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 […]

Should adult adoptees have access to their birth records and be able to learn the identity of their birth parents?
It is a question with two sides, that of the adoptee and that of the adoptee’s biological parents.
On one hand, every child seems to have an inner need to know from where they came.
On the other, […]

Nearly two dozen North Texas cities have passed laws prohibiting sex offenders from living within 1,000 or 2,000 feet of schools, day-care centers, parks and other places frequented by children.
The attached Dallas Morning News story appears to argue that restricting the proximity of sex offenders to children doesn’t protect the little ones. To DMN […]

Marjorie Cohn, a professor at the Thomas Jefferson School of Law in San Diego, said that a Web site that publishes photos of convicted prostitutes violates the women’s right to privacy.
“It’s an incredible invasion of the privacy of the women, with no real benefit to law enforcement,” Cohn said.
Other than reducing the number of […]

The Open Records Project suggests that crime control cameras be publicly accessible.
A crime-ridden high street in north London has been branded the most spied-upon road in Britain, after it emerged that it is watched over by more than 100 closed circuit television cameras.
“Having so many cameras in one place actually makes police investigations harder because […]

The Sandusky [Ohio] Register on June 24 published the names, ages and home counties of the almost 2,700 concealed carry permit holders in its circulation area. Ohio gun laws restrict public access to concealed carry records but allow the media to access them.
In retaliation - and to illustrate the ease of finding personal information when […]

A Web site that matches roommates may be liable for what its users say about their preferences, a fractured three-judge panel of the federal appeals court in San Francisco ruled yesterday.
The Ninth Circuit appears to take both a broad view of who is a covered by the Fair Housing Act and a narrow view of […]

I seriously doubt that the friends and families of those killed in violent attacks would believe that any of the following objections would hold water in light of their losses. Only those with no personal experience in a similar situation would genuinely believe such “Pollyanish” ideals could be real solutions in saving lives.
10. We […]

Rather than waiting for SWAT and the other paramilitary representatives to show up after the carnage is over, Americans need to re-learn and practice the self-reliance that made this nation great.
It looks like your buddy, Jim Schutz, already took his first shot.

Giovanni Mola, 38, who claimed to have had 200 lovers, refused to wear condoms after starting a relationship with the woman in Edinburgh in 2003. His lover is now infected.
We have argued for several years that the AIDS epidemic can be brought to a rapid halt by publicizing the names of those infected with […]