Department of Meaningless Vetoes...

Rhode Island Gov. Don Carcieri has vetoed 36 bills, including those dealing with releasing public records, distributing medical marijuana and expunging criminal records, his office said Thursday.

Carcieri sent the bills back to the General Assembly, where Democrats hold a veto-proof majority. Larry Berman, a spokesman for House Speaker William Murphy, said House and Senate leaders would meet in the next few weeks to decide what to do. They have until the beginning of the next session in January to try to override any vetoes.

Several of the three dozen bills Carcieri vetoed on Wednesday were duplicate versions from the House and Senate.

Among them was a bill to make the first major changes to the state's open records law. The proposed law would decrease the time that public agencies have to respond to requests for public records, from 10 days to seven. It also says police must release basic information about an arrest within 24 hours and orders that police release narratives of arrest reports within seven days.

Carcieri said some of that information could compromise public safety. He also said it wasn't practical to have to release information about arrests within 24 hours because, for example, an arrest could happen on the weekend when it could be difficult to accurately identify a person.

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