Transparency News 7/2/14
Wednesday, July 2, 2014
State and Local Stories
NBC Washington
Though President Obama vowed to run the most transparent administration in history, his White House has quietly empowered itself to censor or delay the release of information in ways that not even Richard Nixon envisioned during the Watergate scandal, according to federal workers on the front lines of processing open records requests. The workers, who spoke to The Washington Times only on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal, said that an April 15, 2009, memo from White House Counsel Gregory Craig to all federal agencies has slowed, and in some cases nixed, the public release of government documents that would have been released under prior administrations. It also hasgiven the White House the ability to track in real time who is asking for derogatory information about the Obama administration, the workers said.
Washington Times
It’s been a confusing road for the creation of a new category of financial advisors who will be regulated by the federal government. So confusing, in fact that the feds delayed implementating the Municipal Advisor Rule by half a year to July 1. A municipal advisor is a qualified financial professional (such as a banker or financial consultant) who give municipalities advice on financial deals like bond offerings. That person must be registered through the SEC as a municipal advisor and cannot have any other interest in the deal. Historically, it was common for those orchestrating the transaction to also dish out advice and counsel to the municipality entering. The problem with this model was that while most underwriters or brokers are fair and reasonable, entrusting a financial professional to give advice to a municipality when that professional could potentially benefit a great deal if the municipality enters into the deal creates an inherent conflict interest.
Governing
A specially-curated collection of documents signed by the nation’s Founding Fathers, including George Washington, Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson, is being offered for $130,000 by a Philadelphia-based dealer. The collection of six rare documents being sold by The Raab Collection shows the devotion and loyalty of America’s early political leaders and statesmen, including Washington’s 1783 letter to a soldier thanking him for his service during the Revolutionary War and Jefferson praising the spirit of the American people “which animates our nation” in an 1807 letter.
Fox News
Bumper stickers that say "unmarked police car" and sell for $2.50 online are intended as a joke. But two Indianapolis police officers apparently were seriously concerned when they saw that bumper sticker taped to the back window of a silver minivan. They stopped the driver and made her remove the sticker. The officers now face a lawsuit alleging they violated the constitutional rights of the woman driving the minivan, something the American Civil Liberties Union takes rather seriously.
USA Today
The health world is flirting with disaster, say the experts who monitor crime in cyberspace. A hack that exposes the medical and financial records of tens of thousands of patients is coming, they say — it’s only a matter of when. As health data become increasingly digital and the use of electronic health records booms, thieves see patient records in a vulnerable health care system as attractive bait, according to experts interviewed by POLITICO. On the black market, a full identity profile contained in a single record can bring as much as $500.
Politico
New York's highest court said on Tuesday that a law designed to criminalize cyberbullying was so broad that it violated the First Amendment, marking the first time a U.S. court weighed the constitutionality of such a law. The 2011 Albany County law banned electronic communication intended to "harass, annoy, threaten...or otherwise inflict significant emotional harm on another person." The law was challenged on First Amendment grounds by Marquan Mackey-Meggs, who at age 15 in 2011 pleaded guilty under the law to creating a Facebook page that included graphic sexual comments alongside photos of classmates at his Albany-area high school.
Reuters
Lawsuits filed Tuesday by an education foundation accuse three state universities and a community college of restricting free speech of students and faculty, the first public volley of a nationwide campaign to challenge campus policies it says are unconstitutional. The cases involve T-shirt designs for student organizations at Iowa State and Ohio universities, a faculty blog at Chicago State University and a student at Citrus College in Glendora, Calif., who says he was told he would be kicked off campus unless he stayed within a designated area while seeking signatures for a petition. More lawsuits are in the pipeline.
USA Today
Members of Congress are putting your money where their mouths are. Since Republicans took control of the U.S. House in January 2011, Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, has led a cost-cutting effort that has trimmed staff for House committees by nearly 20%, saving taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars. But the number of committee staff responsible for press and communications work has increased by nearly 15% over the same period, according to House spending records.
