Transparency News 11/2/17

Thursday, November 2, 2017


State and Local Stories

Transparency Virginia, a volunteer group of lobbyists and advocates, in partnership with VCOG sent a survey out to every person listed on the State Board of Elections website as a candidate for next week’s House of Delegates election asking this question: Would you support amending the House rules to require a recorded vote (by name) for motions to table (defeat) bills in committee and subcommittee? Here’s who voted “yes.” 
Transparency Virginia

A News Leader investigation and resulting changes won recognition for furthering open government. Reporter and enterprise editor Jeff Schwaner spent several months investigating how troubled pharmacists and pharmacies are handled by the state of Virginia. He detailed issues with consumer access to probation decisions, and found issues in the Valley with prescription errors and inspection results. The Virginia Coalition for Open Government gives the award. They announced it Monday.
News Leader

After facing criticism from residents over transparency, the members of the Chesterfield County School Board likely will reverse course on meeting setups. Schools Superintendent James Lane will recommend tacking the School Board’s monthly work session onto its monthly business meeting. The move would mean all of the School Board’s meetings would be held at centrally located rooms at the county government complex. The work session would be held in a conference room that’s equipped for audio recording, while the vote-taking business meetings would continue to be held in a nearby public meeting room that’s capable of video and audio livestreaming.
Richmond Times-Dispatch



National Stories
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Never-before-seen video of Osama bin Laden's son and potential successor was released Wednesday by the CIA in a trove of material recovered during the May 2011 raid that killed the al-Qaida leader at his compound in Pakistan. The video offers the first public look at Hamza bin Laden as an adult. Until now, the public has only seen childhood pictures of him. It was the fourth trove of documents, images and computer files recovered during the raid of bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. Earlier materials were released in May 2015, March 2016 and in January of this year.
Virginian-Pilot

The California Legislature paid at least $580,000 in the last five years to settle harassment, racism and other claims, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press. In one case, a payout included a stipulation forbidding the claimant from making "derogatory statements" about lawmakers or Senate business. The previously unreported roughly $44,500 settlement in 2015 with former Senate human resources department employee Anita Belmontes and her lawyers was included in settlement documents obtained by the AP through a public records request. They provide the fullest picture yet of the level of taxpayer dollars spent since 2012 to settle claims.
McClatchy

Yvette Felarca, the Berkeley middle school teacher who is a national organizer for the radical group By Any Means Necessary, filed a lawsuit Monday to prevent the school district from releasing emails about her to a far-right group. Felarca and two others who work at Martin Luther King, Jr. Middle School are asking the federal courts to issue a temporary restraining order stopping the release of emails containing the words “Felarca,” “Antifa,” and “By All Means Necessary,” [sic] and “BAMN” to Judicial Watch. Vince Chhabria, the U.S. District Court Judge overseeing the case, issued a tentative ruling Tuesday ordering BUSD to delay the date it had asked MLK staff to turn over relevant emails so that it could comply with Judicial Watch’s request.
Berkeleyside

The American-Statesman has sued the city of Austin after officials denied requests under the Texas Public Information Act to disclose the identities of finalists for city manager. The Statesman filed the suit Tuesday in a Travis County district court as the Austin City Council began the first of two days of interviewing finalists. The lawsuit seeks disclosure of the city manager candidates’ names. The Statesman has independently confirmed the identities of four of the candidates. “The residents of Austin will be paying the salary for a new city manager, and at the very least should know the finalists being considered by the city for such a critical role,” Statesman executive editor Debbie Hiott said. “Whether the City Council agrees or not, the legislative intent of the Texas Public Information Act has always been clear, that this is the type of information the public is entitled to know. If the city doesn’t want to inform the public, the newspaper will.”
Austin American-Statesman