Transparency News 4/24/15
Friday, April 24, 2015
State and Local Stories
A dozen Loudoun County school administrators and School Board Chairman Eric Hornberger (Ashburn) spent four hours in Loudoun County Circuit Court Thursday in a case brought against the school system by a parent who says they are concealing information that should be public. Brian Davison has filed a writ of mandamus that alleges School Board members and school system administrators violated the Virginia Freedom of Information Act by failing to respond adequately to numerous requests for information dating back to September. Davison has filed 53 FOIA requests in that time, 24 of which were filed in one hour, according to school system Public Information Officer Wayde Byard. His requests dealt with topics ranging from the salaries of all school system employees to all emails—more than 3,000—that refer to Student Growth Percentiles, which measure student improvement across grade levels. Judge Jeanette Irby later asked Davison whether he had paid Loudoun County Public Schools for any of his FOIA requests. “No,” he answered. “That’s all I need to know,” Irby responded. Interactions between Davison, school system attorney Julia B. Judkins and Irby got heated as the afternoon wore on. At one point, Irby referred to Davison’s argument as a “conspiracy theory.” When he asked her what she meant, she replied, “You’re stating that they were all conspiring to not provide you information.” After he interrupted her and Judkins on several occasions, Irby told Davison, “You’re so rude sometimes.”
Leesburg Today
Thomas K. Norment Jr., the majority leader of the Virginia Senate, has acknowledged a relationship with a lobbyist whose firm regularly pushed for legislation that Norment voted for and, in two cases, sponsored directly. Norment, a Williamsburg-area lawmaker who is among Virginia’s most powerful politicians, admitted the relationship while defending himself against allegations of wrongdoing made by a former legal client who tried to blackmail him. The allegations prompted federal investigators to review the relationship, but they closed the matter without bringing criminal charges. The client, Christopher J. Burruss, was sentenced April 1 to two years in prison on federal extortion charges. In addition to the blackmail attempt, Burruss had filed a complaint to the Virginia State Bar in 2013. In it, according to Norment spokesman Jeff Ryer, Burruss accused the lawmaker of myriad offenses, including doing political favors for the lobbyist because of their relationship. Norment (R-James City) denied wrongdoing in a response to the complaint, Ryer said. Norment also named the lobbyist, Angela Bezik, and disclosed the personal relationship, according to two people who have seen the confidential document. According to public records, Bezik’s firm lobbied the legislature on 126 different bills between 2011 and 2014, when the most recent data is available. Of the 63 measures that made it to the Senate floor for a vote, Norment did not abstain on any. There is no evidence that Norment gave Bezik’s issues special treatment. In other cases, lawmakers have tried to avoid even the appearance of a conflict of interest by not voting on measures when a family member or intimate friend also holds a stake in a matter.
Washington Post
National Stories
On Friday, we celebrate the birthday of one of America’s oldest cultural institutions: Barbra Streisand, looking great at 73! It also happens to be the birthday of the Library of Congress. Founded in 1800, the library is known today as the place that stores a single copy of every book ever published. “That’s actually not true,” says library spokeswoman Gayle Osterberg. “But we do have a lot of books — almost 24 million, plus the world’s largest law library. We have a comic book collection, a map collection, video games, violins, globes, just about everything.” Another common misconception is that the library is only for members of Congress, she says. “We want Washingtonians to know that anyone over 16 can get a Library of Congress card and use the reading room,” she says. “We also have exhibits, concerts and a weekly story time for little readers.”
Washington Post
On one side of the spectrum in the Senate there is Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, who has not missed a vote since taking office in 1997. At the opposite end are Ted Cruz of Texas and Marco Rubio of Florida. The two Republican presidential candidates' attendance records when it comes to Senate votes and attending hearings are some of lowest in the chamber, with Cruz being especially negligent as a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. Cruz has missed the majority of committee hearings and now ranks 97th in the first three months of this year in showing up for roll call votes on the floor.
