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RAIN 01/05 Part 2: Court Decisions and disasters



Foster's Democrat 01/04/01
Judge finds Exeter school officials in contempt of court
http://www.fosters.com/news_2001a/jan_01/04/nh0104n.htm

Associated Press
BRENTWOOD, N.H. (AP) - A Rockingham County Superior Court judge has found the 
Exeter school district in contempt of court for destroying computer records 
that were involved in a lawsuit.
Judge Gillian Abramson ordered the district to pay legal fees and to 
reproduce Internet history files for an Exeter parent who wanted to use them 
to determine whether students were visiting unsavory Internet sites on school 
computers.
Abramson said the information in the deleted files "was unfavorable and 
embarrassing" to the district and that the deletions had occurred between the 
time the lawsuit was filed in June and the trial in September.



Foster's Democrat 01/04/01
Judge slaps sanctions on Exeter school officials in Internet case
http://www.fosters.com/news_2001a/jan_01/04/ex0104b.htm

by Terry Date
BRENTWOOD - In a scathing order released Wednesday, a Rockingham Superior 
Court judge found Exeter school officials in contempt of court for destroying 
school Internet records and misleading the court.
Judge Gillian Abramson wrote in her order that School Administrative Unit 16 
officials, including Superintendent Arthur Hanson, misled the court Sept. 19 
and at other times when they did not disclose that many sought-after Internet 
records did not exist.



Star Tribune 01/04/01
Resolution: Get Your papers in order
http://www2.startribune.com/stOnLine/cgi-bin/article?thisStory=83273813

by Eileen Alt Powell
AP Business Writer
NEW YORK (AP) -- One of the best favors you can do yourself as the new year 
begins is to get your papers in order. It will save you time and money. 
Need some motivation? Think back on how long you' ve had to search in the 
past for the 1099 statements and other forms needed to do your income tax 
returns. How many times did you pay a late fee because you misplaced a bill? 
Have you had to scramble to find contact numbers when a credit card was 
missing? And if something happened to you, could your heirs find your 
insurance policy and savings accounts? 



Cincinnati Equirer 01/04/01
HUC acquires collection of activist rabbi's files
http://enquirer.com/editions/2001/01/04/loc_huc_acquires.html

by Ben L. Kaufman
Few remember the German refugee rabbi who spoke immediately before the Rev. 
Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech in 1963. 
However, a recording of Joachim Prinz's speech is being donated to Hebrew 
Union College, along with other files belonging to the rabbi who spoke out 
against Hitler in Germany and racism in this country. 
Dr. Gary Zola, executive director of the Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the 
American Jewish Archives. hopes to take possession of the collection next 
month. 



Orange County Register 01/04/01
Keeping records straight
http://www.ocregister.com/community/dillow.shtml

by Gordon Dillow
Awhile back, Lew McNatt of La Habra was trying to get copies of some of his 
old military records. But when he contacted the U.S. government about the 
records, he was told, in effect: 
Sorry, buddy. We never heard of you. 
Which struck Lew, 76, as a little odd. After all, he distinctly remembered 
serving aboard B-17 bombers in the Army Air Corps in World War II. He had 
strong recollections of having been an active-duty and reserve Air Force 
officer in the 1950s. He even had copies of some of the old records, 
including his DD-214 separation form from the Air Force. 



Virginian Pilot 01/04/01
Water from burst pipe damages Chesapeake courthouse
http://www.pilotonline.com/news/nw0104flo.html

by Robert McCabe and Lou Misselhorn
CHESAPEAKE -- A burst pipe spewed a torrent of water through the city 
courthouse over the holidays, damaging thousands of court files, collapsing 
ceilings and marring floors before the leak was discovered Christmas Day. 
It cascaded through the third-floor offices of the clerk of the Circuit Court 
to the second-floor offices of the commonwealth's attorney, eventually 
swamping the first floor as well. 
The water damaged a few thousand criminal and civil case files, destroyed a 
couple of computers and some telephones, discolored flooring, and ruined 
Christmas for about 20 city workers called in to clean up the mess. 



