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RAIN 12/20: Vikings, $700K, NJFOIA, Olympics, Privacy, $41.5MM



New York Times 12/19/00
Did the Vikings Stay? Vatican files may offer clues
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/12/19/science/19HEYE.html?pagewanted=all

by Walter Gibbs
Oslo, Dec. 18 - Excavations prove that a few score Norsemen bumped ashore in
northern Newfoundland 1,000 years ago, landing in America almost 500 years
before Columbus. But scholars generally dismiss the event with an asterisk
because they say it did not change the course of history.
Have they sold the Vikings short?
Dr. Thor Heyerdahl, the Norwegian anthropologist, thinks so, but then, he is
no conventional scholar. He is best known for the perilous "Kon Tiki" raft
expedition from Peru to Polynesia in 1947, made to illustrate that ancient
South American Indians could have colonized the Pacific.



Romania Today 12/19/00
Romanian premier orders probe into alleged destruction of papers
http://www.centraleurope.com/romaniatoday/news.php3?id=231651

Romanian Prime Minister Mugur Isarescu on Monday [18 December] ordered a
probing into the accusations recently made by the Social Democracy Party of
Romania (PDSR) that privatization-related documents were allegedly being
burnt in the governmental building, a governmental release said.



Trenton Times 12/19/00
Opponents force delay of vote to open records
http://www.nj.com/news/times/index.ssf?/news/times/12-19-2RBCFOOC.html

by Michael Jennings
TRENTON -- Faced with strong opposition from law enforcement officials,
supporters of a bill that would unshackle the state law that limits public
access to government documents withdrew the measure yesterday before it could
come up for a scheduled vote by the state Senate.
Supporters then expressed hope they'll be able to muster the political muscle
needed to pass it next month.



Bergen Record 12/19/00
Semate delays vote on easier records access
http://www.bergen.com/region/accessjc200012196.htm

by John Cichowski
TRENTON -- A state Senate vote on a long-delayed bill that would expand
public access to government records was unexpectedly withheld Monday pending
review of its impact on the criminal justice system.
"Frankly, it looks like a much better bill than the [earlier] one we reviewed
in committee," said Majority Leader John O. Bennett, R-Monmouth. "But I want
to talk to my police chief, my county prosecutor, and the [state] attorney
general before we vote. I think most of my colleagues feel the same way."
Bennett noted that lawmakers were given copies of the new bill -- S-2003 --
on Friday and had not yet been able to evaluate it. He estimated that votes
in both the Senate and Assembly would not come before Jan. 28.



The Star Ledger 12/19/00
AG dissent stalls vote on access to records
http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/index.ssf?/jersey/ledger/11ccf15.html

by Robert Schwaneberg
For the second time this year, privacy concerns raised by the Attorney
General's Office have scuttled a planned vote on a bill designed to open
government records to greater public scrutiny.
The full Senate was scheduled to vote yesterday on a bill to strengthen New
Jersey's 37-year-old "Right to Know" Law, widely regarded as the most
secretive government records law in the nation.
But in the face of continuing objections by the Attorney General's Office,
which contends the bill would invade the privacy of crime victims and people
who were falsely accused, ranking senators of both parties asked that the
vote be postponed.



Las Vegas Sun 12/18/00
Spending Bill covers many projects
http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/bw-cong/2000/dec/18/121900639.html

Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) -- When University of Idaho officials wanted help making
their jazz history archive available on the Internet, they turned to their
state's congressional delegation.
The lawmakers delivered -- to the tune of $700,000 spliced into the massive
bill Congress sent to President Clinton before last week's adjournment. And
though the amount was a tiny fraction of the bill, which cleared more than
$450 billion in federal spending, it typified a measure that bore hundreds of
projects and programs for lawmakers from coast to coast.



Montreal Gazette 12/19/00
Falsification of Walkerton water tests, records began more than 20 years ago
http://www.southam.com/montrealgazette/newsnow/cpfs/national/001219/n121939.ht

ml

by Colin Perkel
WALKERTON, Ont. (CP) - Falsifying testing samples and records of chlorine
levels in the town's water was a time-honoured practice that dated back two
decades, a judicial inquiry was told Tuesday. The tradition begun by the
manager of the public utilities commission in 1979 was continued by his
successor, Stan Koebel, the man in charge of the water system during May's
deadly E. coli outbreak.
Koebel offered no explanation for the routine or what motivated the deception
begun by the late Ian McLeod, who retired from the commission in 1988.



Inside Media 12/19/00
Speech or Spam? Washington Post and Guild battle over in-house e-mail
In its campaign for extra payments for working on the Web site, the union
runs up against the paper's rules on workplace messaging. The National Labor
Relations Board is asked to step in.
http://www.inside.com/jcs/Story?article_id=18186&pod_id=7

by David Carr
In the midst of a battle over extra compensation for online work, the
Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild has filed a complaint with the National
Labor Relations Board, saying that the Washington Post's prohibition against
the union's use of the company e-mail system is illegal.



Ottawa Citizen 12/18/00
How Canada let a Cold War spy go
Trapped in a sexual affair with a seductive enemy agent, an External Affairs
clerk began selling Canada's secrets to the Czechs. Despite ample evidence of
his espionage, weaknesses in Canada's archaic Official Secrets Act forced the
government to set him free decades later.
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/national/001218/5033078.html

by Jim Bronskill
The Liberal government decided not to prosecute a Canadian who spied for the
former Communist bloc despite extensive evidence of his treachery.
The Citizen has learned the Justice Department did not pursue charges against
the retired External Affairs clerk under the Official Secrets Act because the
archaic legislation was unlikely to withstand a constitutional challenge.



