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RAIN 04/12: Spoliation $ fine, steno notes destroyed and Bozo's first found



Tampa Tribune 4/11/01
Autopsy photos and medical teaching
http://www.tampatrib.com/News/MGA27NY6ELC.html

Vern Adams, Hillsborough County's medical examiner, worries whether he
should go ahead tonight and give a lecture to medical students using autopsy
photographs.
His specialty is pathology. Autopsy photographs go hand in hand with the
subject matter he teaches.
BUT AS ADAMS told Tribune reporter Gary Sprott last week, he may have to
cancel the lecture in light of the Legislature's quick and unfortunate
decision to exempt autopsy photographs from the state's public records law.


Akron Beacon Journal 4/11/01
Council wants to meet privately
http://www.ohio.com/dist/ns/015123.htm

by Kymberli Hagelberg
NORTH CANTON: For decades, state law has given politicians the right to talk
about certain things out of earshot of the press and public -- virtually
everywhere but here. Until October the meetings were held anyway.
Those meetings -- executive sessions -- will become legal if voters approve
an amendment to the city charter next month.
The issue on the May ballot would modify city rules, which say all meetings
are to be held in public. The provision would permit the City Council to
hold closed-door meetings to discuss personnel issues, pending legal action,
the purchase of property, security issues, employee bargaining sessions, and
negotiations and matters ruled confidential by federal law.



MSNBC 4/11/01
Do prescription records stay private when pharmacy stores are sold?
http://www.msnbc.com/news/557734.asp?cp1=1

by Milo Geyelin
Wall Street Journal
A novel lawsuit over the privacy of prescription records at a former
neighborhood drug store could complicate the way pharmacy chains buy up
their competitors. The suit challenges the common but little-known practice
of "file buying," in which chains purchase customer prescription files from
pharmacies they acquire and add them to their own.
LAUNCHED BY AN AIDS PATIENT in state court in New York, the suit contends
that CVS Corp. illegally obtained his prescription records when it bought
and subsequently closed a family-owned drug store he frequented and then
logged his medical information into its huge database without his consent.




Freedomforum.org 4/11/01
Kentucky appeals panel criticizes open-records delays
http://www.freedomforum.org/templates/document.asp?documentID=13647

Associated Press
FRANKFORT, Ky. - Delays by public agencies in meeting deadlines for
disclosing information under the Kentucky Open Records Law could subject the
agencies to fines, the state Court of Appeals ruled late last month.
The records law requires public agencies to respond to requests for
documents within three days.
"The duty to properly respond does not place an undue burden upon public
servants," Judge David Barber wrote for the three-judge panel in a unanimous
opinion issued March 30.
The case arose after George William Sykes of Central City asked the Franklin
County Correctional Complex and Jailer James Kemper for arrest records for
two periods in 1992 and 1993.



Florida Times-Union 4/10/01
Court reinstates Pensacola public records conviction
http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/apnews/stories/041001/D7B9PSU81.html

Associated Press
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - An appellate court Tuesday reinstated a former Escambia
County school board member's conviction for violating Florida's public
records law.
Vanette Webb, of Pensacola, had served seven days of a 30-day jail sentence
in 1999 when a new judge threw out her conviction on grounds prosecutors had
failed to admit into evidence or adequately identify the records she was
accused of withholding from one of her critics.



London Free Press 4/11/01
Destruction Order mystifies experts
http://www.canoe.ca/LondonNews/lf.lf-04-11-0020.html

MONTREAL -- Search and destroy.

That was the operative command to bailiffs acting on the authority of the
Quebec Superior Court when they raided the home, cottage and office of
Francois Beaudoin, the former president of the taxpayer-funded Business
Development Bank on Saturday.
Lawyers and legal experts contacted by Sun Media yesterday said they were
mystified by the destroy order and most declined comment.
Some were reluctant to say anything because they were either friends of the
judge or expected to argue a case before him in the future.



