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Start the weekend right with SPJ Leads! Latest issue:
Let the Sunshine In!
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Freedom of Information
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Your Right to Know About/History FOI Alerts News/Articles Covering Prisons Project Sunshine: Find FOI Help Accessing Government Records Shield Law Campaign FOI Audit Tookit | PDF Anti-SLAPP: Protect Free Speech Official Secrets Act bill FOI Groups Annual FOI Reports FOI Committee Roster Links/Resources Message Board FOI FYI: SPJ's FOI Committee Blog • Bloomberg wins – court says bailout records are public • News Media & the Law: Obama barely transparent • Faster FOIA Act would study ways of reducing backlogs FOI Committee This committee is the watchdog of press freedoms across the nation. It relies upon a network of volunteers in each state organized under Project Sunshine. These SPJ members are on the front lines for assaults to the First Amendment and when lawmakers attempt to restrict the public's access to documents and the government's business. The committee often is called upon to intervene in instances where the media is restricted. Freedom of Information Committee Chair David Cuillier Assistant Professor Department of Journalism University of Arizona Marshall Building, Room 323 Tucson, AZ 85721-0158 Work: 520/626-9694 Fax: 520/621-7557 Bio (click to expand) 
David Cuillier, a former newspaper reporter and editor, is an assistant professor in the Department of Journalism at the University of Arizona. He researches public attitudes toward freedom of information and is one of the SPJ newsroom trainers for acquiring government documents.
Joe Adams, vice chair Editorial writer The Florida Times-Union One Riverside Avenue Jacksonville, FL 32202 Work: 904-359-4534 Fax: 904-359-4390 Bio (click to expand) 
Joe Adams is an editorial writer at The Florida Times-Union and author of The Florida Public Records Handbook published by the First Amendment Foundation in Tallahassee.Eight universities in Florida have used the book as a textbook, the only one of its kind in the nation, and more than 1,000 journalists have attended his workshops on how to use public records for success. He is the recipient of the national 2007 Eugene S. Pulliam First Amendment Award sponsored by the Sigma Delta Chi Foundation and has earned two national Sunshine Awards from the Society of Professional Journalists. In December 2000, Presstime magazine profiled him as one of the top 20 under 40 newspaper industry professionals to watch in the future. As an editorial writer, Adams has received awards from the Florida Press Club, Florida Society of Newspaper Editors and the Society of Professional Journalists. His year of public records research of the Jacksonville City Council uncovered widespread open meetings abuses. The resulting work by Adams and the newsroom inspired a grand jury probe and prompted the council in 2007 to create the state's first known local ordinance to ensure better compliance with Florida's Sunshine Law. He is originator of the www.iDigAnswers.com Web site about Florida FOI news and public records use. Adams is founder and past coordinator of Times-Union University, the Jacksonville newspaper's newsroom training program, and is also former director of the National Newspaper Diversity Job Bank on the Internet. He also taught information gathering for two years as an adjunct professor at the University of North Florida. FOI Committee Members Sonny Albarado Projects Editor Arkansas Democrat-Gazette 121 E. Capitol Ave. Little Rock, AR 72201 Work: 501-244-4321 Fax: 501-372-4765 Bio (click to expand) 
As projects editor at the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in Little Rock, Sonny Albarado supervises reporters on investigative and explanatory journalism assignments. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Nicholls State University, Thibodaux, La.His 37-year journalism career includes lengthy sojourns in Baton Rouge, La., and Memphis, Tenn. He has been a reporter, an assistant city editor, a business editor (twice), a projects editor (twice) and a news editor. He also briefly edited a trade magazine dedicated to the coin-operated amusement industry. He has been involved in the defense of the First Amendment and the free flow of information since his days as editor of his college’s student newspaper. A member of SPJ since 1979, he is currently a member of the national board of directors from Region 12 (Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee). All awards he’s received have been the result of good editors when he was a reporter and excellent reporters since he’s been an editor. Joel Campbell 360 BRMB Dept. of Communications Brigham Young University Provo, UT 84602 Work:801/422-2125 Fax: 801/422-0160 Bio (click to expand) 
Joel Campbell is an assistant professor in the Department of Communications at Brigham Young University. He was a reporter and editor at the (Salt Lake City) Deseret Morning News for 15 years covering everything from the night police beat to Salt Lake's Olympic bid. He holds a master's degree from Ohio State University and bachelor's degree from Brigham Young University. He is active in many First Amendment and Freedom of Information causes and is past president of the National Freedom of Information Coalition and Chairman of Society of Professional Journalists Freedom of Information Committee. He has received the SPJ Outstanding Chapter Member Award, Utah SPJ chapter's Clifford Cheney Service to Journalism Award and the Utah Press Association's Honorary Publisher Award. Carolyn S. Carlson Assistant Professor Department of Communication Kennesaw State University MD2207 Kennesaw, GA 30114-5591 Bio (click to expand) 
Carolyn S. Carlson is co-chairman of the SPJ FOI Committee’s Subcommittee On Campus Crime. For the past decade, she has been a leader in the effort to improve public access to records involving student discipline and crime on the nation’s college campuses. She founded the multi-organizational Campus Courts Task Force, which received an SPJ Freedom of Information Award in 1998 for its success in changing federal law to increase public access to college disciplinary records involving serious crime. Carlson has a doctorate from Georgia State University. She is an assistant professor of journalism and citizen media at Kennesaw State University. She is a former political press secretary and a longtime reporter and editor for The Associated Press. She was national president of SPJ in 1989-1990, chaired the SPJ Ethics Committee in 1993-94, received SPJ’s Wells Key in 1994, and was named to Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers in 2002, 2005 and 2006.
