House Judiciary - On Crime Evidence and Campaign Expenditure

(H)JUDICIARY		STANDING COMMITTEE *
Apr 07 Wednesday 1:00 PM		CAPITOL 120
+	SB 284	CAMPAIGN EXPENDITURES	TELECONFERENCED
+	SB 110	PRESERVATION OF EVIDENCE/DNA I.D. SYSTEM	TELECONFERENCED
+		Bills Previously Heard/Scheduled	TELECONFERENCED

THIS IS MY VERY ROUGH NOTES.  DON'T RELY ON THIS.  I'LL POST THE AUDIO WHEN IT IS AVAILABLE.  

1:35pm Senator French is walking the committee through SB110 on Perservation of Evidence/DNA ID System.  The meeting opened with Chair Ramras warmly welcoming Sen. French and praising him and his office for being so easy to work with.

There are a number of people on the list to testify, but Rep. Ramras also wants as much time as possible for SB 284.  This is not a bill I've prepared for.

Online testimony:
Mr. Oberly, Executive Director of the Innocence Project:  The task force reviewing this will be helpful and police will hold up decisions until the task force does its study.

Jeffry Mittman, ACLU Alaska:  We support this bill as well.

Gruenberg:  Concern about length of time evidence is kept.  His concerns were with who decides the crime is solved.
French:  The concern that someone would peremptorily declaring crime solved, is covered.
Ramras:  We know of Rep. Gruenberg's propensity for belts and suspenders.
French:  These issues will be looked at by the task force.
Gruenberg:  It looks like you are right relating to biological evidence.  We're talking about non-biological evidence.  The house bill had this on p. 3 beginning of line 7.  The two bills seem to treat the non-biological evidence seperately.
Ramras:  As I recall there was a focus on biological evidence.
Gruenberg:  The bills themselves deal with both biological and non-biological evidence.  Will we have any fall out between now and when the task force makes its report.
French:  In the six years I was with the Prosecutors I am unaware of anyone disposing of evidence and I would be stunned if it happened in the next year.
Ramras:  Chair is satisfied with the discussion.
Gruenberg:  Is there anyone else concerned?  I don't see it among other committee members.

Gatto:  An agency ... may destroy biological evidence if ....   - that's not a complete activity - mailing a notice - makes no requirement of the recipient ever receiving the letter.
French:  I think the certified delivery implies that it was received.  If you continue reading - no person notifies after 120 days after receiving the notice...
Gatto:  Line 27 page 3.  Key word is mailed.  Doesn't matter they got the wrong address, or person can't read English.  If you wanted to have a certainty the letter was received and failed to act is not something the agency can control.

Heron:  We did amend that in other hearings and require a receipt.
French:  Would a proof of receipt help?   That seems reasonable.
For completeness.  I appreciate your desire to move this down track.

Language requiring applicants to pay costs of evidence retrieval have been romoved.  We've gotten approval/acceptance from department of law.
Timeliness provisions also changed.  p. 15 - were three years.  Not from this day forward, but looking back.  People now in prison have ten years after we pass the bill.  Otherwise people have unlimited amount of time.
Gruenberg: I'm still troubled by same issue.  If they got the perpetrator and say the crime is solved and destroy the evidence.  Now prosecution could say we are permitted to do this under this law.

French:  I don't share your concern.
Ramras:  Would you care to do a member swap from now to April 18? 
French:  [Something about the person not admitting guilt.  I'm not sure what this is about.]
Deleting attorney affidavit.  ????
Requiring evidence ???? deleted.
Page 8 lines 22-27 - right out of the federal bill.  We leaned on the Fed bill which is called the Gold Standard.  It was passed by Republican Congress and signed by Pres. GWB.

Gatto:  Subsection C.  Applicant did not admit or concede guilt under oath.  Admission of guilt is not not acceptable as a plea for this bill?
French:  What you'll hear from public defenders is that some people plead guilty with regularity.  They take a fall for someone else, doesn't understand English, lots of reasons to plead guilty falsely.

