September 29, 2004

Outages a fact of life in storms: Tallahassee utility records tapped by Todd Wright of the Tallahassee Democrat provide an interesting news nugget in this story about power outages from big storms and how underground electric lines aren’t always the safeguard residents and officials want them to be. The records show the average city customer is typically out of service only about 55 minutes a year. Of course, normalcy gets blown away when the big storms rumble through …

September 27, 2004

As injuries rise, debate over ATV’s heats up: Public records are essential sources of statistics for many types of stories. Gary White of the Lakeland Ledger draws upon state statistics for all-terrain vehicle registrations and accidents for this story on the dangers of ATVs. “Florida began requiring titles for new ATVs in late 2002. As of June, the state had issued 42,953 titles, said John Waldron, forest recreation coordinator for the Florida Division of Forestry. That works out to roughly 2,150 per month.” The story says 200 Florida deaths were attributed to ATV accidents between 1982 and 2002. “The state's Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles reported 488 people were injured in ATV accidents last year, 19 of them fatally. The injury figure marked a peak since 2000, though 20 people died in 2001.” The public records handbook explains how to research motor vehicle registrations on Page 290 and traffic crash records on Page 357.

Shooting not woman’s first run-in with law: Criminal and driving records accessed by Mike Hoyem of the Fort Myers News-Press show a woman shot by Hendry County sheriff's deputies after fleeing a minor traffic accident has a history of trouble with the law. “Deana K. Hall, 27, whose last available address is in Clewiston, has been in and out of courts in Hendry, Collier and Broward counties on numerous occasions since 1994 for drunken driving, possession of marijuana, driving without a valid license and giving law enforcement officers a false name, records show.” Hall was shot several times during a confrontation with seven sheriff's deputies. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is investigating. Meanwhile, officials with the sheriff’s office refused to discuss the case. The public records handbook covers criminal background checks on Page 101, criminal, criminal court records on Page 103, driver history records on Page 134 and police use of force reports on Page 315.

September 24, 2004

September 21, 2004

September 20, 2004

Collier County School Board evaluations of the superintendent: Newspaper Web sites can offer volumes of relevant public records that traditional space-limited news pages can’t. As part of a Sunday column, Naples Daily News Editor Phil Lewis says the newspaper is providing 47 pages from the personnel file of former Collier County School Superintendent Ben Marlin, who promptly quit last month following written evaluations by all five School Board members. “These documents and their role in Marlin's decision to resign have been the subject of many news stories — radio and television included — but have never been so easily accessible by the public. The documents include five evaluations, Marlin's resignation letters and a lengthy self-evaluation prepared by Marlin with comments written in the margin by board member Linda Abbott.” Click here to see the records. The public records handbook profiles government personnel records on Page 239.

Autopsy on FSU woman supports initial findings: Medical examiner reports help answer important questions about how deaths happened. A final autopsy report obtained by Brian Landman and Zachary Spain of the St. Petersburg Times backs up preliminary findings that a genetic disorder led to a fatal aortic rupture of Florida State women's basketball player Ronalda Pierce in June. It appears the 19-year-old had Marfan syndrome, a connective tissue disorder. “The report, obtained … through a public-records request by the Times, pointed out that Pierce had some of the unseen indicators: An umbrella-like ballooning of the mitral valve of the heart and, perhaps most telling although not 100 percent conclusive, the mutation of the gene (Fibrillin-1) that's known to cause Marfan syndrome.” A cardiologist said the findings should prompt Pierce’s immediate family to be genetically tested. The public records handbook explains how to research autopsy reports on Page 28.

September 1, 2004