Fox News Latino
The team behind an episode of PBS’ “Finding Your Roots” that glossed over movie star Ben Affleck’s slave-owning ancestry has apologized. On Thursday, Executive Producers Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Dyllan McGee addressed a note of apology to PBS station managers after word leaked that Affleck requested the genealogy show omit the fact that one of his relatives owned slaves. In the note, Gates and McGee express regret over “not sharing Mr. Affleck’s request that we avoid mention of one of his ancestors.” “We apologize for putting PBS and its member stations in the position of having to defend the integrity of their programming. Moving forward, we are committed to an increased level of transparency with our co-producing partners. We respect PBS guidelines and understand our obligation to maintain editorial integrity at all times.”
Poynter
Editorials/Columns
Several hundred working-class citizens from central Virginia have been left twisting in a different political wind blowing straight out of the Segregationist Era. Exercising their First Amendment rights of speech and association, they signed petitions to put former delegate Joseph D. Morrissey on the ballot for the 16th Senate District Democratic primary. It takes 250 signatures from qualified voters to earn a spot in the June contest. Democratic Party officials reviewing the petition signatures determined only 222 were from qualified voters — 28 fewer than needed. They denied the candidate access to the ballot. Our review of the petitions found at least 39 Virginians whose signatures may have been wrongfully disallowed. Let’s look at one person among the 39 whose signatures were removed from the Morrissey petition. She signed the petition listing a street in Precinct A as her residence. She is actually registered at a different street in Precinct A. That signature was not counted. Under the Constitution and state petition rules, the signature is almost certain to be counted on appeal. The AG, the SBE and the Democratic Party know the rules, but her signature still was not counted. Many of the dismissed signatures fit this example. Others seem to qualify under a previous AG ruling, state court precedent or one of those new 2013 laws. Our analysis links wrongful disqualifications to a bias against people who move frequently, typically working-class folks. It’s irrelevant whether the candidate in question is a saint or, in this case, persona non grata among the state’s political elite. We advocate for the right of all Virginians to choose.
Norman Leahy and Paul Goldman, Washington Post
State and Local Stories
A dozen Loudoun County school administrators and School Board Chairman Eric Hornberger (Ashburn) spent four hours in Loudoun County Circuit Court Thursday in a case brought against the school system by a parent who says they are concealing information that should be public. Brian Davison has filed a writ of mandamus that alleges School Board members and school system administrators violated the Virginia Freedom of Information Act by failing to respond adequately to numerous requests for information dating back to September. Davison has filed 53 FOIA requests in that time, 24 of which were filed in one hour, according to school system Public Information Officer Wayde Byard. His requests dealt with topics ranging from the salaries of all school system employees to all emails—more than 3,000—that refer to Student Growth Percentiles, which measure student improvement across grade levels. Judge Jeanette Irby later asked Davison whether he had paid Loudoun County Public Schools for any of his FOIA requests. “No,” he answered. “That’s all I need to know,” Irby responded. Interactions between Davison, school system attorney Julia B. Judkins and Irby got heated as the afternoon wore on. At one point, Irby referred to Davison’s argument as a “conspiracy theory.” When he asked her what she meant, she replied, “You’re stating that they were all conspiring to not provide you information.” After he interrupted her and Judkins on several occasions, Irby told Davison, “You’re so rude sometimes.”
