Remote coverage and why search warrants are news.

On Tuesday, I heard federal agents were at Joe Tornabene's Auto Sales & Service in Pownal. How the story played out for the next few days would remind me how nice it is to be within walking distance of the court I usually cover, and how important it is to mind the weather.

I drove down to Pownal to see what was going on, expecting to learn little given how federal agents are. I found them to be quite pleasant, actually. They told me they were from the U.S. Treasury and gave me the phone number for their public information officer (PIO) in Boston.

While I was out of the office, the PIO returned my call and gave the Banner a statement saying that Internal Revenue Service (IRS) agents were at Tornabene's in the course of their official duties and they had authorization to do whatever they were doing there by a court.

Not a lot of information, but any time federal agents enter a private business and look through records, it's news. If you feel the IRS should be able to do that with no one watching, I disagree and I'm sorry for you.

Later, I spoke to the PIO directly and she told me which court authorized it. Whatever “it” was.

It was the United State's District Court District of Vermont.

That court has two offices, one in Rutland and the other in Burlington. You can access case files through a web service called Pacer, but only things that have been filed and are public show up.

After the Banner's last experience with search warrants, we came under the impression that a search warrant is public after it's been executed. So, I called the court office to see what I could get.

Nothing. Zip. Zilch. That could mean it doesn't exist, isn't showing up in the system, or for some reason unknown to me isn't public.

The people I spoke to were friendly and helpful, but anytime I've had to call a court or state's attorney's office outside of Bennington, I've felt like it's been more difficult. It's nice to be able to see the person you're asking information from. I feel like they'll go the extra mile for you if they're familiar with you.

Now, the trouble with court being so close to my office is I get a little too brave with the weather. Yesterday the forecast was for severe thunderstorms, and given the weatherman's track record in Bennington I looked at the sky, said “lol whatev,” then took a walk.

Bad move. While I was there the rain stopped fooling around. Our newest reporter, Khynna Kuprian, was kind enough to come give me a ride back, and while we were at court I showed her how to get information from the clerks in the event I'm off or on vacation. The public terminal uses a DOS-like operating system which can baffle the uninitiated.

The Vermont Supreme Court and the Vermont Environmental Court are the other courts the Banner has to follow remotely. They post their decisions online, and the attorneys in question are usually local, but again I feel like it would be better if I could walk in and talk to somebody. Then again, never having been there, maybe it's not so easy.