Ramras:  Two conceptual amendments = #1 page. 14.  Anyone else who wants to testify?
Public testimony closed.
Conceptual Amendment #1  - add to duties of task force -
Gruenberg:  think that should go in subsection D, lines 2?
Ramras:  Withdraw #1
#2 standards for return of property added to duties of task force [changed where to add it]
#3 page 7 line 31-p. 8 line 3 - subparagraph D3 page 7 lines 10-14  should conform (I have no idea what this is about).  Withdraw.
Holmes: CA #4 p. 7 line 31 delete 31-p. 8 line three and replace with applicant did not admit or guilt in ...except for the court in the interest of justice... nolo contendr plea is not an admission ... that is currently on p. 7 lines 14.
Passes.
Gatto:  CA #5 - p. 3 line 27 - return receipt requested  passes

Passes.  Concurrent resolution adopted.  At ease.

That's it for CSSB 110.  At ease and then I'll be back for SB 284.

Here's the audio. You can get the exact words used. CSSB 110 is the first 42 minutes.

SB 284 at House Judiciary - Campaign Expenditure Bill Up in House Judiciary

This bill will be heard today in House Judiciary.

 CS FOR SENATE BILL NO. 284(FIN)

A BILL FOR AN ACT ENTITLED "An Act relating to state election campaigns, the duties of the Alaska Public Offices Commission, the reporting and disclosure of expenditures and independent expenditures, the filing of reports, and the identification of certain communications in state election campaigns; prohibiting expenditures and contributions by foreign nationals in state elections; and providing for an effective date."


BACKGROUND
The Campaign Expenditure bill that was necessitated by the US Supreme Court decision on Citizens United which invalidated some restrictions on corporate independent expenditures in elections.


Alaska prohibited corporations and unions from making contributions to candidates, so the laws requiring disclosures and disclaimers on such expenditures for corporations don't exist.  We do have such restrictions on individuals.  So, essentially, the bills that began in both the Senate and House were aimed at requiring disclosure and disclaimers on contributions and on independent expenditures on advertising supporting candidates directly or indirectly.

KEY TERMS
Terminology is tricky here.  The most critical terms, I think, are PERSON and INDIVIDUAL.

PERSON is an all encompassing term that includes individual people AND corporations and unions.  The key here is that on the federal level, corporations have many of the rights of persons.  Even though this is not our everyday usage of the language, it's how the word is used legally.  An example of how this shows up in the bill is:

prepare and publish a manual setting out uniform methods of
bookkeeping and reporting for use by persons required to make reports and statements under this chapter and otherwise assist all persons [CANDIDATES, GROUPS, AND INDIVIDUALS] in complying with the requirements of this chapter;  [underline bold is new language, in [BRACKETS AND CAPS] is old deleted language.]

INDIVIDUAL is a human being, not an organization.


KEY ASPECTS OF THE BILL

REPORTING AND DISCLOSING - Here's what has to be reported:

(e) Each person [THE REPORT] required to report under (d) of this section shall file a full report in accordance with AS 15.13.110(g) on a form prescribed by the commission. The report must contain
(1) the name, address, principal occupation, and employer of the individual filing the report;
(2) [, AND] an itemized list of all expenditures made, incurred, or authorized by the person;
(3) the name of the candidate or the title of the ballot proposition or question supported or opposed by each expenditure and whether the expenditure is made to support or oppose the candidate or ballot proposition or question;
(4) the name and address of each officer and director, when
applicable;
(5) the aggregate amount of all contributions made to the person, if any, for the purpose of influencing the outcome of an election; for all contributions to the person that exceed $100 in the aggregate in a year, the date of the contribution and amount contributed by each contributor; and for a contributor
(A) who is an individual, the name, address, principal occupation, and employer of the contributor; or
(B) that is not an individual, the name and address of the contributor and the name and address of each officer and director of the contributor [EXPENDITURES. THE REPORT SHALL BE FILED WITH THE COMMISSION NO LATER THAN 10 DAYS AFTER THE EXPENDITURE IS MADE].

