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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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