Northern Valley Beacon

Information, observations, and analysis from the James River valley on the Northern Plains----- E-Mail: Enter 'Beacon' in subject box. Send to: Minnekota@Referencedesk.org

Thursday, March 23, 2006

 

You thought the Dan Nelson Auto business was dead?

No. Attorney Todd Epp has the latest news, which involves a number of tribal courts getting into the fraud action.

 

Tyler Smith talks to $1-A-Month Club today

Brown County Democrat Tyler Smith, who is a candidate for governor, will speak at the Brown County Democrats' Dollar-A-Month Club today.

Democrats meet at The Pizza Ranch from 11:30 to 1 p.m. The buffet is $8, $6 for seniors. People who just want to come and listen and ask questions are requested to donate $1 (or more, the treasurer says). The Club meets on Thursday this month instead of Friday to accommodate schedules.

Tyler was born in Rapid City, lived in Hermosa, and graduated from Rapid City Central High School in 1998. During his high school years, Tyler participated in sports and was an exchange student.

He began his political activities in 1995, when he was a telephone volunteer for Republican Carol Hillard's campaign for the U.S. House. He also volunteered for Tim Johnson's first run for the Senate and later worked as an intern in Sen. Johnson's Rapid City office.

Coming from a family with a strong history of military service, Tyler joined the South Dakota National Guard and joined the 109th Engineer Group based in Rapid City.

During the heavy forest fires of 2000, Tyler volunteered to transport fire fighting crews from the Department of Corrections, as well as the elite fire fighters known as Hotshots.

He attended the South Dakota School of Mines and Black Hills State University. In November 2000, Tyler visited the campus of Northern State University and decided to move to Aberdeen to pursue a degree in history. In 2001, he met his future wife Katie Floro of Wilmot, who has been active in many campaigns in Brown County.

In 2002, Tyler was a Brown County delegate to the State Democratic Convention, and decided to get even more involved in politics.

In November 2003, Tyler's National Guard unit was activated for duty in Afghanistan. He and Katie decided to marry in December before he was deployed overseas. The unit began training at Ft. Carson, Colo., in April 2004 and embarked for Afghanistan in May. It returned a year later. Tyler was awarded the Army Commendation Medal and the Combat Action Badge for his service.

Tyler is a full-time student at NSU and works as a cashier in a convenience store.

Wednesday, March 22, 2006

 

The Bush Bunch's technique for denying reality

Critics of the press have finally gotten into analyzing the specific cases on how the Bush administration attempts to control the public's image of the press. Here is an analysis from the CJRDaily, the internet component of the Columbia Journalism Review.



But if you look at how President Bush constantly refers to the press as an actor that distorts and muddles reality in Iraq, it's apparent that those alleged distortions have become essential to the administration's contention that progress is being made.

Thus, he tells us, there are two Iraqs: one, a country portrayed in images of blood and chaos, and another, rosier Iraq, where life goes on, schools are built, hospitals opened and whole towns mended after grievous disorder. For a blunt example of how this works we turn to Vice President Cheney this past Sunday, appearing on Face the Nation. Bob Schieffer seemed to corner Cheney at one point, presenting him with a list of rosy predictions the veep had made that never came to pass. "I remember when you were saying we'd be greeted as liberators; you played down the insurgency 10 months ago, you said it was in its last throes," Schieffer said. "Do you believe that these optimistic statements may be one of the reasons that people seem to be more skeptical in this country about whether
we ought to be in Iraq?"

Cheney slipped the punch like a deft boxer and countered with a hard short right to Schieffer's solar plexus: "No. I think it has less to do with the statements we've made, which I think were basically accurate and reflect reality than it does with the fact that there's a constant sort of perception, if you will, that's created because what's newsworthy is the car bomb in Baghdad.

It's not all the work that went on that day in 15 other provinces in terms of making progress towards rebuilding Iraq."Just like that, Cheney tells us that though we might think we know what is happening in Iraq, it is actually an illusion, a function more of a producer or editor's need to sell newspapers or pump up ratings.

President Bush has been making the same argument via a subtler rhetorical device: He simply throws the word "images" in front of any uncomfortable information about Iraq. So, for example, in his March 14 speech to the Foundation for Defense of Democracies he described things in this way: "In the past few weeks, the world has seen very different images from Iraq, images of violence and anger and despair."

We don't think this is nitpicking on our part. Take a look at Bush's speech yesterday in Cleveland: "The central front on the war on terror is Iraq. And in the past few weeks, we've seen horrific images coming out of that country." He continues, "Others look at the violence they see each night on their television screens and they wonder how I can remain so optimistic about the prospects of success in Iraq. They wonder what I see that they don't."

We're not seeing car bombs ripping entire blocks apart and blowing dozens of Iraqis to bits. We're seeing images of car bombs ripping entire blocks apart and blowing dozens of Iraqis to bits. This is simply an extension of what Cheney told Schieffer. Because the violence is only "on their television screens," it's as if it does not actually exist out there in the world; it is only the "image" of violence.

Click the link above for the complete analysis.

Tuesday, March 21, 2006

 

Maybe the new South Dakota flag?

DL posted this in a comment on Todd Epp's SD Watch. We thought it deserved affirmation and a bigger play.

Sunday, March 19, 2006

 

Happy anniversary to all the gullible mother-friggers out there

Today marks the third anniversary of our war on Iraq. It's like celebrating the acquisition of multiple STDs. Or the plague. Whee.

We live under a fog of pestilence, spread like mental anthrax, that insists that the war was launched on faulty intelligence that was the best we had at the time. As George W. and his Minions of Mental Giants ramped up to the war, as we like to say in Clicheland, people in fact were examining the reasons for rushing into war and pointing out the flimsiness and faultiness of the information. This was not happening just among the high-level operatives in Washington. It was being discussed on college campuses and on e-mail lists even in Aberdeen, South Dakota. But in Aberdeen, the people who questioned the information raised the hackles of the regressives and were insulted, abused, and outshouted so that the war on Iraq went forward as a great move against terrorism. Frankly, they were cowed into submission by the Bush Bullshit Devotees, who have dreams of having personal herds of submissive cows to screw over. That, by the way, is the name of the game of conservative politics today.

The war itself is a military obscenity. Our troops are among the best trained, best equipped, most efficient, and most loyal in the world. And so, we violate the most basic military principle by sending them into situations that guarantee their slaughter because they have no discernible enemy and no defense against against their amorphous foes. (As in why is our reconnaissance technology not able to pick up the activity of people planting IEDs along well-traveled roads?)

Honoring our troops does not erase the prodigious dishonor to our democracy and its creed in more than 2,20o deaths, tens of thousands of injuries to our earnest young troops and the tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians who have died and are maimed because of our ineptitude.

Ben Franklin satirized precisely what we are doing in Iraq when he made fun of the British during the American Revolution for paying for Hessian soldiers to do the fighting for a cause that ultimately could only kill them.

The Islamic terrorists are among the deadliest enemy unleashed on the world. They are beyond the reach of the facts of history, the principles of good will and peace, the respect for human life, and the words of reason. They are automatons programmed from birth by a mind-control indoctrination that bears the name of a world religion to carry out acts of genocidal atrocity that make Hitler's Nazis look like flying nuns.

The acts committed on 9/11 are the acts of abject fools obeying the designs of evil perpetrated by demented old men who dream of subjecting the earth to their will. With the war on Iraq, we did exactly what the puppeteers of the suicidal-terrorists wanted us to do. We went to Iraq in a fury of vengeance and fright and allowed ourselves to be pushed into acts of degradation and depravity and moral humiliation.

Happy anniversary, suckers. May you live to see another one.

Saturday, March 18, 2006

 

Roger Hunt's sexual phantasies about Paris Hilton

During the three weeks I was in the Quad-Cities of Illinois and Iowa, the South Dakota abortion ban received as much news play there as the performances of the U. of Illinois Fighting Illini and the U. of Iowa Hawkeyes. The attitude around the basketball teams was hopeful. The attitude surrounding South Dakota's abortion ban was puzzled.

Abortion is not high on the list of political priorities in other places. The war on Iraq tops the list of concerns. Jobs and education rank up there with the war. People acquainted with South Dakota generally reflected the attitude that South Dakota has misplaced priorities. They think that if the state was really interested in human life, it would address the problems confronting so many of its living residents who have left the birth canal.

It has occured to me multiple times that the veneration of George Bush and the obsession with abortion are old cults revived from the Dark Ages. On my drive back yesterday, I had to stop at Jefferson to refuel. As I stood by the gas pumps, I could see a spire from an attractive church in the town. When I finished fueling, I drove for a look at the church. (A scholarly interest is the role that churches played in the American frontier.) The church is St. Peter's, and it has a graveyard behind it right on the town's main street. What was disconcerting was a memorial erected in front of the church by the Knights of Columbus. It was dedicated to all those souls whose lives were taken by abortion. It was like a war memorial.


All I could think of was the Wounded Knee memorial and the response that the words "Knights of Columbus" evoke on the reservations. Abortion is a distraction from some deeper moral issues.

