Transparency News, 8/12/21

Virginia’s General Assembly elected eight new judges to the state’s recently expanded court of appeals on Tuesday, and while legal aid groups are praising the selections, the process by which they were elected has raised questions from transparency advocates. Despite dozens of nominees presented by legal associations from across the state, only eight were presented for the eight open seats at a public meeting held Tuesday morning.  Further complicating the process, the eight nominees and the time of the meeting were not revealed until late Monday night, giving the public less than 15 hours to learn more about who would be seated on the newly empowered court.  “If you don’t have adequate notice of a meeting then your choices for observing or participating are limited,” said Megan Rhyne, executive director of the Virginia Coalition for Open Government, a transparency watchdog group that has long pushed state leaders for more access during legislators’ limited lawmaking sessions and beyond.  
Courthouse News Service

Hours before the School Board took the vote to make it official, the decision to require masks in Virginia Beach schools had effectively been made — all over but the shouting. And there was plenty of shouting. Almost 70 people spoke at a public meeting Tuesday that was full of anger and stretched past 1 a.m. Wednesday before the decision came, 7-4, to require masks this fall. Speakers cursed the board and made offensive gestures at them. They said they were going to hell and accused them of child abuse. They taunted the all-woman board, calling them “mean girls” and handmaids doing others’ bidding. Paradoxically, they were also called slave masters. The board also heard from an audience that heckled pro-mask speakers and board members throughout the night. Sometimes they jeered under their breath, other times they shouted out loud. They argued with security who asked them to be quiet so speakers could be heard.
The Virginian-Pilot

In Renee Reed’s eight years as a member of the Rockingham County School Board, she has seen passionate responses from community members over a variety of issues. But she said Monday’s meeting was “one of the more difficult ones.” There have been three main issues on the minds of county residents as well as people across the commonwealth — critical race theory, masking this fall, and transgender students’ rights to use the bathroom. While it’s not new for School Board members to see crowds of hundreds in attendance, it’s not every day members of the audience act as unruly as they have at the past two meetings. Reed, chairwoman of the board, struggled to get the meeting started, fighting over the sound of chanting, clapping and booing. Reed had to issue reminders every few speakers to take deep breaths and not speak over those talking. Reed didn’t even have time to address the flagrant disregard for the way a School Board meeting is supposed to unfold. It got to the point Monday when Reed told members of the audience that if they couldn’t get themselves in order, she would need to adjourn the meeting and schedule it for another time. It’s something Reed has never done or seen done by this School Board in the eight years she’s been a member.
Daily News Record

The seven-member Frederick County School Board voted 4-3 on Tuesday night against Superintendent David Sovine’s recommendation for a universal mask requirement in all of the division’s schools. The decision came after a tense two-hour public comment period in which 42 speakers shared their opinions on masks in schools. Most of the speakers were against requiring masks. When the board voted down Sovine’s recommendation, more than 100 people who attended the meeting at the school division’s administration building on Amherst Street erupted into cheers and clapping. During Tuesday’s Frederick County School Board meeting, those against the mask mandate interrupted Sovine, School Board members and the few citizens who spoke in favor of a mask mandate. Foreman reminded the audience several times to be respectful and at one point told the room it would be cleared out if the audience did not comply.
The Winchester Star

 

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Wednesday that President Biden won’t release visitor logs from his Delaware residences, despite making 17 trips home in six months. The decision comes despite the Biden administration’s claim to “restore transparency and trust in government” — including with the resumption of limited release of White House visitor logs. “I can confirm we are not going to be providing information about the comings and goings of the president’s grandchildren or people visiting him in Delaware,” Psaki said at her daily press briefing in response to a question from The Post about whether Biden would release visitor logs, including of relatives with potential conflicts of interest. Transparency advocates say that the same logic that applies to White House visitor logs applies to records of who’s visiting Biden at his homes.
New York Post