Video + story: Welch introduces law to protect public from warrantless GPS tracking
“There is GPS information in the cell phones that allows the telephone company to track your movements constantly, within 10 feet of where you are” said Welch.
Gilbert: Public records law should apply to towns, too
The bifurcation scheme makes little sense. The same open government standards should apply to all public officials. The state constitution doesn’t say that local officials are less accountable than state officials. A city council that unjustifiably withholds records is no less guilty of breaking the law than a state department.
Gilbert: Senate could declaw public records bill
The Senate Government Operations Committee is considering exempting local governments from the mandatory awarding of attorneys fees and costs to prevailing plaintiffs in public records litigation.
Gilbert: Douglas wins Challenges for Change battle
Editor’s note: This op-ed is by Allen Gilbert, executive director of the Vermont-ACLU and a member of the Vermont Journalism Trust board, which is the umbrella organization for VTDigger.org. The Vermont-ACLU represented Anne Galloway, editor of VTD, in a public records lawsuit lodged against the Town of Hartford. Our former governor tried last year to [...]
Gilbert: No one polices the police in Vermont
Vermont is in desperate need of a better system of police accountability. In fact, there is no system, just a confused, decentralized muddle that leaves many citizens wondering who’s in charge. The American Civil Liberties Union receives numerous complaints about police misconduct. The discouraging thing is that short of a lawsuit, it’s hard to sort out whether an officer acted inappropriately. The public is left not knowing who’s a good cop and who’s not. Police are left with a black eye that may, or may not, be deserved. Meanwhile, innocent people get hurt.
New police rules leave migrant workers and immigrants vulnerable
State and local efforts to purge agencies of racial prejudice are complicated by an issue that is intertwined with racism: immigration.
ACLU holds Big Read of materials government held from the public for many years
For immediate release March 30, 2010 Contact: Allen Gilbert, ACLU-VT executive director, 223-6304, x115 BURLINGTON — Librarians, professors, students, lawyers, writers, and others will read from government memos and personal testimonies in a program “Reckoning with Torture” Monday, April 12 at 7 p.m. at the Memorial Lounge of the Waterman Building on the University of [...]
Education Challenges Design Team meetings now open to the public
DOE was criticized for keeping the first two meetings behind closed doors. The team must find $17 million in efficiencies in the state’s school system.
Private gifts, public trust: Records law at center of press-gown kerfuffle
Corredera says that without a shield law for anonymous donors, UVM can’t compete with other schools for contributions.