One of the things that spurred the Reformation was a reaction by many Christians, clergy and lay people alike, to the cult of Mariolatry. In the cult, the Virgin Mary was elevated to the position of a deity, and the cult displaced the words of Christ and his teachings. Some theologians who repudiated the cult thought it was blasphemy.

The abortion issue has resolved itself into a cult. It is the cult of Zygotolatry. People phantasize that allowing zygotes to develop into embryoes and fetuses gives such believers moral stature. Their phantasies allow them to ignore the history of death and discrimination and oppression that is a part of life for many in South Dakota. It allows them to assume virtuous postures while they push many citizens of the the state back into the feudal social and political conditions of the Dark Ages.

Is that Paris Hilton lurking in Da Vinci's "The Last Supper"?

Wednesday, March 15, 2006

 

Take a look at how real democracies work

The Washington Post invites everyone to participate in its Sunshine Week activities.

For those who live in Third World states, such as South Dakota, it might be instructive, even revolutionary, to see how real demmocrats view open, participatory government. Click on the link below. (Sorry, the laptop I am borrowing does not handle embedded links.)


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/sunshineweek.html?referrer=email&referrer=email&referrer=email

Monday, March 13, 2006

 

The state as gulag

South Dakota's abortion ban is not the only measure that state government is using to impose a regime of repression and punishment on the people. The abortion measure even cites phony science in its statement of rationale, so it is doubtful that the ban will ever be put in force in its current language. The other measures the state is diddling with are dictates of what may be taught in sex education, what curricula are mandated--humanities are excluded to permit the introduction of pseudo-science. And state officials are It has launched an effort to get control of or eliminate public broadcasting, the one source of real information in the state. The government which is supposed to be doing the people's business is aggressively implementing ways to enslave the people and dictate the terms of their lives to them.


South Dakota is not the only state to be falling under the rule of the Taliban wing of the Republican Party, as Sen. Tim Johnson so aptly drew a parallel. Kansas tried to force science teachers to teach creationism. Currently, a law suit is being decided about the Kansas attorney general's attempts to report to authorities for criminal prosecution any minors for which "compelling evidence of sexual interaction is present." He wants to prosecute teenagers for any sexual activity. Kansas is one of 12 states for which sexual activity under a certain age is illegal.

The dream of the regressives is to turn states into prison camps for anyone who does not think or act as they do. Half of the state being ruled over as prisoners is the Great Regressive Dream.

The South Dakota abortion ban is a Trojan horse through which people who want to exercise total despotic power over other people hope to obtain that power. The question is not one of pro-choice vs. pro-life. It's one of pro-freedom vs. pro-serfdom for ordinatry citizens. It is precisely the kind of political regime against which the American Revolution was fought.

 

Could it be possible that Aberdeen could get a real newspaper?

Plans were announced today that Knight-Ridder, the owner of the Aberdeen American News, will be purchased by the McClatchy Co., which owns the Star Tribune. McClatchy plans to sell off some of the acquisitions. Aberdeen is such a negligible entity that its future is not a consideration among the journalistic moguls. But if the new owners, which do try to maintain journalistic standards, want a list of easy improvements, we can supply a list of incompetents to be fired, complete with examples of their work.

Here is part of the Star Tribune story on the acquisition:


The parent company of the Star Tribune has agreed to buy Knight Ridder Inc., publisher of the St. Paul Pioneer Press, for $4.5 billion, in a deal that will create the nation's second-largest newspaper chain.

McClatchy Co., which publishes the Star Tribune and 11 other daily newspapers, said early today that it will pay $67.25 in cash and stock for each share of San Jose, Calif.-based Knight Ridder. The company will also assume about $2 billion in Knight Ridder debt, making the total value of the deal $6.5 billion.

McClatchy will not keep all the newspapers it is acquiring. The company plans to sell 12 of the 32 Knight Ridder daily newspapers, including the Pioneer Press, Duluth News Tribune, Grand Forks Herald, Philadelphia Inquirer, San Jose Mercury News and Akron Beacon Journal. It will keep the Miami Herald, Kansas City Star, Fort Worth Star-Telegram and Charlotte Observer, among others.

The company said in a statement this morning that it will sell the Pioneer Press due to anticipated anti-trust concerns if it owned both Twin Cities newspapers.
No buyers for the Pioneer Press or the other newspapers to be divested were announced. McClatchy chief executive officer Gary Pruitt told CNBC this morning that the company "will begin marketing those newspapers today."

In a letter sent to McClatchy employees this morning, Pruitt said the company has no plans to eliminate jobs at the newspapers it is buying.

"We don't plan any across-the-board layoffs at the Knight Ridder papers we retain, though there are some job duplications on the Knight Ridder corporate staff and at Knight Ridder Digital [Knight Ridder's Internet operations] that will have to be addressed," Pruitt wrote.

The deal is expected to close in three to four months. The combined company will have a daily circulation of about 3.2 million, second only to USA Today publisher Gannett Co. In addition to 32 daily newspapers, Knight Ridder has 50 non-dailies.
"Opportunities like this come perhaps once in a company's lifetime, and we're thrilled to have this chance to extend McClatchy journalism and our proven newspaper operations to 20 high-quality newspapers in high-growth markets," Pruitt said in a statement released when the deal was announced.

Knight Ridder has about 18,500 employees. Its largest union, the Newspaper Guild-Communications Workers of America, has proposed buying nine newspapers, including the Pioneer Press, Inquirer and Mercury News. The union and private equity firm Yucaipa Cos. of Los Angeles plan to make an offer.

Saturday, March 11, 2006

 

WHAT'S WRONG WITH SOUTH DAKOTA? IT DOESN'T HAVE ONE OF THESE

If I were at McGovern Days in Aberdeen today, I would be encouraging Democrats to make open government their priority. The Republicans not only have attempted to further close down government, but they use the deception and subterfuge of inadequate laws to carry out their agenda.

Here is the Illinois Freedom of Information Act. This is how some states operate. It is lengthy reading, but South Dakota has no laws addressing open records. Open meetings is another matter which will be put up later for your reference.


(5 ILCS 140/1) (from Ch. 116, par. 201) Sec. 1. Pursuant to the fundamental philosophy of the American constitutional form of government, it is declared to be the public policy of the State of Illinois that all persons are entitled to full and complete information regarding the affairs of government and the official acts and policies of those who represent them as public officials and public employees consistent with the terms of this Act. Such access is necessary to enable the people to fulfill their duties of discussing public issues fully and freely, making informed political judgments and monitoring government to ensure that it is being conducted in the public interest. This Act is not intended to be used to violate individual privacy, nor for the purpose of furthering a commercial enterprise, or to disrupt the duly‑undertaken work of any public body independent of the fulfillment of any of the fore‑mentioned rights of the people to access to information. This Act is not intended to create an obligation on the part of any public body to maintain or prepare any public record which was not maintained or prepared by such public body at the time when this Act becomes effective, except as otherwise required by applicable local, State or federal law. These restraints on information access should be seen as limited exceptions to the general rule that the people have a right to know the decisions, policies, procedures, rules, standards, and other aspects of government activity that affect the conduct of government and the lives of any or all of the people. The provisions of this Act shall be construed to this end. This Act shall be the exclusive State statute on freedom of information, except to the extent that other State statutes might create additional restrictions on disclosure of information or other laws in Illinois might create additional obligations for disclosure of information to the public. (Source: P.A. 83‑1013.)
(5 ILCS 140/1.1) (from Ch. 116, par. 201.1) Sec. 1.1. This Act may be cited as the Freedom of Information Act. (Source: P.A. 86‑1475.)
(5 ILCS 140/2) (from Ch. 116, par. 202) Sec. 2. Definitions. As used in this Act: (a) "Public body" means any legislative, executive, administrative, or advisory bodies of the State, state universities and colleges, counties, townships, cities, villages, incorporated towns, school districts and all other municipal corporations, boards, bureaus, committees, or commissions of this State, any subsidiary bodies of any of the foregoing including but not limited to committees and subcommittees which are supported in whole or in part by tax revenue, or which expend tax revenue, and a School Finance Authority created under Article 1E of the School Code. "Public body" does not include a child death review team or the Illinois Child Death Review Teams Executive Council established under the Child Death Review Team Act. (b) "Person" means any individual, corporation, partnership, firm, organization or association, acting individually or as a group. (c) "Public records" means all records, reports, forms, writings, letters, memoranda, books, papers, maps, photographs, microfilms, cards, tapes, recordings, electronic data processing records, recorded information and all other documentary materials, regardless of physical form or characteristics, having been prepared, or having been or being used, received, possessed or under the control of any public body. "Public records" includes, but is expressly not limited to: (i) administrative manuals, procedural rules, and instructions to staff, unless exempted by Section 7(p) of this Act; (ii) final opinions and orders made in the adjudication of cases, except an educational institution's adjudication of student or employee grievance or disciplinary cases; (iii) substantive rules; (iv) statements and interpretations of policy which have been adopted by a public body; (v) final planning policies, recommendations, and decisions; (vi) factual reports, inspection reports, and studies whether prepared by or for the public body; (vii) all information in any account, voucher, or contract dealing with the receipt or expenditure of public or other funds of public bodies; (viii) the names, salaries, titles, and dates of employment of all employees and officers of public bodies; (ix) materials containing opinions concerning the rights of the state, the public, a subdivision of state or a local government, or of any private persons; (x) the name of every official and the final records of voting in all proceedings of public bodies; (xi) applications for any contract, permit, grant, or agreement except as exempted from disclosure by subsection (g) of Section 7 of this Act; (xii) each report, document, study, or publication prepared by independent consultants or other independent contractors for the public body; (xiii) all other information required by law to be made available for public inspection or copying; (xiv) information relating to any grant or contract made by or between a public body and another public body or private organization; (xv) waiver documents filed with the State Superintendent of Education or the president of the University of Illinois under Section 30‑12.5 of the School Code, concerning nominees for General Assembly scholarships under Sections 30‑9, 30‑10, and 30‑11 of the School Code; (xvi) complaints, results of complaints, and Department of Children and Family Services staff findings of licensing violations at day care facilities, provided that personal and identifying information is not released; and (xvii) records, reports, forms, writings, letters, memoranda, books, papers, and other documentary information, regardless of physical form or characteristics, having been prepared, or having been or being used, received, possessed, or under the control of the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority dealing with the receipt or expenditure of public funds or other funds of the Authority in connection with the reconstruction, renovation, remodeling, extension, or improvement of all or substantially all of an existing "facility" as that term is defined in the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority Act. (d) "Copying" means the reproduction of any public record by means of any photographic, electronic, mechanical or other process, device or means. (e) "Head of the public body" means the president, mayor, chairman, presiding officer, director, superintendent, manager, supervisor or individual otherwise holding primary executive and administrative authority for the public body, or such person's duly authorized designee. (f) "News media" means a newspaper or other periodical issued at regular intervals whether in print or electronic format, a news service whether in print or electronic format, a radio station, a television station, a television network, a community antenna television service, or a person or corporation engaged in making news reels or other motion picture news for public showing. (Source: P.A. 91‑935, eff. 6‑1‑01; 92‑335, eff. 8‑10‑01; 92‑468, eff. 8‑22‑01; 92‑547, eff. 6‑13‑02; 92‑651, eff. 7‑11‑02.)
(5 ILCS 140/3) (from Ch. 116, par. 203) Sec. 3. (a) Each public body shall make available to any person for inspection or copying all public records, except as otherwise provided in Section 7 of this Act. Notwithstanding any other law, a public body may not grant to any person or entity, whether by contract, license, or otherwise, the exclusive right to access and disseminate any public record as defined in this Act. (b) Subject to the fee provisions of Section 6 of this Act, each public body shall promptly provide, to any person who submits a written request, a copy of any public record required to be disclosed by subsection (a) of this Section and shall certify such copy if so requested. (c) Each public body shall, promptly, either comply with or deny a written request for public records within 7 working days after its receipt. Denial shall be by letter as provided in Section 9 of this Act. Failure to respond to a written request within 7 working days after its receipt shall be considered a denial of the request. (d) The time limits prescribed in paragraph (c) of this Section may be extended in each case for not more than 7 additional working days for any of the following reasons: (i) the requested records are stored in whole or in
part at other locations than the office having charge of the requested records;

