Transparency News 9/11/15

Friday, September 11, 2015

 

State and Local Stories


Chesterfield County appears to have settled two lawsuits filed by a mother whose 7-year-old daughter died from an allergic reaction to peanuts at Hopkins Elementary School in 2012. The terms of those settlements are unknown because county officials and the mother’s lawyer either didn’t respond, referred questions to others or declined to comment when asked about the agreement. “We certainly appreciate you asking, but we will not be issuing a statement about the settlement,” David Goode, a spokesman for the county, said in an email.
Richmond Times-Dispatch

Several legal experts questioned the constitutionality of a new City Council rule that would impose penalties - including fines of at least $1,500 - on members or staff who speak publicly about closed meetings. Four legal experts said the rule is overreaching and overbroad and wouldn't hold up against the First Amendment. Two legal experts said the council had the right to restrict members' discussion of closed sessions. One couldn't say either way.
Virginian-Pilot

Pittsylvania County Circuit Court Judge Stacey W. Moreau has recused herself from a [FOIA] legal dispute between the Pittsylvania County Agricultural Development Board and three county citizens. Moreau’s decision came Thursday morning after an attorney representing the ag development board told her the county attorney would be a material witness in the case, which was scheduled to go to trial Thursday morning in Chatham. “I apologize it’s not being heard today,” Moreau said before the court. “We will get it [a new trial date] set as soon as possible.”
Register & Bee

Long before the days of social media posts seeking help with finding lost animals, farmers and ranchers in Rockingham County relied on the Estray Book. The 18th century tome is over 200 pages thick and features descriptions of livestock and where they were found in the county, allowing owners to claim animals that had strayed from their property. On Thursday, Chaz Evans-Haywood, clerk of the circuit court for Harrisonburg and Rockingham County, announced that the 1778-1857 Estray Book has been completely restored. Evans-Haywood presented the book to over 100 people gathered at the 64th annual membership meeting of the Rockingham County Farm Bureau, held at the Rockingham County Fairgrounds.
Daily News-Record

The first reading of a new ordinance that would allow the Board of Supervisors to remove an appointee from a county office drew no questions from board members at last week’s meeting. The proposed ordinance is in response to what county officials labeled as a gap in the current Amherst County Code. As it stands, the Board of Supervisors has the authority to appoint members to county boards and committees but lacks the ability to remove members. Should the ordinance pass, it would provide the Board of Supervisors the “formal authority” to remove an appointee from office.
New Era Progress

A political fight is simmering over a new law that threatens whether Norfolk-based People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and some other private shelters can continue operating in Virginia because their euthanasia rates are too high. The backdrop is the philosophical debate over the humane way to care for animals. Virginia animal shelters took in more than 223,000 dogs and cats in 2014. “No-kill” backers want to stop as many as possible from being euthanaized. Others, including PETA, say stopping the suffering of animals is impossible without euthanasia. Those opposed to the bill did not have an easy time this summer getting information from the government about how SB1381 would be implemented. The Agriculture Department charged PETA about $1,600 and still withheld many records under an exemption in Virginia’s FOIA for working papers of the governor’s office.
Virginian-Pilot

The sheriff’s office in Fairfax County, Va., released a graphic video on Thursday showing the struggle between officers and a mentally ill woman that preceded her death, and said it was conducting an internal affairs investigation into the episode, in which the officers used a stun gun four times on the woman. The video was released two days after Commonwealth’s Attorney Raymond F. Morrogh announced that he did not see probable cause to charge the officers with a crime. “It’s my responsibility as your sheriff to ensure that something like this never happens again,” Sheriff Stacey Kincaid said at the beginning of the video, which is more than 45 minutes long.
New York Times

National Stories
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Since Edward Snowden exposed the extent of online surveillance by the U.S. government, there has been a surge of initiatives to protect users’ privacy. But it hasn’t taken long for one of these efforts — a project to equip local libraries with technology supporting anonymous Internet surfing — to run up against opposition from law enforcement. In July, the Kilton Public Library in Lebanon, New Hampshire, was the first library in the country to become part of the anonymous Web surfing service Tor. The library allowed Tor users around the world to bounce their Internet traffic through the library, thus masking users’ locations. Soon after state authorities received an email about it from an agent at the Department of Homeland Security. “The Department of Homeland Security got in touch with our Police Department,” said Sean Fleming, the library director of the Lebanon Public Libraries. After a meeting at which local police and city officials discussed how Tor could be exploited by criminals, the library pulled the plug on the project.
ProPublica


Editorials/Columns

Governor, you don’t get to claim to be distraught over the bloody arrest of a black University of Virginia student at the hands of white Alcoholic Beverage Control agents, slurp up fawning news coverage when you order an immediate investigation into the matter and then keep the commonwealth in the dark about what really happened in Charlottesville early on the morning of March 18. You don’t get to essentially tell the public to trust you, that ABC agents did nothing wrong, and leave it there. That’s not good enough. Hiding the results of the investigation into the arrest of Martese Johnson by what sometimes looks like a rogue state agency doesn’t instill trust in government. It increases suspicion.
Kerry Dougherty, Virginian-Pilot

I’m a Cooperative Extension Specialist at the University of California-Davis, researching and teaching about animal genomics and biotechnology. As a scientist, my training is to write in the dry, succinct 3rd person. However, today I’m reflecting on my personal experience with the recent Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests targeting public sector scientists and communicators who are engaged in the public discussion about GMOs (genetically modified organisms).  I am writing this in the first person because there is something deeply intrusive about a third party requesting years’ worth of email correspondence. I guess I am not alone in academia in keeping all of my email correspondence, personal and professional, in one account—my university account. In the absence of a better solution, my email correspondence is quite honestly my somewhat disorganized “filing system”. 
Alison Van Eenennaam, Science 2.0