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RAIN 3/30: FOIA activity



Editor & Publisher Online 03/28/01
Supreme Court hears arguments in Times v Tasini
http://www.mediainfo.com/ephome/news/newshtm/stories/032801n5.htm

by Todd Shields
Newspapers could face massive liability and online databases could be gutted
if freelance writers retain rights to their articles in electronic archives,
a publishers' lawyer told the U.S. Supreme Court today.
A lawyer for those suing the publishers told the justices that media company
defendants had no right to post writers' work online without compensation.


Arkansas Democrat Gazette 3/28/01
Senate bill to open closed records of state development agency fails
http://www.ardemgaz.com/week/Wed/ark/B3yxgr-aded28.html

by Michael R. Wickline
The Senate State Agencies and Governmental Affairs Committee on Tuesday
balked at a bill that would virtually eliminate the exemption of the
Department of Economic Development's records from the Arkansas Freedom of
Information Act.
Senate Bill 790 by Sen. Mike Everett, D-Marked Tree, would do away with the
department's exemption but would still provide that the private records of
any business dealing with the department that are in the department's
possession would not be disclosed.



Bergen Record 3/28/01
DYFS worker says she used sketchy data
http://www.bergen.com/region/dyfsnp200103286.htm

by Nancy Parello
A former state Division of Youth and Family Services rookie caseworker
testified Tuesday that her boss told her to create records documenting
incidents that happened years before she worked at the division.
Zanete Coates often used sketchy notes and other information to complete the
files or relied on caseworkers' memories for incidents dating as far back as
1996, she testified in a U.S. District Court.



Bergen Record 3/29/01
DYFS supervisor denies doctoring child records
http://www.bergen.com/region/dyfs29200103292.htm

by Nancy Parello
A state Division of Youth and Family Services supervisor testified in
federal court Wednesday that she primarily wanted to be sure files were
"neat" when she ordered a review of records of all 1,650 cases in her
office.
Bettye Fowler, district office manager in Camden, said the so-called "audit"
was not intended to update files or discover whether important records were
missing. The files represent the histories of 3,091 children, many of them
abused and neglected.


Charleston Daily Mail 03/28/01
Documents supporting man's pardon not found
Director of archives says issue part of larger problem
http://www.dailymail.com/news/News/2001032724/

by Todd C. Frankel
A paper trail of supporting documents doesn't exist in state archives for a
governor's pardon issued in 1996 to a Weirton man who would benefit from a
new bill on the verge of becoming a law.
Mario Perito of Weirton was pardoned by former Gov. Gaston Caperton on Nov.
12, 1996, in the waning months of Caperton's administration. Perito now
wants his criminal record to be expunged.


Topeka Capital Journal 3/28/01
Utility, CURB bicker over jet logs
http://cjonline.com/stories/032801/bus_wrjetlogs.shtml

by Jim McLean
The head of a state consumer agency on Tuesday charged Western Resources is
attempting to keep investigators from reviewing potentially sensitive
information about company operations before the start of hearings on its
$151 million rate increase request.
Walker Hendrix, chief attorney for the Citizens Utility Ratepayers Board,
said Western hasn't provided his agency with much of the information it
requested about the use of corporate jets and the compensation packages of
top executives despite a recent Kansas Corporation Commission order to
produce the documents.


LeHigh Valley News 3/28/01
Group seeking open records
http://www.mcall.com/html/news/regional/b_pg010b10_openrecords.htm

Associated Press
HERSHEY (AP) -- Replacing Pennsylvania's 44-year-old open records law with
an updated version would be one of the immediate goals of a new
open-government coalition planned by Pennsylvania newspaper editors,
broadcasters, attorneys and civic activists.
Open-government advocates shared stories Monday about being denied access to
public documents during a workshop sponsored by the Pennsylvania Newspaper
Association.



The Virginian- Pilot 3/28/01
Beach agrees to open dolphin tank records to PETA
http://www.pilotonline.com/news/nw0328foi.html

by Jon Frank
VIRGINIA BEACH -- After admitting ``deficiencies'' in complying with the
state's Freedom of Information Act, attorneys for Virginia Beach agreed on
Tuesday to turn over to a Norfolk-based animal-rights group all documents
concerning the dolphin tank expansion at the Virginia Marine Science Museum.

The agreement marks the second time in less than a week that the city's
compliance with the state's FOI law has been challenged in court.



New York Times 3/28/01
Workplace: W-2s swallowed by dot-com black hole
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/03/28/technology/28LOST.html

Talk about adding insult to injury. First, they lost their jobs and were
cast into an uncertain market that has since shattered their dreams of
striking it rich. Now, a more prosaic prize is eluding many of the victims
of the dot-com blowout: the W-2 forms they need to fill out their income tax
forms.
With the April 15 tax-filing deadline looming, some former employees of
defunct Internet companies say they still have not received their 2000 tax
statements that should have been sent out in January. And that has often
meant trying to track down executives from companies that have disappeared,
plus calls to the Internal Revenue Service, payroll companies and bankruptcy
trustees to find out how to get the necessary paperwork to calculate their
taxes.



Orlando Sentinel 3/27/01
HealthSouth plans 'digital hospital'
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/technology/sns-digital.story?coll=sns%2Dtechn
ology%2Dheadlines

by Jay Reeves
Associated Press
Rehabilitation specialist HealthSouth Corp. said this week it will build a
prototype for the medical center of the future -- a fully digital hospital.
Robots won"t replace surgeons and Band-Aids won"t give way to electronic
patches, but each bed will have its own Internet connection, letting
physicians and nurses check and update patient records online.



