Little Noticed? AB 4 and verification of public information

Nevada’s Assembled Wisdom will be looking at charitable donations, background checks for those who work with children and the elderly, and a proposal to fund school maintenance projects in Washoe County. [RGJ]  There are some other bills of interest getting some attention this week, including AB 4.

AB 4:  AN ACT relating to governmental administration; authorizing the State or a local government, under certain circumstances, to publish a legal notice or legal advertisement on an Internet website maintained by the State or local government in lieu of publishing the legal notice or legal advertisement in a newspaper of general circulation; requiring the State or a local government to publish certain information in a newspaper of general circulation if the State or local government publishes a legal notice or legal advertisement on an Internet website; authorizing a public body to charge and collect a fee for providing, upon request, a copy of certain public records under certain circumstances; and providing other matters properly relating thereto.

AB 4 will be discussed in the Assembly Government Affairs Committee, on Thursday at 8:00 A.M.  I think we can assume that the Nevada Press Association will object to the measure, contending — as they do on their website — that:

“A fundamental reason for public notices is government accountability to its constituents. The notices are published through an independent party — the newspaper — to create a verifiable record of the date they were published and show that the content met legal requirements. Without such verification, government would be accountable only to itself.”

Delving a step further, public notices must be published in newspapers having a general circulation, as defined and refined:

“To meet the test of general circulation, a newspaper must publish some news of general interest and circulate to the general public. Under NRS 238.030, which provides for publication of legal notices in a newspaper “of general circulation,” a daily newspaper which contained only information taken from public records did not qualify because primary purpose of printing legal notices is to give widest publicity practicable, and a newspaper, in order to meet test of general circulation, must publish some news of general interest and circulate to some extent among general public. Nevada State Press Association v. Fax. Inc., 79 Nev. 82, 378 P.2d 674 (1963).”  [CCNLN]

Thus,  a newspaper which publishes daily, weekly, or semi-weekly, which has a “general” circulation, and contains some “general” news becomes the “independent verifier” of public notice and the requirements pertaining thereto.  This becomes controversial when we reach the part wherein counties must publish their property tax rolls.

The price tag for publishing the property tax information required of Clark County is a hefty $580,000.  [LVSun]  Advocates for the newspapers hold that the price is the cost of a transparent government, opponents argue that if the information is readily available on-line (and can be verified) there is no reason to pay for what is essentially a duplication of notice.

Another question which could be raised in this context, i.e. who’s being notified.  The Las Vegas Review Journal has a circulation of approximately 220,619 copies; the Las Vegas Weekly has a circulation of 75,000; the Reno Gazette Journal is reported to have a circulation of 43,095.  [link]  We could speculate that the major newspaper publishers in Nevada are facing some of the same numbers as their national counterparts — that is, they are looking at decreased circulation of approximately 5% annually. [LAT] The trends reported in the Los Angeles Times were predicated on (1) readership moving to on-line sources, (2) the reduction of distribution to outlying areas and bulk distributions, (3) increasing prices for print copies of newspaper publications.  Trends similar to the 2010 results were noted by the New York Times in 2009.

The Pew Research report of its study on newspaper readership issued in 2012 wasn’t very optimistic:

“In the new survey, only 29% say they read a newspaper yesterday, with just 23% reading a print newspaper. Over the past decade, the percentage reading a print newspaper has fallen by 18 points (from 41% to 23%). Somewhat more (38%) say they regularly read a daily newspaper, although this percentage also has declined, from 54% in 2004. Figures for newspaper readership may not include some people who read newspaper content on sites that aggregate news content, such as Google News or Yahoo News.”

Two graphics illustrate the issue concisely.

In terms of newspaper readership, the numbers aren’t reassuring:

When there’s an 18% drop in newspaper readership since 2002, the question should be raised: Who is being notified, to whom is information being verified, when the state or local governments are publishing information to a progressively smaller number of people?

The newspaper publishers have a valid point in saying that some independent agency should verify the context of the public notices required by law.  On the other hand, it’s hard to contend that the publication of notices and information doesn’t constitute a form of public subsidization of a private news enterprise.  Another issue concerns the type of information required.

Do we need to publish hard copies of the property tax rolls?  Yes, some readers do use the information to compare property values; but, yes, others are simply nosy parkers who delight in seeing which of the neighbors might be delinquent in their property tax payments.  Is there a substantive difference between publishing property tax rolls and information like requests for bids on government capital improvement projects costing more than $250,000?  Here’s hoping the Government Affairs Committee will take a careful, and thoughtful, look at the implications of public notice requirements.

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A bit more blatant blog flogging:  The Fix is seeking nominations for state based political blogs to add to its annual list.  Your nomination for Desert Beacon would definitely be appreciated. Link Here.

Quick Preview of 2013 Bills in the NV Legislature

As the Assembled Wisdom gathers in Carson City for the next legislative session there are some bills to watch:  (pdf alert!)

AB84 – sections of this bill increase the reporting requirements for non-profit groups which seek to influence the outcome of state elections.

SB28 – provides expanded authority regarding the investigation into acts of fraud, etc. by securities brokers and dealers.

