Phantom congressional districts

I believe in government websites disclosing information, but according to the story today about phantom congressional districts, just because something is on a government website, doesn’t mean it’s true.

Anyone know about Michigan poll taxes?

We got a request today from someone “researching the history (specifically as it relates to Michigan) of poll taxes, vouchers and other means of limiting access, to either a poll, the court etc.”

In Michigan, to file a medical malpractice lawsuit, the litigant must have something called “an affidavit of merit”, and that costs money.

The researcher wants to pursue the line of argument that requiring these affidavits of merit serves as a barrier to the court, and that in turn violates an individual’s constitutional right to redress.

Ohio GOP wants teacher information

And lots of it:

Ohio’s Republican Party recently requested the names, home addresses, phone numbers and e-mails of all licensed educators in the state’s database.

The Ohio Education Association has asked for a restraining order.

The Ohio GOP says it wants the information so it can communicate more readily with Ohio’s teachers:

“We’re only trying to let Ohio teachers know where our candidates stand on education issues, and we’re no longer going to allow the leadership of the OEA to spread lies and attacks without an appropriate response.”

Washington state judge says injurious city report can be destroyed

1. Someone who works for the City of Bellingham, Washington wrote a report criticizing Matia Contractors, a private company that had done some work for the city on Joe Martin Field.

2. The report was apparently so over-the-top and unfair that an arbitrator said the city had to pay Matia an additional $240,000 for its work. The arbitrator also ordered the destruction of the critical report. (Maybe the arbitrator was trying to shield Bellingham from a defamation lawsuit?)

3. The local newspaper wanted to see the report that was at the center of this controversy. (I do too!)

4. A Washington State Superior Court judge is going along with shielding the injurious report from the public.

5. Matia Contractors and the City of Bellingham both wanted the injurious report squelched.

I can see where Matia Contractors is coming from but at the same time, the situation seems to be that a city employee behaved quite badly. It would be good for the public to have a chance to see just how badly.

Public records on waste missing

You’re shocked, I know.

In this case, it’s not government waste but records about industrial waste.

Records on waste issues at Bethlehem Steel also appear to be missing.

When the Post-Tribune visited IDEM’s Indianapolis file room in 2007, IDEM staff found at least 6 feet of paperwork related to Bethlehem Steel. But during a visit in mid-May 2009, IDEM staff found only 2 feet of documents. Others had a similar experience.

“I just went down and asked where the Bethlehem Steel files are,” said Larry Davis, an ArcelorMittal worker and member of Save the Dunes Council. “It used to be anything to do with waste was never supposed to be purged. There used to be heaps of files. You’d spend a short lifetime down there going through a big company like that. None of that is on the virtual file cabinet. I don’t know what happened to those files.”

IDEM is scanning files from its archives into its searchable database online. During the transition, many files have disappeared from the archives.

Are there any consequences when public records are mislaid, or someone can’t find them, or they are archived in such an archaic way that retrieving them becomes prohibitively expensive?

Not that I’m aware of, but maybe there should be.

FERPA and student records in Wisconsin

Here in Madison, a student newspaper has filed a lawsuit against the University of Wisconsin because the UW redacted student information from a records request.

The records from which student information, including names, was heavily redacted concerned decisions made by the group at the university that doles out rooms and other benefits to student-led clubs.

In its lawsuit, the newspaper notes that what it had asked for minutes of some meetings they missed. If they had gone to the meetings, which were public, they would have had the information. So, in their view, the University is engaging in redaction of clearly public information.

We’re building a list of Wisconsin sunshine lawsuits here, for those of you interested in the legal details.

Documents that are public, but only for multi-millionaires

Kathy Hoekstra, an investigative reporter from Michigan, has surged into the lead for highest-fee-requested for public documents. She got an estimate from the Michigan Department of State Police of $6,876,303.90 for records about the state’s handling of federal homeland security grant money.

You can now follow WikiFOIA on Twitter

Connect to WikiFOIA’s twitter account here.

Thanks to Josh for setting this up.

One story Josh is following today…and you can, too, because it is being broadcast live today…is a hearing in front of the Wisconsin Supreme Court on the question of whether private e-mails of teachers ought to be considered public if those emails were sent or received using a public school district’s computer system.

Michigan politician recalled over FOIA allegations

Last Tuesday, voters in Hamburg, Michigan recalled Matthew Skiba, the town’s clerk partly based on allegations that he flouted Michigan’s FOIA law.