Transparency News is brought to you by the
Virginia Coalition for Open Government
Friday, September 9, 2016
State and Local Stories
Celebrate VCOG’s 20th anniversary with us: Sept. 22 at Rocketts Landing in Richmond. Click the image below to go to the ticket page.
Bonnie Good has resigned her seat as chairwoman of the Mount Jackson Planning Commission following an advisory opinion issued by Commonwealth’s Attorney Amanda McDonald Wisely that finds a new commission member does not have a conflict of interest in his role on the panel. Wiseley wrote the opinion in response to a request made by Robert Whitehurst Jr. , who inquired whether or not he has a legal conflict of interest given his seat in government. Whitehurst owns 136 acres of land zoned for industrial use to be used in Mount Jackson’s “megasite” along with another 576 acres zoned for agriculture use. The town annexed the land at Whitehurst’s and his sister Eleanor Whitehurst’s request in 2015, before Whitehurst was tapped for his seat on the Planning Commission. “I appreciate her [Wiseley’s] response, but it was an uninformed response,” Good said. “The only reason we are dealing with this comprehensive plan right now is because of Mr. Whitehurst.” Northern Virginia Daily
National Stories
A week and a half ago, Tennessee Attorney General Herb Slatery's office issued an opinion stating that none of the donors contributing funds towards the construction of the new Tennessee State Museum need to be made public, as the non-profit Tennessee State Museum Foundation is not itself a governmental entity. But as the Knoxville News Sentinel reports, not everyone is happy with this: Gov. Bill Haslam — who is leading the campaign — says the names should be made public, but not the exact amount of each contribution. The governor's position, relayed through spokeswoman Jennifer Donnals, is criticized as "a half-baked disclosure" and likened to "being a little bit pregnant" by Victor Ashe, a former Knoxville mayor and U.S. ambassador to Poland who is a member both of the board overseeing museum operations and the Tennessee Coalition on Open Government, which advocates transparency in governmental operations. Nashville Post
An open records case being fought by Attorney General Brad Schimel will go before the Wisconsin Supreme Court on Tuesday. The Republican who tries to position himself as a strong advocate of transparency and regularly holds training sessions for government officials on the open meetings and records laws is appealing to keep secret a pair of law enforcement training videos made when he was working as the Waukesha County district attorney. The Wisconsin Democratic Party sued in 2014, weeks before Schimel was elected attorney general, to force the state Justice Department to release the videos made in 2009 and 2013. Democrats say the videos show Schimel making questionable remarks at State Prosecutors Education and Training seminars, which were sponsored by the department. The lawsuit offered no evidence supporting the allegation, which Schimel has denied. WISN
A computer specialist who deleted Hillary Clinton’s emails despite orders from Congress to preserve them was given immunity by the Justice Department during its investigation into her personal email account, according to a law enforcement official and others briefed on the investigation. Republicans have called for the department to investigate the deletions, but the immunity deal with the specialist, Paul Combetta, makes it unlikely that the request will go far. New York Times
Two North Carolina men were arrested on Thursday for allegedly hacking several senior U.S. government officials as part of a group called "Crackas With Attitude,"according to documents filed in federal court on Thursday. Reuters and other media outlets have reported that hackers who broke into CIA Director John Brennan's personal account in 2015 called themselves by that name. According to the court complaint, the group allegedly gained access to personal accounts of senior U.S. government officials and their family members and posted derogatory information obtained through those accounts on the internet. Reuters
Friday, September 9, 2016
