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Records/Archives in the News Part 04 01/23/00



Records/Archives in the News r000106a
There are 6 stories in this posting.

Washington Post 1/6/00
Archives loses 43,000 e-mails

The Oregonian 1/6/00
Lack of out-of-state records meant lesser sentence man accused in killing

Boston Globe 1/6/00
UVM?s stance on privacy questioned

Bergen Record 1/6/00
Oradell photo project focuses on future generations

Deseret News 1/6/00
Filegate fizzles in S.L.

PRNewswire 1/6/00
PennDOT cancels contract of information-services provider

_______________________________________________________________
Washington Post 1/6/00
Archives loses 43,000 e-mails
Officials can?t explain summer erasure, backup system failed

by George Lardner, Jr.
<snip>
Officials at the National Archives, who are in charge of telling the rest of 
the government how to save and safeguard e-mail, are red-faced about a mishap 
in the computers of their own high command. 
They say they ?lost? at least 43,000 electronic messages last summer, wiped 
out without a useful trace. They were supposed to have a backup system that 
could have replaced the missing information, but they said it was not working 
properly. 
?All efforts to restore these messages failed,? Deputy Archivist Lewis J. 
Bellardo said recently in response to an inquiry from author-researcher Scott 
Armstrong, a longtime critic of the agency?s electronic record-keeping 
policies. 
The e-mails, which included the internal messages of 125 users in the offices 
of Archivist John W. Carlin, Bellardo, the headquarters of the regional 
archives and five staff units, were erased sometime over the June 18-21 
weekend. Officials could not say just how many messages, accumulated over a 
four-month period, were deleted, but ?based on a conservative estimate of 300 
messages for each account,? Bellardo said, ?we calculate that at least 43,000 
messages were lost.? 
<snip>
<snip>
Making things worse, according to Assistant Archivist L. Reynolds Cahoon, was 
the fact that adequate backup procedures were not in place. ?It?s really 
distressing to us,? Cahoon said. He said ?it was our understanding that 
backups were being made,? both on a daily basis and a periodic systemwide 
basis, but the agency?s contractor, Signal Corp. of Fairfax, had been doing 
neither as the Archives had specified. 
<snip>
<snip>
Armstrong and another longtime critic of the Archives?s e-mail policies, 
researcher Eddie Becker, were skeptical of the official explanations, 
especially Bellardo?s assertion that ?the deletion was unintentional rather 
than willful or malicious.? 
?Did someone hit the wrong button? Spill coffee? Did the system get hit by 
lightning?? Becker asked. ?It sounds like they don?t know what happened. Most 
likely it was some disgruntled person. The Archives can be like the Post 
Office. And for them to be managing other people?s records when their own 
records are such a disaster is ludicrous.? 
?This was definitely not a bolt of lightning or a power surge,? Cahoon said. 
He said the messages could have been accidentally erased by someone trying to 
delete a single user?s messages and hitting the wrong key. He believes this 
is what happened. He said backup systems have been beefed up to guard against 
another mishap, but he said the safest way to save important messages is to 
print them out. 
<snip>

________________________________________________________________
The Oregonian 1/6/00
Lack of out-of-state records meant lesser sentence man accused in killing

Associated Press
<snip>
EVERETT, Wash. (AP) -- A man who could have faced 3{ years in prison for a 
break-in at a store wound up going free in less than a year for lack of 
records on felonies he committed in Mississippi. 
Now, scarcely four months after Wade Earl Stewart, 34, of Edmonds was 
released, he is back in jail on a charge of first-degree murder in the rape, 
beating and strangling of Mary Jones, 70, of Everett. 
<snip>
<snip>
Stewart, a seven-time convicted felon, was arrested for breaking into a 
Lynnwood store to steal cigarettes and lottery tickets in December 1998. 
To justify a 3{-year sentence, Snohomish County prosecutors requested records 
on two felony auto theft convictions, but officials in Mississippi said the 
documents were among archives in a warehouse and could not be easily 
retrieved. 
?It?s sort of ?for want of a nail the battle is lost,? but there are a lot of 
horses out there without nails,? Prosecutor James Krider said. 
Stewart wound up being sentenced to 17 months behind bars. With credit for 
time served before sentencing and good behavior, he was free once more on 
Sept. 27. 
<snip>
<snip>
Years in custody can hinge on criminal records, said Bill Jaquette, head of 
the Snohomish County Public Defender Association. 
?I?ll be frank to admit that if there is an out-of-state conviction we are 
more likely to challenge it,? Jaquette said. 
?As (private) defense attorneys, we sometimes count on the state not being 
able to? retrieve out-of-state records, said Steve Garvey, formerly a 
prosecutor and public defender. 
Under state legislation adopted in 1990, prosecutors must establish the 
existence of prior convictions by a preponderance of evidence. 
Loginsky said that means prosecutors need hard evidence, such as sentencing 
documents with fingerprints, to show that a person convicted in another state 
is the same individual before the court in Washington. 
In addition, the crime committed in the other state must also meet 
Washington?s definition of a felony. Felony theft in the state, for example, 
involves a value exceeding $250, compared with $200 in Oregon. California?s 
threshold for felony marijuana possession is about half that of Washington?s. 
<snip>

