Finally, the Union Leader appears to have returned to what it used to do: champion the Individual over the Government (with its Leftward bent lately, it has been taking the side of the Government).
In this case, however, contra to what the Southern Poverty Law Center would contend (that Government should always be foremost in any process or disagreement, especially those ending in court), Grokster Laurie Ortolano won her Right to Know case to get Government Records (emails) that the City of Nashua had in its possession/authority. After all, such a law as RSA 91-A (the Right To Know) was created to keep the Government in check.
Remember, the Government is supposed to be serving us and not the other way around. And I’m glad to have helped her by letting her know that:
- RSA 91-A DEMANDS that electronic records be kept as long as they do paper-based records (RSA 91-A:4, III-a and III-b (“The mere transfer of an electronic record to a readily accessible “deleted items” folder or similar location on a computer shall not constitute deletion of the record.”)
- I informed her about backup systems – be they the “moved to backup tapes” or other kinds of media (hard drives, SSDs, CDs, et al) that would hold such emails for far longer than Nashua’s normal mail server.
The court system agreed with her several times. Nashua, however, refused to fork them over (and other “Responsive Records”) as well. Now the NH Supreme Court has laid the smackdown on Nashua’s Mayor Donchess and his flunkies. They wanted to play “hide the sausage” (e.g., the backup tapes), and NHSC brought out a meat cleaver and a blowtorch.
And yet, the SPLC calls GraniteGrok “anti-Government”? This case is just one in a long line of examples set by Nashua that end up with one conclusion:
Government cannot always be trusted to do the right things
Sometimes, accidents or oversights happen – and when corrected when pointing them out, great. However, there are those in Government that have gotten a ‘tude that they outrank the rest of us. In the case of Nashua, they’ve been proving it for years.
Laurie needs to be thanked by all of us for investing her time and money to root out malfeasance while being slimed by government and government-aligned slimeballs.
One has to wonder how much was spent by the City of Nashua, from the start to now, in refusing to Follow the Law.
Oh, WAIT – we can work that out!