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RAIN 09/24 (Part 2): Iowa public records



Burlington Hawkeye 9/24/00
Small-town suspicion plays a role when seeking records
http://www.thehawkeye.com/daily/stories/ln24092.html

Forrest Landon, president of the National Freedom of Information Coalition,
said it is not unusual for public-records requests in small towns to generate
many questions from government officials.
"In the rural areas, there is a natural suspicion when a stranger walks into
town," he said.


Cedar Rapids Gazette 9/24/00
Records could soon be available on Internet
http://www.gazetteonline.com/GCDA/article/1,1098,6131,00.html?curlocation=12

By Dave Gosch
Iowa's court records are open and accessible to the public and could become
even more available if plans go through to post them on the Internet.
Rebecca Colton, special assistant to Iowa Supreme Court Chief Justice Arthur
McGiverin, said it's up to the Iowa Legislature as to when the Iowa Court
Information System (ICIS) will be available on the Internet.
"They haven't resolved how it will be paid for," Colton said about putting
ICIS on the Internet. "There is some controversy in the Legislature to charge
fees for public records that are online."


Davenport/Quad City Times 9/24/00
Public has the right to examine, copy certain records
http://www.qctimes.com/local/STORY3.html

By Jodi O'Donnell
Quad-City Times
Iowa's Open Records Law is clear: "Every person shall have the right to
examine and copy a public record and to publish or otherwise disseminate a
public record or the information contained in the public record."
Every person -- that means you. And according to the law, you are not
required to identify yourself, nor do you need to provide a reason for
requesting to see the records.
But why would you want to know?


Davenport/Quad City Times 9/24/00
'Nothing is public'
http://www.qctimes.com/local/STORY1.html

by John McCormick
Des Moines Register
We'll cooperate with you if you cooperate with us," a Bremer County
supervisor told a woman seeking his expense reports that are required by law
to be public.
"Leave now," Indianola Police Chief Steve Bonnett told a Des Moines man
asking for complaints police are supposed to disclose to anyone who asks.
"Nothing is public," a Davenport police clerk shouted to a woman seeking
legally public police complaint reports.


Des Moines Register 9/24/00
Authorities keep records from public
Requests routinely rejected
http://www.dmregister.com/news/stories/c4780934/12448226.html

By John McCormick
Local government officials in Iowa - especially those in law enforcement -
routinely deny citizens access to public information, an investigation
conducted by Iowa's newspapers has found.
The investigation disclosed that when it comes to Iowa's public-records law,
there is ignorance on the part of many government workers, from clerks
stationed at the front counters of government offices, to county attorneys
and sheriffs.
Public-records laws and public-meeting laws were enacted around the nation
during the 1960s and 1970s as a way to allow people to more closely
scrutinize their government.


Des Moines Register 9/24/00
Law passed in the 60s lets Iowans see records
http://www.dmregister.com/news/stories/c4780934/12448228.html

By John McCormick
Iowa's open-records law was first enacted in the mid-1960s. It provides
people of Iowa with access to public documents so they can better monitor the
operations of their state and local governments.
The law states, in part:
"It shall be unlawful for any person to deny or refuse any citizen of Iowa
any right under this chapter, or to cause any such right to be denied or
refused. Any person knowingly violating or attempting to violate any
provision of this chapter where no other penalty is provided shall be guilty
of a simple misdemeanor." (Section 22.6)


Newsweek 9/23/00
The White House e-mail trail
http://www.msnbc.com/news/466079.asp?cp1=1

By Michael Isikoff
The 1996 e-mail to Vice President Gore raised a ticklish issue. Carter Eskew,
Gore's long-time friend and political consultant, wanted to send the vice
president a memo.
BUT SHOULD ESKEW mail them directly to Gore's computer at the White House?
"Reminder," wrote a helpful aide on Feb. 22, 1996, about Eskew's request.
"All Internet e-mails are recorded on the White House computers ... The only
way not to have your e-mails backed up on government computers would be to
get a Clinton/Gore computer in your office and set it up for private e-mails.
How do you want to proceed?"


Newsweek 9/23/00
What does $1 million for the Clinton Library buy you?
http://www.msnbc.com/news/465989.asp

By Michael Isikoff
Roundly criticized for turning overnight stays at the White House into a huge
fundraising tool during the 1996 campaign, Bill and Hillary Clinton have only
accelerated the practice in the years since, according to new documents
released on Friday.
MANY OF THE GUESTS, not surprisingly, were contributors to Hillary Clinton's
New York Senate campaign. A NEWSWEEK analysis of the list found several
others who are notable both for the size of their donations and where they
made them.



Toledo Blade 9/24/00
Editorial: Hospital records costly
http://www.toledoblade.com/editorial/edit/5023hosp.htm

Maumee Republican Rep. Lynn Olman is doing a service to countless Ohioans
with his bill that prevents hospitals from gouging patients who want copies
of their hospital records.
But his bill doesn't go far enough because it appears to exclude hospitals
that contract with companies to provide these copying services. This means,
unfortunately, that the Olman proposal can be circumvented.
The prices his bill allows also seem too high in light of the current price
of public record copies, especially now that copying machines are so
automated and less labor intensive.



Houston Chronicle 9/24/00
Historian showed LBJ's "inner self" through library
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/metropolitan/677526

By John William
AUSTIN -- On Jan. 20, 1969, the day Richard Nixon was sworn in as the 37th
U.S. president, Harry Middleton flew to Austin aboard Air Force One with
Lyndon Baines Johnson and the disparaged former president's intimate family
and loyal staffers.
Rather than settling into a trip down memory lane, Middleton remembers,
Johnson cautioned them. And then, the imposing authoritarian issued yet
another round of orders.
The warning: Watch your back. Nixon could be expected to investigate each of
them.



Times of London 9/24/00
Rodin's muse lost in mental torture
http://www.sunday-times.co.uk/news/pages/sti/2000/09/24/stifgneur02002.html

By Susan Bell, Paris
DOCUMENTS found in the cellar of a Paris asylum have revealed new details of
the poignant story of Camille Claudel, muse of the sculptor Auguste Rodin.
Claudel was spurned by him and then locked away by her bourgeois mother to
avoid a family scandal.
The papers, including pitiful letters in which Claudel begs to be allowed
visitors, show the cruelty of her confinement in the Ville-Evrard hospital.
Her mother ruled that she be allowed no outside contact.
Claudel, a sculptor in her own right, is thought to have met Rodin in 1883,
when she was 19. She soon became his model, mistress and student.



Peter A. Kurilecz CRM, CA
pakurilecz@aol.com
Richmond, Virginia

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