Transparency News 4/22/14
The FOIA Council meets TODAY to begin charting a course for the 2-year study of FOIA's exemptions. It's at 1:30 at the General Assembly Building. The public is encouraged to attend.
State and Local Stories
The National FOI Coalition is sad to report that former NFOIC Executive Director Ken Bunting died in Columbia, MO Sundayfollowing a heart attack. He was 65. Bunting, a distinguished career journalist and former associate publisher of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, served as NFOIC’s executive director from 2010 until earlier this year. Even after he left, he continued to support NFOIC, helping to connect people looking for FOI help and reminding us of pending deadlines and First Amendment news stories of note. He was a strong voice for FOI and government transparency and a great advocate for state coalition groups trying to fight off encroachments on their open government laws. The NFOIC will miss his voice. Survivors include his wife and a son.
NFOIC
The city of Richmond’s internal investigators have been asked to look into an incorrect tax assessment on Mayor Dwight C. Jones’ home to ensure there was no impropriety in the process that led to a lower tax bill for the property. In a statement released Monday, City Assessor James D. Hester said he has asked City Auditor/Inspector General Umesh Dalal to review the actions of “all individuals who may have participated in this assessment decision to ensure that no impropriety exists in the assessment process.” The assessor also plans to amend the valuation and have a corrected tax bill sent.
Times-Dispatch
A Yorktown man was fined $250 Monday after pleading guilty to calling Attorney General Mark R. Herring’s public comment line and leaving a message with profane language on the voicemail because of Herring’s support of same-sex marriage.
Times-Dispatch
Political observers didn't give Tommy Smigiel much of a chance four years ago. But he defeated longtime Norfolk City Councilman Randy Wright by a slim margin in 2010 and has carved out a reputation as an independent voice who sometimes is a minority of one. In May, Smigiel faces his first election as an incumbent, squaring off against former School Board member Jim Driggers for the Ward 5 seat, which represents most of Ocean View and other northern parts of the city. In the process, Smigiel has butted heads with some fellow council members over the city's refusal to televise council meetings, the decision to hire City Manager Marcus Jones without interviewing other candidates and another council member's repeated failure to pay taxes.
Virginian-Pilot
The Virginia Supreme Court ruled Thursday to uphold the decision to deny the American Tradition Institute access to the emails of Michael Mann, a climate scientist and former University professor, staying consistent with the Prince William County Circuit Court’s previous ruling. The American Tradition Institute, now E&E Legal, said it has the right to receive the documents under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act. The Court, however, ruled this circumstance fell under one of FOIA’s exemptions, arguing the disclosure of Mann’s correspondences may bring to light some of the University’s research, thereby reducing its competitiveness.
Cavalier Daily
Russell Eugene ‘Rusty’ Jenkins spent his life in public service, helping countless people in the Culpeper community. The Culpeper native worked for the Culpeper Town Police as an officer from November 1980 to September 1986; the Remington Police Department from September 1986 to January 1987, the Culpeper County Sheriff’s Office as a deputy from June 1987 to July 1996 and returned to the town police as an administrative assistant/quartermaster in June 2003 until retiring in March 2012. He also served on the Culpeper County School Board, representing the Catalpa District since January 2008, serving six years and four months. Jenkins also served on several school board committees, working tirelessly on budgets and numerous administrative subjects. He died Easter Sunday at the University of Virginia Medical Center in Charlottesville following a long illness. He was 54.
Star-Exponent
National Stories
The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press will honor four leaders in journalism and media law with its 2014 First Amendment Awards, to be presented at a May 19 dinner and ceremony at The Pierre in New York City: Sharon Percy Rockefeller, president and CEO of WETA, Washington, D.C.; Carol Rosenberg, military affairs correspondent, The Miami Herald; Bruce W. Sanford, partner, BakerHostetler, Washington, D.C.; and Arthur O. Sulzberger, Jr. chairman and publisher, The New York Times.Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press
A police raid to learn who was behind a Twitter account that mocked an Illinois mayor has so far resulted in one arrest, but officials said Monday the investigation continues, as free speech advocates express concern. The account -- @Peoriamayor -- was created about nine weeks ago and had about 50 parody tweets, mostly about Peoria Mayor Jim Ardis supposedly using illegal drugs and associating with prostitutes, before Twitter suspended it in mid-March.
Fox News
Justice John Paul Stevens, who turned 94 on Sunday, is a mild man with an even temperament. He has a reverence for the Supreme Court, on which he served for almost 35 years until his retirement in 2010, and he is fond of his former colleagues. But there was a hint of anger in some of his remarks when I went to see him last week in his Supreme Court chambers. He said the court had made a disastrous wrong turn in its recent string of campaign finance rulings. “The voter is less important than the man who provides money to the candidate,” he said. “It’s really wrong.” He talked about what he called a telling flaw in the opening sentence of last month’s big campaign finance ruling. He filled in some new details about the behind-the-scenes maneuvering that led to the Citizens United decision. And he called for a constitutional amendment to address what he said was the grave threat to American democracy caused by the torrent of money in politics.
New York Times
A new Obama administration privacy policy explains how the government will gather the user data of online visitors to WhiteHouse.gov, mobile apps and social media sites, and it clarifies that online comments, whether tirades or tributes, are in the open domain. ”Information you choose to share with the White House (directly and via third party sites) may be treated as public information,” the new policy says.
SiliconValley
Among the dozens of documents released Friday by the William J. Clinton Presidential Library — part of a trove of internal Clinton administration documents gradually being revealed to the public — is a fascinating piece of D.C. political history. It is a Dec. 27, 1996, memo to Clinton, drafted by budget director Franklin D. Raines, presenting a menu of options for putting the District government on a sustainable financial footing — and, more broadly, setting the city on a path to prosperity.
Washington Post
Two Oklahoma inmates, including one scheduled for execution on Tuesday, won stays of executions on Monday when the state's highest court ruled the inmates have a right to challenge the secrecy over the drugs the state intends to use to put them to death. In a 5-4 decision, the Oklahoma Supreme Court stayed the executions of Clayton Lockett, scheduled for 6 p.m. local time Tuesday, and Charles Warner, scheduled for April 29, "until final determination of all the issues presently pending" are addressed, the court ruling states.
Reuters
The Archives of Michigan is using a state-of-the-art and inexpensive option — the Internet — to store and preserve a growing collection of digital records that includes everything from 40 years’ worth of election results to an index of thousands of proposed designs for the state’s quarter released 10 years ago. The move to the cloud is expected to bolster a plan to help the public easily access some historical records without having to trek to the archives in Lansing. A cloud-based service being used by Michigan saves money and, archivists say, makes sure important electronic records — documents, audio and video files — don’t go obsolete as formats change.
The Detroit News
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ordered the government on Monday to release a document on legal guidance for the targeted killing of American citizens by drone aircraft.The circuit said a redacted version of a Justice Department Office of Legal Counsel/Department of Defense memo must be released under the Freedom of Information Act in part because of public statements made by government officials acknowledging lethal force in counterterrorism operations, and because the Justice Department opted to release part of a White Paper on the subject that had been leaked to the media.
New York Law Journal
