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RAIN 12/10 Part 3: Weekend Update



Albuquerque Tribune 12/10/00
Agencies across N.M. hold back open records
http://www.abqtrib.com/news/120900_findings.shtml

Staff and Wire reports
Access to public records in New Mexico is spotty at best, according to survey
of government offices in the state's 33 counties.
The survey was conducted by newspapers of the New Mexico Press Association
and The Associated Press along with the New Mexico Foundation for Open
Government.
The survey found:



Albuquerque Tribune 12/10/00
Jail drags out release of public record
The case is one illustration of the 'right to know' struggle across the state.
http://www.abqtrib.com/news/120900_open.shtml

by Rick A. Maese
In neighborhoods across Albuquerque, City-County Jail inmates are serving
their time at home -- monitored by ankle bracelets, freed from locked cell
doors.
City-County Jail administrators say the 200 inmates serving time in the
community are "nonviolent" offenders who pose no danger to the public.
But ask jail officials for proof in the form of inmates' names and criminal
charges, and the door to open government clanks shut like a rusty jail
security gate.
Not even an official request by The Albuquerque Tribune under the state
Inspection of Public Records Act immediately jarred the information free,
even though the law sets firm rules for releasing public documents in a
timely manner.


The Beacon news 12/10/00
Corrections Department can't account for ammunition, records
http://www.copleynewspapers.com/beaconnews/city/a10ammo.htm

by John O'Connor
Associated Press
SPRINGFIELD - The state Corrections Department cannot find a thousand rounds
of ammunition that was supposed to be safeguarded at its armory and it is
unclear whether the ammo disappeared or was simply miscounted due to poor
record keeping.
Corrections officials said they cannot prove what went wrong because the
agency is also missing more than two years worth of inventory records for
bullets and guns stored at the Springfield armory, mostly for use in training
on a nearby range.
"Who knows what happened? But the ammunition was most likely expired on the
firing range and not noted; that's the only conclusion that we can speculate
on," Corrections spokesman Brian Fairchild said.



Columbia Missourian 12/10/00
Paper makes headway in battle for university records
Kansas City Star fights to gain access to UM's internal audit reports
http://digmo.org/news/local/premium/1210local4105.html

by Christen Reuter
The press has won a battle in the fight to open the UM system's records, but
the war is not over yet.
Boone County Circuit Court Judge Frank Conley granted a partial summary
judgment Wednesday to The Kansas City Star, said two attorneys familiar with
the case. Conley's decision makes UM's records subject to the state's
Sunshine Law.
The Star, which has been fighting to gain access to the university's internal
audit reports since it filed suit against UM in July 1998, must now prove
that the audit records should be open.



Dawn 12/09/00
Land records being computerized
http://www.dawn.com/2000/12/10/top10.htm

by Our Correspondent
ISLAMABAD, Dec 9: The Federal Land Commission has started computerization of
all the existing laws related to land reforms, land ceiling and compensation
to expedite the process of land distribution among the landless.
The computerisation is being done on the directives of Chief Executive Gen
Pervez Musharraf who had asked the FLC to bring about changes in its
character to make it more efficient and competitive in the changed scenario.
The Commission had been asked to modify itself in the light of present
government's land reform policy, which envisages swift distribution of state
land among the landless.



Rocky Mountain News 12/10/00
Background checks soon just a click away
New CBI Internet service will allow users to access info on anyone over age 18
http://insidedenver.com/news/1210web6.shtml

by Sarah Huntley
Inquiring minds want to know, and soon, with the click of a computer button,
they will.
The Colorado Bureau of Investigation will pioneer a new Internet service that
will allow people to run background checks on their neighbors, their
children's teachers and anyone else over the age of 18.
Arrest records are already public under the state's open-records laws, but
they have not been available online. That is expected to change by midsummer,
said Bob Armstrong, the CBI agent in charge of the identification section.
For a small fee, computer users will be able to download the criminal history
of anyone arrested in Colorado in any case where fingerprints were taken. The
specific cost has not been determined, but CBI officials expect it will be
about $5 a search.




