Transparency News 5/3/16

State and Local Stories

Petersburg’s treasurer says that publishing a list of delinquent taxpayers in a local newspaper has helped in collecting unpaid taxes in excess of $581,000 from more than 70 accounts. “These are funds that the city had budgeted to fund its operations, and the taxpayers that have failed to pay are forcing those who are in compliance to bear a heavier tax burden,” Kevin Brown said in a statement Monday. Brown said that his office is now undertaking “more serious efforts” to retrieve unpaid taxes that have contributed to the city’s budget shortfall. Making public the names of residents who have not paid their taxes, which were published recently in The Progress-Index, is authorized by law, Brown said.
Richmond Times-Dispatch

The state Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services was unable to complete a thorough investigation after the death of Jamycheal Mitchell in a Portsmouth jail cell last year because it did not have enough authority to access certain records and interview key employees, officials said Monday.
Richmond Times-Dispatch

Southampton County Judge Carl Eason Jr. earlier this month agreed to dismiss one of the pending lawsuits against the Town of Newsoms and acting mayor/vice mayor Harvey Porter on the condition that he resign. The lawsuit was brought on by six Newsoms residents who were requesting reinstatement of the town’s police department, a permanent injunction prohibiting town council from acting on any matters in a closed meeting and the appointment of a special commissioner to observe town council meetings and audit town accounts. They alleged that the town, and Porter both individually and in his official capacity, engaged in negligent, grossly negligent, wanton, intentional and/or criminal acts and/or accepted negligent or grossly negligent legal advice contrary to the town’s best interest. As of Friday, however, Porter was in the town offices conducting usual business.
Tidewater News



National Stories
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A U.S. judge partly dismissed a lawsuit filed by Twitter in which the social media company argued it should be allowed to publicly disclose more details about requests for information it receives from the U.S. government.
Reuters

On April 28, the leaders of the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary sent Gene L. Dodaro, the U.S. comptroller general, a letter requesting the General Accountability Office (GAO) conduct a comprehensive review of the federal government's compliance with the Freedom of Information Act.
Sunlight Foundation

Verbal attacks by presidential candidates in the U.S., new security laws in Europe and increased surveillance of information are some of the new challenges journalists face today, media freedom advocates said on the eve of World Press Freedom Day. World Press Freedom Day aims to raise awareness of press freedom. It falls this year on Tuesday, coinciding with the 250th anniversary of the world’s first freedom of information law and the 25th anniversary of the adoption of the Windhoek Declaration of press freedom principles in Africa. Last year was one of the worst years for press freedom, according to Sarah Repucci, project director at the Freedom House, a non-partisan group that researches issues relating to human rights and other basic freedoms.
USA Today



Editorials/Columns

Harvard got an award. As did Yale. And UC-Berkeley, Brown, Oberlin, Princeton, Duke, Wesleyan and 42 other so-called institutions of higher learning. But I doubt one will hear any crowing about it: the prize was the Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression’s annual “Muzzle Award,” given to the institution or individual who most contributed to eliminating free speech in our country. In the 1960s, university authorities around the country sought to limit students’ access to a wider variety of opinion than was present on campus. Reaction included the Berkeley Free Speech Movement and its clones across the country, all of which fought to widen students’ intellectual worlds. Now, the shoe is on the other foot: students and faculty wishing to remain in their good graces shout down, restrict or dispose of opinions which disturb the orthodoxies of the left so prevalent in academia today.
Morgan Liddick, News Virginian