Transparency News 11/17/14
State and Local Stories
The lead detective in a high-profile teen “sexting” case from last summer, in which Prince William County authorities sought to take sexually explicit photos of a 17-year-old teen to compare with the evidence, has filed a defamation lawsuit against the teen’s attorney for making critical comments about the investigation in The Washington Post. Media and police experts said they had not heard of a case where a detective sued a defense attorney for defamation, and that he may have a difficult time overcoming the attorney’s First Amendment right to freedom of speech.
Washington Post
An appointed panel is set to recommend a serious tightening of Virginia's ethics rules for public officials, calling for an outside group with investigatory power and a wider ban on large gifts. These are only recommendations, and changes would have to be taken up by the General Assembly. But leaders there have said they're ready and willing to overhaul the rules for politicians and bureaucrats after changes they made earlier this year proved too narrow. McAuliffe's group also said the state's $250 cap on tangible gifts to state and local officials should also extend to intangible ones – trips, dinners and the like. The Ethics Review Commission could grant waivers for some trips, if it sees a legitimate public purpose, but there would still be limits on how long these trips can last, and itenerarys would become public information. It's unclear what the General Assembly will do with these recommendations when it reconvenes in January. Members are almost certain to go through their own process, getting much deeper into the details. Final legislation would likely run dozens of pages longer thanthe seven-page draft document group members worked off Friday.
Daily Press
It's called The Virginia Way: ordinary citizens sacrificing time and income to write the laws and allot the money that a limited, genteel state government uses to serve the public. For centuries, Virginia voters, distrustful of professional politicians, have sent part-timers to the Capitol, counting on the notion that people a lot like them were running the state — and that those people shared their sense of ethics and the public interest. But with a state legislator from the Peninsula doing time for bribery, a former governor convicted of corruption and a former state senator under investigation for allegedly throwing control of the Senate to the GOP in return for a promise of a high-salary state job, the Virginia Way is looking a bit tarnished.
Daily Press
Earlier this summer, Bob Brink paused for a memory from his first days in the General Assembly. "A few weeks before I was sworn into office in 1998 … I took a walk around the Capitol and I stopped outside the House chamber. The curtains were open and the lights were on, and for the first time I saw the vote board with my name on it," he said in a Facebook post. "I've looked up at that board thousands of times since that night," Brink continued. "But every day, the knowledge that I'm one of a handful of Virginians whose numbers include Jefferson, Madison and Patrick Henry made me think that I must be the luckiest guy on earth." He then resigned to take up a new job as deputy commissioner for aging, at a salary of $110,000 year. It was a nice boost in pay for the 17-year veteran Democratic legislator from Arlington who reported earning no salary or business income in 2013 beyond his $17,640 salary as a member of the House, his $15,000 expense allowance and $11,880 in per diem payments for his time while the legislature was in session. Brink reported no investments, but said he had more than $50,000 in loan company debt.
Daily Press
A Hampton council member pressed City Manager Mary Bunting last week about her decision not to tell the council about an agreement by five Hampton Roads police departments to share telephone records obtained in criminal investigations. Bunting, however, defended her decision not to do so. City councils in two cities — Newport News and Chesapeake — signed off on the agreement in early 2013 as part of block votes designed for routine and non-controversial matters. But councils in three other cities — Hampton, Norfolk and Suffolk — weren't asked to vote on the agreement at all. "Can you say why the council wasn't informed that we were entering into this particular program?" council member Donnie Tuck asked Bunting at Wednesday's council meeting. "There was nothing about it that raised a red flag," Bunting responded, in part. "We could always Monday morning quarterback and say, 'Gee it would have been nice if we'd done that.' But under city code, the city manager is delegated to enter into contracts that are entered into under the normal routine business of the city."
Daily Press
The University of Virginia’s Miller Center of Public Affairs on Friday released 47 interview transcripts conducted for the Clinton Presidential History Project. Composed of more than 100 interviews with U.S. Cabinet secretaries, White House aides, members of Congress and foreign leaders, the project provides a detailed history of the Clinton administration. The release capped a symposium on the Clinton administration as part of the 10th anniversary celebrations of the Clinton Presidential Center. Former top officials such as Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and White House Chief of Staff Leon Panetta are among those whose interview transcripts were released Friday.
Times-Dispatch
The Wythe County Commonwealth’s Attorney Office has asked the Virginia Attorney General to assign a special prosecutor to investigate a possible email breach by County Administrator Cellell Dalton. Earlier in the week, the office turned over evidence in the matter to the Virginia State Police. Wythe County Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney David Saliba said that Dalton took copies of his emails from September without Saliba’s knowledge or permission. Dalton declined to comment on the matter. “We’ll defer any comments until we know the facts,” he said. Saliba said the breach took place after he declined to prosecute Charles Riddle, owner of the Barren Springs Waterworks, who has violated state drinking water codes for years.
Wytheville Enterprise
One of Virginia’s richest state lawmakers and his politically connected father made a Civil War-themed movie last year that received $1 million in tax credits and grants, state records show. Henrico County Republican Del. Peter Farrell was an investor, co-producer and played a Union Army officer in “Field of Lost Shoes,” an independent movie that focuses on the role of cadets at the Virginia Military Institute in a Civil War battle in the Shenandoah Valley. “Field of Lost Shoes” received the $800,000 tax credit based on spending nearly $4 million in “qualified expenses,” according to state records provided to The Associated Press. They include $1.8 million spent on out-of-state cast and crew, $212,000 spent on accommodations, and $169,000 spent on catering.
News Leader
National Stories
The Florida Supreme Court ruled Thursday that secret documents used in the high-profile redistricting case should be unsealed. "We affirm the trial court's ruling requiring production of the 538 pages of disputed documents," the justices wrote in a rare unanimous ruling. "For all these reasons, and in accordance with the overriding public interest in openness to judicial proceedings and records, we direct that the sealed portions of the trial transcript, as well as the sealed documents themselves, should be and hereby are ordered unsealed." The documents won't be available any earlier than Nov. 20. That's the deadline for Republican political consultant Pat Bainter to ask the Supreme Court for a rehearing.Governing
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission does not have to release records about its supervision of Wall Street’s arbitration process to a group of investors’ lawyers, a federal appeals court ruled on Friday. The decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit is likely to end a long battle about public access to documents related to SEC oversight of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority’s arbitration system. FINRA, Wall Street’s private watchdog, runs the arbitration forum where investors and brokerages must resolve legal disputes. The SEC oversees and examines FINRA.
Euronews
The State Department has taken the unprecedented step of shutting down its entire unclassified e-mail system in the wake of a suspected hacker attack. Technicians are repairing possible damage from an attack that occurred at about the same time as another one on the White House computer network, reported last month. "The department recently detected activity of concern in portions of its unclassified e-mail system," a senior State department official said, confirming an incident first reported by the Associated Press and tech news site NextGov. "There was no compromise of any of the Department's classified systems."
USA Today
Editorials/Columns
Bob Gibson, Roanoke Times
You’re probably wondering, “Why should I care about net neutrality and Title II oversight of the Internet? How does this affect me and my family?” Affordable broadband access is as important to the economy today as affordable access to the new inventions of telephones and electrical power were 80 years ago. Accessing news and information sites. E-commerce. Business-to-business transactions, across the state or halfway-’round the globe. It’s as simple as that.
News & Advance
