Tag Archives: FOIA requests
CoA Institute Lawsuit Prompts Archivist to Examine Potential Record Destruction at NOAA
Cause of Action Institute (“CoA Institute”) filed a lawsuit last summer against the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (“NOAA”) seeking copies of electronic records created through the agency’s Google-based email platform. These types of records are commonly known as “instant messages.” The Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”) requests at issue (available here and here) also sought formal agency guidance on the retention of “Google Chat” or “Google Hangouts” messages. We had already learned, through earlier investigation, that at least one internal NOAA handbook, dating from March 2012, instructed agency employees to treat all chat messages as “off the record,” raising concerns about potential unlawful record destruction at NOAA. >click to read< 15:22
The NOAA Oversight Project – Fisherman’s FOIA’s Squeeze NOAA
From Dutch Harbor to the Old Harbor Float in Petersburg, from Gloucester and all the way round to Corpus Christi, wherever Americans untied their boats to fish in the decades since the Magnuson Act passed, fishermen had to take on science, politics, and NOAA. Some of you spent your shore time up to your knees in fish politics dividing the stock or arguing with managers about areas or days at sea. Because you engaged in politics, new generations of kids setting and hauling gear can still catch fish. Sort of– Sit down, put a mug up, and read this expose. You will be shocked. Read the article here 16:28
There’s something fishy about the Department of Commerce’s denial of Alan Stein’s FOIA requests
He claims that the Commerce Department and two of its agencies – the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and its Office of the Inspector General – stonewalled his requests about an investigation that sent a former fisheries official to jail. Arne Fuglvog served on the NPFMC, which oversees assignment of fishing quotas in Alaska, from 2003 to 2006, and on an advisory council to the NPFMC before that. Then he went to work as an aide for Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski. He played a large role in moving federal fishery management from purely conservation toward privatization of the resource which has in some areas of the country (and would have in others) sharply reduced the number of fishing vessels and canneries.” Read the rest here 07:24