USA Today
Two senators are calling on the White House to support stronger transparency measures in legislation to reform government surveillance programs. US Sens. Al Franken (D-Minn.) and Dean Heller (R-Nev.) on Tuesday sent a letter to the White House asking President Obama to support additional transparency measures in the USA Freedom Act.
CNET News
Virginian-Pilot
IS IT POSSIBLE for our state’s politicians do something that is actually illegal? The Virginia Way, all about probity and civility, seems to have lost its way. On the same day last week, we learned that: Our former governor’s administra tion did not break any rules when it was not forthcoming with the public and shareholders about the risks of a $1.4 billion public–private road project in eastern Virginia, a project so ill-advised that so far it has cost nearly $300 million, and has been shut down without a single spade of dirt being turned; and, emails show that the state tobacco commission was fully aware of how compromised it was going to look if the commission did as planned and offered a lucrative job to Democrat Sen. Phillip Puckett on the same day he resigned from the Senate and gave the balance of power to the Republicans. And, if there isn’t enough evidence that all Virginia politicians are not the unsullied public servants some of us once thought they were, the federal corruption trial of Bob and Maureen McDonnell starts this month. And, on Monday, a grand jury charged Demo cratic Delegate Joe Morrissey with having sex with a minor. Thank goodness the legislature didn’t overhaul our tissue-strong ethics laws this session.
Free Lance-Star
An increasing number of shipments of volatile crude oil are passing through “highly urbanized areas where the consequences of an accident would be most severe.” So reports The Associated Press, which has just obtained records on such shipments through the Freedom of Information Act. Also recently, officials revealed the statistics for Virginia: Two to five trains carrying at least one million gallons of oil pass through 20 Virginia counties weekly. Some railroads — including CSX, which operates in Charlottesville-Albemarle as well as many other parts of Virginia — had sought to keep much of the information private, citing security. The Federal Railroad Administration said the information does not need to be withheld from the public. Some states, however, have decided to keep the information secret, providing it only to first responders.
That action is based on the wrong premise. It assumes the possibility of an accident and focuses solely on emergency officials’ ability to respond to the possible disaster. It does nothing to help residents and businesses protect themselves from a possible disaster.
Daily Progress
Local governments like to plan all-day or two-day retreats, often out of town, where they get together and discuss their respective legislative agendas. In fairness, they do generally give the public notice and the public is welcome to attend. It should also be said the ordinary practice of government holding out-of-town retreats is not illegal. Despite that fact, it is very poor public service to discuss the people’s business in another jurisdiction. Taking the people’s business away from the people, while not a violation of the law, is a violation of the public trust.
Alan Alstine, Star-Exponent
State and Local Stories
The current version of FOIA, effective 2014-15, is on VCOG’s website.
VCOG website
U.S. Rep. H. Morgan Griffith said Tuesday that the federal investigation into a state senator’s recent resignation is politically motivated, echoing the complaints of some fellow Republicans in the state legislature. In a letter to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, the 9th District Republican from Salem decried the ongoing inquiry into former Democratic state Sen. Phil Puckett’s June 9 resignation. Investigators are looking into a potential job offer at a GOP-controlled tobacco commission Puckett was considering at the time, and the commission’s interim executive director was ordered to appear before a grand jury last month. “Did one political party stand to gain legislatively by Sen. Puckett’s resignation? Certainly. But that does not make it a crime.”
Martinsville Bulletin
Despite not being reappointed to the Amherst County School Board and the loss of his chairmanship, school board member Jones Stanley is not giving up his seat just yet. The county’s school board members are appointed to four-year terms by the Amherst County Board of Supervisors. On June 17, supervisors decided not to reappoint Stanley, who has served as District 3 representative since 2006. Stanley’s challenger, Edward Olivares, also was not appointed. The supervisors voted instead to re-advertise the District 3 vacancy on the school board. Using an attorney general’s opinion from 1985, board attorney A. David Hawkins gave a legal green light to Stanley’s continued representation on the board. Hawkins said the theory behind the attorney general’s opinion is that with a vacant seat, residents would have no representation on a board. The electorate, he said, should not be disenfranchised during an interim vacancy.
