Transparency News 8/22/18

Wednesday
August 22, 2018

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state & local news stories

FOIA Council meetings are open to the public. Today's meeting at the Capitol starts at 1 p.m.

The Freedom of Information Advisory Council meets today at 1:00 in House Room 3 in the Capitol. Read the agenda here: http://foiacouncil.dls.virginia.gov/ag082218.pdf

After raised voices and pounding on the table, the Hopewell Electoral Board voted 2-1 on Tuesday to stand by its newly appointed registrar’s decision to create ballots that feature some candidates’ names in capital letters. State election officials, who review ballots before they’re printed, have told Registrar Yolanda Stokes that printing names in all caps is not permitted because it could create an unfair advantage, according to emails obtained through the Freedom of Information Act. “This is more a case for uniformity than it is for personal preference,” state Elections Administrator Matthew Abell wrote in an Aug. 2 email to Stokes. “If you allow different cases to be used, you open your office up for the loser to potentially contest the election since you didn’t handle ballot names uniformly.” In an interview, Stokes said she reproduced the names the same way the candidates filed them on their paperwork.
Richmond Times-Dispatch

stories of national interest

The Second Circuit backed the U.S. government on Tuesday for its refusal to share what could be hundreds of photographs depicting torture at Abu Ghraib prison. After 14 years in court, the federal appeals court agreed with the government that if released the photos could be used as a recruitment tool for the Islamic State group and otherwise harm U.S. personnel abroad. U.S. Circuit Judge Richard Wesley rejected the ACLU’s argument that the secretary of Defense needed to review every photograph individually to certify it was exempt from disclosure.
Courthouse News

Somewhat infamously, the Central Intelligence Agency’s FOIA office has for years relied on a single fax machine (along with a vaguely cumbersome portal), prompting jokes and criticism regarding the otherwise cutting-edge CIA insistence on the ‘80s technology instead of email. The system caused headaches internally as well, with the Agency routinely complaining about the number and size of faxes that they receive. So why, in 2016, when the CIA finally implemented an email account for FOIA for requesters to use, wasn’t there greater fanfare in FOIA community? Because the CIA never told requesters about it. Even searching the Agency’s website for the email address turns up nothing.
MuckRock

A Pulaski County, Arkansas, judge has ordered the release of Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge's work history at the Department of Human Services following a Freedom of Information Act request. This order stems from a lawsuit filed by Reed Brewer, Communications Director for Democratic Party of Arkansas, after his request for her personnel file was denied by DHS. Part of the FOIA request relates to Rutledge's job performance regarding her work with foster children while employed at DHS, as Brewer and the DPA have questioned the circumstances of Rutledge's departure from DHS.
KATV

The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and 35 media organizations asked a California appeals court to uphold a district court's decision to release videotape recordings of the 12-day bench trial in January 2010 that challenged the constitutionality of Proposition 8, a state constitutional amendment adopted in 2008 denying same-sex couples the right to marry. The district court ruled that the recordings could be released in 2020 after KQED, a public media broadcasting service in San Francisco, sought access to the recordings.
Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press