Transparency News 11/21/16
Monday, November 21, 2016
State and Local Stories
A Virginia Tech professor and two reporters for the Richmond Times-Dispatch will be honored Dec. 8 by the Virginia Coalition for Open Government. Professor Marc Edwards, who helped expose water contamination in Flint, Mich., will receive the citizen award, and reporters Sarah Kleiner and K. Burnell Evans will receive the media award at the coalition’s annual conference at James Madison’s Montpelier in Orange County. The awards are given to individuals or organizations who have made use of public information laws to keep government accountable.
Richmond Times-Dispatch
A federal judge is siding with the arguments of a local man embroiled in a lawsuit against the Charlottesville City Council over alleged free-speech violations. In a written opinion filed Friday, Judge Norman Moon agreed with Joseph Draego that a rule banning “group defamation” from the City Council’s public comment section violates the first and 14th amendments “on its face and as applied to (Draego).” As such, Moon ruled that the court will enjoin the council from applying the rule. Draego filed the suit after an incident at the June 20 council meeting, at which time he spoke out against the “allegedly unfettered Muslim immigration into his hometown,” as described by the latest filing.
Richmond Times-Dispatch
National Stories
Last week, the NYPD published a massive data set of historic crime data in the City’s open data portal. The data includes 5.5 million criminal complaints that were filed from January 2006 to December 2015, and covers “all valid felony, misdemeanor, and violation crimes reported to the New York City Police Department.” This data release is one of the largest of any kind in recent years, and provides a huge increase in the amount of publicly-available crime data. Previously, the NYPD only published historical information for the “seven major” felonies on the portal. (The 2016 Year-to-Date crimes are in a separate data set.)
Reinvent Albany
Attorneys from the Reporters Committee and Time Inc. filed a brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit today challenging a district court’s refusal to unseal at least four documents from the 1999 settlement of a class action lawsuit relating to the construction of Trump Tower. President-elect Donald J. Trump and The Trump Organization were among the defendants in the case, Hardy, et al. v. Kaszycki & Sons, et al. The plaintiffs in Hardy alleged that undocumented, non-union Polish workers were employed in connection with the demolition of the Bonwit Teller building in Manhattan to make way for Trump Tower, and that the businesses responsible for the demolition failed to make agreed-upon payments for those workers’ wages to construction union insurance trust funds and pension funds.
Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press
A man who died at Yellowstone National Park back in June was completely dissolved in acidic water after trying to 'hot pot' - or soak himself - in the waters of one of the park's hot springs, an official report has concluded. Until now, the brutal details of the 23-year-old's death had remained unclear. All that had been reported was that he fell into one of the springs in the Norris Geyser Basin on a Tuesday evening, and by Wednesday, there was nothing left of his body. It had entirely melted away. The official report on Colin Scott's death was recently released following a Freedom of Information Act request filed by KULR.
Science Alert
Editorials/Columns
THOMAS JEFFERSON was a complicated man. There are students and faculty now at U.Va. for whom this level of nuance and complexity are apparently too difficult to grasp. How else to explain the hundreds who complained to U.Va. President Teresa Sullivan when she quoted Jefferson in a letter to the university community about the recent election? That is a shame because there is much to glean from Jefferson’s thoughts on popular governance and the strength of the American people when challenged. To dismiss them out of hand would be a grave mistake. These are complicated times, but there is much strength, comfort, purpose and direction to be found in the words of those great statesmen who guided the nation through its darkest and most difficult hours. It would be folly for anyone — especially the commonwealth’s future leaders — to reject them now.
Virginian-Pilot
A week after the surprise of an unexpected presidential election outcome, elected leaders from Virginia’s 95 counties celebrated some community achievements while also worrying about state revenue shortfalls and worsening civil dialogue. Success stories included creation of full broadband internet access across a rural county and new oyster tourism and river recreation along a Virginia Oyster Trail. Worries about incivility prompted Del. Terry Kilgore, R-Gate City, to advise county officials to follow a simple rule when confronted with personal attacks in emails or social media comments. “Use the 24-hour rule,” Kilgore counseled a roomful of county supervisors at the annual conference of the Virginia Association of Counties. Wait 24 hours to cool off before responding to a nasty attack, he said.