AB1 – includes provisions regarding eligibility for Medicaid and Medicaid provided services.

AB35 – from the Secretary of State’s office concerning campaign finance reporting, provisions for ending and suspending campaigns.

AB65 – makes changes to exempt some committee and subcommittee meetings from the requirements of the Open Meeting Law.

SB11 – Prohibits the possession in Nevada of wildlife that was acquired, hunted, taken or transported in violation of a law or regulation of another state or country.

SB34 - Pertaining to the risk pools established by the Public Employees Retirement System.

Those not familiar with the Nevada Legislature may want to bookmark some of the following links:

(1) The Nevada Legislature official website.

(2) Information about the 77th (2013) session.

(3) Bill and bill information link.  Alert! Bills are posted in pdf.

(4) Pre-filed bills in the Nevada Legislature.

(5) Nevada Assembly Democratic Caucus.

(6) The Nevada Senate Democratic Caucus website is a work in progress, but the link is here.

(7) Nevada Democratic Party website.

Monday Morning Roundup

##  Is Nevada ready for it’s close up?  Take a look at Nevada Progressive today.   Meanwhile, Senator Dean Heller (R-NV) and Governor Sandoval didn’t seem to want to get anywhere close to the state GOP convention:

“And around the country, Republican officials and the powerful interests that own them worry that their party’s ongoing drift to the Island of Whackadoodledoo could seriously damage their electoral, and hence financial, interests in 2012 and beyond.”  [More From The Gleaner]

While you are at it, and speaking of expunging some of the Whackadoodledoo, take a gander at the NVRDC’s post on same-sex marriage equality. This is one of the better compilations of the current situation you’ll find recently.  No hype, no emotionality, just good old fashioned relevant facts.

## As our Republican Representatives in Congress were voting to shave the national indebtedness by sticking it to working families who need the SNAP program to help with the groceries, the Sin City Siren reports of Nevada’s food insecurity problems,” Unless my eyes are failing me, it looks like the lowest percentage is 8.5%, sadly a real anomaly in our valley (in terms of how low it is), and a high hunger mark of 27.6% (holy crap!). And don’t think that it’s all bad in the valley’s core and cream puff dreams in the suburbs. There’s a 10 to nearly 15% rate in Summerlin zip codes and 11 to 15% range in Henderson. 89109, which is fairly close to center of the valley is 18.3%. The take-away: Hunger doesn’t care where you live.”

##  Hey We’re Number ___! Oh, who cares?  The U.S. is falling behind the rest of the globe in providing health care, and many important measures included in the Affordable Care Act aren’t scheduled to kick in until 2014.

China, after years of underfunding health care, is on track to complete a three-year, $124 billion initiative projected to cover more than 90 percent of the nation’s residents.  Mexico, which a decade ago covered less than half its population, completed an eight-year drive for universal coverage that has dramatically expanded Mexicans’ access to life-saving treatments for diseases such as leukemia and breast cancer.  In Thailand, where the gross domestic product per person is one-fifth that of the United States, just 1 percent of the population lacks health insurance. And in sub-Saharan Africa, Rwanda and Ghana — two of the world’s poorest nations — are working to create networks of insurance plans to cover their citizens.  [WaPo] (emphasis added)

Unfortunately, “American Exceptionalism,” is rapidly coming to mean that everyone EXCEPT Americans can expect basic services from their governments.   Speaking specifically to the ACA, FactCheck finds the Chamber of Commerce advertising on the ACA “misleading.”   Surprised?

## How’s that Austerity Thingie working for you?  Not all that well for German Chancellor Angela Merkel.  “Yesterday was a bitter day, it was a bitter, painful defeat,” Merkel said after results showed the SPD won 39.1 percent against 26.3 percent for the CDU.”  [Reuters] The voters seem annoyed. Additionally, an overly complex system perpetuates mistakes in the Eurozone?  More from Reuters.

## ICYMI:  The Congressional Budget Office has some very pertinent and cogent comments to make on the national debt, among them the following:

“There is no commonly agreed-upon amount of federal debt that is optimal. Higher debt has a number of negative consequences that CBO discusses regularly, but reducing debt or constraining its growth will require some combination of tax increases and spending reductions, and those policy changes can have negative consequences themselves.”

Negative consequences like cutting off the SNAP program and diminishing the automatic economic stabilizer effect maybe?

##  JP Morgan Chase isn’t the only bank having “a problem.”  There’s still some fall out from the GMAC (ALLY) venture into the mortgage market during the Bubble, “Ally’s mortgage unit, called Residential Capital, or ResCap, filed for bankruptcy protection in federal court in Manhattan under a plan that has the support of some of its creditors, although it was still expected to be a drawn-out and litigious process.”  [Reuters]

In view of the mess over at JP Morgan Chase, perhaps this isn’t exactly what we want to be hearing from the CFTC?

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) today voted to propose an Order regarding the effective date for swap regulation.  The Order is a six-month extension from certain provisions of the Commodity Exchange Act that otherwise would have taken effect on July 16, 2011, the general effective date of Title VII of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act .  Today’s order further narrows the scope of the Order because some rules, for example the further definition of swap dealer and major swap participant, have become effective.

