Transparency News 7/30/14

Wednesday, July 30, 2014  

State and Local Stories

The corruption trial for ex-Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell and his wife plunged Tuesday into the sordid details of the couple’s marriage and the former first lady’s “crush” on a businessman who, according to prosecutors, lavished them with gifts and cash in exchange for promoting his company. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jessica Aber said during opening statements that McDonnell and his wife betrayed the public’s trust by lining their pockets with “secret gifts and cash.” McDonnell, a once-rising star in the Republican party who left office in January, had a duty “not to sell the power and influence of his office to the highest bidder,” Aber said. “Mr. and Mrs. McDonnell knew what Mr. Williams wanted and gave it to him,” she said. Attorneys for the McDonnells told jurors the governor did what any of his predecessors would do for a Virginia-based company. They questioned Williams’ character and said the couple couldn’t have been scheming together because their marriage was falling apart. Maureen McDonnell’s lawyer, William A. Burck, said the former first lady was “duped” by Williams into thinking he cared for her.
Free Lance-Star
http://www.freelancestar.com/2014-07-30/articles/41725/exgovernors-corruption-trial-focuses-on-marriage/

A drafted “statement of expectations” scheduled for discussion Wednesday would limit public dissent by members of the Board of Visitors at the University of Virginia. A special committee of the board is slated to meet in Richmond to discuss the draft proposal, which outlines a sort of “code of conduct” for board members. Among other things, the document calls for board members to bring up dissenting opinions in open meeting, but to let them go after a vote has been taken. Parts of the text specifically try to avoid pitfalls encountered by the University of Texas at Austin, where a division between President Bill Powers and UT System Regent Wallace L. Hall has turned into a public feud. Among other things, Hall is accused of using excessive public records requests — consisting of thousands of pages of documents — to obstruct university administration. The UVa proposal calls for board members to channel their requests through a committee head or top-ranking administrator. “Requests by individual Visitors for institutional data should be rare,” reads the statement.
Daily Progress
http://www.dailyprogress.com/news/draft-uva-board-document-would-curb-visitors-outside-dissent/article_6f91b368-1790-11e4-8c15-0017a43b2370.html

The prosecution in a cigarette trafficking case is planning to propose an order that the next courtroom hearing scheduled for Aug. 6 in Shenandoah County Circuit Court be closed to the press and the rest of the public. Attempts to conduct courtroom hearings behind closed doors are a rarity in adult criminal cases, but Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Louis Campola said he intended to write up such an order subject to approval by Circuit Judge Dennis L. Hupp. "We're closing the hearing," Campola said in a brief interview Tuesday. Asked what he planned to cite as his reason for closing the hearing, Campola replied, "We're just closing the hearing." 
Northern Virginia Daily
http://www.nvdaily.com/news/2014/07/prosecution-seeks-to-close-cigarette-trafficking-hearing.php

Newport News’ Information Technology department is responsible for fixing city employees' computers and police radios when they break, but also plays a major role to make sure the traffic lights are scheduled properly, streets are repaired, trash is picked up, voters are registered and other vital city services are completed. To do all that, the department's budget has grown to $8.3 million for the 2015 fiscal year, which began this month. The department's budget was increased by $344,081 from the previous fiscal year and is up by $921,418 from fiscal year 2013.
Daily Press
http://www.dailypress.com/news/newport-news/dp-nws-budget-item-nn-16-20140729,0,7471086.story

Appomattox is known for its history but town council is trying to bring its communication into today by using social media. Most of Tuesday’s town council meeting focused on a social media presentation from Hollie S. Cammarasana, Virginia Municipal League Insurance Program’s director of communications. Cammarasana was asked to present on social media by Claudia Puckette, the communications committee chair, so council and staff could learn how best to interact with town residents. “It really does build a sense of community, and that’s what social media is really about, along with being transparent and getting the right information out there,” she said. “Today, the public meeting is held pretty much 24/7/365 through social media,” she said. One example she gave is, in addition to broadcasting meetings on public access channels, upload them to YouTube and then send an e-blast with a link to the video.
News & Advance
http://www.newsadvance.com/news/local/appomattox-town-council-gets-crash-course-on-social-media/article_ca1939f6-1794-11e4-9419-001a4bcf6878.html

