Transparency News 4/12/17

Wednesday, April 12, 2017



State and Local Stories

It's been nearly four months since the Daily Press requested a hearing at Suffolk Circuit Court into a lack of media access to a state lawmaker's criminal case in December. But with no hearing yet scheduled, the newspaper will file a motion this week asking that the matter be heard — and soon — even if it means a new judge is appointed to the case. The Daily Press, Virginian-Pilot and Smithfield Times want the full hearing transcript of the closed December proceeding. They also want a declaration that Suffolk Juvenile and Domestic Relations Judge Robert S. Brewbaker Jr. erred in having his bailiffs block the media at the courtroom door for the hearing on Morris' child cruelty case involving his wife's son. The media also want assurance that the trial in Suffolk Circuit Court will remain open.
Daily Press

The chairman of the Fredericksburg Virginia Patriots tea party group has submitted what he calls a “formal complaint” against Spotsylvania County Supervisor Chris Yakabouski. Michael Hirsch took issue with a quote from Yakabouski in a recent Free Lance–Star article questioning the veracity of comments by Hirsch about school system expenses. Hirsch wrote in his complaint to County Administrator Mark Taylor that he was “offended by this attack, and my standing in the community has been damaged.” Hirsch’s letter asks the Board of Supervisors to “police itself” under the county’s Code of Ethics, which states that members should “refrain from abusive conduct, personal charges or verbal attacks.” He said he had contacted his attorney and will “proceed according” to state code on defamation. Hirsch read the letter at a recent supervisors meeting.
Free Lance-Star

Rolling Stone has reached a confidential settlement with Nicole Eramo, a former University of Virginia associate dean who had sued the magazine alleging that it defamed her in a 2014 story about an alleged gang rape on campus, according to lawyers for both parties. The settlement brings an end to a lawsuit that had roiled the UVa community with a case study in the practice and ethics of journalism.
Washington Post

The state attorney general’s office has declined to issue a legal opinion on whether it’s a conflict for a Botetourt County elected official to share office space with the voting machines to be used in the next election. The county’s electoral board sought the opinion last month, after questioning whether it should continue to store the machines in the same Fincastle building where Commonwealth’s Attorney Joel Branscom recently relocated his office. Although no one suggested that Branscom or his staff would tamper with — or even touch — the machines, election officials said they were concerned about the appearances of the new arrangement. “This spatial arrangement ... could facilitate access to the systems by a party with a personal stake in an election’s outcome,” the board wrote in a March 21 letter requesting an opinion from Attorney General Mark Herring. In a response dated March 29, Herring’s office said the question about the safety and integrity of the voting equipment is a factual one that does not require legal analysis.
Roanoke Times

Prince William County is pouring $200,000 into studying the prospect of building a new stadium for the Potomac Nationals minor league baseball team. The board of county supervisors voted 5-3 on April 11 to use the money for “further financial analysis” of the project, and additional payments to legal counsel for advice on the $35 million in bonds the county would have to issue for the stadium. Supervisors Ruth Anderson, R-Occoquan, Pete Candland, R-Gainesville, and Jeanine Lawson, R-Brentsville, cast the dissenting votes. The vote is just the second public proceeding supervisors have held on the stadium project, and much of the discussion on this latest expenditure happened behind closed doors after it was originally listed on the public meeting agenda. 
Inside NOVA

From monitoring traffic conditions in construction zones to predicting opioid overdoses, mining massive amounts of data generated by state and local governments can improve efficiency and service, state officials said Tuesday. Representatives from state and local agencies met with leading technology companies and data-mining experts during the Governor’s Data Analytics Summit, held at the Boar’s Head Inn conference facility.
Daily Progress

Agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives used a secret, off-the-books bank account to rent a $21,000 suite at a Nascar race, take a trip to Las Vegas and donate money to the school of one of the agents’ children, according to records and interviews. Agents also used the account to finance undercover operations around the country, despite laws prohibiting government officials from using private money to supplement their budgets, according to current and former government officials and others familiar with the account.
New York Times


National Stories
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Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette is being sued after his office rejected a public-records request for his and other staffers' private emails that a liberal advocacy group says were used to conduct government business. Progress Michigan sued in the Court of Claims Tuesday. It says state employees who use personal email accounts to perform official functions are creating public records subject to Michigan's Freedom of Information Act. Schuette's office largely denied the request that sought such records over a six-year period, saying it didn't possess them. It did provide one email. Progress Michigan wants to know how common it is for Schuette and staff to use personal email. In prior FOIA requests, the group uncovered emails sent or received to private accounts.
U.S. News & World Report

A federal judge ruled Friday that Dakota Access LLC can shield sensitive information about infrastructure routes of its controversial oil pipeline to protect it from would be terrorists and nefarious actors. U.S. District Judge James Boasberg found that an exemption typically used for withholdings in Freedom of Information Act cases also applies to information about potential oil spills that the developers of the Dakota Access pipeline want to keep secret in their ongoing battle with the Standing Rock and Cheyenne Sioux Tribes over the pipeline’s route.
Courthouse News Service

The story of the cargo ship El Faro's final hours was reconstructed using thousands of pages of public documents, hours of testimony before the U.S. Coast Guard's investigative board and interviews with crew family members and maritime experts. The most important source material for the story was the final conversations of the crew. In December, the National Transportation Safety Board released data from the El Faro's voyage data recorder.
McClatchy


Editorials/Columns


Last week the Department of Homeland Security’s Customs and Border Protection division demanded that Twitter reveal the identity of the person behind an account that has been criticizing the Trump administration. The agency had no authority to issue such a demand, and quickly retracted it. But you could not have scripted a better incident to confirm the worst fears of Trump administration critics about its neo-fascist tendencies. Twitter fretted that the demand “may reflect the very sort of official retaliation that can result from speech that criticizes government officials and agencies.” Civil libertarians were — quite properly — outraged. Twitter is a for-profit corporation that recently published criticism of a politician by the name of Donald Trump. Let’s hope those who were horrified by the administration’s demand that the user be unmasked think long and hard about whether they want the government unmasking other critics, too.
A. Barton Hinkle, Richmond Times-Dispatch

Mr. Gillespie proposed several ethics reforms last week, saying that if he were elected governor he would have the influence necessary to persuade the legislature to adopt them. Additional points in his plan include other reforms that we’ve championed, including extending the amount of time a government official must wait after leaving the administration office before he can turn around and lobby his former office. The reform would help reduce cronyism and the unfair advantage a lobbyist might have in schmoozing his former colleagues. Another proposed reform even would prohibit any form of gift to the governor or members of his Cabinet — even more stringent than we’ve advocated.  Gov. Terry McAuliffe responded with the plaint that ethics reform should be supported simply because it’s the right thing to do — not because it brings some form of political advantage. Mr. Gillespie’s proposals may be politically motivated — but that also may mean the proposals have a chance at adoption: Voters’ desire for ethics reforms and the candidate’s political self-interest may merge into a common goal.
Daily Progress