Transparency News 12/16/16
Friday, December 16, 2016
State and Local Stories
A judge Thursday barred the media from covering State Del. Rick Morris's case in Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court. Morris, 48, was scheduled to appear in court for a preliminary hearing on charges he abused his wife and a child in his Whaleyville home. He faces seven felonies and seven misdemeanors – including felony child endangerment and felony cruelty and injuries to children. Judge Robert S. Brewbaker Jr., however, signed an order prohibiting reporters with The Virginian-Pilot and other newspapers and television stations from being present during the hearing or "providing coverage."
Virginian-Pilot
A three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Thursday that the Petersburg Police Department’s social media policy is unconstitutional. In a 27-page opinion, the judges also held that disciplinary measures taken against two former officers for violating the policy were impermissible and that John Dixon III, the former chief of police, was not entitled to “qualified immunity” in the case. In 2013 the department issued a general order revising the department’s social networking policy that among other things barred the dissemination of anything “that would tend to discredit or reflect unfavorably upon the (department) or any other City of Petersburg Department or its employees.”
Richmond Times-Dispatch
Franklin’s city council appointed three new school board members and reappointed former board members Dr. Andrea Hall-Leonard and Bob Holt at their regular scheduled council meeting on Monday. “If you’re going to appoint one or two [previous members] then you might as well appoint all who wanted to come back,” Councilwoman Mary Hilliard said. “It’s nothing against Mr. Holt.” Hilliard added that she voted in favor of reappointing Hall-Leonard despite the grilling the former chairwoman endured at council’s Oct. 26 meeting because she presented her case well during the closed-session interviewsconducted last week.
Tidewater News
National Stories
Metro fired six workers after determining that nearly half of the agency’s 60-person track-inspection department created a pattern of fabrication and negligence that led to the derailment of a Silver Line train in July, the transit agency said Thursday. The fired employees falsified track-inspection records for as long as three years, officials said. A criminal investigation ended without charges, but the findings of Metro’s internal review have been sent to prosecutors to decide whether to pursue other legal action.
Washington Post
An entire Indiana town has no police officers after every single one walked off the job. The officers blame the Bunker Hill Town Council for the situation. “We have had issues with the town board and there are some activities there where I felt like they were serving their own agenda,” said former Bunker Hill Town Marshal Michael Thomison. In their resignation letters, the officers accuse council members of asking them to “do illegal, unethical, and immoral things.” They cited examples like asking police to run background checks on other town councilors to find their criminal history. The officers also claim they were threatened when they said no.
Indianapolis Star
The North Carolina General Assembly called its fourth special session of the year Wednesday afternoon. A regulatory reform bill filed in the House would create a new exemption for certain information held by the public utility comission, expand two other existing exemptions related to personal information and would significantly change how government agencies can provide access to public records. A separate bill would exempt photographs of people who have been arrested. A third would exempt certain information about community association managers.
Sunshine Center at Elon University
Transcripts of witness testimony from a historic 1942 grand jury investigation of the Chicago Tribune are now public, following a lengthy court battle to unseal them. The testimony was part of an investigation that arose out of a Tribune article that ran at the height of World War II. The June 1942 report by Tribune correspondent Stanley Johnston about the famed battle of Midway noted that the U.S. Navy knew the Japanese would attack by sea – revealing the highly classified information that the U.S. had cracked the Japanese code. The subsequent grand jury investigation of Johnston and the Tribune marks the only time in U.S. history that the government has attempted to prosecute a major newspaper for violating the Espionage Act for publishing leaked classified information. The grand jury ultimately refused to issue an indictment.
Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press
Editorials/Columns
We’ll see what today’s settlement conference yields in the First Amendment case against Charlottesville City Council, but already the suit has borne fruit: Council has dropped one of its draconian regulations governing speakers’ rights at its meetings. Earlier this year, Albemarle County resident Joe Draego sued Council after his speaking time was cut short at a meeting in June. He was forcibly removed from chambers by two police officers after then lying on the floor in an act of civil disobedience. At the time, Council had a new rule — one of many — against “group defamation.” Mr. Draego had launched into a lecture against Muslims and Muslim immigration into Charlottesville, triggering the Council’s censorship. As long as members of the public agree in unanimity, without the least hint of controversy, the First Amendment isn’t even really necessary. But what kind of a democracy would that be? The First Amendment is necessary when someone — or some group — tries to smother an opponent’s ability to speak out. And the more controversial, even offensive, that speech might be, the more important the amendment is.
