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Monday, December 30, 2013
State and Local Stories
HB 219: Adds a record exemption for educational institutions forconfidential letters and statements of recommendationplaced in the records of educational agencies or institutions respecting an application for promotion.
Virginia General Assembly
Three months after members of the Leesburg Town Council spurred controversy by voting to block a member from participating in a meeting by telephone, Del. Randy Minchew (R-10) has introduced legislation to ensure the state’s new remote access policy is uniformly applied. The impetus for the bill is an Oct. 7 Leesburg Town Council work session during which a majority voted to deny the request of Councilmember Kevin Wright to participate in the following night’s meeting via telephone while he was on a business trip in Detroit. During the Oct. 8 meeting, the council was scheduled to take a final vote on a controversial plan to widen sidewalks and reduce on-street parking along King Street downtown. The council was divided on the questions of whether to continue, modify or cancel the project. Wright was a critic of the plan and three members supporting the project voted during the work session to deny his request to cast his vote from a remote location—an action that guaranteed project supporters would have enough votes at the meeting to block any changes to the plan. In response to public criticism overnight, the council members reversed their decision as one of the first action during their Oct. 8 meeting. Wright’s request to participate in the meeting—and vote—by phone was approved unanimously. Council members who changed their vote said their intent was to delay action on the King Street plan until all members could be present, not to prevent Wright from voting. The King Street project ultimately was approved on a 4-3 vote.
Leesburg Today
There's always been a couple of truths about political ethics reforms in Virginia: every politician in the state is in favor of them. And virtually no reforms ever are enacted. So, after a year that saw Gov. Bob McDonnell and Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli embarrassed by reports of tens of thousands of dollars of gifts from a business executive whose company was battling a state tax assessment and hoping for help launching a new product, ethics is again a Capitol Square talking point. And, says University of Virginia political scientist Larry Sabato, "Here's an easy prediction — we'll all be tut-tutting about how little the General Assembly did to reform the gift laws come March."
Daily Press
Tidewater Community College has just finished the first semester of a pilot program that allows students to complete a two-year associate degree in business administration without buying a single textbook. The “Z Degree” program – “Z” for zero textbook cost – makes use of free, openly licensed online materials known as open educational resources, or OER. It’s estimated that students will save as much as $3,000 over two years – about 30 percent of the cost of the degree. It’s the first such program in the world, according to TCC and its partner, Lumen Learning, a Portland, Ore.-based company that helps schools integrate OER into their curricula.
Virginian-Pilot
It was a year that saw one of the tightest races in recent memory, a shadow on a reputation for political probity and a break from a 40-year pattern of voting for a governor of a different party than the winner of a presidential election. But 2013 was also a year of tradition in Virginia politics. "It was an affirmation of the Virginia Way," said political scientist Tom Morris, former president of Emory & Henry College. "The candidate who had the most moderate stance and who talked the most about bipartisanship was the winner."
Daily Press
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