Recently in Nichole Dobo Category

If you haven't noticed yet, Google maps now has "street view" available on major roads in York County.

This feature is pretty neat. And it means the Google car was in York some time recently. I wish I could have seen it.

A Lebanon County woman who drew national attention last year for carrying a loaded handgun to her child's soccer game was shot dead Wednesday in what police are calling a murder suicide.

Each year the state police put out a report on firearm trends in the state.

Here's some local info:

Handgun sales

• In York County, where about 420,000 people live, there were more than 17,000 guns sold in 2008. About 45 percent were handguns.
• In Lebanon County, which has about 128,934 residents, there were about 9,100 guns sold, with about 47 percent being handguns.

License to carry

• York County had 5,777 of these permits issued in 2008. As a percent of the county's total population, about 1.4 percent got one of these permits that year.
• Lebanon County had 1,651. That's about 1.3 percent of the population.

(Photo credit: Meleanie Hain sports a holstered Glock at her daughter's soccer practice in September 2008. Lebanon Daily News)

In his testimony today, a Luzerne County judge told a county commission that a kids-for-cash scheme (where two county judges allegedly sent kids to a jail in return for kickbacks) was able to go on for so long because the media does not report on juvenile proceedings.

It's an interesting thought. We don't cover or publish the names of minors charged with crimes unless there is an extenuating circumstance. Court proceedings for juveniles are typically closed.

Do you think juvenile court proceedings should be open to the public? Should the media report on it?

We had a reader ask where he could find municipal meeting listings.

You could go to every municipality, authority, board or school district Web site. Or you can do some one-stop shopping. Check this out.

I've been using this site for years. It's great. You can search key words, newspapers or dates. I've found some good story ideas there, too. Click on "search tips" on the main page under the search button for some pointers.

Normally, I prefer reading things on paper. The Pennsylvania Public Notices Web site is better, in my opinion, for two reasons. First, I have a very hard time reading the tiny type used in printed legal ads. Secondly, it's a time saver because I can filter out legal ads that don't interest me.

There's also a online feature that will e-mail you items of interest. It costs money, so I haven't used it. If you have, leave a comment.

I noticed google is making an effort to engage government Web sites to become more user-friendly.

Interesting.

There is a way to use google to only search government sites. It's www.google.com/unclesam. It's a quick and easy way of filtering out stuff you don't want.

Is there such a thing as too much information before you eat?

The state health inspector was at the York Fair on Friday. Before you get worried (and/or nauseous), it appears everything that was checked out passed.

To do the search, go to the state's online inspection database. Then, search for the phrase York Fair (do not use quote marks around it). If you'd like to whittle it down, you can use the drop-down box to select "York County." *(Note: This works to search for any restaurant or food-serving establishment that's inspected. Just type the name you're looking for into the 'facility name' bar.)

If you are doing a search, it's worth noting that some violations are less serious than others and it's not uncommon for the inspector to find something wrong.

From my experiences with the state's database, look for places with repeat violations. Read the paperwork associated with each inspection -- maybe one place had 12 little things, but another place had one big insect infestation.

In my story yesterday about a settlement payment to a former director of the York County School of Technology, I had to use an estimate for his payout.

The settlement, which came Wednesday via a Right-to-Know request, showed up on my desk around 3:30 p.m. The contract didn't spell out his salary, and my last record was from 2005-2006.

Today, in response to another Right-to-Know request, I got the updated salary from the state's pension board for educators, the Pennsylvania Public School Employees' Retirement System.

Former director James A. Kraft made $126,438.73 as of June 30. Under his settlement agreement he is due his weekly salary until March 31. That's $87,534. He's also getting health care. In return, he's agreed not to sue the district.

On Sunday, we published a story that tracked school district taxes over time.

Here's a database to search your school district or to compare tax rates. If you are a homeowner, it's worth noting that simply looking at the rates isn't the best predictor of your bill.

For example, any homeowner can sign up for the Homestead Tax Relief program, which gives you a break on the bill. In York City, it knocks off about $500. In other districts it's about $100.

Also, tax bills are based on your property's assessment. To figure out your tax bill take your assessment times the rate and then divide that number by 1,000.

I got back to work Wednesday afternoon after a vacation, and settled in to catch up on the news.

One of the first things on my plate was writing a story about Stanley Silver, the Democratic nominee for the open York City School Board seat. The other paper had already written about it twice while I was away.

Before I call people up for a story I like to get some background on them so I can have an intelligent conversation and not waste their time. I am looking, mainly, for biographical information.

So, I ran Silver's name through google. The google search showed a link to a state PDF file that said Silver lost his law license for six months in 2008. It is the fourth hit on google for "Stanley Silver." It took all of one minute to do this.

I double-checked the spelling of his name against a York Dispatch story. There, commenters on the story were saying he had something in his past. (Yes, I read news story comments, so feel free to leave news tips or send them to ndobo@ydr.com.)

Anyone can check a lawyer's history online. Go here. It's run by the state disciplinary review board.

I just read reporter Nickie Dobo's story about a York County resident who asked to see a copy of the working budget for South Eastern School District.

No, the district said, we won't give you that. It's only a draft, and it would be a "disservice to the to the community and to the district" to release it.

A disservice to the community? How exactly? I'm thinking the whole point of a resident wanting to see a working budget is to see how the district is creating its budget, and that it's not all that helpful to only be able to see the finished product.

Anyway, you see that kind of reasoning sometimes when agencies deny records -- what amounts to an agency telling a person that they can't handle the document they're requesting, or wouldn't understand it, or something similar. South Eastern's business manager, for example, said the public shouldn't see the document because "it's not accurate."

I assume that by "accurate" she meant "final." But even if she meant that there were mistakes in the draft budget, again, what harm can come from  this kind of public oversight?  There seems to be an assumption that the requester, upon being told that it is a draft budget subject to change, would not understand and would assume the budget was final.

I'd love to have a discussion here on why it seems that some agencies believe people can't be trusted to look at what their government is doing.

 The state's Office of Open Records granted the requester's appeal in this case. The district is considering whether to appeal. This is one to watch.