The Union Leader 01/04/01
Exeter school district found in contempt of court
http://www.theunionleader.com/articles_show.html?article=11172

by Peg Warner
BRENTWOOD - A judge has found SAU 16 in contempt of court, declaring 
yesterday that school officials acted "in bad, if not rancid, faith" when 
they destroyed computer records that were the subject of a court dispute and 
then tried to cover it up. 
Judge Gillian Abramson, in a 13-page ruling that made good on her previously 
stated intentions to impose sanctions, ordered the district to pay attorney's 
fees and costs, and to bear the cost of reproducing Internet history files 
for James Knight of Exeter. 
"We're pleased with the decision because it grants us what we requested," 
said Alec McEachern, one of Knight's lawyers. 



Ottawa Sun 01/03/01
Bye-bye Big Brother
Firms must secure data
http://www.canoe.ca/OttawaBusiness/OS.OS-01-03-0061.html

by Geoff Matthews
In a world where electronic commerce will soon be measured in the trillions 
of dollars, network security is a business essential, says a man who makes 
his living keeping snoops out of corporate databases. 
Layton Peck, marketing manager for Kyberpass Corporation, said federal 
legislation which came into effect Jan. 1 makes it mandatory for companies to 
protect personal information gathered over the Internet. 
The Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act is a measure 
that had to be taken, Peck said. 



Fort Worth Star Telegram 01/04/01
Cornyn argues with newspapers for city of Georgetown report
http://www.star-telegram.com/news/doc/1047/1:STATE44/1:STATE440103101.html

by Lisa Falkenberg
Associated Press
AUSTIN -- All completed reports prepared for local and state agencies are 
public and should not be withheld under claims of attorney-client privilege 
when a government is facing a lawsuit, Attorney General John Cornyn argued in 
court Wednesday. 
Cornyn appeared before the Texas Supreme Court in an attempt to force 
Georgetown city officials to release to newspapers an engineering report 
detailing problems at a wastewater treatment plant.
The report was written in 1999 as the city faced two lawsuits over the plant. 
Georgetown officials refused to turn it over to the Williamson County Sun and 
the Austin American-Statesman.



The Telegraph 01/04/01
Obituary: The Reverend Frederick Turner
http://www.dailytelegraph.co.uk/dt?ac=003864597403343&rtmo=psS3peIe&atmo=rrrrr

rrq&pg=/01/1/4/db01.html

THE REVEREND FREDERICK TURNER, SJ, who has died aged 90, as archivist and 
librarian of the 400-year-old Stonyhurst College, knew more than anyone about 
the school's remarkable history. 
To Freddie Turner the past was a living present. When, recently, the Queen 
recalled her visit to Stonyhurst in 1993 she asked who was the wonderful man 
who showed her round the library and knew everything about the school. It 
was, of course, Father Turner, whose associations with Stonyhurst had begun 
in 1922. 



Taipei Times 01/04/01
Lu to review records of phone calls
http://www.taipeitimes.com/news/2001/01/04/story/0000068347

by Lin Mei-chun
Vice President Annette Lu (§f¨q½) has won access to the phone records of Yang 
Chao (·¨·Ó), editor in chief of the magazine she's suing for libel. 
The records could potentially bolster the vice president's case against The 
Journalist, or sink it. 
Lu is suing the magazine after it reported on Nov. 16 that the vice president 
called a "high ranking media member" on Nov. 3 to spread rumors of an affair 
between President Chen Shui-bian (³¯¤ô«ó) and Hsiao Bi-khim (¿½üµ^), one of 
the president's closest aides. 



Boston Globe 01/04/01
Court: biological parents can seek unsealing of adoption files
http://www.boston.com/dailynews/004/region/Court_biological_parents_can_s:.sht

ml

by Joel Stashenko
Associated Press
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) Biological parents and not just the children they have 
given up for adoption can seek to have adoption records unsealed in New York 
for medical purposes, a state court decided Thursday. 
The Appellate Division of state Supreme Court ruling overturned a 
determination by a Family Court judge in Broome County. The judge ruled that 
the section of a 1994 state law allowing for the unsealing of adoption 
records in some cases applies only to petitions filed by children seeking to 
know more about their biological parents. 



