FEMA wouldn't release sex offender info to TX : " privacy laws "

[rainbow4321]

Cherotff offers to discuss "issues informally without exchanging letters". (Um, yeah, wouldn't want any paper trail about more FEMA screw ups.)

http://www.mysanantonio.com/sharedcontent/APStories/stories/D8DSNUO02.html

Days after Gov. Rick Perry accused the Federal Emergency Management Agency of shortcomings in its hurricane recovery efforts, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said he was disappointed to learn of the governor's concerns through the press.

It said FEMA's lack of thoughtful action endangered Texans because the agency failed "to swiftly assist Texas in identifying Katrina sex offenders and violent criminals, as well as parolees and probationers who are subject to supervision."

Late Monday, Texas officials received information from the federal government needed to identify sex offenders who came to Texas as Hurricane Katrina evacuees.

FEMA contended privacy laws restricted some information sharing about offenders. But a spokesman also said FEMA could work on verifying if names on its rolls matched those of suspected sex offenders when it received a specific request from law enforcement.

[napi21]

1. I have a question about this sex offender stuff..

I know there's a web site where I can enter my zip code and get a list of all sex offenders who live in that zip code. If I can do that, why couldn't the Texas officials just enter the old zip codes from La. and whatever other states were involved and just get their info from there? I can't recall the name of the site, but when I checked it, there were pictures, ID info like age, wht, hgt, address and the charge they were convicted of doing.

I know it wasn't a State site, but I think it was national. Are the Tx. officials computer handicapped?????