Daily Progress
Virginian-Pilot
A three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Thursday that the Petersburg Police Department’s social media policy is unconstitutional. In a 27-page opinion, the judges also held that disciplinary measures taken against two former officers for violating the policy were impermissible and that John Dixon III, the former chief of police, was not entitled to “qualified immunity” in the case. In 2013 the department issued a general order revising the department’s social networking policy that among other things barred the dissemination of anything “that would tend to discredit or reflect unfavorably upon the (department) or any other City of Petersburg Department or its employees.”
Richmond Times-Dispatch
Franklin’s city council appointed three new school board members and reappointed former board members Dr. Andrea Hall-Leonard and Bob Holt at their regular scheduled council meeting on Monday. “If you’re going to appoint one or two [previous members] then you might as well appoint all who wanted to come back,” Councilwoman Mary Hilliard said. “It’s nothing against Mr. Holt.” Hilliard added that she voted in favor of reappointing Hall-Leonard despite the grilling the former chairwoman endured at council’s Oct. 26 meeting because she presented her case well during the closed-session interviewsconducted last week.
Tidewater News
National Stories
Metro fired six workers after determining that nearly half of the agency’s 60-person track-inspection department created a pattern of fabrication and negligence that led to the derailment of a Silver Line train in July, the transit agency said Thursday. The fired employees falsified track-inspection records for as long as three years, officials said. A criminal investigation ended without charges, but the findings of Metro’s internal review have been sent to prosecutors to decide whether to pursue other legal action.
Washington Post
An entire Indiana town has no police officers after every single one walked off the job. The officers blame the Bunker Hill Town Council for the situation. “We have had issues with the town board and there are some activities there where I felt like they were serving their own agenda,” said former Bunker Hill Town Marshal Michael Thomison. In their resignation letters, the officers accuse council members of asking them to “do illegal, unethical, and immoral things.” They cited examples like asking police to run background checks on other town councilors to find their criminal history. The officers also claim they were threatened when they said no.
Indianapolis Star
The North Carolina General Assembly called its fourth special session of the year Wednesday afternoon. A regulatory reform bill filed in the House would create a new exemption for certain information held by the public utility comission, expand two other existing exemptions related to personal information and would significantly change how government agencies can provide access to public records. A separate bill would exempt photographs of people who have been arrested. A third would exempt certain information about community association managers.
Sunshine Center at Elon University
Transcripts of witness testimony from a historic 1942 grand jury investigation of the Chicago Tribune are now public, following a lengthy court battle to unseal them. The testimony was part of an investigation that arose out of a Tribune article that ran at the height of World War II. The June 1942 report by Tribune correspondent Stanley Johnston about the famed battle of Midway noted that the U.S. Navy knew the Japanese would attack by sea – revealing the highly classified information that the U.S. had cracked the Japanese code. The subsequent grand jury investigation of Johnston and the Tribune marks the only time in U.S. history that the government has attempted to prosecute a major newspaper for violating the Espionage Act for publishing leaked classified information. The grand jury ultimately refused to issue an indictment.
Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press
Editorials/Columns
We’ll see what today’s settlement conference yields in the First Amendment case against Charlottesville City Council, but already the suit has borne fruit: Council has dropped one of its draconian regulations governing speakers’ rights at its meetings. Earlier this year, Albemarle County resident Joe Draego sued Council after his speaking time was cut short at a meeting in June. He was forcibly removed from chambers by two police officers after then lying on the floor in an act of civil disobedience. At the time, Council had a new rule — one of many — against “group defamation.” Mr. Draego had launched into a lecture against Muslims and Muslim immigration into Charlottesville, triggering the Council’s censorship. As long as members of the public agree in unanimity, without the least hint of controversy, the First Amendment isn’t even really necessary. But what kind of a democracy would that be? The First Amendment is necessary when someone — or some group — tries to smother an opponent’s ability to speak out. And the more controversial, even offensive, that speech might be, the more important the amendment is.
Daily Progress
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