Nando Times 4/11/01
Moody's ordered to pay $195,000 fine for destroying documents
http://www.nando.com/noframes/business/story/0,2469,500472371-500723903-5040
63297-0,00.html

by Karen Gullo
Associated Press
WASHINGTON (April 10, 2001 9:44 p.m. EDT http://www.nandotimes.com) - One of
the nation's largest credit-rating agencies, Moody's Investors Service Inc.,
pleaded guilty to destroying documents it was supposed to turn over during
an antitrust investigation.
The agency was ordered to pay a $195,000 criminal fine, the Justice
Department said Tuesday.
In a one-count felony case filed in U.S. District Court in New York, Moody's
was charged with obstructing justice in connection with a subpoena it
received in 1996 from the Justice Department's antitrust division. The
department was investigating anticompetitive practices in the bond-rating
services industry.



Federal Computer Week 4/11/01
NARA e-records budget balloons
http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2001/0409/web-nara-04-11-01.asp

by William Matthews
The National Archives and Records Administration wants to spend $20 million
on its electronic records archive in 2002, more than 20 times the amount
budgeted for this year. The money is included in the Archives' budget
request sent to Congress April 9.
The electronic archive is a digital records storage system being designed so
that NARA can store electronic records in digital form that will be readable
on computers even hundreds of years in the future.



New Jersey Online 4/11/01
Horvath's plea records are missing
http://www.nj.com/news/expresstimes/index.ssf?/news/expresstimes/front/horva
th.html

by Nicole Radzievich
The Express-Times
EASTON - Northampton County detectives have hit a road block in their
investigation of acting Pen Argyl Police Chief Steven Horvath's 20-year-old
guilty plea to indecent assault charges.
County detectives are trying to determine if Horvath's plea included an
agreement never to be a police officer.
But authorities have been unable to locate the records, District Attorney
John Morganelli said.
Horvath's file contains no court order that such a deal was reached. No
transcripts of the plea hearing were ever made, and investigators were
looking for the stenographer notes, which have not been transcribed.




New Jersey Online 4/11/01
To archivist's surprise, court notes gone
http://www.nj.com/news/expresstimes/index.ssf?/news/expresstimes/front/missi
ng6.html

by Nicole Radzievich
The Express-Times
EASTON - Records of court conversations from the 1970s were destroyed last
month to make space in the Northampton County Courthouse basement for the
district attorney's office, officials said.
The county's chief archivist said she didn't find out about it until after
the records were gone.
"As chief archivist, someone should have informed me that this was being
done," Renee Drago said Tuesday. "This was done behind my back."
The records consisted of a stenographer's shorthand notes that were never
transcribed.
It was unclear how many records were destroyed, but they all came from a
stenographer who has since died.




St. Petersburg Times 4/11/01
Editorial: Attack on public records
http://www.sptimes.com/News/041101/Opinion/Attack_on_public_reco.shtml

Between neophyte legislators who don't understand them and lobbyists who do
only too well, Florida's open-government laws have never been in such peril
as now. The First Amendment Foundation is tracking more than 130 bills
dealing with public records or public meetings. A few are helpful, some are
innocuous, but many are deeply threatening to the public's right to know
what government is doing with their lives, their property and their trust.



Washington Post 4/11/01
Records sought in Va. Care facility death
http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/metro/va/A2323-2001Apr10.html

by Ian Shapira
Fauquier County sheriff's detectives have executed a search warrant for the
medical records of Gerald J. Wood, a former resident of a Warrenton assisted
living facility who allegedly struck an 83-year-old resident in a wheelchair
who later died from her injuries.
The warrant allowed law enforcement officials to seize medical records at
Loudoun Hospital Center's behavioral medicine and mental health unit in
Leesburg, where Wood, 53, was placed after the incident.
Capt. Fred Pfeiff, of the Fauquier County Sheriff's Office, would not talk
about the substance of the medical records. But he said deputies plan to
hand over the case to Fauquier County Commonwealth's Attorney Jonathan S.
Lynn after they finish evaluating the records this week.
"We need to see if the records are going to be instrumental in the
prosecution of this case," Pfeiff said.




