Transparency News, 2/26/21

 

No surprise that the conference report on the budget bill offered yesterday does not include the language amendment offered by Del. David Reid (D-Ashburn) to require university boards of visitors to post email addresses for each member of the board.

Two state senators want a select committee formed to investigate “serious damaging allegations” of wrongdoing by the Virginia Parole Board following a revelation this week of new documents related to how the board handled the release of a man who killed a Richmond police officer in 1979. WTVR-TV in Richmond reported Tuesday on the previously unreleased records from the Office of the State Inspector General, the watchdog agency that found last year that the parole board and its former chairwoman violated state law and board policies in granting release to Vincent Martin. The Richmond Times-Dispatch on Thursday obtained a copy of those records in the form of an inspector general report. The new documents, which are an extension by seven pages of the earlier six-page report released to Republican state legislators in August and then to the news media, appear to be a draft and include additional allegations and an expanded narrative. 
Richmond Times-Dispatch

The draft copy leaked to press this week is over twice as long, at 13 pages. It was originally reported by CBS 6. Reports say the draft details allegations against former board chair Adrianne Bennett and current chair Tonya Chapman that were left out of the official report. Bennett left her post for a judgeship in April. Chapman has called for an investigation into the IG’s office to determine who leaked the draft report. The new document, as a draft, is actually more of an old document. It’s still unknown who released it, and why it’s [sic] existence has apparently not been well known until this point. It’s also unclear why the newly released allegations weren’t shared in the official report released last summer. Del. Todd Gilbert (R-Shenandoah) shared CBS 6’s reporting on the House floor, repeating some of the alleged unlawful activity included in it. Del. Don Scott (D-Portsmouth) responded, arguing that the allegations against Chapman were unproven and largely left out of the official report. He also said some Republicans might be motivated by opposition to the work of the parole board.
VPM

The Suffolk School Board has appointed former mayor Linda Johnson to fill the Sleepy Hole Borough seat on an interim basis. The vacancy had come after David Mitnick stepped down for health reasons at the board’s Jan. 14 meeting.  Six people applied for the seat. Besides Johnson, Jason Fawcett, Christopher Old, Trisha James, Ebony Wright and Carly Bosco sought the appointment. Fawcett, the son of Councilman Roger Fawcett, said he did not approve of the selection process and said he would seek legal counsel on the issue. He also vowed to run in the special election. The board held a pair of special meetings on Feb. 18 and Feb. 22 to interview candidates in closed session — three at each meeting. While Fawcett and two other candidates interviewed in person in front of the board at the College and Career Academy at Pruden Feb. 18, the other three interviewed remotely Feb. 22. Fawcett said that created an unfair playing field for the two sets of candidates.
Suffolk News-Herald

Angela Hinman “Angel” Taylor, the former Hallwood town clerk who was charged with 65 felony counts of embezzlement, pleaded guilty to 12 felony charges in Accomack circuit court Thursday in a plea agreement with the commonwealth. The crimes occurred between Aug. 31, 2011, and Sept. 12, 2017. During the course of a state police investigation, a Virginia State Police special agent identified 65 instances when Taylor, 48, of Hall Street in Hallwood, committed felony embezzlement by writing checks to herself and paying her personal electric bill with town funds. There were also two misdemeanor charges. Because all the town’s financial records were lost when Taylor’s car caught fire and burned with the records inside shortly before a town audit was scheduled, the commonwealth was not able to prove other money was taken as well, said Commonwealth’s Attorney Spencer Morgan. The car was hauled to a local salvage yard, crushed, and taken away before town officials found out about it, Hallwood Mayor Jackie Poulson said in October 2017.
Eastern Shore Post

“Murder the media.” More than a month later, those words scribbled inside the walls of the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6 insurrection still are haunting to journalists everywhere. They are a reminder of how, despite freedom of the press being a pillar holding up our democracy, there are those who seek to silence the news media. And yet, student journalists like me have been struggling with a version of this reality for far too long. With every article we write, we have a constant threat looming over our heads, knowing that our voices can be silenced at any moment for virtually any arbitrary or capricious reason. 
Pratika Katiyar, Richmond Times-Dispatch