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RAIN 09/01: Public Records, E-sigs, destruction and more



Richmond Times Dispatch 8/31/00
Online photo exhibit tells blacks' story
http://www.timesdispatch.com/virginia/ray311.shtml

by Ray McAllister
Young George Cook was only 20 but he immediately jumped into photography
when it came to the United States in 1839.
Cook started working in New Orleans, then went to smaller
Southern towns. He would establish a studio, teach a few students and then
sell the business to the most promising. He finally settled in Charleston,
S.C., became one of the foremost Confederate photographers of the Civil War,
then moved to Richmond in 1880.


Baltimore Sun 8/31/00
Public records turn private
Sun survey of police in area yields denials, mixed responses
http://www.sunspot.net/content/news/story?section=news-maryland-sun&pagename
=story&storyid=1150430203242

by Rafael Alvarez
A day after a regional press association survey found that the average
Marylander has a 50-50 chance of getting public records on demand, reporters
tried again to see police documents that state law says are theirs for the
asking. And the results were worse.
Yesterday, The Sun sent reporters to state and local police precincts in a
half-dozen jurisdictions in the metropolitan area to ask for basic police
reports defined as public information under state law.
The reporters did not immediately identify themselves as members of the
media. Their requests were met with refusal, suspicion, confusion, anger
and, in a few instances, cooperation.


Corpus Christi Caller-Times 8/31/00
City seeking records on tourism ad agent
Rehired agency owner says he paid old debts; visitors bureau says key
documents are missing
http://www.caller.com/2000/august/31/today/local_ne/3161.html

by Tom Whitehurst Jr
City Hall has asked the Convention and Visitors Bureau for an accounting of
the unpaid bills that resulted in the bureau's termination of Pettus
Advertising 10 years ago.
But bureau chief executive officer Char Beltran, facing a Sept. 6 deadline,
has been unable to find any bureau records of the events that led to the
company's dismissal, she said Wednesday.
That includes records she knows exist, including a 1990 audit showing that
agency owner Bill Pettus had failed to pay $119,665 to advertisers with
funds already paid to him by the bureau, and a 1991 report describing the
bureau's actions in the matter, she said.


Daily Oklahoman 8/31/00
State's open records not always open
http://www.oklahoman.com/cgi-bin/show_article?ID=541499&pic=none&TP=getartic
le

by Diana Baldwin and David Zizzo
Some people are refusing to reveal public records or at least are making it
difficult to see them. In Oklahoma, as in other states, some open records
simply aren't.
That's among the findings of a statewide effort conducted this summer to
check citizen access to government records. The project included three
components:
Citizen survey: A private citizen's requests for financial reports were
granted in each of the 41 towns he visited.
Mail survey: A large majority of 1,454 government agencies surveyed followed
the law, filling requests for meeting agendas. Only 1 percent denied the
requests.



Daily Oklahoman 8/31/00
Joint effort yields results of survey
http://www.wireok.com/cgi-bin/show_article?ID=541498&pic=none&TP=getarticle

A citizen and a group of reporters fanned out across the state this summer
to determine how Oklahoma's Open Records Act is working.
A mail request to 1,454 schools, municipalities, regents, career-technical
schools and state agencies completed the three-pronged project.
The government access project -- "Your Government, Your Records: A Survey of
Openness in Oklahoma" -- was a joint effort by The Oklahoman, the Oklahoma
Press Association, the Tulsa World and Freedom of Information Oklahoma Inc.



Daily Oklahoman 8/31/00
Man's quest for records successful
http://www.wireok.com/cgi-bin/show_article?ID=541502&pic=none&TP=getarticle

by Ann DeFrange
Don Young never had asked for a public record before this summer, and in the
41 towns and along the more than 1,200 miles he covered in his car in four
days, he met a lot of town clerks who'd never been asked for a public
record.
The 58-year-old college math professor from Newcastle represented Oklahoma's
citizens in the survey. Most of the towns, with populations of fewer than
2,000, were within 100 miles of Oklahoma City. He was hired by Freedom of
Information Oklahoma Inc.
At the town halls and civic offices, he requested the town's "latest
financial record."


Daily Oklahoman 8/31/00
Noncompliant officials face seminars
http://www.wireok.com/cgi-bin/show_article?ID=541222&pic=none&TP=getarticle

by Diana Baldwin
A statewide survey of open records compliance by government entities could
prompt another round of education seminars for local officials, state
Attorney General Drew Edmondson said.
In 1998, the attorney general conducted seminars for 1,000 people on the
Oklahoma Open Records and Open Meeting acts in 16 cities across the state.
Edmondson said he would concentrate this time on counties where officials
failed to turn over public records.
"This may be an eye-opener for them," the attorney general said. "Perhaps
the officers who got caught up short on the surveys will make a point on
attending."



