Hoosier State Press Association - The Indiana Publisher
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/60083
Thursday, March 29, 2012 SESSION Continued from Page 2 Institutions about a provision that would be out of kilter with wording in another bill. Everyone agreed that the issue could be addressed in the next session if necessary. The General Assembly passed Burton's bill, and the governor signed it into law March 6. S.B. 25, authored by Sen. Luke Kenley, RNoblesville, would have brought redevel opment com missions under great er public scrutiny by requiring their budgets to be approved by their local legislative body. The Senate Committee on Local Government, chaired by Sen. Connie Lawson, RDanville, approved the bill, and it passed the Senate 398. Sens. Phil Boots, Sen. Luke Ken- ley, R-Nobles- ville, authored S.B. 25, which would have brought redevel- opment com- missions under greater public scrutiny. cussed secrecy provisions with Sen. Doug Eckerty, RYorktown, but the issue became moot when the bill died in the Senate Committee on Insurance and Financial Institutions, chaired by Sen. Allen Paul, RRichmond. H.B. 1336, the House version of the expunge ment bill, was authored by Rep. Vanessa Summers, DIndianapolis. The bill died for lack of a hearing in the House Committee on Courts and Criminal Code, chaired by Rep. Greg Steuerwald, RDanville. H.B. 1198 also dealt with expungement of criminal records. HSPA would have opposed this bill, authored by Rep. Eric Turner, RCicero, but it died for lack of a hear ing in the House Committee on Courts and Criminal Code, chaired by Rep. Greg Steuerwald, RDanville. First Amendment S.B. 196, introduced by RCrawfordsville; Greg Walker, RColumbus; and Jean Breaux, DIndianapolis; coauthored the bill. Rep. Bob Cherry, RGreenfield, spon sored the legislation. The bill died for lack of a hearing in the House Government and Regulatory Reform Committee, chaired by Rep. Kevin Mahan, RHartford City. S.E.A. 311 establishes a process for cost benefit analysis for administrative rules. Author Sen. Brandt Hershman, DBuck Creek, added provisions giving confi dentiality to certain informa tion entities would provide to the Office of Management and Budget to conduct this analysis. Rep. Randy Truitt, RWest Lafayette, sponsored the bill in the House. The two cham bers passed this act unani mously (500 in the Senate and 960 in the House) prior to the Senate's concurrence vote of 435. The governor signed the bill into law March 19. S.B. 325, introduced by Sen. Greg Taylor, DIndian apolis, would have restricted access to arrest records depending on prosecu torial out come. HSPA opposes the concept of expungement as an inef fective way to encourage employment for those who have run afoul of the law. Taylor's bill died for lack of a hearing in the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, chaired by Sen. Richard Bray, RMartinsville. S.B. 53 concerned internal audits conducted by insur ance companies. HSPA dis Sen. Brent Waltz, DGreen wood, would have prohibited police from downloading data from cell phones of individu als stopped by police unless they have a search warrant. HSPA supports this con cept to prevent police from using technology to discover reporters' anonymous sources and other information. The bill died without a vote in the Senate Committee on Judiciary, chaired by Sen. Richard Bray, RMartinsville. H.B. 1217, introduced for the Indiana State Police by Rep. Cindy Kirchhofer, RBeech Grove, would have em powered law enforcement to obtain phone records held by outof state enti ties. This raised authored the bill, with Sen. Travis Holdman, RMarkle, as coauthor. HSPA opposed this concept but did not have to testify because the bill died with out a hearing in the Senate Committee on Corrections, Criminal and Civil Matters, chaired by Sen. Brent Steele, RBedford. Public notice advertising H.E.A. 1226 originally contained a provision elimi nating the requirement that outofstate insurance companies publish statements of condition in Indiana newspapers. Author Rep. Matt Lehman, RBerne, agreed to remove the provision with a pledge from HSPA to explore ways to ease the administrative burden for the Department of Insurance before the next legislative session. Rep. Matt Lehman, R- Berne, originally included a provi- sion eliminating a publication requirement in H.E.A. 1226 but removed it in an agreement with HSPA. Lehman's bill, without the offending provision, went on to be passed by the General Assembly. The governor signed the bill March 15. H.B. 1108 concerned com mercial composting facilities. HSPA worked with author Rep. Charles Moseley, DPortage, on an amendment that would allow for extra publication of notices beyond the limits of a county to sat isfy his concern that citizens wouldn't see the notice oth erwise. The bill died for lack of a a concern with HSPA over the abil ity of law enforcement to seek the records of news papers to ferret out sources. HSPA hoped to use this vehi cle to strengthen the state's reporters' privilege provision (shield law), but the bill died in the House after passage in the House Committee on Courts and Criminal Code. S.B. 122, introduced Sen. Greg Taylor, D-Indian apolis, introduced S.B. 325, which would have re- duced access to arrest records. by Sen. Vaneta Becker, REvansville, would have set performance standards for the singing of the national