Transparency News 11/7/14
Friday, November 7, 2014
State and Local Stories
A judge said Tuesday he would consider a Washington and Lee professor’s request to unseal a rejected plea agreement offered to a former university student charged with killing another student in a crash last December. However, Judge Jay Swett is not sure whether Brian Richardson, the head of W&L’s journalism and mass communication department, has standing to make such a request. Richardson filed a letter with the Rockbridge County Circuit Court clerk after Judge Michael Irvine rejected a plea agreement reached between the commonwealth’s attorney and the defense team for Nicholas Hansel. Hansel is accused of killing Kelsey Durkin and maiming another student when the SUV he was driving struck a tree stump and overturned along Turkey Hill Road in Rockbridge County. Authorities claim Hansel was intoxicated when he and 10 W&L students left a fraternity party in his vehicle. Irvine did not say in open court why he rejected the plea or why he ordered it sealed. The document remains in a brown envelope in the case file.
Roanoke Times
People trying to check results on the Virginia Board of Elections’ Web site Tuesday night were temporarily stymied when the server became overloaded and crashed, officials said. The nonprofit Virginia Public Access Project and a few media organizations were able to access the agency’s downloadable, public files and publish results of the most-watched contests — for the Senate, House of Representatives and Arlington County Board — on their own Web sites. But for a school board or a town council race, or a countywide bond issue, those results were hard to find. Elections board officials said they did not know how many people were trying to access the site when the server crashed.
Washington Post
Virginia citizens at a public forum in front of the Governor’s Commission to Ensure Integrity and Public Confidence in State Government made it clear Thursday that they support redrawing the district lines for state and federal legislatures. About 40 people showed up at Caplin Auditorium at the University of Virginia School of Law to express their concerns. An unofficial vote at the end of the night showed near-unanimous support for redistricting. One of the recommendations presented was for the General Assembly to create an independent, transparent commission to draw new congressional districts. Scholl said it’s important that this commission has real power, such as surprise audits, and that there are strong penalties to serve as deterrents.
Daily Progress
Charlottesville Registrar Sheri Iachetta is out – almost. After months of bruising revelations about financial irregularities during her tenure, Iachetta on Thursday resigned her post of 15 years at the request of the city’s electoral board. Her last day is Dec. 31. “Unfortunately, there are times when lapses in judgment cause damage to a relationship that is irreparable, and that is where this Electoral Board finds itself today,” the board said in a handwritten statement. The decision came on the heels of a final plea to the board from several election workers who advocated on Iachetta’s behalf, describing her as an honest, faithful, dedicated public servant.
Daily Progress
BVU Authority lacks detailed written policies and procedures for employee spending and credit-card use — two areas that are part of an ongoing criminal investigation — according to a new report from the authority’s audit firm. Accountants from Blackburn Childers & Steagall presented their findings to the authority’s finance committee Thursday morning with a recommendation to formalize and document those policies. The authority board of directors retained the audit firm earlier this year when the contract of its previous auditors expired.
Bristol Herald Courier
Loudoun's Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Wednesday night to shelve the item of a pay raise for its members. While any increase in supervisors' salaries cannot, by law, take effect until the next board assumes office, the current supervisors were facing a flood of criticism for even considering a pay hike for the nine-member governing body. Supervisor Ralph Buona (R-Ashburn), a vocal critic of the salary increase, made the motion to table item.
Loudoun Times-Mirror
National Stories
The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, joined by a national coalition of media organizations, has filed comments on proposed Department of Defense (DoD) Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) regulations. As the comments note, the press routinely relies on FOIA to gain access to government records in order to inform the public on the workings of the government and its elected officials. Ensuring agencies implement FOIA in a manner that is faithful to the spirit of the law and President Obama’s stated commitment to transparency is imperative in order for the press to perform its important role in our democracy.
Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press
In a reversal, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Rodney Monroe said Wednesday that the city won’t fight a petition seeking to unseal court records about his department’s secret surveillance of cellphones. Monroe sent a letter to a judge that says after consulting with the FBI and reviewing the records, CMPD “has no objections to the unsealing of these documents at this time.” The letter comes less than a week after The Charlotte Observer and its news partner, WBTV, filed a petition in Superior Court to allow public access to Mecklenburg County records dating to 2006.
Charlotte Observer
FBI Director James Comey says an agent impersonated an Associated Press reporter during a 2007 criminal investigation, a ruse the news organization says could undermine its credibility. In a letter Thursday to The New York Times, Comey said the agent "portrayed himself as an employee of The Associated Press" to help catch a 15-year-old suspect accused of making bomb threats at a high school near Olympia, Washington. It was publicized last week that the FBI forged an AP story during its investigation, but Comey's letter revealed the agency went further and had an agent actually pretend to be a reporter for the wire service.
Politico
Editorials/Columns
This week's thorns go to: Virginia officials who continue to ignore some worrisome problems with voting machines. Reports of irregularities pop up during nearly every election, without action. We expect better.
Daily Press
Virginia's State Board of Elections has more than 11 months to figure out what went wrong Tuesday night and take steps to prevent it from happening again. Officials have much work to do. The board's official website - the public dispensary for election results - crashed shortly after polls closed at 7 p.m. on Election Day, the second time in as many years that technical difficulties plagued the agency's ability to display results as they came in. The site's failure on Tuesday, however, suggests that officials didn't learn enough from the site's 2013 collapse, or devote the necessary resources to ensure that the public had reliable direct access to the vote totals.
