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RAIN 11/30: 900 -- 11,000 -- 210,000



Cedar Rapids Gazette 11/29/00
Officers get tips on public records
<http://www.gazetteonline.com/GCDA/article/1,1098,8333,00.html?nme=%7BPeter+Ku

rilecz%7D&email=pakurilecz%40aol%2Ecom&zip=23225&curlocation=2&art_ID=8333>

by Rick Smith
CEDAR RAPIDS -- More than 900 law enforcement officers gathered at 66
workshop sites statewide Tuesday to freshen their understanding of Iowa's
Public Records Law.
The workshop followed a series of reports in 14 newspaper across the state in
September that generally rated law enforcement agencies poor in their
willingness to make records available to the public.
Tuesday's sessions were conducted over the Iowa Communications Network (ICN)
by the Iowa Attorney General's Office.
In Cedar Rapids, 17 officers attended the ICN session at Grant Wood Area
Education Agency, including Cedar Rapids Police Chief Mike Klappholz, Linn
County Sheriff Don Zeller and their departments' top commanders.



Des Moines Register 11/29/00
Law presumes records are open, unless specifically exempt
Open records explained to enforcement officials
http://www.dmregister.com/news/stories/c4788993/13079665.html

by John McCormick
More than 900 Iowa law enforcement officials gathered Tuesday for a primer on
obeying the state's open-records law.
The irony of having to inform law enforcement officials about following the
law wasn't lost on Attorney General Tom Miller, who initiated the training
session after a statewide newspaper investigation was published this fall.
"When a survey like this comes out, where the law enforcement community has
not followed the law . . . it detracts a little bit from the great image law
enforcement has in Iowa," he said.
The training session, broadcast to 66 locations via the Iowa Communications
Network, follows an investigation that showed widespread disregard for the
state's open-records law, especially among law enforcement officials.



Las Vegas Review-Journal 11/29/00
CELL PHONE RECORDS: Attorney seeks fines for county
Court defied, judge told
http://www.lvrj.com/lvrj_home/2000/Nov-29-Wed-2000/news/14925228.html

by A.D. Hopkins
Clark County should be fined $500 a day until it produces cellular telephone
records it still hasn't given the Review-Journal three months after the
Nevada Supreme Court ordered it to, argued a lawyer for the newspaper in a
hearing Tuesday.
"The law has no bite, and the command of the court has no bite" unless the
county is punished for defying a court order following three years of
litigation, argued attorney Don Campbell in Clark County District Court. "The
only one who can take on the county is somebody like the Review-Journal.
Private individuals can't afford the expenses. What about the ordinary
citizen for whom the public records law was written?" Unless penalties are
imposed in this case, he argued, county officials will deny public access to
public records whenever they choose.



Baltimore Sun 11/29/00
Medical files found in landfill
Doctor's old records, meant for destruction, turn up in recycle bin; 'Sense
of privacy is violated'; Patients, relatives upset; state board looking into
matter
http://www.sunspot.net/content/news/story?section=news-maryland-sun&pagename=s

tory&storyid=1150520202173

by Larrry Carson
Found recently amid the piles of old newspapers thrown into a paper recycling
bin at Howard County's Alpha Ridge Landfill were slices of hundreds of lives
- the discarded medical records of a Columbia cardiologist's former patients.
An attorney for the physician said it was a nightmarish mistake - a
misunderstanding between the doctor and the person he hired to dispose of the
records. But some former patients and their loved ones are upset about the
potential invasion of their privacy, and the state medical board is looking
into the matter.
Several dozen cardboard boxes full of files dating from the early 1980s were
scattered among other nonmedical paper discards. Most were more than seven
years old. The records are from Dr. Imtiaz H. Chowdhry, a specialist in
cardiovascular diseases, who has offices on Hickory Ridge Road.
The episode appears unusual, but raises the issue of what doctors do with old
patient records, and how they should, or should not, be discarded.



