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.
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.
The Sidekick, marketed as a mobile messaging device, allows its user to: send SMS messages; IM friends; surf the Web; create an address book, calendar, to do list, or jot down notes — all while playing music, taking pictures, playing games or actually making a call. Sounds impressive right? What could possibly go wrong?
One million or so Sidekick users have now discovered the fragility of online storage of information…
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
Speed Matters, a project of the Communication Workers of America, released their third annual report on Internet Speeds this week. The results of the report, broadband penetration in the United States is generally “poor” and far behind other industrialized nations. According to the report:
“Only 20 percent of those who took the test have Internet speeds in the range of the top-ranked countries – South Korea, Japan and Sweden. 18 percent do not even meet the FCC definition for current-generation broadband: an always-on Internet connection of at least 768 kbps downstream.”
The report reveals useful information about the average download and upload speeds by state and county. For more information:
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
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.
http://annarborchronicle.com/2009/08/18/column-a-charter-change-on-publishing/
The City wants to put its notices on its own website, hinting it may want to dispense with the newspaper publication altogether. An online editor explains why he thinks that’s not such a great idea.
Internet use in American farms was up 2 percent from 2007 to 2009–to a total of 59 percent, according to the National Agricultural Statistical Service. A state by state report on Internet access, by connection type, is available from NASS.
http://usda.mannlib.cornell.edu/MannUsda/viewDocumentInfo.do?documentID=1062
Good Jobs First finds the web has been an inadequate tool to inform the public where their economic stimulus dollars have been spent. According to their press release:
“While some states have created impressive websites to disseminate information about their share of the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), most are failing to make effective use of online technology to educate taxpayers about the impact of economic stimulus spending. This is the finding of Show Us the Stimulus, a report released today by Good Jobs First, a non-profit research center based in Washington, DC. ”
The full text of the report as well as state-specific appendices can be found on the Good Jobs First website at www.goodjobsfirst.org/stimulusweb.cfm.