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RAIN 05/22: "Dead" Files or salt as a preservative



We all have stories to tell about what have been found in old files, but
watch out for what happened in Tennessee.

All urls except for the first (site appears to have difficulties this a.m.)
are working as of 8:35 a.m. ET


The Advocate 5/19/00 (Louisiana)
Librarians blast federal plan to cut records program
http://www.theadvocate.com/news/story.asp?StoryID=13199

by Tom Guarisco
Local librarians are rallying against a proposal in Congress that would do
away with the long-standing program of providing copies of federal documents
to regional libraries around the country.
Instead of providing actual copies of the U.S. Code, testimony from
congressional hearings and census data, the government would post such
information on the Internet, thereby saving millions of dollars a year in
printing costs.


Miami Herald 5/19/00
Lauderdale loses records dispute
http://www.herald.com/content/today/news/broward/digdocs/045204.htm

by Brad Bennett
Fort Lauderdale has been ordered to pay $31,000 in connection with a lawsuit
charging that the city withheld public records.
The lawsuit stemmed from a black city employee's charge that the city
destroyed a document that could have bolstered his discrimination complaint
before the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.


The Tennessean 5/19/00
Human body parts turn up in Winchester lawyer's old files
http://www.tennessean.com/sii/00/05/19/coffind19.shtml

by Brigd Murphy Stewart
Tullahoma, Tenn. -- Bob Albertson got more than he bargained for when he
bought a trailer full of old files and boxes: In one box, he found human
body parts left over from a long-ago autopsy.
"As soon as we saw what it was, and I quit throwing up, we called the
Tullahoma police," he said yesterday.


Casper Tribune 5/19/00
Judge orders public disclosure of files in prosecutor's death
http://www.trib.com/HOMENEWS/WYO/ProsecutorDeath.html

Associated Press
CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) - A judge ruled that the state Division of Criminal
Investigation must make public most of its files in the death of former
Campbell County Attorney Michael Maycock.
First District Judge Edward L. Grant specified that several items must be
removed from public scrutiny because they mention "references and
allegations related to third parties" or "personal family information and
graphic photos."



Arkansas Democrat Gazette 5/19/00
Ballet group documents ruled private
http://www.ardemgaz.com/week/Fri/ark/B2xballetfoi19.html

Pulaski County Circuit Judge David Bogard ruled Thursday that Ballet of
Arkansas Inc. does not have to show its meeting records to a parent who sued
the nonprofit ballet academy to see them.
Marilyn Sutton, whose daughter has danced in Ballet Arkansas productions,
sued for access to records showing why the academy did not rehire its
director, Linda Hathaway, and her husband, artistic director Kirt Hathaway,
in January. Sutton contended that the academy had to release the records
because it accepts public money and thus is bound by the state Freedom of
Information Act.


Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 5/17/00
Woman writes history of Philadelphia mafia
http://www.post-gazette.com/regionstate/20000517plug9.asp

by Tina Moore
Associated Press
PHILADELPHIA -- When a group of Philadelphia mobsters heard Celeste A.
Morello was looking into the Mafia, they wanted to know who she was.
"I told them, 'Men in my family were made in Sicily. You're just first- and
second-generation gangsters,' " she recalled.



Nando Times 5/19/00
Senate panel schooled on online forgery vendors
http://www.nando.com/noframes/story/0,2107,500206141-500287130-501550002-0,0
0.html

by MarcyGordon
Associated Press
WASHINGTON (May 19, 2000 5:02 p.m. EDT http://www.nandotimes.com) - On sale
online: forged passports, Social Security cards, birth certificates,
driver's licenses, college diplomas, press credentials and even IDs for
police officers and federal agents. They're fake but authentic-looking
enough to enable users to steal people's identities, get loans or convince
enemies they're being arrested.
You can buy them online, or you can make them yourself. A 23-year-old
convicted felon told a Senate panel Friday how he created phony documents
using a computer at a public library and public government records online.
He used the bogus documents to get $59,000 in car loans.