________________________________________________________________
Boston Globe 1/6/00
UVM?s stance on privacy questioned

Associated Press
<snip>
BURLINGTON, Vt. (AP) Prosecutors and an expert on federal disclosure laws are 
questioning the University of Vermont?s assertions that it was barred from 
releasing details on its hockey hazing investigation because of student 
privacy laws. 
??That surprised me. I don?t know why they would say that,?? said Vermont 
Attorney General William Sorrell. Sorrell said he had gotten good cooperation 
from university officials during two stints as Chittenden County state?s 
attorney. 
??You can bet your boots if there is a sexual assault on campus tonight and 
UVM officials become aware of it, they?re going to call in the police,?? said 
Sorrell, whose office has launched its own probe into allegations that new 
members of the UVM hockey team were subjected to hazing. 
In documents released Tuesday, UVM officials said they did not refer the 
matter to law enforcement agencies because they are required by federal law 
to protect students? privacy. 
UVM spokesman Enrique Corredera said Wednesday the federal Educational 
Records Privacy Act restricted university coaches and administrators. 
??When ... (an allegation) is brought to the attention of university 
officials and involves one of our students, then it falls into the category 
of student information. That?s when the institution becomes subject to the 
laws and regulations of the federal government,?? Corredera said. 
But S. Daniel Carter, vice president of Security on Campus, a national, 
nonprofit group promoting safety on college campuses, said the university?s 
stance was based on ??a ridiculous interpretation of the law. 
<snip>
<snip>
UVM began an internal investigation after being notified of the hazing 
allegations by a lawyer for former student Corey LaTulippe, who was cut from 
the team. LaTullipe later filed suit against the school, making the charges 
public. 
<snip>

________________________________________________________________
Bergen Record 1/6/00
Oradell photo project focuses on future generations

by Bryan Dunleavy
<snip>
Fifty years from now, 4-year-old Jonathan Camins-Esakov will be able to see 
what life was like for his grandparents and other Oradell residents at the 
turn of the century. 
This will be made possible through a project called ?Portraits of a Borough,? 
the first of its kind in Bergen County, which consists of taking and 
collecting snapshots of residents and landmarks in Oradell for posterity. 
George Carter, archivist for the Oradell Free Public Library, conceived of 
the project while looking through old town photos stored in the library?s 
archives department. He noticed that although most of the pictures were 
visually sound, they were missing a major ingredient: people?s names. 
?A picture of a kid is nice, but in 25 years, if we don?t know his name, what 
good is it?? said Carter, a retired owner of a consulting firm. ?It would 
just be a pretty picture, and we want more than that.? 
What the photo committee wants is a log detailing every person, place, and 
time of significance for the 800 to 1,000 town photos that will be collected 
from June 1999 through May 2000 and placed in scrapbooks. 
The goal of the project is twofold: Take pictures of the town and its 
residents now so future generations can see what life was like as the new 
millennium arrived, and compare how much things have changed. It also aims to 
provide enough information so residents can locate family members or friends 
by name in the pictures. 
?This isn?t just another pretty book,? said Carter, who joined the library as 
a volunteer in 1997. ?If we don?t take these pictures now, years later how 
will we know what has changed? I was afraid that 50 years from now we?d look 
back at the town and have nothing to show for it.? 
The campaign will cost $3,000 and involve a staff of six committee members 
and four photographers. All pictures taken will be black and white, because 
they last longer than color prints. 
Over the year, all borough employees, Little League players, and organization 
members will be photographed, as well as all commercial buildings, borough 
equipment, churches, dams, bridges, and public service vehicles, and about 
400 private homes. 
<snip>
<snip>
All original photos will be placed in scrapbooks in the library?s archive 
department, each with a label naming the persons, places, and times in the 
photo and a letter and number for identification purposes. 
The photographs will be meticulously cataloged and also stored on computer 
disks, for easy retrieval. 
?We couldn?t do it without computers,? Carter said. ?The data software makes 
everything retrievable. All those pictures would be useless if we couldn?t 
find them. Making the research retrievable is what?s important.? 
Copies of the photos will be put on display in the library?s main floor when 
the project is completed sometime in the middle of this year. The last time 
shots of the town were taken was at Oradell?s bicentennial, in 1976. Many 
residents hope it doesn?t take quite as long for another project like this to 
happen. 
<snip>


