Supporting transparency within government agencies, to put a collar on corruption and waste is an easy sell, especially when there is no price tag on it. But, the reality behind almost any proposal and action in government is money. Even systems and proposals designed to save tax payers dough, often cost a large sum to implement. Perhaps the new slogan for today’s government should be, “It takes money to save money.” That idea strikes closer to home in smaller, more rural areas that do not benefit from huge amounts of tax revenues or state budgets.

The Spokane public school district located on the eastern border of Washington has filed a senate bill (6576) that would help alleviate the costs of maintaining and distributing these records. As quoted from the bill, ” AN ACT Relating to allowing school districts to charge for the reasonable costs of responding to public records request.” The school district, who serves roughly 29,000 students, said record requests have tripled recently and is costing the district an additional $70,000 dollars a year. They also criticize how a mandated service from a state law does not come with the funding to meet those demands.

There are vocal opponents to this bill who suggest that there are no real numbers proposed and the term “reasonable cost” is not satisfactory. It has been suggested that simply organizing the data, offering an online service or just delaying or controlling the response time of requests can effectively reduce the cost. None of those ideas really make any sense in business terms. There are always costs associated with service, period. A complete reorganization of records is not free or easy and just scratches at the problem, relieving a small itch but ignoring the rash. Creating an online application requires the hiring of expensive software and database engineers or a third party software company. Even after implementation, a computerized service requires skilled work staff to support the system. A great idea for future cost cutting, but still an expensive start. Controlling flow or demand by delaying or batching requests is just absurd, especially if there is another 300% increase in searches next year. Delaying and frustration is not a viable tactic to reduce demand.

I am glad America is excited to know what goes on in their government and demand that their public servants are truly serving them. But, we can not expect everything to happen magically or easily, transparency costs money. There needs to be a safe and consistent way of funding the distribution of records available to the public, no matter how touchy taxes or spending increases are at the moment. While this bill is destined to be scrapped due to loose wording and poor billing implementation, it shows there is a problem funding part of the system that is designed to protect us. “If knowledge can create problems, it is not through ignorance that we can solve them.” Public records and information distribution is one service that we can not afford to lose and must not be cut.

The American Bankruptcy Institute released their latest bankruptcy statistics recently and the numbers are looking slightly positive.  Comparatively from the same time period last year, the total number of bankruptcies in January are down around 14 percent with commercial filings besting that with a 20 percent decrease.  There has been a strong trend in individuals lowering their discretionary spending and putting more effort into covering household debts and combating the increase in necessity spending such as rising gas prices.

California still leads the nation in total number of bankruptcies as it was one of the hardest hit states of the sub-prime mortgage fallout.  Rebounding has been slow as the state deals with a 11.1% unemployment rate, second highest in the nation.  Total bankruptcies by population though the state ranks fifth highest, with Delaware and Georgia having half of a point more bankruptcies per 1,000 people.  Nevada and Tennessee continue to struggle with almost twice the number of filings than the national average.

January 2012 bankruptcy filings per 1,000 people
1. Tennessee (6.38)
2. Nevada (6.22)
3. Georgia (5.44)
4. Delaware (5.27)
5. California (5.13)

Surveys and statistics are suggesting that the unemployment numbers for California are slightly improving and showing signs that a recovery is in progress.  But, there are still many warnings that as Californians make the change from unemployed to self-employed, that the statistics are creating a misleading bubble of hope.  Self-employment doesn’t prove improvement, it only suggests people trying to find a different avenue, that still has the hardship and difficulties of its own.

There are some glimmers of hope, from one of the most unexpected places.  Facebook’s upcoming IPO could light a small fire under the struggling economy’s rump and help pull a drowning state government a little closer to the edge of the pool.  The company offering is projected to bring in hundreds of millions in state revenues and create almost 1,000 millionaires in the region along with a billionaire or 12.  That kind of wealth creates a small boom in the local area.  While construction and housing were at single digit increases or down throughout the state, areas around high tech sectors saw 9-10% increases.  Many local businesses catering to the strong tech sector was left completely unaffected by the rest of the state’s turmoil.  Even still, 2012 is largely a wait and see year for California and it could be a very telling sign for the rest of the country.

