Transparency News, 4/9/20

 

Reports in some areas of the country show the novel coronavirus is having a disproportionate effect on African Americans. But data in Virginia, like many other places, is so incomplete that it’s difficult to know if that’s happening here. The Virginia Department of Health posts updates on its website that include cases by race. But in 54% of the 3,645 positive cases to date, race is listed as “not reported” and an additional 6% of cases are listed as “other.” On top of that, the department reports cases by locality, but no further data is available to the public in Virginia about which communities or ZIP codes of a county or city are being hit harder than others. Gov. Ralph Northam addressed the issue in a news conference Wednesday and said Virginia needs to measure cases by race because of racial inequities in access to health care, education and economic opportunity. He and state Health Commissioner Norman Oliver said the incomplete data comes from private medical providers not reporting the data to labs that do the tests, and thus the state doesn’t get complete data.
Richmond Times-Dispatch

State officials said Wednesday they were worried the coronavirus pandemic could be disproportionately impacting black Virginians, but that they lacked key data to truly understand what was happening. The state lacks information regarding the patient’s race and ethnicity in more than half of its 3,645 confirmed COVID-19 cases. Virginia’s Secretary of Health and Human Resources Dan Carey said he doesn’t believe the state will be able to retroactively recover the information for the patients who have already been processed. He said the state needs to take steps to better collect such data moving forward. The majority of states are not publicly breaking down their coronavirus statistics. Virginia is one of only about a dozen.
The Virginian-Pilot

The Hanover County Board of Supervisors on Wednesday postponed a vote until next month on a hotly contested zoning case that critics said shouldn’t be heard while COVID-19 rages in Virginia. The decision comes a week after the board voted against delaying the hearing until the end of May so residents would not be congregating at a public meeting to voice their opinions in violation of social distancing rules. Chairman Bucky Stanley said moving the hearing from April 22 to May 6 is a result of a compromise with Wegmans. The county postponed a previously scheduled March 25 hearing last month as the disease was beginning to take hold in Virginia. “Based on the information from the University of Washington forecasting that the peak of COVID-19 in Virginia may be the week of April 22, I believe that deferring the public hearing … is the most prudent course of action,” Stanley said. Supervisors Faye Prichard and Angela Kelly-Wiecek voted against the motion Wednesday. They and six people who spoke in person at Wednesday’s board meeting said a hearing on May 6 would be too soon.
Richmond Times-Dispatch

Jerry Falwell Jr., the president of Liberty University, said on Wednesday that arrest warrants had been issued for journalists from The New York Times and ProPublica after both outlets published articles critical of his decision to partially reopen Liberty’s campus amid the coronavirus pandemic. Photocopies of the two warrants published on the website of Todd Starnes, a conservative radio host, charge that Julia Rendleman, a freelance photographer for the Times, and Alec MacGillis, a ProPublica reporter, committed misdemeanor trespassing on the Lynchburg, Va., campus of the college while working on their articles.
Politico

For the next two weeks, Rockingham County residents will be able to provide their comments on the proposed fiscal year 2020-21 budget by email after the Board of Supervisors extended the public comment period.
Daily News Record

U.S. Sens. Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine (both D-VA) joined their Senate colleagues in a letter calling for funding to support local journalism and media to be included in any future COVID-19 relief package. In a letter to Senate leadership and the Chair and Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Appropriations, the Senators warn that the widespread impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, which includes plummeting advertising revenue and profits, could decimate regional and local news outlets even as communities have become increasingly reliant on their reporting during the public health crisis. While news outlets across the country have reduced or eliminated print editions, Virginia newspapers have implemented pay staff cuts and furloughed staff to deal with the financial impact of COVID-19.
Star Tribune

The Fluvanna County Board of Supervisors continued the process of adjusting to new ways of operating in the shadow of the COVID-19 pandemic. Among the changes: the regular meeting on Wednesday night (April 1) was closed to the public and streamed on Facebook Live. Supervisors Mozell Booker (Fork Union) and Patricia Eager (Palmyra), both of whom suffer from health issues that put them at increased risk if they were to contract the virus, dialed into the meeting via Zoom. They both joined the session after Chair Mike Sheridan (Columbia) and Supervisors Don Weaver (Cunningham) and Tony O’Brien (Rivanna) voted 3-0 to approve an emergency ordinance to allow members to participate electronically during a disaster. Previously, supervisors could only participate electronically a maximum of twice in a year.
Fluvanna Review

 

Work to bridge the digital divide has gained momentum in recent years in state and local government, and the case to close the gap may get a further boost by the novel coronavirus reinforcing the importance of having the Internet at home.
Governing

 

 

Perhaps you have taken to watching the various briefings delivered every day by our elected officials.  All of these briefings — whether it’s President Donald Trump, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine or Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker — follow a similar pattern. The executive makes a few statements, then allows an expert or a member of his cabinet to make a few statements, then the press asks questions and the officials answer them. There’s an exception to this pattern: Missouri Gov. Mike Parson.  He holds briefings every day except Sunday. But to call these “press briefings” is a misnomer. There is no press present when Parson delivers his remarks. Instead, the media is asked to submit questions to the governor one hour prior to the meeting, before the reporters know what he will be talking about. After Parson or representatives from his cabinet deliver their remarks, one of Parson’s spokespeople reads the pre-screened reporter questions for Parson to answer. This may not seem like much of a difference from the format of other media briefings. After all, Parson is answering reporters’ questions, right? But this is, in fact, a huge departure and a huge problem. Depending on the day, the governor will answer zero to five questions. According to reporters who cover these briefings, frequently their questions aren’t being asked exactly as they were written. In other words, the questions are shaped to make them easy for the governor to answer. What’s more, because the reporters aren’t physically in the room, they cannot ask for clarification or follow up.
Shula Neuman, St. Louis Public Radio