(ii) the request requires the collection of a
substantial number of specified records;

(iii) the request is couched in categorical terms and requires an extensive search for the records responsive to it;

(iv) the requested records have not been located in the course of routine search and additional efforts are being made to locate them;

(v) the requested records require examination andevaluation by personnel having the necessary competence and discretion to determine if they are exempt from disclosure under Section 7 of this Act or should be revealed only with appropriate deletions;

(vi) the request for records cannot be complied with by the public body within the time limits prescribed by paragraph (c) of this Section without unduly burdening or interfering with the operations of the public body;

(vii) there is a need for consultation, which shall be conducted with all practicable speed, with another public body or among two or more components of a public body having a substantial interest in the determination or in the subject matter of the request.

(e) When additional time is required for any of the above reasons, the public body shall notify by letter the person making the written request within the time limits specified by paragraph (c) of this Section of the reasons for the delay and the date by which the records will be made available or denial will be forthcoming. In no instance, may the delay in processing last longer than 7 working days. A failure to render a decision within 7 working days shall be considered a denial of the request.

(f) Requests calling for all records falling within a category shall be complied with unless compliance with the request would be unduly burdensome for the complying public body and there is no way to narrow the request and the burden on the public body outweighs the public interest in the information. Before invoking this exemption, the public body shall extend to the person making the request an opportunity to confer with it in an attempt to reduce the request to manageable proportions. If any body responds to a categorical request by stating that compliance would unduly burden its operation and the conditions described above are met, it shall do so in writing, specifying the reasons why it would be unduly burdensome and the extent to which compliance will so burden the operations of the public body. Such a response shall be treated as a denial of the request for information. Repeated requests for the same public records by the same person shall be deemed unduly burdensome under this provision. (g) Each public body may promulgate rules and regulations in conformity with the provisions of this Section pertaining to the availability of records and procedures to be followed, including:
(i) the times and places where such records will bemade available, and

(ii) the persons from whom such records may beobtained.

(Source: P.A. 90‑206, eff. 7‑25‑97.)
(5 ILCS 140/4) (from Ch. 116, par. 204) Sec. 4. Each public body shall prominently display at each of its administrative or regional offices, make available for inspection and copying, and send through the mail if requested, each of the following: (a) A brief description of itself, which will include, but not be limited to, a short summary of its purpose, a block diagram giving its functional subdivisions, the total amount of its operating budget, the number and location of all of its separate offices, the approximate number of full and part‑time employees, and the identification and membership of any board, commission, committee, or council which operates in an advisory capacity relative to the operation of the public body, or which exercises control over its policies or procedures, or to which the public body is required to report and be answerable for its operations; and (b) A brief description of the methods whereby the public may request information and public records, a directory designating by titles and addresses those employees to whom requests for public records should be directed, and any fees allowable under Section 6 of this Act. (Source: P.A. 83‑1013.)
(5 ILCS 140/5) (from Ch. 116, par. 205) Sec. 5. As to public records prepared or received after the effective date of this Act, each public body shall maintain and make available for inspection and copying a reasonably current list of all types or categories of records under its control. The list shall be reasonably detailed in order to aid persons in obtaining access to public records pursuant to this Act. Each public body shall furnish upon request a description of the manner in which public records stored by means of electronic data processing may be obtained in a form comprehensible to persons lacking knowledge of computer language or printout format. (Source: P.A. 83‑1013.)
(5 ILCS 140/6) (from Ch. 116, par. 206) Sec. 6. Authority to charge fees. (a) Each public body may charge fees reasonably calculated to reimburse its actual cost for reproducing and certifying public records and for the use, by any person, of the equipment of the public body to copy records. Such fees shall exclude the costs of any search for and review of the record, and shall not exceed the actual cost of reproduction and certification, unless otherwise provided by State statute. Such fees shall be imposed according to a standard scale of fees, established and made public by the body imposing them. (b) Documents shall be furnished without charge or at a reduced charge, as determined by the public body, if the person requesting the documents states the specific purpose for the request and indicates that a waiver or reduction of the fee is in the public interest. Waiver or reduction of the fee is in the public interest if the principal purpose of the request is to access and disseminate information regarding the health, safety and welfare or the legal rights of the general public and is not for the principal purpose of personal or commercial benefit. For purposes of this subsection, "commercial benefit" shall not apply to requests made by news media when the principal purpose of the request is to access and disseminate information regarding the health, safety, and welfare or the legal rights of the general public. In setting the amount of the waiver or reduction, the public body may take into consideration the amount of materials requested and the cost of copying them. (c) The purposeful imposition of a fee not consistent with subsections (6)(a) and (b) of this Act shall be considered a denial of access to public records for the purposes of judicial review. (d) The fee for an abstract of a driver's record shall be as provided in Section 6‑118 of "The Illinois Vehicle Code", approved September 29, 1969, as amended. (Source: P.A. 90‑144, eff. 7‑23‑97.)
(5 ILCS 140/7) (from Ch. 116, par. 207) (Text of Section from P.A. 94‑280) Sec. 7. Exemptions. (1) The following shall be exempt from inspection and copying: (a) Information specifically prohibited from disclosure by federal or State law or rules and regulations adopted under federal or State law.

(b) Information that, if disclosed, would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy, unless the disclosure is consented to in writing by the individual subjects of the information. The disclosure of information that bears on the public duties of public employees and officials shall not be considered an invasion of personal privacy. Information exempted under this subsection (b) shall include but is not limited to:

(i) files and personal information maintained
with respect to clients, patients, residents, students or other individuals receiving social, medical, educational, vocational, financial, supervisory or custodial care or services directly or indirectly from federal agencies or public bodies;

(ii) personnel files and personal information maintained with respect to employees, appointees or elected officials of any public body or applicants for those positions;

(iii) files and personal information maintained with respect to any applicant, registrant or licensee by any public body cooperating with or engaged in professional or occupational registration, licensure or discipline;

(iv) information required of any taxpayer inconnection with the assessment or collection of any tax unless disclosure is otherwise required by State statute;

(v) information revealing the identity of persons who file complaints with or provide information to administrative, investigative, law enforcement or penal agencies; provided, however, that identification of witnesses to traffic accidents, traffic accident reports, and rescue reports may be provided by agencies of local government, except in a case for which a criminal investigation is ongoing, without constituting a clearly unwarranted per se invasion of personal privacy under this subsection; and

(vi) the names, addresses, or other personal information of participants and registrants in park district, forest preserve district, and conservation district programs.