Leesburg Today
Thomas K. Norment Jr., the majority leader of the Virginia Senate, has acknowledged a relationship with a lobbyist whose firm regularly pushed for legislation that Norment voted for and, in two cases, sponsored directly. Norment, a Williamsburg-area lawmaker who is among Virginia’s most powerful politicians, admitted the relationship while defending himself against allegations of wrongdoing made by a former legal client who tried to blackmail him. The allegations prompted federal investigators to review the relationship, but they closed the matter without bringing criminal charges. The client, Christopher J. Burruss, was sentenced April 1 to two years in prison on federal extortion charges. In addition to the blackmail attempt, Burruss had filed a complaint to the Virginia State Bar in 2013. In it, according to Norment spokesman Jeff Ryer, Burruss accused the lawmaker of myriad offenses, including doing political favors for the lobbyist because of their relationship. Norment (R-James City) denied wrongdoing in a response to the complaint, Ryer said. Norment also named the lobbyist, Angela Bezik, and disclosed the personal relationship, according to two people who have seen the confidential document. According to public records, Bezik’s firm lobbied the legislature on 126 different bills between 2011 and 2014, when the most recent data is available. Of the 63 measures that made it to the Senate floor for a vote, Norment did not abstain on any. There is no evidence that Norment gave Bezik’s issues special treatment. In other cases, lawmakers have tried to avoid even the appearance of a conflict of interest by not voting on measures when a family member or intimate friend also holds a stake in a matter.
Washington Post
National Stories
On Friday, we celebrate the birthday of one of America’s oldest cultural institutions: Barbra Streisand, looking great at 73! It also happens to be the birthday of the Library of Congress. Founded in 1800, the library is known today as the place that stores a single copy of every book ever published. “That’s actually not true,” says library spokeswoman Gayle Osterberg. “But we do have a lot of books — almost 24 million, plus the world’s largest law library. We have a comic book collection, a map collection, video games, violins, globes, just about everything.” Another common misconception is that the library is only for members of Congress, she says. “We want Washingtonians to know that anyone over 16 can get a Library of Congress card and use the reading room,” she says. “We also have exhibits, concerts and a weekly story time for little readers.”
Washington Post
On one side of the spectrum in the Senate there is Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, who has not missed a vote since taking office in 1997. At the opposite end are Ted Cruz of Texas and Marco Rubio of Florida. The two Republican presidential candidates' attendance records when it comes to Senate votes and attending hearings are some of lowest in the chamber, with Cruz being especially negligent as a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. Cruz has missed the majority of committee hearings and now ranks 97th in the first three months of this year in showing up for roll call votes on the floor.
Fox News Latino
The team behind an episode of PBS’ “Finding Your Roots” that glossed over movie star Ben Affleck’s slave-owning ancestry has apologized. On Thursday, Executive Producers Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Dyllan McGee addressed a note of apology to PBS station managers after word leaked that Affleck requested the genealogy show omit the fact that one of his relatives owned slaves. In the note, Gates and McGee express regret over “not sharing Mr. Affleck’s request that we avoid mention of one of his ancestors.” “We apologize for putting PBS and its member stations in the position of having to defend the integrity of their programming. Moving forward, we are committed to an increased level of transparency with our co-producing partners. We respect PBS guidelines and understand our obligation to maintain editorial integrity at all times.”
Poynter
Editorials/Columns
Several hundred working-class citizens from central Virginia have been left twisting in a different political wind blowing straight out of the Segregationist Era. Exercising their First Amendment rights of speech and association, they signed petitions to put former delegate Joseph D. Morrissey on the ballot for the 16th Senate District Democratic primary. It takes 250 signatures from qualified voters to earn a spot in the June contest. Democratic Party officials reviewing the petition signatures determined only 222 were from qualified voters — 28 fewer than needed. They denied the candidate access to the ballot. Our review of the petitions found at least 39 Virginians whose signatures may have been wrongfully disallowed. Let’s look at one person among the 39 whose signatures were removed from the Morrissey petition. She signed the petition listing a street in Precinct A as her residence. She is actually registered at a different street in Precinct A. That signature was not counted. Under the Constitution and state petition rules, the signature is almost certain to be counted on appeal. The AG, the SBE and the Democratic Party know the rules, but her signature still was not counted. Many of the dismissed signatures fit this example. Others seem to qualify under a previous AG ruling, state court precedent or one of those new 2013 laws. Our analysis links wrongful disqualifications to a bias against people who move frequently, typically working-class folks. It’s irrelevant whether the candidate in question is a saint or, in this case, persona non grata among the state’s political elite. We advocate for the right of all Virginians to choose.
Norman Leahy and Paul Goldman, Washington Post
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