Tomorrow marks a very important day for a large number of Californians as they wait for the Ninth United States Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco to issue it’s ruling on the controversial Proposition 8.  The ruling marks just another step in the over decade long battle for marriage rights for gay Californians.  Prop 8 which, in all respects, is the same as Prop 22 from eight years earlier, started two weeks after the California Supreme Court ruled that the right to marry cannot exclude same-sex couples.  It was placed on the November 2008 ballot with 17 million registered voters turning out.  The proposition won with a 52.25% simple majority.

Even though the proposition went into effect immediately, It faced a huge challenge mid 2010 when Judge Vaughn Walker overturned the law saying, “Proposition 8 fails to advance any rational basis in singling out gay men and lesbians for denial of a marriage license. Indeed, the evidence shows Proposition 8 does nothing more than enshrine in the California Constitution the notion that opposite sex couples are superior to same sex couples. Because California has no interest in discriminating against gay men and lesbians, and because Proposition 8 prevents California from fulfilling its constitutional obligation to provide marriages on an equal basis, the Court concludes that Proposition 8 is unconstitutional.”  The ruling was later suspended by the appeals court until it had heard the case.  Regardless of the findings, it is expected for the case to be appealed once again and later heard by the US Supreme Court.

A rejection of proposition 8 could mean a shuffling of files and records for state and local offices.  Currently the California Department of Public Health Vital Records state that they do not keep any information regarding the sex or sexual orientation of anyone in their marriage and divorce records.  The CRiis system for County Government records, certificates and licenses, simply shows an optional check box on their marriage application with the options groom or bride.  It is not completely determined how recording for marriages would change in the future if Prop 8 were to fail again in later courts.  States may want to have a distinction between straight and gay marriages with the possibility of that information being mandatory.  It could easily be seen as an invasion of privacy and a grounds for segregation, but, could also reveal a stunningly accurate and measurable record of homosexual population within today’s society.  For safety reasons it makes sense to only make portions of the records public with a possible releasing for genealogy reasons, much like other vital records.  While hardly noble sounding right now, in a few generations time the statistics could be an intriguing part of American history.  Either way, there will certainly be many more discussions regarding this topic and how it pertains to the public records system in the future.

The Wisconsin state senate passed a proposal that restructures the way juvenile criminal records are handled between the court record system and the police department.  Law enforcement agents had a difficult time trying to obtain information on a minor, even if that individual has a history of criminal offenses or was currently violating probation.  Officers had to make a standard phone call to the Children’s Court and wait to be helped by a clerk, who would then look up a record and release information they deemed appropriate.  After standard business hours, there would only be one available clerk on staff to serve the entire county.  Even though wait times could be extreme, it was a huge improvement from when officers would be greeted by an answering machine just one year earlier.  In cases of curfew violations, officers would not be able to verify a minor’s home address and chanced returning a child to a parent who didn’t have custody or a dangerous home environment.

While national juvenile crime rates are down to the lowest point in 20 years, certain areas are seeing a huge spike upwards in the number of crimes, repeat offenses, and crimes of a violent nature.  Many children know the inadequacies of the current judicial system pertaining to children and use it to their advantage.  One Wisconsin area has seen a drop in adult burglary rates, but have seen a staggering increase in juvenile burglaries.  Children do not fear the legal system due to lax punishment and the sealing of juvenile records upon reaching adulthood.  In 2011 Milwaukee is estimated to have arrested 3,300 juveniles with 15% being repeat offenders within the same year and a 48% increase in suspected juvenile crime rates.  Mallory O’Brien of the Milwaukee Homicide Review Commission states that 74% of criminal suspects in Milwaukee have a juvenile record.  It is common to have a young adult suspect show as having a clean criminal record, even though they may have had multiple criminal offenses before turning 18.

Rehabilitation advocates stress that removing the confidentiality of juvenile records can threaten the ability for people to outgrow their childhood mistakes and become a positive part of society.  It is also fair to say that a system, albeit a poor one, is already set up for officers to request records for minors.  Maybe a change in the current system can serve officers better while still protecting the records of minors.  But, many law enforcement officials including the Milwaukee Police Chief Edward Flynn applaud the changes.  ”If young people are going to learn any lessons with their engagement with the system, the lessons they shouldn’t learn is the system can be gamed and avoided,” Flynn said. “They should learn the system is coherent and is paying attention to them.”  There is already a push to further the current bill by allowing judges and prosecutors have the same access.

