Legal Settlements Must be on Public Meeting Agendas

Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman signed into law a measure to force governmental bodies to report legal settlements on their meeting agendas. The measure also says entities cannot use confidentiality agreements as an excuse to keep settlements secret.

The law was prompted by a secret $200,000 payment to an aide of a former Papillion mayor last year after the aide alleged former Mayor James Blinn had sexually harassed and assaulted her.

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Neb. Supreme Court to decide if investigative report is public

The report in question stems from an investigation Mayor Greg Robinson initiated in order to determine if law enforcement was targeting Hispanic people for arrest. He hired an attorney who then hired two investigators. A report was prepared for the attorney but not for Robinson, The Beatrice (Neb.) Daily Sun reported. Kimball, Neb., officials are arguing that the report shouldn't be public because it is not in their possession.

Kimball officials say the findings of private investigators hired to probe allegations that a police officer was engaging in racial profiling were never meant for public release.

They want the Nebraska Supreme Court to overturn the ruling that made those documents public, including documents they argue were never in the city's possession.

The court will hear arguments in the case Friday.

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Neb. bill would hide internal audit documents from public

The University of Nebraska is pushing a bill that would keep some documents generated during university internal audits from the public eye, the Associated Press reported. The university says the measure is needed to protect the identity of whistleblowers, but the the state auditor and government watchdog groups are concerned about the secrecy.

Nebraska State Auditor Mike Foley and government watchdog group Common Cause are among those concerned that a bill being pushed by the University of Nebraska would keep residents in the dark.

Under the measure (LB674) from Sen. Danielle Nantkes of Lincoln, some documents generated during internal audits conducted by the university would not be considered public.

University officials said the bill is primarily needed to ensure the names of whistleblowers are kept secret to encourage them to come forward. Under an amendment to the bill, they said that public documents would not be made private once they became part of an audit.

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How do you define 'interview'?

The University of Nebraska released the records of all candidates interviewed for the university's presidency after a ruling by the attorney general, the Nebraska City News-Press reported. The university had released information on its four finalists but not other candidates who weren't selected as finalists but did participate in informal "interviews." Information on applicants who agree to be interviewed for public jobs is public record. However, the university didn't consider the informal "interviews" to fall under this law.

The University of Nebraska must make public the records of job applicants who are screened in face-to-face meetings, the state's attorney general said in an 2004 opinion.

Attorney General Jon Bruning ordered the University of Nebraska, a public university, to disclose the names of eight candidates it interviewed for the school's presidency. Within hours, university officials complied with the order, which had been requested by the Omaha World-Herald , the Lincoln Journal Star and The Associated Press.

The university had previously made public the records of its four finalists for the presidency, but refused to release information pertaining to four other candidates who were interviewed by its search committee but not officially named "finalists" for the job.

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Are burial records from a psychiatric hospital cemetery public record?

The Nebraska Supreme Court will decide on this question, the AP reported. Although HIPAA protects medical data, death records are considered public records in Nebraska.

The Nebraska Supreme Court will determine whether people buried in a former psychiatric hospital cemetery took their right to privacy to the grave with them.

The Adams County Historical Society wants names of the 957 people buried in the Hastings Regional Center cemetery between 1909 and 1957 made public.

The state has maintained that the federal medical privacy law prohibits the release of the names.

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University of Nebraska administrators refuse to speak with campus newspaper

Top administrators at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln have been advised not to speak with The Daily Nebraskan reporters but rather to refer them to the university's public relations office. Harvey Perlman, the university's chancellor, says that policy will change if the newspaper staff withdraws its numerous FOIA requests.

The relationship between a university and its student newspaper is typically one of give and take. Some of this professional courtesy, however, has fallen by the wayside at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln.

In response to numerous sweeping Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests by The Daily Nebraskan, the university is now denying student reporters direct access to top administrators for interviews. All information and comment previously sought from these individuals must now be gathered from the institution’s public relations office.

The administration claims the student newspaper’s recent history of seeking broad and, some argue, pointless FOIA requests of the university has burdened their previously harmonious working relationship. Student journalists at The Nebraskan, however, maintain that their document requests are within reason and that the university’s new policy of shielding administrators from interviews is hurting the newspaper’s coverage.

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Now Here is a New Angle: An FOI Request for Video Games!

A national crusader against violent video game is suing Omaha's police chief in connection with the Von Maur shootings.Attorney Jack Thompson said he wants to find out whether Robert Hawkins, 19, played any violent video games.Hawkins shot eight people to death, then killed himself at Von Maur on Dec. 5.

Within hours after the Westroads Mall shooting, police searched Hawkins' residence and seized computer equipment, including a laptop, two computer towers and a hard drive, search warrants show.Thompson, who spoke to KETV NewsWatch 7 by phone from Florida, said he wants to know what kind of video games are on the seized equipment."The public has a need to know, has a right to know, what's on his computer hard drive," Thompson said.

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