Transparency News 10/26/17

Thursday, October 26, 2017

Transparency News will be on vacation tomorrow (Friday). See you Monday!

State and Local Stories

A request for the governor's office to be more transparent in its review of the August events in Charlottesville is revealing a frustration from the state with the city's response. In this letter, the governor's office says the City of Charlottesville has refused to provide information about the events surrounding the Unite the Right rally to a state review panel.
WVIR
Read the governor’s response (and VCOG’s original letter)

Chesterfield County’s elected leaders may soon be asking state lawmakers to hold off on any additional local mandates, support more transportation funding and not restrict the county’s autonomy. The Board of Supervisors took up the county’s proposed legislative agenda Wednesday and are expected to adopt it Nov. 15. Supervisor Steve Elswick agreed with Holland, and expressed disappointment with a state mandate that would require the county to install a checkbook detailing the county’s finances online. He wondered whether the state could put a checkbook online, and then localities could tack on to that software rather than localities being required to take up the expense themselves. Supervisor James  Holland said “amen” in response to Elswick’s comment.
Richmond Times-Dispatch



National Stories
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As a new trove of documents about the killing of President John F. Kennedy is released, the New York Times correspondent Peter Baker walks us through who’s who in this historic American tragedy.
New York Times

Two emails from Hillary Clinton's private server concerning the U.S. response to the Benghazi attack will be withheld, following U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson's decision to uphold the Trump administration's right to not release the documents. The messages were from Sept. 13, 2012, just two days following the attack of the U.S. embassy in Libya. Each had the subject line: "Quick Summary of POTUS Calls to Presidents of Libya and Egypt," according to Politico. Jackson had initially ordered the emails be disclosed to conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch. But the State Department said it erred and did not categorize the information as classified and requested Jackson to reverse the order. As a result, the documents will be withheld.
Washington Examiner