Today, the Commission is extending the effective date for swap regulation until December 31, 2012, or until the Commission’s rules and regulations go into effect, whichever is sooner. The Order proposed today would allow the clearing of agricultural swaps; and remove any reference to the exempt commercial market; and exempt board of trade grandfather relief previously issued by the Commission.   (emphasis added)

How long can the traders’ lobby keep dragging out the regulations?

## Some good news: “The Securities and Exchange Commission today suspended trading in the securities of 379 dormant companies before they could be hijacked by fraudsters and used to harm investors through reverse mergers or pump-and-dump schemes. The trading suspension marks the most companies ever suspended in a single day by the agency as it ramps up its crackdown against fraud involving microcap shell companies that are dormant and delinquent in their public disclosures.”  [SEC]

>Holding Pattern

>Alas, it’s Woden’s Day in the northern Nevada outback, and D’Beacon isn’t expecting the Fix-It people from the ISP until tomorrow morning. Therefore, another day of enforced brevity on the Dial Up connection — the pale and slow shadow of the fancy-schmancy system that’s been steadily failing, and is now threatening to do its rendition of Titanic and Iceberg.

News around Crabapple Cove: The Minx makes a quick re-appearance in Reno and Its Discontents to announce no new mewlers. Nevada Today observes that there’s one form of government spending about which the Reno Gazette Journal and the Las Vegas Review Journal aren’t complaining. And, speaking of the Review Journal, columnist John Smith observes that Governor Gibbon’s recent poll numbers are up to a 49% favorable rating which may be a fair measurement of what happens when a governor doesn’t do anything to actually govern in Nevada, and lets the Legislature do all the heavy lifting during the biennial session?

The end of session reporting for the Lobbyists during that biennial gathering is now public — with most of the money going toward sponsoring “group events” as opposed to the wining and dining of individual members of the Assembled Wisdom. [LVRJ]

The American Medical Association is taking a dim view of the proposed merger of UnitedHealth Group and Sierra Health because UnitedHealth has a dismal track record of fines and violations in a string of other states: Texas, Arizona, Nebraska, New York, and Rhode Island. According to AMA executive director Dr. Michael Maves, “United’s conduct reflects a philosophy that it is more cost-effective to violate state law and possibly pay a state fine than to assure compliance with laws designed to protect both patients and physicians,” Maves wrote.” LV Sun Sicko

The right wing spin machine and echo chamber put out its latest talking point — a person might assume to be part of the new “learn to use the internet” advice imparted by Nevada Senator John Ensign (R-NV) and others. Left leaning blogs are “a pox, pungent, and profane,” as opposed to right wing blogs which are “more analytical and restrained.” [Think Progress] That would be “Drudge?” and “RedState?” Evidently, the right wing branding iron is getting heated up?

But for all the problems D’Beacon has had for the last month or so with the ISP — t’aint nothing like the Department of Homeland Security (the lead agency for fighting internet threats) which has “suffered more than 800 hacker break-ins, virus outbreaks, and other computer security problems over two years.” [AP]

>Catching up with the papers

>
“Nevada Job Report: Housing Slump Socks Workers” [LVRJ]

“Trepp accused of using company for personal expenses” [LVRJ] And, “Software designer questions blacked out eTreppid records” [RGJ]

“Legislative panel approves prison budget” [LVRJ]

“Invasion of Mormon Crickets keeps entomologists hopping” [RGJ]

“Pollution-free park plea: National Park Service warns of risks from coal fired plant near Great Basin” [LVSun]

“Kent Island project visited: Public Works Board examines site before wetlands permit.” [BaltSun]

“There they go again.” Right wing Republicans have been invited to play another label game. Newt Gingrich is calling for the radical right to fight “Radical Secularism.” [NYT] What better place to launch this canard than Liberty “University?”

If this story doesn’t make a person want to run out and throttle the miscreants, I don’t know what would.

The headline says it all: “Prosecutors Express Their Dismay.” [WaPo] “Targeted U.S. Attorneys defend their records” [McClatchy]

“CIA tracks Al Qaeda resources from Iraq” [LAT] “TV Report questions Army ban on Dragon Skin” Army Times

“Richardson stresses experience in southwest Iowa” [DMR] “Obama ramping up his anti-war effort” [ChiTrib] “Giuliani losing steam in ’08 presidential race” [CSM]

David Broder writes another silly column and Editor & Publisher calls him on it. [EP] “Wounded warriors?” Not a visible scratch on either Bush or Blair.

“Beware the Promises of Murdoch” Joe Conanson [NYO]

“Sicko’s” Tough Medicine [Salon] “…horror stories of middle class working folks who believed they were adequately covered..”

Former SF Republican Party vice chairman who changed party affiliations to run for the board of supervisors in 2006 is under investigation by the FBI. [SFC]

“Weather service’s top 2 quit: two leaders are leaving the National Weather Service, locked in battle with its parent agency over resources for the hurricane center and other operations” [MiamiH]

There’s hope yet. “Tornado can’t stop Greensburg graduation” [KCS]