i L i n d . n e t

The conference draft of HB2557, the reporters’ shield bill, is still not available online but it got the full approval of conferees yesterday afternoon and now goes back for a final vote in both House and Senate. The bill would protect professional journalists from being forced to disclose confidential sources or unpublished materials in many circumstances by adding a new legal privilege. Nontraditional journalists, while not given the same automatic protections, will also be covered if their work meets certain conditions. The one disappointment in the final conference draft was the inclusion of a sunset provision, meaning that the legislature will have to reauthorize the bill in several years or it will lapse. Those working on the bill were surprised to see the sunset provision in the final version, and it’s not clear whether it was a mistake or a last-minute deal to appease a potential opponent. In any case, supporters say it’s something they can live with and far from a deal-killer, given the groundbreaking nature of the bill.

A reader asks:

Now what could this be about?

Economizing?
Dissatisfaction?
Inattention?
A cry for help?

The Star=Bulletin ran the exact same comics and crossword page in its Wednesday edition that it did in its Tuesday edition - save only for changing the page number - D8 to D10 - and the day and date.

Even the Advertiser has not been this creative!

Wonder what went on.

Here’s an interesting story from the Seattle Times reporting on a study of toll roads and “congestion pricing”.

Drivers would pay a toll on almost every mile they drive — every freeway, every significant arterial. Global Positioning System (GPS) and cellular technology would track their travels. Tolls would be deducted from prepaid accounts.

Matthew Kitchen, the study’s principal author, acknowledges the region’s not ready for anything like that now. While such a regional “congestion-pricing” system is technologically feasible, he says, the big public-policy questions it raises — fairness, privacy — haven’t yet been answered.

And any proposal would encounter stiff opposition from people like former state Sen. Jim Horn, R-Mercer Island, a longtime toll skeptic. He says regionwide tolling is really about “rationing your roadways and harming your quality of life.”

And a question I overheard last night: Wouldn’t a totally free island-wide bus system cost less than the proposed rail? I don’t have an answer to that off the top of my head, but I’m sure there are people on both sides of the rail debate that may.

Another reader comment:

On the ag issue, I think the leg should be much more concerned about real sustanibility here than they have been. A recent article in one of the local dailies indicated that 16 out of 20 dairies in the state have closed in the last 10 years. This tracks I think the general decline of ag in the islands. If those barges from Long Beach ever have a breakdown, there are going to be big problems. I talked to Kirk Caldwell about this a while back and he was not too interested. After we are totally up a creek without a paddle, I expect the leg to get serious.

In any event, as you suggest, more suburban housing for farmland is not a good trade from the public’s perspective–especially if folks are going to insist on rails out to where the developers build them.

Have you noticed Governor Lingle’s growing list of videos? I’ll let these go without comment for now.

Need a break? Karen Waygood suggests browsing through these great action photos of some beautiful Atlanta-area dogs.

And here’s an interesting letter from the Springfield, Mo. city clerk concerning fees charged for copies of public records. The clerk complains about the high volume of requests from the Springfield News-Leader, also a Gannett newspaper, and the link between these requests and Gannett’s need for data for its new web emphasis.

Taxpayers should know that the News-Leader has made requests for large volumes of data that are already easily accessible on the city’s Web site, www.springfieldmo.gov. When it has been suggested that linking to the city site would fulfill the request, it has not dissuaded the request. Why? Because driving hits to its own Web site generates volume that advertisers want to see in order to justify their ad dollars. We were told first-hand in a meeting on Aug. 2, 2007, that driving Web site hits is a profit motive in the News-Leader’s development of its data output. We believe that is in the commercial interest of the requestor and therefore justifies cost recovery when the city is spending significant time and resources to fulfill the request of a single private company. As the city clerk stated in her e-mail response to the News-Leader, she has worked with the data editor, Matt Wynn, on several occasions to provide him the information requested in the format he requested it, so that he could upload it to the News-Leader site. These requests have included costs that Mr. Wynn has paid.

The recent editorial also asserts that the city’s desire for cost recovery seems to be increasing. That is probably true because the News-Leader’s number of Sunshine requests has increased since the inception of its data desk with its complex and broad requests. We are committed to fulfilling every request, so it is very likely that the number of times we have asked for payment has increased in proportion with the number of broad requests. We don’t believe there has been any increasing trend of asking for cost recovery for the large number of regular requests we fulfill for the News-Leader or other media.

It’s an interesting set of issues.