State employees had high hopes for the two-year budget the General Assembly adopted in March, but seven months later, those hopes have been dashed against a projected $1.48 billion revenue shortfall that has claimed the pay raises they were promised, left hundreds of new positions unfunded, and could cost 26 of them their jobs. State police were among the losers in budget cuts that Gov. Terry McAuliffe announced Thursday to close an $861.4 million shortfall in this fiscal year alone. The governor’s plan will cancel scheduled pay raises that the legislature had tied to revenue projections, tap the “rainy day” fund for almost $400 million, and cut executive agency budgets by $73 million, requiring up to 26 layoffs, including 15 at the Library of Virginia.
Richmond Times-Dispatch
Freedom of speech — even speech that offends — is a cornerstone of the United States’ foundation, but lately, thoughts of whittling that freedom down have sparked debate across the nation’s college campuses. The “Free Speech on Campus” symposium kicked off Thursday at the University of Virginia School of Law. The two-day event, created by the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression, focuses on issues of free speech surrounding colleges and universities, and tackles tough topics, such as preserving open spaces and protecting all types of free speech. John C. Jeffries Jr., a UVa law professor, opened the symposium by highlighting the recent controversy at the University of Chicago when it sent a letter to incoming students explaining that the school would not support “trigger warnings” that would alert students to discussions or speakers who might be offensive. The school wrote the letter to endorse free speech of all kinds, Jeffries said. “Historically, colleges are places for open speech,” Jeffries said. “Today, I think students are more skeptical of free speech than their parents.”
Daily Progress
A Freedom of Information Act request submitted by a Pleasant View resident and former school board applicant to Amherst County school officials has netted more than 3,800 pages of emails sent and received by school administration and school board members over an eight-month period. Lisa Lloyd said the purpose of her Sept. 1 FOIA request was to see if school officials did research on other options for keeping Pleasant View Elementary School open prior to the efforts of a task force formed earlier this year. In a later email to the New Era-Progress, Nichols confirmed that Lloyd received documents from two separate requests, saying her first request yielded 198 pages while a second request numbered 3,842 pages of emails. He said there was a discrepancy due to the wording of the request. While the first request dealt with “Pleasant View Elementary School,” Superintendent Steven Nichols said the second request expanded to include the variations of the school’s name, including, but not limited to, “PVES,” “Pleasant View” and “PV.”
New Era-Progress
National Stories
The Charlotte Observer filed a lawsuit against North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory regarding a House Bill 2 public records request from April. Citing the state’s public records law, the Observer originally requested access to email exchanges between the governor and legislators, administrative officials, companies and others, said Rick Thames, the Observer’s executive editor. The governor’s press office acknowledged the request shortly afterward. “We think that it’s important to understand completely as possible the deliberation, the thought processes behind House Bill 2 — and House Bill 2 has had a tremendous impact on the state — so this is our only recourse,” Thames said. “The government has withheld the records and all we can do is now go to court and sue in an effort to get them.”
Daily Tarheel
Thousands of pages of complaints against Chicago police officers from the past 25 years were made public Wednesday after the police officer’s union lost a court fight to have the records destroyed. The I-Team reviewed the giant document dump, which reveals two things: the enormity of citizen complaints filed against Chicago officers in recent decades and the puny number of accusations that result in any action.
ABC 7
Georgia M. Curio, Assignment Judge for the Cumberland/Salem/Gloucester Vicinage in New Jersey, ruled that a Georgia-based investigative blogger can use the Open Public Records Act (OPRA) to obtain records from New Jersey government agencies. In the case, Heimlich v. Educational Information & Resource Center, et al, Docket No. GLO-L-779-16, Curio rebuffed the Educational Information & Resource Center’s claim that Hoffman was not entitled to use OPRA because he “provided no evidence that [he was] a citizen of New Jersey.” Curio, sitting in Woodbury, delivered her ruling orally from the bench and is unlikely to issue a written decision. She is the fourth judge to weigh in on the issue. Her opinion is in accord with decisions reached by Burlington County Assignment Judge Ronald E. Bookbinder and Ocean County Judge Mark A. Troncone. It is at odds with two decisions issued by Atlantic/Cape May Judge Nelson C. Johnson.
NJ Open Government Notes
Is the California State Legislature transparent enough? That’s the question voters are being asked to consider with Proposition 54. If approved, the measure would require that any bill in the Legislature be posted online for three days before going up for a vote. In addition, it would require the Legislature to record all of its public sessions online and make the video archives available.
New York Times
Editorials/Columns
On Facebook recently Douglas Muir, of late a lecturer at the University of Virginia, let fly with the sort of boneheaded rant that has become tiresomely familiar in recent years: He compared the Black Lives Matter movement to the Ku Klux Klan. This is like saying that because Eisenhower built roads and Hitler built roads, Eisenhower was a lot like Hitler. You can’t get much dumber than that. Unfortunately, the administrators at U.Va. managed to do so. They quickly announced that Muir had agreed to take a leave of absence. The university claims he volunteered and no disciplinary action was taken. Muir will return to teaching on Monday. To those who have followed the increasingly rigid atmosphere of left-wing orthodoxy at colleges around the country, however, it appears Muir was denounced and exiled for committing a thoughtcrime. How does silencing unpopular — and on campus, immensely unpopular — viewpoints like Muir’s advance U.Va.’s educational mission?
Richmond Times-Dispatch
The University of Virginia/Charlottesville racism controversy enters Round No. 2 with a formal apology from the lecturer (Doug Muir) who made offensive comments more than a week ago — and with the reaction to, and even backlash against, that apology. Three days ago, Mr. Muir released a statement of apology, saying: “I was wrong in my comparison and want to offer my profound apologies for my words. To my students, the University of Virginia, the citizens of Charlottesville and the thousands of responders, I am truly sorry. I have been saddened by the pain it has caused this wonderful community.” There are numerous angles of interest in this controversy, but at the moment we’re interested in the community’s response to Mr. Muir’s response. Now, ironically, some critics are complaining that his mea culpa was meaningless, merely a “carefully scripted non-apology apology.” Then again, we’re not the ones who were wounded. It is understandable that those who were directly insulted would want something more than an apology and a return to business as usual.
Daily Progress