Pre Thanksgiving Government Records Roundup

Two interesting items before the Thanksgiving feast:

Is the EPA violating federal records law in giving its administrator an email account with a fake name?  The LA times reports on EPA administrator Lisa Jackson and her email account under the name Richard Windsor.  The EPA claims they've been doing this for a decade (which puts its start into the Bush Administration).  As the article points out, those searching for records under an administrator's name for FOIA or subpeona purposes down the road will have a hard time finding them under a fake name unless the fake names are known to the public (and all EPA employees responsible for the searches).

And the University of Maryland may have violated state open meetings laws when it discussed joining the Big 10 in a non-public meeting.  As a proud alumni of a Big 10 school (go Hoosiers!), I'm glad to have Maryland and Rutgers join our esteemed group, but I don't know why the Maryland decision makers couldn't have made their decision in a public forum or followed the proper rules to go into a private meeting.