Essay Award Winner

Ryan Headley has been named the first winner of the Sunshine Week Citizen Journalism Award for his essay published on Helium.com looking at whether the presidential candidates are missing an opportunity to connect with voters on open government issues.

"It is perplexing to try to understand why a candidate hasn't pounced on this immensely important issue and made it the platform of his/her campaign," Headley wrote. "It is certainly a possibility that none of the candidates truly have the intention to push this issue once in the White House. These candidates speak of change, but it would be this kind of change that would be truly monumental. In a democracy, do we deserve anything less than truth and openness?"

Read the entire essay on the Helium.com Web site.

At the end of each month, a winning essay is selected from among the top ranked work, as rated by fellow Helium writers. Monthly winners will receive an award certificate and automatically become eligible for a grand prize, which will be presented in conjunction with Sunshine Week 2009, March 15-21.

The awards continue in June, with the essay topic: "Should candidates be required to disclose their health records?"

Professional and amateur writers alike can sign up for free as Helium contributors and take part in the competition. There also are opportunities to write about several non-competition titles that are listed on Helium's Sunshine Week partner page.