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Posts Tagged ‘Lou Gehrig’

The Life and Death of Public Records

March 14th, 2011 3 comments

The Life and Death of Public Records
Sometimes it’s the small abuses scurrying below radar that reveal how profoundly the Bush administration has changed America in the name of national security. Buried within the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 is a regulation that bars most public access to birth and death certificates for 70 to 100 years. In much of the country, these records have long been invaluable tools for activists, lawyers and reporters to uncover patterns of illness and pollution that officials miss or ignore.

 

In These Times has obtained a draft of the proposed regulations now causing widespread concern among state officials. It reveals plans to create a vast database of vital records to be centralized in Washington and details measures that states must implement — and pay millions for — before next year’s scheduled implementation.

 

The draft lays out how some 60,000 already strapped town and county offices must keep the birth and death records under lock and key and report all document requests to Washington. Individuals who show up in person will still be able to obtain their own birth certificates and, in some cases, the birth and death records of an immediate relative, and “legitimate” research institutions may be able to access files. But reporters and activists won’t be allowed to fish through records, many family members looking for genetic clues will be out of luck, and people wanting to trace adoptions will dead-end. If you are homeless and need your own birth certificate, forget it: no address, no service.

 

Consider the public health implications. A few years back, a doctor in a tiny Vermont town noticed that two patients who lived on the same hill had ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease. Hearing rumors of more cases of the relatively rare and always fatal disease, the doctor notified the health department. Citing lack of resources, it declined to investigate. The doc then told a reporter, who searched the death certificates filed in the town office only to find that ALS had already killed five of the town’s 1,300 residents. It was statistically possible, but unlikely, that this 10-times-higher-than-normal incidence was simply chance. Since no one knows what causes ALS, clusters like this one, once revealed, help epidemiologists assess risk factors, warn doctors to watch for symptoms,and alert neighbors and activists.

 

Activists in Colorado already know what it is like when states bar access to vital records. For years, they fought the Cotter Corp., claiming that its uranium mining operations were killing residents and workers. Unwilling to rely on the health department, which they claimed had a “cozy” relationship with the polluters, the activists tried to access death records, only to be told that it was illegal in this closed-records state. An editorial in Colorado’s Longmont Daily Times-Call lamented, “If there’s a situation that makes the case for why death certificates should be available to the public, it is th[is] Superfund area.”

 

Some of state officials around the country are questioning whether the new regulations themselves illegally tread on states’ rights. But the feds have been coy. Richard McCoy, public health statistic chief in Vermont, one of the nation’s 14 open-records states, says, “No state is mandated to meet the regs. However, if they don’t, then residents of that state will not be able to access any federal services, including social security and passports. States have no choice.”

 

But while the public loses access to records, the federal government gains a gargantuan national database easily cross-referenced in the name of national security. The feds’ claim that increased security will deter identity theft and terrorism is facile. Wholesale corporate data gathering is the major nexis of identity theft. As for terrorism, all the 9/11 perpetrators had valid identification.

 

Meanwhile, the quiet clampdown on vital records is part of a growing consolidation of information at the federal level. “That information will dovetail with the Real ID Act of 2005,” says Marc Rotenberg of the Electronic Privacy Information Center. “Real ID cards are the other shoe that is scheduled to drop in three years.” That act, signed into law last May, establishes national standards for state-issued driver’s licenses and ID cards, and centralizes the information into a database.

 

Aside from public health and privacy concerns, closing vital records incurs a steep intangible cost: It undermines community in places where that healthy ethos still survives. In small town America, the local clerk’s office is a sociable place where government wears the face of your neighbor. Each year, Vermont’s 246 towns distribute their vital statistics to all residents. “It’s the first place everybody goes in the Town Report,” says state archivist Gregory Sanford. “Who was born, who died, who got married, who had a baby and wasn’t married.”

 

This may not be the most dramatic danger to democracy, but it is one of the Bush administration’s many quiet, incremental assaults on the health of America’s body politic. And it may end up listed on the death certificate for open society.

 

more detail : http://RecordOnlineGuide.blogspot.com

RecordOnlineGuide.blogspot.com

The Life and Death of Public Records

March 14th, 2011 3 comments

The Life and Death of Public Records
Sometimes it’s the small abuses scurrying below radar that reveal how profoundly the Bush administration has changed America in the name of national security. Buried within the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 is a regulation that bars most public access to birth and death certificates for 70 to 100 years. In much of the country, these records have long been invaluable tools for activists, lawyers and reporters to uncover patterns of illness and pollution that officials miss or ignore.