Manassas City Council member Ian Lovejoy has announced a new iPhone app for Manassas. In a news release, Lovejoy said the new “Your Manassas” app will “better coordinate citizen access to information about upcoming events, city dining and shopping options as well as improving access to city hall.” “I’m very excited to be able to bring this easy-to-use, common sense resource to our citizens,” Lovejoy said. The app is the first of its kind on Virginia, Lovejoy said, and is may be the only such app to combine information about contacting city hall with information about upcoming events and dining options.
InsideNOVA
http://www.insidenova.com/headlines/manassas-councilman-creates-new-iphone-app-for-city/article_98c870f8-16cf-11e4-88e3-0019bb2963f4.html

A former Virginia state employee pleaded guilty on Tuesday to taking more than $238,000 — money intended to fund educational programs on underage drinking — for himself and his friends. Steven Hammond Jr., 29, pleaded guilty to one count of theft from a program that receives federal funds. He faces up to 10 years in prison. In a statement of facts agreed upon by federal prosecutors and by Hammond, the former Virginia Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control employee admitted to writing 77 checks from his employer to his friends. He began writing the checks in 2009, six years after he started working for the department, and was caught during an internal audit in 2013.
Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/crime/former-virginia-state-employee-pleads-guilty-to-sending-funds-to-his-friends/2014/07/29/db70fd54-1741-11e4-85b6-c1451e622637_story.html?wprss=rss_local

National Stories

The U.S. military filmed troops searching captives’ Qurans inside Guantánamo’s prison building for cooperative captives — an episode blamed for sparking the prison’s long-running hunger strike, a Freedom of Information request has revealed. The prison’s chief of staff, Navy Capt. John A. Schommer, confirmed that a single video record exists at the detention center, according to a July 15 response to a Freedom of Information Act request filed by the Miami Herald last year while more than 100 prisoners were on the hunger strike, 36 of them being force-fed. The Pentagon’s senior detention official also defended the search as justified because “there have, in the past, been incidents of detainees storing contraband in their Qurans” including “improvised weapons, unauthorized food and medicine” — a claim the detainees’ lawyers denied. The Herald asked to see any video recordings of the searches to evaluate claims. In its refusal, issued on July 15, the U.S. Southern Command’s FOIA manager, Marco I. Villalobos, invoked federal law that considered the recording itself classified as well as the identities of any prisoners and prison staff shown on it. Also, he said, the video “depicts processes and search procedures that could harm national security if released.”
Miami Herald
http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/07/28/4259621/guantanamo-filmed-guards-searching.html#storylink=cpy

A jury awarded former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura $1.8 million Tuesday in his lawsuit against the estate of "American Sniper" author Chris Kyle. On the sixth day of deliberations, the federal jury decided that the 2012 best-selling book defamed Ventura in its description of a bar fight in California in 2006. Kyle wrote that he decked a man whom he later identified as Ventura after the man allegedly said the Navy SEALs "deserve to lose a few."
Politico
http://www.politico.com/story/2014/07/jesse-ventura-defamation-case-109503.html#ixzz38wwTpFDY

D.C. Superior Court officials on Tuesday announced a new online Web chat feature where court users can ask questions of court employees about their cases within the civil division. Individuals with cases in small claims court (involving disputes of $5,000 or less), landlord and tenant, and civil actions ( involving disputes of more than $5,000) can access the various Web chats through the court’s main Web site. The chat was created for the civil cases, which are often tried by individuals who don’t have attorneys. However, court officials said the employees on the other end of the chat, will not be able to give legal advice to questioners about their case. Instead, the employees can answer such questions as the status of their pleading, directions to probate court and other general court process questions. Questions can still be asked via telephone or in person.
Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/crime/dc-superior-court-launches-new-online-chat-for-civil-division/2014/07/29/f0d8a424-175c-11e4-9e3b-7f2f110c6265_story.html?wprss=rss_local

Montgomery County’s (Maryland) school board members unanimously voted to give up their district-paid credit cards, adopting a sweeping set of new spending rules after public disclosure of improper charges, unclear guidelines and poor oversight. Under the newly adopted rules, board members need pre-approval for out-of-town travel and will be reimbursed for spending according to daily allowances that follow federal government guidelines.
Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/montgomery-board-gives-up-district--funded-credit-cards-and-adopts-new-rules/2014/07/29/51612b48-16b5-11e4-85b6-c1451e622637_story.html?wprss=rss_local

