Transparency News 7/8/13

Beatrice Luckett, who is blind, goes online using software that reads the text aloud to pay bills, send e-mails and browse sites for medical remedies. But the 69-year-old woman said many sites are useless to her because they don't work with the software. "If there is no way of accessing the Internet, then we can't be involved," she said. Court decisions and new federal regulations expected this year could clear the way for better access by disabled users to the Internet under the federal Americans with Disabilities Act. "Websites are the new frontier," said Brian G. Muse, a law partner with LeClairRyan in Williamsburg, Va., who specializes in defending ADA lawsuits.
USA Today

Helen Dragas regrets the turmoil and anger that enveloped the University of Virginia last summer after governing board leaders privately asked U-Va. President Teresa Sullivan to resign. But Dragas firmly maintains that the board did the right thing. The university was — and still is — in trouble, Dragas says, a stance she believes has been vindicated by a recent consultant’s report that paints the public university as elitist and in need of change. Sullivan’s ouster and reinstatement a year ago, though painful and embarrassing, pushed administrators to form long-term, strategic academic and financial plans, the outcome Dragas says she wanted all along.
Washington Post

During his more than 35-year career as a local government executive, James "Jim" Bourey has developed a reputation for attracting business and economic development projects, balancing budgets and fostering community spirit. He also has ruffled a few feathers, according to reports from news organizations covering the communities in which he worked. He was asked to resign in 2010 from his job as Greenville, S.C. city manager, a position he held for more than six years. Bourey said the council had changed almost completely since he was hired and the relationship became uncomfortable. Bourey was recently hired as the new city manager for Newport News.
Daily Press

When the Library of Virginia moved into its new building in 1997, the digital era was in its infancy. People who needed information usually had to go somewhere to get it. Then came smartphones, blogs, Twitter and digital access to almost everything. Expectations changed. The building did not. Now, the library is rethinking its use of space in the digital age, with help from a New York architectural firm hired by the library foundation.
Times-Dispatch

Virginia’s governor collects $175,000 a year for his work, while his counterpart in Maine makes less than half of that. Florida’s top executive doesn’t even collect his pay. The average annual salary for U.S. governors this year is $133,348, according to a survey by The Council of State Governments, with pay ranging from $70,000 a year for Maine’s governor to $187,256 for Pennsylvania’s chief.
Roanoke Times

Seven Loudoun residents, most well-known Democrats, unloaded rounds of verbal assaults on county Supervisor Eugene Delgaudio during Wednesday's Board of Supervisors meeting, the first full-board gathering since a special grand jury investigating Delgaudio released its report June 24. The speakers who derided Delgaudio (R-Sterling) noted the grand jury's report, which while not calling for an indictment, spelled out evidence that Delgaudio likely conducted personal fundraising using public resources. The report explained that there isn't a statute in place to prosecute these particular circumstances.
Loudoun Times-Mirror

National Stories

An attorney looking for answers in the 40-year-old disappearance of a black civil rights activist at Wounded Knee has filed a lawsuit seeking the FBI’s records. Michael Kuzma’s Freedom of Information suit follows more than two years of efforts to obtain records relating to Ray Robinson of Selma, Ala., who disappeared in April 1973 and is presumed dead, according to the court filing.
The Daily Republic

The grieving parents of a 19-year-old Idaho woman who died serving her country thousands of miles from home say the U.S. Air Force won't give them information about the circumstances of her death. Airman 1st Class Kelsey Sue Anderson of Orofino died June 9, 2011, at Andersen Air Force Base on the island of Guam, a U.S. territory in the Pacific Ocean 3,300 miles west of Hawaii. The military has reported she committed suicide. But Chris and Adelia Sue Anderson, her parents, filed a lawsuit last month in U.S. District Court to force the Air Force to respond to their Freedom of Information Act request seeking more information about how their daughter died.
Fox News

Michael Morisy didn’t get the answer he was looking for after making a Freedom of Information Act request from the National Security Agency. Hoping to find out more about the NSA’s Utah Data Center, Morisy made the FOIA request as a journalist from MuckRock, a public records request service he cofounded. The NSA referred to Morisy as a non-media requester, which results in increased fees. Morisy says NSA’s response is a blow against transparency and plans on appealing.
Poynter

The growing amount of data gathered from social media sites, vendors and data warehouses is providing new opportunities for political parties to reach constituents in a very personal way. “Big data” — huge and hugely complex sets of information — has been an abundant source of marketing fodder for businesses trying to read the minds of consumers and understand what they most care about. The success of President Obama’s 2012 campaign was partly owed to its big data “dream team,” and now political parties at the state level are adopting related strategies. David Ferguson, executive director of the Maryland Republican Party is forging ahead with new techniques, which include recording information about individual voters, such as whether they have a gun license or a boat permit and what magazines they subscribe to.
Washington Times

Editorials/Columns

News & Advance: It might be easy for some folks to dismiss Democrat Chap Petersen, a Northern Virginia state senator, as just playing partisan politics last week when he called on Gov. Bob McDonnell to come clean about the growing gifts scandal or resign. In fact, that’s what the governor’s spokeswoman did, along with a good many of his Republican allies. Regardless of what McDonnell, his allies and his attorneys tell us or what polls say the average citizen thinks of the affair, this is a serious matter. Never, in the modern history of the Commonwealth of Virginia, has a sitting governor been the target of a federal corruption probe. Virginia has always had a reputation for clean, ethical politics; and her elected officials, for the most part, have been public servants in the truest sense of the word. But, thanks to McDonnell, that reputation, polished for more than two centuries has been sullied; whether it’s permanently besmirched is too early to tell at the moment.

Kerry Dougherty, Virginian-Pilot: Whew, that was close. Virginia Beach risked a big black eye last week. Fortunately, at the last minute, Mayor Will Sessoms ducked. He abstained from a vote on the $18 million Cavalier Hotel project, thereby preserving the city’s pristine image as a beacon of good government. Some might call it an empty gesture. Not me. At Tuesday’s City Council meeting, the mayor said the city attorney had advised him he was free to vote on the package even though the developer could get some of his financing from TowneBank. Sessoms is the president and chief financial officer of Towne Financial Services Group, part of that institution. Apparently, in the freewheeling, anything-goes commonwealth of Virginia, there is no conflict of interest when a public official votes on a project that might enrich his employer.  Memo to the General Assembly: Fix the state’s conflict-of-interest laws. They don’t pass the smell test.