Hurr durrr FOIA story

Everyone can request government documents, thanks to FOIA.
“Every citizen has a right to request a government record,” Justin Brown said. “The worst they can do is turn you down.”
Brown, who is an assistant professor at Winthrop University, used to teach at the University of Florida. He said the state of Freedom of Information in Florida is very open to those who want information.
“Florida is known for its sunshine in more ways than one,” he said.
He cited a controversy in the state when, after NASCAR racer Dale Earnhardt died during a race in 2001, a student news paper was able to obtain autopsy photos of the racer’s body.
Some changes were made to freedom of information law in Florida after that, but, Brown said, the state is still especially “sunny.”
He said South Carolina is in “the middle of the pack,” in comparing the state’s FOIA laws with other states.
An interesting time for FOIA in South Carolina was during the scandal involving Governor Mark Sanford and his hiking trip in Argentina. Brown said journalists were able to use the freedom of information act to dig up travel and expense records detailing where the governor had been.

York Sheriff's Office lists deadbeat parents

Deadbeat parents will have to face the ire of their neighbors. That's because their faces will be posted on the York County Sheriff's Office Web site if they fail to perform their court-ordered duties.

The Web site lists pictures of the deadbeat parents, along with their age and amount owed. It also lists the date the parent was last seen.

The information is published on the Web site in part to encourage York County citizens to submit tips on the whereabouts of wanted criminals including deadbeat parents. Citizens who have information regarding someone wanted by the York County Sheriff's Office can call 803-628-3059 or 803-327-2021. Citizens can also go to the Submit a Tip page listed on the Sheriff's Office Web site to submit an online anonymous tip.

York County residents can also call Crime Stoppers of York County by calling 877-409-4321. People who use this become eligible to win cash rewards.

The deadbeat parent who owes the most money is Tyrone Glover, 35, of Catawba. He owes $105,699 and has not been seen since June 2007.

Jewon Davis, 26, is the deadbeat parent who has not been seen in the longest time. Davis has not been seen since 1999 and owes $16,714.

Resurrected

Reviving this blog for another course at Winthrop University. More coming soon.

Obama gives most impressive convention speech ever

Sen. Barack Obama dominated history last Thursday when he presented the most powerful convention speech to ever grace the United States. He addressed his critics, answered specifics, and told everyone the election of Sen. McCain would mean 4 more years of war and a weak economy.

Jon Stewart to Journalists: "Why do I take this more seriously than you?"

Jon Stewart, host of Comedy Central's late-night fake-news show, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, invited journalists from print and TV to a breakfast gathering in a conference room at the University of Denver to tell that they are doing their jobs poorly.

He rails against the 24-hour news cycle, which, he says, creates "that false sense of urgency they create, the sense that everything is breaking news... The 24-hour networks are now driving the narratives and everyone else is playing catch-up."

Note that Jon Stewart is a comedian who hosts a show that used to come on after a show about puppets making crank phone calls.

Update

It's been a few months.

Turns out Paul has no chance of winning.

Blog is done. Class is over. Don't need this anymore I don't think.

Ron Paul Comes to Rock Hill!

Ron Paul came to Rock Hill and signed my shirt.

He spoke at the Freedom Center in downtown Rock Hill. The crowd is estimated to have been around 600.

He was scheduled to arrive at 11 AM, but I heard from a fellow Paul supporter that people were expected to start showing up at 10, which meant that I had to be there at that time.

As I drove past in search of parking, there were already a bit over a dozen supporters on corners of the block waving signs and cheering at cars passing by. Supporters would hand out campaign literature to all who dared to stop.

The event contained people of all walks of life (except minorities, oddly, despite Paul being the most popular Republican among black voters, but they were probably on their way to Columbia for the Oprah/Obama rally), from college students with Mohawks, to the elderly.

Interesting thing to note. If you do a Google News search for "Ron Paul + Rock Hill", you will find a few news articles about the rally held yesterday. In every one of those that I read, it mentioned the college student with a Mohawk. The neat thing about this is that my friend, Jared Philips (mentioned in my very first blog post), was the only person with a Mohawk. As a result, he had dozens of photos taken of him (go to Flickr.com, search "Ron Paul + Rock Hill", and enjoy), and was quoted in the Star-Telegram.

Besides the picture of me in the crowd (my face oddly the only one blurred), the only other pictures of me at the rally so far are of the back of my head while talking to Ron Paul. The campaign said no personal pictures because of time, but that the event photos would end up on the campaign's flickr.com page, but as of this writing they aren't there.

To fulfill my journalistic duty, I asked Ron Paul one question. It went as follows:

Me: "Congressman Paul, recently the wife of Congressman Kucinich said that he would 'absolutely consider' choosing you as his running mate. My question to you is, when you receive the nomination, would you consider choosing Congressman Kucinich as your running mate?"

Paul: (Paraphrased) "Right now I'm concentrating on winning the primaries and haven't given it much though. However, Dennis is a good man and I've spoken to him a couple of times. I can't think that far in the future however."

With that, he signed my shirt, I shook his hand, I got a group photo with him (not posted yet), and was off. It was magical.