This article was in the CENTRE DAILY TIMES (State College, PA) paper this morning: STATES STEADILY CLOSING DOWN ACCESS TO PUBLIC INFORMATION by Robert Tanner (AP) Some things your government doesn't have to tell you about: *The safety plan at your child's school, if you live in Iowa, *Medication errors at your grandparent's nursing home in North Carolina, *Disciplinary actions against Indiana state employees. States have steadily limited the public's access to government information since the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, a new Associated Press analysis of laws in all 50 states has found. Legislatures have passed more than 1,000 laws changing access to information... Federal agencies responded by shutting down Web sites, pulling telephone directories and rethinking everything from dam blueprints to historical records. In statehouse battles, the issue has pitted advocates of government openness - including journalists and civil liberties groups - against lawmakers and others who worry that public information could be misused...security concerns typically won out. States passed 616 laws that restricted access.... Just this month, Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty announced a new governmentwide effort to target identity theft, barring access to driver's licenses, phone records and Social Security numbers. No longer, the governor said, should there be a presumption that government information is public. Open government advocates disagree. The way we see it, if Pawlenty is successful, information that used to be public in Minnesota will soon be unnecessarily locked away. Copyright 2006 Centre Daily Times --------------------------------- Yahoo! Mail Bring photos to life! New PhotoMail makes sharing a breeze.