Transparency News 3/31/15
Tuesday, March 31, 2015
State and Local Stories
The FBI's Norfolk office wants a hand with its top criminal priority and so is asking Hampton Roads residents to call when they think public officials are on the take. The office is setting up a new toll-free telephone tip line to make it easier for its top allies in battling public corruption — members of the public who see something untoward going to — to reach the four special agents and one intelligence analyst assigned to public corruption cases. "We can't do it alone," said Special Agent in Charge John S. Adams. Calls to the tip line — 1-844-FIGHTPC — are confidential. They often are a key tool in investigating or learning about public corruption. He said Virginia's relatively loose state ethics laws have highlighted concerns, but noted that corruption is a widespread problem that has led about half the FBI's field offices to set up similar tip lines.
Daily Press
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday said a federal court in Richmond must take another look at a ruling that had ordered the state legislature to redraw the lines of Virginia’s only black-majority congressional district. The high court’s decision comes after last week’s ruling in which the justices sided with black officeholders and Democrats in Alabama. In that case, the Supreme Court told a lower court to reconsider whether a redistricting plan drawn by the state’s Republican legislature packed minority voters into districts to dilute their influence.
Times-Dispatch
Paperwork filed by a state senator from Chesapeake shows he received taxpayer reimbursement for part of a hotel stay at a conference last year even though his campaign paid the hotel bill. Sen. John Cosgrove's campaign finance report shows payments in July and August for a stay at a Hilton in Dallas for the annual conference of the American Legislative Exchange Council. But he also filed an expense reimbursement form with the Senate clerk's office in September to receive $622.41 in taxpayer reimbursement for three nights at the hotel. On Friday, Cosgrove said he would talk to his legislative aide and would consider reimbursing his campaign.
Virginian-Pilot
When Teri Zurfluh approached the podium at a recent Franklin City Public School Board meeting to talk about the importance of the system’s gifted program, she almost wasn’t allowed to speak. Members of the audience, many of whom had gathered for the Citizens’ Time section, said she turned red as the board chair interrupted her. Indeed, Zurfluh hesitated before speaking again, perhaps considering storming out or trying to calm herself, before approaching the podium again. At first her speech was flustered as she self-censored herself to not name specific people other than her children in the system, or even to refer to specific people in a way that could identify them. It wasn’t the only time in the meeting that someone’s words were censored in Citizens’ Time, and it wasn’t the first time board chair Edna King had asked someone to refrain from speaking. Rewind back to November 2013, when the school board was soon set to make a decision on whether it would renew then-superintendent Dr. Michelle Belle’s contract. David Benton, a former school board member, was one of many who wanted to talk about what had happened under Belle’s watch. As he started to go into his speech, he was interrupted because he had inferred her title. “I ask you to not present this,” King told him. “I have struck all of the places where I used this person’s name,” he responded. “I will not use names.” “You may not use position as well,” King said. “You cannot present this in open session.” King invited him to speak in closed session, where only council would hear his words, or to submit it in writing, but she invoked her right as chair to ask him to stop speaking.
Tidewater News
National Stories
A senior Montgomery County (Maryland) official has apologized to a Wheaton neighborhood activist for a March 19 letter saying it would take three months and cost $58,407 to comply with a records request for information about a planned library and recreation center. “Please accept my apology for the impersonal tone of the letter,” the county’s general services director, David Dise, said in a March 25 e-mail to Kim Persaud, president of the Wheaton Regional Park Neighborhood Association. Dise, whose agency is responsible for capital construction projects, also said he regretted “the omission of an offer to help address” her interest. “It was not our intent to appear uncooperative or unresponsive,” Dise said.
Washington Post
As House Republican leaders weigh whether to try to force former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to hand over her personal email server, experts say the messages she deleted from it — or at least portions of them — can almost certainly be recovered. Half a dozen computer forensics experts interviewed by POLITICO said remnants of Clinton’s emails likely still exist on the server, although retrieving them could be time intensive and expensive. Clinton’s attorney David Kendall on Friday wrote Benghazi Committee Chairman Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.), declining the committee’s request for the server to be turned over to an independent third party. The committee said it wants a third party to verify that all Benghazi-related emails were in fact turned over to the panel—especially after Clinton acknowledged deleting anything determined to be “personal” messages. Kendall called the request pointless, saying Clinton’s IT staff had confirmed to him the messages are gone for good.
