Transparency News 3/1/17
Wednesday, March 1, 2017
State and Local Stories
State and Local Stories
A Richmond judge ruled Tuesday that an anti-gerrymandering lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of several state legislative districts can move forward. After an hourlong hearing, Richmond Circuit Judge W. Reilly Marchant rejected a motion by the House of Delegates leadership to have the case dismissed. The ruling puts the case — brought by redistricting advocacy group OneVirginia2021 and focused on 11 House and Senate districts represented by lawmakers from both parties — one step closer to a trial in March that, if the plaintiffs prevail, could reshape the state’s political map. The case, which is likely to reach the Supreme Court of Virginia, argues lawmakers disregarded compactness standards aimed at keeping communities together and avoiding oddly shaped districts that cut across city and county lines.
Richmond Times-Dispatch
Portsmouth City Council fired three commissioners on Portsmouth’s housing authority board Tuesday night. The group voted to oust board Chairwoman Flossie Bridgeford, Danielle Jones and Joe Fleming after Bridgeford and Jones asked to keep their seats. Councilman Mark Whitaker was the lone dissenting vote. Whitaker objected to the decision and said commissioners weren’t told exactly how they performed inefficiently and neglected their duties. Tuesday’s ouster followed several confrontations between Whitaker and fellow council members who spoke over each other at several points as they argued over the merits of the ouster.
Virginian-Pilot
Few of the millions of violent threats made online are prosecuted, and the line between legal and illegal is unclear. But Kyler Schmitz learned that the uncivilized world of online discourse does have boundaries, and threatening to shoot a U.S. senator is one of them. In an interview, the 28-year-old said he sees his criminal case as a cautionary tale for people who think that what they say online doesn’t have real-life consequences. “It was really shocking when I saw the articles with quotes under my name,” said Schmitz, who has served his sentence of home detention and works as a waiter. “That’s a tough lesson. … Even if you’re playing a character, you have to take responsibility for your character.”
Roanoke Times
Shenandoah County residents criticized some supervisors Tuesday over the board’s vote to pick officers last month. At the beginning of the meeting, District 3 Supervisor Richard Walker said he would accept County Attorney Jason Ham’s counsel that the board’s election of officers Feb. 16 was not legal given the nature of the meeting. Supervisors voted 3-2 at the end of a joint meeting with the School Board to elect Walker as chairman and District 6 Supervisor Conrad Helsley as vice chairman. Ham advised the board that this vote was not proper. Helsley remains chairman and Walker the vice chairman as elected by the board last year. At the end of the meeting, many of the people in the packed boardroom took turns venting to the board or urging members to set aside personal vendettas and work toward fully funding the county budgets.
Northern Virginia Daily
National Stories
Executive branch agencies submitted 37 "crimes reports" to the Department of Justice last year regarding leaks of classified information. In response to a Freedom of Information Act request, wrote Patricia Matthews of the DOJ National Security Division, "We have conducted a search of the Counterintelligence and Export Control Section. A records search of that Section indicates that 37 crime reports concerning unauthorized disclosures of classified information were received by DOJ in CY 2016."
Secrecy News
Less than seven miles from the White House, where President Trump has popularized the term "fake news," residents in a suburban Maryland library gathered recently to learn how to not be duped themselves. “Social media is a common theme here because you see things being shared over and over again,” Ryan O’Grady, media producer and director of the Maryland State Library Resource Center, told the audience. “Just because something is popular doesn’t make it true.” The program, which O’Grady is running at several libraries in Maryland’s Montgomery County, is in response to the recent explosion of unverified, unsourced and sometimes untrue information that purports itself as news. The program aims to educate residents about how to spot fake news.
Governing
In Connecticut a bill before the legislature seeks to limit frivolous complaints to the state’s Freedom of Information Commission. Republican State Representative Adam Dunsby of Easton proposed the bill. It would impose a $125 fee for two or more complaints submitted to the commission within a calendar year. During a public hearing this week, Dunsby said these numerous complaints are not about transparency. “The individual who is filing tens or hundreds of complaints is not interested in records. Their objective is to harass public officials.”
