Transparency News 5/21/13

Virginia Lawyers Weekly: Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli says he will no longer routinely advance the contention that his office is not subject to the state Freedom of Information Act. Cuccinelli had included a disclaimer in recent FOIA responses stating that a 2011 Supreme Court of Virginia opinion could be interpreted to exclude his office from the public records law. A spokesperson confirmed to two newspapers the AG’s position that the FOIA did not apply to him.
Washington Post

Washington Post: The University of Virginia Board of Visitors unanimously elected Richmond businessman William H. Goodwin Jr. as its vice rector Monday evening, putting him on course to lead the board starting in 2015. The process of voting Goodwin into the position lasted less than 10 seconds, but it followed weeks of behind-the-scenes campaigning and jockeying for the powerful position on the board that oversees Virginia’s flagship public school. Goodwin criticized reporters for asking questions about the inner workings of the public university’s board, likening the media to a “third party” trying to listen to a couple in the privacy of their bedroom. “My involvement is really going smoothly,” Goodwin said in the interview, referring to his interactions with administrators and fellow board members. “The only deterrent is the Freedom of Information Act.”

Daily Press: Isle of Wight Board of Supervisors Chairwoman JoAnn Hall called for the resignation of Vice Chairman Byron "Buzz" Bailey Monday, and Bailey declined to step down. Local NAACP president Dottie Harris had called for Bailey's resignation Thursday, citing his references to "Confederate money" and the term the "South will rise again" during budget talks as well as racist jokes that Bailey had emailed to fellow supervisors and some county staff using personal email accounts. While Bailey declined to resign his seat, he did say, "I didn't mean to offend anybody and I'm sorry I did it."

Daily Progress: A decision in the precedent-setting case against Albemarle County Supervisor Christopher J. Dumler will have to wait until next week, Judge Cheryl Higgins said Monday at the end of a four-hour civil trial.  "Because this is a case of first impression, I want some time to think about it," she said before ordering all parties back May 31 at 9:30 a.m.

Loudoun Times-Mirror: Del. David Ramadan (R-87th) announced Monday afternoon he'll amend his financial disclosure form in order to report a 2012 trip to Taiwan that has brought scrutiny to the first-term lawmaker who represents portions of Loudoun and Prince William counties. Ramadan estimated he'll expense the trip, paid for by the Taiwanese government, at more than $7,500. He has repeatedly said the mission of the trip was to expand economic development opportunities within the state.

National Stories

Delving into the controversial relationship between government and religion, the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday agreed to consider whether a town in New York could allow members of the public, who in practice were nearly all Christian clergy, to open meetings with a prayer. Two residents sued Greece, New York, in 2008, saying it was endorsing Christianity, a violation of the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment guarantee of separation of church and state.
Reuters

With the U.S. Department of Justice under fire for secretly obtaining Associated Press phone records, a newly unsealed court document in Washington revealed that federal prosecutors seized far more than phone records in one pending leak case. The Justice Department's investigation into leaks about classified information about North Korea in 2009 also looked at a Fox News reporter's security badge access records at the State Department building and his personal emails, according to a search warrant affidavit.
Blog of LegalTimes

The Justice Department’s independent inspector general on Monday criticized a former top federal prosecutor in Arizona, Dennis K. Burke, for leaking to Fox News a document in June 2011about a federal agent who was raising alarms about the gun trafficking investigation known as Operation Fast and Furious. He called the prosecutor’s actions “particularly egregious” misconduct that was “wholly unbefitting a U.S. attorney.”
New York Times

Editorials/Columns

Daily Press: We don't think citizen access to government information ought to subject to a pick-and-choose public policy. It's time Virginia shored up its FOIA law to eliminate any claim of exemption by the Attorney General's Office, the State Corporation Commission and any other public officesor departments that assert they are beyond the purview of the executive branch under the Virginia Constitution. (During the 2013 session, such a law was proposed but never made it out of committee.)

Adam Freedman, FOX News: Stop the presses — or so that seems to be the ultimate goal of Justice Department efforts to seize the records of professional journalists.   First, we discovered that the Justice Department had obtained two months’ worth of phone records from Associated Press journalists as part of a leak probe.  Now, The Washington Post reports that the Nation’s primary law enforcement agency has been tracking a Fox News reporter’s coming and goings from the State Department and has obtained a search warrant for the reporter’s personal emails.