Transparency News 4/14/14

The latest in a string of successful court challenges to college "free speech zones" is unfolding in Virginia, where lawyers are negotiating a settlement in the case of a student who was barred from preaching on campus. The Virginia Community College System has agreed to suspend its student demonstrations policy in response to a lawsuit filed by Thomas Nelson Community College student Christian Parks. Both sides have asked a federal judge in Norfolk to put the case on hold until May 2 while a new policy and settlement details are negotiated. Judicial history and recent legislative developments suggested Parks had a good chance of prevailing. Over the last dozen years, several similar policies establishing restrictive speech zones at public colleges have been invalidated by courts or changed by officials to settle lawsuits alleging violation of students' First Amendment rights. And on April 4, Gov. Terry McAuliffe signed legislation limiting public colleges' restraint on student expression.
Herald Courier

The state’s rules about demonstrations or protests in Capitol Square are keeping Virginians from speaking their minds to government, the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia says. The group iscalling on Gov. Terry McAuliffe to revise the regulation, saying the Department of General Services’ recent decision to deny permission for the Richmond Chapter of the National Day of Prayer to hold a May 1 service is the latest in a serious of troubling restrictions and denials of First Amendment rights. "The Capitol Square is a quintessential public forum.  The most effective location for protests against the government is often the seat of government itself," said ACLU of Virginia Executive Director Claire Guthrie Gastañaga.  "The vague and arbitrary restrictions on free speech in the Capitol Square undermine Virginians' right to protest their government."
Daily Press

National Stories

A funny thing happened in the Senate this week: The cat that had the Army's tongue on sexual assault in its ranks loosened its grip. For a moment, and not entirely. A three-star general discussed for the first time in public information about soldiers disqualified from "positions of trust." It's some of the same data that the Army recently required USA TODAY to request under the federal Freedom of Information Act.
USA Today

The West Virginia Supreme Court has ruled that government agencies can charge an hourly fee for locating public documents requested under the West Virginia Freedom of Information Act. The court ruled 4-1 in a decision released Thursday. The justices overturned a Kanawha County circuit judge’s ruling that said the city of Nitro didn’t have the authority to enact an ordinance to establish an hourly search fee for documents.
(Huntington) Herald-Dispatch

Greg Abbott, the Republican candidate for Texas governor, wants copies of any photos taken when his Democratic opponent, Wendy Davis, met Thursday with President Barack Obama.  To get them, Abbott has filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the White House. Davis’ campaign says she had a private meeting with the president at the LBJ Library in Austin, where he helped commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act.
KERA

Twitter initially confused a lot of folks. For one, it was seen as limited in function, and second, its exact value or purpose was not understood by many. But new uses for the social media channel pop up all the time. As a means of getting a simple message across instantly to a large, rapt audience, it’s hard to beat Twitter. This is why many large companies have started using the platform to Tweet job openings — and some governments are starting to do the same. Jonathan Reichental, CIO of Palo Alto, Calif., is among the government leaders using their Twitter  audience to advertise new job openings in their agencies. “Is Twitter a good channel for advertising government jobs?” Reichental asked. “The answer is absolutely yes, in a very positive way.”
Governing
 

Editorials/Columns

As the General Assembly dawned in January, high on its agenda was to beef up Virginia’s lame ethics and disclosure laws, which are regarded as among the nation’s weakest. In light of Giftgate, the scandal that dogged former Gov. Bob McDonnell for the final year of his term and resulted in federal charges against him and first lady Maureen McDonnell, reform enjoyed strong bipartisan support. But it doesn’t take a seasoned political analyst to recognize that lawmakers’ efforts to police themselves tend to be big on talk and short on action. The bill recently signed by Gov. Terry McAuliffe bears that out.What the lawmakers managed to accomplish fails to live up to the hype.
Free Lance-Star

The Family Foundation and American Civil Liberties Union ordinarily find themselves on opposite sides in matters involving religion. During the recent legislative session, for example, representatives from the groups fought each other on the need for a bill designating school events as limited public forums and amplifying the role of religious speech in school-mandated events. But Gov. Terry McAuliffe and his administration managed to unite the two last week by initally refusing to grant organizers a permit for a National Day of Prayer gathering at noon on May 1 on the grounds of the state Capitol.
Virginian-Pilot

Do conservatives owe the Dixie Chicks an apology? It sure looks that way. Liberals, meanwhile, owe some apologies too. A little over a decade ago the Chicks’ lead singer, Natalie Maines, told a London audience: “Just so you know, we’re ashamed that the president of the United States is from Texas.” This was less than two weeks before the shooting started in the Iraq war, and patriotic fervor was running high. Blowback came swiftly. Country-music stations stopped playing the Dixie Chicks. Their No. 1 single “Travelin’ Soldier” fell off the charts. Critics started calling them the “Ditsy Twits” and the “Vichy Chicks” and even less flattering things. They received death threats.
A. Barton Hinkle, Times-Dispatch