Transparency News 1/15/14

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

State and Local Stories  

 

Don't go eyeing the $51 million left unspoken for in former Gov Bob McDonnell's final budget as a resource for his successor, Gov. Terry McAuliffe, the head of the state Senate's money committee warns. State Sen. Walter Stosch, R-Henrico, kicked off the Finance Committee's 2014 workload by telling colleagues not to think they can tap that $51 million for pet projects. Forecasts for tax collections and other revenue are still too uncertain, he said. For now, any proposals to increase spending from the levels McDonnell suggested need to come with details about what spending would to cut to offset the rise, he said. "I think he's just sending a warning signal," said state Sen. John Watkins, R-Powhatan, a senior member of the committee.
Daily Press

Medarva Stony Point Surgery Center is for the first time posting partial prices online for some common procedures done at its facility, hoping people use the information to shop around when needing outpatient surgery. The prices include the facility fee but not the anesthesia or doctor’s fees — so the total cost for a procedure is not shown. Still, it’s a step toward giving people an idea of costs for services, so-called medical transparency, but at least one competitor calls it a marketing tool.
Times-Dispatch

The acting commissioner of Virginia’s behavioral health system promised skeptical legislators on Tuesday that a statewide electronic registry for psychiatric beds will begin operating in early March. John Pezzoli, who became acting commissioner of behavioral health and developmental services on Saturday, came under sharp questioning from members of a House Appropriations subcommittee over previous delays in creation of a registry to help find appropriate beds in a psychiatric crisis. “I’m going to have little patience if this doesn’t work,” said Del. R. Steven Landes, R-Weyers Cave and vice chairman of the Appropriations Committee, who noted the registry was supposed to have been completed two years ago.
Daily Progress

The Washington County Board of Supervisors spent more than two hours of the meeting — the focus of which was to elect a chair and vice chair, approve by-laws and establish and appoint members to committees — discussing potential changes to by-laws presented by Baker. Changes approved include the earlier distribution of the meeting agenda to board members, to allow the chair to make motions without passing the gavel and leadership of the meeting to the vice chair and to move the public comments section of the meeting to after the general business portion — effectively in the middle — and to extend that section by five minutes.
Herald Courier

For the third time in as many years, the James City County Board of Supervisors changed election terms, this time to make all supervisor terms concurrent. The vote split 4-1 Tuesday night, with supervisor John McGlennon opposed. Republicans have been pushing to upturn staggered terms since shortly after the 2011 redistricting, which was controlled by a Republican majority on the Board of Supervisors. The rationale behind uniform terms is avoiding a temporary disenfranchisement of voters who are redistricted into districts not scheduled to vote in a local election for an additional two years. Jeff Ryer, who chaired the commission charged with the 2011 redistricting, told the supervisors Tuesday night that they had a chance to decide whether all voters are equal, "or whether some are more equal than others." Former supervisor Jim Icenhour told the supervisors that the majority of governing bodies in Virginia are elected on staggered terms and that the trend is toward adopting staggered terms, not abandoning them. He also pointed out that while some redistricted citizens have to wait two extra years to vote, others get to vote two years early -- or are "super-enfranchised" -- when they are redistricted.
Virginia Gazette

Alexandria, a Northern Virginia city steeped in Civil War history, is considering repeal of an old law requiring certain new streets to be named for Confederate generals. City Council member Justin Wilson introduced legislation for Tuesday night’s council meeting to do away with a 1963 law requiring that any new “streets running in a generally north-south direction shall, insofar as possible, bear the names of confederate military leaders.” Mr. Wilson’s bill also would eliminate a requirement that new east-west streets be named for persons or places prominent in American history.
Washington Times

National Stories

The Illinois Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a case that again challenges the constitutionality of the state’s eavesdropping statute. The statute outlaws the creation of audio or visual recordings of people without the consent of all parties to the recording. The case involves Annabel Melongo, who was charged with six counts under the statute stemming from recordings made of phone conversations between herself and the Cook County court reporter’s office in December 2009. A lower court dismissed the charges against Melongo, but not before she spent 20 months in jail because she could not post bail. The state is now appealing the ruling.
Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press

