Investigation? What investigation? That seemed to be South Eastern School District's response -- twice -- when we asked for the results of Philadelphia-based lawyer Michael Levin's investigation into the district's superintendent and administrative staff.

An investigation, mind you, that the school board hired Levin to do.

On Aug. 1, reporter Angie Mason requested the "report or results of investigation by Levin Legal Group." South Eastern denied the request, saying in part that "because of the lack of specificity as to what you may have in mind, it is possible that one or more documents you contemplate do not exist."

As far as we knew, there was only one lawyer hired by South Eastern to conduct an investigation into the administration, so we were puzzled that the district couldn't put a finger on what we were asking for.

But -- after calling the district to try to talk the problem out and getting no response -- we filed a revised formal request, this time for "Report resulting from the investigation into the superintendent and administrative staff, conducted by Levin Legal Group, as described in the board resolution attached."

No way they could throw up their hands this time, we thought. But the response came back: "Because of the lack of specificity as to what you may have in mind, it is possible that one or more documents you contemplate do not exist."

Both responses from the district, after its initial we're-not-sure-what-you-mean response, included six responses that "some or all of the records" are exempt for various reasons (attorney client privilege, non-criminal investigation, and so forth.

Then we appealed to the open records office, noting that we had clearly identified what we were seeking, so the "lack of specificity" reason for denial did not apply; and that even if a document is considered to be exempt, if there are parts of it that are not exempt, those parts must be released.

The district filed its response to our appeal Tuesday, and guess what? It knew exactly what we were talking about, with both Levin and district lawyer Brooke Say laying out exemptions they believe apply to Levin's investigation. They didn't bother the open records office with the we're-not-sure-what-we're-looking-for response.

No surprise there.

Barry Fox, deputy director of the state's Office of Open Records, died Sunday while on vacation with his family in State College, the Patriot-News reports. He was 47.

A former Patriot-News reporter, Fox helped to develop the office's regulations and a docketing system, worked with the governor's office and traveled the state providing Open Records training to officials and residents.

Funeral arrangements are set for Wednesday at Temple Ohev Sholom in Harrisburg.

This editorial from the Washington Observer-Reporter was published a few months ago, but it's not dated. It's about how Pennsylvania might have a new open-records law, but when it comes right down to it, agencies' responses -- which generally were not good under the old law -- haven't changed much.

Stay tuned, because in the coming days I'll blog on some difficulties we're having with several local agencies. These tales will make an open-government advocate shake their head.

You may notice the crime stats searchable database on ydr.com today. It's tied in to the recent news about crime in York and the mayor's and police chief's reaction to what they say is a perception about crime in York.

The database uses the FBI's uniform crime reports and allows you to search for and compare per capita crime rates for law enforcement agencies in Pennsylvania. The agencies voluntarily provide data to the FBI, so some may not be represented. The FBI also cautions against using only crime statistics to draw conclusions; there are other factors at play.

Nevertheless, the database gives you the ability to put some numbers to the city's claim that it's relatively safe for an urban area, and also allows you to see the rates of crimes responded to by other agencies.

You can find recall info via your mobile phone by downloading an app that lets you type in the name of a product. You'll then learn if there's been a recall on that item.

You can also download an app that provides Transportation Security Agency information -- something that might come in handy if you're en route to a flight, need info and can't get to a laptop.

Those are a couple of the new online/mobile efforts being made by the feds to make info more accessible. Details on those two, along with notes on several other developments -- including info from the Food and Drug Administration on drug safety, air quality data and crime data -- are here.

 The state's open records office lost its bid to overturn a Commonwealth Court's preliminary injunction that prevented the release of school district employees' home addresses, pending the court's final decision in the case.

 The open records office had appealed the injunction to the state Supreme Court. On Tuesday, that court upheld the injunction, but noted that the Commonwealth Court's final decision in case can be appealed.

The the Pennsylvania State Education Association went to court to try to permanently end the release of school employees' home addresses, citing a general concern about addresses being made public. The open records office said the right-to-know law restricts addresses for only three groups -- law enforcement, judges and minors.

Since the injunction, the open records office has treated addresses of all public employees as being exempt under the RTK law.

*Thanks to the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association for getting word out about the Supreme Court's order.

"Piercing the Veil of Secrecy, Lessons in the Fight for Freedom of Information" by Mitchell Pearlman details the history of freedom of information laws. These days, as many government officials act like freedom of information is something invented by nosy people, gadflies and journalists who need a quick story, it's worth learning how wrong that notion is.

The Bristol Press writes, "...how good it is to read about ideas, their points and counterpoints, from a man immersed in them for an entire career who makes them so very accessible to just plain people. Pearlman understands that is who he served for three decades in Connecticut government -- the people and their God-given right to know what their government is doing."

*Thanks to Charles N. Davis at The FOI Advocate for flagging that.

The searchable delinquent tax database, provided by the county and made available on our web site through a program called Caspio, has been popular on ydr.com over the past few days.

You may have seen it on the home page or on the Full Disclosure open records page, and this post is just to let you know that we plan to keep updating it regularly. I'll also give it a permanent home on Full Disclosure in the near future.

Any other information you'd like to see in a searchable form like this? Let me know.

From The Associated Press just now. I've asked some right-to-know experts in the state to weigh in on this decision and will post their thoughts as soon as I get them. Pennsylvania Newspaper Association lawyer Melissa Melewsky said the decision deals more with whether domestic relations employees were judicial employees than it does with e-mails specifically. (See more from Melewsky below, after the text of the story):

HARRISBURG, Pa. -- A three-judge panel of the state Commonwealth Court says Pennsylvania courts' broad exemption from the Right-to-Know law shields even records in the hands of agencies subject to the law.
    Wednesday's opinion written by Judge Dan Pellegrini stemmed from a 2009 right-to-know request by The Times Tribune of Scranton. It sought "inappropriate" e-mails that prompted the suspension of Lackawanna County domestic relations director Patrick Luongo, who's paid by the county but supervised by the state court system.
    The state Office of Open Records ordered the county to turn over the e-mails, but Pellegrini barred any such release. He said the office lacks authority to release them because they are court records.
    The office's director, Terry Mutchler, said the ruling may conflict with its responsibility to enforce the Right-to-Know Law.

That's the end of what AP filed earlier today. Melewsky said she was "disappointed but not surprised" at the ruling. The OOR, she said, decided that domestic relations employees were not judicial employees, and so were subject to the right-to-know law. The Commonwealth Court disagreed and noted that only financial records of judicial employees are public.

 "The burden falls to the judiciary to provide public accountability" for its employees, Melewsky said.

 Melewsky said the ruling doesn't necessarily affect other employees such as county probation officers and children and youth workers, but it could. The Commonwealth Court pointed to a specific law, she said, that defines domestic relations as a subsidiary of judicial agencies. Other offices would need to do the same, she said.

Up: The Valley News Dispatch reports that a judge ruled a local school district violated the open meetings law "when it held a closed-door session with shopping center representatives last year to talk about a tax assessment appeal."

The newspaper and its parent company had sued, alleging the meeting violated state law. An Alleghany County Court judge ruled the meeting was OK, but a Commonwealth Court judge overturned that ruling.

Down: The Philadelphia Daily News reports that a Philadelphia school district superintendent shut down access to the district's HR and payroll systems after the Daily News published a story about the high salaries of the superintendent and some of her top assistants. Problem: Payroll records are public.

The Daily News quoted the city's controller saying, I don't believe they can do that where we need free and unfettered access to test the data we have to audit.Secondly, the salaries are a matter of public record. They are public information and should be available."