News

LOUISIANA -- A state representative is sponsoring an amendment to the Louisiana Public Records Act that would give minors access to public records.Louisiana is the only state that requires a person to be "of the age of majority" -- 18 in Louisiana -- to have access to public documents.

CALIFORNIA -- When celebrity activist Erin Brockovich rolled into Beverly Hills High School last year on a crusade to expose on-campus oil wells that she said were leaking dangerous carcinogens and making people sick, student journalists began asking questions.

MASSACHUSETTS -- A court on March 8 dismissed a lawsuit filed by a student newspaper against Harvard University, rejecting the paper’s argument that the private university’s police department is subject to state open-records law.The Harvard Crimson filed suit last June to gain access to Harvard University Police Department records.

ILLINOIS -- A lawyer representing a Governors State University administrator in the Hosty v.

WYOMING -- Laramie County Community College student journalists do not believe their monthly publication has become popular overnight -- they believe someone unhappy with the newspaper has stolen more than 300 copies of the March edition, making the newspaper unavailable on campus.Ashley Colgan, co-editor of The Wingspan, said the newspaper was published March 8 and copies began to disappear the next day.''It was too fishy,'' Colgan said.

TENNESSEE -- Gov. Phil Bredesen signed a law March 12 that amends the Tennessee Open Records Act to require state public colleges and universities to disclose certain campus crime information, signaling a victory for lawmakers who were foiled in their effort to achieve the same results from legislation enacted last year.State Sen.

FLORIDA -- A Naples high school newspaper editor omitted his column about good and bad teachers in the latest issue of the paper after receiving pressure from a school staff member and the school principal, who said he did not want teachers to feel singled out.

KANSAS -- A high school newspaper adviser resigned March 9 after being placed on paid administrative leave because of a controversy over articles about sex in the latest issue of the student newspaper.

FLORIDA -- A battle over the First Amendment rights of a student-run radio station has erupted at the University of North Florida after the student government attempted to use its power over student-fee allocations to censor the station.Elizabeth Macke, station manager for Osprey Radio, said the Jacksonville university's student government effectively censored the Internet-based station by slashing its budget and placing guidelines on what music it should play because student senators did not approve of the station's content.Osprey Radio requested $42,000 in student-fee allocations from the student government for the 2004-2005 academic year.

TENNESSEE -- Members of Middle Tennessee State University's student newspaper believe the county sheriff subjected them to unwarranted criminal background checks after the paper published an editorial describing the county's law enforcement as ''the sheriff and his merry band of thugs.''Patrick Chinnery, editor of The Sidelines, said the general counsel for the Rutherford County Sheriff's Office told him that background checks had been performed on all staff members listed in the paper's staff box.