Leroy Schad molested an 11 year old boy. Now District Judge Ron Svaty has sentenced him to five years of probation and house arrest, and ordered him to prominently post signs declaring his sex offender status
Schad said the loneliness and isolation imposed by the house arrest are the toughest to deal with.
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Government bureacracies implement a standard set of dodges to avoid the accountability that comes from disclosure.
In its dealings with FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency), The Advocate newspaper has been the victim of two of the most common ploys to avoid disclosure:
1. Charge extraordinary amounts for copying,
2. Provide information in the most difficult to use for […]

The Texas Department of Public Safety plans to update its online sex offender registry this spring to let people know where offenders work or go to school. https://records.txdps.state.tx.us/DPS_WEB/Sor/index.aspx
Anyone can go to the state’s site to look up a person by name or ZIP code. The information includes physical descriptions, photos, offenses, aliases and legal […]

During the past five years, nearly half of Oregon teachers disciplined for sexual misconduct with a child left their school districts with confidential agreements.
The Oregon response is sadly similar to that of the Texas Youth Commission and Catholic Archdiocese across the country. They all hid sex offenders so as to not cause inconvenience […]

It’s not scarlet, and it’s not a letter, but a bill before the state Legislature that would require drunk drivers to put florescent yellow license plates on their cars makes quite a few think of author Nathaniel Hawthorne’s tale of Hester Prynne wearing the scarlet letter A for adultery… and wearing the shame.
Open Records works […]

John Washburn learned that the Texas governor’s office automatically destroys virtually all of its emails every seven days. A cynic might conclude that this policy is an attempt by the State to avoid the embarassment of open records disclosure required by law.
Mr. Washburn responded by writing a computer program that automatically requests emails every […]

People with felony criminal records would be able to more quickly shield that information from prospective employers under legislation filed today by Gov. Deval Patrick.
Boston Mayor Thomas Menino hailed Patrick’s proposals as “much needed.”
“Ex-offenders often have little or no support upon release, in effect giving them life sentences by denying them opportunities for […]

In one of his last decisions of the year on Monday, December 31, 2007, President Bush signed into law the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) reform bill (S. 2488).
For the first time, there will be a penalty for agencies who do not comply with the FOIA’s time limits.
Those of us who make open […]

A Santa Clara County resident infected with a dangerous strain of tuberculosis flew back to the United States earlier this month without alerting authorities of her illness - potentially threatening fellow passengers and people at Stanford Hospital’s emergency room with whom she came into contact.
Citing federal patient confidentiality rules, health authorities would not name the […]

Pennsylvania legislative leaders have paid out-of-state companies $466,000 this year to conduct focus groups and public-opinion surveys. Even though the polls have been paid for by taxpayer dollars, the politicians have refused to release the results.
Politicians are afraid of only two things; being publically embarrassed and being voted out of office. Release of […]