NewsWatch: No Chicken Costumes in Polls, More Local Government News ...

An emergency dispatcher's joke on Facebook got her a 30-day suspension and the town is seeking her dismissal.

State AG Withdraws Subpoena to Get Twitter Identities
Pennsylvania Attorney General Tom Corbett's office has withdrawn the subpoena it filed with Twitter, according to the Pittsburg Post-Gazette. The AG was seeking to find the identities of two users who have been critical of Corbett on the social networking site. Prosecutors said they do not need to know the identities, now that former Democratic aide Brett Cott has been sentenced to up to five years in jail for his role in the Bonusgate probe. They claimed Cott was the anonymous blogger CasablancaPa, whose identity they were seeking from Twitter, along with user "bfbarbie."

Portland Office of Emergency Management Needs to Improve Coordination
A Portland, Ore., city audit shows that the office tasked with coordinating emergency response could do a better job, according to an article in the Oregonian. In her report, City Auditor LaVonne Griffin-Valade found that the city's basic emergency operations plan is outdated, emergency responder training is infrequent, and efforts to inform the public are disjointed. In short, the Portland Office of Emergency Management needs to beef up its 72-hour emergency "kit." "They have taken a reactive, rather than proactive, approach to emergency management," said Drummond Kahn, director of Audit Services. "They have not completed a comprehensive risk assessment or a strategic plan to guide emergency preparedness efforts and planning."

Lawmakers Call for Telecom Act Rewrite
Key Democratic lawmakers said Monday that they are seeking to update communications laws, a move aimed at clarifying murky interpretations over federal oversight of the Internet. According to the Washington Post, the lawmakers said that starting in June, they will invite stakeholders to participate in bipartisan meetings to address issues and concerns over federal oversight of Internet services and businesses.

Emergency Dispatcher in Trouble Over Facebook Joke
West Allis, Wis., staff said they had the right to fire a dispatcher who said on her Facebook page that she was addicted to a list of drugs and other substances. The Courthouse News Service reported that while an arbitrator's decision sent the dispatcher back to work after a 30-day suspension, the city is seeking to fire her.

Mayors Will Meet Next Month
The nation's mayors, led by Conference President and Burnsville, Minn, Mayor Elizabeth Kautz, will gather in Oklahoma City from Friday, June 11 to Monday, June 14, for the 78th Annual Meeting of The United States Conference of Mayors (USCM), to be hosted by Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett. The economy, job creation, immigration, energy efficiency, the British Petroleum oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the growing number of vacant and abandoned properties in America's cities, high-speed rail and education reform top this year's agenda.

No Voters in Chicken Costumes, Say Nevada Election Officials
Voters dressed in chicken costumes won't be allowed inside Nevada polling places this year, according to Fox News. State election officials on Friday added chicken suits to the list of banned items after weeks of ridicule directed at Republican Senate candidate Sue Lowden who recently suggested that people barter with doctors for medical care, like when "our grandparents would bring a chicken to the doctor."

DA's Office to Update Record Keeping
During her 18 years in office, Philadelphia District Attorney Lynne M. Abraham insisted she would not "do justice by the numbers." And the Philadelphia court system's administrator, David C. Lawrence, similarly said, "We're not in the research business." That meant overall conviction rates for violent-crime cases in the Philadelphia courts were unknown -- until the Philadelphia Inquirer drew on raw court data to report that nearly two-thirds of all defendants accused of violent crimes walked free of all charges. Abraham's successor, District Attorney Seth Williams, has now obtained a $492,000 grant to equip his office with software that, for the first time, will be able to routinely produce conviction data. Eventually, his office plans to make the results publicly available on what it says will be a greatly retooled office website.

Lead in D.C. Drinking Water Becomes Issue
A six-year campaign succeeded last week in forcing the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to admit that it had misled the public about the risk of lead in the District's drinking water. The Washington Post said the CDC, which is the nation's principal public health agency, made the confession in a "Notice to Readers" published in an official weekly bulletin Friday. It came a day after a scathing House subcommittee report said the agency knowingly used flawed and incomplete data when it assured D.C. residents in 2004 that their health hadn't been hurt by spikes in lead in the drinking water.

L.A. Council President Apologizes for Rules Restricting Media
Three leaders of the Los Angeles City Council agreed Monday to rework new rules that restrict the activities of news reporters and camera operators during the council's public meetings. During an hourlong discussion with roughly a dozen representatives of the news media, said the Los Angeles Times, Council President Eric Garcetti apologized for creating regulations that have impeded reporters' efforts to gather news. He assured reporters that they would still be allowed to speak with city employees, including elected officials, during those meetings.