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RAIN 0811 Weekly Update: Government (18)



Baltimore Sun 8/5/02
City celebrates clerk's golden achievement
50 years with police earn her title of honorary officer
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal-md.award05aug05.story?coll=bal-local-headlines


The Vicksburg Post 8/5/02
County entering computer age for some records
By Sam Knowlton
People needing Warren County public records will soon be able to use computers to view the images on screens and print data they need.
Scanned images of some paper documents now stored in the county courthouse and the Warren County Records Center are to be available by October, Susan Keys said.
At first, only the most recently filed records will be available on computer, said
Keys, county systems analyst.
“The clerks will pick a date and go from that day forward,” Keys said of the plan for the new system, much of which will handle documents now stored in the offices of Chancery Clerk Dot McGee and Circuit Clerk Larry Ashley.
“Then they will start scanning back so that a reasonable amount of information will be available.”
http://www.vicksburgpost.com/vicksburgpost/myarticles.asp?H=1&S=481&P=552542&PubID=9637


The Age 8/6/02
Tape provides chilling account of 9/11
The FBI has an undercover tape that captures the chaos and terror of the September 11 attack on the World Trade Centre, the New York Daily News has learned.
The recording was secretly made by an informant wearing an FBI wire in a broad-ranging probe of city tax assessors.
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2002/08/06/1028157928691.html


Dallas Morning News 8/6/02
Police vented through e-mail after pay raise rejected
By ROBERT THARP / The Dallas Morning News
In the hours after voters soundly rejected their pay raise proposal in May, Dallas patrol officers worked through a pounding thunderstorm on a busy Saturday night, but some still found the time to put their displeasure to words.
In electronic messages to each other using computers in their patrol cars, some lashed out against voters and city leaders for the defeat.
http://www.dallasnews.com/politics/localnews/stories/080602dnmetgripes.475b2.html


Washington Post 8/6/02
Justice Dept. Recordkeeping Blasted
Report Says Hundreds of Weapons and Laptops Missing at FBI, INS
By Dan Eggen
The FBI, the Immigration and Naturalization Service and other parts of the Justice
Department have lost track of hundreds of guns and laptop computers, according to a
report indicating that recordkeeping problems at the agencies are even worse than
previously disclosed.
Records are so incomplete at the FBI that officials cannot say what information is
contained on more than 200 missing computers, many of which may contain sensitive
information about national security and criminal investigations, the Justice Department
Inspector General's Office found.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A47789-2002Aug5.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/06/national/06JUST.html


New York Times 8/6/02
Japan in an Uproar as 'Big Brother'
Computer File Kicks In
By JAMES BROOKE
TOKYO, Aug. 5 — Japan put into operation a national computerized registry of its citizens today, provoking two un-Japanese responses: civil disobedience and a widespread feeling that privacy should take priority over efficiency.
Yokohama, Japan's second largest city, made the national government's registry voluntary, and half a dozen other cities refused to be included in the computerized system connecting local registries, effectively leaving four million people out of the system.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/06/international/asia/06JAPA.html


Washington Times 8/6/02
State eyes reducing home-school filings
By Ellen Sorokin
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
State lawmakers in Pennsylvania will soon decide whether to loosen the state's 14-year-old home-schooling law, which critics say requires "countless hours" of tallying at-home instruction.
One of the strictest in the country, the law requires that parents who homeeducate
their children provide at least four pieces of documentation, including a
notarized affidavit that, among other things, states the parents' educational
objectives, a daily log of student activity and progress, and year-end evaluations.
http://www.washtimes.com/national/20020806-8732784.htm


Pioneer Press 8/7/02
Plan would shield home-school information
BY NATALIE Y. MOORE
St. Paul Pioneer Press
State Sen. Dave Knutson, R-Burnsville, would like to introduce a bill in January that would close a loophole in Minnesota law that now makes home-schooled children's records public information.
Under a 2000 decision by the state Department of Administration, information about home-schoolers collected by public schools is public because that data was not expressly
exempted in state law.
http://www.twincities.com/mld/pioneerpress/3812587.htm


The Trentonian 8/7/02
Some anger over McGreevey secrecy
KATHY HENNESSY, Associated Press August 07, 2002
Days before a new public records law took effect, Gov. Jim McGreevey signed an order keeping hundreds of documents private and exempting his office from it.
He waited five days to go public with his decision.
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=4974156&BRD=1697&PAG=461&dept_id=44551&rfi=6


