Today's (2/25/01) Morning sentinel has an AP story by Heidi B. Perlman. Reported
and summarized by B. Huebner
OTHERS PROTESTING BACKGROUND CHECKS
A recent Associated Press story by Heidi B. Perlman describes a protest by
one of Boston's city councilors over a proposed new state regulation that
would "tighten criminal background checks on new health department
employees and people working for agencies run by the department."
City Councilor Charles "Chuck" Turner and four others spent two days and a
night camped out at Department of Public Health headquarters until finally
being arrested and removed. Turner said they were "shocked and outraged by
these [proposed] regulations" which would "make it more difficult for those
who've already been punished for their crimes to find employment."
While Turner appears to be coming at the issue from a different
angle--employment of convicts who have served their sentences, rather than
MEAF's Fourth Amendment rights issue and the ineffectiveness of the law in
accomplishing its stated goals--the protest Thursday and Friday suggests
that the increasing use of background checks is of growing concern to more
and more people outside of Maine.