 

In These Times has obtained a draft of the proposed regulations now causing widespread concern among state officials. It reveals plans to create a vast database of vital records to be centralized in Washington and details measures that states must implement — and pay millions for — before next year’s scheduled implementation.

 

The draft lays out how some 60,000 already strapped town and county offices must keep the birth and death records under lock and key and report all document requests to Washington. Individuals who show up in person will still be able to obtain their own birth certificates and, in some cases, the birth and death records of an immediate relative, and “legitimate” research institutions may be able to access files. But reporters and activists won’t be allowed to fish through records, many family members looking for genetic clues will be out of luck, and people wanting to trace adoptions will dead-end. If you are homeless and need your own birth certificate, forget it: no address, no service.

 

Consider the public health implications. A few years back, a doctor in a tiny Vermont town noticed that two patients who lived on the same hill had ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease. Hearing rumors of more cases of the relatively rare and always fatal disease, the doctor notified the health department. Citing lack of resources, it declined to investigate. The doc then told a reporter, who searched the death certificates filed in the town office only to find that ALS had already killed five of the town’s 1,300 residents. It was statistically possible, but unlikely, that this 10-times-higher-than-normal incidence was simply chance. Since no one knows what causes ALS, clusters like this one, once revealed, help epidemiologists assess risk factors, warn doctors to watch for symptoms,and alert neighbors and activists.

 

Activists in Colorado already know what it is like when states bar access to vital records. For years, they fought the Cotter Corp., claiming that its uranium mining operations were killing residents and workers. Unwilling to rely on the health department, which they claimed had a “cozy” relationship with the polluters, the activists tried to access death records, only to be told that it was illegal in this closed-records state. An editorial in Colorado’s Longmont Daily Times-Call lamented, “If there’s a situation that makes the case for why death certificates should be available to the public, it is th[is] Superfund area.”

 

Some of state officials around the country are questioning whether the new regulations themselves illegally tread on states’ rights. But the feds have been coy. Richard McCoy, public health statistic chief in Vermont, one of the nation’s 14 open-records states, says, “No state is mandated to meet the regs. However, if they don’t, then residents of that state will not be able to access any federal services, including social security and passports. States have no choice.”

 

But while the public loses access to records, the federal government gains a gargantuan national database easily cross-referenced in the name of national security. The feds’ claim that increased security will deter identity theft and terrorism is facile. Wholesale corporate data gathering is the major nexis of identity theft. As for terrorism, all the 9/11 perpetrators had valid identification.

 

Meanwhile, the quiet clampdown on vital records is part of a growing consolidation of information at the federal level. “That information will dovetail with the Real ID Act of 2005,” says Marc Rotenberg of the Electronic Privacy Information Center. “Real ID cards are the other shoe that is scheduled to drop in three years.” That act, signed into law last May, establishes national standards for state-issued driver’s licenses and ID cards, and centralizes the information into a database.

 

Aside from public health and privacy concerns, closing vital records incurs a steep intangible cost: It undermines community in places where that healthy ethos still survives. In small town America, the local clerk’s office is a sociable place where government wears the face of your neighbor. Each year, Vermont’s 246 towns distribute their vital statistics to all residents. “It’s the first place everybody goes in the Town Report,” says state archivist Gregory Sanford. “Who was born, who died, who got married, who had a baby and wasn’t married.”

 

This may not be the most dramatic danger to democracy, but it is one of the Bush administration’s many quiet, incremental assaults on the health of America’s body politic. And it may end up listed on the death certificate for open society.

 

more detail : http://RecordOnlineGuide.blogspot.com

RecordOnlineGuide.blogspot.com

questions about baseball?

January 18th, 2010 3 comments

i need to know these for school so if anyone could answer some of them that would be great

Q: What hide was first used to cover baseballs in 1975?

Q: What baseball announcer said Pope Paul VI’s death "puts a damper on even a Yankees win"?

Q: What country’s first U.S. major league baseball player was Chan-Ho Park?

Q: Which two cities have the oldest stadiums in major league baseball?

Q: What baseball team’s games are announced on TV by Skip Carey?

Q: What shortstop holds the major league records for games played, assists and double plays?

Q: What pitcher’s 1.12 ERA in 1968 is the lowest in the majors in post-World War II play?

Q: Who was the last American League baseballer to win the Triple Crown, in 1967?

