Category «Freedom of Information»

White House ends public access to official transcripts, announcements, remarks

Follow up to Trump’s disappearing transcripts, via Ben Amata [Government Information Librarian, California State University, Sacramento]: “The White House has removed a database of official transcripts documenting the President’s announcements and appearances. The “remarks” section of the White House website provides only YouTube videos rather than the transcripts that for decades past administrations have published. …

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

The chief justice intervened on DOGE behalf

“Chief Justice John Roberts has personally shielded the Department of Government Efficiency from having to hand over reams of internal data. Acting as an individual, Roberts temporarily blocked two orders from a lower court that instructed DOGE to turn over thousands of pages of documents and have its administrator, Amy Gleason, sit for a deposition. …

Subjects: Censorship, Courts, Freedom of Information, Government Documents, Legal Research

The Tracking Gov Info Project

The Tracking Gov Info Project is a crowdsourcing effort to track removed and modified government information and resources. Although the news media have widely reported the current U.S. administration’s removal and modification of federal websites and information, it can be challenging to understand and analyze the scope of the problem without a central list tracking …

Subjects: Censorship, Civil Liberties, Climate Change, E-Records, Economy, Education, Energy, Environmental Law, Financial System, Food and Nutrition, Free Speech, Freedom of Information, Government Documents, Health Care, HIV/AIDS, Housing, Legal Research, Medicine

Trump Has Cut Science Funding to Its Lowest Level in Decades

Trump Has Cut Science Funding to Its Lowest Level in Decades [New York Times, no paywall] – The reporters analyzed 35 years of grants funded by the National Science Foundation. The National Science Foundation, which funds much of the fundamental scientific research at American universities, is awarding new grants at the slowest pace in at …

Subjects: Censorship, Climate Change, Economy, Education, Energy, Environmental Law, Freedom of Information, Government Documents, Health Care, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Medicine

Hack of Contractor Was at Root of Massive Federal Data Breach

Bloomberg – no paywall: “Failures in cybersecurity practices at a software company that helps federal agencies manage investigations and FOIA requests allowed two convicted hackers to delete databases, according to internal documents. A software company that handles sensitive data for nearly every US federal agency was the victim of a cyber breach earlier this year …

Subjects: E-Government, E-Records, Freedom of Information, Legal Research

Diseases are spreading. The CDC isn’t warning the public like it was months ago

NPR: “To accomplish its mission of increasing the health security of the U.S., the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states that it “conducts critical science and provides health information” to protect the nation. But since President Trump’s administration assumed power in January, many of the platforms the CDC used to communicate with the public …

Subjects: E-Government, Education, Freedom of Information, Government Documents, Health Care, Microsoft

Trump administration asks Supreme Court to keep DOGE records secret

CREW sues US DOGE Service to compel transparency – includes all related legal documents. “…May 14, 2025. The DC Circuit Court ruled unanimously—with judges appointed by both Democrats and Republicans—that DOGE must submit to discovery. Read it here….US DOGE Service wields shockingly broad power over all manner of federal operations—which far exceeds its limited legal …

Subjects: Censorship, Courts, E-Records, Economy, Financial System, Freedom of Information, Government Documents, Legal Research

The Visionary of Trump 2.0

The Atlantic [no paywall] – Russell Vought is advancing a radical ideological project decades in the making. “The opening act of Donald Trump’s second term was defined by the theatrical dismantling of much of the federal government by Elon Musk and his group of tech-savvy demolitionists. Everywhere you looked in those first 100 days, it …

Subjects: Censorship, Civil Liberties, Free Speech, Freedom of Information, Government Documents, Knowledge Management, Legal Research

CensorTrace

CensorTrace – “Following the 2025 U.S. presidential inauguration, changes were made to the content available on certain public government websites and platforms. This website is an automated tool designed to monitor the removal of webpages from major U.S. government websites. It uses publicly available data from the Internet Archive to compare sitemaps from before and …

Subjects: Censorship, Civil Liberties, Climate Change, E-Records, Education, Freedom of Information, Government Documents, Health Care, Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Libraries

American Schools Were Deeply Unprepared for ChatGPT, Public Records Show

404 Media: “Soon after ChatGPT was released, I [Jason Keobler] filed 60 public records requests with states and school districts around the country to get a sense of how they were thinking about the technology. Because of the way public records work, it often took years to get anything back. I got busy, and there …

Subjects: AI, Education, Freedom of Information, Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research

The US Library of Congress is under attack

FT.com no paywall – An institution that survived British torching in 1814 is now facing a new onslaught – “An institution that survived British torching in 1814 is now facing a new onslaught. The Library of Congress is a reference-only research library, its collections being built through legal deposit legislation, passed by Congress. A History …

Subjects: Censorship, Congress, Copyright, Education, Freedom of Information, Government Documents, Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Libraries

Congress’s Librarian, Fired by the President

First Branch Forecast: “Congress’s Librarian, Fired by the President The presidential firing of Dr. Hayden raises serious questions about legislative independence. On Thursday, President Trump fired Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden. Dr. Hayden became the 14th Librarian of Congress in 2016. In that role, she oversaw the Library of Congress, a major legislative support agency. …

Subjects: Censorship, Congress, Education, Freedom of Information, Government Documents, Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Libraries

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