Las Vegas Sun 01/04/01
EPA requests records on Freon handling
http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/lv-gov/2001/jan/04/511255613.html

by Adrienne Packer
An internal audit that showed no wrongdoing on Clark County's part in a case 
of missing Freon didn't throw off the Environmental Protection Agency, which 
has requested copies of county records. 
The EPA's San Francisco office has requested records detailing refrigerant 
acquisitions, purchases and repair invoices during a two-year period 
beginning Jan. 1, 1999. It also asked for records showing who handled the 
refrigerant. 
EPA officials also want to see the names and addresses of reclamation 
facilities used and the amount and type of refrigerant sent to the 
facilities. 



Austin American-Statesman 01/04/01
Cornyn argues for release of city's engineering report
http://www.austin360.com/statesman/editions/today/metro_state_12.html

by Carter Nelsen
Texas Attorney General John Cornyn squared off against the City of Georgetown 
on Wednesday, asking the state Supreme Court to declare a city engineering 
report public information. 
But several Supreme Court justices said they worried that such a decision 
could set a harmful precedent by limiting the attorney-client privilege 
between municipal governments and their lawyers. 
Cornyn, making his second personal appearance before the court as attorney 
general, argued that recent changes to the state's open records law make the 
engineering report a public document. He was joined by a lawyer for the 
Austin American-Statesman, which also has asked for release of the report. 



San Jose Mercury News 01/03/01
California public records law now covers electronic data
Digital format must be available if facts are stored that way
http://www0.mercurycenter.com/partners/distribution/docs/public010401.htm

by Truon Phuoc Khanh
If information is power, a new state law just ordered the government to give 
more power to the people, electronically speaking. 
The California Public Records Act finally caught up with the technological 
revolution and, as of Monday, requires local and state agencies to share 
public records with the public in an electronic format if that is how the 
data is stored. 
Until now, agencies could release public data in any format of their choice. 
Even if an agency had the information in their computers, they could instead 
dump mounds of paperwork on a requester who then would have the 
time-consuming task of sorting through thousands of pages of printed 
materials manually. 



Washington Post 01/04/01
Glitch opens AT&T records to view
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A16312-2001Jan3.html

A glitch on a private Web site used by AT&T Corp. to display billing 
information for its customers briefly gave small businesses the opportunity 
to view other companies' phone records before AT&T disabled the site on 
Tuesday, the company acknowledged yesterday.
AT&T said it found no evidence that any mischief-maker exploited the glitch, 
which would have allowed unauthorized access to logs of calls made and other 
billing information.



Augusta Chronicle 01/04/01
Artifacts' prognosis unknown
http://augustachronicle.com/stories/010401/met_205-4906.000.shtml

by Margaret N. O'Shea
South Carolina Bureau
AIKEN - A week after fire damaged the museum which honors thoroughbred racing 
champions that trained in Aiken, 200-year-old race records and other 
irreplaceable artifacts still are drying out.
An insurance adjuster has looked at them and left with no clear idea about 
what can be salvaged, Parks and Recreation Director Terry Rhinehart said 
Wednesday. 
What is clear is that no amount of money can buy replacements. Most of the 
items that got wet when a sprinkler system kicked in to douse the attic fire 
are one of a kind, Mr. Rhinehart said. The key to saving them is how well 
they dry. 



Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 01/04/01
Allegheny County assessment notices delayed
6,000 reviews hold up mailings at least a week
http://www.post-gazette.com/regionstate/20010103sabrereg4.asp

by Mark Belko
Allegheny County property owners will have to wait at least another week 
before they start receiving their final reassessment notices in the mail. 
The county's new oversight board yesterday delayed certification of the new 
assessments until Monday to give Sabre Systems and Service time to finish up 
reviews of about 6,000 properties whose values had been challenged by the 
owners. 
The county also wanted the extra time to work out any glitches in the 
transfer of property data from Sabre files to its own system, said Norman 
Mekkelsen, director of the Department of Administrative Services. 





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

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