Transparency News, 8/30/21

A Nevada school board member said he had thoughts of suicide before stepping down amid threats and harassment. In Virginia, a board member resigned over what she saw as politics driving decisions on masks. The vitriol at board meetings in Wisconsin had one member fearing he would find his tires slashed. School board members are largely unpaid volunteers, traditionally former educators and parents who step forward to shape school policy, choose a superintendent and review the budget. But a growing number are resigning or questioning their willingness to serve as meetings have devolved into shouting contests between deeply political constituencies over how racial issues are taught, masks in schools, and COVID-19 vaccines and testing requirements.
Associated Press

The Buchanan County School Board has received a legal caution related to opening meetings with a Christian prayer. Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF), a Wisconsin-based organization, sent a letter to the board after learning members “routinely” begin meetings with a prayer that, it says, is unconstitutional. Christopher Line, an attorney with FFRF, said in the letter starting public school board meetings with a Christian prayer excludes nonreligious or non-Christian students, teachers and parents. Scheduling or conducting prayer as part of a school board meeting violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, Line said of the amendment that prohibits a government entity to promote or endorse one religion over another. The non-profit organization also sent a letter to Bland County Sheriff Jason Ramsey regarding “bible verses, prayer requests and other religious messages” Ramsey posts on the official Sheriff’s Office Facebook page.
Bluefield Daily Telegraph

 

An influential North Dakota government board adopted new rules governing its interactions with the press on Thursday, Aug. 26. The media policy for the Board of University and School Lands was suggested earlier this summer by Gov. Doug Burgum in response to statements made by Land Commissioner Jodi Smith to some reporters, which he said could create incorrect perceptions about the panel's relationship with the North Dakota oil and gas industry.  Among the conditions instituted under the new policy, the land commissioner is expected to inform members of the board of any “significant” interactions she has with the media. It also specifies that she cannot make any policy statements to the press on issues before the board until its members have formulated an official position.
Grand Forks Herald

It took only one email from scammers to get the Rock Island County (Iowa) auditor's office to wire $97,000 to a fraudulent bank account. Six weeks later, an additional payment of $18,000 was wired, bilking the county out of some $106,103 before the account was frozen with $9,000 still in it. Emails obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request by the Dispatch/Argus and Quad-City Times show how easy it was for criminals to steal money from the county by simply asking for the funds to be wired.
Governing
 

 

Lately, it seems rather easy to find these sort of things, but allow me to pause on the technology itself — these streaming, on-line Zoom panels — because there’s something peculiar going on that its enthusiasts may wish to reflect upon. Not that I well understand it, but if you remember Canadian Marshall McLuhan’s occasionally tangled efforts to sort out the effects of technology on human communication, you know that we should at least ponder it. One conclusion: The participants in these Zoom sessions get too comfortable too quickly and lack self-awareness. While the audience involved may be limited, it’s still there and, you know, it’s public. Normally, when speaking in a public setting, there’s a podium and many chairs. The air-breathing audience sits right in front of you and reacts. You see it; you even feel it. It allows you to read the room, as they say. Not on Zoom. You don’t even have to wear a tie — or pants, for that matter. You just turn on the computer, look into it and start talking. It requires no other person in physical proximity to you.
Gordon Morse, The Virginian-Pilot