Transparency News 11/27/13
State and Local Stories
Mark Obenshain is saying the "R" word that Virginia's political class has been waiting for: Recount. The Republican candidate for state attorney general has scheduled a conference call this morning for his lawyers to discuss plans for a recount in the closest statewide election in modern history. The Harrisonburg Republican trails Democrat Mark Herring of Loudoun County by 165 votes out of more than 2.2 million cast in the Nov. 5 election. That's well within the legal range for a court-supervised recount, which can occur upon request when not more than 1 percent of the total vote for two candidates in a statewide election separates them. So slim is the spread between the two state senators that taxpayers will foot the recount bill as state law prescribes when the difference doesn't exceed one-half of 1 percent. Obenshain has proceeded carefully, dangling the notion of a recount without committing to it, yet stressing that the outcome of a race this close could change if ballots are tabulated again. His staff has pointed out that recounts reversed the initial results around the country in three of four statewide elections decided by fewer than 300 votes since 2000.
Virginian-Pilot
The Republican majority on the James City County Board of Supervisors fired County Administrator Robert Middaugh without explanation Tuesday afternoon at the beginning of a work session. Democrats Jim Icenhour and John McGlennon dissented. The supervisors went into closed session as the 4 p.m. meeting convened. After they emerged, Supervisor Mary Jones asked County Attorney Leo Rogers to read a motion taking a position of “no confidence” in Middaugh’s leadership and terminating his employment. By 4:15 Middaugh had been fired on votes from Jones, chairman Jim Kennedy and Michael Hipple.
Daily Press
National Stories
A Connecticut judge ruled on Tuesday that the police must release recordings of the 911 calls made from Sandy Hook Elementary School during the shooting last year that left 20 children and six adults dead. Rejecting the state’s attempt to keep the content of the tapes confidential, the judge, Eliot D. Prescott of the Superior Court in New Britain, ruled that there was no legal basis to keep the tapes secret and found that their release would help the public assess the response by law enforcement.New York Times
A Michigan judge reaffirmed yesterday that former Detroit Free Press reporter David Ashenfelter can claim Fifth Amendment protections in not revealing his source in a 2004 story. Ashenfelter wrote in 2004 that former assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Convertino was the subject of an internal investigation for his actions during a discredited terrorism trial. Ashenfelter claimed the protection of the Fifth Amendment, which protects against self-incrimination, in 2009. Although his editors said he had done nothing wrong, he used the Fifth Amendment because Convertino argued the leak of information by the Department of Justice was illegal. Although a judge had earlier upheld Ashenfelter's position, Convertino claimed the Fifth Amendment argument was no longer valid after Attorney General Eric Holder said, in an unrelated matter, that journalists would not be prosecuted for doing their jobs. The court rejected that argument.
Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press
A federal appellate court in the District of Columbia on Tuesday found that the author of a “birther” book could not claim defamation against Esquire magazine for what the court said was “fully protected political satire.” The Esquire article, written in jest, claimed author Jerome Corsi and publisher Joseph Farah were pulling the book from the shelves after President Obama released his long-form birth certificate. “[I]t is the nature of satire that not everyone ‘gets it’ immediately . . . ,” the court wrote. “Indeed, satire is effective as social commentary precisely because it is often grounded in truth.” The court found that a reasonable reader would not take the article as fact, given that readers of the “Politics Blog” were politically informed and understood the controversy, that the strong language used is not typically found in news stories, and that the substance of the article itself was inconceivable.
Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press
USA Today on Monday joined a growing list of news agencies boycotting the use of official White House photography over what it says is an unprecedented lack of access to the president. USA Today Deputy Director of Multimedia Andrew Scott said in a memo to staff the publication will not use "handout photos originating from the White House Press Office, except in very extraordinary circumstances." USA Today is now one of more than 35 news agencies refusing to use White House photography.
Fox News
Editorials/Columns
A. Barton Hinkle, Times-Dispatch: “The privacy of the ballot booth is a core American value,” declared James Valvo, director of government affairs for Americans for Prosperity, two years ago. “Allowing individuals to make their own decisions about their government … free from coercion from either side, is paramount.” Valvo was criticizing “card-check” legislation to let unions organize through other than secret ballots — and he wasn’t alone. Ballot secrecy, declared AFP Virginia’s Ben Marchi, was “the bedrock of our democracy.” AFP waged a loud and sustained campaign on behalf of the secret ballot in union fights. Too bad AFP doesn’t practice what it preaches. If it did, then it would not have sent out “voter audits” tattling on people who, AFP believes, do not vote with sufficient regularity.