Columbus Dispatch 12/10/00
Hospital balked at blood-alcohol requests, patrol says
http://www.dispatch.com/news/newsfea00/dec00/525774.html

by Mary Beth Lane
In the pre-dawn darkness along Rt. 33 in Fairfield County, James P. Fisher's
Pontiac Grand Prix crossed the grass median and struck an oncoming Chevy
Beretta head-on.
The other driver was killed in the Oct. 20 crash. Fisher, badly injured, was
flown to Grant Medical Center, where he remains.
Thirty miles away, a Lancaster assistant city prosecutor preparing a charge
of vehicular manslaughter against Fisher is frustrated because he doesn't
know whether a stiffer offense -- aggravated vehicular manslaughter -- would
apply. Despite a State Highway Patrol trooper's request, Fisher's blood
wasn't tested for alcohol.



Boston Herald 12/10/00
Harvard Red Scare revisited
http://www.bostonherald.com/news/local_regional/harv12102000.htm

by Kay Lazar
Buried in sealed records at Harvard University may be answers to accusations
now cropping up about the prestigious school and a dark time in its storied
past.
The charges date back nearly half a century when the Red Scare gripped the
nation.
Across the country, thousands of college students, professors, entertainers
and others were investigated by federal and state government agencies because
they were suspected of siding with America's Cold War enemies, the
Communists. Many were blacklisted, refused jobs, fired or imprisoned - even
though there was little proof of Communist sympathies.
But at the nation's pre-eminent school in Cambridge, things were supposed to
be different.



Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 12/08/00
Civil War treasures rescued from time's ravages
http://www.post-gazette.com/regionstate/20001208civilwar2.asp

by Cindi Lash
Pausing slightly as a flurry of black paper flakes fell onto her work table,
paper conservation expert Wendy Bennett painstakingly pried boards away from
the back of a battered wooden frame to reveal the prize it contained.
Inside lay a daily attendance roster kept by a long-dead soldier who, in
elegant spidery handwriting, recorded the actions of his company of
artillerists through the last days of the Civil War and the first days of the
peace that followed.
As Bennett prodded and poked with tiny steel tools to lift the roster from
the frame, Civil War re-enactors James White and Keith Kammenzind peered over
her shoulder and gasped aloud at the crisp, dark writing now visible on its
back and inside pages.



Newsday 12/10/00
Stop & GO: Insurance is no insurance against state DMV glitch
http://www.newsday.com/coverage/current/news/sunday/nd2547.htm

by Ann L. Kim
It was 11:15 p.m. when the police stopped Linda Benjamin on Main Street in
Patchogue last month. An officer impounded her license plates for reasons she
didn't understand. Alone in the dark, she wasn't sure how she would get home.
"I was embarrasssed, I was mad, I was upset," recalled Benjamin, a
42-year-old home health aide from Bellport. "I called my niece to come pick
me up and I was crying and I told her the police gave me five tickets and
took my plates." What Benjamin and her insurance agent later discovered is
that a new state computer system designed to locate uninsured drivers has, in
some cases, suspended the registrations of drivers with valid coverage.



Los Angeles Times 12/10/00
Architect offers a rendering of Clinton Library
http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/20001210/t000118232.html

Associated Press
WASHINGTON--Declaring that he is drawing inspiration from the libraries of
his predecessors, President Clinton thanked dozens of friends Saturday for
supporting his planned library in Little Rock, Ark.
On hand at the White House to celebrate progress on the Clinton Presidential
Center were the project's architect, James Polshek; its chief fund-raiser,
Terence McAuliffe; and Skip Rutherford, a Little Rock businessman who is
coordinator for the center, which will cost from $125 million to $150
million, almost all of it from private donations.



Reuters 12/09/00
Clinton unveils plans for Presidential library
http://live.altavista.com/e?efi=467&ei=2332656&ern=y

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Clinton on Saturday unveiled the plans for
his presidential library in Little Rock, Arkansas -- which will preserve for
posterity the actions and artifacts of a presidency now in its final weeks.
Speaking at a ceremony to unveil the architectural plans for the William J.
Clinton Presidential Center in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, Clinton
said he wanted a building that was both ``beautiful and architecturally
significant, that people would want to walk in a 100 years from now.''


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

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