http://www.yorkblog.com/record/ Pennsylvania's new open records law gives you a stronger tool for keeping an eye on how government spends your money. We'll be watching, too. en Copyright 2009 Sat, 21 Nov 2009 08:35:07 -0500 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/ http://www.rssboard.org/rss-specification
"This crime occurred as the accused struck the victims about the head and face then left the above residence and became disorderly."

 Hit people and then became disorderly. Interesting.

Of course, that refers to the charges the person faces -- harassment (presumably for hitting people) and disorderly conduct (for whatever he did after hitting people). Still, it's kind of funny if you think about it.

*Said with all due respect for the job police do every day.
]]> http://www.yorkblog.com/record/2009/11/fun-with-police-reports.html http://www.yorkblog.com/record/2009/11/fun-with-police-reports.html funny fun police police reports Sat, 21 Nov 2009 08:35:07 -0500 a commitment from the company to invest up to $90 million to restructure the York operations and that the company will discontinue its efforts to relocate to Kentucky.

Harley workers still must approve the contract. A Dec. 2 vote is scheduled. You can see the entire document here.


]]> http://www.yorkblog.com/record/2009/11/see-inside-harley-workers-tentative-contract-agreement.html http://www.yorkblog.com/record/2009/11/see-inside-harley-workers-tentative-contract-agreement.html York County contract contracts harley harley-davidson labor_union york york county Fri, 20 Nov 2009 11:29:48 -0500 this, what he calls a "live data graphic." It looks like one of those dot-tests you do to see if you're color blind. But when you mouse over the dots, you see the name, position and salary of a White House staffer. The dots are different sizes, corresponding to the salary.

Pretty cool, and, needless to say, has local possibilities. If there's some data you'd like to see us look at like this, leave a comment.

]]> http://www.yorkblog.com/record/2009/11/see-how-much-white-house-staffers-make.html http://www.yorkblog.com/record/2009/11/see-how-much-white-house-staffers-make.html Scott Blanchard Mon, 16 Nov 2009 08:16:55 -0500 The last tears of a departing Hurricane Ida fell as light rain and drizzle in York County for the past few days -- and it's gone now, with clearing expecting tomorrow and sun for all of next week -- but it prompted us to remark on the weather in the paper the other day and give you a look at how much precipitation we've had in the past year.

But there's more data out there than we published on newsprint.

And no, the open records blog hasn't turned into a weather blog. I realize that historical precipitation numbers aren't exactly what we normally talk about here ... but cut me a little slack and just think of it as us making our own records open. We've been tracking precip in York County by month since 2002, using York Water Company numbers*, so there are some interesting numbers to look at.

 For starts, if you feel like you've lived in a tropical rainforest this fall ... how soon you forget. (I count myself the worst offender here). Here are the precip totals from September-November from 2002-now:

2002: 14.6 inches
2003: 17.93
2004: 14.06
2005: 12.42
2006: 14.35
2007: 7.44
2008: 12.14
2009: 9.78 (through Friday)

We're halfway through November, so it would have to rain like crazy for this not to be one of the driest falls in the last eight years. Who would've guessed?

Other interesting facts:

• In October, York County had 5.17 inches of rain. That's the most in October since 8.34 inches fell in 2005.
  
• York County has exceeded its average annual rainfall every year since 2002 except for 2006, which ended with about a one-inch deficit. Through October this year, the county was more than 8 inches below its annual average to that point.
• Highest rainfall in any month: 9.56 inches in September 2004 (remnants of hurricanes Frances and Ivan, whose Susquehanna River flood level is pictured above, and compared with Agnes' 1972 level).
• Lowest precipitation in any month: .36 in February 2002.
• In the 94 months we've been tracking this (through October), precipitation amounts have been below the monthly average 38 times and equal to the monthly average once.

Anything else you want to know?

*York Water Company has made its weather data available online at its Web site, beginning with this year's stats.
]]> http://www.yorkblog.com/record/2009/11/what-you-maybe-thought-you-knew-about-all-this-rain.html http://www.yorkblog.com/record/2009/11/what-you-maybe-thought-you-knew-about-all-this-rain.html rainfall weather data ydr Sat, 14 Nov 2009 12:50:48 -0500 Good that the Wall came down, and cool that we can read some of the original documents from that time shedding light on what happened:

A letter to Mikhail Gorbachev from an adviser, who said the wall has come down and socialist system is finished.