________________________________________________________________
Deseret News 1/6/00
Filegate fizzles in S.L.
Corradini?s computer data can all be retrieved

by Alan Edwards
<snip>
It appears the case of the missing files in the Salt Lake mayor?s office was 
a non-issue.
Turns out that all the computer data erased from approximately 40 computers 
and other electronic equipment in the mayor?s office was backed up onto 
network drives, where it can be retrieved.
?In an effort to keep Mayor (Rocky) Anderson fully informed as to the 
progress of the installation of his equipment, I informed him that it had 
been reported to me that the disk drives had been ?scrubbed? and information 
lost,? City Recorder and Director of Information Management Services Kendrick 
Cowley said Thursday. ?This was inaccurate, and I regret and apologize to 
Mayor Anderson for misinforming him and also to former Mayor Corradini for 
any embarrassment this may have caused her.?
Even before Cowley?s revelation, Anderson said he wanted to see the results 
of an internal investigation before approaching District Attorney David Yocom 
on the matter.
?It seems now that some people in IMS didn?t know what other people were 
doing,? Anderson said.
When he first discovered the extent of the missing files when he moved in 
Monday, Anderson said he couldn?t understand why Corradini would do such a 
thorough job of purging paper and computer files before leaving office if she 
did not have something to hide. He said he would approach Yocom to ask for an 
outside investigation.
The purging, however, was the work of several people ? the mayor?s staffers, 
the city recorder?s office, computer people ? and not something solely 
overseen by the mayor. Thus, a situation where too many cooks spoil the broth.
<snip>
<snip>
Corradini staffers have continually maintained that they were simply trying 
to prepare the office for Anderson?s arrival, getting rid of duplicate 
documents, extraneous e-mail and personal documents and papers before turning 
things over to him.
<snip>
<snip>
Mixed signals abounded. While mayor?s office staffers were combing through 
files and saving the correspondence, official files and other things required 
by law, some of the computer experts who came in to take care of the computer 
files understood that they were to wipe out disk contents without regard to 
content.
But computer experts, in turn, didn?t communicate that they had backed up 
those files. Corradini?s staffers had also saved 23 boxes of paper documents.
<snip>

________________________________________________________________
PRNewswire 1/6/00
PennDOT cancels contract of information-services provider; acts swiftly to 
protect the privacy of Pennsylvanians
<snip>
HARRISBURG, Pa., Jan. 6 /PRNewswire/ -- The state Transportation Department 
(PennDOT) today canceled its contract with an information-services provider 
based on evidence the company ignored rules about maintaining the privacy of 
driver records. 
The contract was with ChoicePoint Services Inc., of Alpharetta, Georgia, a 
company that provides driver records to insurance companies, employers and 
creditors. 
As part of its contract, ChoicePoint agreed to abide by all state and federal 
laws and regulations covering the privacy of driver records. The ChoicePoint 
contract specifically banned distribution of any driver records via the 
Internet. 
Through an internal investigation conducted in cooperation with the Inspector 
General?s Office, PennDOT recently learned that ChoicePoint offered large 
insurance companies Internet access to Pennsylvania driver records, 
potentially compromising the security of those records. 
Moreover, PennDOT discovered ads on the Internet offering Pennsylvania driver 
records for sale. PennDOT, which does not make records available over the 
Internet, confirmed that driver records were sold on the Internet to 
unauthorized individuals by companies that obtained the records initially 
from ChoicePoint. 
?We will not tolerate anyone breaching the confidentiality of driver 
records,? said PennDOT Secretary Bradley L. Mallory. ?Our customers trust 
that when they give us data about themselves on license applications that the 
information will not be shared with others unless authorized by law. We are 
serious about our commitment to protect that trust and to uphold both state 
and federal privacy laws.? 
Under Pennsylvania law, an individual?s driver record can be provided to 
non-government sources for insurance, employment or credit-reporting reasons. 
PennDOT will work directly with insurance companies, employers and other 
authorized users whose business may be significantly impacted by the 
immediate termination of ChoicePoint?s contract. 
<snip>





PETER A. KURILECZ CRM, CA
PAKURILECZ@AOL.COM

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