Atlanta Journal-Constitution 11/29/00
Regardless of election outcome, punchcard ballots are history
http://www.accessatlanta.com/partners/ajc/epaper/editions/wednesday/news_a3520

538c5be918f00bf.html

by Terry Spencer
Associated Press
Miami --- By 2004, some Florida voters may cast their ballots by touching a
computer screen and others will mark paper ballots counted by computer. In
tiny Union County, voters still might do it the old-fashioned way, marking an
''X'' on a paper ballot that will be counted by hand.
But one thing seems sure: Punchcard ballots and their chads will have been
swept into history.
''With the spectacle of people holding up ballots and the talk about hanging
and dimpled chads, punchcards have lost credibility with the voters,'' said
Pam Iorio, the Hillsborough County elections supervisor. ''Once a system has
become the butt of jokes, it can't be used any more.''
Twenty-five Florida counties use punchcards, blamed for widespread confusion
in this year's presidential race. Tens of millions of dollars will be spent
statewide to update Florida's voting technology.



CBS News 11/29/00
Coke cans its history
http://cbsnews.com/now/story/0,1597,253307-412,00.shtml

Atlanta -- The Library of Congress is getting a Coke and a smile.
Coca-Cola Co. is donating all 20,000 of its TV commercials promoting the
sweet soft drink for preservation at the library. The gift is worth $1
million.
The five-decade collection will include classics such as the 1971 "hilltop"
ad, featuring the peace-and-love ditty, "I'd like to teach the world to
sing," and the 1979 heart-warmer that said, "Have a Coke and a Smile."
The more than 20,000 ads that Coke is donating include spots from Malaysia,
Tunisia and Japan as well as U.S. ads. It will take three to five years to
transfer the commercials to the library, said Phil Mooney, a Coke archivist.



Dayton Daily News
Restoring History
http://www.activedayton.com/partners/ddn/epaper/editions/today/news_3.html

by Timothy Gaffney
DAYTON--On the sunken floor of Carillon Historical Park's Wright Hall,
Malcolm Collum regarded the wood-and-fabric flying machine standing before
him and the bulky engine he somehow had to lift from between its fragile
wings.
"It's very intimidating," he said Tuesday.
"It's extremely nerve-wracking and backbreaking."
But Collum was smiling as he spoke. Despite the bending, the lifting, and the
risk of breaking something irreplaceable, it isn't every day that you get to
play aircraft mechanic with a piece of history.
Collum, a conservator of mechanical artifacts from Detroit, and Deborah Bede,
a textiles conservator from Bradford, N.H., are restoring Carillon Park's
1905 Wright Flyer III under a federal Save America's Treasures grant.



The Greenville News 11/28/00
History on Greer to be released
http://www.greenvillenews.com/news/112807.HTM

from staff reports
GREER -- The Greater Greer Chamber of Commerce will release "Greer," a
pictorial history book, as part of a "Coming Out Party" Monday at the chamber
office on Trade Street.
"In normal book circles this event would be called a 'book signing' where a
book's author signs books for purchasers at a book store," Greer chamber
President Al Tompkins said.
"However, since this book was put together by a chamber committee of four
people, and 39 individuals or organizations contributed the over 200 historic
photos, it's difficult to call this event a book signing."



Dallas Morning News 11/29/00
Privacy in Internet age will be crucial, AG says
http://www.dallasnews.com/texas_southwest/226009_foi_29tex.ART.html

by Jim Vertruno
Associated Press
AUSTIN - Finding a balance between consumers' privacy and the exchange of
information for legitimate business will be critical as the world continues
to advance in the Internet age, Texas Attorney General John Cornyn said
Tuesday.
Speaking at conference on privacy and open government that was sponsored by
his office, Mr. Cornyn said the public is wary of businesses that track and
exchange information about consumers.
"Consumers have a right to know what happens to our private information," Mr.
Cornyn said. "We all want to make sure our sensitive information doesn't fall
into the wrong hands or, even worse, the wrong computers.



