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Weekly News Digest
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November 27, 2018 — In addition to this week's NewsBreaks article and the monthly NewsLink Spotlight, Information Today, Inc. (ITI) offers Weekly News Digests that feature recent product news and company announcements. Watch for additional coverage to appear in the next print issue of Information Today.
CLICK HERE to view more Weekly News Digest items.
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The Failures of FOIA
Tim Cushing writes for Techdirt, “Fifty years after the passage of the Freedom of Information Act [FOIA], the letter of the law lives on but its spirit has been crushed. While it’s definitely preferable to having no opportunity to demand government agencies hand over requested documents, it’s not the significant improvement it was promised to be. … [T]he government has pretty much adopted a presumption of opacity that necessitates the filing of lawsuits. … If you really want the government to turn over documents, you have two choices: lawyer up or add your pending FOIA requests to your will.” For example, in FY2017, it took the Department of State an average of 652 days to process a FOIA request. So far in 2018, 860 lawsuits have been filed.Cushing continues, “While there have been some welcome introductions like online filing portals and release-to-all policies for documents with significant public interest, the rate of incoming requests continues to exceed the capacity to fulfill them. But no money will be thrown to FOIA response teams. This is a part of the government that the government tends to feel can remain underserved forever.” For more information, read the article.
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Brandi Scardilli
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