RedHerring.com 4/11/01
Scopeware freshens data organization
http://www.redherring.com/index.asp?layout=story&channel=10000001&doc_id=960
018896

by Ronald Recinto
Ten years ago in his book Mirror Worlds, David Gelertner drew a bleak
picture of a future drowning in data, "a dense clinging fog of information,
full of numbers and images emitted in crazy profusion by our burgeoning
swarms of info-gathering devices."
Mr. Gelertner was talking about society in general, but his words could just
as easily describe the average computer desktop. That's where Mr. Gelertner
has taken his vision and focus for the past three years with his company,
Mirror Worlds Technologies. Mr. Gelertner's answer to the desktop data glut
is a software tool called Scopeware, which permits what's roughly equivalent
to an electronic chronicle of one's daily life.



Sacramento Bee 4/11/01
Missing 'Bozo' TV pilot found in Hollywood storage bin
http://www.sacbee.com/news/calreport/calrep_story.cgi?story=N2001-04-10-1445
-3.html

Associated Press
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- A missing half-century-old "Bozo the Clown" television
pilot has been found in a Hollywood storage vault.
"I couldn't believe my eyes," kids-show pioneer Larry "Bozo" Harmon said
Tuesday. He recently found the pilot, which had been missing for 35 years,
while moving archival footage from one Hollywood storage vault to another.
"The pilot was special to me, but I had forgotten about it some years ago
because it just got lost in the shuffle. Over the years, the film cans, the
video tapes just piled up all over the place," the 76-year-old Harmon said.



St. Petersburg Times 4/11/01
Bills would make much more private
The Legislature is considering 132 proposals affecting public records and
open government, a First Amendment group says
http://www.sptimes.com/News/041101/State/Bills_would_make_much.shtml

by Alisa Ulferts
TALLAHASSEE -- Mike Wells remembers the call he took from the son of a Pasco
County resident.
"He said, "You've listed my mother on your Web site as a widow,' " said
Wells, Pasco's property appraiser. The son feared the widow's exemption
noted on his mother's record could make her the target of scams.
After consideration, Wells said he removed all references to widow's or
veteran's exemptions from his Web site, although the paper records in his
office remain public.
"Every property appraiser, when they do a Web site, has to do some soul
searching," Wells said.




News-Journal Online 4/11/01
Take a day trip on the Web
http://www.news-journalonline.com/2001/Apr/11/CULT2.htm

by Richard Tribou
As online news editor, I am often privy to some more interesting detours on
the information highway.
Anyone surfing the Web can spend hours behind the wheel of his own high-tech
road trip.
Now, some people like to just head on out there and see what they can find,
but for those looking for a tour guide, consider this day trip on the World
Wide Web.
First stop should, of course, be The News-Journal home page, and perhaps
reading the archives of Culture Shock, but for those who've had their fill
of news and need a little mindless activity, I suggest starting at
TheSpark.com.



Natchez Democrat 4/11/01
Natchez must decide on grant
http://www.natchezdemocrat.com/NF/omf/nddaily/news_story.html?[rkey=0008549+
ssiuname=WebOSTTN+ssipwd=TTN88EA812F

by April Wortham
Natchez aldermen must decide soon whether they can afford to accept a recent
grant for preservation of the historic Forks of the Road site.
The Mississippi Department of Archives and History recently awarded the City
of Natchez a $200,000 grant to help purchase the land from private owners
for inclusion in the Underground Railroad Southern Roads to Freedom program.
The property located at the intersection of St. Catherine Street and Liberty
Road is believed to be the site of one of the largest slave markets prior to
the Civil War.



Reuters 4/11/01
Judge orders banks to seek tobacco papers
http://money.iwon.com/jsp/nw/nwdt_rt.jsp?cat=USMARKET&src=201&section=news&n
ews_id=reu-n11305471&date=20010411&alias=/alias/money/cm/nw

NEW YORK, April 11 (Reuters) - U.S. District Magistrate Judge Viktor
Pohorelsky said Wednesday he would order U.S. banks to search for and
collect documents related to a suit filed by the European Union against
tobacco giants R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Holdings Inc. (RJR) and Philip Morris
Co Inc. (MO).
The European Union filed a civil suit in federal District Court in Brooklyn
last November charging the tobacco companies conspired with South American
smugglers to sneak cigarettes into the 15-state European Union to avoid
taxes.




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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