SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Cities and counties could dramatically restrict the information they release to the public without explanation under a bill approved by the state Legislature and sent to Gov. Jerry Brown as part of the state budget package.

The change makes it optional for local governments to comply with deadlines and other rules when they receive requests for public records. Current law requires them to respond within 10 days and cite reasons for needing more time or rejecting a request.

Open government advocates said if Brown signs the legislation into law, it would remove significant tools for the public to ensure that local governments are operating transparently.

"What I think it means is for the indefinite future, any local agency that for whatever reason chooses to ignore a Public Records Act request will not suffer any particular legal pressure to comply," said Terry Francke, general counsel of Californians Aware, a group that advocates for government transparency.

The California Newspaper Publishers Association said the legislation will have a chill on open records access and could lead to expensive lawsuits from those seeking records. 

Read more on the KFI News Blog 

We've teamed up with Gregg Murset of My Job Chart.com to create a 5-part series to help you use real life, fun lessons to help teach your kids about financial responsibility.

Listen with your kids all week at 7:30 a.m. for them to make the most of their money. It's easier than you think.

Click here for Part 2 and more info on the series.

By Beth J. Harpaz, Associated Press News Fuze

NEW YORK (AP) — Laura Radocaj of Vero Beach, Fla., was warned when she was pregnant with twins that motherhood would be harder than she imagined — especially because she planned to go back to work while the twins were still babies. "But this has been the easiest transition," said Radocaj, 28, who works from home in corporate communications.

So what's her secret?

Her husband, Marco, also 28, puts in just as much time with child care and housework as she does, even though he works full-time for an air-conditioning company. "If your partner is splitting things 50-50, it's easy," said Laura. "Before, when everyone made motherhood seem like such a big deal, men weren't chipping in as much."

Something is changing with today's young fathers. By their own accounts, by their wives' testimony, and according to time-use studies and other statistics, more men are doing more around the house, from packing school lunches and doing laundry to getting up in the middle of the night with a screaming infant.

Read More at Associated Press

VAN NUYS, LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- A strange case of Los Angeles road rage between two men in business attire was caught on camera. The brawl landed one of the well-dressed men behind bars.

The two men had just gotten off the 405 Freeway at Burbank Boulevard when all of a sudden one of the men, who has made a career out of studying the law, apparently decided to take the law into his own hands.

"I thought maybe they knew each other, but then he hit him," said Breuer. "You don't normally see two older guys in ties having a street fight," said witness Jessica Breuer, who captured the fight on her cellphone camera. Read more at ABC News

By Mark Frauenfelder, Boing Boing

This morning, a TSA officer at LAX humiliated and shamed my 15-year-old daughter. She is traveling with a group of high school students on a college tour and we were not with her when he verbally abused her.

Here's what happened, as my daughter described it in text messages to us: she was at the station where the TSA checks IDs. She said the officer was "glaring" at her and mumbling. She said, "Excuse me?" and he said, "You're only 15, COVER YOURSELF!" in a hostile tone. She said she was shaken up by his abusive manner.

I'm including the above photo of the outfit my daughter was wearing when the TSA officer shamed her. It doesn't matter what she was wearing, though, because it's none of his business to tell girls what they should or should not wear. His creepy thoughts are his own problem, and he shouldn't use his position of authority as an excuse to humiliate a girl and blame her for his sick attitude.

Read more at Boing Boing

By Myles Miller, YAHOO! News

WILMINGTON, Delaware (Reuters) - A jury on Monday cleared a doctor of negligence in a lawsuit filed by a Delaware truck driver who underwent a penile implant procedure and ended up with an erection that lasted eight months.

"We're stunned," attorney Michael Heyden said as he left the New Castle County courthouse, where his client Daniel Metzgar, 44, of Newark, Delaware, was suing urologist Thomas Desperito of Wilmington, Delaware.

In April 2010, four months after the procedure was performed, Metzgar experienced swelling and went to a hospital, where he underwent testing. Before going to the hospital, Metzgar had been unable to reach Dr. Desperito.

Read more at YAHOO! News

By Alexandra Sifferlin, TIME

A marketing strategy that exploits prescription-drug packaging comes to an end.

It’s hard to make beer coolers and coffee mugs stand out in a well-saturated market, so Urban Outfitters grabbed some attention for their versions by styling them after prescription-drug bottles. But after complaints that the packaging would lead to confusion and potential health hazards, the company decided to pull the products. The decision came after the American Association of Poison Control Centers (AAPCC) and 57 local poison centers wrote an open letter last Monday asking the company to halt production of mugs, flasks and shot glasses designed to look like prescription pill bottles, arguing that they make light of prescription medications and the serious conditions they are designed to treat.

The products, like the coffee mug pictured, are covered with prescription labels and instructions such as: “RX#: VRY-CAF-N8D. Drink one mug by mouth, repeat until awake and alert.”

Read more at TIME

Washington (CNN) – A growing number of Americans believe that senior White House officials ordered the Internal Revenue Service to target conservative political groups, according to a new national poll.

And a CNN/ORC International survey released Tuesday morning also indicates that a majority of the public says the controversy, which involves increased IRS scrutiny of tea party and other conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status, is very important to the nation.

Republicans argue that the Obama administration used the IRS to intimidate and harass political opponents. Democrats say poor management at the tax agency, rather than political bias, is to blame. Congressional sources on both sides say that interviews with IRS workers so far have found no evidence of political dealings by the White House. White House Press Secretary Jay Carney, touting an independent IRS inspector general report, has said the scrutiny appears to have originated with "IRS officials in Cincinnati," where the agency's tax exempt division is centered.

Read more at CNN Poll

By Ashik Siddique, Medical Daily

Don't do this. An "eyeball licking" fetish seems to be spreading pink eye among Japanese school children, who describe the act, also known as oculolinctus, as an expression of intimacy between young lovers.

The strange trend was exposed by the Japanese website Naver Matome, which compiled accounts from Japanese web users that were translated into English by Japan Crush earlier this week, though a Youtube search reveals that users from around the world have been posting eyeball-licking videos for years.

In the Naver Matome post, a Japanese middle school teacher identified as "Mr. Y" described noticing an increased incidence of styes, which are typically caused by mild bacterial infections, among his class of sixth-graders in the past year.

Read more at Medical Daily