Documents about East Germans fleeing to the west through Czechoslovakia.

 Once-secret documents show opposition to German reunification by U.S., others.

The CIA's "Outlook for Eastern Europe in 1990."  Put "Berlin Wall" in the search bar.

If you've come across other documents on the Wall, link to them here.
]]> http://www.yorkblog.com/record/2009/11/berlin-walls-fall-in-original-documents.html http://www.yorkblog.com/record/2009/11/berlin-walls-fall-in-original-documents.html berlin wall original_documents Mon, 09 Nov 2009 08:31:59 -0500 A truancy town hall in Dover scheduled for Monday night made me wonder if you could get truancy numbers from the state. And the answer is not literally -- at least, I couldn't find anything on the site -- but you can get dropout rates (scroll down to see the links), which, I believe it is generally agreed upon, can be linked to truancy rates.

A look at the 2007-2008 numbers* shows you that:

• Crispus Attucks, York County High, York City School District and York County School of Technology have dropout rates in the top 20 of all schools in Pennsylvania.
  
• No other county school had a dropout rate higher than 1.6 percent (Eastern York), and that ranked 172nd in the state of the 617 public, charter and other school districts listed.
  
• Six York County public school districts -- Southern York, West York, Dallastown, Central, York Suburban and South Eastern -- had dropout rates of less than 1 percent.
• 603 students dropped out -- including 117 from York City, 78 from York Tech, 59 from West Shore and 58 from CA.
  

But an observation from YorkCounts, which is sponsoring the town hall, is good to keep in mind when you're looking at the numbers. In its "Stay in School Initiative Report to the Community," it noted that the state's dropout rates are compiled by counting the number of students who were enrolled on Oct. 1 and still enrolled on the following Sept. 30.

 YorkCounts says that gives an incomplete picture of how many students are graduating within four years. Its research shows that between 1998 and 2008, 6,429 students dropped out of York County schools, and that in 2005-2006, the four-year graduation rate in York County was 78 percent.

PDE itself wrote a qualifier to the numbers in its introduction to the 2006-2007 dropout rates, noting that rates at a school like York County High could be inflated because "their students are at high risk of dropping out and many are attending school while working full time. The methodology of calculating dropouts must be examined to truly understand these high dropout rates. ..."

YorkCounts says the town hall, titled "Kids, Truancy and a County at Risk," will focus on the United Way of York County's Stay in School Report as well as the work of Judge John Uhler's Truancy Task Force (read more about the latter at the Juvenile Court Judges' Commission site; click on "current JCJC newsletter.")
 
*You can crunch your own numbers at the PDE Web site, but you have to have Microsoft Excel (or OpenOffice, which is free and has a good spreadsheet function, or some kind of spreadsheet capability). If you have neither but want more numbers, let me know in the comments section and I'll post them as soon as I can.

]]> http://www.yorkblog.com/record/2009/11/crunching-dropout-numbers-in-york-county.html http://www.yorkblog.com/record/2009/11/crunching-dropout-numbers-in-york-county.html Pennsylvania public record Scott Blanchard York County department_of_education dropouts education truancy yorkcounts Sat, 07 Nov 2009 10:18:13 -0500 Here's an attention-getting quote from the director of the U.S. National Counterterrorism Center,* from a story in the Harvard Law Record, that seems to say the more transparent government is, the less it can be trusted:

(Michael) Leiter said that everything counterterrorism did would require a large degree of public trust. He believed transparency would undermine such trust, making it difficult for counterterrorism policymakers to operate. Much needed to happen behind the scenes, he said, citing the use of provisions of the Patriot Act to foil a recent bomb plot against New York City subways, and noting that, in terms of international operations, there "was no altruism in international affairs," and that difficult and delicate trade-offs were often made in the pursuit of security.
 ... Leiter said that, in the absence of public oversight, lawyers ought to play a greater role ensuring that there is accountability for any action taken behind the scenes. A breakdown of the internal channels set up by the Church and Pike Commissions in the 1970s - specifically, a lack of trust in the House and Senate Intelligence Committees and the special courts set up to monitor use of the Foreign Intelligence Security Act (FISA) is what has led members of Congress to leak vital information to the press, rather than deal with problems within the system. "Everything now plays out on the front page of the New York Times and the Washington Post," Leiter said, making it difficult for the NCTC and other national security agencies to pursue effective policies.