And individual (that is a human being) acting independently of other persons (humans, organizations, corporations, unions) IS EXEMPTED from some of the reporting and disclosure requirements if the expenditures are under $500 for billboards or printed matter.


There is also an attempt to get past the shadow group names like "Alaskans for Health and Prosperity" and require identification like,

(4) the name and address of each officer and director, when
applicable;

There is also a section that mimics federal language prohibiting foreign nationals from contributing.  The discussions I heard suggested that this would allow the state to take actions when the feds might not want to bother.

There is also a section requiring written and audio disclosure on radio and tv ads.  The broadcast people seem to be strongly opposed to this because they believe it will cut what people can say in the ads because the time it will take to do the disclosure.

The meeting is starting now, so I'll post this now and then blog through the meeting.

CSHB 348 - Personnel Board Changes - Passes House

Yesterday I went to the House floor to hear the debate and vote on HB 348.  It had been defeated 19-18 on Monday and a call for reconsideration had it available to be brought back up yesterday.  But they postponed it another day.

This bill responds to the awkward situation of former Gov. Palin being evaluated on various charges by the Personnel Board made up of her appointees.  The bill enlarges the board from three members to five.  It also has the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court giving three names to the governor who then chooses from those three.  It also puts restrictions on the kinds of jobs or other conflicts the members can have.

The bill was sponsored by Rep. Lynn and basically supported by the Democrats.  However, the Democrats wanted an amendment that anticipated a show-down between the Chief Justice and the Governor.  The amendments - there were several variations - would have limited how often the Governor could request more nominees if the Governor didn't like the names she got and/or explicitly said the Chief Justice didn't have to give more names.

People felt strongly about this on both sides and this dispute was the reason the bill failed on the floor the first time because the supporters of the amendments voted against the bill.  It does appear that today they were persuaded that the bill, without the amendment, is better than the status quo.

The video gives a sense of the floor of the House as Rep. Lynn promotes his bill.




Now it has 12 days to pass in the Senate.

I'm Dreaming of a White Songkran

This was Songkran two years ago in Chiang Mai.  It's a holiday in the hot season where in the temples the Buddha's are washed and in the streets everyone is washed.

This was Mt. Juneau yesterday from the State Office Building.

And here's the same view with a little perspective - the yellow building in front is the Juneau Douglas City Museum.  The brick building on the right is the Capitol.  We'd had snow, but what little stuck had melted.  These mountain views right smack in downtown are a reason Juneau's so spectacularly beautiful.

This morning from our window.  And below is a letter I received yesterday from the Thai Buddhist Temple in Anchorage.  This year's Songkran festival is Sunday.  We won't be back yet, but others who might be interested should go.  I know it can be intimidating to go to a religious ceremony you know nothing about.  But trust me, you will quickly feel at home.  Just remember that you take your shoes off before going into the Wat (temple.)  You may also be expected to sit on the floor.  And you should leave a bill or two on the money tree.  And you may want to practice the 'wai' putting your palms together at your chest and dipping your head slightly as you can see the people doing in the picture with the monk below.  Just copy the Thais and Laos there.  If you don't do it perfectly no one will be offended.  They will be delighted that you tried. 

I don't think at the Wat people will be splashing you with water.  It will be more solemn.  Here are a couple more pictures from Chiang Mai's Songkran in 2008. There's more explanation of the religious aspects of the holiday at the link. 

The Wat in Anchorage is on D just off of Fireweed.  If you live in another city that has a Thai Buddhist temple, check when they celebrate.  I promise you a very wonderful experience.  Just remember to take off your shoes when you go inside.  People will be coming and going all day, so it doesn't really matter when you get there.

Artist Rie Muñoz Visits House

One

One of Alaska's best known artists, Rie Muñoz, talks to Rep. Bob Lynn while her daughter-in-law Rep. Cathy Muñoz watches on. 

Here she talks with Rep. Berta Gardner with her granddaughter sitting next to her. 

