Before delving into today’s recap, we’d like to say a special thank you to Ellen Miller at the Sunlight Foundation for her write-up on our new Transparency Recap. Thanks, Sunlight! Now, for today’s recap:

Sophia Cope at the Center for Democracy and Technology penned an interesting piece entitled, ”DHS Can’t Admit Its Own Mistakes.” In the piece, Cope once again takes on the REAL ID program, stating that Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff told the Senate an untruth when he testified that personal information cannot be skimmed from an encrypted barcode that will be present on licenses and ID cards. Since the testimony, DHS is sticking with their story:

“The Department again shirked responsibility for ensuring that Americans’ personal information stored on REAL ID cards is protected and not accessible by unauthorized parties—businesses and government agencies alike.”

In other news, the National Freedom of Information Coalition blogs about the First Amendment and reporter rights. A former USA Today reporter is facing heat (not to mention fines) for not revealing sources for stories she wrote following the 2001 anthrax attacks. According to the The FOI Advocate blog, the reporter—Toni Locy—said:

“...news organizations need to go on the offensive in the fight to protect the First Amendment. The First Amendment needs some help...In this environment that we’re in now, it needs some help.”

The POGO blog also wrote about Toni Locy. According to POGO,

“Federal Judge Reggie Walton had ruled that Locy would have to pay $5,000 out of her own pocket for refusing to identify sources for stories she had written about the 2001 anthrax attacks that had identified former Army scientist Steven Hatfill as a possible suspect.”

Over at the CREW blog, there’s an interesting video clip from CNN about Cindy McCain’s refusal to release her tax returns.

Secrecy News provides some intriguing information about a new program that is “...working to gather information on the status and security of nuclear materials around the world and to characterize them for forensic purposes.” Ironically, this has never been done in a viable or systematic manner. The program—Nuclear Materials Information Program (NMIP)—was established by a classified presidential directive.

And David Weller at AllThingsReform.org has released a new blog entitled, “Understand Priorities.” In his own words, he describes his new initiative in the following words:

“It is mostly entries from reference books on the topic of politics: quotes, aphorisms, poems and a lot more. I discuss each entry and am open for your comments, too...Here is your opportunity to reflect on the major thoughts related to government, politics and people.”

And over at All Things Whistleblower, Dylan Blaylock provides information on events aimed at raising awareness about whistleblower issues in Washington D.C. For more information on these events, click here. Also, be sure to keep OpenTheGovernment.org’s calendar of open government events on your radar.