Toledo Blade 3/28/01
Editorial: A library is teaching
http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/artikkel?Avis=TO&Dato=20010328&Kate
gori=OPINION02&Lopenr=103280039&Ref=AR

Perhaps the University of Toledo, which still seems not to appreciate the
value of a library to a university, will never get it.
Library staff by last October had shrunk from 28 to 14 due to retirements
and a 17-month hiring freeze. Now it stands at 12. And it appears the
university is in no hurry to rectify the situation. The response of those in
charge amounts to little more than a bizarre excuse that libraries aren't
what universities are about.



USA Today 3/27/01
Documents from Chretien's sale made public
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2001-03-27-chretien.htm

Associated Press
TORONTO (AP) - Prime Minister Jean Chretien insisted Tuesday that a
handwritten bill of sale and other documents he made public show there was
no impropriety in a controversial land deal that prompted conflict of
interest allegations against him.
Under increasing pressure from political opponents and Canadian media over
the controversy, Chretien said the documents showed accusations by his
enemies were empty.



Salt Lake Tribune 3/29/01
Project hopes to collect everything Einstein ever wrote
http://www.sltrib.com/03292001/thursday/83787.htm

by Bettijane Levine
Los Angeles Times
This has to be a mistake. There, on the bookstore shelf, packed with weighty
physics volumes, lies a slick little book titled Driving Mr. Albert. Its
cover shows the rear end of a Buick with the license plate "EMC2." Its plot
is bizarre: Young man drives cross-country with old doctor who stole
Einstein's brain 45 years ago and never gave it back. They roll westward
with the sliced-and-diced brain in a Tupperware bowl in a gray duffel bag in
the Buick's trunk. The doc shows it off every now and then to strangers he
meets in coffee shops.



ABC News Online 3/30/01
Indigenous records to be returned to community
http://www.abc.net.au/news/regionals/alice/regalice-30mar2001-1.htm

Records from the 1930s taken from indigenous people in the Pitjantjatjara
lands of central Australia will be returned to the community under a new
archive project.
Fifteen teachers in Ernabella will be trained to use a computer archive
program to pass on the community's cultural history.



Arizona Central 3/29/01
Florida makes Earnhardt autopsy photos private
http://www.azcentral.com/news/reuters/stories/SPORTS-NASCAR-EARNHARDT-DC.sht
ml

by Michael Peltier
TALLAHASSEE - Florida governor Jeb Bush on Thursday signed into law a bill
making autopsy photos private, in response to media attempts to view the
post-mortem pictures of NASCAR racing legend Dale Earnhardt.
Flanked by lawmakers and Earnhardt's widow, Teresa, Bush said the law walks
the delicate balance between protecting a family's privacy and respecting
the public's right to access government records.


Dallas Morning News 3/29/01
Gov. Bush signs bill to keep Earnhardt autopsy photos closed
http://www.dallasnews.com/latestnews/324682_earnhardt29e.html

Associated Press
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - Standing beside Dale Earnhardt's widow, Gov. Jeb Bush
signed a bill Thursday to keep autopsy photos closed to the public unless a
judge approves their release.
The law sprang from an outcry over the Orlando Sentinel's request to see
Earnhardt's autopsy photos. Teresa Earnhardt led the protests, saying she
wanted to protect her family's privacy.



Dallas Morning News 3/29/01
Officials reviewing security after $267,000 theft from TCU collection
http://www.dallasnews.com/metro/stories/324242_tcutheft_29met.html

by Nancy Calaway
FORT WORTH - Officials are reviewing security measures at Texas Christian
University after more than $267,000 worth of pre-Columbian artifacts were
pilfered from a library storage room this month.
More than 100 of the missing Peruvian pottery items are part of the
Moorehead Collection, which was donated to the university about five years
ago, officials said.


Dallas Morning News 3/29/01
Tornado's lasting effects
Some businesses still waiting for calm after the storm
http://www.dallasnews.com/metro/stories/324236_torn_29met.ART.html

by Debra Dennis
FORT WORTH - In the year since a powerful tornado struck downtown, knocking
windows out of high-rises and scattering debris across the landscape,
several business owners haven't fully recovered.
Business owners talked Wednesday about lessons of patience and faith they
learned from the storm, which took five lives, caused $450 million in damage
and closed downtown for five days.



Evansville Courier & Press 3/26/01
Courts want growing room
http://www.courierpress.com/cgi-bin/view.cgi?200103/26+room032601_news.html+
20010326

by Dave Hosick
Why not kill two birds with one stone?
That's the question a committee of the Evansville Bar Association will pose
tonight to the Vanderburgh County Commissioners, hoping plans for a new jail
will also include plans for additional courtrooms and offices.
The bar association's courthouse action committee has spent several months
looking at the needs of the Vanderburgh County courts.
The committee recently provided a wish list to commissioners, proposing
courtrooms in the new jail building, renovating vacated space at the Civic
Center and using the Old Courthouse as a central archive for court records.
"Something needs to be improved," committee co-chairman George Porch
recently said.



Asbury Park Press 3/29/01
Public records reform bill loses backing
http://www.app.com/news/app/story/0,2110,373682,00.html

by Michael Symons
Gannett State Bureau
TRENTON -- Revisions to legislation that would change the rules for making
public records available have prompted the New Jersey Press Association to
withdraw its support for the bill, after it had lobbied for such reforms for
15 years.
"We're actively opposing it if it's amended this way," NJPA attorney Thomas
Cafferty said.
The NJPA objects most strongly to two sections of the amended bill. One
denies access to some records now available under common law. The other
establishes a privacy commission that could exempt additional records.






Peter A. Kurilecz CRM, CA
Manager, Records Management Group
Woodside Summit Group Inc
Midlothian, Virginia
Office: 804-744-1247 x23
Fax: 804-744-4947
mailto:peter.kurilecz@woodsidesummitgroup.com

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