We have a great print of hers at home and when I described it to her she told me the story of when she painted it.  I'll put that up when we get back to Anchorage and I can show you the picture as well. 

It's Not Easy To Find Out How Legislators Voted

This probably looks a bit intimidating, but Alaskan readers should take a bit of time here.  This walks you through step by step.  I'm really trying to seduce as many of you as possible into playing with BASIS and finding out what your legislature is up to.  [Update:  Also be sure to check out Alaska Education Update's comment below on getting to the Journal page from bill search.]

BASIS (the legislative website) has a lot of information. One thing I've looked for and failed to find is how legislators voted. Wouldn't it be nice to be able to pull up a bill and see how they voted? Or to pull up a specific legislator and see how he or she voted on a list of different bills? But I couldn't find that sort of information.

So I asked a BASIS technician and he confirmed what I'm looking for just isn't there.  You need to go to the House and Senate Journals which are the minutes of each day's floor session. That, he said, is the only place on BASIS where you can find the voting records.  You have to look, day by day, bill by bill.

You can find these a couple of ways.  Here's the easiest for me.


BASIS - HOUSE JOURNAL

This is the "Bills & Laws" tab on BASIS (see the white tab on top.)

If you click on the picture, it will link you to that page (the url is in red text.)    Go ahead, click on the image. This is your government.  You believe in democracy, so participate!  Use right click (Mac users use the control key) and open a new tab or new window.  Then go to Journal Text Display (circled on the right.)  That gets you to this page:

Leave House Journal marked.  Then slide down to the bottom of that list to
"Journal Date Range from"   and put in the dates that you want.  I've got it set for
040510.  I know, it's a little clunky, but at least this one is easy to figure out.    That will get you to the House Journal for April 5, 2010 which looks like this:

If you scroll down to page 2021 you'll find the Bills with Third Readings.  (They can't vote until the bill has been read for the third time - it's in the State Constitution.)  Here's the vote on CSHB (Committee Substitute for House Bill) 348.

And that tells you who voted yes and who voted no. 

Now, I've put up yesterday's House Journal because today's isn't up yet.


CRAZY BLOGGERS

There is another way to find out how people voted - find a blogger who posts the votes.  But this service - posting pictures of the votes - is probably a one day event. Here's today's House Votes.

HB 355	CRIMINAL FINES FOR ORGANIZATIONS	PASSD(H) RECON NTCE	04/06/10

This passed, but some members said they hadn't read it, so they voted for it, then voted for reconsideration.  That means they can bring it up again tomorrow if, after reading it, they have a problem.

This one has to go to the Senate from here.  It's day 78, so there are 12 days left for it to pass or die. Since this is the second session of the 26th Legislature (two a year beginning 52 years ago), whatever doesn't get passed, dies, and has to begin again from scratch in the 27th Legislature. 

HB 357AK RAILROAD CORP. LAND SALES 3RD RDG,4/7 CAL(H) 04/06/10

Sorry, I didn't figure out I should take all these pictures until the next one, so I don't have this vote.

SB 307

SHELTERS FOR RUNAWAY MINORS

PASSED (H)

04/06/10

This, as I understood it, closes a loophole in State law that will allow Covenant House to qualify for federal funding.

Open means the vote is not yet finished.  When it is closed, it says that in red as you'll see in one of the other pictures below.  Here I think Doogan was out of the room so he doesn't show as having voted.  I don't recall if he managed to vote before it closed.  But obviously his vote wasn't terribly important here. 



SJR 27FED. FUNDING: DOMESTIC SEAFOOD MARKETING PASSED (H) 04/06/10

SCR 12FETAL ALCOHOL SPECTRUM DISORDERS DAY PASSED (H) 04/06/10

The day will be 9/9/10 - to remind women not to drink during the nine months they are pregnant. 

SCR 13SUPPORTING SENIOR CAREGIVERS PASSED (H) 04/06/10

You can see the first two are legislation that originated in the House because they begin with H.  The rest are items that have made it through the Senate already and the begin with S.