It's hard to imagine how trust could be undermined by transparency. For example, if you had no idea what happened inside the county's courtroom, why would you have more trust that justice was being carried out than if you could see it for yourself?

No doubt there are legitimate needs for secrecy in, say, the fight against terrorism. But for the leader of the country's counterterrorism office to say everything it does should be kept secret, and therefore public trust about its activities will increase, seems odd.

What do you think of Leiter's comments?

*Quote flagged on Twitter by openthegovernment.org, thanks very much.

]]> http://www.yorkblog.com/record/2009/11/hey-feds-exactly-how-much-secrecy-do-you-want.html http://www.yorkblog.com/record/2009/11/hey-feds-exactly-how-much-secrecy-do-you-want.html Scott Blanchard counterterrorism federal government open_government terrorism transparency Fri, 06 Nov 2009 13:29:25 -0500 York County congressman Todd Platts wants to be top dog at the Government Accountability Office (story here), which may be one of those agencies you haven't heard much about. But it actually does some pretty interesting stuff. It's known as the investigative arm of Congress because it performs a watchdog role over other agencies, and it works on behalf of members of Congress or congressional committees.

A description of its job that appears online: "We advise Congress and the heads of executive agencies about ways to make government more efficient, effective, ethical, equitable and responsive."

You can go on the GAO's Web site and find anything from a report on the Department of Defense's planning for withdrawing forces from Iraq to how the IRS is managing tax debt collections to safety issues if the age standard for commercial pilots is changed. The GAO is also reporting on stimulus money and takes reports on stimulus fraud.

I recall in 1998 when I was an editor at the Carroll County (Md.) Times, our staff did a lengthy series on heroin use by teens in that community. We used a GAO report on heroin trafficking to help us build a map that showed, station-by-station, how heroin got from Afghanistan to a Baltimore suburb.

The comptroller's job would include testifying before Congress. The job carries a 15-year term.

Right now, the acting comptroller general is Gene L. Dodaro, who's been with the GAO for more than 30 years, according to his bio on the site. He is a graduate of Lycoming College in Williamsport.

The Hill, a Washington, D.C.-based newspaper that covers Congress, broke the story early this morning and has quotes from Platts' letter of application, which it said it obtained from a source and would not release. Here is The Hill's story.
]]> http://www.yorkblog.com/record/2009/11/platts-seeks-top-spot-at-gao-which-is-what-again.html http://www.yorkblog.com/record/2009/11/platts-seeks-top-spot-at-gao-which-is-what-again.html Scott Blanchard federal government government_accountability_office platts Wed, 04 Nov 2009 13:08:34 -0500 a live chat tonight beginning at 8 p.m. on the York County election. We'll post local and statewide results in the chat and ask your thoughts on some topics. Please stop by.
]]> http://www.yorkblog.com/record/2009/11/be-heard-on-election-night.html http://www.yorkblog.com/record/2009/11/be-heard-on-election-night.html Scott Blanchard chat elections election_night Tue, 03 Nov 2009 16:58:35 -0500 The list of White House visitors is now online and searchable. (Thanks to the FOI Advocate blog for flagging that.)

You might recall that we asked York County congressman Todd Platts for his visitors' list, and he said no.

But Obama's list, through July 31, is available -- although it is only a list of names that were requested. (Here's more on the White House's plans to release lists of visitors.)

Some names you might recognize from the list that's out now:

William Ayers, John Boehner, Newt Gingerich, Al Gore, Alan Greenspan, Jesse Jackson, Michael Jordan, Michael Moore, Denzel Washington, Serena Williams, Oprah Winfrey and Jeremiah Wright.

BUT. The Los Angeles Times reports the William Ayers that visited wasn't that William Ayers, and the Jeremiah Wright who visited wasn't that Jeremiah Wright. Same with fellows named Michael Jordan and Michael Moore, the White House told the Times. The White House said it was asked if people with those names visited, so it included those names in its release.

Here's a good Washington Post story about the list, who's on it and what's known about why they visited.

]]> http://www.yorkblog.com/record/2009/10/obamas-visitors-list-released-and-searchable.html http://www.yorkblog.com/record/2009/10/obamas-visitors-list-released-and-searchable.html FOIA Scott Blanchard foia obama transparency visitors White House Sat, 31 Oct 2009 09:48:08 -0500
 The (Baltimore) Sun is suing its city's police department for basically ignoring public records requests and/or assessing high fees for records it is willing to provide. A police department spokesman said he couldn't comment on the lawsuit because he hadn't seen it, but said police "understand the importance of transparency." Hmmmm.

