Essays and ephemera
Years in the making, Metra is about to implement positive train control (PTC) and its first installation will be on its busiest line – the BNSF. Doing so will require changes to the train schedule. A public records request for the comments reveals that the train riders of the BNSF are generally not happy about the proposed changes.
Continue reading “The Public Does Not Like Metra’s Proposed BNSF Schedule”
As I was reading Edgar County Watchdogs today, I came across an article that mentioned Illinois Governor Rauner being nominated for a“Black Hole Award.” There in the body of the article is my name and nomination for the Office of the Governor submitted to the Society of Professional Journalists. Awesome!
In honor of this nomination, here are the Office of the Governor’s FOIA logs from 2014-2017 that I originally sought and prompted my submission to SPJ’s Black Hole Awards.
I was only able to obtain these through an appeal to the Illinois Attorney General. The process took about three months from request to records produced. Three months isn’t as bad as some horror stories I’ve heard, but I believe the only reason I have the records now is because of my appeal. I encourage any readers out there to do the same: don’t hesitate – appeal.
Filing FOIA requests to the State of Illinois can seem intimidating, but it shouldn’t be. I’ve requested a lot of FOIA logs from the State of Illinois. To help aspiring FOIA requesters, I’m going to review each agency’s logs and summarize the common requests, and briefly discuss the types of records available. The goal is to give you a head start in your inquiries.
The Illinois Commerce Commission Transit Bureau deals with trains and trucks – of all varieties – and their related equipment. Have you ever wondered who owns a railroad viaduct? ICCTB can tell you. Want copies of grade crossings? ICCTB again! In legal speak, anything under the Illinois Vehicle Code [625 ILCS 5] you can request from ICCTB.
Continue reading “Land of FOIA Logs: Illinois Commerce Commission Transit Bureau”
If there’s one thing consistent about Metra, it’s the inconsistencies. Trains are often delayed, but it’s more than just an inconsistent schedule. The behaviors of conductors varies from train to train. I wanted to learn why some conductors, or “trainmen”, enforce the quiet car while others do not. To do this, I filed a Freedom of Information Act request and obtained the latest trainmen training materials.
Continue reading “If You Hear Something, Say Something: Metra’s Quiet Car Policy”
When was the last time you used Microsoft Word 2003? A decade ago? Longer?
According to a recent FOIA request of mine, the DuPage County Sheriff’s Department is using Word 2003 files as recently as 2015.
As someone who does a lot of content migration projects between technology platforms, I’m no stranger to seeing files in the Word 97-2003 format. These are easily identified by their file extension ending in DOC.
You may remember DOC files. Basically, if you used Word prior to 2007 everything by default saved as a DOC file extension. In Word 2007, Microsoft pivoted from using their proprietary DOC extension, to a friendlier cross-software extension DOCX.
If you’re not a digital hoarder or you updated software in the last decade, the chances you have a file with a DOC extension on your computer right now are pretty low.
What’s interesting is that this file was obviously created in 2015 and is still a DOC file.
I’m guessing there might be an old FOIA template that was created that no one has taken the time to go click Save As and change the extension to DOCX.
This begs the question: what version of Microsoft Word is the DuPage County Sheriff’s Department currently using and how many of these DOC files are there? Sounds like another FOIA request to me.