Virginian-Pilot
State and Local Stories
A judge said Tuesday he would consider a Washington and Lee professor’s request to unseal a rejected plea agreement offered to a former university student charged with killing another student in a crash last December. However, Judge Jay Swett is not sure whether Brian Richardson, the head of W&L’s journalism and mass communication department, has standing to make such a request. Richardson filed a letter with the Rockbridge County Circuit Court clerk after Judge Michael Irvine rejected a plea agreement reached between the commonwealth’s attorney and the defense team for Nicholas Hansel. Hansel is accused of killing Kelsey Durkin and maiming another student when the SUV he was driving struck a tree stump and overturned along Turkey Hill Road in Rockbridge County. Authorities claim Hansel was intoxicated when he and 10 W&L students left a fraternity party in his vehicle. Irvine did not say in open court why he rejected the plea or why he ordered it sealed. The document remains in a brown envelope in the case file.
Roanoke Times
People trying to check results on the Virginia Board of Elections’ Web site Tuesday night were temporarily stymied when the server became overloaded and crashed, officials said. The nonprofit Virginia Public Access Project and a few media organizations were able to access the agency’s downloadable, public files and publish results of the most-watched contests — for the Senate, House of Representatives and Arlington County Board — on their own Web sites. But for a school board or a town council race, or a countywide bond issue, those results were hard to find. Elections board officials said they did not know how many people were trying to access the site when the server crashed.
Washington Post
Virginia citizens at a public forum in front of the Governor’s Commission to Ensure Integrity and Public Confidence in State Government made it clear Thursday that they support redrawing the district lines for state and federal legislatures. About 40 people showed up at Caplin Auditorium at the University of Virginia School of Law to express their concerns. An unofficial vote at the end of the night showed near-unanimous support for redistricting. One of the recommendations presented was for the General Assembly to create an independent, transparent commission to draw new congressional districts. Scholl said it’s important that this commission has real power, such as surprise audits, and that there are strong penalties to serve as deterrents.
Daily Progress
Charlottesville Registrar Sheri Iachetta is out – almost. After months of bruising revelations about financial irregularities during her tenure, Iachetta on Thursday resigned her post of 15 years at the request of the city’s electoral board. Her last day is Dec. 31. “Unfortunately, there are times when lapses in judgment cause damage to a relationship that is irreparable, and that is where this Electoral Board finds itself today,” the board said in a handwritten statement. The decision came on the heels of a final plea to the board from several election workers who advocated on Iachetta’s behalf, describing her as an honest, faithful, dedicated public servant.
Daily Progress
BVU Authority lacks detailed written policies and procedures for employee spending and credit-card use — two areas that are part of an ongoing criminal investigation — according to a new report from the authority’s audit firm. Accountants from Blackburn Childers & Steagall presented their findings to the authority’s finance committee Thursday morning with a recommendation to formalize and document those policies. The authority board of directors retained the audit firm earlier this year when the contract of its previous auditors expired.
Bristol Herald Courier
Loudoun's Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Wednesday night to shelve the item of a pay raise for its members. While any increase in supervisors' salaries cannot, by law, take effect until the next board assumes office, the current supervisors were facing a flood of criticism for even considering a pay hike for the nine-member governing body. Supervisor Ralph Buona (R-Ashburn), a vocal critic of the salary increase, made the motion to table item.
Loudoun Times-Mirror
National Stories
The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, joined by a national coalition of media organizations, has filed comments on proposed Department of Defense (DoD) Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) regulations. As the comments note, the press routinely relies on FOIA to gain access to government records in order to inform the public on the workings of the government and its elected officials. Ensuring agencies implement FOIA in a manner that is faithful to the spirit of the law and President Obama’s stated commitment to transparency is imperative in order for the press to perform its important role in our democracy.
Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press
In a reversal, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Rodney Monroe said Wednesday that the city won’t fight a petition seeking to unseal court records about his department’s secret surveillance of cellphones. Monroe sent a letter to a judge that says after consulting with the FBI and reviewing the records, CMPD “has no objections to the unsealing of these documents at this time.” The letter comes less than a week after The Charlotte Observer and its news partner, WBTV, filed a petition in Superior Court to allow public access to Mecklenburg County records dating to 2006.
Charlotte Observer
FBI Director James Comey says an agent impersonated an Associated Press reporter during a 2007 criminal investigation, a ruse the news organization says could undermine its credibility. In a letter Thursday to The New York Times, Comey said the agent "portrayed himself as an employee of The Associated Press" to help catch a 15-year-old suspect accused of making bomb threats at a high school near Olympia, Washington. It was publicized last week that the FBI forged an AP story during its investigation, but Comey's letter revealed the agency went further and had an agent actually pretend to be a reporter for the wire service.
Politico
Editorials/Columns
This week's thorns go to: Virginia officials who continue to ignore some worrisome problems with voting machines. Reports of irregularities pop up during nearly every election, without action. We expect better.
Daily Press
Virginia's State Board of Elections has more than 11 months to figure out what went wrong Tuesday night and take steps to prevent it from happening again. Officials have much work to do. The board's official website - the public dispensary for election results - crashed shortly after polls closed at 7 p.m. on Election Day, the second time in as many years that technical difficulties plagued the agency's ability to display results as they came in. The site's failure on Tuesday, however, suggests that officials didn't learn enough from the site's 2013 collapse, or devote the necessary resources to ensure that the public had reliable direct access to the vote totals.
Virginian-Pilot
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