(c) Records compiled by any public body for administrative enforcement proceedings and any law enforcement or correctional agency for law enforcement purposes or for internal matters of a public body, but only to the extent that disclosure would:

(i) interfere with pending or actually and reasonably contemplated law enforcement proceedings conducted by any law enforcement or correctional agency;

(ii) interfere with pending administrative enforcement proceedings conducted by any public body;

(iii) deprive a person of a fair trial or an impartial hearing;

(iv) unavoidably disclose the identity of a confidential source or confidential information furnished only by the confidential source;

(v) disclose unique or specialized investigative techniques other than those generally used and known or disclose internal documents of correctional agencies related to detection, observation or investigation of incidents of crime or misconduct;

(vi) constitute an invasion of personal privacy under subsection (b) of this Section;

(vii) endanger the life or physical safety of law enforcement personnel or any other person; or

(viii) obstruct an ongoing criminal investigation.

(d) Criminal history record information maintained by State or local criminal justice agencies, except the following which shall be open for public inspection and copying:

(i) chronologically maintained arrest information, such as traditional arrest logs or blotters;
(ii) the name of a person in the custody of a law

enforcement agency and the charges for which that person is being held;
(iii) court records that are public; (iv) records that are otherwise available under

State or local law; or
(v) records in which the requesting party is the

individual identified, except as provided under part (vii) of paragraph (c) of subsection (1) of this Section.
"Criminal history record information" means data

identifiable to an individual and consisting of descriptions or notations of arrests, detentions, indictments, informations, pre‑trial proceedings, trials, or other formal events in the criminal justice system or descriptions or notations of criminal charges (including criminal violations of local municipal ordinances) and the nature of any disposition arising therefrom, including sentencing, court or correctional supervision, rehabilitation and release. The term does not apply to statistical records and reports in which individuals are not identified and from which their identities are not ascertainable, or to information that is for criminal investigative or intelligence purposes.
(e) Records that relate to or affect the security of

correctional institutions and detention facilities.
(f) Preliminary drafts, notes, recommendations,

memoranda and other records in which opinions are expressed, or policies or actions are formulated, except that a specific record or relevant portion of a record shall not be exempt when the record is publicly cited and identified by the head of the public body. The exemption provided in this paragraph (f) extends to all those records of officers and agencies of the General Assembly that pertain to the preparation of legislative documents.
(g) Trade secrets and commercial or financial

information obtained from a person or business where the trade secrets or information are proprietary, privileged or confidential, or where disclosure of the trade secrets or information may cause competitive harm, including all information determined to be confidential under Section 4002 of the Technology Advancement and Development Act. Nothing contained in this paragraph (g) shall be construed to prevent a person or business from consenting to disclosure.
(h) Proposals and bids for any contract, grant, or

agreement, including information which if it were disclosed would frustrate procurement or give an advantage to any person proposing to enter into a contractor agreement with the body, until an award or final selection is made. Information prepared by or for the body in preparation of a bid solicitation shall be exempt until an award or final selection is made.
(i) Valuable formulae, computer geographic systems,

designs, drawings and research data obtained or produced by any public body when disclosure could reasonably be expected to produce private gain or public loss. The exemption for "computer geographic systems" provided in this paragraph (i) does not extend to requests made by news media as defined in Section 2 of this Act when the requested information is not otherwise exempt and the only purpose of the request is to access and disseminate information regarding the health, safety, welfare, or legal rights of the general public.
(j) Test questions, scoring keys and other

examination data used to administer an academic examination or determined the qualifications of an applicant for a license or employment.
(k) Architects' plans, engineers' technical

submissions, and other construction related technical documents for projects not constructed or developed in whole or in part with public funds and the same for projects constructed or developed with public funds, but only to the extent that disclosure would compromise security, including but not limited to water treatment facilities, airport facilities, sport stadiums, convention centers, and all government owned, operated, or occupied buildings.
(l) Library circulation and order records identifying

library users with specific materials.
(m) Minutes of meetings of public bodies closed to

the public as provided in the Open Meetings Act until the public body makes the minutes available to the public under Section 2.06 of the Open Meetings Act.
(n) Communications between a public body and an

attorney or auditor representing the public body that would not be subject to discovery in litigation, and materials prepared or compiled by or for a public body in anticipation of a criminal, civil or administrative proceeding upon the request of an attorney advising the public body, and materials prepared or compiled with respect to internal audits of public bodies.
(o) Information received by a primary or secondary

school, college or university under its procedures for the evaluation of faculty members by their academic peers.
(p) Administrative or technical information

associated with automated data processing operations, including but not limited to software, operating protocols, computer program abstracts, file layouts, source listings, object modules, load modules, user guides, documentation pertaining to all logical and physical design of computerized systems, employee manuals, and any other information that, if disclosed, would jeopardize the security of the system or its data or the security of materials exempt under this Section.
(q) Documents or materials relating to collective

negotiating matters between public bodies and their employees or representatives, except that any final contract or agreement shall be subject to inspection and copying.
(r) Drafts, notes, recommendations and memoranda

pertaining to the financing and marketing transactions of the public body. The records of ownership, registration, transfer, and exchange of municipal debt obligations, and of persons to whom payment with respect to these obligations is made.
(s) The records, documents and information relating

to real estate purchase negotiations until those negotiations have been completed or otherwise terminated. With regard to a parcel involved in a pending or actually and reasonably contemplated eminent domain proceeding under Article VII of the Code of Civil Procedure, records, documents and information relating to that parcel shall be exempt except as may be allowed under discovery rules adopted by the Illinois Supreme Court. The records, documents and information relating to a real estate sale shall be exempt until a sale is consummated.
(t) Any and all proprietary information and records

related to the operation of an intergovernmental risk management association or self‑insurance pool or jointly self‑administered health and accident cooperative or pool.
(u) Information concerning a university's

adjudication of student or employee grievance or disciplinary cases, to the extent that disclosure would reveal the identity of the student or employee and information concerning any public body's adjudication of student or employee grievances or disciplinary cases, except for the final outcome of the cases.
(v) Course materials or research materials used by

faculty members.
(w) Information related solely to the internal

personnel rules and practices of a public body.
(x) Information contained in or related to

examination, operating, or condition reports prepared by, on behalf of, or for the use of a public body responsible for the regulation or supervision of financial institutions or insurance companies, unless disclosure is otherwise required by State law.
(y) Information the disclosure of which is restricted

under Section 5‑108 of the Public Utilities Act.
(z) Manuals or instruction to staff that relate to

establishment or collection of liability for any State tax or that relate to investigations by a public body to determine violation of any criminal law.
(aa) Applications, related documents, and medical

records received by the Experimental Organ Transplantation Procedures Board and any and all documents or other records prepared by the Experimental Organ Transplantation Procedures Board or its staff relating to applications it has received.
(bb) Insurance or self insurance (including any

intergovernmental risk management association or self insurance pool) claims, loss or risk management information, records, data, advice or communications.
(cc) Information and records held by the Department

of Public Health and its authorized representatives relating to known or suspected cases of sexually transmissible disease or any information the disclosure of which is restricted under the Illinois Sexually Transmissible Disease Control Act.
(dd) Information the disclosure of which is exempted

under Section 30 of the Radon Industry Licensing Act.
(ee) Firm performance evaluations under Section 55 of

the Architectural, Engineering, and Land Surveying Qualifications Based Selection Act.
(ff) Security portions of system safety program

plans, investigation reports, surveys, schedules, lists, data, or information compiled, collected, or prepared by or for the Regional Transportation Authority under Section 2.11 of the Regional Transportation Authority Act or the St. Clair County Transit District under the Bi‑State Transit Safety Act.
(gg) Information the disclosure of which is

restricted and exempted under Section 50 of the Illinois Prepaid Tuition Act.
(hh) Information the disclosure of which is exempted

under the State Officials and Employees Ethics Act.
(ii) Beginning July 1, 1999, information that would

disclose or might lead to the disclosure of secret or confidential information, codes, algorithms, programs, or private keys intended to be used to create electronic or digital signatures under the Electronic Commerce Security Act.
(jj) Information contained in a local emergency

energy plan submitted to a municipality in accordance with a local emergency energy plan ordinance that is adopted under Section 11‑21.5‑5 of the Illinois Municipal Code.
(kk) Information and data concerning the distribution

of surcharge moneys collected and remitted by wireless carriers under the Wireless Emergency Telephone Safety Act.
(ll) Vulnerability assessments, security measures,