New Era Progress
National Stories
Internal emails among top staffers of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs reveal some of the frantic activity in the hours just before and after the May 30 resignation of former Secretary Eric Shinseki. The News4 I-Team obtained the emails via the Freedom of Information Act. Minutes after handing his resignation to President Barack Obama, Shinseki forwarded to his staff some of the supportive emails he’d recently received, including a missive from a doctor at the VA Medical Center in Washington, D.C.NBC Washington
Though President Obama vowed to run the most transparent administration in history, his White House has quietly empowered itself to censor or delay the release of information in ways that not even Richard Nixon envisioned during the Watergate scandal, according to federal workers on the front lines of processing open records requests. The workers, who spoke to The Washington Times only on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal, said that an April 15, 2009, memo from White House Counsel Gregory Craig to all federal agencies has slowed, and in some cases nixed, the public release of government documents that would have been released under prior administrations. It also hasgiven the White House the ability to track in real time who is asking for derogatory information about the Obama administration, the workers said.
Washington Times
It’s been a confusing road for the creation of a new category of financial advisors who will be regulated by the federal government. So confusing, in fact that the feds delayed implementating the Municipal Advisor Rule by half a year to July 1. A municipal advisor is a qualified financial professional (such as a banker or financial consultant) who give municipalities advice on financial deals like bond offerings. That person must be registered through the SEC as a municipal advisor and cannot have any other interest in the deal. Historically, it was common for those orchestrating the transaction to also dish out advice and counsel to the municipality entering. The problem with this model was that while most underwriters or brokers are fair and reasonable, entrusting a financial professional to give advice to a municipality when that professional could potentially benefit a great deal if the municipality enters into the deal creates an inherent conflict interest.
Governing
A specially-curated collection of documents signed by the nation’s Founding Fathers, including George Washington, Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson, is being offered for $130,000 by a Philadelphia-based dealer. The collection of six rare documents being sold by The Raab Collection shows the devotion and loyalty of America’s early political leaders and statesmen, including Washington’s 1783 letter to a soldier thanking him for his service during the Revolutionary War and Jefferson praising the spirit of the American people “which animates our nation” in an 1807 letter.
Fox News
Bumper stickers that say "unmarked police car" and sell for $2.50 online are intended as a joke. But two Indianapolis police officers apparently were seriously concerned when they saw that bumper sticker taped to the back window of a silver minivan. They stopped the driver and made her remove the sticker. The officers now face a lawsuit alleging they violated the constitutional rights of the woman driving the minivan, something the American Civil Liberties Union takes rather seriously.
USA Today
The health world is flirting with disaster, say the experts who monitor crime in cyberspace. A hack that exposes the medical and financial records of tens of thousands of patients is coming, they say — it’s only a matter of when. As health data become increasingly digital and the use of electronic health records booms, thieves see patient records in a vulnerable health care system as attractive bait, according to experts interviewed by POLITICO. On the black market, a full identity profile contained in a single record can bring as much as $500.
Politico
New York's highest court said on Tuesday that a law designed to criminalize cyberbullying was so broad that it violated the First Amendment, marking the first time a U.S. court weighed the constitutionality of such a law. The 2011 Albany County law banned electronic communication intended to "harass, annoy, threaten...or otherwise inflict significant emotional harm on another person." The law was challenged on First Amendment grounds by Marquan Mackey-Meggs, who at age 15 in 2011 pleaded guilty under the law to creating a Facebook page that included graphic sexual comments alongside photos of classmates at his Albany-area high school.
Reuters
Lawsuits filed Tuesday by an education foundation accuse three state universities and a community college of restricting free speech of students and faculty, the first public volley of a nationwide campaign to challenge campus policies it says are unconstitutional. The cases involve T-shirt designs for student organizations at Iowa State and Ohio universities, a faculty blog at Chicago State University and a student at Citrus College in Glendora, Calif., who says he was told he would be kicked off campus unless he stayed within a designated area while seeking signatures for a petition. More lawsuits are in the pipeline.
