On Oct. 19th 2010 the ACLU launched investigations into whether homeowners are being unlawfully removed from their homes and having their constitutional rights violated. The foreclosure epidemic has become so overwhelming that the state of Florida has created special foreclosure courts to handle the more than five hundred thousand foreclosure cases that are pending. So with recent media reports many are calling for investigation into the rush of foreclosure proceedings because many believe that constitutional rights are being violated and are not being processed correctly.

The Center for Responsible Lending report estimates that between 2009 and 2012, the African American and Latino communities will be drained of $194 and $177 billion, respectively, in these indirect “spillover” losses alone.

Original source

In what I would call “a sign of the times” the people of Boscawen, NH are calling Police Chief Sean Sweeney “foul” for posting their mugshot photos on the world’s largest social networking site Facebook. But the Chief isn’t backing down because He says:

all arrest records, including mug shots, are public records.

Would you want your arrest photo to appear on Facebook, literally for the world to see?

FOX News Story

We wrote before about how New Jersey was charging upwards of $0.75 for each printed public record. Well they have seen the light to where the top cost for a letter sized document is $0.05 and $0.07 for legal sized documents. Bringing the proposed cost of a 100 page report down from $100 to less than $5 for the same amount of pages. Found it here.

The Chicago Tribune has a good story on how to start your search for public records. Among the story two good resources for sending letters to your state’s public records official.

My favorite one is first, clean interface & easy to use.

The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press

The Student Press Law Center

So with many government agencies moving into the computer age, California cities and counties have started destroying all the paper records that have been accumulated over the years. Everything from meeting agendas, speeches, expense accounts, audits, and even the authorizations to destroy records are being destroyed.

Just recently Gov. Schwarzenegger stopped the shredding of all paroled sex offenders because of the murder of 17-year-old Chelsea King for which the state only kept the records for a year after the convict completed parole.

More from the original story

Right now it costs the public $0.25 to $0.75 per page to obtain printed copies of public records in New Jersey. Their has been a recent law proposal that if passed that would decrease the cost of public records copies mainly printed documents by about $0.15 . Others that oppose the bill are worried that the reduced costs of printed copies will trickle down to faxed and emailed copies as well.