and response policies or plans that are designed to identify, prevent, or respond to potential attacks upon a community's population or systems, facilities, or installations, the destruction or contamination of which would constitute a clear and present danger to the health or safety of the community, but only to the extent that disclosure could reasonably be expected to jeopardize the effectiveness of the measures or the safety of the personnel who implement them or the public. Information exempt under this item may include such things as details pertaining to the mobilization or deployment of personnel or equipment, to the operation of communication systems or protocols, or to tactical operations.
(mm) Maps and other records regarding the location or

security of a utility's generation, transmission, distribution, storage, gathering, treatment, or switching facilities.
(nn) Law enforcement officer identification

information or driver identification information compiled by a law enforcement agency or the Department of Transportation under Section 11‑212 of the Illinois Vehicle Code.
(oo) Records and information provided to a

residential health care facility resident sexual assault and death review team or the Residential Health Care Facility Resident Sexual Assault and Death Review Teams Executive Council under the Residential Health Care Facility Resident Sexual Assault and Death Review Team Act.
(pp) Information provided to the predatory lending

database created pursuant to Article 3 of the Residential Real Property Disclosure Act, except to the extent authorized under that Article.
(2) This Section does not authorize withholding of information or limit the availability of records to the public, except as stated in this Section or otherwise provided in this Act. (Source: P.A. 93‑43, eff. 7‑1‑03; 93‑209, eff. 7‑18‑03; 93‑237, eff. 7‑22‑03; 93‑325, eff. 7‑23‑03, 93‑422, eff. 8‑5‑03; 93‑577, eff. 8‑21‑03; 93‑617, eff. 12‑9‑03; 94‑280, eff. 1‑1‑06.) (Text of Section from P.A. 94‑508) Sec. 7. Exemptions. (1) The following shall be exempt from inspection and copying: (a) Information specifically prohibited from

disclosure by federal or State law or rules and regulations adopted under federal or State law.
(b) Information that, if disclosed, would constitute

a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy, unless the disclosure is consented to in writing by the individual subjects of the information. The disclosure of information that bears on the public duties of public employees and officials shall not be considered an invasion of personal privacy. Information exempted under this subsection (b) shall include but is not limited to:
(i) files and personal information maintained

with respect to clients, patients, residents, students or other individuals receiving social, medical, educational, vocational, financial, supervisory or custodial care or services directly or indirectly from federal agencies or public bodies;
(ii) personnel files and personal information

maintained with respect to employees, appointees or elected officials of any public body or applicants for those positions;
(iii) files and personal information maintained

with respect to any applicant, registrant or licensee by any public body cooperating with or engaged in professional or occupational registration, licensure or discipline;
(iv) information required of any taxpayer in

connection with the assessment or collection of any tax unless disclosure is otherwise required by State statute;
(v) information revealing the identity of persons

who file complaints with or provide information to administrative, investigative, law enforcement or penal agencies; provided, however, that identification of witnesses to traffic accidents, traffic accident reports, and rescue reports may be provided by agencies of local government, except in a case for which a criminal investigation is ongoing, without constituting a clearly unwarranted per se invasion of personal privacy under this subsection; and
(vi) the names, addresses, or other personal

information of participants and registrants in park district, forest preserve district, and conservation district programs.
(c) Records compiled by any public body for

administrative enforcement proceedings and any law enforcement or correctional agency for law enforcement purposes or for internal matters of a public body, but only to the extent that disclosure would:
(i) interfere with pending or actually and

reasonably contemplated law enforcement proceedings conducted by any law enforcement or correctional agency;
(ii) interfere with pending administrative

enforcement proceedings conducted by any public body;
(iii) deprive a person of a fair trial or an

impartial hearing;
(iv) unavoidably disclose the identity of a

confidential source or confidential information furnished only by the confidential source;
(v) disclose unique or specialized investigative

techniques other than those generally used and known or disclose internal documents of correctional agencies related to detection, observation or investigation of incidents of crime or misconduct;
(vi) constitute an invasion of personal privacy

under subsection (b) of this Section;
(vii) endanger the life or physical safety of law

enforcement personnel or any other person; or
(viii) obstruct an ongoing criminal

investigation.
(d) Criminal history record information maintained by

State or local criminal justice agencies, except the following which shall be open for public inspection and copying:
(i) chronologically maintained arrest

information, such as traditional arrest logs or blotters;
(ii) the name of a person in the custody of a law

enforcement agency and the charges for which that person is being held;
(iii) court records that are public; (iv) records that are otherwise available under

State or local law; or
(v) records in which the requesting party is the

individual identified, except as provided under part (vii) of paragraph (c) of subsection (1) of this Section.
"Criminal history record information" means data

identifiable to an individual and consisting of descriptions or notations of arrests, detentions, indictments, informations, pre‑trial proceedings, trials, or other formal events in the criminal justice system or descriptions or notations of criminal charges (including criminal violations of local municipal ordinances) and the nature of any disposition arising therefrom, including sentencing, court or correctional supervision, rehabilitation and release. The term does not apply to statistical records and reports in which individuals are not identified and from which their identities are not ascertainable, or to information that is for criminal investigative or intelligence purposes.
(e) Records that relate to or affect the security of

correctional institutions and detention facilities.
(f) Preliminary drafts, notes, recommendations,

memoranda and other records in which opinions are expressed, or policies or actions are formulated, except that a specific record or relevant portion of a record shall not be exempt when the record is publicly cited and identified by the head of the public body. The exemption provided in this paragraph (f) extends to all those records of officers and agencies of the General Assembly that pertain to the preparation of legislative documents.
(g) Trade secrets and commercial or financial

information obtained from a person or business where the trade secrets or information are proprietary, privileged or confidential, or where disclosure of the trade secrets or information may cause competitive harm, including:
(i) All information determined to be

confidential under Section 4002 of the Technology Advancement and Development Act.
(ii) All trade secrets and commercial or

financial information obtained by a public body, including a public pension fund, from a private equity fund or a privately held company within the investment portfolio of a private equity fund as a result of either investing or evaluating a potential investment of public funds in a private equity fund. The exemption contained in this item does not apply to the aggregate financial performance information of a private equity fund, nor to the identity of the fund's managers or general partners. The exemption contained in this item does not apply to the identity of a privately held company within the investment portfolio of a private equity fund, unless the disclosure of the identity of a privately held company may cause competitive harm.
Nothing contained in this paragraph (g) shall be

construed to prevent a person or business from consenting to disclosure.
(h) Proposals and bids for any contract, grant, or

agreement, including information which if it were disclosed would frustrate procurement or give an advantage to any person proposing to enter into a contractor agreement with the body, until an award or final selection is made. Information prepared by or for the body in preparation of a bid solicitation shall be exempt until an award or final selection is made.
(i) Valuable formulae, computer geographic systems,

designs, drawings and research data obtained or produced by any public body when disclosure could reasonably be expected to produce private gain or public loss. The exemption for "computer geographic systems" provided in this paragraph (i) does not extend to requests made by news media as defined in Section 2 of this Act when the requested information is not otherwise exempt and the only purpose of the request is to access and disseminate information regarding the health, safety, welfare, or legal rights of the general public.
(j) Test questions, scoring keys and other

examination data used to administer an academic examination or determined the qualifications of an applicant for a license or employment.
(k) Architects' plans, engineers' technical

submissions, and other construction related technical documents for projects not constructed or developed in whole or in part with public funds and the same for projects constructed or developed with public funds, but only to the extent that disclosure would compromise security, including but not limited to water treatment facilities, airport facilities, sport stadiums, convention centers, and all government owned, operated, or occupied buildings.
(l) Library circulation and order records identifying

library users with specific materials.
(m) Minutes of meetings of public bodies closed to

the public as provided in the Open Meetings Act until the public body makes the minutes available to the public under Section 2.06 of the Open Meetings Act.
(n) Communications between a public body and an

attorney or auditor representing the public body that would not be subject to discovery in litigation, and materials prepared or compiled by or for a public body in anticipation of a criminal, civil or administrative proceeding upon the request of an attorney advising the public body, and materials prepared or compiled with respect to internal audits of public bodies.
(o) Information received by a primary or secondary

school, college or university under its procedures for the evaluation of faculty members by their academic peers.
(p) Administrative or technical information

associated with automated data processing operations, including but not limited to software, operating protocols, computer program abstracts, file layouts, source listings, object modules, load modules, user guides, documentation pertaining to all logical and physical design of computerized systems, employee manuals, and any other information that, if disclosed, would jeopardize the security of the system or its data or the security of materials exempt under this Section.
(q) Documents or materials relating to collective

negotiating matters between public bodies and their employees or representatives, except that any final contract or agreement shall be subject to inspection and copying.
(r) Drafts, notes, recommendations and memoranda

pertaining to the financing and marketing transactions of the public body. The records of ownership, registration, transfer, and exchange of municipal debt obligations, and of persons to whom payment with respect to these obligations is made.
(s) The records, documents and information relating

to real estate purchase negotiations until those negotiations have been completed or otherwise terminated. With regard to a parcel involved in a pending or actually and reasonably contemplated eminent domain proceeding under Article VII of the Code of Civil Procedure, records, documents and information relating to that parcel shall be exempt except as may be allowed under discovery rules adopted by the Illinois Supreme Court. The records, documents and information relating to a real estate sale shall be exempt until a sale is consummated.
(t) Any and all proprietary information and records

