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After deputies said they felt pressured to campaign for then-Sheriff Bill Watson during a hard-fought re-election race, The Virginian-Pilot sought to verify those claims by inspecting the contents of his work-issued cellphone. Under state law, text messages or call histories related to official business are public records. And deleting them when someone has asked to see them is illegal. But Watson, who lost the Nov. 7 election, later blew off the newspaper’s written records request. And now, less than a month after he left office, that phone is missing. In a profanity-laden tirade 10 days before his term ended, Watson told an editor he didn’t care if The Pilot got the records it was seeking. His former spokesman Lee Cherry – a supporter and close friend of Watson’s – had dismissed at least six attempts to obtain the information, claiming it didn’t exist.
Virginian-Pilot
Legislation that makes the Virginia court systems’ databases of case information and status available to the public won approval from key House of Delegates panel. The measure, which also sets clear rules for the first time about public access to records of district courts, where misdemeanors and preliminary hearings in felonies are heard, passed a House Courts of Justice subcommittee with no opposition. It details how court clerks are to ensure access to their records and says the Supreme Court’s Office of the Executive Secretary is responsible for public access to aggregated data — like the OES database that computer engineers re-created for the Daily Press, which the paper used to find signs of racial disparities in plea bargaining and punishment for probation violations. The bill also directs the OES to allow statewide searches of the online case information system that the database supports.
Daily Press
A House subcommittee is set to consider a proposal to bring new requirements to political advertisements. The bill, HB 76, would subject online ads to the same transparency rules as traditional media. “We have disclosure requirements for radio, for television and for print, but our existing campaign disclosure laws don't get into the issue of new media,” says Del. Marcus Simon (D-53). Having succeeded the late Jim Scott, who sponsored the 2002 legislation that mandated candidates in Virginia take ownership of their ads by identifying themselves and the office they’re seeking, Simon said he thought it only fitting “to bring that law into the 21st century,” and start applying it to the new platforms that politicians and their campaign teams are using to reach people. But beyond building on the transparency legacy, Simon says given the increasing number of people who turn to social networks for news and given reports of foreign interference in U.S. elections using the popular platforms, people have a right to know when they're viewing content that's designed to influence them.
WCVE
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"Emails and text messages sent and received by Chicago aldermen on their personal accounts and devices generally may not be subject to disclosure."