Category «Censorship»

DOJ watchdog launches review of agency’s compliance with Epstein files law

Department of Justice (DOJ) Deputy Inspector General Performing the Duties of Inspector General William M. Blier announced today that: The DOJ Office of the Inspector General (OIG) is initiating an audit of DOJ’s compliance with the Epstein Files Transparency Act. Our preliminary objective is to evaluate the DOJ’s processes for identifying, redacting, and releasing records …

Subjects: Censorship, Congress, E-Mail, E-Records, Freedom of Information, Government Documents, Legal Research, Legislation

Trump DOJ Limits Efforts to Safeguard States From Election Crimes

BloombergLaw: “The Justice Department is curtailing election year coordination aimed at protecting state-run voting processes, increasing risks of the Trump administration interfering in the November midterms or unwittingly exposing precincts to threats, said multiple state officials and former DOJ election crime lawyers. Ahead of an election that will determine whether Republicans retain control of Congress, …

Subjects: Censorship, Civil Liberties, E-Records, Free Speech, Freedom of Information, Government Documents, Legal Research

Pentagon fires ombudsman overseeing military newspaper after calling it ‘woke’

Washington Post [no paywall]: “Stars and Stripes ombudsman Jacqueline Smith said the Defense Department dismissed her without giving a reason, according to an email reviewed by The Post. Three months after the Pentagon decried the U.S. military newspaper Stars and Stripes as “woke” and announced it would be overhauled, Defense Department official Sean Parnell fired …

Subjects: Censorship, Congress, Free Speech, Freedom of Information, Government Documents

The Horrors That Could Lie Ahead if Vaccines Vanish

ProPublica: “Researchers at Stanford University modeled how many people could die or be disabled in 25 years if vaccines for polio, measles, rubella or diphtheria were no longer available. Before vaccines, death and disability stalked children. Then shots turned once-common infections into something doctors only read about in textbooks. When immunization rates drop, however, plagues …

Subjects: Censorship, Civil Liberties, Education, Health Care, Medicine

The Wayback Machine Has Been the Best Archive for Preserving Our Digital Lives

CounterSpin interview with Lia Holland on the Internet Archive. “Janine Jackson: A recent report by Wired‘s Kate Knibbs leads with the contradiction: USA Today published a story recently on how ICE is misinforming about its detainment policies, a case that the paper built on data from the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine, a nonprofit digital library …

Subjects: Censorship, Digital Rights, E-Records, Freedom of Information, Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Libraries, Search Engines

Trump fought to keep the ballroom fundraising contract secret. Here’s what’s in it.

Follow-up to Banquet of Greed: Trump Ballroom Donors Feast on Federal Funds and Favors – See Washington Post – no paywall: “The agreement governing hundreds of millions in private donations was kept secret until a watchdog group sued and a judge ordered it disclosed [the full text of this document is embedded in this WaPo …

Subjects: Censorship, Courts, Government Documents, Legal Research

The Inside Story of Five Days That Remade the Supreme Court

The New York Times Gift Article: “Rulings with no explanation or reasoning, like the sparse paragraph from that February night, have become routine. The emergency docket is now a central legacy of the court led by Chief Justice Roberts.” How dramatically will that legacy change our legal system and our country? Only the Shadow knows…Just after …

Subjects: Censorship, Civil Liberties, Climate Change, Courts, Environmental Law, Government Documents, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Recommended Books

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is preparing banks to collect citizenship data

CNBC:” Banks in the U.S. may not like the idea of being forced to collect citizenship data on customers, but Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says they better be prepared for the task. “If Treasury and the banking regulators say it’s their job, it’s their job,” Bessent told CNBC’s Sara Eisen at the Invest in America …

Subjects: Censorship, Congress, Economy, Financial System, Government Documents, Legal Research, Privacy

Feds Flip the Switch on New Homeland Security Task Force Hub Near D.C.

For reference Executive Order, PROTECTING THE AMERICAN PEOPLE AGAINST INVASION, January 25, 2025, established the Homeland Security Task Force: “…Sec. 6. Federal Homeland Security Task Forces. (a) The Attorney General and the Secretary of Homeland Security shall take all appropriate action to jointly establish Homeland Security Task Forces (HSTFs) in all States nationwide. (b) The …

Subjects: Censorship, Civil Liberties, E-Government, Free Speech, Freedom of Information, Legal Research, Marketing

How Washington Built a Backdoor Into Your Texts, Got Caught Abusing It 300,000 Times, and Kept It Anyway

The Developer: “The United States government has, for years, maintained a legal mechanism that allows it to scoop up your emails, your texts, and your phone calls without asking a judge for permission. In a vote on Friday, after a week of theatrical congressional hand-wringing, lawmakers chose to keep it. If you missed the debate, …

Subjects: Censorship, Civil Liberties, E-Mail, E-Records, Legal Research, Privacy

The Fight to Protect Elections

Last month, President Trump issued a second executive order aiming to single-handedly rewrite federal election rules. The Brennan Center and other groups are challenging the action in court, as the Constitution gives only the states and Congress the power to regulate elections. Among other things, the order attempts to require the U.S. Postal Service — …

Subjects: Censorship, Civil Liberties, Courts, E-Records, Free Speech, Government Documents, Legal Research