Philadelphia Inquirer 12/17/00
Camden projects' legacy lives on
The 64-year-old Westfield Acres was demolished, but not before historians
culled many documents.
http://inq.philly.com/content/inquirer/2000/12/17/city/JWESTFIELD17.htm

by Marc Levy
CAMDEN - Four of the three-story brick buildings at the Westfield Acres
public housing site already lay in ruins last June, with demolition crews
eyeing a fifth.
That's when something unexpected happened.
State historians called the Camden Housing Authority's offices on Admiral
Wilson Boulevard and said the 64-year-old complex was a symbol of significant
public policy and period architecture.



Akron Beacon Journal 12/19/00
Judge denies Wehrung attorneys access to files
http://www.ohio.com/bj/news/ohio/docs/028317.htm

Associated Press
CINCINNATI (AP) -- A judge has ruled that attorneys for a man charged with
the 1963 murder of his girlfriend cannot have access to old police and court
files in the case.
Attorneys for Michael Wehrung, 53, had argued that the files and records are
crucial to proving their client's innocence.
Hamilton County Common Pleas Judge Patrick Dinkelacker ruled Monday, however,
that posecutors either don't have the old files or are not obligated to hand
them over.



Fox Sports 12/18/00
Key Olympic file missing
http://www.foxsports.com/wires/pages/75/spt161975.sml

Associated Press
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - From A to Z, Salt Lake bid deputy Dave Johnson kept
exhaustive files on IOC members when bidding for the 2002 Winter Games.
But the biggest surprise in the release of 10,000 pages of Johnson's files
may be what's missing.
There's no trace of a file for South Korean IOC executive Un-yong Kim even
though the censured delegate and his indicted son figured large in Olympic
and criminal investigations.



Salt Lake Tribune 12/19/00
BYU returning a piece of the past to Poland
http://www.sltrib.com/12192000/utah/55089.htm

by Kirsten Stewart
Brigham Young University is giving Poland back a piece of its history -- the
manuscripts of a powerful family in the Polish Empire -- scattered and lost
during World War II.
For 15 years the original letters, legal documents, land leases and personal
notes of the Potocki family have been collecting dust in BYU's library, said
Scott Duvall, assistant university librarian for special collections.



Sports Illustrated 12/18/00
Scandal's scope widens
Newly released Salt Lake documents involve Japan
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/olympics/news/2000/12/18/saltlake_bribes_ap/

Associated Press
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- Confidential Salt Lake Olympic bid files mention
rumors of vote-buying by Japan, which won the right to host the 1998 Winter
Games in Nagano.
In March 1991, Patrick Hickey, president of Ireland's Olympic committee,
wrote Salt Lake bid chief Tom Welch that Italian Olympic officials "had some
stories" about "certain IOC members" who "have entered into a contract with
Nagano to vote for them for a fee of $100,000."



Yomiuri Shimbun 12/20/00
Govt to release 680 classified documents
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/newse/20001220wo42.htm

The Foreign Ministry will release from Wednesday 680 documents related to 314
matters concerning the nation's diplomacy that occurred between 1945 and
1978, ministry officials said.
The materials include documents related to a Dominican Republic emigration
plan that ended in de facto failure, the repatriation of Japanese citizens
from Manchuria and other places that began immediately after World War II,
and negotiations with the then Burma for war reparations.



Boston Globe 12/19/00
Clinton to issue sweeping new medical privacy rules, officials say
http://www.boston.com/dailynews/354/wash/Clinton_to_issue_sweeping_new_:.shtml

by Laura Meckler
Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) President Clinton will issue sweeping new rules Wednesday
that restrict health care providers and insurers from sharing confidential
information about their patients, creating the first federal fines and prison
time for violators.
The regulations, which end nearly a decade of debate on how to protect
Americans' medical privacy, were described to The Associated Press by
government and private officials who received briefings on them Tuesday.




Las Vegas Sun 12/19/00
Judge asks BLM for records of wild horses slaughters, sanctions
http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/nevada/2000/dec/19/511195262.html

by Matt Kelley
Associated Press
WASHINGTON - A federal judge in Nevada has asked the Bureau of Land
Management to tell him the number of adopted wild horses sold for slaughter
despite their new owners' pledges not to do so.
U.S. District Judge Howard McKibben of Reno also asked the BLM to say how
many of those cases agency officials recommended for prosecution. Those who
adopt wild horses are required to sign a statement saying they do not plan to
sell them to a slaughterhouse; someone who violated that pledge could be
prosecuted for making a false statement to the government.




Star Tribune 12/19/00
Law enforcement to seek $41.5 million to expand tracking system
http://www2.startribune.com/stOnLine/cgi-bin/article?thisStory=83174729

by Ashley H. Grant
Associated Press
ST. PAUL (AP) -- Police, judges and other law enforcement announced plans
Tuesday to ask the Legislature for the second installment in a six-year, $260
million project to connect Minnesota' s criminal records.
The expected 2001 request of $41.5 million follows a $12 million allocation
in 2000.
" There is nothing higher on my priority list of crime-prevention
initiatives, " said Senate Crime Prevention Committee Chairwoman Jane Ranum,
DFL-Minneapolis.





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

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