David Chartrand Bio (click to expand) 
The humor and commentary of David Chartrand have appeared in publications throughout North America. His essays on families, children, education, and health issues are distributed to daily newspapers by Universal Press Syndicate as well as by his own distribution company.David has confronted numerous First Amendment, Freedom of Information, and public-access issues during coverage of local and state government, as well as public schools. His Web site is www.davidchartrand.com. David is the author of, “A View from the Heartland” (2003, Globe-Pequot Press), a collection of stories and essays about midwestern families and the resiliency of the human spirit. He currently is completing work on a work of narrative nonfiction that examines attitudes toward mental illness in successful, middle-class communities. In 2002, David received a First Place Award from the National Society of Newspaper Columnists. Mark Victor Hansen, co-creator of the CHICKEN SOUP FOR THE SOUL book series, says that David Chartrand’s writing “embraces the mundane, everyday things that make us laugh, weep or pound the table in frustration.” David’s 1994 essay, "A Father's Letter to Santa" was included in CHICKEN SOUP: A CHRISTMAS TREASURY, where the publishers cited it as among the most memorable Christmas essays of all time. David is a 1975 Kansas State University journalism graduate and a member of the journalism school’s advisory board. Jodi Cleesattle Deputy Attorney General, California Department of Justice San Diego, CA Bio (click to expand) 
Jodi Cleesattle is a deputy attorney general for the California Department of Justice, where she works in the Civil Division in San Diego. Prior to joining the Attorney GeneralÕs Office, she was a partner at Ross, Dixon & Bell, LLP, in San Diego, where she handled media law cases and other commercial litigation. Jodi previously worked as a daily news reporter for The Lancaster (Ohio) Eagle-Gazette, covering politics and legal issues, and was founding editor of The National Jurist, a national magazine for law students. Jodi serves on SPJ's national board as Region 11 director and on SPJÕs national FOI Committee and Legal Defense Fund Committee. She is SPJ Project Sunshine Chair for Southern California and a board member of the SPJ San Diego Pro Chapter and was president of the San Diego Pro Chapter from 2007-09. She also serves as editor of Lawyers Club News, the monthly newsletter of Lawyers Club of San Diego, a bar association dedicated to the advancement of women in the law and society, and she freelances for San Diego Lawyer magazine.