Politico
The Supreme Court rejected a free-speech appeal Monday from several California high school students who were told they could not wear a shirt emblazoned with an American flag on the Cinco de Mayo holiday. The court's action has the effect of upholding school officials who said they acted because they feared an outbreak of fighting between white and Mexican-American students. The court's action sets no legal precedent, but it raises questions about whether students have meaningful free-speech rights on matters that may provoke controversy.
McClatchy
Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey vetoed legislation that would have prevented law enforcement agencies from releasing the names of officers involved in serious or fatal shootings for 60 days.
New York Times
From open-data projects to predictive policing, everyone in local government wants to innovate right now. Ours is a golden age for innovation, with technology enabling government leaders to radically change the way they do business and share their success stories with the world. But achieving true innovation requires more than a light-bulb moment. Innovation sits atop the pyramid of developmental stages that nearly all local governments go through, and each level in the pyramid is foundational to others. Any organization wishing to achieve transformational innovation -- which should include all governments -- must first master the lower levels, because breakdowns at those levels will hinder or prevent breakthroughs at the highest level. As Thomas Edison said, "Genius is 1 percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration."
Governing
Editorials/Columns
There are two principles on which people from across the political spectrum can agree. First, in a democracy like America’s, we should know more about government than it knows about us. Second, privacy from government is an element of liberty. This general consensus was reflected in near unanimous passage by the General Assembly of legislation designed to rein in use by law enforcement of drones, license plate readers (LPRs) and other mass surveillance technology. Instead of signing this bipartisan legislation, however, that would transform laws written to rein in the surveillance state into laws that would expand it — converting privacy bills into surveillance bills. The governor’s proposed amendments to the LPR bills gut privacy protections secured by the legislation. They limit the reach of the bills to apply only to LPRs, just one piece of surveillance equipment used by law enforcement. They eliminate the “active investigation” requirement for use of technologies other than LPRs. And, they dramatically expand the length of time that law enforcement can store information about innocent Virginians from seven to 60 days.
Ken Cuccinelli and Claire Guthrie Gastañaga, Times-Dispatch
State and Local Stories
The FBI's Norfolk office wants a hand with its top criminal priority and so is asking Hampton Roads residents to call when they think public officials are on the take. The office is setting up a new toll-free telephone tip line to make it easier for its top allies in battling public corruption — members of the public who see something untoward going to — to reach the four special agents and one intelligence analyst assigned to public corruption cases. "We can't do it alone," said Special Agent in Charge John S. Adams. Calls to the tip line — 1-844-FIGHTPC — are confidential. They often are a key tool in investigating or learning about public corruption. He said Virginia's relatively loose state ethics laws have highlighted concerns, but noted that corruption is a widespread problem that has led about half the FBI's field offices to set up similar tip lines.
Daily Press
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday said a federal court in Richmond must take another look at a ruling that had ordered the state legislature to redraw the lines of Virginia’s only black-majority congressional district. The high court’s decision comes after last week’s ruling in which the justices sided with black officeholders and Democrats in Alabama. In that case, the Supreme Court told a lower court to reconsider whether a redistricting plan drawn by the state’s Republican legislature packed minority voters into districts to dilute their influence.
Times-Dispatch
Paperwork filed by a state senator from Chesapeake shows he received taxpayer reimbursement for part of a hotel stay at a conference last year even though his campaign paid the hotel bill. Sen. John Cosgrove's campaign finance report shows payments in July and August for a stay at a Hilton in Dallas for the annual conference of the American Legislative Exchange Council. But he also filed an expense reimbursement form with the Senate clerk's office in September to receive $622.41 in taxpayer reimbursement for three nights at the hotel. On Friday, Cosgrove said he would talk to his legislative aide and would consider reimbursing his campaign.
