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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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