Public Records Fees Hidden in the Law: A Study of Conflicting Judicial Approaches to the Determination of the Scope of Imposable Public Records Fees

The number of public records requests has significantly increased in recent years, burdening authorities with limited resources and manpower. State and local governments argue that they should be allowed to recoup more fees to recover the costs incurred for processing public records requests, but many commentators warn that exorbitant fees can function as a tactic of delay and intimidation. This article reviews public records statutes, case law and recent legislative reform efforts concerning the determination of the scope of public records fees, finding that unclear statutory language and widely different approaches have made the determination of public records fees difficult. The study argues that statutory reform is called for in order to clearly delineate the specific tasks for which public records fees can be imposed.     

Mobilization Around New Convenience Voting Methods: A Field Experiment to Encourage Voting by Mail with a Downloadable Ballot and Early Voting

Political Behavior - Election reform has allowed citizens in many states to choose among convenience voting methods. We report on a field experiment that tests messages derived from theories about...     

My Sassy Girl: a qualitative study of women's aggression in dating relationships in Beijing

The Korean film My Sassy Girl was very popular among young people in urban China in 2001. After the release of the movie, the new image of the "sassy girl" emerged in different media. This study uses the media image of the sassy girl as a stimulus material in interviews and focus groups to explore how young men and women make sense of women's aggression in dating relationships. This qualitative study is mainly based on two focus groups and in-depth interviews with 20 informants (13 female and 7 male). The study sheds light on how the competing and multilayered discourses in contemporary China regarding gender, love, and sex have left some space for young adults to justify women's aggression in dating relationships. We see how young adults in Beijing situate themselves within this set of social cultural discourses and make use of them to "do" their gender through their aggressive behavior and interactions with each other. New images of men and women are thereby created.     

Development of Latent Fingermarks on Surfaces of Food‐A More Realistic Approach

Latent fingermark developing methods from food (mandarin, egg, banana, apple, potato, carrot, eggplant, onion, bell pepper, and tomato) surface has been studied by 10 methods, including powdering method, small particle reagent method, and cyanoacrylate fuming method. The foods were stored under two conditions (room temperature and refrigerator) before fingermark deposition and aged for 2, 24, 48, and 72 h before fingermark development. In most of the food surfaces used in this study, cyanoacrylate fuming with 80% relative humidity was superior to the powder or small particle reagent methods. The quality of the fingermarks varied depending on the storage conditions before the fingermark deposition (in the refrigerator or at ambient temperature) and the time elapsed since the fingermark deposition. However, the storage conditions before the fingermark deposition and the time elapsed since the fingermark deposition did not show any correlation with the quality of the fingermark.