Transparency News 3/27/14

Thursday, March 27, 2014

State and Local Stories

State Sen. J. Chapman "Chap" Petersen has asked Gov. Terry McAuliffe to strengthen two ethics bills the General Assembly passed this year after a gift scandal rocked Virginia and led to the federal indictment of a former governor. In his March 25 letter, Petersen encourages McAuliffe to amend SB 649, the Senate version of the omnibus ethics bill, and SB 651 that clarifies the rules for hiring private legal counsel when a state attorney general has a personal conflict. The letter from Petersen, D-Fairfax City, suggests McAuliffe amend the bill so lawmakers must obtain permission before accepting free travel over a certain value, and that he lower the proposed tangible gift cap of $250.
Virginian-Pilot

The key to Bob McDonnell’s defense may be the testimony of his alleged partner in crime — his wife. The former governor’s lawyers say former first lady Maureen McDonnell’s testimony on his behalf would reveal a “strained” marital relationship. They say it would dispel the federal government’s notion that the McDonnells conspired to use the state’s highest public office to assist Jonnie R. Williams Sr., then Star Scientific Inc.’s CEO, in exchange for gifts and loans.
Times-Dispatch

In a surprise move, Orange School Board member Lou Thompson resigned Wednesday after questions were raised about his residency. “This is clearly not something I wanted to do, but I have to resign,” Thompson said at the beginning of the School Board’s meeting. Thompson was elected to the District 1 seat in 2010 and was unopposed in winning re-election last year. “Someone who is an elected official reported to our commonwealth’s attorney that I was no longer living in District One and now living in the town of Orange,” he explained. “Both allegations are correct.”
Free Lance-Star

National Stories

Sean Moulton is co-author of the Making the Grade: Access to Information Scorecard 2014 report that rated the agencies in three areas: processing requests, establishing effective disclosure rules and policies and creating user-friendly websites.  Of the three areas, the report gave agency FOIA websites the highest marks, scoring them on several measures, including giving the public the ability to electronically file and track requests and appeals, proactively providing information in electronic reading rooms and posting full contact information (names, phone numbers and email addresses) for FOIA staff.  Right now, even failing or low-scoring agencies can easily improve their website functionality and services by making simple fixes. For example, agencies can create virtual libraries of frequently requested information, such as government contracts. They can even create and post documents specifically for the public that don’t contain confidential business or intellectual property information. 
GCN

An Oklahoma judge ruled on Wednesday that the state could not keep secret the identities of the suppliers of lethal-injection drugs, raising doubts about the executions of two prisoners next month and fueling a growing legal battle in several states over secrecy in methods of execution. The state argued that a supplier-secrecy law, passed in 2011, was necessary because of a shortage of execution drugs and threats against companies that supply them. But lawyers for the two prisoners, Clayton Lockett and Charles Warner, countered that without knowing the source of the drugs, courts could not determine whether the execution protocol satisfied the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment, and prisoners were denied the right to know, and potentially question, how they would be put to death.
New York Times

A federal data-sharing system meant to prevent healthcare providers banned from one state's Medicaid program from billing another state's program isn't working as intended,according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General. Two years after its creation, the data-sharing system contained no records from 17 states or the District of Columbia of doctors, nurses or other healthcare providers who had been "terminated," or banned from billing Medicaid, for fraud or other offenses, the independent auditor said in a report to be released Thursday. Reuters reviewed a copy of the report in advance of its release.
Reuters