Transparency News 12/19/13

Virginia Republican state Sen. Mark Obenshain conceded the attorney general’s race Wednesday afternoon, ushering Democrat Mark Herring into office and giving Democrats their first clean sweep of the top five statewide offices since 1989. “The recount is almost over, and in this contest for attorney general … it’s become apparent that our campaign is going to come up a few votes short,” Obenshain said, noting that he’d already called Herring to offer his congratulations. “It was a vigorous and hard-fought campaign, but it’s over.”
Politico

Federal prosecutors told Virginia Gov. Robert F. McDonnell last week that he and his wife would be charged in connection with a gift scandal, but senior Justice Department officials delayed the decision after the McDonnells’ attorneys made a face-to-face appeal in Washington, according to people familiar with the case. Dana J. Boente, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, told the McDonnells’ legal teams that he planned to ask a grand jury to return an indictment no later than this past Monday, people familiar with the conversations said.
Washington Post

Danville School Board members are considering voting themselves a raise — from $600 to $10,000 a year — and have called a public hearing for 5:30 p.m. Thursday to discuss the matter. According to the school board, the proposal is “to increase the rate of compensation for school board members to match the rate of compensation for [Danville] City Council members.” The meeting comes after City Council members voted Tuesday to double their salaries from $5,000 to $10,000 per year. The City Council increase will go into effect July 1.
Register & Bee

National Stories

A legislative task force charged with balancing the privacy of crime victims with public's right to access government information is proposing new rules for viewing crime scene photographs, listening to 911 recordings and other records relating to homicide investigations. By a 14 to 3 vote, the panel is recommending that lawmakers create a system that would permit news reporters and citizens to inspect those documents at police headquarters. But in order to obtain copies, they would have to prove that the public release of the records does not constitute an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.
Hartford Courant

A district court judge ruled that President Obama can’t lawfully keep hidden a foreign aid order he tried to shield via a claim of executive privilege, characterizing the move as a “cavalier” dodge of the Freedom of Information Act. The Justice Department had argued that a foreign-aid directive that Mr. Obama signed in 2010 should remain secret, because it was part of the Presidential Policy Directive on Global Development and fell under the umbrella of executive privilege — despite its unclassified status, Politico reported. But U.S. District Court Judge Ellen Huvelle ruled in favor of plaintiffs — the Center for Effective Government — who filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit for the document.
Washington Times

In a hearing that lasted about two minutes, an Arkansas judge abruptly dismissed a lawsuit Tuesday accusing the secretary of state of violating the state Freedom of Information Act. The suit by liberal blogger and attorney Matt Campbell, filed in Pulaski County Circuit Court in July, alleged that Secretary of State Mark Martin, a Republican, violated the FOI law by refusing to release documents in the format that Campbell requested. Campbell asked in June for emails and attachments exchanged between attorneys on Martin’s staff and outside attorneys hired to represent Martin in two discrimination and wrongful termination lawsuits. Campbell alleged in his suit that Martin produced some of the documents in paper form only and that Campbell was entitled to receive all of the documents in electronic form. At Tuesday’s hearing, Circuit Judge Tim Fox began by asking for everyone who would be testifying to be sworn in. Campbell, who was acting as his own attorney, told the judge he did not plan to call any witnesses. “This is a hearing. We take testimony and evidence at a hearing. The case is dismissed with prejudice,” Fox said.
Arkansas News

The chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court should not hold the sole authority to appoint judges to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, an Obama administration review group said today in a lengthy report that offers reforms to better protect privacy and civil liberties. The White House release of the 303-page report comes just days after a federal judge in Washington declared that the "almost-Orwellian" National Security Agency bulk collection of billions of phone records is likely unconstitutional. Read the report here.
Blog of LegalTimes

A group appointed by President Obama to review U.S. surveillance policies recommended today that the government end bulk storage of telephone metadata, and, instead, contact private companies directly in the individual cases that it needs that information. The panel also called on the government to reform the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court by creating a public interest advocate to represent privacy and civil liberties interests; instituting declassification reviews to increase the court's transparency; and dividing the power to appoint judges to the FISC among the Supreme Court justices. The group also recommended that the government not undermine efforts to create encryption standards.
Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press
 

Editorials/Columns

Times-Dispatch: Yesterday, Republican Mark Obenshain conceded defeat in the race for Virginia’s attorney general. The recount established Democrat Mark Herring as the victor. We congratulate Herring, and thank Obenshain for his dignified concession. The recount was appropriate. As it proceeded, Herring’s margin widened. It grew clear that Obenshain could not close the gap. The recount did not repeat the acrimony seen in Florida during the 2000 presidential election. This is a credit to the state and to its political establishment.

Virginian-Pilot: Obenshain's decision to respect the results of the recount and step aside is consistent with the responsible way he ran his campaign. He assiduously avoided the incendiary language and tactics used by current state Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli and ticketmate E.W. Jackson, who ran for lieutenant governor. Obenshain, by contrast, kept his campaign focused on the issues facing Virginia and those facing the Attorney General's Office.

Vivian Paige, Virginian-Pilot: The difference between Virginia Beach and Norfolk is sometimes quite stark. The handling of each city's council vacancies is one such instance. There is no doubt that Virginia Beach's need to fill two seats – one of which was at-large, meaning any city resident could apply – is different from Norfolk's need to fill one. Plus, the term of service is six months longer in Virginia Beach than in Norfolk. But that doesn't change the fact that Norfolk is a month behind Virginia Beach in starting the process, the details of which are still unknown. Nor does it change the fact that the application process will occur over the holidays.

Free Lance-Star: HERE’S GOOD news for traditionalists, bad news for trees: We might not be ready quite yet to scrap books that are made of paper. An October report by a group that monitors the publishing industry says that sales of e–books have slowed over the past year. They now make up about 30 percent of all books sold. In addition, there is doubt about learning retention with digital books. According to The New York Times, another study, by the International Journal of Education Research, showed that students reading text on paper had much higher reading comprehension than those reading the same material in digital form. And younger people are not necessarily flocking in droves to the e–book. Another study, The Times reports, says 16- to 24-year-olds in the United Kingdom prefer traditional books to e–books.

Daily Progress: Contentions that metadata collection is among the secrets to a terror-free America might carry more weight if there were evidence. Unfortunately, for snoops, there is precisely none. Federal lawyers, Leon wrote, could not cite “a single instance in which analysis of the NSA’s bulk metadata collection actually stopped an imminent attack.” National security matters, and the work necessary to ensure it can be less than pleasant. It requires spying on allies. To think otherwise is naïve, just as it is to suppose allies’ eyes aren’t also upon us. Similarly, our own spies are watching us, and long have been. Living in a cave might make one blissfully unaware, but it wouldn’t alter the reality, and the reality is, some of this is for America’s own good.

News Leader: Virginia should match its budget cycle to its gubernatorial terms. A governor spends his first year in office working with a predecessor’s budget, his middle two working on his own budget and his last preparing a budget for someone else to administer. This has understandably frustrated recent governors, most of whom support changing the cycle.