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RAIN 04/04: Poor records = No paycheck, also privacy concerns on the web



Editor & Publisher Online 04/03/01
Public wants FOI, but not at privacy's expense
New ASNE survey shows support for Press
http://www.mediainfo.com/ephome/news/newshtm/stories/040301n10.htm

by Joe Strupp
WASHINGTON - Most Americans strongly believe the press should have access to
government proceedings, but remain concerned that too much access is harmful
if it affects personal privacy, according to a study released Tuesday at the
American Society of Newspaper Editors conference being held here. The
survey, released by ASNE and the First Amendment Coalition, was conducted
through phone interviews with 1,005 adults in November 2000 by researchers
at the University of Connecticut Center for Survey Research and Analysis.


Boston Globe 4/04/01
School records sought in Zantop murder case
http://www.boston.com/dailynews/094/region/School_records_sought_in_Zanto:.s
html

by Harry R. Weber
Associated Press
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) An investigative grand jury probing the murders of two
Dartmouth College professors has subpoenaed student records related to the
two teen-age suspects, officials said Wednesday.
The subpoena issued by the Grafton County grand jury seeks production of
''certain student records pertaining to James Parker and Robert Tulloch,''
the Chelsea School District said in a statement.



Sacramento Bee 4/04/01
Bills would bar secret liability settlements
http://www.capitolalert.com/news/capalert08_20010404.html

by Kevin Yamamura
Rekindling a long-standing battle between lawyers and manufacturers, a bill
that would make public the product flaws that emerge in liability lawsuits
cleared a state Senate committee Tuesday.
The measure - and a companion bill in the Assembly - resume nearly a
decade's worth of legislative attempts to reveal information often kept
private because of secret settlements.
The Legislature's two Judiciary Committee chairs - state Sen. Martha
Escutia, D-Montebello, and Assemblyman Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento -
want to prohibit information found in the litigation discovery process from
being kept confidential.



Cincinnati Post 4/02/01
Online day-care records far from comprehensive
http://www.cincypost.com/2001/apr/02/carewb040201.html

by Nancy Firor
The tri-state's most serious day-care accidents usually are not posted on a
Web site that's been set up by the state to let parents review day-care
center licensing records.
Because state rules don't require day-care programs to report
life-threatening incidents, workers in the state's Child-Licensing Section
have been trying to reward them when they do report problems. So, unless
incidents are followed by complaints that the state has deemed
'substantiated,' the state has not been posting incidents, which in 1999,
included a 3-year-old sustaining multiple skull fractures after a worker
threw him in the air.



Topeka Capital-Journal 4/4/01
KCC keeps Western books private, for now
http://cjonline.com/stories/040401/bus_kccwestern.shtml

by Jim McLean
State utility regulators declined Tuesday to declassify records detailing
the use Western Resources' corporate jets.
But the Kansas Corporation Commission said the aircraft logs and
confidential information contained in executive compensation agreements
could be made public during hearings on a $151 million rate increase
requested by Western. Those hearings are scheduled to start May 17 and last
for about two weeks.



CNN.com 4/4/01
EBay: Users' infor could be sold in acquisition
http://www.cnn.com/2001/TECH/industry/04/04/ebay.privacy.ap/index.html

Associated Press
SAN JOSE, California (AP) -- Online auction powerhouse eBay Inc. is telling
users their personal data would be shared if eBay is bought out or merges
with another company.
The new privacy policy takes effect May 15, but eBay already has placed
notices about it on its site, which counted 22 million registered users at
the beginning of the year.



The Virginian-Pilot 4/4/01
Beach turns over dolphin-tank papers to PETA
http://www.pilotonline.com/news/nw0404pet.html

by Jon Frank
VIRGINIA BEACH -- City officials on Tuesday turned over at least 15 boxes of
documents dealing with the Virginia Marine Science Museum's dolphin-tank
expansion project to an animal rights group that sued for access to the
information.
Attorneys for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, the Norfolk-based
group that went to court last week for the access, began going through the
boxes at the city attorney's office on Tuesday.
Additional documents were still coming by late afternoon, said Lisa Lange, a
PETA spokeswoman.



San Francisco Chronicle 4/4/01
Housing agency misspent $18.1 million, audit show
HUD investigators blame poor records
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2001/04/04
/MNW42938.DTL

by Patrick Hoge
San Francisco -- Federal auditors reported yesterday that the San Francisco
Housing Authority may have misspent $18.1 million on renovation projects
that used "in house" labor teams instead of independent contractors.
The agency allegedly kept such poor records that it cannot prove where the
money was spent, according to an audit by the U.S. Department of Housing and
Urban Development's Office of Inspector General.