Personal confidentiality rights vs public safety is a hard line to negotiate, but we are hardly talking about children smashing mail boxes and throwing eggs.   Police need the tools to quickly and accurately make decisions on the street that could possibly save innocent lives as well as protect the child in question.  The current implementation is not as invasive as a previously vetoed proposal that would have disclosed complete juvenile records electronically to officers, judges and prosecutors.  But, giving officers access to probation statuses while still concealing the exact nature of the crime seems like a fair step in the right direction.  For continuing information, check out the Milwaukee Wisconsin Journal Sentinel, they have ongoing section that covers dangerous criminals who have avoided punishment due to various cracks in the system and further updates on this topic.  Learn more about the Markus Evans case (pictured above) that helped spur on support for bill.

Washington state officials discussed Senate Bill 6351 today regarding the access of public records.  The bill is a reaction to state agencies that have received bogus or overly broad public record search requests which are considered to be a tactic of harassment or a way of causing hardship on the staff.  Government leaders claim that repeated onerous search requests are wasting valuable staff time, which is costing public money.  A Yakima County commissioner stated, ”There needs to be a remedy for the harassing requests made for the purpose of slowing down county government” .

The amended state bill adds the line “ The agency can demonstrate that it faces significant burden in fulfilling the public record request” to its lists of deniable requests, but doesn’t state how significant burden is classified.  Opponents of the bill suggest that the wording is too vague and can be used to stop research into inappropriate or illegal behavior within an agency.  There are already other methods of controlling the amount of public record searches that are requested and ways of increase the accuracy of a search.  Rather than searching through every documents on record, the state is permitted to halt a search and request a more specific search term.  It also has the ability to return data in batches that require additional user input before receiving the next available batch.  Flow control rather than an on/off switch.

There is another bill being heard that allows agencies to charge for bulk commercial search requests.  Companies that provide information services such as online public record or criminal background checks could see a substantial fee for theirs constant requests for updated data.  It may be reasonable for agencies to charge for a certain volume of searches for corporate data collecting, but could lead to abuse or favoritism.  It can also be said that providing the data at no cost to private companies is actually taking a huge burden off the state by serving the majority of people looking for basic public records.  While providing the staffing to allow the constant stream of information going out to the public may be expensive, having individual agencies being in control of charging, deciding fee structure and choosing which type of client to charge is a scary thought.  But, a public agency being allowed to outright deny access to public records with an unverifiable “I got too much on my plate” excuse just will not fly.

The mechanical engineering department at Columbia Engineering in conjunction with students from the School of International and Public Affairs and Earth Institute departments have created an interactive mapping tool showing the energy usage of the greater New York area.  The map illustrates energy consumption by color coding zones, blocks, or buildings depending on how far you zoom in.  The tool also includes more specific information such as, address, total area of the building, electricity use and total fuel use.  It also displays a pie chart that shows the estimated energy use broken down into four major categories, space heating, electricity, space cooling, and hot water.  A quick glance over shows that the financial district and midtown area as huge energy hogs while areas such as Clinton and Harlem use far less energy every year.

The study is designed to help people and city officials better understand energy usage through the city and to be able to compare inefficiency based on block or building.  The information showed can help not only bring awareness and conservation, but also guide future improvements and development.  The map can help show areas where oil and gas are being heavily used and could benefit from having increase electricity available or where solar thermal or combined heat and power systems would make the greatest impact.  Many energy companies have been using historic records to show consumers how much energy they are using compared to their neighbors and compared to the same period last year, but this is the first tool targeting an entire city released for public view.

Information for this study was gathered from the Office of Long-Term Planning and Sustainability which was started by Mayor Bloomberg in 2006.  Since its inception it has been busy finding ways of reducing carbon emissions and finding clean efficient solutions too many of the city’s aging sources.  Today St. Barnabas Hospital announced they are entering an energy agreement with Green Campus Partners, LLC to lease energy from a newly constructed combined heat and power plant.  The plant is not only cleaner, but should also save the hospital two million dollars a year in energy costs.  The Director of the Long-Term Planning and Sustainability, David Bragdon stated, “St. Barnabas Hospital’s partnership with Green Campus Partners to replace its existing #6 oil fired boilers with a combined heat and power system is a win for public health, clean energy, and the hospital’s bottom line”.

