Transparency News 12/3/13
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State and Local Stories
The Richmond judge who would normally preside over the recount in the tight Virginia attorney general race has recused himself,possibly because of his close ties to the family of state Sen. Mark Obenshain. Under Virginia law, the special court that will oversee the recount of the contest between Obenshain (R-Harrisonburg) and state Sen. Mark Herring (D-Loudoun) — which Herring won by 165 votes, according to the results certified by the State Board of Elections — should be led by the chief judge of the Richmond Circuit Court. But Bradley B. Cavedo, holder of that title, recused himself from the recount case last week, according to Ed Jewett, the court’s chief deputy clerk. Instead, the recount will be overseen by another circuit court judge, Beverly W. Snukals, who was selected for the task by the Virginia Supreme Court. Two other judges, also selected by the Supreme Court, will participate in the recount court.
Washington Post
State elections officials expressed concern Monday that some of the voting equipment used in November balloting is outdated and does not meet requirements under state law. Don Palmer, secretary of the State Board of Elections, said at a board meeting that some of the voting machines are not able to flag overvotes or undervotes, which would allow those ballots to be inspected manually.
Times-Dispatch
A push is underway in Virginia to take political redistricting out of the hands of politicians. Charlottesville has become a makeshift bivouac for a team working to put a proposed constitutional amendment on the ballot in November 2016. Although there’s no official language yet, organizers are already talking about a constitutionally protected panel of judges and legislators to oversee all future state redistricting, akin to a system Iowa established in 1980. According to organizers, it’s a popular idea among Virginia voters, but it’s a hard-sell among legislators in the state’s General Assembly — the people who benefit the most from the decadeslong practice. “There’s an increasing understanding among the public and voters that hard party gerrymandering is counterproductive and hurts good governance,” said Bob Gibson, executive director of the University of Virginia’s Sorensen Institute for Political Leadership.
Daily Progress
The U.S. Department of Justice is being sued over its refusal to publicly disclose a $2 million non-prosecution agreement prosecutors reached with a Houston-based tree services company that employed undocumented workers. The U.S. Attorney's Office of the Southern District of Texas issued a news release in May 2012 revealing the deal between prosecutors and ABC Professional Tree Services Inc. The company agreed to forfeit $2 million in revenue that flowed from the use of undocumented workers between 2006 and 2011, DOJ officials said. But prosecutors will not disclose a copy of the agreement between the government and ABC, according to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed Nov. 26 in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression represents the challenger, Jonathan Ashley, a business reference librarian at the University of Virginia School of Law.
Blog of LegalTimes
Culpeper County Commonwealth's Attorney Megan Frederick is seeking dismissal of the $1.75 million libel suit filed against her last month by Culpeper County Supervisor Bill Chase. Culpeper's longest-serving supervisor entered the lawsuit in response to an email the county's top prosecutor sent in September in which she referred to unnamed members of the county board as "corrupt" and "incompetent.” Frederick, in her response submitted last week by attorneys Leslie Haley of Midlothian and Elliot Park of Richmond, said she intended to rely on the defense that her speech is protected by the 1st and 14th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution and that any statements she made were not about Chase. In her response, Frederick denied sending the email, as detailed in Chase's complaint. She also reserved the right to amend that statement after Chase produces the entire email and makes it part of the record in the pending case.
Star-Exponent
Pittsylvania County’s website will soon be redesigned following a vote by the board of supervisors Monday night. Interim County Administrator Otis Hawker said the project went out for bids and the field was narrowed to three based on experiences designing sites for other Virginia jurisdictions. A panel set up to interview the firms and see demonstrations of work chose CivicPlus as the most qualified, Hawker said. Hawker said the county’s site needs to be more informative and user-friendly, and pointed out that the cost includes something the county’s site has not had: a separate economic development page that will showcase all available properties in the county, whether they are privately or publicly owned.
Register & Bee
National Stories
The town of Newtown, Conn., says it will release the 911 recordings from the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting on Wednesday. A Connecticut Superior Court judge ruled last week that the tapes from last December should be released to The Associated Press after a lengthy fight over the records that have been withheld by investigators. Newtown officials said in the statement Monday that the tapes will be available Wednesday at an office in Danbury.Politico
A divided U.S. appeals court on Monday upheld a federal ban on political advertising on public television and radio stations, rejecting an argument that it unconstitutionally violated the First Amendment. By an 8-3 vote, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco let stand a 1981 federal statute that prohibits public stations from transmitting paid advertisements on behalf of political candidates, issues of public importance or interest and for-profit entities.
Reuters
The Oct. 6, 1743, edition of The Pennsylvania Gazette leads with a three-column letter from a lieutenant on the H.M.S. Centurion. “Our Men, by this Time, died like rotten Sheep,” the sailor tells his brother about one voyage. For the next couple of weeks, the National Park Service isreproducing the entire edition of that day’s paper, whose publisher was Benjamin Franklin, at Philadelphia’s Independence National Historical Park.
Poynter