]]> http://www.yorkblog.com/record/2009/10/whose-records-are-they-anyway.html http://www.yorkblog.com/record/2009/10/whose-records-are-they-anyway.html Fri, 30 Oct 2009 08:51:07 -0500 I absolutely loved an anecdote from atop Sean Adkins' story in today's paper. Here it is:

"Every couple of years, Frito-Lay officials stop by the Hanover Borough office to check
out any new building permits filed by Utz Quality Foods.
   "Basically, those officials are searching for any clue to expansion within Utz -- a sign the
potato chip maker could be sharpening its competitive edge within the snack food industry, said Bruce Rebert, Hanover's borough manager."

The reason I love it is because it's easy to think of open records being a media issue, so, for example, a newspaper's fight to increase the public's access to open records can be seen as self-serving.

 But here's a situation where a company uses access to public records as part of its strategy to compete for market share. So businesses, too, have a stake in the effort to maintain and increase access to government records.
]]> http://www.yorkblog.com/record/2009/10/potato-chip-wars.html http://www.yorkblog.com/record/2009/10/potato-chip-wars.html frito-lay media newspapers open_government open_records potato chips pretzels public_records snyder's utz Sun, 25 Oct 2009 06:00:22 -0500 In case you were curious, we checked on outgoing District Attorney Stan Rebert's campaign money. (To give credit where it's due, this was actually managing editor Randy Parker's idea -- just to see how or if Rebert would spend whatever money he had left after losing the primary to Tom Kearney. For example, could or would this powerful figure in county Republican politics donate to other campaigns?).

The headline would be that, as you might expect, Rebert spent almost all his money in the primary. Here are the details, thanks to reporter Teresa Ann Boeckel, who paged through the paperwork:

Rebert's committee had $31,179.03 available between May 5 and June 8, and spent $29,437.07, leaving a cash balance of $1,741.96. Much of that was spent on advertising during the primary.

Between June 9 and Oct. 19, the current reporting period, his committee received $737.66 in contributions and spent $730.36 on party expenses, repayment of a candidate loan and a stop-payment fee. That leaves a balance of $1,748.76.

Anything else you want to know? Leave a comment here, or e-mail me at sblanchard at ydr.com.


]]> http://www.yorkblog.com/record/2009/10/a-check-on-outgoing-da-reberts-war-chest.html http://www.yorkblog.com/record/2009/10/a-check-on-outgoing-da-reberts-war-chest.html Pennsylvania open records Scott Blanchard campaign finance elections republicans stan rebert york county district attorney Sat, 24 Oct 2009 11:16:54 -0500 Bands like Pearl Jam and Nine Inch Nails (that's Trent Reznor at right) aren't happy their music may have been used to torture prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, and they've filed a Freedom of Information Act request to get the song titles. Thanks to the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press for flagging Washington Post and New York Times stories on that.

 I must say that's the first time I've heard of a FOIA request made by rock bands. It's part of an effort to put pressure on President Obama to follow through on his promise to close Guantanamo Bay.

]]> http://www.yorkblog.com/record/2009/10/music-as-torture-1.html http://www.yorkblog.com/record/2009/10/music-as-torture-1.html FOIA Freedom of Information Act foia freedom of information act guantanamo bay nine inch nails obama pearl jam r.e.m. rage against the machine rosanne cash Fri, 23 Oct 2009 07:50:22 -0500 Unredacted is a "behind-the-scenes" blog just launched by the nonprofit National Security Archive at GWU:

"The Archive's own experience with thousands of Freedom of Information Act and Mandatory Declassification Review requests provides a wealth of data and fundamental lessons that we hope to share with you," says the first entry.

Unredacted will highlight "never before publicly seen" government documents in a "Document Friday" series and post commentary and analysis from NSA experts. Read the news release at the jump.
]]> http://www.yorkblog.com/record/2009/10/new-blog-by-national-security-archive.html http://www.yorkblog.com/record/2009/10/new-blog-by-national-security-archive.html Freedom of Information Act Melissa Nann Burke blogs George Washington University Mandatory Declassification Review National Security Archive Thu, 22 Oct 2009 16:12:00 -0500