Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

2 2

Katherine Revello @foiakatherine.bsky.social · 26d

I'm incredibly honored to receive a Pearlman award from CFOG this year. It's such a crucial moment for freedom of information and fighting to preserve public access to it is a fundamental drive in my work as a journalist.

Freedom of Information Library - Connecticut Inside Investigator

Katherine Revello @foiakatherine.bsky.social · 29d

Still looking to talk to media for this piece!

Katherine Revello @foiakatherine.bsky.social · Aug 26

I'm doing a piece about how challenges to FOIA abuses have changed as local news collapses. If you work/have worked in a newsroom in Connecticut and have gone to the FOIC, I'd love to hear from you.

Katherine Revello @foiakatherine.bsky.social · Aug 26

I'm doing a piece about how challenges to FOIA abuses have changed as local news collapses. If you work/have worked in a newsroom in Connecticut and have gone to the FOIC, I'd love to hear from you.

Katherine Revello @foiakatherine.bsky.social · Aug 19

PS: These documents are in our FOI library: insideinvestigator.org/foi-library/. You can find most of the documents we've FOI'd and written about there. Don't see something you'd like to know more about? Let me know and I can try to FOI it!

View the Library >>

Katherine Revello @foiakatherine.bsky.social · Aug 19

A lot of FOIA's utility is in digging deeper into what's going on behind the scenes at public agencies. Completely redacting 60% of documents makes it impossible to find threads to pull that might lead to answers about who should be accountable. And that's incredibly frustrating.

Three Deaths in a Black Box

Katherine Revello @foiakatherine.bsky.social · Aug 19

3 people died in custody at Garner CI in the space of a month last year. We turned to FOIA to try to get more answers about how that happened. After waiting a year, the investigation reports we got back were 60% redacted. insideinvestigator.org/three-deaths...

Katherine Revello @foiakatherine.bsky.social · Aug 18

Just had DESPP point me to the general statutes in response to me asking them to explain why they're claiming the preliminary drafts exemption. So, your periodic reminder: agencies have a duty to prove to you that withholding info under that exemption is in the public interest.

Katherine Revello @foiakatherine.bsky.social · Aug 8

For clarity, this is in Connecticut.

Federal employees said they worry about the future of FOIA in the U.S., not only for their sake, but for requesters as well.

Katherine Revello @foiakatherine.bsky.social · Aug 8

FOI people: have you ever been told you can download documents responsive to a request a limited number of times? Just had an agency I can tell me I can only download an incident 3 times and I can't find any reference to whether this is allowed/has been addressed before.

1 1

Reposted by Katherine Revello

Michael Morisy @morisy.bsky.social · Aug 6

Federal employees said they worry about the future of FOIA in the U.S., not only for their sake, but for requesters as well. www.muckrock.com/news/archive...

The future of FOIA

www.muckrock.com

4 3

Katherine Revello @foiakatherine.bsky.social · Jul 29

A few weeks ago I found DMHAS had a whitelist on a designated email for FOIA requests.

While the issue had been fixed, it's a reminder to ensure that you're receiving confirmation receipts from public agencies when you submit FOIA requests.

insideinvestigator.org/dmhas-fixes-...

DMHAS fixes FOIA email receipt issue

Katherine Revello @foiakatherine.bsky.social · Jul 17

Update #2: DMHAS recently sent out an email saying that FOI requests sent to its designated email addresses in the last 90 days were not received due to "a technical error" and requests should be resubmitted. I will be following up to try to determine how many requests were not received.

Katherine Revello @foiakatherine.bsky.social · Jul 16

Update on this: I was told yesterday morning by a DMHAS spox that my request was being shared with their FOI person. Questions about how long the whitelist has been in place or how many times the delivery failure notice went out have so far been ignored.

Katherine Revello @foiakatherine.bsky.social · Jul 14

Not a good look from DMHAS. Their designated email for FOIA requests (linked on their website) appears to have a whitelist. I got the same message from both my work and personal email accounts.

Katherine Revello @foiakatherine.bsky.social · Jul 16

Update on this: I was told yesterday morning by a DMHAS spox that my request was being shared with their FOI person. Questions about how long the whitelist has been in place or how many times the delivery failure notice went out have so far been ignored.

Katherine Revello @foiakatherine.bsky.social · Jul 14

Not a good look from DMHAS. Their designated email for FOIA requests (linked on their website) appears to have a whitelist. I got the same message from both my work and personal email accounts.

Legislative adjournment kills most FOI bills

Katherine Revello @foiakatherine.bsky.social · Jul 14

Not a good look from DMHAS. Their designated email for FOIA requests (linked on their website) appears to have a whitelist. I got the same message from both my work and personal email accounts.

Katherine Revello @foiakatherine.bsky.social · Jun 6

Say it with me folks: the names of public employees are public information. Reporting that information is not doxxing.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · Jun 6

MIKE JOHNSON: From the people who mandated mask wearing for years, it's absurd. They need to back off ICE & respect our agents

Q: So you're ok w/agents not identifying themselves when they're arresting migrants?

J: Why, so they can target them? So they can put names and faces online and dox them?

Katherine Revello @foiakatherine.bsky.social · Jun 5

Last night's legislative adjournment was good for FOIA. Every single outstanding bill that added to the law's exemptions died on adjournment, including the exemption for most records produced by public universities.

My roundup is here: insideinvestigator.org/legislative-...

Katherine Revello @foiakatherine.bsky.social · Jun 2

Amendment language here: www.cga.ct.gov/2025/lcoamd/...

www.cga.ct.gov

Katherine Revello @foiakatherine.bsky.social · Jun 2

We're coming to the end of CT's legislative session and an amendment to the bill that would exempt public universities from FOIA was filed recently.

Katherine Revello @foiakatherine.bsky.social · Jun 2

We're coming to the end of CT's legislative session and an amendment to the bill that would exempt public universities from FOIA was filed recently. It's not an improvement.

Probe Found Security Lapses Led to US Contractor’s Data Breach

Reposted by Katherine Revello

Christopher Terry @christopherterry.bsky.social · May 21

Carr knew even before he went on the air the next day.

The FOIA shows that he confirmed the compliance. He even sent the producers at Fox copies of the relevant documents before the interview.

3 3

Reposted by Katherine Revello

Jason Leopold @jasonleopold.bsky.social · May 21

SCOOP: In Feb, federal agencies "lost" many #FOIA requests but you probably had no idea. It turns out that the FOIAs disappeared due to an "insider threat attack" by 2 employees at a software company who were previously convicted of hacking into the State Dept

🧵

🎁 www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Failures in cybersecurity practices at a software company that helps federal agencies manage investigations and FOIA requests allowed two convicted hackers to delete databases, according to internal d...

www.bloomberg.com

24 320 520

Katherine Revello @foiakatherine.bsky.social · May 8

This is sadly also not the worst FOIA bill this session. The legislature is trying once again to put pretty much all records created by public universities beyond public oversight by exempting them from FOIA.

Katherine Revello @foiakatherine.bsky.social · May 8

An unwelcome surprise from yesterday's Senate session: a bill that would exempt complaints against police from FOIA disclosure until they've been adjudicated or investigated passed unanimously. It's vague and likely conflicts with other existing laws. More details here: