Transparency News, 4/28/20

 

Georgia may not copyright its entire official code, which includes both the state’s laws and annotations interpreting them, the Supreme Court ruled on Monday. The 5-to-4 decision featured unusual alliances and would most likely be widely felt, as about 20 other states have claimed that parts of similar annotated codes are copyrighted. The case, Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, No. 18-1150, concerned the 54 volumes of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, which contains state statutes and related materials. The state, through LexisNexis, a legal publisher, makes the statutes themselves available online, and it has said it does not object to others doing the same thing. But people who want to see the annotations, prepared by lawyers working for LexisNexis as part of a financial arrangement with the state, must pay. Public.Resource.Org, a group devoted to making government materials more accessible, put the entire code online. The state sued for copyright infringement, saying that the laws were public property but that the annotations were not. Since a commission created by the State Legislature was the author of the annotations for purposes of the copyright law, the annotations could not be copyrighted, Chief Justice Roberts wrote. He added that the annotations often offered important guidance.
The New York Times
Read the opinion

More than 50 Northern Virginia long-term care facilities have reported outbreaks of COVID-19, but public health officials in Northern Virginia are refusing to identify them. In response to Freedom of Information Act requests from InsideNoVa, health officials in two districts, Prince William and Fairfax, said they can’t release specific information about locations of outbreaks — defined as a place in which two or more people have COVID-19. Based on information provided by local health departments, the Virginia Department of Health is including basic outbreak information in its daily reports: the health district where the site is located and the type of setting, such as long-term care facility, education setting or health care setting. The lack of public disclosure has led to a hodgepodge of responses from sites facing outbreaks — some have reported them publicly, while others have not.  
InsideNoVa

Henrico’s Board of Supervisors will meet Tuesday at 7 p.m. at the Government Center, 4301 East Parham Road. The meeting will be livestreamed at henrico.us/supervisors/video-of-meetings/, and the public will be able to participate in the meeting remotely. If you would like to speak during the public comment period, you may sign up at tinyurl.com/yc2rcdqy. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email with instructions for participating. Registration is not required to participate in the public comment period. Individuals interested in speaking also may visit bit.ly/3bUD2nywhen the meeting begins at 7 p.m. A moderator will prompt participants when it is their turn to comment; each speaker will be given five minutes. Participants who register in advance will speak first. The meeting is open to the public and individuals may attend. The county will conduct the meeting in accordance with the state’s 10-person limit for gatherings; no more than 10 people will be in the Board Room at a time. Those who attend may be asked to remain in the lobby outside the Board Room or may be directed to another nearby area to accommodate the 10-person limit.
Henrico Citizen

 

 

 

With the coronavirus pandemic, timing is everything. When should states shut down? When should they reopen? Which hospitals need the most supplies right now? Across the U.S., those decisions largely hinge on good, accurate public health data. And yet, how much information is shared with the public varies widely among the states. As part of a collaborative effort, Stateline and Spotlight PA surveyed six states across the U.S. — Colorado, Georgia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Washington — to determine what information they have made accessible to the public via their websites. All six are regularly releasing data on cases by age, sex, and county. But beyond those basic numbers, the patchwork of available information shows the differing ability of health officials to accurately collect and report data, as well as how much they think the public needs to know.
Governing

Under mounting pressure from elder advocates and family members of nursing home residents, Gov. Ron DeSantis Monday released information on the number of residents and staff infected by the deadly coronavirus at Florida elder-care facilities — though he still refused to disclose the number of deaths linked to each facility. As of Monday, the state is reporting that a total of 390 nursing homes and assisted living facilities in Florida have at least one confirmed case of coronavirus among residents or staff. A total of 94 homes have been added to Florida’s count just since last week. The original list of long-term care facilities with reported coronavirus cases, released more than a week ago, included nearly 50 homes that no longer are on the list. That original list did not say how many residents and staff members had been infected. The new list includes those elements and provides a column of data for residents with COVID-19 who have transferred out. There was no explanation for why any of the 50 purged homes had been removed.
Miami Herald

As Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp moves to re-open the economy, researchers and ordinary Georgians are turning to the state Department of Public Health’s published data on coronavirus cases, hospitalizations and deaths to draw their own conclusions on if it’s safe to return to barber shops and restaurants. They’d be easily confused. As the coronavirus pandemic accelerated in Georgia, many readers contacted our reporters expressing frustration and confusion over how the state was publicizing data about the virus. Our reporters noticed discrepancies, too, and sought explanations from the Department of Public Health and local and national experts.
Governing

A trio of videos captured by US Navy pilots has been fueling UFO theories for years. On Monday, the Navy released the videos as part of its online Freedom of Information Act document library. “After a thorough review, the department has determined that the authorized release of these unclassified videos does not reveal any sensitive capabilities or systems, and does not impinge on any subsequent investigations of military air space incursions by unidentified aerial phenomena,” the Department of Defense said in a statement.
c|net
 

 

The Norfolk City Council’s unanimous vote April 14 to approve conditional use permits for the local Costco was a pro forma decision, one of many items jammed into a public meeting held under the challenging conditions created by the global pandemic. That may have followed the letter of the law, but not the spirit of the attorney general’s guidance that only business related to the emergency should be done at a time when the regular checks and balances of government are absent. The coronavirus effectively removed some of the guardrails meant to keep government in line. Gone, at least for a while, are in-person meetings and public comment periods, the regular reminders that officials work for the people and are accountable for decisions. Those laws weren’t erected for clever officials to subvert. Rather they are the very foundation of a democratic republic, which depends entirely on the consent of the people and in which elected officials are expected to act in accordance with public will.
The Virginian-Pilot

During the global coronavirus pandemic, access to accurate and trustworthy information in your community is as critical to life under quarantine and as sought after as hand sanitizer and face masks. The Richmond Times-Dispatch is Virginia’s news leader. Like other local newspapers around the country, the RTD provides news and information unique to the region and commonwealth: the latest number of reported coronavirus cases, which businesses are open, inspiring stories about health care workers and much more. But your access to local news and information is gravely threatened by the economic carnage COVID-19 has wrought.While local newspapers continue to field reporters and bring news and advice from public health authorities in print and online — at considerable cost — their revenues have all but disappeared as the businesses that were their most important advertisers were shuttered. That’s why America’s Newspapers and other organizations representing local news providers are asking Congress to take urgent action to ensure you don’t lose your vital sources of timely and trustworthy information.
Richmond Times-Dispatch