ONE MORE WAY TO SEE THE VOTES

There is one more place you could get this information if you really needed it right away:  from Gavel to Gavel.

You can watch the broadcast originating from KTOO in Juneau.  They usually play it close to live (sometimes it's a little delayed if another meeting goes over.)  They usually play the House floor a second time. (It's scheduled for 6pm today.)  But you'd have to look quick if you wanted to know how each person voted. Here's the Broadcast Schedule page below.

The very bottom line shows it was scheduled at 10:30 today.  On the actual page you could scroll down and see it's scheduled again for 6:05pm (but remember the schedule changes as things happen.)  To find out where you can watch it - it the Where to Tune link (see the red mark on the left of the page above.)  It shows where people can see this on cable around the state.

You could also listen to the audio of the Floor Session, but unless they did a roll call vote, that wouldn't tell you how each representative voted.

Snow - Outside and In My Brain

They've been saying here that it's been a really mild winter. I'm finally getting it. Basically, the weather hasn't significantly changed since January. Temps range from high 20's to mid 40s. Rain, clouds, sun, snow, wind. And it's still the same in early April.

It snowed for a couple of hours this morning.
And in my head it is snowing too as I struggle with what to write. I know a little about a lot, but is that enough for a post? Bear with me. I'll get something together.

Here's the State Affairs Committee reflected in the window as I watched the snow and tried to listen. I had trouble comprehending SB 261 - to change the makeup of the Alcohol Beverage Control Board. It reduces the number of industry folks from three to two and mandates at least one rural member. They couldn't specifically name Bethel, but they could put in conditions that would only apply to Bethel. I'm headed to hear the floor session.

You can hear the State Affairs discussion on the ABC Board below.

Thinking About Ways to Categorize and Evaluate Bills

In checking up on the large number of bills submitted in the Alaska Legislature compared to the small number passed (about 11 to 1 last week), I've been trying to identify different types of bills and different reasons legislators introduce them.  There are a number of different ways we could organize this.  One way is to develop scales of different factors, and bills probably fall all across the spectrum:

1.   High impact  .............................................................Low impact
Some bills, like many that deal with oil and gas taxes and pipelines can have an enormous impact on the future of the state.  Others, like declaring February 2 Marmot Day probably have relatively minor impact.

2.  High Controversy...........................................................Low  Controversy
 Bills that touch ideological conflicts - development v environmental protection,  labor v business, regulation v. free enterprise - are on one end and issues where there is bi-partisan support (in concept if not in approach) - support for veterans, opposition to alcohol and sexual abuse - on the other end.

3.  Substantive ....................................................................................Symbolic
Substantive legislation makes real changes in how the state does things - the campaign expenditure bills which would require disclosure of independent expenditures by corporations and unions or the bill that limits mandatory overtime for nurses.  Symbolic legislation makes a statement but has relatively little actual impact.  Declaring April Sexual Assault Awareness month, adopting an official second verse of the state song, and divesting state investments in companies doing business in Iran are more on the symbolic side.  Symbolism can be important or unimportant - but that is measured by Factor 1.

4.  Political...........................................................................................Non-political
I differentiate this from Factor 2.  This is more about how voting on a bill affects the next election.  It appears, for example, that in this legislative session, Republicans are giving the governor's legislation a difficult time because many are supporting an opponent of the governor in the primary and do not want to give the governor 'wins' going into the election.  I could, of course, be reading that entirely wrong. 

5.  Private Interest bills ...................................................................Public Interest bills
Private interest bills are written to benefit a very specific private entity.  These are harder to call because the sponsors almost always minimize (if they can't hide) the private benefit of the laws and promote them by identifying public benefits of the law.  The bill that would have required everyone to have winter tires (not all weather tires), HB 322,  would have clearly benefited the constituent who got a legislator to sponsor it - Johnson Tires.  The head of the company even said it would increase the number of people he employs from about 125 to 800.  But the bill was touted as a bill that would save lives and lower insurance bills.  And both claims could be true.  The bill to cut the cruise line head tax will surely benefit the cruise lines and less clearly benefit the general Alaskan.