USA Today
Members of Congress are putting your money where their mouths are. Since Republicans took control of the U.S. House in January 2011, Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, has led a cost-cutting effort that has trimmed staff for House committees by nearly 20%, saving taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars. But the number of committee staff responsible for press and communications work has increased by nearly 15% over the same period, according to House spending records.
USA Today
Two senators are calling on the White House to support stronger transparency measures in legislation to reform government surveillance programs. US Sens. Al Franken (D-Minn.) and Dean Heller (R-Nev.) on Tuesday sent a letter to the White House asking President Obama to support additional transparency measures in the USA Freedom Act.
CNET News
Editorials/Columns
Jesse Andre Thomas is, perhaps, the most deliberative and contemplative person to serve as a municipal auditor. Nonetheless, his record - or lack thereof - that makes it exceedingly difficult for Portsmouth leaders to justify a $92,700 annual salary for help finding examples of government inefficiency. That's a ridiculously high price to pay to lead city officials back to where they started. Thomas, the city's watchdog for waste, fraud and abuse of public funds, hasn't completed an audit since he started work on April 1, 2013. He has logged into the city's financial system just twice - for a total of four minutes, The Pilot's Tim Eberly recently reported. Thomas' inability to quickly provide documentation to support his claims about working on behalf of taxpayers and carrying out his responsibilities to hold city departments accountable does not inspire confidence.Neither does his refusal to provide a resume or proof of his qualifications for the critical post that he holds.Virginian-Pilot
IS IT POSSIBLE for our state’s politicians do something that is actually illegal? The Virginia Way, all about probity and civility, seems to have lost its way. On the same day last week, we learned that: Our former governor’s administra tion did not break any rules when it was not forthcoming with the public and shareholders about the risks of a $1.4 billion public–private road project in eastern Virginia, a project so ill-advised that so far it has cost nearly $300 million, and has been shut down without a single spade of dirt being turned; and, emails show that the state tobacco commission was fully aware of how compromised it was going to look if the commission did as planned and offered a lucrative job to Democrat Sen. Phillip Puckett on the same day he resigned from the Senate and gave the balance of power to the Republicans. And, if there isn’t enough evidence that all Virginia politicians are not the unsullied public servants some of us once thought they were, the federal corruption trial of Bob and Maureen McDonnell starts this month. And, on Monday, a grand jury charged Demo cratic Delegate Joe Morrissey with having sex with a minor. Thank goodness the legislature didn’t overhaul our tissue-strong ethics laws this session.
Free Lance-Star
An increasing number of shipments of volatile crude oil are passing through “highly urbanized areas where the consequences of an accident would be most severe.” So reports The Associated Press, which has just obtained records on such shipments through the Freedom of Information Act. Also recently, officials revealed the statistics for Virginia: Two to five trains carrying at least one million gallons of oil pass through 20 Virginia counties weekly. Some railroads — including CSX, which operates in Charlottesville-Albemarle as well as many other parts of Virginia — had sought to keep much of the information private, citing security. The Federal Railroad Administration said the information does not need to be withheld from the public. Some states, however, have decided to keep the information secret, providing it only to first responders.
That action is based on the wrong premise. It assumes the possibility of an accident and focuses solely on emergency officials’ ability to respond to the possible disaster. It does nothing to help residents and businesses protect themselves from a possible disaster.
Daily Progress
Local governments like to plan all-day or two-day retreats, often out of town, where they get together and discuss their respective legislative agendas. In fairness, they do generally give the public notice and the public is welcome to attend. It should also be said the ordinary practice of government holding out-of-town retreats is not illegal. Despite that fact, it is very poor public service to discuss the people’s business in another jurisdiction. Taking the people’s business away from the people, while not a violation of the law, is a violation of the public trust.
Alan Alstine, Star-Exponent
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