Carol Cole-Frowe Freelance Writer/Editor P.O. Box 720102 Norman, OK 73070 (405) 326-4539, mobile (405) 364-1123, fax Bio (click to expand) 
Carol Cole-Frowe is a veteran journalist and full-time freelancer, writing for daily newspapers, Web sites and regional and national magazines. She holds a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Central Oklahoma. Most recently she was government reporter at the Norman (Okla.) Transcript and has written or edited for several Oklahoma daily newspapers and The Associated Press. She was managing editor of the Altus (Okla.) Times and news editor for the Edmond (Okla.) Sun and has reported for the Oklahoma Gazette. She was honored with the SPJ Oklahoma Pro Chapter's First Amendment Award in 2000 for her dogged pursuit of records in an investigation of the death of a newborn in the Oklahoma County Jail, which resulted in her being sued by the Oklahoma County sheriff in his unsuccessful effort to block access to the records. She is currently serving in her second year as president of the Oklahoma Pro Chapter. Charles Davis Bio (click to expand) 
Charles N. Davis is executive director of the National Freedom of Information Coalition and an associate professor at the University of Missouri School of Journalism.Davis worked for nearly ten years as a journalist, working for newspapers, magazines and a news service in Georgia and Florida. As a national correspondent for Lafferty Publications, a Dublin-based news wire service for UK publications, Davis reported from the US on banking, international finance and regulatory issues for seven years before leaving full-time journalism to seek a doctorate in mass communication from the University of Florida. At Florida, Davis served as a research fellow in the College of Journalism and Communication’s Brechner Center for Freedom of Information, assisting reporters and citizens with FOI questions at the state and federal level. He earned his Ph.D. in 1995 and has since taught at Georgia Southern University and Southern Methodist University before joining the MU faculty in 1999. Ana-Klara Hering University of Florida PO Box 118400 Gainesville, FL 32611-8400 Work: 352-392-2273 Bio (click to expand) 
Ana-Klara Hering is a joint degree candidate seeking her law degree and doctorate in media law and policy. She holds a masters in communication from the University of Florida and a bachelors in international affairs and journalism from The George Washington University. She has worked at The Jospeh L. Brechner Center for Freedom of Information (www.brechner.org) since January 2005, serving as a research assistant and editor of The Brechner Report. She is also a legal research assistant at the Marion Brechner Citizen Access Project (www.citizenaccess.org).Ana-Klara is a veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps, where she served as a captain and deployed to Kuwait and Iraq in 2003 during the Iraq War. Her first-person accounts of the war have been featured in Women’s World and The Palm Beach Post. She has interned for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Miami Herald and Dallas Morning News. She also worked as a news clerk for The Washington Post and as an intern for Sen. Connie Mack. Ana-Klara is the president-elect of the Gainesville professional chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists and a member of the Florida Press Club. She has been an instructor of record for public speaking at UF and a teaching assistant in media law and mass communication courses. She has presented her research in the areas of media law and mass communication at national and international conferences of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communications and the International Communications Association. She is also a research editor for the Journal of Law and Public Policy at the Levin College of Law at UF and has contributed to Media Law Notes on issues of press access to U.S. military operations. She will be a summer associate in 2008 for the law firm of Thomas & LoCicero PL in Tampa, Florida. Robert Leger Assistant Editorial Page Editor Scottsdale Republic 16277 Greenway-Hayden Loop Suite 200 Scottsdale, AZ 85260 Bio (click to expand) 
Robert Leger is assistant editorial page editor at the Arizona Republic in Phoenix, responsible for an opinion page focused on Scottsdale and the Northeast Valley of the Sun. He was president of the Society of Professional Journalists in 2002-03 and has served on the SDX board since 2000. Among his other SPJ activities: He serves as a co-chair of the Freedom of Information Committee and as a member of the steering committee of OpenTheGovernment.org. He pioneered an exchange relationship with the Journalists Association of Korea.Before moving to Phoenix, Leger won numerous writing awards as editorial page editor of the Springfield (Mo.) News-Leader. Donald W. Meyers Utah County Reporter The Salt Lake Tribune 801/257-8610 Bio (click to expand) 
Donald W. Meyers has been at a reporter at The Salt Lake Tribune since July 2007. Prior to that, he was the editorial page editor of the Daily Herald in Provo, Utah for more than eight years, as well as having been a reporter at daily and weekly newspapers in Utah and New Jersey. He majored in Journalism at Brookdale Community College in New Jersey and Brigham Young University. He is a past-president of the Utah Headliners Chapter, Society of Professional Journalists and is a member of the Utah Foundation for Open Government.
Bryan P. Sears Political editor Patuxent Publishing Co., Baltimore County 409 Washington Avenue Lower level Towson, MD 21204 410-337-2425 ext. 3466 Bio (click to expand) 
Bryan P. Sears has been with Patuxent Publishing Co. since May 2002 first serving and the government and politics reporter and then as the political editor where he heads state and local government coverage in Baltimore County for eight community weeklies and writes a politics blog. He is currently the president of the Maryland Pro Chapter of SPJ and also serves on the Maryland-Delaware-DC Press AssociationÕs Government Affairs committee and that groupÕs Freedom of Information subcommittee. He also won a regional award for a story that revealed that MarylandÕs State Election Board was withholding the addresses of campaign donors from itÕs public web site and then charging $100 for 30 days access to a private site where that information could be obtained. The story and a letter to the board requesting a review of the agencyÕs rules written by Sears resulted in the boardÕs decision to drop the charges and add the information to the free public site. Bryan also works with local community activists and neighborhood groups, helping them understand and use MarylandÕs Public Information and Open Meetings Acts.
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