Australian Broadcast Corporation 11/27/00
Secret bank files found in auctioned furniture
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newslink/weekly/newsnat-27nov2000-71.htm

Confidential client files from the former Trust Bank have been found in
office furniture which was sold at auction in Hobart.
The new owner of the Colonial Trust bank, the Commonwealth Bank, admits it is
concerned about the breach of customer confidentiality which may have broken
Commonwealth privacy laws.
The microfische files, which reveal the details of thousands of confidential
Trust Bank business and personal accounts, stem from the mid-1980s to recent
times.


The Age 11/27/00
Public naming shatters confidential informant
http://www.theage.com.au/news/20001127/A39373-2000Nov26.html

by Victoria Button
Medical Reporter
Government documents have revealed that after a department bungle a Melbourne
couple investigated for suspected child abuse were able to identify the
relative who reported them.
Department of Human Services files show that the "notifier" warned officers
that the couple were trying to discover who reported them - but she was
repeatedly assured that her name was confidential by law.
The woman later discovered that the department had released a letter
annotated with her name, next to the name of the children and the couple's
address - and that the couple had a copy.
The department said the letter's release was an inadvertent error made by a
Freedom of Information officer. It said this was the first such lapse to
occur in its central FoI unit.



Chicago Tribune 11/29/00
Police will spend $11,000 to store records
http://www.chicago.tribune.com/version1/article/0,1575,SAV-0011290460,00.html

by Denise Linke
ELMHURST The Police Department will have to invest nearly $11,000 in obsolete
technology because the Illinois Department of Justice won't let local
departments digitize archives, the Public Affairs Committee was told Monday.



The Virginian Pilot 11/29/00
Microsoft software check costs Va. Beach $210,000
http://www.pilotonline.com/breaking/br1129mic.html

by Katrice Franklin
VIRGINIA BEACH -- Beach leaders said this week that disorganized
recordkeeping caused them to send Microsoft Corp. a check for nearly
$129,000.
Add to that an estimated $81,000 in staff time on a nearly month-long
inspection of the city's Microsoft software stock and the inventory demanded
by the computer giant has cost the Beach a total of about $210,000.
David C. Sullivan, the Beach's chief information officer, said Wednesday that
after searching software on some 3,900 computers, the city could not find
licenses -- paperwork that proves the software was purchased -- for about 826
of the Microsoft products it uses. That represents about 13 percent of the
6,526 Microsoft installed products running on city computers.



CNET News.com 11/29/00
IBM appoints chief privacy officer
<http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/cn/20001129/tc/ibm_appoints_chief_privacy_office

r_7.html>

by Joe Wilcox
WASHINGTON--IBM will name Harriet P. Pearson chief privacy officer on
Wednesday, as the company jumps on one of the most important policy trends in
business.
"The chief privacy officer is a trend whose time has come," said Gartner
analyst Bill Malik.
The IBM veteran, who also is a lawyer and engineer, will assume her
responsibilities immediately, working out of a Washington, D.C., office.
Across North America, companies large and small increasingly are recognizing
the need for someone who is in charge of establishing and maintaining privacy
policies. But until recently, that role was grossly misunderstood, privacy
experts say.



New York Times 11/29/00
Advertising: Coke commercials go to the Library of Congress
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/11/29/business/29ADCO.html

by Stuart Elliott
FIFTY years of television advertising by an iconic consumer brand is being
donated to the Library of Congress.
At a presentation scheduled tonight at the library in Washington, the
Coca-Cola Company will formally donate five decades' worth of TV commercials
and related production materials - ranging from outtakes to experimental
color spots shot in 1964 - to the library's archives of films and television
programs. The donation is part of an effort called the Bicentennial Gifts to
the Nation program in observance of the library's 200th anniversary.


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

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