Ag Officials Forced to Disclose Calendars

[Eugene]

Ag Officials Forced to Disclose Calendars
By LIBBY QUAID, AP Food and Farm Writer
3:13 PM PDT, June 30, 2006

WASHINGTON -- The Agriculture Department must release the calendars
of five senior officials to a consumer group under the federal Freedom
of Information Act, a federal appeals court ruled Friday.

Consumer Federation of America wants the appointment calendars to see
if department officials met with industry lobbyists who opposed stricter
food safety rules. The group filed a FOIA request in 2004 and a lawsuit
in 2005.

The government argued the calendars were personal records and shouldn't
be disclosed. The officials did voluntarily release their schedules.
But they were heavily censored -- for example, 82 of 86 entries were
deleted from the March 2003 calendar of the top food safety official,
then-Under Secretary Elsa Murano.

Consumer Federation argued the schedules for the high-ranking officials
should be released because they were kept by federal employees during work
hours on government computers and shared with other employees.

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Full article: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/politics/wire/sns-ap-agriculture-foia,1,348840.story

[WhiteTara]

1. these creeps always forget they work for us

arrogant asswipes.

But Yeah for the group who forced them to open their schedules. These are more true American heros and heroines.