Hours after President Obama’s State of the Union address on Wednesday night, 49 Members’ of the House of Representatives found their Congressional websites defamed by hackers.  According to a joint letter by Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH), “this is the second time in a year websites hosted and supported by this vendor have been compromised.”

Pelosi, Boehner Demand Additional Web Safeguards After Thursday’s Cyber-Attack

IOWA – A threat to shift government legal notices from newspapers to  websites appears to have been stalled at the legislative level.  Today, state Senator Staci Appel, responsible for managing a state government reorganization and efficiency bill declared “the publication (provision) is out.”

Public Notice Shift Hits Legislative Snag

The bill passed out of subcommittee on Wednesday and subsequently several editorials were published highlighting the value of public notice in newspapers including:

Public Notices Are Vital To Healthy Democracy, 1/16/2010

Accountability For Tax Dollars, 1/17/2010

Public Notices Belong In Newspapers, Not Online, 1/20/2010

PENNSYLVANIA – Under the open records law, taxpayer-funded contracts are supposed to be accessible on the state Treasury website within a matter of days.  However, the electronic posting of information has seen lengthy delays.

Web site runs into problems

FLORIDA – Threats to permit governments to post legal notices online have been renewed for the 2010 legislative session. And it appears the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Dean is more than happy to attack newspapers in the process:

“But he conceded the legislation could hurt Florida newspapers, including his hometown Chronicle.

‘If it does, it is what it is,’ Dean said. ‘The motivation for this is to save money. But if it trims their feathers a bit, fine.’”

Does Public Notice Bill Stem From Paper’s Coverage?

When it’s on the Internet, it is invisible.

This breaking news from Huffington Post in response to the White House’s breaking news on the “new” Treasury Department report that turns out to have been available since 1995 is a perfect testament to the obscurity of the Internet.

Treasury Touts Long-Available Derivatives Report As A Part Of Its ‘New’ Open Government Plan

So the report has been there all along. Who knew? Obviously the White House was counting on the strong likelihood that few Americans had been to http://www.occ.treas.gov/deriv/deriv.htm to read this report.

PENNSYLVANIA – Ordinary citizens brought a lawsuit against their Township for failure to publish public notice of a hearing concerning zoning of their land.  The Municipalities Planning Code requires, among other things, notice of a public hearing once a week for two successive weeks.  Because of the failure to follow the Code, they argue that the ordinance and subsequent amendments should be struck down.

Rush zoning ordinance challenged

MICHIGAN – Voters in Ann Arbor approved a measure on Tuesday giving city officials the option to post ordinances and notices on the city’s website, instead of in a newspaper.  Similar ballot measures were defeated in Wayne and Trenton.

Ann Arbor city charter amendments pass muster with voters

OKLAHOMA — The sheriff and city police chief, along with six other county officials, face 38 misdemeanor counts of violating the state’s Open Meeting Act.

Officials Face Charges of Violating Oklahoma’s Open Meeting Act

A notice of a local church’s plan to expand offsite parking didn’t tell readers where the lots were. It just pointed to the City Hall, where they had to dig further to get the real scoop. The court wisely said that’s not enough.

 

http://www.jud.state.ct.us/external/supapp/Cases/AROap/AP116/116ap424.pdf

This is from Roll Call, the Capitol Hill newspaper.  Demonstrates that when people visit government websites, identities and opinions can be captured and tracked. An unfortunate misstep by the Obama administration here–but it makes the point about putting public notice on government websites enables government agencies to track the users, for better or for worse.

Cornyn Still Concerned About E-Mail Data Collected by White House Program

Aug. 19, 2009, 1 p.m.
By Jessica Brady
Roll Call Staff

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Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) directed criticism toward the White House again Wednesday over a recently dissolved Web-based program designed to target misinformation in the health care debate.The National Republican Senatorial Committee chairman, who initially aired his problems with the program in an Aug. 5 letter to President Barack Obama, reiterated his concern Wednesday that the program infringes on First Amendment rights.

“While I am pleased that the program has apparently been dismantled, I remain concerned about the information that was collected during the 13 days that this program was in effect,” Cornyn wrote in another letter Wednesday to Obama.

Cornyn requested the White House address allegations that e-mails sent through its Web site that were flagged because they contained “fishy” information on health care may have been shared with the Democratic National Committee and other third-party groups….

remainder clipped for copyright reasons. Visit www.rollcall.com for the rest of the story.