Transparency News, 11/21/2022

Monday
November 21, 2022

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state & local news stories

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The University of Virginia Office of Student Affairs is not providing details of the investigation into the tip that Christopher Darnell Jones, Jr. had a gun or that a search on Nov. 14 found guns in his dorm room. And a UVa spokesman said that it is wrong to say the university's housing policy does not explicitly ban guns just because they were not included on a list of banned items under the headline "Firearms and weapons."  Police found several firearms and accessories in the on-campus apartment of Jones, Jr., the UVa student who was arrested for killing three fellow students and shooting another two students on Sunday night, according to a search warrant obtained by The Daily Progress on Thursday.
The Daily Progress

Mules apparently loosed onto the fourth hole green of Thorn Spring Golf Course have stoked tensions between a nearby business owned by Del. Marie March, R-Floyd, and Pulaski County Administrator Jonathan Sweet. March, who owns the nearby events venue, The Big Red Barn, is mentioned as a party in that report, along with Brenda Blackburn, who is manager of the business. Blackburn has long followed Pulaski County government. She has for years been a regular seeker of open records through use of the Virginia Freedom of Information Act. She has submitted more than 100 open records requests since 2010, according to a log provided by Pulaski County. Many of her requests do cover information typically sought from local governments, including items such employee pay.
Bristol Herald Courier
 

stories of national interest

"It’s hard to find a warning issued by the National Park Service that gained more traction. Too bad it was completely fabricated."

The Federal Election Commission has agreed to pay U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley’s campaign $23,500 to settle a lawsuit alleging the agency illegally withheld public documents. In late 2021, Hawley’s campaign requested a series of records under the Freedom of Information Act from the FEC. The purpose of the request was to compile materials the campaign could use to defend itself in a separate lawsuit alleging the National Rifle Association illegally used shell companies to funnel money to Hawley when he was running for Senate. A complaint against the NRA was originally filed with the FEC. But after the commission deadlocked and was unable to take action, a federal lawsuit was filed by the gun-control nonprofit founded by former Arizona congresswoman Gabby Giffords. Hawley has denied any wrongdoing. His campaign asked the FEC to turn over documents regarding its consideration of several enforcement matters. The FEC turned over some records but informed Hawley it was withholding 32 pages of responsive materials.
Missouri Independent

It’s hard to find a warning issued by the National Park Service that gained more traction. Too bad it was completely fabricated. The agency’s Oct. 31 Facebook post imploring visitors to “please refrain from licking” the large Sonoran desert toad common in the Southwest echoed across thousands of news outlets. Google “park service toad licking” and you get 1.7 million hits. Tens of thousands of news outlets — including the most prestigious in the world — repeated the warning.  But a records request of agency employee reports detailing any and all interactions between park property visitors and the toads yielded zero records. 
The Colorado Sun

Two Asheville Blade reporters arrested last year for reporting on a police eviction of a homeless encampment are set to go to trial on Monday, according to court records and the journalists' lawyer. The North Carolina reporters, Veronica Coit and Matilda Bliss, were charged with trespassing, apparently for taking pictures of the eviction after police instructed a crowd to disperse. They identified themselves as reporters but police arrested them and seized Bliss’ phone anyway. The “offense” carries a penalty of up to 20 days in jail and a $200 fine.
Freedom of the Press Foundation

A new video released by the Fayettesville, Ark. police department shows the lapel footage of officers arresting the great-grandson of the founder of Tyson Foods. On Monday, Nov. 7, KATV reported that John R. Tyson, the CFO of Tyson Foods, had been arrested by Fayetteville police the preceding Sunday after being discovered passed out drunk in a stranger’s house. The police report said, “A college-age female was very alarmed that a male who she did not know was inside of her residence uninvited.” Tyson was booked into the Washington County jail and charged with public intoxication and criminal trespass.
WZTV

The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee said his panel is reviewing “serious allegations” in a report that a former anti-abortion leader knew in advance the outcome of a 2014 Supreme Court case involving health care coverage of contraception. The report Saturday in The New York Times followed the stunning leak earlier this year of a draft opinion in the case in which the high court overturned Roe v. Wade, ending constitutional protections for abortion. That decision was written by Justice Samuel Alito, who is also the author of the majority opinion in the 2014 case at the center of the new report. In the Times story, Rev. Rob Schenck said he learned the outcome of the Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores case weeks before the decision was made public.
Associated Press

editorials & columns

"If there are lessons to be learned from the immediate past that can save lives in the future, the whole story should be disclosed sooner rather than later. "

It’s incumbent on UVA to make public the fullest possible accounting of all that it knew or was investigating about Jones during his time at the university. It’s going to come out anyway as the criminal case against Jones and possibly civil lawsuits are litigated. But if there are lessons to be learned from the immediate past that can save lives in the future, the whole story should be disclosed sooner rather than later. The announcement Thursday by Attorney General Jason Miyares that he will appoint a special counsel to investigate events leading to the killings is a step in the right direction. The same appeal for transparency was made 15 and a half years ago after Virginia Tech student Seung-Hui Cho shot 32 people dead after leaving a trail of largely ignored signs of the hatred that boiled within until he acted out his sick fantasies one cold April morning. Those details remained tightly held until they emerged in a report by a special commission then-Gov. Tim Kaine empaneled to investigate how Cho slipped through the safety net. It led to legislative reforms regarding the state’s woebegone behavioral health system and campus security protocols. Those security provisions had put Jones on the radar of UVA officials.
Bob Lewis, Virginia Mercury