Q: What Pittsburgh Pirate had exactly 3,000 career hits before dying in a plane crash?

Q: What’s the LCS to a baseball pennant winner?

Q: What was pitcher Dock Ellis the first major leaguer to wear in his on the field?

Q: How many seasons did Lou Gehrig play every inning of every game?

Q: What major league baseball team has fans dubbed "Cheese Heads"?

Q: What ballpark was Pete Rose playing in when he broke Ty Cobb’s career hits record?

Q: What major league baseball team did the Walt Disney Company assumee operational control of in 1996?

Q: How many seasons saw Hank Aaron blast 50 or more homers?

Q: Who holds the record for most innings pitched in a major league season?

Q: What legendary manager explained: "You have to have a catcher. If you don’t the pitch will roll all the way back to the screen"?

Q: What explosive base-stealer took a $2.75 million pay cut to play for the Kansas City Royals, in 1995?

Q: What major league baseball team was forced to endure a 20-day road trip in 1996?

Q: What Beantowner is second only to Pete Rose in total major league baseball games played?

Q: What’s the most home runs hit by one player in a single major league game?

Q: What establishments were 90 percent of the viewers watching the first televised World Series from?

Q: What did Babe Ruth, Rogers, Hornsby, Ted Williams and Willie Mays all do in their first major league at-bats?

Q: What former Giants star is the godfather of Barry Bonds?

Q: What governor was on hand at home plate to greet Hank Aaron when he broke Babes Ruth’s home run record?

Q: What hide was first used to cover baseballs in 1975?
Cow (replaced horse)

Q: What baseball announcer said Pope Paul VI’s death "puts a damper on even a Yankees win"?
Phil Rizzuto

Q: What country’s first U.S. major league baseball player was Chan-Ho Park?
(South) Korea

Q: Which two cities have the oldest stadiums in major league baseball?
Chicago and Boston

Q: What baseball team’s games are announced on TV by Skip Carey?
Atlanta Braves, until his death last August

Q: What shortstop holds the major league records for games played, assists and double plays?
Ozzie Smith for assists
Vizquel recently broke double plays and games

Q: What pitcher’s 1.12 ERA in 1968 is the lowest in the majors in post-World War II play?
Bob Gibson

Q: Who was the last American League baseballer to win the Triple Crown, in 1967?
Carl Yastrzemski

Q: What Pittsburgh Pirate had exactly 3,000 career hits before dying in a plane crash?
Roberto Clemente

Q: What’s the LCS to a baseball pennant winner?
The last series they won to get the pennant? (League Championship Series)

Q: What was pitcher Dock Ellis the first major leaguer to wear in his on the field?
Hair curlers

Q: How many seasons did Lou Gehrig play every inning of every game?
1

Q: What major league baseball team has fans dubbed "Cheese Heads"?
Brewers

Q: What ballpark was Pete Rose playing in when he broke Ty Cobb’s career hits record?
Riverfront Stadium, or Wrigley Field if you’re in the school that says that 2 of Ty Cobb’s hits were counted twice

Q: What major league baseball team did the Walt Disney Company assumee operational control of in 1996?
California Angels

Q: How many seasons saw Hank Aaron blast 50 or more homers?
0

Q: Who holds the record for most innings pitched in a major league season?
Will White, 680 in 1879
Ed Walsh has the modern era record with 464 in 1908

Q: What legendary manager explained: "You have to have a catcher. If you don’t the pitch will roll all the way back to the screen"?
Casey Stengel

Q: What explosive base-stealer took a $2.75 million pay cut to play for the Kansas City Royals, in 1995?
Vince Coleman ($3,312,500 in 1994, $250,000 in 1995, it was actually over 3 million)

Q: What major league baseball team was forced to endure a 20-day road trip in 1996?
Braves, 19 games during the Olympics

Q: What Beantowner is second only to Pete Rose in total major league baseball games played?
Carl Yastrzemski

Q: What’s the most home runs hit by one player in a single major league game?
4, done several times

Q: What establishments were 90 percent of the viewers watching the first televised World Series from?
Appliance/department stores

Q: What did Babe Ruth, Rogers, Hornsby, Ted Williams and Willie Mays all do in their first major league at-bats?
Strike out

Q: What former Giants star is the godfather of Barry Bonds?
Willie Mays

Q: What governor was on hand at home plate to greet Hank Aaron when he broke Babes Ruth’s home run record?
Jimmy Carter