The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012 (NDAA) was signed into law by President Obama on December 31, 2011. The NDAA contains detention provisions that have been the subject of much commentary and debate. PRM recently filed a FOIA request with the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) seeking opinions or other advice that the office may have provided to the administration in the weeks leading up to the enactment of the NDAA.

PRM has posted its annual report for 2011. Read about highlights from the past year, and get a preview of upcoming projects.

“Our pursuit of government data seeks to encourage agency compliance with open records laws …”

PRM has posted several new batches of government documents, including items received from the U.S. Coast Guard and the Minnesota Department of Human Services. Watch PRM’s blog for analysis and updates.

“We will forward your request regarding Talon Security to our Deepwater Horizons records unit …”

The “Occupy” protest phenomenon has drawn international media attention, highlighting not only the protest participants, but also the tactical police response to their activity. The history of American civil disturbance response since the 1960s is the subject of a new PRM editorial.

“One of the most recent military technology transfers has been visible at Occupy encampments in recent weeks …”

The past decade saw profound changes to our media environment due to the rise of web-based self-publishing. PRM’s Matt Ehling recently wrote an article that looks back on a decade of blogging in the North Star state, and examines the changes that it brought to Minnesota law and politics.

“I always feel like 2006 was the best year for blogging …”

The Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) recently responded to our FOIA request seeking legal opinions relating to the use of lethal force by the U.S. government’s airborne drone (UAV) program. Our request sought material related to a recent UAV attack in Yemen, as well as documents describing the legal basis for the use of lethal force by UAVs elsewhere – both inside and outside of the United States.

The OLC found several pertinent documents, but has declined to release them on the basis of several FOIA exemptions. PRM will be filing an administrative appeal soon.

We have identified several documents that are responsive to the remaining items in your request …

PRM’s blog features an overview of the last five years worth of raditation monitoring reports compiled by the Minnesota Department of Health. This monitoring is conducted on an ongoing basis near the Prairie Island and Monticello nuclear plants, as well as at other locations.

The median values for Strontium-90 were well within recommended safe levels …

PRM has requested opinions from the Office of Legal Counsel that provide the legal basis for a recent UAV drone attack in Yemen that killed an American-born radical cleric. The incident has received extensive news coverage, due to the fact that the Department of Justice has kept any OLC memos related to the incident secret.

A recent New York times article by Charlie Savage describes the purported contents of the memo, along with the novel legal issues raised by the UAV strike.

This is a request under the Freedom of Information Act …

PRM has received a number of documents pertaining to the implementation of license plate recognition (LPR) technology by the police department of Saint Paul, Minnesota. We have also posted reports from 2005-2010 relating to radiation sampling by the Minnesota Department of Health. Watch our blog for summaries and analysis of this material.

Monitoring for radioactivity began in Minnesota in 1953 in response to nuclear weapons testing …