“Sunshine is the greatest disinfectant” -- Louis Brandeis The COVID-19 pandemic has provided a vehicle for allowing government to create roadblocks,intentional and otherwise, for the public to participate and obtain information on howgovernment agencies are addressing...
by JW August, President Emeritus, CalAware “He stood up for folks who could not stand up for themselves”— Donna Frye, CalAware Board Member “Tim set a standard for journalists” — Bill Spencer, retired newspaper editor. Journalist Tim Crews was old school. His tools...
December 3, 2019 Dear CalAware Today Subscriber, I’m counting on you to help realize our growth fund and its capacity building goals by reaching out to the next generation. Thanks to your initial show of support we’ve been to able to satisfy our first goal—the $2,500...
August 29, 2019 CalAware’s New Public Interest Initiatives Dear CalAware Today Subscriber, We really appreciate the continuing interest and support you’ve shown in our efforts to help Californians—voters, taxpayers, public officials and employees, and journalists—to...
by JW August, President Emeritus, Californians Aware Legal tactics increasingly deployed in California are denying journalists and others the prompt access to government information that the California Public Records Act (CPRA) is supposed to provide. And it happens...
By JW August, journalist and Past President of Californians Aware It’s not always easy to stand up for what you believe. Cases in point: two school board members from two very different communities—Laguna Beach and El Cajon—who found that out the hard way. Dee Perry...
By JW August, journalist and Past President of Californians Aware Do the police ever abuse authority? Do you think most officers believe citizens have the right to speak their minds, for example in protesting how they’re being treated? That’s something to weigh as you...
As reported this past weekend, on Friday the San Francisco Police Department sent an armed detail to sledgehammer its way into a journalist’s home and office, handcuff him and cart off his phone, computer hard drive, notebooks and other documentation. The police...
After years of unsuccessful attempts, the California legislators have finally passed and gotten a governor to sign into law requirements for charter schools to have their governance meetings and records subject to the state’s transparency laws for local agencies, and...
By JW August, journalist and Past President of Californians Aware Email is part of our lives now. It came on like a category five hurricane just a generation ago, changing the world of business and bureaucracy and creating the need to do many things in a new...
Californians Aware joined a coalition of more than 100 organizations on Thursday in urging the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to cease targeting of activists, journalists, and lawyers based on their First Amendment-protected speech and associational activities....
A recent exchange between Californians Aware and a San Diego area school board shows how a Brown Act remedy can be used to stop practices the challenger believes to violate the letter of the Act, or at least its spirit, in a process relatively prompt and inexpensive...
A bill recently approved by the Assembly Local Government Committee would allow majorities of city councils, boards of supervisors, school boards, planning commissions, special district boards and most of the related committees to meet online and reach agreement on...
A bill moving quickly through the Assembly would revive an optional remedy for wrongfully denied access to California state agencies' records—administrative review and determination rather than litigation—that was first pursued in legislation sponsored by Californians...
The late Richard P. McKee, co-founder in 2004 and first President of Californians Aware, was honored by open government activists nationwide among four “Heroes of the 50 States” by the National Freedom of Information Coalition at its annual summit in Dallas on April...