related to the operation of an intergovernmental risk management association or self‑insurance pool or jointly self‑administered health and accident cooperative or pool.
(u) Information concerning a university's

adjudication of student or employee grievance or disciplinary cases, to the extent that disclosure would reveal the identity of the student or employee and information concerning any public body's adjudication of student or employee grievances or disciplinary cases, except for the final outcome of the cases.
(v) Course materials or research materials used by

faculty members.
(w) Information related solely to the internal

personnel rules and practices of a public body.
(x) Information contained in or related to

examination, operating, or condition reports prepared by, on behalf of, or for the use of a public body responsible for the regulation or supervision of financial institutions or insurance companies, unless disclosure is otherwise required by State law.
(y) Information the disclosure of which is restricted

under Section 5‑108 of the Public Utilities Act.
(z) Manuals or instruction to staff that relate to

establishment or collection of liability for any State tax or that relate to investigations by a public body to determine violation of any criminal law.
(aa) Applications, related documents, and medical

records received by the Experimental Organ Transplantation Procedures Board and any and all documents or other records prepared by the Experimental Organ Transplantation Procedures Board or its staff relating to applications it has received.
(bb) Insurance or self insurance (including any

intergovernmental risk management association or self insurance pool) claims, loss or risk management information, records, data, advice or communications.
(cc) Information and records held by the Department

of Public Health and its authorized representatives relating to known or suspected cases of sexually transmissible disease or any information the disclosure of which is restricted under the Illinois Sexually Transmissible Disease Control Act.
(dd) Information the disclosure of which is exempted

under Section 30 of the Radon Industry Licensing Act.
(ee) Firm performance evaluations under Section 55 of

the Architectural, Engineering, and Land Surveying Qualifications Based Selection Act.
(ff) Security portions of system safety program

plans, investigation reports, surveys, schedules, lists, data, or information compiled, collected, or prepared by or for the Regional Transportation Authority under Section 2.11 of the Regional Transportation Authority Act or the St. Clair County Transit District under the Bi‑State Transit Safety Act.
(gg) Information the disclosure of which is

restricted and exempted under Section 50 of the Illinois Prepaid Tuition Act.
(hh) Information the disclosure of which is exempted

under the State Officials and Employees Ethics Act.
(ii) Beginning July 1, 1999, information that would

disclose or might lead to the disclosure of secret or confidential information, codes, algorithms, programs, or private keys intended to be used to create electronic or digital signatures under the Electronic Commerce Security Act.
(jj) Information contained in a local emergency

energy plan submitted to a municipality in accordance with a local emergency energy plan ordinance that is adopted under Section 11‑21.5‑5 of the Illinois Municipal Code.
(kk) Information and data concerning the distribution

of surcharge moneys collected and remitted by wireless carriers under the Wireless Emergency Telephone Safety Act.
(ll) Vulnerability assessments, security measures,

and response policies or plans that are designed to identify, prevent, or respond to potential attacks upon a community's population or systems, facilities, or installations, the destruction or contamination of which would constitute a clear and present danger to the health or safety of the community, but only to the extent that disclosure could reasonably be expected to jeopardize the effectiveness of the measures or the safety of the personnel who implement them or the public. Information exempt under this item may include such things as details pertaining to the mobilization or deployment of personnel or equipment, to the operation of communication systems or protocols, or to tactical operations.
(mm) Maps and other records regarding the location or

security of a utility's generation, transmission, distribution, storage, gathering, treatment, or switching facilities.
(nn) Law enforcement officer identification

information or driver identification information compiled by a law enforcement agency or the Department of Transportation under Section 11‑212 of the Illinois Vehicle Code.
(oo) Records and information provided to a

residential health care facility resident sexual assault and death review team or the Residential Health Care Facility Resident Sexual Assault and Death Review Teams Executive Council under the Residential Health Care Facility Resident Sexual Assault and Death Review Team Act.
(2) This Section does not authorize withholding of information or limit the availability of records to the public, except as stated in this Section or otherwise provided in this Act. (Source: P.A. 93‑43, eff. 7‑1‑03; 93‑209, eff. 7‑18‑03; 93‑237, eff. 7‑22‑03; 93‑325, eff. 7‑23‑03, 93‑422, eff. 8‑5‑03; 93‑577, eff. 8‑21‑03; 93‑617, eff. 12‑9‑03; 94‑508, eff. 1‑1‑06.) (Text of Section from P.A. 94‑664) Sec. 7. Exemptions. (1) The following shall be exempt from inspection and copying: (a) Information specifically prohibited from

disclosure by federal or State law or rules and regulations adopted under federal or State law.
(b) Information that, if disclosed, would constitute

a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy, unless the disclosure is consented to in writing by the individual subjects of the information. The disclosure of information that bears on the public duties of public employees and officials shall not be considered an invasion of personal privacy. Information exempted under this subsection (b) shall include but is not limited to:
(i) files and personal information maintained

with respect to clients, patients, residents, students or other individuals receiving social, medical, educational, vocational, financial, supervisory or custodial care or services directly or indirectly from federal agencies or public bodies;
(ii) personnel files and personal information

maintained with respect to employees, appointees or elected officials of any public body or applicants for those positions;
(iii) files and personal information maintained

with respect to any applicant, registrant or licensee by any public body cooperating with or engaged in professional or occupational registration, licensure or discipline;
(iv) information required of any taxpayer in

connection with the assessment or collection of any tax unless disclosure is otherwise required by State statute;
(v) information revealing the identity of persons

who file complaints with or provide information to administrative, investigative, law enforcement or penal agencies; provided, however, that identification of witnesses to traffic accidents, traffic accident reports, and rescue reports may be provided by agencies of local government, except in a case for which a criminal investigation is ongoing, without constituting a clearly unwarranted per se invasion of personal privacy under this subsection; and
(vi) the names, addresses, or other personal

information of participants and registrants in park district, forest preserve district, and conservation district programs.
(c) Records compiled by any public body for

administrative enforcement proceedings and any law enforcement or correctional agency for law enforcement purposes or for internal matters of a public body, but only to the extent that disclosure would:
(i) interfere with pending or actually and

reasonably contemplated law enforcement proceedings conducted by any law enforcement or correctional agency;
(ii) interfere with pending administrative

enforcement proceedings conducted by any public body;
(iii) deprive a person of a fair trial or an

impartial hearing;
(iv) unavoidably disclose the identity of a

confidential source or confidential information furnished only by the confidential source;
(v) disclose unique or specialized investigative

techniques other than those generally used and known or disclose internal documents of correctional agencies related to detection, observation or investigation of incidents of crime or misconduct;
(vi) constitute an invasion of personal privacy

under subsection (b) of this Section;
(vii) endanger the life or physical safety of law

enforcement personnel or any other person; or
(viii) obstruct an ongoing criminal

investigation.
(d) Criminal history record information maintained by

State or local criminal justice agencies, except the following which shall be open for public inspection and copying:
(i) chronologically maintained arrest

information, such as traditional arrest logs or blotters;
(ii) the name of a person in the custody of a law

enforcement agency and the charges for which that person is being held;
(iii) court records that are public; (iv) records that are otherwise available under

State or local law; or
(v) records in which the requesting party is the

individual identified, except as provided under part (vii) of paragraph (c) of subsection (1) of this Section.
"Criminal history record information" means data

identifiable to an individual and consisting of descriptions or notations of arrests, detentions, indictments, informations, pre‑trial proceedings, trials, or other formal events in the criminal justice system or descriptions or notations of criminal charges (including criminal violations of local municipal ordinances) and the nature of any disposition arising therefrom, including sentencing, court or correctional supervision, rehabilitation and release. The term does not apply to statistical records and reports in which individuals are not identified and from which their identities are not ascertainable, or to information that is for criminal investigative or intelligence purposes.
(e) Records that relate to or affect the security of

correctional institutions and detention facilities.
(f) Preliminary drafts, notes, recommendations,

memoranda and other records in which opinions are expressed, or policies or actions are formulated, except that a specific record or relevant portion of a record shall not be exempt when the record is publicly cited and identified by the head of the public body. The exemption provided in this paragraph (f) extends to all those records of officers and agencies of the General Assembly that pertain to the preparation of legislative documents.
(g) Trade secrets and commercial or financial

information obtained from a person or business where the trade secrets or information are proprietary, privileged or confidential, or where disclosure of the trade secrets or information may cause competitive harm, including all information determined to be confidential under Section 4002 of the Technology Advancement and Development Act. Nothing contained in this paragraph (g) shall be construed to prevent a person or business from consenting to disclosure.
(h) Proposals and bids for any contract, grant, or

agreement, including information which if it were disclosed would frustrate procurement or give an advantage to any person proposing to enter into a contractor agreement with the body, until an award or final selection is made. Information prepared by or for the body in preparation of a bid solicitation shall be exempt until an award or final selection is made.
(i) Valuable formulae, computer geographic systems,

designs, drawings and research data obtained or produced by any public body when disclosure could reasonably be expected to produce private gain or public loss. The exemption for "computer geographic systems" provided in this paragraph (i) does not extend to requests made by news media as defined in Section 2 of this Act when the requested information is not otherwise exempt and the only purpose of the request is to access and disseminate information regarding the health, safety, welfare, or legal rights of the general public.
(j) Test questions, scoring keys and other