A Texas court of appeals affirmed the dismissal of a libel suit under the Texas Citizen Participation Act yesterday, finding that the plaintiff could not establish the basic elements of his defamation claim. In October 2012, police officer Dennis Walker filed a defamation suit against Larry Schion, who accused him of theft and using his police cruiser for personal use, among other allegations of misconduct. However, according to Schion’s attorney Michael Fleming, the lawsuit had less to do with defamation and was in fact an attempt to dissuade Schion from speaking out against him.
Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press

Journalists trying to shield their sources could get a step closer to winning expanded legal protections in Colorado when a bill that would strengthen the state's media shield law has its first hearing today.
Fox News

Verizon Communications Inc. won its challenge to U.S. open-Internet regulations (Net-Neutrality) as an appeals court ruled against the Federal Communications Commission, saying the agency’s restrictions have no basis in federal law. The U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington sent the rules back to the FCC, which may attempt to rewrite the regulations that bar companies from slowing or blocking some Internet traffic.
Bloomberg

The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation announced it would award $2.2 million to seven projects that “harness the power of data and information for the health of communities,”the foundation announced Tuesday. The winning projects include Positive Deviance Journalism from Solutions Journalism Network, which, according to the press release, will collaborate with newsrooms “and the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation to scan data sets for examples of positive health results that can lead to important stories.” Tina Rosenberg of Solutions Journalism Network described to Justin Ellis how it plans to use the money.
Poynter

Lawyers for New York Times reporter James Risen have filed a petition to the Supreme Court on Monday to request that the court take up his case to recognize reporter’s privilege. It is the latest development in the ongoing battle Risen faces against the the government over confidential sources. Former CIA Officer Jeffrey Sterling has been accused of leaking information to Risen on the agency’s operations. The government is seeking Risen’s testimony in a separate case against Sterling. An earlier decision by the 4th Circuit in 2013 stated Risen was not entitled to reporter’s privilege. In the petition filed Monday, Risen’s representation said that due to confusion and conflict in prior interpretations regarding both Risen’s and similar cases, the Supreme Court should take up the case.
Politico

The National Security Agency is using secret wireless technology that allows it to access and alter data on computers, even when they are not connected to the Internet, according to a New York Times report. Since 2008, the agency has been increasingly using "a covert channel of radio waves" that can transmit from hardware installed in the computers, according to NSA documents and experts interviewed by the Times. Signals can then be sent to briefcase-size relay stations miles away, according to the report. The NSA has also installed surveillance software on nearly 100,000 computers around the world, according to the Times. The newspaper said the Chinese Army was a frequent target of such technology but said there was no evidence that the agency used either technology inside the US.
CNET News

Government documents belong to the people. But as has become clear in the scandals surrounding New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, governments often fight the release of documents to news organizations and the public, and when they do hand them over, they can have large blocks of text blacked out in the name of privacy, protecting investigations or myriad other exceptions to laws on disclosure. Mark Fowler, a lawyer for The Journal News who has fought many Freedom of Information cases for the newspaper, said agencies often are making a good-faith effort to protect privacy or otherwise have good reasons for invoking the exceptions to open records laws. But they sometimes can be overly broad or have their own opinion of what constitutes privacy, an often-used exception.
USA Today
 

Editorials/Columns

Free Lance-Star: One of the first things any member of any organization needs to understand is thatan action that has the appearance of being questionable is actually just that. When such episodes become oft-repeated, observers—or constituents—become jurors who pass judgment based on what they know about that organization, its track record and the personalities involved. By now, residents have good reason to question certain actions and positions taken by the five-member King George Board of Supervisors, whether it’s downplaying serious, life-threatening criticisms leveled at the county’s fire protection services by the Virginia Fire Services Board, or installing a new courthouse security system without knowing where the funds to pay the people who will operate it will come from.

Daily Progress: Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s executive order on ethics establishes a quantum leap for Virginia and sets a new, higher standard. In so doing, it challenges all in state government to increase their commitment to clarity and candor.

John Whitehead, Free Lance-Star: What is most striking about the American police state is not the mega-corporations running amok in the halls of Congress, the militarized police crashing through doors and shooting unarmed citizens or the invasive surveillance regime that has come to dominate every aspect of our lives. No, what has been most disconcerting about the emergence of the American police state is the extent to which the citizenry appears content to passively wait for someone else to solve our nation’s many problems. Unless Americans are prepared to engage in militant nonviolent resistance in the spirit of Martin Luther King Jr. and Gandhi, true reform, if any, will be a long time coming.