Information Week 4/2/01
Radical Simplicity: Simplify that e-mail
http://www.informationweek.com/831/emails.htm

by Eric Chabrow
While there's plenty of room to improve the ways IT products are designed,
configured, and supported, the people who use technology can do their part
to control complexity. Misuse can also be a culprit, so even the simplest
applications become burdensome.
Take E-mail, arguably the most-used IT application. In countless ways, it
has simplified communication. But its ubiquity has caused E-mail volume to
swell to sometimes-overwhelming proportions. Spend a few days away from the
office, and 300 messages lie in wait on that first morning back. Now, that's
complex.



Los Angeles Times 4/4/01
Interest grows in Freedmen's Bank
http://www.latimes.com/business/cutting/20010404/t000028554.html

by Beverly Beyette
Created in 1865 to protect newly freed slaves from swindlers and to instill
in them habits of "thrift and industry," the Freedman's Savings & Trust Co.
did neither, ultimately going belly-up with millions of dollars of their
money. But now, more than a century later, its depositors' records may help
thousands of African Americans find their roots.
"What was really a tragedy has turned into a marvelous treasure," said Elder
John B. Dickson, western North American president of the Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints, which undertook the task of transferring
largely unusable microfilms onto a user-friendly CD-ROM. "That's the
beautiful part of a very sad moment in American history."



The Halifax Herald Limited 4/4/01
Mountie to appeal dismissal
http://www.herald.ns.ca/cgi-bin/home/displaystory?2001/04/04+171.raw+Canada+
2001/04/04

by Bob Weber
The Canadian Press
Edmonton - Defiant to the last, an RCMP officer ordered to quit or be fired
after he leaked police documents about biker gangs says he'll fight the
decision.
Staff-Sgt. Bob Stenhouse, who received the sentence Tuesday morning, said he
feels he's being scapegoated and plans an appeal to battle what he feels is
a message that police officers have no right to publicly criticize their
supervisors.



Syracuse.com 4/4/01
Arafat gave Clintons jewelry, archives took custody
http://www.syracuse.com/newsflash/index.ssf?/cgi-free/getstory_ssf.cgi?n0938
_BC_NY--Clinton-Arafat&&news&newsflash-newyork-syr

Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Palestinian Chairman Yasser Arafat gave Bill and Hillary
Rodham Clinton $23,600 worth of jewelry and other presents last year which
the first couple turned over to government archives along with a long list
of other gifts from world leaders, according to records.
The gifts from Arafat included gold choker necklaces, diamond earrings and
mother-of-pearl shadow boxes, decorated with scenes including the Nativity
and the Last Supper.



The News Herald 4/3/01
Record glitches leaves Cedar Grove officials with no paychecks
http://www.newsherald.com/articles/2001/04/03/lo040301e.htm

by Todd Twilley
Pay was withheld Monday from the Cedar Grove mayor and city commissioners
because of out-of-date financial records and a shortage of funds, city
officials said.
City administrator James Woods said that he would have felt uncomfortable
signing the checks because of the outdated financial records. But he also
said the city was experiencing a cash-flow problem.



The Daily Camera 4/03/01
Online records: Public or Private?
http://www.bouldernews.com/news/local/03lname.html

by Chris Barge
Keeping up with the Joneses may still require some footwork when the Boulder
County Treasurer's Office posts its records online.
At least, that's how Treasurer Sandy Hume would prefer it.
Hume plans to ask the Boulder County commissioners today for permission to
delete the name of every taxpayer on the county property tax rolls scheduled
to hit the county's Web site in the next couple of weeks.
"My reluctance on this falls in the face of a rising tide of a loss of
privacy," Hume said.
Other county officials - including all three commissioners - say they are
undecided about just how much of the public record should be made available
online.



The Daily Camera 4/4/01
Treasurer might edit online records
http://www.bouldernews.com/news/local/04lname.html

by Chris Barge
Al Kolwicz can think of plenty of reasons why the Boulder County Treasurer's
Office shouldn't edit property tax records before posting them on the World
Wide Web.
The Boulder resident wrote a letter Tuesday to the Boulder County
Commissioners explaining how publishing the full records online "does
nothing to reduce privacy and does much to improve public policy."
But after hearing from Treasurer Sandy Hume, the commissioners refrained
from telling Hume how to handle his Web site when the records roll onto the
Internet.





PsycPORT 4/3/01
Mental records must be revealed, says Federal judge
http://www.psycport.com/news/2001/04/03/eng-aggregatelaw/eng-aggregatelaw_11
1257_232_198629181366.html

Shannon P. Duffy
The Legal Intelligencer
A plaintiff's records from psychotherapy must be turned over to the defense
whenever the plaintiff is pressing a claim for emotional distress, a federal
judge has ruled -- even when the plaintiff insists that the therapy had
nothing to do with his lawsuit and that he doesn't plan to call his
therapist as a witness.
In his 11-page opinion in Sanchez v. USAir , Senior U.S. District Judge
Clifford Scott Green found that a therapist's records of a plaintiff's
emotional distress are legally similar to any other medical records -- even
from a knee injury.