An adoptive family in California found out what can happen when confidential information is accidentally leaked to the wrong type of person.  John and Kathyrn Clark who adopted a young boy out of foster care received threatening phone calls to their home from the child’s birth mother, Desiree Salazar.  Salazar, who was the mother of two boys, suffers from mental illness and has a history of violent behavior.  She was charged and convicted with assault, after stabbing a man five times during a car theft and then charged again in another incident at the UC Davis Medical Center.  After losing custody of her children, from frequent clashes with the law, she showed her disapproval of the Sacramento County Child Protective Services by tattooing “F*CK CPS” across her chest  She also has the names of her boys tattooed above each eye.  Salazar was quoted as saying “They don’t deserve to have my child”, referring to the Clark family, which consist of a daughter and the adopted son.

The Clark family has moved to a new home and is trying their best to erase all public access to their information for security reasons.  They’ve installed a security system, now use a post office box for mail delivery, changed their phone numbers, put their children in new schools and contacted the county office to conceal their public records.  They have also requested the removal of all their information from the online public record site, but there was no information on which website was involved.  The Clark family recently filed a lawsuit against the Child Protective Services, attorney Teri Kanefield, and the US District Court for failing to protect their identities and seek half of a million dollars in damages.

A report recently put out by a subcommittee of the New York State Bar Association discussed their study of the criminal record system in New York and the idea of Second Chances.  While there are many states that have adopted a system to allow persons convicted with a minor misdemeanor or non-violent felony to apply to have their criminal case expunged after serving their sentence and waiting through a probation period without a repeat offence, New York is not one of them.  Although, there are county laws that allows certain offenders of drug related crimes to participate in a Drug Treatment Alternative-to-Prison program, which if successfully completed will result in a dismissal of charges, the Association does not feel that is enough.

The problem with recidivism is not small issue by any means and continues to increase at a rapid pace.  The most common numbers thrown around are 650,000, 2/3, and 7 million.  An estimated 650,000 people are released from a state or federal prison each year, of those 2/3 return to prison.  An additional 7 million people are released from a local jail annually.  The study believes that the number one reason is due to the social and legal structure that makes finding a stable job difficult.  Employers are legally allowed to ask an applicant about their criminal background and any pending cases.  A huge majority of people oppose any sort of legislation that requires companies to hire felons or removes their ability to ask about criminal background, but most believe there should be a light at the end of the tunnel for people looking to rebuild their lives.

A New York State Bar Association special committee stated in 2006, “without employment, ex-offenders cannot meet their own or their families’ basic needs, and that a criminal conviction can be an insurmountable hurdle to employment”.  In 2007, federal legislation was passed that created programs to help educate and rehabilitate previous offenders and specifically targeted substance abuse, mental illness and inadequate job skills.  But, much of that work is thwarted by the lack of social acceptance, largely due to criminal records and the application process.

New York is well know for it’s extremely strict and lengthy sentencing laws.  The state created and stylized the anti drug laws in the 70′s that stuffed state prisons, not only in New York, but throughout America, as other states quickly adopted similar laws.  At that time the new narcotics laws, known as the Rockefeller Drug Laws, mandated that the sentence for selling 57 grams of any controlled substance be punished with a 15 year minimum sentence.  The same sentence for first degree murder and more than 4 time longer than punishment for current possession of felony firearms.  In 2009, New York finally modified or repealed the last of the original 70′s drug laws, but it still possess a hard stance against crime and a strong disbelief in a rehabilitation system that involves concealing criminal records.  The sealing records proposal has passed the NYSBA’s House of Delegates, but is expected to face stiff challenges by the District Attorney’s Office and some county offices when it is proposed to the state.

John McCain hit up the Sun City Chamber of Commerce Building in Florida last night, using a town hall style meeting to drum up support for his chosen presidential candidate, Mitt Romney.  In a very relaxed and personal fashion he joked around with the audience, speaking openly about the tone of the current elections campaign, social security and his feelings towards, competing candidate, Newt Gingrich.  Besides criticizing the past exploits of Newt, during his time as speaker of the house, he also attempted to thwart some of the momentum he has been receiving from what has been a very beneficial debate showing.  McCain stated very clearly, “I think debates are helpful, don’t get me wrong, but I also think that we should look at their records.”

