Transparency News 8/24/17

Thursday, August 24, 2017

State and Local Stories

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The Peninsula Airport Commission plans to tighten up the way it buys things, formally proposing that airport officials must get price quotes on small purchases, permission on larger ones and provide more written explanations when they don’t use the low bidder.
Daily Press

Following at least a four-year trend, more than 70 percent of all people stopped by Charlottesville police for an “investigative detention” this year have been black. 
Jeff Fogel, a local activist attorney who requested data on the detentions from the city police, said the response to his inquiry reveals that the city is continuing to disproportionately target African-Americans. What’s more, he said, the number of stop-and-frisk detentions by the police is on track to double the annual average of the last two years.
Daily Progress

Frederick County Public Schools has launched a new mobile app to help students, parents and community members get information about the division faster and easier. “The way individuals access information is changing rapidly and mobile apps have become an important means of delivering and receiving information,” Frederick County Public Schools Coordinator of Policy and Communications Steve Edwards said in a news release Wednesday. “Nearly 40 percent of those who visit our school websites do so using a mobile device. By offering a mobile app, we will be better able to deliver important information to students and parents quickly and efficiently.”
Winchester Star



National Stories
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The two Seattle police officers who fatally shot Che Taylor last year have filed a defamation lawsuit against City Councilmember Kshama Sawant, alleging she falsely declared they had committed a "brutal murder" before they were cleared of wrongdoing by an inquest jury. The suit, filed last week in King County Superior Court, was brought against Sawant as an individual. The highly unusual suit does not name the city of Seattle or the City Council as defendants, pointedly stating that Officers Scott Miller and Michael Spaulding "do not want one red cent of public money." "This is a complaint seeking damages against one individual who, acting in her own capacity and only on her own behalf, defamed two good men," the suit says.
Governing

The North Dakota attorney general says Morton County did not violate the state's open records law when it refused to release information related to the Dakota Access pipeline protest. Benjamin Stoll asked for the opinion after being turned down on his request for video and photographs taken by law enforcement during a protest near a bridge on state Highway 1806 on Nov. 21. The Morton County State's Attorney's Office and Morton County Sheriff's Department cited a state law protecting records that are part of an active investigation. Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem said in an opinion released Wednesday that the material requested is essential for cases that have yet to be resolved and there are some matters scheduled into November.
McClatchy

The Justice Department is dropping the most controversial part of its demand for records relating to a website used to coordinate protests during the presidential inauguration. In court filings submitted Tuesday, ahead of a hearing Thursday in D.C. Superior Court, the government suggests modifications to the warrant it attained for files from web hosting company DreamHost, which hosted the website DisruptJ20.org. The change in scope was made "in light of factual revelations since July," the filings state.
NPR

The jury for U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez’s corruption trial is set. During the first day of jury selection, reporters complained of being kept out of proceedings after guards said potential jurors were taking up most of the seats in the courtroom. When guards finally permitted reporters in, the potential jurors had not yet entered. Reporters later discovered that Menendez and Melgen had been arraigned and pleaded not guilty to a revised indictment while the press waited outside. On Wednesday, Walls, 84, angrily denied he had sealed the courtroom. “It’s come to my attention, according to a press report, ‘No explanation was provided for why United States District Court William Walls sealed the courtroom,” Walls said. “This judge did not seal any courtroom yesterday and I suggest from now on when you print something from the public, you double check your sources. … At no time did I close this courtroom to you or members of the public.” The reports of a sealed courtroom did not rely on sources other than the reporters, who witnessed themselves being kept out of the courtroom.
Politico

The Secret Service has agreed to stop erasing White House visitor log data while a lawsuit demanding public access to some of the information goes forward. Justice Department lawyers said in a court filing Tuesday night that, pending resolution of the case, the Secret Service will suspend its practice of disposing of the information after it is transferred to a White House records repository. “Although not necessary to preserve the requested records, the Secret Service has stated that it will retain copies of all [appointment and visitor entry] data during the pendency of this litigation, and Secret Service has suspended auto-delete functions,” Justice Department lawyer Julie Straus Harris wrote in response to a lawsuit brought by the Public Citizen watchdog group.
Politico