Archive for the ‘Texas’ Category

Illinois has unveiled its Illinois Child Murderer and Violent Offender Against Youth Registry.

Search by name, city, zip code, county or offender status. Perhaps the kinks aren’t worked out, but I couldn’t get search results by any criteria. You can also map offenders, but only if you know the street address and zip code. Here’s what the database covers.

The CMVOY registry contains individuals convicted of specific crimes in which the victim was a minor, but the crime was not sexually motivated. The crimes – as defined by HB 4193, signed by Governor Blagojevich on June 27, 2006 – include kidnapping, aggravated kidnapping, unlawful restraint, aggravated unlawful restraint, and any attempt to commit any of these offenses when the victim is under 18 years of age and when the defendant is not a parent of the victim. Other offenses include forcible detention, child abduction or murder when the victim was a person under 18 years of age and the defendant was at least 17 years of age.

A Santa Clara County, California Superior Court judged has ordered the county to make its GIS property parcel mapping database available to the public at minimal cost. The California First Amendment Coalition took the county to court, upending the government’s myriad excuses for keeping the map data out of public reach. Reported by AP

A new Texas Administrative Rule institutes a prohibition in the recording of personal information by notary publics.

There’s been much debate in legislatures and government administration about which public records should be sealed. The Texas legislature is considering whether to withhold search warrant affidavits for 60 days from public view. The Nevada Legislature failed to set guidelines or restrict judges from sealing court records and now the state Supreme Court may establish its own requirements.

Iowa State regulatory boards that license professionals such as doctors, nurses, dentists and psychologists will be required to release the record of formal charges against medical professionals that stem from patient complaints.

Philadelphia will be the first region in Pennsylvania to implement an automated inmate release telephone notification. The service, which just covers local jails, will be available to anyone, not just crime victims, when it goes into operation in June 2007. The Statewide Automated Victim Information and Notification (SAVIN) alert program will add the other counties over the next 18 months, and may later add state inmates.

The Houston Independent School District is the most recent Texas school district to post its payments to vendors online. Expenses can be identified by vendor but not by type of expenditure. Other districts have some payment information online as well.

A law under consideration in the Nevada legislature would prevent sealing of court cases involving high-profile litigants, which the judges had been doing, according to a survey by the Nevada Appeal.

The Texas Secretary of State Athlete Agent search has been added to the other business activity registration database searches at the Texas SOS Web site. The other types of entities that can be searched by name or business name are: Debt Collector Bonds, Health Spas, Public Safety Solicitations, Telephone Solicitors, Veterans Solicitations and Notary Public.

Search by partial first or last name, business name, address or telephone number.

A Wisconsin federal jury concluded that a police officer unlawfully disclosed a woman’s address to her ex husband, a violation of the Driver’s Privacy Protection Act. An exception is made for the service of legal papers, which was a ruse used by the ex husband, who was subject to a restraining order, which the police officer neglected to see when he checked a court index. The case has had a chilling effect on other police departments, one of which is no longer allowing the public to view traffic violation citations.

The Texas House passed HB 2061, Relating to the acquisition or disclosure of the social security number of a living person by a governmental body, including by a district or county clerk, which allows county clerks to release documents that have social security numbers on them.

The Senate State Affairs Committee hearing on this Bill is taking place Monday, March 12. County clerks and real estate title company representatives are speaking in support of the Bill and the recording of only the last 4 digits of the social security number on all documents, which are usually only on federal tax liens and child support tax liens. One clerk has stated that the new federal tax liens only contain the last 4 numbers. Several clerks have pointed out that they don’t have the resources to redact SSNs or to digitize records.

The urgent legislation was necessary because of the disruption to government activity brought about by the recent opinion by the Texas Attorney General. The bill also allows clerks to redact social security numbers, when requested. One clerk said “she plans on requiring a notary public’s seal on all redaction requests submitted to her office.” Will the redaction requests be released as a public record, with the social security number redacted, of course?

Also reported at: Bizjournals, TVC Alert

The Idaho State Death Index has been updated to include an additional 3 years. Coverage now runs from 1911-1956.

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott issued an opinion that county clerks are required to remove social security numbers from documents before releasing them to the public. The outcry from county clerks, subsequently from legislators, has forced him to put a 60 day hold on enforcement while the legislators review the consequences of this sweeping directive.

Administrative rules adopted by the Arkansas Supreme court affirm public access to court records while shielding Social Security numbers. The Arkansas courts were also directed to make dockets, judgments, orders, or decrees accessible to the public online. Reported by The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press

The Plumas County California GIS Parcel Viewer application is online. Construct a topographical map of terrain features, locate real property by APN or street address and label and measure distances between features.

Minnesota state Sen. Julianne Ortman, has sponsored legislation that “would explicitly allow under statute the sealing of most conviction, arrest and other criminal justice documents held by the courts and state and local government agencies” according to the Star Tribune. Some serious felonies would be excluded. SF 294 would require employers tell prospective employees that expunged records do not have to be identified.

The Texas Department of State Health Services has downloadable files of marriage license application and divorce indexes, organized by year. These are records that are available through other sources, usually for a fee, but if you want to work directly with the data yourself, this is the source. The marriage index covers 1966 through 2005; divorces include records filed from 1968 through 2005 . The marriage files have 140,000 to 166,000 records; each divorce file has between 50,000 to 87,000 records. The files are compressed and require a zip extractor but can also be purchased on CD, which may be a better option if you don’t want to store them on your hard drive.