Calgary Herald 5/19/00
Federal database skirts moral questions: privacy watchdog
http://www.southam.com/calgaryherald/newsnow/cpfs/national/000519/n051941.ht
ml

by Nahlah Ayed
OTTAWA (CP) - The federal government appears to be missing the point of
serious concerns about its massive databank tracking the lives of Canadians,
the privacy commissioner suggested Friday.
Human Resources Minister Jane Stewart and her officials said this week that
the database, holding up to 2,000 details about each of 33.7 million
Canadians, is a research tool that's secure and legal.


The Indian Express 5/20/00
Lost -- file of the only on-going case against Thackeray
http://www.indian-express.com/ie/daily/20000520/ina20031.html

by Prafulla Marpakwar
MUMBAI, MAY 19: In a serious lapse, deliberate or otherwise, the
all-important file of a police case against Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray is
missing from the home department. This case, registered at Dadar police
station in 1993 in the wake of the post-Ayodhya communal riots, was the only
one kept alive after the erstwhile Sena-BJP government withdrew 13 others
during the last five years.


Detroit Free Press 5/21/00
Oakland County wants to eliminate paper files
http://www.freep.com/news/statewire/sw12834_20000521.htm

Associated Press
PONTIAC, Mich. (AP) -- Oakland County wants to eliminate paper files, but
the state isn't in favor of the plan, saying computers haven't demonstrated
they can withstand the test of time.
"The average life expectancy of a computer system today is three years,"
state archivist Scott Leonard said. "If a record has a retention period of
even 10 years, and if the computer software is not around in 10 years, you
won't be able to access the records."
County clerks must keep certain files in paper form for at least 30 years.
Others, like birth certificates, must be kept forever.



Wichita Eagle 5/21/00
Salting away those electronic records
http://www.wichitaeagle.com/business/local/saltmine0521.htm

by Mike Berry
Mention "Underground Vaults & Storage" and most Kansans, if they know the
name at all, think of reels of movie film classics like "Gone With the Wind"
stored on shelves in the abandoned salt mines below Hutchinson.
And that's a pretty accurate picture of what the company has done over the
past four decades. The constant 67 degree temperature and 40 percent
humidity in the mined-out salt vaults are just about perfect for preserving
movie film and mountains of irreplaceable paper records.


National Post 5/20/00
Mps say Canadians should ask to see their Big Brother file
Stewart attacked: Bloc, Western media want people to flood Ottawa with
requests
http://www.nationalpost.com/news.asp?f=000520/295050&s2=national&s3=politics

by Andrew McIntosh
OTTAWA - Canadians are alarmed to learn that the federal government has
compiled details of their private lives in a government database, opposition
MPs told the Commons yesterday.
They said every Canadian should protest against the "Big Brother" file, kept
by Human Resources Development Canada, by flooding the department with
requests to access their individual files. At the same time, people should
urge HRDC to destroy the database before its contents are ever misused,
opposition MPs said during the daily Question Period.


Austin American Statesman 5/21/00
Advisers disagree on worth of historical King Papers
http://www.austin360.com/statesman/editions/sunday/news_29.html

by Jeffery McMurray
Associated Press
WASHINGTON -- Two experts advising Congress about whether to pay $20 million
for Martin Luther King's post-1960 papers have reached conflicting
conclusions, further clouding the issue for lawmakers.
An appraiser of historical documents found the material "absolutely
stupendous" and a bargain. But King's Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer
determined the documents and artifacts were of little research value and
hardly worth becoming the Library of Congress' most expensive purchase.


Space.com 5/16/00
Forget-Me-Not: NASA's Short-term memory
http://www.space.com/news/spacehistory/chaikin_000516.html

by Glen Golightly
HOUSTON - The history of the American space program will be lost unless
moves to keep documents and records are stepped up, including reopening
NASA's History Office. Speaking at the Johnson Space Center on Tuesday,
author Andrew Chaikin said, "Human memory is flawed and has to be backed up
with recorded facts. I've made a living off the archives."


Peter A. Kurilecz CRM, CA
Manager, Records Management
Woodside Summit Group, Inc
Richmond, Virginia
Tel: 804-744-1247 extension 23
Fax: 804-744-4947
mailto:peter.kurilecz@woodsidesummitgroup.com

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