Sometime today or tomorrow you might hear about a travel ban because of the snow. In 2008, the state's emergency management agency laid out, among other things, who is authorized to travel when such a ban is in effect.

If the governor closes all or most highways in an area, the emergency management agency, PennDOT and state police are told that only people carrying out "critical emergency services" be allowed on the roads. The list, taken from the August 2008 directive (full document here):

1. State, city and municipal police officers.
2. City and municipal-paid or volunteer firemen and fire police.
3. State, county and municipal emergency management personnel.
4. Emergency medical service or rescue personnel.
5. Emergency communications personnel assigned to county and city 911 centers or other emergency dispatch centers.
6. Correctional officers and other staff assigned to state, county and city correctional institutions.
7. Personnel engaged in disseminating news and weather reports via radio, television or newspaper;
8. Doctors, nurses and other medical care personnel who are traveling to a hospital, nursing home or other health car facility or are responding to an emergency call for medical assistance.
9. Electric, natural gas, telephone, water and other public utility personnel who are responsible for maintaining, repairing or operating a public utility system.
10. Heating oil and fuel oil delivery personnel who are responding to an emergency call for fuel at a home or business.
11. Food delivery and personnel involved in pickup or delivery of milk.
12. Maintenance personnel who are responsible for maintaining the 24-hour operation of generators, heating systems or other related systems at a business or industrial facility.
13. State, county, city and municipal snow clearance personnel and their support workers. Private contractors hired by any governmental unit to remove debris or plow or remove snow.
14. Other persons as authorized by (state police), city or municipal police officers on an individual case-by-case basis.

People who aren't on that list could be cited for driving during the travel ban.

Figured with all the snow I'd check the state's web site for contracts. I found out two things:

1. The search function needs a 'filter' option, because if you search for "snow removal york county" you get, like, 400 things, most of which appear to have nothing to do with either York County or snow removal.

2. In October 2008, Crispus Attucks got a $30,000 grant from the state to buy a tractor-loader to help with snow removal at CA's Boundary Avenue site.

 CA wrote in the grant application that about 2,000 people work, visit or receive services at CA every day, and then when there is snow or ice, it has "hindered and at times even prevented residents from accessing the services they need."

 CA's "key concerns are related to safety, and unimpeded access to emergency services," according to the paperwork. A tractor-loader or skid-loader, CA said, could help it clear "ice chunks, snow and other debris, especially after municipal snowplows come through and block our access points." *

The state Department of Community and Economic Development gave Crispus Attucks $23,500 for a tractor-loader, $4,500 for a trailer and $2,000 for a maintenance contract.

*Let me guess: Some of you had that same experience today.

The Federal Election Commission fined Sen. Arlen Specter's campaign and its treasurer for accepting too much money from "individuals and political committees," according to opensecrets.org. The campaign has to pay a $10,900 civil penalty and $37,950 in excessive contributions to the U.S. Treasury, the Web site reported.

Here's the full story on what the FEC said Specter's campaign did.

Love this one: Four cities in Texas filed a federal suit against the state and its attorney general, saying that the state's open meetings law violated the cities' freedom of speech because it "prevents a quorum of government officials from deliberating behind closed doors," according to a report from the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.

The state attorney general argued in court that cities' First Amendment rights can't be violated.

The case continues. Stay tuned.

 

There's a lot of red on this report card showing what public information each county in Pennsylvania has on its Web site.

The report is put together by Sunshine Review. It gives the state's web presence an 'A,' but gives Pennsylvania counties a 'D' in terms of info you can find online.

Have you tried to find info on a county or state Web site and come up empty? Or have you found what you're looking for?

More than a year ago the York Daily Record/Sunday News launched an online data warehouse.

The idea was simple: It was the place where readers could access the documents and databases we used to in our reporting.

The American Society of News Editors released a report highlighting the best newspaper practices for online data.

Do you have a record you've been trying to track down? Leave a comment or e-mail me at ndobo@ydr.com.
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What do you get when social networking meets the U.S. Congress? This: www.opencongress.org.

The web site, a project by The Sunlight Foundation and the Participatory Politics Foundation, gives you information on bills before Congress, including its status, who supports/opposes it and where their money is going, news and blog reports about the bill, and more.

But the site also puts you in the middle of the debate. You can share the bill on social networks; click on a button to support or oppose it (and the site keeps track of everyone who does so, giving you an at-a-glance rating); subscribe to get alerts about the bill; and comment in discussion forums.

 The site has pages for individual legislators, where you can see his or her bills, rate him or her, and more. So, since you asked, I'll tell you that opencongress.org told me that York County's Todd Platts votes with the Republican party 84 percent of the time, has a 57.7 percent approval rating, and has co-sponsored 318 bills, six of which have been made into law.

 It's cool stuff, especially if you're a political junkie, policy wonk or like new ways to keep an eye on government.

Open-records decisions/appeals in Pennsylvania, courtesy of the oh-so-handy RSS feed from the Pennsylvania Freedom of Information Coalition:

Allentown officials didn't want to release e-mails in electronic format, despite an Office of Open Records ruling, so now they're suing the newspaper and the OOR.

The (Sharon) Herald wanted to see the names of the people who owe $1 million in sewer fees, but the sanitary authority wouldn't release them. The case went to court, and the newspaper won.

WGAL-Ch. 8 is trying to get information from the Cumberland County coroner on the death of a Shippensburg University student and has appealed the case to Commonwealth Court. What's a bit unusual in this case is that WGAL had appealed the county's denial of its request to the Office of Open Records, which upheld the denial. So WGAL is trying to get a judge to overturn the OOR's decision that the records sought by the TV station do not have to be released.

The case is here, under Hockley-Cumberland County Coroner.

Some members of Congress -- Rep. Todd Platts, R-York County, among them -- support forcing a vote on a bill that would make ongoing talks about health care reform open to the public.

The bill notes a New York Times report that groups of conference committee members were allowed to meet privately, and an ABC News report that the "$1 trillion stimulus bill was passed 'behind closed doors.' Congressional Democrats also have been criticized recently for privately negotiation a tax break for unionized employees as part of the health care package.

Platts, in a news release Jan. 14, noted that health-care reform will affect one-sixth of the U.S. economy. "The American people have a right to have their voices heard and I will do my utmost to ensure that openness and transparency are brought into this debate."

(Speaking of Platts, by the way, check the first comment on this entry for some props he got on another open government issue.)