While the advice is sound regardless of which candidate you support, many people simply do not look at a candidate’s past actions as a guide toward their future choices.  American voters have consistently relied on political sided media and color commentators to inform them on the issues, players and political stances.  Obviously, not a very tactical approach, considering just how many information sources abound around the internet, radio and TV these days that contain very little truth or are outright lies.  You can easily find hundreds of sources, daily, that portray a party or politician as supporting an issue they clearly did not support.  Debates, while lively and interesting, produce some of the most inaccurate quotes imaginable and are devastatingly dangerous in creating a persona or image that is more powerful than fact.  Look how many small government Republicans voted to increase spending and anti-war Liberals voted for military aggression, yet still successfully maintain the image.

So where do we go to find this information?  While random wiki style websites are fast and easy, it has always been a sore point for true scholars who accurately suggest that the information may be simplified, bias or not properly fact checked.  An user generated database is an amazing tool for spreading popular social belief, is not the same as publications resourced by verified research professionals.  Google has amazing mathematical algorithms that target terms with such accuracy it is becoming the first stop for our search for literally everything.  Unfortunately, the content shown for political issues are often blog or forum based content or rehashed, single sourced  journalism, whose pages are tinkered with by search engine optimization professionals with the goal to game the algorithm and make some advertising dough.

Project Vote Smart is the front runner in collecting and distributing accurate information regarding key political issues and maintains a historical voting record, information about a campaign’s finances, supporters and opponents of key political issues, background information, public statements and speeches.  The organization is a not for profit, non-partisan group with a huge volunteer and intern base, that has attempted to only accept funding from sponsors not affiliated with a political agenda and through user donations.  Not only should this resource be a valuable reference in helping you choose this year’s presidential candidate, if managed properly to maintain its neutral basis, may become one of the most important tools for keeping an accurate history of America’s political events for future generations.  I suggest taking some time to do some research on Project Vote Smart, and if you agree, visiting often.

California Department of Public Health made an exciting announcement on their website yesterday, no deaths caused by whooping cough for 2011.  While whooping cough, or Pertussis, is a preventable bacterial disease, it has been on the rise since the early 80′s.  In 2010 alone, there were 7,824 confirmed, probable or suspected cases reported, the highest amount since 1947 when 9,394 cases were reported and a massive 700% increase over recent averages.  The disease also claimed the lives of nine infants of less than two months, before their first scheduled vaccine, and a six month old preemie.

The Pertussis Report for December, 2010, showed an overwhelming majority of cases involved infants under the age of six months (385 cases/100,000), with the highest percent going to Hispanic and White children and a very low rate for Asian/Pacific Islander.  There is a strong correlation among increasing preventable disease outbreaks and a growing trend of parents choosing not to immunize their children.  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggest receiving Diphtheria, Tetanus, and Pertussis Vaccines at the ages of 2, 4, 6, 15-18 months of age, with a final booster at 4-6 years of age.  The age breakdown shows that the largest number of cases specifically highlight infants before their first vaccine and children between six and eighteen.  While infant rates are hard to control, cases in older children are almost certainly caused by the absence of their final booster shot.

California kindergarten immunization rates show a strong disparity between up to date vaccination records among different ethnic groups.  Approximately 75% of White and Hispanic children are up to date with their immunizations, while Asian children tend to sit closer to 85%.  What is more interesting is the staggering difference between the public and private schools.  In the Bay Area, public school enrollment showed that an average of 87% of students came in with all their immunizations up to date while only 13% of private school children in the same area of could say the same.

While, there were still almost 3,000 reported cases of whooping cough for 2011, the CDPH says the recent success in reducing the number of cases and preventing infant deaths is from a strong increase in awareness.  Ron Chapman, director of the CDPH said, “Greater awareness of the disease, more rapid diagnosis and treatment, and increased vaccination rates contributed to saving the lives of infants.  I thank our public health and medical communities for working together and being especially vigilant following the 2010 epidemic.”