Transparency News 2/10/14
Monday, February 10, 2014
State and Local Stories Henrico County School Board members agreed almost immediately after the November departure of Superintendent Patrick J. Russo that they should approach then-Deputy Superintendent Patrick C. Kinlaw about the job, records and interviews show. The board’s decision to pick Kinlaw, who had been running the district in Russo’s absence, has been almost unanimously popular. But the board’s public position went from not having considered how to replace Russo to appointing Kinlaw without any public discussion. “This is an illustration of the disconnect between public bodies and the public when it comes to discussion of public business,” Megan H. Rhyne of the Virginia Coalition for Open Government wrote in an email.
Times-Dispatch
The House of Delegates' ethics reform bill is on its way to the floor for a vote. After what Del. David Albo, chairman of the House Ethics Subcommittee, described as hours upon hours of work, the panel produced its final product Friday. With some minor tweaks, the full House Courts of Justice Committee approved the measure 22-0.
Virginian-Pilot
Shenandoah County Circuit Judge Dennis L. Hupp has sealed a report describing the actions and mental health history of Aaron Trumpleading up to Trump's arrest on charges tied to alleged plotting for an armed attack on Stonewall Jackson High School. Hupp ordered the file sealed in response to a request from defense attorney Brandon Keller, who said he was concerned about the appearance of the report in a newspaper story. Keller described the document as a transfer report written when Trump's case was transferred from juvenile and domestic relations court to circuit court.
Northern Virginia Daily
Shenandoah County leaders landed in uncharted waters when Supervisor Cindy Bailey quit her committee posts this week. Chairman Dennis Ferguson said Friday no member has resigned from his or her assignments in the 12 years he has served on the Board of Supervisors. County Administrator Mary T. Price concurred with Ferguson. "I need to step back," Ferguson said. "I need to review who's available to serve on these committees if she's not going to serve. I wish that she would reconsider and participate like all board members are going to participate and help share the load." Bailey said Friday she is not required to serve on any committees and chose to resign from the two panels because she needed to devote time to examining the county budgetand to prepare for the board's upcoming discussions about next year's spending plan.
Northern Virginia Daily
The Virginia Public Access Project, the nonpartisan tracker of money in state politics, is out with its annual report on donors who for the first time gave to multiple legislative candidates. VPAP identified six donors that gave to at least 20 General Assembly candidates in 2013, but had never given directly to more than five in a previous year.
Times-Dispatch
“We Virginians, we really love our history,” said Laura Wickstead, director of the Virginia Room at the City of Fairfax Regional Library. “That’s for sure.” Laura and her small staff work to help patrons tease out the skeins of Virginia history, whether the strands are about the famous, the infamous or the little-known. Most Virginia county library systems have a Virginia Room. Fairfax’s is on the second floor of the handsome, modern library on North Street in the center of Fairfax City. On a recent afternoon, Laura showed Answer Man around.
Washington Post National Stories
Tennessee House Democrats have filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the federal government seeking details of the state's communications with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services regarding the expansion of Medicaid. Nearly a year ago, Gov. Bill Haslam announced that Tennessee was rejecting the expansion of Medicaid offered under the Affordable Care Act, but said he was researching a third option he called the "Tennessee Plan."
Nashville Scene
The South Carolina Supreme Court heard arguments Wednesday in a case that will decide whether autopsy reports can be disclosed under the Freedom of Information Act, entitling the public - and the news media - to examine them. The case stems from a lawsuit brought by The Item newspaper against Sumter County Coroner Harvin Bullock after he refused to release an autopsy report of a man shot to death by police in 2010 during a carjacking investigation. The newspaper got the report through another source and as a result was able to report critical details about the shooting that were not made public.
Charleston Post and Courier
The National Security Agency collects less than 30% of calling data from Americans despite the agency's massive daily efforts to sweep up the bulk of U.S. phone records, two U.S. newspapers reported Friday. Citing anonymous officials and sources, The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal both said the NSA's phone data collection has had a steep drop-off since 2006. According to the newspapers, the government has been unable to keep pace since then with a national surge in cellphone usage and dwindling landline use by American consumers.
USA Today
Edward Snowden used common "Web crawler" software to grab top secret NSA documents, according to unnamed intelligence officials cited in a New York Times report, a revelation that raises further questions about the efficacy of the agency's internal security measures. The software was not named by the officials, but it's apparently similar to Googlebot, the program the search giant created to index new Web pages, as well as a program called "wget," which Chelsea Manning used to download the batches of secret files that were published by WikiLeaks several years back.
CNET News Editorials/Columns
The Post and Courier: There are many good reasons to update South Carolina's Freedom of Information Act and apparently only a single excuse for the failure of the Legislature to have passed it by now. Lawmakers don't want the provisions of the bill to fully cover their own records. Specifically, legislators don't like the notion that their emails could be disclosed under the FOIA revisions, according to advocates for the bill. Email is the method that many constituents use to contact their legislators, and many lawmakers want to exempt it to preserve confidentiality. But personal preference or privilege is just not a good reason for elected officials working in the public arena to grant themselves such an exemption. Legislative emails should no more be exempt than legislative correspondence written on paper. Moreover, legislators shouldn't attempt to carve out exemptions just for themselves.