Tri-Valley Herald 8/8/02
Manteca School District resumes shredding
Work was halted over concerns that 'original documents' were being destroyed
By Aaron Swarts
SAN JOAQUIN BUREAU
MANTECA -- That light hum coming from the Manteca Unified School District office is the sound of paper shredders hard at work, a practice that was halted for three weeks by Superintendent John Rieckewald after community and board members questioned what was
being chopped to pieces.
The controversy centered around purchase orders, which come with five copies when they arrive from the San Joaquin County Office of Education. The most important is the green copy, which is kept on file by the district as the "audit copy," officials report.
http://www.trivalleyherald.com/Stories/0,1413,86%257E10671%257E781537,00.html


Tri-Valley Herald 8/8/02
Candidate gets small victory in records suit
Judge: Manteca to unseal documents
By Scott Smith
SAN JOAQUIN BUREAU
MANTECA -- The city of Manteca should either hand over papers from a closed lawsuit filed against Lathrop or explain why they need to be kept secret.
So ordered a San Joaquin County Superior Court judge in response to a complaint filed by John Frederick, a candidate for Manteca City Council and local attorney.
http://www.trivalleyherald.com/Stories/0,1413,86%257E10671%257E781538,00.html


ComputerWorld 8/8/02
NASA investigating hacker theft of sensitive documents
By DAN VERTON
AUGUST 08, 2002
WASHINGTON -- NASA cybercrime investigators are looking into the theft of militarily significant design documents pertaining to the next generation of reusable space vehicles.
The documents, which are restricted under current export laws from being shared with foreign nationals or governments and are also strictly controlled under the International Trafficking in Arms Regulations (ITAR), were obtained by Computerworld from a hacker who claims to be based in Latin America.
http://www.computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/hacking/story/0,10801,73305,00.html


Philadelphia Inquirer 8/8/02
Red tape and restrictions plague records law
Municipal clerks say the state's new public-records statute makes their jobs harder and cuts access.
By Jake Wagman
Inquirer Suburban Staff
It was billed as an overhaul of the state's public-records law, giving New Jersey residents unfettered access to everything from 911 tape transcripts to employee e-mails.
But a month after the state's Open Public Records Act went into effect, those on the front lines - municipal clerks - say the law is just more red tape.
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/local/3822508.htm


Northern Virginia Journal 8/8/02
VDOT to charge nearly $70,000 for information
Alexandria residents' group seeks purchase documents
By TRIGIE EALEY Journal staff writer
The Virginia Department of Transportation would charge $69,200 to fulfill a Freedom of Information request filed by an Alexandria residents' group seeking thousands of pages of documents regarding the purchase of their apartment buildings.
The Hunting Towers and Hunting Terrace Tenants Association on July 16 requested under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act copies of all public documents relating to VDOT's November purchase of the apartment complexes, including relocation and buyout packages provided to residents.
http://199.244.139.109/dcwww?-show:client/journal/FFX/j2002/q3/m08/t08/pa/s001/006_001_001.dcs


Austin American Statesman 8/9/02
State statistics clerk is accused of creating phony birth records
By Claire Osborn
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Friday, August 9, 2002
A former clerk at the Texas Department of Health in Austin tampered with a state computer database to produce 74 fake birth certificates that sold for as much as $6,000 each, officials say.
Ana Laura Vasquez, 48, a customer service representative at the department's Bureau of Vital Statistics, was charged July 31 with tampering with government records, abuse of
official capacity and forgery of a government instrument.
http://www.austin360.com/statesman/editions/friday/metro_state_5.html


AP 8/10/02
Japanese Drop Out of New ID System
By YURI KAGEYAMA, AP Business Writer
TOKYO (AP) - Ever since their computerized ID system switched on a few days ago, Japanese citizens have dropped out in droves from what many resent as a "big brother" monitoring of the people.
The dozens of protest groups that have popped up are planning a rally Monday at which demonstrators will show their outrage by ripping up the papers being sent out by the government to assign every citizen an 11-digit number.
"To start with, giving a number to people is a violation of our individual human rights," said Eiji Yoshimura, one of the protesters. "We have absolutely nothing to gain from this system."
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20020810/ap_on_re_as/defiance_in_japan_1


The Express Times 8/10/02
Quitting official locates records
Preservationist sought paperwork.
By TOM ZANKI
The Express-Times
WHITE TWP. -- Environmental Commission Secretary Shelly Zellars resigned Thursday, but not without turning over numerous records that had been sought by citizens, according to officials.
The resignation also comes after the Warren County Prosecutor's Office began investigating a complaint that the commission had violated the New Jersey Open Public Meetings Act. Warren County Prosecutor John Laky said his office received the complaint within the last seven days. Such complaints are not uncommon, Laky said.
http://www.pennlive.com/news/expresstimes/nj/index.ssf?/base/news-0/10289703022418511.xml




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