News of Interest-St. Paul Pioneer Press & Star Tribune

Pioneer Press 3/11, p. 3B. Story, headlined "Bismarck, N.D. / NCAA can keep suit documents private", is about a judge's decision, in the lawsuit brought against the University of North Dakota by the NCAA, to make certain documents provided in the lawsuit by the NCAA not public. The article describes a publication of the North Dakota Attorney General's Office which summarizes the North Dakota public records law. http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/news/local/16878667.htm

Pioneer Press, 3/11, p. 4B. Story, headlined "Journalists petition for cameras in the courtroom", describes efforts by the media community to liberalize use of cameras in courtrooms. This is a Sunshine Week activity for the media.

Pioneer Press, 3/11, p. 2A. Story, headlined "Privatization Comes Under Fire", describes criticism of the company with ties to the Bush administration, that was managing some of the bad facilities at Walter Reed. Privatization almost always raises information access issues.
http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/news/nation/16878599.htm

Pioneer Press, 3/11, p. 5A. Story, headlined "South Korea reviews painful past", is about individuals in South Korea who, during the time of military dictatorship, were tortured into confessing to being subversives and who are now trying to clear their records.

Star Tribune, 3/11, p.AA2. This is a column by the Strib's reader rep, Kate Perry, entitled "It's time for more access to Minnesota's courts". It is about the petition submitted to the Supreme Court asking for changes to the rules about cameras in the court room.

Pioneer Press, 3/12, p. 3A. Story, headlined "Feds fall short on e-record access", is about a study, done by the National Security Archive in D.C., about how well federal agencies are doing with the amendments to the federal foia that were supposed to improve public access. In short, those agencies are not doing well.

Pioneer Press, 3/13, p. 3B. Story, headlined "High Court Explores Photo Cop Conflict", is about yesterday's argument before the Supreme Court about the legality of the Minneapolis photo cop ordinance.

Star Tribune, 3/13, p. B4. Story, headlined "Justices Drill Down on Photocop's Issues", is also about argument before supreme court.

Star Tribune
2/25, page A3, article entitled "Assault Rifle Blog Backfires". This is another article illustrating the perils of blogging. It traces the fallout, including loss of several contracts, that came to a sport hunter and writer who suggested on his blog that no real sports hunter would use an assault rifle to hunt prairie dogs. http://www.startribune.com/484/story/1023620.html

StarTribune
2/22, page B1, article entitled "Hints of a Degree for Gore Have Bloggers Agog". Among other things, article says U of M carries on honorary degree decision process confidentially. However, I know of nothing that makes data associated with that process not public under the Data Practices Act.

2/24, page A14, editorial entitled "A Wise Way to Catch Red-Light Runners" promotes the joy of living in a surveillance society.

2/25, page A5, article entitle "Wikipedia Doesn't Make Grade in Vermont". Article is about History Department at U. of Vt. prohibiting Wikipedia source citations in tests and papers.

Pioneer Press
2/24, article entitled "Body Scanners Hunt Guns, Bombs". This article describes experiment using full body scan x-ray machines at the Phoenix airport.

2/21/07, Don found the following.

StarTribune:
Business Section, page 1D, article headlined "Wireless Leash 2.0" is about an Eagan company that makes software to turn cell phones into tracking devices so that companies can always know where their employees are. This should be entitled "Electronic Slavery 2.0".

Front Section, page A11 headlined "Audit Questions Accuracy of Federal Terror Statistics". Turns out federal law enforcement types have "cooked the books" on how much terrorism is actually happening. Gee, I wonder why anyone would want us to be more afraid? (See Benjamin Franklin's famous quote about the fear based perils of trading freedom for security.)

Pioneer Press:
Local news, page 6B headlined "Lawsuit Seeks Rail Firm's Financial Records". This is another chapter in the fight the Mayo Clinic and others are having with the DM and E railroad that want to run big coal trains through Rochester and get federal money to do so. The article is about attempts to get records on the company using the federal Freedom of Information Act. In the wonderful world of earmarks, last year's congress, at the behest of a senator who used to be a lobbyist for DM & E, put some millions into a bill for this railroad.

2/22/07
Pioneer Press:
Local News section, page 12B headlined "U Might Lift Ban on Fighting Sioux". This is about a committee established by U of M to look at whether the current ban on the U's playing any sports with UND, except hockey, should be modified. From the access standpoint, this committee meets in secret and, in the words of its Chairwoman, has "decided not to take minutes" of its meetings. It may help to know that a couple of years ago U of M lost a lawsuit after claiming the U was not subject to the Data Practices Act. Under the DPA, any minutes of this group would be public.