State and Local Stories Henrico County School Board members agreed almost immediately after the November departure of Superintendent Patrick J. Russo that they should approach then-Deputy Superintendent Patrick C. Kinlaw about the job, records and interviews show. The board’s decision to pick Kinlaw, who had been running the district in Russo’s absence, has been almost unanimously popular. But the board’s public position went from not having considered how to replace Russo to appointing Kinlaw without any public discussion. “This is an illustration of the disconnect between public bodies and the public when it comes to discussion of public business,” Megan H. Rhyne of the Virginia Coalition for Open Government wrote in an email.
Times-Dispatch
The House of Delegates' ethics reform bill is on its way to the floor for a vote. After what Del. David Albo, chairman of the House Ethics Subcommittee, described as hours upon hours of work, the panel produced its final product Friday. With some minor tweaks, the full House Courts of Justice Committee approved the measure 22-0.
Virginian-Pilot
Shenandoah County Circuit Judge Dennis L. Hupp has sealed a report describing the actions and mental health history of Aaron Trumpleading up to Trump's arrest on charges tied to alleged plotting for an armed attack on Stonewall Jackson High School. Hupp ordered the file sealed in response to a request from defense attorney Brandon Keller, who said he was concerned about the appearance of the report in a newspaper story. Keller described the document as a transfer report written when Trump's case was transferred from juvenile and domestic relations court to circuit court.
Northern Virginia Daily
Shenandoah County leaders landed in uncharted waters when Supervisor Cindy Bailey quit her committee posts this week. Chairman Dennis Ferguson said Friday no member has resigned from his or her assignments in the 12 years he has served on the Board of Supervisors. County Administrator Mary T. Price concurred with Ferguson. "I need to step back," Ferguson said. "I need to review who's available to serve on these committees if she's not going to serve. I wish that she would reconsider and participate like all board members are going to participate and help share the load." Bailey said Friday she is not required to serve on any committees and chose to resign from the two panels because she needed to devote time to examining the county budgetand to prepare for the board's upcoming discussions about next year's spending plan.
Northern Virginia Daily
The Virginia Public Access Project, the nonpartisan tracker of money in state politics, is out with its annual report on donors who for the first time gave to multiple legislative candidates. VPAP identified six donors that gave to at least 20 General Assembly candidates in 2013, but had never given directly to more than five in a previous year.
Times-Dispatch
“We Virginians, we really love our history,” said Laura Wickstead, director of the Virginia Room at the City of Fairfax Regional Library. “That’s for sure.” Laura and her small staff work to help patrons tease out the skeins of Virginia history, whether the strands are about the famous, the infamous or the little-known. Most Virginia county library systems have a Virginia Room. Fairfax’s is on the second floor of the handsome, modern library on North Street in the center of Fairfax City. On a recent afternoon, Laura showed Answer Man around.
Washington Post National Stories
Tennessee House Democrats have filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the federal government seeking details of the state's communications with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services regarding the expansion of Medicaid. Nearly a year ago, Gov. Bill Haslam announced that Tennessee was rejecting the expansion of Medicaid offered under the Affordable Care Act, but said he was researching a third option he called the "Tennessee Plan."
Nashville Scene
The South Carolina Supreme Court heard arguments Wednesday in a case that will decide whether autopsy reports can be disclosed under the Freedom of Information Act, entitling the public - and the news media - to examine them. The case stems from a lawsuit brought by The Item newspaper against Sumter County Coroner Harvin Bullock after he refused to release an autopsy report of a man shot to death by police in 2010 during a carjacking investigation. The newspaper got the report through another source and as a result was able to report critical details about the shooting that were not made public.
Charleston Post and Courier
The National Security Agency collects less than 30% of calling data from Americans despite the agency's massive daily efforts to sweep up the bulk of U.S. phone records, two U.S. newspapers reported Friday. Citing anonymous officials and sources, The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal both said the NSA's phone data collection has had a steep drop-off since 2006. According to the newspapers, the government has been unable to keep pace since then with a national surge in cellphone usage and dwindling landline use by American consumers.
USA Today
Edward Snowden used common "Web crawler" software to grab top secret NSA documents, according to unnamed intelligence officials cited in a New York Times report, a revelation that raises further questions about the efficacy of the agency's internal security measures. The software was not named by the officials, but it's apparently similar to Googlebot, the program the search giant created to index new Web pages, as well as a program called "wget," which Chelsea Manning used to download the batches of secret files that were published by WikiLeaks several years back.
CNET News Editorials/Columns
The Post and Courier: There are many good reasons to update South Carolina's Freedom of Information Act and apparently only a single excuse for the failure of the Legislature to have passed it by now. Lawmakers don't want the provisions of the bill to fully cover their own records. Specifically, legislators don't like the notion that their emails could be disclosed under the FOIA revisions, according to advocates for the bill. Email is the method that many constituents use to contact their legislators, and many lawmakers want to exempt it to preserve confidentiality. But personal preference or privilege is just not a good reason for elected officials working in the public arena to grant themselves such an exemption. Legislative emails should no more be exempt than legislative correspondence written on paper. Moreover, legislators shouldn't attempt to carve out exemptions just for themselves.
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