Transparency News 6/30/14

Monday, June 30, 2014

State and Local Stories

Just weeks after pledging greater collaboration on the James City County Board of Supervisors, a majority of three – two sitting supervisors and one supervisor-elect – met behind closed doors, according to a whistle-blower who stumbled onto the meeting. Keith White, a James City pilot, said he discovered the meeting of Supervisor Chair Mary Jones, Supervisor Michael Hipple and then supervisor-elect Kevin Onizuk sometime after the election but before Onizuk was sworn in as supervisor.  He had gone to Hipple's Richmond Road contracting office about a private matter, he said. The receptionist turned him away because Hipple was in a meeting. White said he recognized Jones' voice through the door and asked if she was meeting with Hipple. The receptionist confirmed that and added that Onizuk was also in attendance, he said. "I didn't think anything else of it," he said in an interview. Months later he was talking to Supervisor Jim Kennedy and divulged that he had stumbled into the meeting. Still, White said he wasn't all that concerned. But White said Onizuk called him on Monday, asking him why he is spreading rumors about him.
Virginia Gazette

The city auditor has logged in to Portsmouth's financial system only twice since he started the job 14 months ago, and both logins occurred within two weeks of his starting date, city records show. Jesse Andre Thomas' work calendar for the past year shows sparse activity, including numerous months without a single meeting or appointment listed. Both city records were obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests. The findings come one week after The Virginian-Pilot reported that Thomas had not released any audits in his time on the job.
Virginian-Pilot

The Virginia Department of Transportation won't say how much subcontractors involved in its suspended U.S. 460 project have been paid, because it doesn't know. The department may not even have the names of every company involved in the project, which has cost more than $290 million without land being bought, road construction started or a required federal permit in hand. It also doesn't know how much profit the project's lead contractor, U.S. 460 Mobility Partners, has made so far, or how much it kept for in-house expenses. This is not unusual, according to VDOT. Even in traditional project contracts, as opposed to the public-private deal struck for U.S. 460, the department generally works with a prime contractor and may not know who they use as subcontractors, VDOT spokeswoman Tamara Rollison said.
Daily Press

Fairfax County fired one of its assistant county attorneys Friday afternoon because she won election last month to the Fairfax City Council, allegedly creating an incurable conflict in legal matters that might involve both the city and the county. Nancy Fry Loftus worked on the staff of County Attorney David Bobzien for 17 years, mostly in tax collection and bankruptcy cases. A native of Fairfax City, she said in early February she asked Bobzien both orally and in writing if she could run for city council in the jurisdiction of 23,000. “He said, ‘Great, good for you,’” Loftus said Friday evening. She said Bobzien suggested she speak with the deputy county atttorney for personnel, who told her, “Not only can you run, we can’t prohibit you from running.”
Washington Post

The Prince William County School Board recently extended Superintendent Steven L. Walts’ contract to 2018, and awarded him a 3-percent raise, bringing the his annual compensation package to about $390,000. But Walts’ annual evaluation – which was not made public – also includes directives asking him for a plan to expand the county’s state-supported preschool program to more low-income students and to implement zero-based budget planning for the coming year, School Board Chairman Milt Johns said an interview this week. None of the other seven school board members responded to emailed requests for comment about Walts’ contract or evaluation.
Inside NOVA

U.S. Congressman and Virginia Ninth District Representative Morgan Griffith introduced The Cell Phone Freedom act on Tuesday, which would prevent government officials from remotely disabling mobile devices. As mobile devices having become an increasingly attractive target for theft, industry group CTIA – The Wireless Association signed a voluntary agreement to include a “kill switch” feature in smartphones manufactured after July 2015.  The kill switch is intended to deter theft by allowing the owner to remotely disable the phone, ruining any resale value it may have. According to Griffith, it’s vital that First Amendment protections keep up with smartphone technology as it is continuing to evolve at a rapid pace.
Southwest Times

Loudoun County Supervisor Eugene Delgaudio has declared victory in the federal case involving his controversial advocacy organization and its inflammatory campaign mailer, but the plaintiff and representatives from the Southern Poverty Law Center say the matter isn't quite over. While Delgaudio has settled, with his conservative Public Advocate of the United States group agreeing to pay $2,500 to a Brooklyn photographer who took an engagement photo for a gay couple, that photographer, Kristina Hill, is still seeking relief from other defendants in the lawsuit, including the National Association for Gun Rights, Rocky Mountain Gun Owners and several people involved with those organizations, according to the SPLC, which is providing counsel to the plaintiffs.
Loudoun Times-Mirror

National Stories

A federal appeals court ruled on Friday in favor of Washington tour guides who challenged licensing rules that require guides to pay the city a license fee and pass an exam. In a 3-0 decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals ruled that the $200 District of Columbia licensing rules for tour operators restricted their constitutional right to free speech. The city had claimed that the licensing requirement, including the multiple-choice exam, ensured prospective guides' identities and that they knew something about Washington's history and geography. But the appeals court for the District of Columbia Circuit said the city failed to present any evidence that the problems it sought to thwart existed.
Reuters

About 89,000 foreigners or organizations were targeted for spying under a U.S. surveillance order last year, according to a new transparency report. The report was released for the first time Friday by the Office of the Director of Intelligence, upon order of the president, in the wake of surveillance leaks by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. But the report, which covers only surveillance orders issued in 2013, doesn’t tell the whole story about how many individuals the spying targeted or how many Americans were caught in the surveillance that targeted foreigners. Civil liberties groups say the real number is likely “orders of magnitude” larger than this.
Wired

The National Security Agency says it has not been able to find a single recorded case where former contractor Edward Snowen raised complaints about the agency’s operations. The claim, revealed in response to a Freedom of Information Act request from investigative reporter Jason Leopold,undercuts Snowden’s claim that he raised concerns with his superiors before leaking top-secret spy agency documents to the press.
The Hill
 

Editorials/Columns

Most of us are so dependent on our cellphones that when we misplace one, our lives are disrupted. "With all they contain and all they may reveal, they hold for many Americans the privacies of life," Chief Justice John Roberts said. Recognizing this modern reality, the Supreme Court last week ruled that police need search warrants, in most cases, in order to legally investigate the contents of cellphones belonging to people they arrest. Cellphones are not just communications devices, the high court acknowledged. They are powerful computers that contain, or allow access to, highly personal aspects of our lives. By protecting them from warrantless searches, the court struck a significant blow for individual rights and personal privacy.
Daily Progress

The Supreme Court also struck a blow for freedom in declaring unconstitutional a Massachusetts law that restricts protests on public sidewalks within 35 feet of entrances, exits and driveways of abortion clinics. The court rightly noted that public sidewalks are public sidewalks. They are public spaces where free-speech rights traditionally, and correctly, have applied. By definition, public spaces belong to all members of the public equally — not just to those with a particular point of view, who may then restrict those with an opposing point of view. Government’s ability to regulate speech is “very limited” under the First Amendment, the court said, and the Massachusetts law exceeded that limit.
Daily Progress