6.   Procedural bills ........................................................................Substantive bills
Procedural here, in contrast to Symbolic in Factor 3, refers to bills that make the rules or processes clearer or more efficient.  They don't necessarily change the goal of a program, but rather the intent is to make it work better.

7.  Long term bills.........................................................................Short term bills
Long term bills anticipate the future and try to plan for it in an orderly way.  SB 220 sets up some structure for developing energy policy and stimulating alternative energy projects.  Bills putting money into budget reserve funds look to the future. 

8.  Proactive bills ...............................................................................Reactive bills
Proactive bills, like long term bills, anticipate some problem or opportunity and develop ways to avoid the problem or take advantage of the opportunity.  Reactive bills respond to some problem that already exists.  There is much talk about having more prevention in the Governor's sexual assault initiative and less reaction.   My belief is that the more people anticipate and prevent problems the less they have to react.  But there will always be situations that can't be anticipated. 

9.  Do Good ............................................................................................. Do Harm
I add this one, not because I can determine this, but to remind everyone that while some of the labels on the scales sound like 'good' things - say big impact or long term - they may have big negative impact and long term harm.  Even a bill aimed at benefiting a single company or individual may be seen as a good bill if it is to make whole a company that was unfairly harmed by some state action. 


These thoughts have emerged after spending almost three months watching the legislature. I'm sure others who have been around longer could come up with more critical factors.

It might be interesting to apply these scales in different ways.  A couple of examples: 

• Compare the legislation that passes to the legislation that doesn't.  (I'd guess there is a fair amount of symbolic, non-controversial, low impact legislation that has passed.)
• Look at the legislation introduced by each legislator.  Are there patterns?  Do individual legislators sponsor similar types of legislation each time?  Are there significant differences among legislators? 

Of course, there are a lot of other categories of bills to be considered such as bills that allocate money and bills that mollify specific constituents or interest groups.  And there are other 'measures' such as resolutions which are used to introduce Constitutional Amendments or  declare the opinion of the legislature.

Life's Little Surprises

We walked back home from First Friday and as we got into the gate, suddenly J went down.  It's on a hill and she must have stepped on the edge of the concrete step and twisted/slid off.  It hurt to put weight onto her foot, but fortunately we were steps away from the door.  Ice packs and aspirin.  Mid Saturday it was still hurting, but not nearly as bad and it wasn't too swollen or discolored.  Sunday she didn't want to go to breakfast with me at our friends' place down the street - even if I borrowed their car to pick her up.

But at breakfast when I learned one of our friends wanted to go to the urgent care place for her own ailment, I asked if J could come along.  When I saw her foot at the clinic, it was blue enough to suggest she was turning Na'vi.  And the x-ray showed a small crack.

[double click to enlarge]

[Image from Laboratorium.dist,unige.it - link on page to foot, bones lateral]

So, now she has a cool new shoe - and she can walk on the foot without pain, though it doesn't feel right.  She's to rest it as much as possible for the week we have left in Juneau and when we start traveling again in a week and a half, she should be able to walk on it with the new shoe.  We hope.

Weenie Google

Too small to use.  I've gotten a few hits from something called Weenie Google.  I'm not sure what it means, but I'm just noting it.

I don't know if this is supposed to be some sort of spoof on Google, an attempt to use Google's name, or what.  I don't see any serious anti-google propaganda here like Scroogle-Scraper has. 

Google has done amazing things - including making blogs like this one possible to get an audience.  Their current decision to shut down their China operation rather than censor their searches is a good sign.  However, while the current controllers of the giant information machine that Google has become appear to have good intentions, any organization that has a significant source of power inevitably attracts people who want a piece of that power. 

What will happen in the future when the founders eventually depart?  Will they set up a plan to break up key components of Google so future leaders can't use this growing monopoly on information for evil purposes?

UPDATE:  Also check out Epic Google,  Mr. Doob's Google Gravity, and the Revolving Internet.