Transparency News 10/1/14
State and Local Stories
A Richmond activist has sued the city to try to force the release of documents related to the recent departure of former chief administrative officer Byron C. Marshall. Carol A.O. Wolf, a former member of the Richmond School Board, filed the lawsuit Monday in Richmond Circuit Court. The suit argues that city officials improperly rejected Wolf’s request for the documents under the Freedom of Information Act. “If they want our money, they need to trust us with the truth,” Wolf said in an interview. The lawsuit seeks the release of Marshall’s separation agreement, the confidentiality agreements signed by some City Council members and the application materials Marshall submitted to the city before he was hired in 2009. City officials have refused to release those documents, citing public-records exemptions related to personnel records and attorney-client privilege.
Times-Dispatch
Newport News Mayor McKinley Price made the pitch that Newport News is where innovation happens, touting the city's successes and efforts to a sold-out room during his State of the City address Tuesday afternoon at the Marriott at City Center. The event was organized by the Virginia Peninsula Chamber of Commerce; tickets cost $45 and included lunch. There was a similar pay-to-attend event this year in Hampton earlier this month and one is scheduled in Poquoson next month. In Hampton, Mayor George Wallace repeated his speech at a City Council meeting after facing scrutiny for only giving it at a pay-to-attend event. Price will not give his 30-minute speech again at a council meeting, but a video of his speech will be posted online on the city's website on Friday, city spokeswoman Kim Lee said.
Daily Press
A man serving time in prison for a police chase in New Kent County was charged in federal court Monday with trying to extort money from state Senate Majority Leader Tommy Norment, whom he had retained as his lawyer for trial. The U.S. Attorney's Office in Richmond charged Christopher John Burruss, 37, with trying to extort "money and other things of value" from Norment by having another person send him an email that threatened to injure his reputation, according to court records. The Jan. 24 email said that Burruss wanted Norment to write to the Supreme Court, "admitting you mishandled the case." It added: "He is also seeking complete restitution, which would include your retainer and the $20,000 in legal fees since then. In the event that the DUI fine remains in effect he asks that you pay that, as well."
Virginian-Pilot
National Stories
A judge presiding over the Colorado theater massacre case ruled on Tuesday that he will allow the murder trial of accused gunman James Holmes to be recorded for television despite opposition from lawyers on both sides, a court ruling showed. The request by media outlets for such coverage had been opposed by both prosecutors and defense lawyers, who argued that allowing cameras in the courtroom could expose witnesses and attorneys to threats, intimidation or other forms of harassment. Arapahoe County District Court Judge Carlos Samour, in allowing expanded media coverage of proceedings due to begin in December, ruled that closed-circuit recordings of the trial be made accessible to electronic media outlets.Reuters
Tennessee's attorney general is considering appealing a court ruling requiring the state to disclose the names of doctors, pharmacists and others involved in executions to attorneys representing 11 death row inmates, a spokeswoman said on Tuesday. The death row inmates are challenging the secrecy of the lethal injection process as well as Tennessee's plan to use its electric chair as a backup method if it cannot obtain the drugs necessary to perform lethal injections. A state appeals court panel ruled on Monday that Tennessee must turn over the names of the executioners, pharmacists and doctors involved in executions to the inmates' lawyers, upholding a ruling by a lower court judge.
Reuters
Pharmaceutical and device makers paid doctors roughly $380 million in speaking and consulting fees, with some doctors reaping over half a million dollars each, during a five-month period last year, according to an analysis of federal data released Tuesday. Other doctors made millions of dollars in royalties from products they helped develop. The data sheds new light on the often murky financial ties between physicians and the health care industry. From August to December 2013, drug and device companies made 4.4 million payments to more than half a million health care professionals and teaching hospitals — adding up to about $3.5 billion. The lucrative arrangements are just some of the findings of the online database, which provides one of the most detailed looks at the payments health care professionals receive from drug and medical device companies. The website also allows consumers to find information about their own doctors to determine whether they might have conflicts of interest. The site, required by the recent health care law, is part of a broader push for transparency.
New York Times
Complying with the 1966 Freedom of Information Act these days is a hugely complex technological feat that goes far beyond filing cabinets, good judgment and black markers. One trick to organizing and handling mind-boggling numbers of documents is keeping in mind the requesters' needs, according to experts looking to make this government service more effective. Last year, federal agencies received a total of 704,394 FOIA requests, with more than 230,000 going to the Department of Homeland Security alone. The Transportation Department took in 10,552 requests in 2013, with most -- 6,650 -- going to the Federal Aviation Administration and its 18 full-time FOIA employees, according to a request for information about FOIA systems on the market. To process its requests, Transportation relied on 11 separate FOIA operations running simultaneously. Six used a FOIA-tracking software system developed within the department, one used a separate in-house system, two used store-bought systems, one used a jerry-rigged correspondence system and one just uses Excel spreadsheets, according to solicitation documents posted earlier this year.
NextGov
The scene captured on video by a onetime aspiring filmmaker had neither actors nor dialogue, but it spoke volumes: A stream of water from a leaking sprinkler pooled on the ground, creating a miniature marsh. Above the glistening pond, silver block letters on the building in the backdrop spelled out: "Department of Water and Power, City of Los Angeles, Receiving Station K." To Matt Chapman, who gave up his film dreams for a software engineer's more reliable paycheck, it was a case of hypocrisy worth documenting on YouTube. And he's not the only one scrutinizing how public agencies use water. As officials crack down on homeowners who waste water, more drought-conscious Californians are using social media to broadcast video of what appear to be government agencies breaking their own water-use rules:
Governing
Government watchdog groups and transparency advocates are asking the Obama administration to review its policy of having the White House sign off on an expanded number of Freedom of Information Act requests—a procedure they say causes significant delays. In a letter to the White House released Monday, 25 transparency organizations said the Obama administration’s policy of reviewing FOIA requests that contain so-called “White House equities” has “caused significant confusion and delay among agencies in their compliance with the Freedom of Information Act.”
Fox News
Editorials/Columns
"Our ethics laws have no teeth," said Gov. Terry McAuliffe last week in announcing his ethics reform commission. In the past, Virginia has been protected from ethics scandals not so much by our laws, but rather by the high personal standards of our leaders. Either that, or the politicians simply have done a better job of keeping their lapses under wraps. As pressure grows for more effective ethics laws, House Speaker William J. Howell and Senate Republican Leader Thomas K. Norment said they welcomed the commission but that the responsibility to change Virginia's ethics laws "rests the General Assembly." Fine. Then act.Daily Progress
Fact: McDonnell and his defense team made themselves, not Virginia, into laughingstocks with a bizarre courtroom strategy. Late-night comics and Democratic-leaning talk shows understandably made jokes about the “Not Guilty by Marriage Meltdown” defense. But the McDonnells’ cluelessness doesn’t damn an entire state.
Norm Leahy and Paul Goldman, Washington Post
