Essays and ephemera
Redacting the obvious or the near obvious begs the question: why bother? One of my first FOIA requests was pertaining to a fundraising event Donald Trump held in Bolingbrook, Illinois last year. The Bolingbrook Police Department however felt it necessary to redact things that border on common sense. Let’s explore this closer.
Continue reading “Fun With FOIA: Trump in Bolingbrook and the Silliness of Redactions”
Intrigued by my initial request for FOIA logs at my local library, I wanted to see how other libraries in the area would handle an identical request. I submitted a request for FOIA logs from 2012 to the present to libraries in Woodridge, Lisle, Lombard, Westmont, Bolingbrook, Aurora, and Naperville.
If you’re a college student and want to know who is collecting your personal contact information, there’s no better way to find out than a Freedom of Information Act request.
A review of all FOIA requests from my alma mater, Illinois State University, reveals that individuals and companies can obtain students’ contact information without a student’s consent. This is possible because of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA).
Continue reading “Illinois State University is Giving Away Students’ Contact Information for Free”
I was inspired by my colleague Neal Levin’s recent blog posts where he combined his passion for data and insights with interests in other areas. I’m passionate about government transparency so I wanted to see if I could build a dashboard that would shed some light on the City of Chicago’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests using Power BI.
This blog walks through how I built my solution. I plan to do a follow up post on the insights.
Continue reading “Fun With FOIA: How I Created a City of Chicago FOIA Dashboard using Power BI”
Since late last year I’ve become very interested in the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). If I had to point fingers, I’d have to say that Jason Leopold’s reporting has really made me aware of not only what I can get from FOIA, but also his reporting illustrates the frustrations of a reporter as government agencies try to obfuscate, redact, and be obstinate.
I took the dip this year and started writing some FOIA requests of my own. This new series will document my experiences with FOIA.
Continue reading “Fun With FOIA: Downers Grove Public Library”