Transparency News, 12/24/20
Thursday
December 24, 2020
December 24, 2020
There will be no newsletter tomorrow, Dec. 25. It will return Monday, Dec. 28.
state & local news stories
Gid Brown Hollow resident Marian Bragg has signaled her intention to appeal her case against the Rappahannock County Board of Supervisors to the Virginia Supreme Court, following two rulings by Circuit Court Judge Jeffrey W. Parker earlier this year. The llama farmer’s suit, one of two she filed against the BOS, alleges that the supervisors violated Virginia’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) in closed meetings in June through October 2016 when choosing a Rappahannock County Attorney.
Rappahannock News
Rappahannock News
stories from around the country
The massive government funding and pandemic relief bill approved by Congress Monday leaves out, as expected, any direct aid to state and local governments wracked by the economic fallout of the COVID-19 crisis. But it does include language that would make it easier for non-federal entities to transfer their websites and email services to the federally administrated .gov top-level domain. Wedged into the 5,593-page spending package is the DOTGOV Online Trust in Government Act, a bipartisan measure first proposed in 2019, which would reduce or eliminate the costs for state and local governments to adopt .gov addresses, a step widely considered to bolster their internet security.
StateScoop
The U.S. government need not release statistics on guns used in suicides or attempted suicides, the Second Circuit ruled Wednesday, reversing what had been a victory for gun-regulation advocates. Seeking such information as part of a push to curb gun violence in America, the group Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund demanded that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives produce relevant records under the Freedom of Information Act. Demurring, however, the ATF argued that Congress had specifically blocked access to the Firearms Trace System database. The move centered on a series of amendments to the Consolidated Appropriations Acts of 2005, known as the Tiahrt Riders, first adopted in the early 2000s and updated in 2012. The Second Circuit ruled that the agency properly denied Everytown’s request because a prior statute “cannot prevent a later-enacted statute from having effect.”
Courthouse News Service
StateScoop
The U.S. government need not release statistics on guns used in suicides or attempted suicides, the Second Circuit ruled Wednesday, reversing what had been a victory for gun-regulation advocates. Seeking such information as part of a push to curb gun violence in America, the group Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund demanded that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives produce relevant records under the Freedom of Information Act. Demurring, however, the ATF argued that Congress had specifically blocked access to the Firearms Trace System database. The move centered on a series of amendments to the Consolidated Appropriations Acts of 2005, known as the Tiahrt Riders, first adopted in the early 2000s and updated in 2012. The Second Circuit ruled that the agency properly denied Everytown’s request because a prior statute “cannot prevent a later-enacted statute from having effect.”
Courthouse News Service
Categories:
