Transparency News, 4/20/2022

Wednesday
April 20, 2022

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state & local news stories

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The UVA Honor Committee passed a set of by-laws allowing members to attend meetings and vote virtually during the second meeting of its new term Sunday. The by-law will require there to be an in-person quorum of 18 members before virtual attendance is allowed for any remaining members, and members who wish to attend virtually must have their reasoning approved by the chair. As long as these conditions are met, all members will be able to vote whether in-person or virtually. Rep. Tim Dodson, graduate Architecture student, supported the by-law, citing that it will put a permanent system in place in case the Committee is faced with an extenuating circumstance, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, again. Rep. Kelly O'Meara, graduate Architecture student, however, disagreed with the by-law, saying he believes students are elected to represent their respective student bodies in-person. 
The Cavalier Daily

Manassas Mayor Michelle Davis Younger is welcoming spring by inviting residents to come to walk her around the town. For the second week in a row, Davis Younger greeted residents and a few elected leaders who joined her at Osbourn High School at 8:30 a.m. for a walking tour around downtown and ending at the city’s farmer’s market. The weekly “Mayor on the Move” walks are a part of the HEAL initiative, promoting Healthy Eating, Active Lifestyle.
Potomac Local

stories of national interest

"The FBI must turn over 1,000 pages of records per month, starting in 30 days."

Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson's office announced last Friday afternoon it would no longer release to media the driving records of "victims of violence," including Patrick Lyoya, a 26-year-old Black man shot by a Grand Rapids police officer during a traffic stop April 4. But within seven hours, Benson walked back the statement, saying in a series of tweets that there was no policy switch and there were no changes "to media or public access to such data." The announcement earlier Friday broke with the office's past practice and prompted concerns about whether public access to government information was being restricted. The Michigan Press Association had "grave concerns about the way this is worded," said Lisa McGraw, the group's public affairs manager.
Governing

The FBI might not have found any Civil War-era gold at a remote woodland site in Pennsylvania — but it's definitely got records of the agency's 2018 dig, and will soon have to turn them over to a father-son pair of treasure hunters. A federal judge has ordered the FBI to speed up the release of records about the search for the legendary gold, ruling Monday in favor of Finders Keepers, the treasure hunting outfit that led FBI agents to the remote site. The group accuses the Justice Department of slow-walking their request for information. The FBI must turn over 1,000 pages of records per month, starting in 30 days, and the first batch of records must include a key report sought by Finders Keepers, U.S. District Judge Amit P. Mehta ordered.
(State College) Centre Daily
 

editorials & columns

"The governor could release these emails if he wished and he likely would if they supported his policy objectives."

Whether emails to [the governor's divisive concepts tip line] official government address are a matter of public record now will be decided by the courts. Last week, The Virginian-Pilot and Daily Press joined a coalition that filed suit against the Youngkin administration to obtain those records. While this might seem like the media picking a fight with the governor, and some corners will frame this action as partisan, transparency in government isn’t a cause limited to the press, nor is it the dominion of any party’s agenda. Rather, openness in the public sector is an imperative in a government elected by the people and in service to the people. It should be warmly embraced by public officials on both sides of the aisle and fiercely advocated by all. Given the grounds on which the governor’s office refused those FOIA requests, it asks the courts to determine the scope of an exemption in the state’s open government law related to these “working papers,” which is often decried by open government advocates as overly broad and often abused. It’s important to note that Virginia’s FOIA does not mandate that these records be withheld. The governor could release these emails if he wished and he likely would if they supported his policy objectives. But the broader issue remains: If the governor proposes to reshape Virginia public education based on evidence, he should be willing, if not eager, to provide that evidence. It’s unfortunate that access to that information has required legal intervention, but the public deserves to have a clear view of what’s happening in Richmond and we hope the courts provide it.
The Virginian-Pilot

NetChoice v. Paxton deals with a Texas statute, HB 20, that prohibits large platforms from “censoring” any user on the basis of their viewpoint and requires detailed disclosures about the way covered sites curate content. As Texas Gov. Greg Abbott made express in signing the legislation, the bill was passed to respond to what Texas officials see as “a dangerous movement by social media companies to silence conservative viewpoints and ideas.” Our brief to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, filed on behalf of a coalition of First Amendment organizations, explains that HB 20 trips nearly every alarm in the Supreme Court’s press-freedom precedent. It overrides a private party’s judgment about what is and isn’t worth publishing, in violation of the Court’s landmark decision in Miami Herald Publishing Co. v. Tornillo. Its transparency provisions expose editorial judgments to government scrutiny with no clear justification — akin to requiring a newspaper to explain why it rejected a particular op-ed submission in the hopes of smoking out hidden bias. And it singles out just three companies for special burdens, the kind of regulatory structure that the Supreme Court warned in Minneapolis Star & Tribune v. Minnesota Commissioner of Revenue requires searching First Amendment review to ensure that the state isn’t targeting those it may perceive as its ideological opponents.
Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press