A U.S. appeals court on Tuesday rejected a food industry challenge to a federal rule concerning labeling requirements for meat, marking a potential setback for other businesses fighting federal regulations on free-speech grounds. For the second time, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit said the 2013 regulation could be enforced. It requires labels on muscle cuts of meat to list the country of origin and other details. The impact of the ruling may not be limited to meat labeling. The rationale embraced by the court could apply in other cases in which business interests object to regulations on free speech grounds. "It will certainly give the government a wider range of arguments they can use to defend various compelled disclosure requirements," said Jonathan Adler, a law professor at Case Western Reserve University School of Law.
Reuters
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/07/29/us-usa-court-food-idUSKBN0FY1IS20140729?feedType=RSS&feedName=domesticNews

Internal VA documents show the depth of fraudulent scheduling, manipulation of data and in some cases intimidation of staff to hide delays in medical care to veterans in the 6-million patient national system. Auditors found at least one appointment scheduler at 109 VA medical centers who said wait times for veterans had been falsified, according to a USA TODAY analysis of internal VA survey data made public Tuesday. To keep evidence of delayed care out of the VA's official electronic tracking system, secret lists were maintained at 110 facilities, the analysis shows.
USA Today
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/07/29/va-veterans-healthcare-delay-fraud/13321571/

The Library of Congress on Tuesday posted online hundreds of pages of correspondence between the nation's 29th president, Warren G. Harding, and his longtime mistress, Carrie Fulton Phillips. The collection mostly contains letters penned by Harding before his presidency, according to the library. The letters were sealed for 50 years, but many of the more revealing and salacious tidbits were reported by several news organizations in recent weeks based on transcripts from Ohio lawyer James Robenalt, author of The Harding Affair: Love and Espionage During the Great War. Robenalt unearthed the letters on microfilm while conducting research at the Western Reserve Historical Society.
USA Today
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2014/07/29/warren-harding-love-letters/13316389/
 

Editorials/Columns

In 1958, a young Roanoke lawyer ran for City Council on a platform of using the city’s budget surplus to fix up the city’s bridges and improve storm drainage on Williamson Road. He lost by 14 votes. Asked why he didn’t seek a recount, the candidate replied that he had “congratulated the winner, consoled my feelings and returned to the practice of law.” Caldwell Butler didn’t stay there long. Three years later, in 1961, Butler ran for the House of Delegates. He upset a 14-year-incumbent, becoming the first Republican elected from Roanoke since 1901. By the time he left office – a different office – two decades later, he had helped repeal the state’s infamous poll tax, ushered in a two-party system to what had been a one-party state, and also brought down a corrupt president of the United States. Just three days ago, we used this space to pay a 40th anniversary tribute to Butler’s role in the Watergate saga, when as a freshman congressman he broke with his party to vote in favor of Richard Nixon’s impeachment, calling the president’s conduct inexcusable. Today, it is our sad duty to remark on Butler’s passing at the age of 89. His name will be forever linked to that vote (actually, two votes) as a synonym for political courage. Yet even without Watergate, Butler’s legacy would be secure in the annals of Virginia history as someone who helped bring an autocratic state into a more open, modern age.
Roanoke Times
http://www.roanoke.com/opinion/editorials/our-view-caldwell-butler-s-legacy/article_d1f25d39-b246-533d-8bbe-fad9e5800c6a.html

If you watch James City County's Board of Supervisors meetings on your television or computer, what you see isn't everything the supervisors get. Because of a recent policy change, visuals that speakers place on an overhead projector can only be seen by the supervisors and anyone physically in the room. Everyone else sees only the speaker. Assistant county administrator Adam Kinsman confirmed the change, explaining that county officials don't know what materials public speakers are apt to show, and prefer to air on the side of caution. Without being specific, Kinsman said the tipping point came when a speaker displayed images of children and used copyrighted material. "The attorney in me said, 'What are we getting into?'" he noted. What we're getting into, though unintended, is censorship. Whatever speakers say or show to the supervisors during a meeting is part of the public record. That includes presentations by applicants.
Virginia Gazette
http://www.vagazette.com/news/va-vg-editorial-07-30-20140728,0,1358698.story