The Associated Press has filed suit against the State Department for failing to turn over files covering Hillary Rodham Clinton's tenure as secretary of state, including one request made five years ago. Gary Pruitt, the head of AP, has a catalog of problems with the Freedom of Information Act at both federal and state levels.
The federal government is very slow - some requests have taken nine years - and redacts requested documents - the Treasury redacted almost all of the 237 pages they sent to AP.
States see FOIA requests as a source of revenue. Ferguson, Missouri, billed the AP $135 an hour for nearly a day's work
merely to retrieve emails from a handful of accounts about the fatal
shooting of Michael Brown. Broward County would charge $399,000 and take four years to supply copies of emails that contained a
derogatory word for gays. Mississippi wanted more than $70 an
hour to review records when a reporter asked for its reorganization
plans.
How does the government define public as in public records?
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