Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Cheney Ordered to Preserve Records

Vice President Dick Cheney must preserve a broad range of records from his time in office, a federal judge ordered Saturday, ruling in favor of a private watchdog group.

U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly found that the records are not excluded from preservation under Presidential Records Act, which gives the national archivist responsibility over the custody of and access to the records at the end of a president's final term.

The Bush administration had sought a narrow interpretation of the act to allow for fewer materials to be preserved by the National Archives.

"Defendants were only willing to agree to a preservation order that tracked their narrowed interpretation of the PRA's statutory language," Kollar-Kotelly said in her order. This position "heightens the Court's concern" that some records will not be preserved without an injunction.

Cheney chief of staff David Addington has told Congress that the vice president belongs to neither the executive nor legislative branch of government, AP reported. Instead, he said, the office is attached by the Constitution to Congress. The vice president presides over the Senate.


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Northeastern Creates First Amendment Center

Northeastern University has established a research and advocacy center to focus attention on increasing efforts by government to limit access to public records and meetings.

The "First Amendment Center of New England" will offer citizens, journalists and public policy organizations information on open access to government. The center, announced Friday, will also have a hotline to advise citizens seeking public documents and will host seminars on public records and open meeting laws.


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Thursday, September 18, 2008

Ohio Supreme Court to Hear Digital Public Records Case

The Ohio Supreme Court on Tuesday grappled with the realities of the computer age as it weighed the question of when a “deleted” public record becomes a “destroyed” public record.

At issue is a lawsuit by The Blade seeking to force the Seneca County commissioners to hire a forensic computer expert at county expense to recover deleted e-mails from an 18-month period, some of which the newspaper contends may contain illegal private communications related to the proposed razing of the county’s historic courthouse.

“We’re talking about a very finite amount of time here, and we’re talking about e-mails from two or three people to one another,” said Justice Maureen O’Connor. “It just doesn’t seem to me to be that overwhelmingly burdensome or such a huge task here for the county to not even attempt to comply.”

Fritz Byers, The Blade’s attorney, told the court that the newspaper made a request under the Ohio Public Records Law seeking all e-mails sent, received, or deleted for an 18-month period beginning Jan. 1, 2006. The county provided a “smattering” of e-mails initially, he said, but then, after the paper sued, the county produced 700-plus pages of additional e-mails.

He noted that the commissioners have admitted that some records were deleted.

“If the court doesn’t rule fully in our favor, then it will mean that any official will be able to legally cover his tracks and misdeeds by a simple click on the computer's delete button,” said John Robinson Block, The Blade’s co-publisher and editor-in-chief.


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Tuesday, September 16, 2008

SARAH PALIN'S 'TROOPERGATE' PROBLEM: THE BACKSTORY

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has denied claims that she and several of her senior staffers illegally accessed the personnel file of her ex-brother-in-law, Trooper Mike Wooten, and disseminated confidential information about the law enforcement official to his superiors.Palin, Sen. John McCain’s running mate, her private attorney Thomas Van Flein, and McCain campaign officials, said the confidential medical and employment records became part of the public record during divorce proceedings between Wooten and Palin’s sister, Molly McCann. Palin is under investigation by an independent counsel appointed by Alaska’s Legislative Council. The probe centers on whether Palin abused her power when she fired Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan in July because he allegedly refused to fire Wooten. The investigation also centers on claims that the governor’s office peeked at Wooten’s personnel records illegally. The McCain campaign said Monday Palin is "unlikely" to cooperate with the investigation.Palin's husband, Todd Palin, and 12 other people were subpoenaed Friday by a committee made up of three Republicans and two Democrats.
The court clerk at the Alaska courthouse in Anchorage explained that the contents of Wooten and McCann’s divorce records do not contain any of Wooten’s personnel, medical, or financial records, other than statements made by witnesses during the trial.
“Under Alaska state law when you reopen a custody and divorce case you have to do initial disclosure,” Erwin said. “That means we are entitled to three different releases: his employment, medical, and financial documents. [Wooten] signed the releases in open court and the releases were exercised.”


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Wednesday, September 10, 2008

L.A. COUNTY CONSIDERS HIRING A PERMANENT WATCHDOG FOR TROUBLED HOSPITALS

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday considered instituting a permanent, independent investigator to keep watch over the county's troubled hospital and clinic system.

The proposal came a day after new disclosures about the level of incompetence among employees at Martin Luther King Jr.-Harbor Hospital, 11% of whom had undisclosed criminal records.

The investigator job was proposed by Supervisor Gloria Molina, who said trouble at King-Harbor developed in part because officials with the county Department of Health Services kept problems secret from the board.

"I think what we have is lousy management," she said, "that for some reason is frightened of telling us the truth or doesn't have the ability to tell us the truth and conjure up all kinds of interesting stories to tell us to keep us blind to the real facts that are going on. So I've just about had it."

The review that discovered the criminal histories and incompetence came in response to an article in The Times that King-Harbor workers were not fully vetted as promised when the hospital's inpatient services shut down last year.

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Monday, September 8, 2008

NEED TO KNOW SOMETHING ABOUT SOMEBODY?

You don't have to be a full-fledged private investigator to dig up basic info on your neighbors, co-workers or just about anyone else you know in the state.

Florida's public records allow for easy access to criminal records, many court documents, and property records.

Sure, the documents can help you snoop around, but more importantly, they can also keep you well-informed about the people you and your family come in contact with.

Most of the records are free and readily available online.

www.publicrecordswire.com





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Friday, September 5, 2008

COUNTY LOOKS AT DIGITAL RECORD KEEPING

An initiative to digitalize Williams County original public records is being considered after being first proposed at the county board of commissioners meeting Tuesday morning.

Kari Evenson, Williams County treasurer/recorder is having preliminary talks with title service company Deister, Ward & Witcher Inc., (DWW) to digitally reproduce the county's land and mineral records from the late 1800's to 1984. The process would be free if DWW can keep a copy of these records, which Evenson doesn't see as a problem since this information is public domain.

"This would save us an incredible amount of money and time," added Evenson.

She is exploring other alternatives, however, before making a decision.





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Tuesday, September 2, 2008

FOIL-ed RECORDS COME AT A COST

New Yorkers might get an unpleasant surprise when they ask their government for databases and other types of electronic public records.
Besides an e-mail or a disk, they might also receive a bill.

Last month, New York quietly changed its Freedom of Information Law to allow government agencies to charge for an employee's time when they fill citizens' requests for electronic records, provided they need to spend more than two hours filling the request.

The agency must supply an estimate of the cost beforehand in order to be able to collect, said Robert J. Freeman, executive director of the state's Committee on Open Government.

The change, which Gov. David A. Paterson signed into law in August, benefits governments but could discourage citizens from asking for government records, Freeman said.

Previously, governments were allowed to charge only for the actual cost of materials used when the request was filled. For example, someone who requested a CD containing every Boome County labor contract would have been charged $2.

Recently, however, a file of Vestal town payroll records came accompanied by a bill for $127.40 -- five hours' salary for Deputy Comptroller Pam Fitzgerald.

Permitting members of the public to ask for documents in a form other than paper would prohibit an agency from saying no on the grounds the records were too "voluminous and burdensome" to copy, or it lacked sufficient staff -- excuses used in the past, said Assembly-woman RoAnn Destito, D-Rome. Agencies could require people seeking names and addresses certify they would not use them for solicitation.





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