States of the Union

MONTANA

Social calendars posted online

HELENA | The Montana legislature is offering its constituents food for thought by posting its 2009 calendar of brunches and mixers sponsored by special-interest groups online for the first time.

The electronic posting of the legislature’s social calendar strengthens openness in government, said House Speaker Bob Bergren.

“We want to make sure this [legislative session] is a transparent process,” Mr. Bergren said.

He said it’s also better than a paper calendar for keeping the state’s 150 legislators informed.

Other states, including New Mexico and Nevada, also put their legislatures’ social calendars on the Web, but the National Conference of State Legislatures in Denver was unsure how many do so.

At many of these events, lawmakers are offered free meals at the expense of special-interest groups. In Montana, the state Chamber of Commerce hosted last week’s “Eggs and Issues,” the Nature Conservancy offered lunch, and the abortion-rights group NARAL Pro-Choice America is planning a bistro reception this week.

“One of the concerns people have is who’s talking to legislators, who’s got their ear,” said Lorne Malkiewich of the Legislative Counsel Bureau in Nevada, where the legislature’s social calendar has been on the Web since 1999.

RHODE ISLAND

Victims’ settlement delayed till July

PROVIDENCE | Gov. Donald L. Carcieri’s plan to defer $10 million in settlement money the state has offered to the victims of the Station nightclub fire would only delay payment of the funds for a matter of months, the governor’s press secretary said, the Providence Journal newspaper reports.

Mr. Carcieri is planning to allocate payment of that money in the budget that begins on July 1, spokeswoman Amy Kempe said.

Lawyers for the more than 300 victims of the catastrophic West Warwick fire - which killed 100 people and injured more than 200 others on Feb. 20, 2003 - had hoped the money would be divided among the plaintiffs by spring. But Miss Kempe said yesterday “the main part of the reasoning” behind Mr. Carcieri’s proposal to delay the payments until the next fiscal year was based on the slow pace the case is taking in U.S. District Court.

“It appeared that details and finalizing the settlement were moving very slow and are still being worked out. It is our intent to put it in next year’s budget,” Miss Kempe said.

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