anthem. HSPA expressed its First Amendment concern over the concept of state government threatening citizens with a fine if their rendition didn't meet requirements. Becker pulled the bill while it awaited a vote in the Senate Committee for Education and Career Development. Sen. Dennis Kruse, RAuburn, co authored. S.B. 184 would have made it a Class A misdemeanor to photograph or film agri cultural operations without written consent. Sen. Ron Grooms, RJeffersonville, H.B. 1217, intro - duced by Rep. Cindy Kirchhofer, R-Beech Grove, would have allowed law en- forcement to ob- tain out-of-state phone records. hearing in the House Com mittee on Environmental Affairs, chaired by Rep. David Wolkins, RWinona Lake. S.B. 110 contained a pro vision that would make it a Class C infraction for a county official to place a public notice advertisement in more newspapers than required. HSPA pointed out to author Sen. Travis Holdman, RMarkle, that the provi sion effectively punishes an official who attempts to go beyond the bare minimum in informing the public about government activities. Holdman agreed to remove the provision, but the bill died in the Senate first. Miscellaneous H.B. 1133 would have extended the time frame of the Rights of Publicity law. HSPA monitored this bill authored by Rep. Sean Eberhardt, RShelbyville, but didn't take any action. When the legislature passed the Rights of Publicity law in the 1990s, then HSPA General Counsel and Executive Director Dick Cardwell lobbied for language that protects the media. The changes in H.B. 1133 didn't impact that buffer. The bill passed the House 857 vote but died in the Senate Committee on Public Policy. News in brief U.S. Senate primary debate set The Indiana Debate Commission's GOP prima ry debate with Sen. Richard Lugar and State Treasurer Richard Mour dock will air at 7 p.m. EDT Wednesday, April 11, and voters can submit questions on Facebook for the first time. Candidates agreed to the commission's format and rules. Voters can submit their questions online at: • Facebook: facebook.com/ IndianaDebateCommission • Website: indiana debatecommission.com/ submityourdebate question. This is the only primary debate scheduled by the commission, with WFYI as the station of origin for the onehour broadcast. Voters whose questions are selected for consider ation after screening by the commission will be offered the opportunity to ask their question in per son or by pretaped video via arrangements made by the commission. "This year's debate will be focusing on critical top ics – jobs and the econo my, international affairs and other pressing domes tic issues of the day," said Commission President Max Jones, editor of the Tribune-Star (Terre Haute). Phil Bremen, a retired TV broadcaster and assis tant professor at Ball State University, will moderate. This is the first debate hosted for state and national viewing by the commission that has fea tured only two candidates. Since the debate is scheduled in a studio, no public audience will attend. But viewing options will be available throughout the state, and the commission will also include a live stream on its website. State content available via ftp HSPA's contentsharing site, www.HSPAInfo.net, now ex ports every story, photo and caption into an ftp directory where the content is available to extract. The text files are ASCII, and the photos are jpg for mat. Stories are dropped into it hourly, and the process keeps the past three days' content in the active fold er. HSPA and partner 1Up! worked with Home News Enterprises to develop the ftp capability. Page 3 Content via ftp To receive HSPAInfo.net stories via ftp, send an email requesting a user account to deps@hbmediagroup.com. HNE has been pulling content and importing it into the frontend system it uses for several weeks successfully. Any newspaper with a frontend system capable of getting the material via ftp need only request a user account by emailing Info Net editor John DePrez Jr. at deps@ hbmediagroup.com. Journalists, get down to business A free daylong work shop on business jour nalism will be Friday, April 13, at the Gatton College of Business and Economics on the University of Kentucky campus in Lexington. The goal of "Uncovering the Best Local Business Stories" is to arm journal ists on small staffs with the tools they need to cover municipal budgets, local economicdevelop ment agencies and small Hoosier State Press Association continues to offer its press release ser vice for groups that want to spread information to Indiana newspapers. Organizations and enti businesses better. The workshop is put together by Linda Austin, former editor of the Lexington Herald-Leader, who is now executive director of the Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism at Arizona State University. Get registration and other information at http://business journalism.org. Click on "Upcoming free training." Press release service continues The service offers an easy way for groups to send information to news papers. For more information, ties pay a fee to HSPA to distribute releases to its members via email. Papers run the information at their discretion. visit www.hspa.com and click on "Press release ser vice" under the Adver tising tab; or contact Shawn Goldsby at sgoldsby@hspa.com or (317) 8034772. Send promotions, announcements, staff changes and other corporate news to mtuley@hspa.com.