WSHU
The Trump administration is being sued for records that conservative groups believe will reveal attempts by green activists and China to thwart actions by the new administration to exit from last year's Paris climate change deal. Two conservative free-market groups, the Energy & Environment Legal Institute and Free Market Environmental Law Clinic, sued the administration on Monday, asking for all records "to, from or discussing green-group lobbyist Jennifer Morgan of the World Resources Institute." The group wants access to documents relating to her role in a coordinated effort "between green pressure groups and China to keep the climate gravy train chugging in the post-Obama world," the groups said in a statement announcing the lawsuit.
Washington Examiner
Richmond Times-Dispatch
Portsmouth City Council fired three commissioners on Portsmouth’s housing authority board Tuesday night. The group voted to oust board Chairwoman Flossie Bridgeford, Danielle Jones and Joe Fleming after Bridgeford and Jones asked to keep their seats. Councilman Mark Whitaker was the lone dissenting vote. Whitaker objected to the decision and said commissioners weren’t told exactly how they performed inefficiently and neglected their duties. Tuesday’s ouster followed several confrontations between Whitaker and fellow council members who spoke over each other at several points as they argued over the merits of the ouster.
Virginian-Pilot
Few of the millions of violent threats made online are prosecuted, and the line between legal and illegal is unclear. But Kyler Schmitz learned that the uncivilized world of online discourse does have boundaries, and threatening to shoot a U.S. senator is one of them. In an interview, the 28-year-old said he sees his criminal case as a cautionary tale for people who think that what they say online doesn’t have real-life consequences. “It was really shocking when I saw the articles with quotes under my name,” said Schmitz, who has served his sentence of home detention and works as a waiter. “That’s a tough lesson. … Even if you’re playing a character, you have to take responsibility for your character.”
Roanoke Times
Shenandoah County residents criticized some supervisors Tuesday over the board’s vote to pick officers last month. At the beginning of the meeting, District 3 Supervisor Richard Walker said he would accept County Attorney Jason Ham’s counsel that the board’s election of officers Feb. 16 was not legal given the nature of the meeting. Supervisors voted 3-2 at the end of a joint meeting with the School Board to elect Walker as chairman and District 6 Supervisor Conrad Helsley as vice chairman. Ham advised the board that this vote was not proper. Helsley remains chairman and Walker the vice chairman as elected by the board last year. At the end of the meeting, many of the people in the packed boardroom took turns venting to the board or urging members to set aside personal vendettas and work toward fully funding the county budgets.
Northern Virginia Daily
National Stories
Executive branch agencies submitted 37 "crimes reports" to the Department of Justice last year regarding leaks of classified information. In response to a Freedom of Information Act request, wrote Patricia Matthews of the DOJ National Security Division, "We have conducted a search of the Counterintelligence and Export Control Section. A records search of that Section indicates that 37 crime reports concerning unauthorized disclosures of classified information were received by DOJ in CY 2016."
Secrecy News
Less than seven miles from the White House, where President Trump has popularized the term "fake news," residents in a suburban Maryland library gathered recently to learn how to not be duped themselves. “Social media is a common theme here because you see things being shared over and over again,” Ryan O’Grady, media producer and director of the Maryland State Library Resource Center, told the audience. “Just because something is popular doesn’t make it true.” The program, which O’Grady is running at several libraries in Maryland’s Montgomery County, is in response to the recent explosion of unverified, unsourced and sometimes untrue information that purports itself as news. The program aims to educate residents about how to spot fake news.
Governing
In Connecticut a bill before the legislature seeks to limit frivolous complaints to the state’s Freedom of Information Commission. Republican State Representative Adam Dunsby of Easton proposed the bill. It would impose a $125 fee for two or more complaints submitted to the commission within a calendar year. During a public hearing this week, Dunsby said these numerous complaints are not about transparency. “The individual who is filing tens or hundreds of complaints is not interested in records. Their objective is to harass public officials.”
WSHU
The Trump administration is being sued for records that conservative groups believe will reveal attempts by green activists and China to thwart actions by the new administration to exit from last year's Paris climate change deal. Two conservative free-market groups, the Energy & Environment Legal Institute and Free Market Environmental Law Clinic, sued the administration on Monday, asking for all records "to, from or discussing green-group lobbyist Jennifer Morgan of the World Resources Institute." The group wants access to documents relating to her role in a coordinated effort "between green pressure groups and China to keep the climate gravy train chugging in the post-Obama world," the groups said in a statement announcing the lawsuit.
Washington Examiner
Categories:
