I've never struggled against the feeling of burnout. If I felt burned out, I just let myself feel burned out. I didn't have any moralistic attitude toward it or fight it. I'd feel `Oh, I'm burned out, I'll just sit here. Let someone else do it. I'll just be here and be blah'.

The federal government will pay a Texas law school $1 million to do research aimed at rolling back the amount of sensitive data available to the press and public through freedom-of-information requests. Beginning this month, St. Mary's University School of Law in San Antonio will analyze recent state laws that place previously available information, such as site plans of power plants, beyond the reach of public inquiries.

Jeffrey Addicott, a professor at the law school, said he will use that research to produce a national "model statute" that state legislatures and Congress could adopt to ensure that potentially dangerous information "stays out of the hands of the bad guys."

"There's the public's right to know, but how much?" said Addicott, a former legal adviser in the Army's Special Forces.

"There's a strong feeling that the law needs to balance that with the need to protect the well-being of the nation. ... There's too much stuff that's easy to get that shouldn't be," he said.

The federal Freedom of Information Act, which became law 40 years ago this week, has long been a source of tension between the government and the public and news media.

Critics say the research plan overstates the need for secrecy and is likely to give state and federal governments too much discretion to withhold material. "Restricting information (for) security and efficiency and comfort level, that's the good story," says Paul McMasters, a specialist in public information law at the First Amendment Center in Arlington, Va. "The bad story is that it can also be a great instrument of control. ... To automatically believe that the less known the better is really not rational."

Congress added the grant to this year's Defense Department budget. It is being administered through the Air Force Research Laboratory, Addicott said. The laboratory in Rome, N.Y., specializes in information technology, according to its website.

Dear Members and Friends of the Olympia Historical Society:

Please join us for our next event:

Olympia Historical Society General Membership Meeting and Program
Saturday, July 8, 2006
Bigelow House Museum
918 Glass Ave NE - Olympia
(one block off East Bay Drive)

Membership Meeting - 10:00 am
Program - 10:30 am
"Bill Goes to the Beach: An 1882 Trip from Olympia to Oysterville," presented by Karen Johnson

Hope to see you there!
Annamary Fitzgerald
President, Olympia Historical Society

The Washington State Patrol is in receipt of your e-mail dated July 3, 2006, regarding Trooper Wickman.  An investigation will be conducted by the local division; and an investigator(s) may contact you to obtain more information.   

Captain Timothy P. Braniff

Washington State Patrol

Office of Professional Standards

My email to opsmail@wsp.wa.gov