examination data used to administer an academic examination or determined the qualifications of an applicant for a license or employment.
(k) Architects' plans, engineers' technical

submissions, and other construction related technical documents for projects not constructed or developed in whole or in part with public funds and the same for projects constructed or developed with public funds, but only to the extent that disclosure would compromise security, including but not limited to water treatment facilities, airport facilities, sport stadiums, convention centers, and all government owned, operated, or occupied buildings.
(l) Library circulation and order records identifying

library users with specific materials.
(m) Minutes of meetings of public bodies closed to

the public as provided in the Open Meetings Act until the public body makes the minutes available to the public under Section 2.06 of the Open Meetings Act.
(n) Communications between a public body and an

attorney or auditor representing the public body that would not be subject to discovery in litigation, and materials prepared or compiled by or for a public body in anticipation of a criminal, civil or administrative proceeding upon the request of an attorney advising the public body, and materials prepared or compiled with respect to internal audits of public bodies.
(o) Information received by a primary or secondary

school, college or university under its procedures for the evaluation of faculty members by their academic peers.
(p) Administrative or technical information

associated with automated data processing operations, including but not limited to software, operating protocols, computer program abstracts, file layouts, source listings, object modules, load modules, user guides, documentation pertaining to all logical and physical design of computerized systems, employee manuals, and any other information that, if disclosed, would jeopardize the security of the system or its data or the security of materials exempt under this Section.
(q) Documents or materials relating to collective

negotiating matters between public bodies and their employees or representatives, except that any final contract or agreement shall be subject to inspection and copying.
(r) Drafts, notes, recommendations and memoranda

pertaining to the financing and marketing transactions of the public body. The records of ownership, registration, transfer, and exchange of municipal debt obligations, and of persons to whom payment with respect to these obligations is made.
(s) The records, documents and information relating

to real estate purchase negotiations until those negotiations have been completed or otherwise terminated. With regard to a parcel involved in a pending or actually and reasonably contemplated eminent domain proceeding under Article VII of the Code of Civil Procedure, records, documents and information relating to that parcel shall be exempt except as may be allowed under discovery rules adopted by the Illinois Supreme Court. The records, documents and information relating to a real estate sale shall be exempt until a sale is consummated.
(t) Any and all proprietary information and records

related to the operation of an intergovernmental risk management association or self‑insurance pool or jointly self‑administered health and accident cooperative or pool.
(u) Information concerning a university's

adjudication of student or employee grievance or disciplinary cases, to the extent that disclosure would reveal the identity of the student or employee and information concerning any public body's adjudication of student or employee grievances or disciplinary cases, except for the final outcome of the cases.
(v) Course materials or research materials used by

faculty members.
(w) Information related solely to the internal

personnel rules and practices of a public body.
(x) Information contained in or related to

examination, operating, or condition reports prepared by, on behalf of, or for the use of a public body responsible for the regulation or supervision of financial institutions or insurance companies, unless disclosure is otherwise required by State law.
(y) Information the disclosure of which is restricted

under Section 5‑108 of the Public Utilities Act.
(z) Manuals or instruction to staff that relate to

establishment or collection of liability for any State tax or that relate to investigations by a public body to determine violation of any criminal law.
(aa) Applications, related documents, and medical

records received by the Experimental Organ Transplantation Procedures Board and any and all documents or other records prepared by the Experimental Organ Transplantation Procedures Board or its staff relating to applications it has received.
(bb) Insurance or self insurance (including any

intergovernmental risk management association or self insurance pool) claims, loss or risk management information, records, data, advice or communications.
(cc) Information and records held by the Department

of Public Health and its authorized representatives relating to known or suspected cases of sexually transmissible disease or any information the disclosure of which is restricted under the Illinois Sexually Transmissible Disease Control Act.
(dd) Information the disclosure of which is exempted

under Section 30 of the Radon Industry Licensing Act.
(ee) Firm performance evaluations under Section 55 of

the Architectural, Engineering, and Land Surveying Qualifications Based Selection Act.
(ff) Security portions of system safety program

plans, investigation reports, surveys, schedules, lists, data, or information compiled, collected, or prepared by or for the Regional Transportation Authority under Section 2.11 of the Regional Transportation Authority Act or the St. Clair County Transit District under the Bi‑State Transit Safety Act.
(gg) Information the disclosure of which if restricted and exempted under Section 50 of the Illinois Prepaid Tuition Act.
(hh) Information the disclosure of which is exempted under the State Officials and Employees Ethics Act.
(ii) Beginning July 1, 1999, information that would disclose or might lead to the disclosure of secret or confidential information, codes, algorithms, programs, or private keys intended to be used to create electronic or digital signatures under the Electronic Commerce Security Act.
(jj) Information contained in a local emergency energy plan submitted to a municipality in accordance with a local emergency energy plan ordinance that is adopted under Section 11‑21.5‑5 of the Illinois Municipal Code.
(kk) Information and data concerning the distributionof surcharge moneys collected and remitted by wireless carriers under the Wireless Emergency Telephone Safety Act.
(ll) Vulnerability assessments, security measures,and response policies or plans that are designed to identify, prevent, or respond to potential attacks upon a community's population or systems, facilities, or installations, the destruction or contamination of which would constitute a clear and present danger to the health or safety of the community, but only to the extent that disclosure could reasonably be expected to jeopardize the effectiveness of the measures or the safety of the personnel who implement them or the public. Information exempt under this item may include such things as details pertaining to the mobilization or deployment of personnel or equipment, to the operation of communication systems or protocols, or to tactical operations.
(mm) Maps and other records regarding the location or security of a utility's generation, transmission, distribution, storage, gathering, treatment, or switching facilities.
(nn) Law enforcement officer identification information or driver identification information compiled by a law enforcement agency or the Department of Transportation under Section 11‑212 of the Illinois Vehicle Code.
(oo) Records and information provided to a residential health care facility resident sexual assault and death review team or the Residential Health Care Facility Resident Sexual Assault and Death Review Teams Executive Council under the Residential Health Care Facility Resident Sexual Assault and Death Review Team Act.
(pp) Defense budgets and petitions for certification of compensation and expenses for court appointed trial counsel as provided under Sections 10 and 15 of the Capital Crimes Litigation Act. This subsection (pp) shall apply until the conclusion of the trial and appeal of the case, even if the prosecution chooses not to pursue the death penalty prior to trial or sentencing.
(2) This Section does not authorize withholding of information or limit the availability of records to the public, except as stated in this Section or otherwise provided in this Act. (Source: P.A. 93‑43, eff. 7‑1‑03; 93‑209, eff. 7‑18‑03; 93‑237, eff. 7‑22‑03; 93‑325, eff. 7‑23‑03, 93‑422, eff. 8‑5‑03; 93‑577, eff. 8‑21‑03; 93‑617, eff. 12‑9‑03; 94‑664, eff. 1‑1‑06.)
(5 ILCS 140/7.1) (from Ch. 116, par. 207.1) Sec. 7.1. Nothing in this Act shall be construed to prohibit publication and dissemination by the Department of Public Aid or the Department of Human Services of the names and addresses of entities which have had receipt of benefits or payments under the Illinois Public Aid Code suspended or terminated or future receipt barred, pursuant to Section 11‑26 of that Code. (Source: P.A. 89‑507, eff. 7‑1‑97.)
(5 ILCS 140/8) (from Ch. 116, par. 208) Sec. 8. If any public record that is exempt from disclosure under Section 7 of this Act contains any material which is not exempt, the public body shall delete the information which is exempt and make the remaining information available for inspection and copying. (Source: P.A. 85‑1357.)
(5 ILCS 140/9) (from Ch. 116, par. 209) Sec. 9. (a) Each public body or head of a public body denying a request for public records shall notify by letter the person making the request of the decision to deny such, the reasons for the denial, and the names and titles or positions of each person responsible for the denial. Each notice of denial by a public body shall also inform such person of his right to appeal to the head of the public body. Each notice of denial of an appeal by the head of a public body shall inform such person of his right to judicial review under Section 11 of this Act. (b) When a request for public records is denied on the grounds that the records are exempt under Section 7 of this Act, the notice of denial shall specify the exemption claimed to authorize the denial. Copies of all notices of denial shall be retained by each public body in a single central office file that is open to the public and indexed according to the type of exemption asserted and, to the extent feasible, according to the types of records requested. (Source: P.A. 83‑1013.)
(5 ILCS 140/10) (from Ch. 116, par. 210) Sec. 10. (a) Any person denied access to inspect or copy any public record may appeal the denial by sending a written notice of appeal to the head of the public body. Upon receipt of such notice the head of the public body shall promptly review the public record, determine whether under the provisions of this Act such record is open to inspection and copying, and notify the person making the appeal of such determination within 7 working days after the notice of appeal. (b) Any person making a request for public records shall be deemed to have exhausted his administrative remedies with respect to such request if the head of the public body affirms the denial or fails to act within the time limit provided in subsection (a) of this Section. (Source: P.A. 83‑1013.)
(5 ILCS 140/11) (from Ch. 116, par. 211) Sec. 11. (a) Any person denied access to inspect or copy any public record by the head of a public body may file suit for injunctive or declaratory relief. (b) Where the denial is from the head of a public body of the State, suit may be filed in the circuit court for the county where the public body has its principal office or where the person denied access resides. (c) Where the denial is from the head of a municipality or other public body, except as provided in subsection (b) of this Section, suit may be filed in the circuit court for the county where the public body is located. (d) The circuit court shall have the jurisdiction to enjoin the public body from withholding public records and to order the production of any public records improperly withheld from the person seeking access. If the public body can show that exceptional circumstances exist, and that the body is exercising due diligence in responding to the request, the court may retain jurisdiction and allow the agency additional time to complete its review of the records. (e) On motion of the plaintiff, prior to or after in camera inspection, the court shall order the public body to provide an index of the records to which access has been denied. The index shall include the following: (i) A description of the nature or contents of each document withheld, or each deletion from a released document, provided, however, that the public body shall not be required to disclose the information which it asserts is exempt; and
(ii) A statement of the exemption or exemptionsclaimed for each such deletion or withheld document.
(f) In any action considered by the court, the court shall consider the matter de novo, and shall conduct such in camera examination of the requested records as it finds appropriate to determine if such records or any part thereof may be withheld under any provision of this Act. The burden shall be on the public body to establish that its refusal to permit public inspection or copying is in accordance with the provisions of this Act. (g) In the event of noncompliance with an order of the court to disclose, the court may enforce its order against any public official or employee so ordered or primarily responsible for such noncompliance through the court's contempt powers. (h) Except as to causes the court considers to be of greater importance, proceedings arising under this Section shall take precedence on the docket over all other causes and be assigned for hearing and trial at the earliest practicable date and expedited in every way. (i) If a person seeking the right to inspect or receive a copy of a public record substantially prevails in a proceeding under this Section, the court may award such person reasonable attorneys' fees and costs. If, however, the court finds that the fundamental purpose of the request was to further the commercial interests of the requestor, the court may award reasonable attorneys' fees and costs if the court finds that the record or records in question were of clearly significant interest to the general public and that the public body lacked any reasonable basis in law for withholding the record. (Source: P.A. 93‑466, eff. 1‑1‑04.)
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Wednesday, March 08, 2006

