October

"The Ministry of the Attorney General is reviewing its policies on media access to criminal court records in a bid to make the province 's justice system more open and transparent. The court staff in Ontario are increasingly denying public access to records that legal experts say should be readily available. The ministry, in consultation with the province 's chief justices, is checking to see if policies must be clarified to ensure court staff are properly applying the law. ""In some instances existing policies are not clearly enough expressed and as a result differing practices can develop,"" a ministry spokeswoman said in a statement. ""The ministry continues to work to provide as much consistency in policies and procedures as possible in courts across the province, recognizing the very different case loads, sizes and resources of different court locations."" While the current policy makes it clear that information from court hearings should be made public, some staff have denied that information because of a guideline that forbids them from releasing a ""general criminal record."" Media lawyers and privacy experts say these actions appear to run afoul of the country 's ""open court"" principle. ""The openness of the court is essential to the credibility to the court as a democratic institution,"" said Dan Burnett, president of the Canadian Media Lawyers Association."

"The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has issued a bulletin to companies that furnish information to CRAs reminding them of their obligation under the FCRA to investigate consumer disputes forwarded by a CRA and ""review all relevant information"" relating to the dispute. In the bulletin, the CFPB warns that it will take appropriate supervisory and enforcement actions to address furnisher violations of the FCRA or other federal consumer financial laws, including requiring restitution to harmed consumers. The CFPB expects furnishers to have reasonable systems and technologies in place to handle notices of disputes received from CRAs and information regarding disputes, including documentation forwarded by CRAs. The CFPB takes the position that a furnisher 's FCRA duty to review ""all relevant information"" relating to a dispute requires the furnisher to review and consider all of its own information relating to a dispute as well as all documents that a CRA includes with a notice of dispute or transmits during the furnisher 's investigation. In the bulletin, the CFPB outlines what it generally expects furnishers to do to comply with the FCRA 's requirements. Furnishers not currently meeting the CFPB 's expectations are advised to ""take immediate steps"" to comply."

The military 's beleaguered background-check system failed to block Navy Yard gunman Aaron Alexis from an all-access pass to a half-dozen military installations, despite a history of arrests for shooting episodes and disorderly conduct. Alexis, a military contractor, used his secret-level clearance to gain entry to the Washington Navy Yard, where officials said he gunned down a dozen people before being killed by police. The revelations about Alexis 's troubled past � and his ability to pass the government 's security-check system � prompted multiple examinations into how background checks are conducted and how long a security clearance can last without review. President Obama directed his budget office to conduct a government-wide review of security standards for contractors and employees across federal agencies. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel also ordered a broad review into security and access to military installations worldwide. The private contractor that most recently employed him pointed the finger at the Defense Department, which defended its handling of the case. The Defense Department said the latest background check and security clearance confirmation were in late June of 2013 and revealed no issues other than one minor traffic violation.