Edmonton Sun 4/4/01
Resign or be fired
Mountie given ultimatum for leaking biker information to author
http://www.canoe.ca/EdmontonNews/es.es-04-04-0010.html

by Andrea Wiebe
A Mountie who can quit or be fired for leaking secret police documents to a
book author says the RCMP are now ordering him to shut down his private
investigator business.
"I don't see how they can tell me I can't insure my future," said Staff Sgt.
Bob Stenhouse. "In my view, it's just another form of harassment."



St. Petersburg Times 4/04/01
Pinellas Park police captain blocks release of documents
<http://www.sptimes.com/News/040401/SouthPinellas/Pinellas_Park_police_.shtm
l>

by Anne Lindberg
PINELLAS PARK -- Claiming he is the victim of a political "witch hunt" and
an illegal search, a police captain has blocked the release of documents
that he thinks are of a "most private nature."
Robert Hempel, 46, won temporary injunctions against Pinellas Park and the
Pinellas County Sheriff's Office, which have been investigating his use of
his private computer on city time and on city business.
Hempel, who was being groomed as the next chief as recently as a year ago,
did not explain what officers might have found on his laptop computer.




NewsFactor Network 4/3/01
Study: U.S. needs to improve e-access to documents
http://www.newsfactor.com/perl/story/8657.html

by John L. Micek
The U.S. government is generally doing a good job of providing the public
with electronic access to its documents, but there's still room for
improvement, a recently released study reveals.
The audit by the congressional General Accounting Office (GAO) found that
officials at both the U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) and the U.S.
Library of Congress (LOC) must ensure that the government provides equal
access to all documents.



Tallahassee Democrat 4/4/01
Legislative briefs: Bill gives equal access to records
http://web.tallahasseedemocrat.com/content/tallahassee/2001/04/04/local/0404
.loc.lexbriefs.htm

A bill to reinforce laws giving both parents, regardless of who has primary
custody of a child, equal access to health and school records went to Gov.
Jeb Bush on Tuesday.



The Greeley Tribune 4/4/01
UNC receives gift of Michener
http://www.greeleytrib.com/article.php?sid=721

by Gloria Reynolds
Twenty-two documentary films in which James Michener was the host in the
1970s now belong to the University of Northern Colorado.
The films will be a part of the James A. Michener Special Collection in the
UNC library named after the author.
Edward Piszek, Michener's friend and travelling companion who produced the
documentaries, donated the original films and all the rights to them to UNC.

The gift is valued at $500,000, but Michener collection archivist Roiann
Baird said its value goes far beyond the appraised dollar amount.



KCRA 4/3/01
Students hack into school's records
Some students bought attendance changes
http://www.thekcrachannel.com/sac/news/localnews/stories/news-localnews-5717
1620010403-190459.html

STOCKTON, Calif., 5:23 p.m. PDT April 3, 2001 -- Twenty-six Lincoln High
School students have been suspended, with some facing expulsion, for hacking
into the Stockton's school's computer system and changing attendance
records.
School officials said that the students were charging classmates $5 each to
change their attendance records, erasing absences and tardies.


Birmingham News 4/4/01
Trussville mayor, officials spend D.C. trip in archives
http://www.al.com/news/birmingham/?Apr2001/4-e310612b.html

by Patrick Hickerson
Three Trussville officials returned last month from a trip to Washington,
D.C., with heavier luggage.
The extra pounds weren't the fruits of a souvenir spending spree that went
expensively awry.
Mayor Gene Melton and City Council members John Garrison and Wayne Taylor
were tucked away for days in the recesses of the National Archives Annex in
College Park, Md., copying federal documents detailing the Cahaba Project's
history.




MSNBC 4/2/01
Web host's customer database stolen
Hacker claims theft of 46,000 ADDR.com client records
http://www.msnbc.com/news/553615.asp?cp1=1

by Bob Sullivan
A computer criminal claims to have stolen personal information on 46,000
customers from Web hosting company ADDR.com. The data includes account names
and passwords that could be used to alter Web site content, as well as
credit card information. Several victims of the heist report finding
thousands of dollars in fraudulent charges on the credit cards in recent
weeks. ADDR.com has so far not commented on the alleged heist.




Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel 4/4/01
Who are you? Proving your identity - with a duplicate birth certificate or
Social Security card - is harder than you might think
http://www.pioneerplanet.com/seven-days/tod/living/docs/40662.htm

by Allison Kaplan
You need identification to obtain key pieces of identification. The process
can be a frustrating Catch-22, state registrar of vital statistics Barbara
Bednarczyk admits with a nervous laugh -- particularly for people whose
wallets have been lost or stolen.
Replacing a Social Security card or certified birth certificate has become
more difficult recently. That is a response to fears about the growing
problem of identity theft, which occurs when someone uses your personal
information, like a birth date or Social Security number, to commit fraud or
theft.







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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