Bob Gibson, Daily Progress
(Gibson serves on the VCOG board of directors)
Richmond Times-Dispatch
A federal judge is siding with the arguments of a local man embroiled in a lawsuit against the Charlottesville City Council over alleged free-speech violations. In a written opinion filed Friday, Judge Norman Moon agreed with Joseph Draego that a rule banning “group defamation” from the City Council’s public comment section violates the first and 14th amendments “on its face and as applied to (Draego).” As such, Moon ruled that the court will enjoin the council from applying the rule. Draego filed the suit after an incident at the June 20 council meeting, at which time he spoke out against the “allegedly unfettered Muslim immigration into his hometown,” as described by the latest filing.
Richmond Times-Dispatch
National Stories
Last week, the NYPD published a massive data set of historic crime data in the City’s open data portal. The data includes 5.5 million criminal complaints that were filed from January 2006 to December 2015, and covers “all valid felony, misdemeanor, and violation crimes reported to the New York City Police Department.” This data release is one of the largest of any kind in recent years, and provides a huge increase in the amount of publicly-available crime data. Previously, the NYPD only published historical information for the “seven major” felonies on the portal. (The 2016 Year-to-Date crimes are in a separate data set.)
Reinvent Albany
Attorneys from the Reporters Committee and Time Inc. filed a brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit today challenging a district court’s refusal to unseal at least four documents from the 1999 settlement of a class action lawsuit relating to the construction of Trump Tower. President-elect Donald J. Trump and The Trump Organization were among the defendants in the case, Hardy, et al. v. Kaszycki & Sons, et al. The plaintiffs in Hardy alleged that undocumented, non-union Polish workers were employed in connection with the demolition of the Bonwit Teller building in Manhattan to make way for Trump Tower, and that the businesses responsible for the demolition failed to make agreed-upon payments for those workers’ wages to construction union insurance trust funds and pension funds.
Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press
A man who died at Yellowstone National Park back in June was completely dissolved in acidic water after trying to 'hot pot' - or soak himself - in the waters of one of the park's hot springs, an official report has concluded. Until now, the brutal details of the 23-year-old's death had remained unclear. All that had been reported was that he fell into one of the springs in the Norris Geyser Basin on a Tuesday evening, and by Wednesday, there was nothing left of his body. It had entirely melted away. The official report on Colin Scott's death was recently released following a Freedom of Information Act request filed by KULR.
Science Alert
Editorials/Columns
THOMAS JEFFERSON was a complicated man. There are students and faculty now at U.Va. for whom this level of nuance and complexity are apparently too difficult to grasp. How else to explain the hundreds who complained to U.Va. President Teresa Sullivan when she quoted Jefferson in a letter to the university community about the recent election? That is a shame because there is much to glean from Jefferson’s thoughts on popular governance and the strength of the American people when challenged. To dismiss them out of hand would be a grave mistake. These are complicated times, but there is much strength, comfort, purpose and direction to be found in the words of those great statesmen who guided the nation through its darkest and most difficult hours. It would be folly for anyone — especially the commonwealth’s future leaders — to reject them now.
Virginian-Pilot
A week after the surprise of an unexpected presidential election outcome, elected leaders from Virginia’s 95 counties celebrated some community achievements while also worrying about state revenue shortfalls and worsening civil dialogue. Success stories included creation of full broadband internet access across a rural county and new oyster tourism and river recreation along a Virginia Oyster Trail. Worries about incivility prompted Del. Terry Kilgore, R-Gate City, to advise county officials to follow a simple rule when confronted with personal attacks in emails or social media comments. “Use the 24-hour rule,” Kilgore counseled a roomful of county supervisors at the annual conference of the Virginia Association of Counties. Wait 24 hours to cool off before responding to a nasty attack, he said.
Bob Gibson, Daily Progress
(Gibson serves on the VCOG board of directors)
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