Transparency News 10/8/17

Monday, October 9, 2017



State and Local Stories

One morning in early March, an employee at Newport News/Williamsburg International Airport voiced surprise that the airport’s then-executive director, Ken Spirito, was shredding documents. At 8:28 a.m. on March 2, accounting administration specialist Lisa Ortiz texted her boss, Renee Ford, the airport’s finance and administration director. “Wow Ken is shredding shredding shredding,” Ortiz wrote. Ford texted back: “Unbelievable!” Ortiz: “Seems kind of weird.” Ford: “This is getting out of hand!” That exchange took place about five weeks after the Virginia Department of Transportation publicly announced that it had launched an audit of the Newport News airport. The audit, announced Jan. 27, began after the Daily Press reported that the airport had used $5 million in taxpayer money to guarantee a risky loan to a startup airline in 2014.
Daily Press

At the historic Buchanan Theater, a Main Street icon in this small town, recent showings have featured a gun-slinging battle of good versus evil in “The Dark Tower,” high-speed automotive action in “The Fate of the Furious,” and the World War II story of “Dunkirk.” And for the drama of small-town politics, meetings of the Buchanan Town Council. Faced with large crowds and the controversies that draw them, the council has been forced at least four times since May to move its meetings from Town Hall across the street to the theater, where more seating is available. A folding table on the stage serves as a makeshift dais. The most recent change of venue was for a public hearing Tuesday, when comments about revisions to the town charter turned into a debate about whether the town manager, Mary Zirkle, should be a resident of Buchanan.
The Roanoke Times

The judge hearing opposing motions in the $6.35 million lawsuit brought by a former Loudoun detective against Sheriff Mike Chapman (R) and the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors said Friday he hopes to make a decision on submitted motions within the next 10 days.
Loudoun Times-Mirror

The state is not saying much about why it is seeking a potential new location for the New College Institute. Dena Potter, communications director for the Virginia Department of General Services (DGS), wrote in an email to the Martinsville Bulletin that by doing so, the department is simply following direction it received from the General Assembly in legislation adopted earlier this year. The RFP asked that proposals be submitted by Sept. 7. It told real estate professionals that “proposals are subject to the provisions of the Virginia Freedom of Information Act” (FOIA) and to “please indicate in advance if any information to be provided is of a confidential nature. Proposers will be advised if confidentiality is legally permissible and under what conditions.” When asked for details of any proposals received, Potter wrote that “we cannot release those details at this time.” Asked why, she referred to FOIA provisions that exempt from release “appraisals and cost estimates of real property subject to a proposed purchase, sale or lease, prior to the completion” of such transactions.
Martinsville Bulletin

Researchers at the Hunter Holmes McGuire VA Medical Center in Richmond have induced heart attacks in dogs, surgically implanted pacemakers into them and trained them to run on treadmills, all in the name of studying heart health in humans. Some of the experiments are known to inflict severe pain in the dogs and puppies — some are as young as 6 months — while withholding pain relief. A public backlash has grown around the experiments since details came to light through lawsuits and Freedom of Information Act requests filed by the White Coat Waste Project, a Washington, D.C.-based watchdog group with a goal of ending taxpayer-funded animal experiments. “We filed (FOIA) requests to get more details about the current projects happening at the Richmond VA, and discovered through those requests that Richmond is the only federal facility in the country that is conducting so-called maximum pain experiments on dogs, in which significant pain is induced and is intentionally not relieved,” said Justin Goodman, the group’s vice president of advocacy and public policy.
Richmond Times-Dispatch




National Stories

Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach urged President Donald Trump to pursue changes to federal voting law to promote proof-of-citizenship requirements, according to documents unsealed Thursday by a federal judge. Kobach, a candidate for Kansas governor and the vice chair of Trump's voting commission, was photographed carrying a strategic plan for the Department of Homeland Security into a meeting with Trump in November.  The American Civil Liberties Union sought the documents as part of an ongoing lawsuit challenging a Kansas law that requires voters to provide proof of citizenship, such as a birth certificate or passport, when they register.
Governing

Hackers or foreign governments may have had access to White House Chief of Staff John Kelly's personal phone as far back as December.  That's according to a report from Politico, citing three US government officials.  A spokesman for the White House was not immediately available for comment.  The potential breach highlights the fact that anyone can be susceptible to a hack, an issue made evident by the widespread attacks ranging from the WannaCry software exploit to Americans having their data exposed in the Equifax hack.  The White House told Politico that Kelly had not used the phone since joining the administration, and relied on a government-issued handset for official communications. One of the officials told the political news site that Kelly was using a different personal phone. 
CNET News

The Federal government is finding new ways to make Federal spending data more transparent to citizens by launching the Treasury Department’s Data Lab, and considering a bill that would add open data requirements to Federal grants. The Treasury Department’s Data Lab hosts information on Federal spending accounts, government contractors, budget functions, and Federal employment. The source code for the site is available on GitHub and users can provide feedback to site administrators. The site uses data from USAspending.gov.
MeriTalk

The NAACP is suing the Commerce Department under provisions in the Freedom of Information Act, after the department failed to hand over information the NAACP requested in June about Census Bureau efforts to organize the 2020 census.  The Commerce Department — according to the complaint filed by the NAACP, the NAACP Connecticut State Conference and the NAACP Boston Branch — is unlawfully withholding records about the Census Bureau's plans to mitigate risks in the 2020 census as identified by the Government Accountability Office (GAO). 
CBS News


Editorials/Columns

Whether the letter of the law was broken when Franklin County officials decided to allow the local YMCA to skip paying rent, the spirit was splintered. Behind closed doors earlier this year, supervisors and county Administrator Brent Robertson discussed the local Y and its finances. After that private discussion, the Franklin County YMCA was given leave to forgo seven months’ rent, a move that will cost taxpayers more than $53,000 by year’s end. Supporting the Y for all the good it does the community through programs it provides is well within the purview of those elected by voters in Franklin County to represent them. The problem is, those voters ought to be able to see those decisions as they are made and be given the opportunity to object in real time if they don’t agree. Acting in the dark as officials did in this matter, whether that action violated open government law, deprived the people of Franklin County the opportunity to sound off if they preferred a different action.
The Franklin News-Post

Tim Heaphy’s donations to Democrats don’t necessarily mean that he can’t be acceptably objective in evaluating Charlottesville’s mistakes before and during the deadly Aug. 12 white supremacist rally. But that doesn’t mean critics are wrong, either, in training the spotlight on those donations and on other issues.
The Daily Progress