Virginian-Pilot
When Teri Zurfluh approached the podium at a recent Franklin City Public School Board meeting to talk about the importance of the system’s gifted program, she almost wasn’t allowed to speak. Members of the audience, many of whom had gathered for the Citizens’ Time section, said she turned red as the board chair interrupted her. Indeed, Zurfluh hesitated before speaking again, perhaps considering storming out or trying to calm herself, before approaching the podium again. At first her speech was flustered as she self-censored herself to not name specific people other than her children in the system, or even to refer to specific people in a way that could identify them. It wasn’t the only time in the meeting that someone’s words were censored in Citizens’ Time, and it wasn’t the first time board chair Edna King had asked someone to refrain from speaking. Rewind back to November 2013, when the school board was soon set to make a decision on whether it would renew then-superintendent Dr. Michelle Belle’s contract. David Benton, a former school board member, was one of many who wanted to talk about what had happened under Belle’s watch. As he started to go into his speech, he was interrupted because he had inferred her title. “I ask you to not present this,” King told him. “I have struck all of the places where I used this person’s name,” he responded. “I will not use names.” “You may not use position as well,” King said. “You cannot present this in open session.” King invited him to speak in closed session, where only council would hear his words, or to submit it in writing, but she invoked her right as chair to ask him to stop speaking.
Tidewater News
National Stories
A senior Montgomery County (Maryland) official has apologized to a Wheaton neighborhood activist for a March 19 letter saying it would take three months and cost $58,407 to comply with a records request for information about a planned library and recreation center. “Please accept my apology for the impersonal tone of the letter,” the county’s general services director, David Dise, said in a March 25 e-mail to Kim Persaud, president of the Wheaton Regional Park Neighborhood Association. Dise, whose agency is responsible for capital construction projects, also said he regretted “the omission of an offer to help address” her interest. “It was not our intent to appear uncooperative or unresponsive,” Dise said.
Washington Post
As House Republican leaders weigh whether to try to force former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to hand over her personal email server, experts say the messages she deleted from it — or at least portions of them — can almost certainly be recovered. Half a dozen computer forensics experts interviewed by POLITICO said remnants of Clinton’s emails likely still exist on the server, although retrieving them could be time intensive and expensive. Clinton’s attorney David Kendall on Friday wrote Benghazi Committee Chairman Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.), declining the committee’s request for the server to be turned over to an independent third party. The committee said it wants a third party to verify that all Benghazi-related emails were in fact turned over to the panel—especially after Clinton acknowledged deleting anything determined to be “personal” messages. Kendall called the request pointless, saying Clinton’s IT staff had confirmed to him the messages are gone for good.
Politico
The Supreme Court rejected a free-speech appeal Monday from several California high school students who were told they could not wear a shirt emblazoned with an American flag on the Cinco de Mayo holiday. The court's action has the effect of upholding school officials who said they acted because they feared an outbreak of fighting between white and Mexican-American students. The court's action sets no legal precedent, but it raises questions about whether students have meaningful free-speech rights on matters that may provoke controversy.
McClatchy
Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey vetoed legislation that would have prevented law enforcement agencies from releasing the names of officers involved in serious or fatal shootings for 60 days.
New York Times
From open-data projects to predictive policing, everyone in local government wants to innovate right now. Ours is a golden age for innovation, with technology enabling government leaders to radically change the way they do business and share their success stories with the world. But achieving true innovation requires more than a light-bulb moment. Innovation sits atop the pyramid of developmental stages that nearly all local governments go through, and each level in the pyramid is foundational to others. Any organization wishing to achieve transformational innovation -- which should include all governments -- must first master the lower levels, because breakdowns at those levels will hinder or prevent breakthroughs at the highest level. As Thomas Edison said, "Genius is 1 percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration."
Governing
Editorials/Columns
There are two principles on which people from across the political spectrum can agree. First, in a democracy like America’s, we should know more about government than it knows about us. Second, privacy from government is an element of liberty. This general consensus was reflected in near unanimous passage by the General Assembly of legislation designed to rein in use by law enforcement of drones, license plate readers (LPRs) and other mass surveillance technology. Instead of signing this bipartisan legislation, however, that would transform laws written to rein in the surveillance state into laws that would expand it — converting privacy bills into surveillance bills. The governor’s proposed amendments to the LPR bills gut privacy protections secured by the legislation. They limit the reach of the bills to apply only to LPRs, just one piece of surveillance equipment used by law enforcement. They eliminate the “active investigation” requirement for use of technologies other than LPRs. And, they dramatically expand the length of time that law enforcement can store information about innocent Virginians from seven to 60 days.
Ken Cuccinelli and Claire Guthrie Gastañaga, Times-Dispatch
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