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RAIN 6/16 Weekly Update: Government (19)



Wall Street Journal 5/23/02
New Alarms Heat Up Debate On Publicizing Chemical Risks
By ANN DAVIS
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
SOUTH KEARNY, N.J. -- In the next two months, Greenpeace plans to post on the Internet a color map showing how a terrorist attack on the Kuehne Chemical Co. bleach plant here could unleash a lethal cloud of chlorine vapor over New York City.
Not long ago the environmental group's move would have marked just another round in almost two decades of dispute over how much the public should know about companies using hazardous materials. Then Sept. 11 transformed the debate.
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB1022720722479969000,00.html?mod=article-outset-box


FCW.com 6/6/02
County cuts paper from land docs
http://www.fcw.com/geb/articles/2002/0603/web-doc-06-06-02.asp


The Guardian 6/9/02
Police to spy on all emails
Fury over Europe's secret plan to access computer and phone data
http://www.observer.co.uk/politics/story/0,6903,730091,00.html

The Daily Local 6/9/02
Courts' records in a tangle
By Jonathan Jones
WEST CHESTER -- When Teena Peters ran for Clerk of Courts last year, she knew about the need to more fully computerize the office and that some record-keeping problems existed.
But, on Thursday, Peters said she had had no idea about the extent of the problems that
existed in the county's Clerk of Courts office after recent audits disclosed significant weaknesses with respect to bail accounts, checking accounts and its record keeping with regards to summary fines and costs.
While significant internal control weaknesses were noted in audits dating back to 1996,
corrective actions recommended by prior audits to former Clerk of Courts Ed Schmid
were never implemented.
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=4388170&BRD=1671&PAG=461&dept_id=17782&rfi=6


FCW.com 6/10/02
Web audit pings Army
http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2002/0610/web-army-06-10-02.asp


The Indianapolis Star 6/10/02
Paperwork slows anti-terror funds
Allen County officials must send hundreds of pages to receive federal preparedness grants.
Associated Press
FORT WAYNE, Ind. -- Officials seeking federal help to prepare Allen County for a potential terrorist attack have run into an old enemy: paperwork.
County agencies eventually expect to receive at least 11 grants to plan for and
respond to attacks. But the only grant to materialize so far arrived before the Sept.
11 attacks.
Local officials must fill out applications that can run into the hundreds of pages
before additional money is released. Then, they must wait for their federal
counterparts to review the documents.
http://www.indystar.com/article.php?ftwterror10.html,news


SkyNews 6/10/02
Queen To Open Civil List
The Queen is to throw open her annual "civil
list" household accounts to public scrutiny.
http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30100-10443880,00.html


WPBF 6/11/02
Confidential Documents Found In Trash Bin
Pages of confidential documents were found in a trash bin outside the Department of Children and Family Service's Stuart office, and a local child advocacy group wants to know why.
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/wpbf/20020611/lo/1223240_1.html


The Guardian 6/11/02
Government sweeps aside privacy rights
Privacy rights swept aside
http://www.guardian.co.uk/humanrights/story/0,7369,731074,00.html


Reno Gazette-Journal 6/11/02
ACLU opposes school effort to unseal juvenile records
http://www.rgj.com/news/stories/html/2002/06/11/16512.php


Hartford Courant 6/12/02
Cell Phone Bills Ordered Released
The Associated Press
BRIDGEPORT -- The city must release five years of Mayor Joseph P. Ganim's municipal cell phone bills to the Connecticut Post, a hearing officer for the state's Freedom
of Information Commission has ruled.
http://www.ctnow.com/news/local/hc-apganim0612.artjun12.story?coll=hc%2Dheadlines%2Dlocal


San Francisco Chronicle 6/12/02
How state dodged its no-bid policies
Dividing contracts keeps projects under price cap
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2002/06/12/MN126204.DTL


Florida Today 6/12/02
DCF fires supervisor; 3 staffers face dismissal
By James R. Langford
FLORIDA TODAY
Information uncovered when Department of Children & Families staff attempted to
visit all the children in state care last month prompted the firing of an Orange
County supervisor and plans to dismiss three caseworkers.
The caseworkers had falsified records and failed to track down a family, agency
officials said. The supervisor admitted he had not checked to make sure documents
backed up the visits one of the caseworkers claimed to have made.
http://www.floridatoday.com/!NEWSROOM/localstoryA21615A.htm


East Montgomery County Observer 6/12/02
County Clerk's Office Looks Toward the Future as it Preserves the Past
By: Sarah Mertins June 12, 2002
The keeper of old records is looking for new ways to share historical information with county residents.
Montgomery County Clerk Mark Turnball, addressing the Concerned Citizens at their
monthly meeting on June 3, said that his office has been looking at new technology in
order to allow Internet access to the records it keeps. He said he expects that it will be at least six months to a year before the methodology is developed.
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=4417840&BRD=1491&PAG=461&dept_id=183827&rfi=6


The Guardian 6/12/02
UK pushes boundaries of citizen surveillance
The data retention powers to be handed to a wide range of UK government agencies will exceed those available anywhere else in the world, writes Neil McIntosh
http://www.guardian.co.uk/netprivacy/article/0,2763,736011,00.html


The Guardian 6/12/02
No 10 defends wider electronic surveillance
http://www.guardian.co.uk/netprivacy/article/0,2763,735959,00.html


Tahlequah Daily Press 6/13/02
Court clerk opposes move to statewide computer system
By: Bob Gibbins
A bill vetoed by Gov. Frank Keating would have allowed district court clerks to use their own computer systems, instead of a statewide system aimed at putting public records online.
Cherokee County District Court Clerk Margaret Robbins is one of the court clerks who
opposes the move to the statewide system at this time. Robbins' office, like those in
about 60 other counties, has been on a KellPro system since 1997. "I'm not against going to a statewide system, if it works properly," Robbins said. "But the OCIS [Oklahoma Court Information System] has some problems right now."
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=4435933&BRD=1825&PAG=461&dept_id=129120&rfi=6


Associated Press 6/15/02
State agency must turn over records, N.Y. high court rules
ALBANY, N.Y. — A state agency must turn over copies of any subpoenas its top officers
received to a newspaper seeking the documents under the Freedom of Information Law, the state's highest court has ruled.
The Court of Appeals said in a unanimous decision June 13 that contrary to the claims of the Empire State Development Corp., the subpoenas are not shielded from disclosure by exemptions in the Freedom of Information Law — or FOIL.
http://www.freedomforum.org/templates/document.asp?documentID=16426


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