Daily Oklahoman 8/31/00
Open records law was no easy task
http://www.wireok.com/cgi-bin/show_article?ID=541225&pic=none&TP=getarticle

by Ron Jenkins
Associated Press
Oklahoma's Open Records Act of 1985 states that its purpose is to allow
citizens to obtain government records so they may "efficiently and
intelligently exercise their inherit political power."
The act vastly expands and clarifies a one-paragraph 1941 law that, along
with court opinions and attorney general decisions, had guided the ability
of citizens to access records of local and state governments.
It was hammered out after dozens of meetings between representatives of the
media, organizations representing various governmental agencies, and others.




Dallas Morning News 8/31/00
Inquiry targets records
Senator's lawyer says client clean
http://dallasnews.com/texas_southwest/159848_subpoenas_31te.html

by George Kuempel
AUSTIN - A federal grand jury has issued subpoenas for state records and the
testimony of four associates of state Sen. Frank Madla, a veteran lawmaker
from San Antonio.
The U.S. attorney's office in San Antonio won't discuss the investigation as
a matter of policy, but it appears from the records being sought that
authorities are trying to determine whether Mr. Madla, a Democrat, used his
state office for personal gain.
The senator has declined to talk to reporters, but his lawyer, former state
Sen. Hector Uribe of Austin, said his client has assured him that he has
done nothing wrong.
"My client insists that there is no impropriety, no conflicts of interest,
and eventually all of this will be established," Mr. Uribe said.


Daytona Beach News-Journal 8/31/00
Thief breaks into tax office, erases computer files, takes variety of items
http://www.news-journalonline.com/2000/Aug/31/FLA9.htm

News-Journal wire services
NICEVILLE - A thief broke into a tax collector's office, erased some
computer operating files and stole more than a dozen handicapped parking
decals, a cordless telephone and a walkie-talkie radio.


Nashua Telegraph 8/31/00
Humphrey sues Shaheen over ex-volunteer's files
http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/Main.asp?UID=35965596&SectionID=25&SubSection
ID=354&ArticleID=16933

by Kevin Landrigan
CONCORD - Republican gubernatorial candidate Gordon Humphrey sued Gov.
Jeanne Shaheen on Wednesday over her refusal to let him look at files
related to the work of a former volunteer.
Humphrey said Shaheen is refusing to abide by the state's Right-to-Know Law
in turning down his request to review files about Michael O'Malley, a Bell
Atlantic Yellow Pages employee who was on loan to Shaheen for three years.
"Citizens have a right to know what is going on inside their state
government, including the activities and employment arrangements of their
public servants,'' Humphrey said.


The Auto Channel 8/31/00
OSHA tells DaimlerChrysler electronic signatures are okay
http://www.theautochannel.com/news/press/date/20000831/press024315.html

WASHINGTON & SEATTLE--Aug. 31, 2000--In a move that will continue to help
improve how federal paperwork requirements are handled by corporate America,
the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) recently informed
DaimlerChrysler it would accept management's electronic signatures on
employee training certificates, according to an OSHA interpretation letter
which has been posted on the website of NetCompliance, Inc.,
(www.netcompliance.com), the nation's leading provider of Web-based
"paperless" compliance solutions and on-line worker training programs.
Just once since 1993 has OSHA in an interpretive letter addressed the issue
of allowing electronic signatures on their certificates.


Los Angeles Times 8/31/00
Sea Scrolls Scholar wins copyright case
http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/20000831/t000081792.html

by Mary Curtius
JERUSALEM--Israel's Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that a scholar who spent
years reconstructing one of the ancient Dead Sea Scrolls has a copyright to
his work, ending an eight-year legal battle that pitted the scholar against
the prestigious Biblical Archaeology Review, its editor and two California
professors.
In a unanimous ruling, a three-member panel of the court upheld a lower
court decision that professor Elisha Qimron's work on the only letter found
among the approximately 800 Dead Sea Scrolls was creative and deserving of a
copyright.


Bergen Record 8/31/00
Pepsi must pay overtime, interest to N.J. workers
http://www.bergen.com/biz/pepsi31200008316.htm

by Lori Hinnant
Associated Press
The state Department of Labor has ordered Pepsi Bottling Group to pay
overtime and interest to 13 workers and to turn over wage records for other
employees at its four New Jersey facilities.
The decision, released Wednesday, followed five years of litigation and will
affect more than 300 Pepsi employees in New Jersey, said James L. Linsey, an
attorney at the law firm Cohen, Weiss and Simon, which represented the
employees.





Peter A. Kurilecz CRM, CA
Manager, Records Management Group
Woodside Summit Group Inc
Midlothian, Virginia
Office: 804-744-1247 x23
Fax: 804-744-4997
mailto:peter.kurilecz@woodsidesummitgroup.com

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