 

To those who think the SD Legislature does business like any other:

Denial is not a river in Egypt.

Tuesday, March 07, 2006

 

Here is how it is done, Aberdeen

Moline, Ill.--Last week the front page of my old newspaper, The Dispatch, carried a story that a city police officer was being fired. He is on unpaid suspension and will be permanently terminated if the firing is upheld by the appeal process.

The chief of police presented the full charges and their details to the press. The officer got into a minor accident while driving one evening across the river in Davenport, Iowa. Tests show that he had enough alcohol in his system to be legally drunk. The officer tried to get some law-enforcement buddies to intervene for him, he got abusive, and he generally conducted himself in a way that a police officer, on or off duty, should not. He was convicted of the DUI charge. The chief decided that the incident required disciplinary action, as it violated the rules of conduct to which a police officer subscribes when he joins the force.

The Dispatch ran an editorial stating that, although the incident was an embarrassment, the chief's actions in revealing all the facts behind the firing bolstered the community's trust and respect for the police department.

This full disclosure and open discussion of the issue contrasts with the practice in Aberdeen. This matter was a personnel issue. However, it is also a public issue about how people who are paid to enforce the law and work for justice are doing their jobs and conducting themselves. The Moline Police Department did not put the cloak of secrecy over the incident under the claim that personnel matters are confidential. When personnel matters affect the public attitudes and perceptions, they are not confidential. They are a matter of public business.

Aberdeen fired two police officers. The firings were deemed wrongful by the then City Commission, and the officers were given severance settlements. Other police officers have resigned. Despite the fact that firings and resignations deal directly with the way city government is being run, nobody can get at what the problems are because the issues involved are declared secret as personnel matters.

In Moline, the taxpayers and citizens are ackknowledge to be the employers of the city officials. As employers, they have the right to know what is going on with their employees. When personnel matters affect the quality of performance of the city and the quality of life, they are public business.

The differene between Moline and Aberdeen is that Moline operates as a democracy. Aberdeen is operated as a petty, semi-competent police state. We are puzzled why people are content to live under such a regime.

Sunday, March 05, 2006

 

Democracy is not doing well anywhere. Want to know why?

Moline, Ill.--My old newspaper, The Dispatch, has two unrelated stories that summarize the state of democracy. One headline proclaims "Democracy taking a beating in Southeast Asia." The gist of the story is that democracy is so compromised by corruption, power grabs, unfulfilled promises, and plain old human nastiness that no one in that neck of the woods seems to think it has much relevance to remedying what ails the world. The story might have added Russia to the list. And South Dakota.

In related stories, there is one op-ed piece that says the focus of the media on the constant carnage in Iraq tends to obscure positive developments. It is countered by a piece that says we don't know the truth about Iraq because the media relies too heavily on government and military propaganda in its news reports. A story by a Fort Worth Telegram writer makes the point that things are not going well at all in Afghanistan these days. The U.S. government has put itself in a position where it cannot deal with Taliban agitators causing turmoil from Pakistan.

However, a major story that can be applied to the state of democracy is one about staff meetings in the business section. It says that most staff meetings are pointless. No decisions are made, no minutes are kept, no agenda is set, and consequently no action comes out of the meetings. I have witnessed both productive staff meetings and total wastes of time.

When I worked for The Dispatch, the daily editorial conference was at 7 a.m. That is when editors made up the news budget, allocated space, assigned stories, and reviewed the performance of the previous day's paper. It was the chance for the staff to participate in the planning and production of the newspaper. Sometimes the meetings were no more than ten minutes. Other times they became long sessions of arguing and problem-solving. But they got things done.

As a professor, I have participated in both productive and valuable meetings and total wastes. Once our department realized that one of the most effective programs it offered was a writing lab to provide students with one-to-one assistance with their academic writing. We authorized a committee to come up with recommendations for improving the writing lab and making it a major resource for students. We studied, we visited successful writing labs at other campuses, we reviewed our plans with consultants. We came up with a plan that had the support of all the faculty and administrators.

The problem came when a brand-new junior faculty member was appointed director of the lab to implement it. He chose to ignore every specification that had been approved and voted on by the faculty. He wanted to do things his way, and that's the only way he would do them. He had special inside connections with the highest administrators, so he got away with blithely ignoring the plan that had been approved, and faculty complaints were dismissed and ignored.

A member of the faculty at the time was puzzled by reports from his students about their experiences in the writing lab. The lab produced weekly reports of how many people came in for help, how many special activities and workshops it held, and how many people attended them. The faculty member, who later ran the writing lab for a large eastern university, began to drop in the lab at various times throughout the day. He reported to the faculty that he never found one student attending a workshop or special session that the lab said was attracting so many students. The plans formulated and approved by the faculty were totally ignored, and the performance reports on the lab were total fabrications.

The faculty realized that meetings and planning sessions under the regime that then controlled the university were humiliating sessions that were permitted simply to give the faculty the illusion of collegial governance. The faculty was routinely deceived, dismissed, denigrated, and made fools of. So, staff meetings were regarded as group humiliation sessions, and the department realized that it counted for nothing in the academic scheme of things.

What happened to the young professor? Within two years of his first faculty appointment, he was made department chair. Then he was promoted to graduate dean. Then he found a decanal post at some unsuspecting college in the hinterlands, and he is now the president of a major institution to our north. He represents a trend. Two other academic disasters associated with the university now hold presidencies of colleges. They all prove that shameless sucking can compensate for the lack of integrity and academic ability in today's academic world.

The case studies of why staff meetings become impertinent aburdities can reveal a great deal about the ills that afflict our democracy. The same principles apply. When meetings become shams and disrespectful exercises in flouting democratic procedures and principles, people snicker at all the patriotic sloganeering behind their hands and spend their energies trying to find ways to salvage what they can of their self-respect and their lives. In such situations, the idea of a government for the people, by the people, with the sanctions of the people is an irrelevant absurdity. Everyone knows that the dishonest and incompetent little despots rule.

The department I worked in contains the microcosmic principles for failure of democracy. In such situations, you can't believe a thing you are told. You can't trust the competence and integrity of anyone. But you can preserve some sense of inner integrity in your distrust and quiet resistance.


America has been the world's last best hope for implementing freedom, equality, and justice for all into the human scheme of things. It no longer is. Democracy has been mocked and degraded by subterfuge, power lust, and essential dishonesty. The people have been betrayed in the war on Iraq. In the South Dakota Abortion Task Force. And in almost everything that South Dakota's regressive regime (nice alliteration, eh?) has stuck its perverted nose into.

Democracy has become a huge travesty throughout the world. Can it be rescued? The answer lies in whether people in places like South Dakota can reject the rule of despots and take their government back.

Personally, I don't see the intellectual resources or the will to get it done.

The people in Southeast Asia see the phony claims made for democracy. Many of us in South Dakota do, too.

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