Transparency News 5/28/13

Register & Bee: Pittsylvania County and the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia — still embroiled in a legal dispute over officially-led sectarian Christian prayer during board of supervisors meetings — are keeping their eyes on a related public prayer case headed to the U.S. Supreme Court. The case, town of Greece (N.Y.) v. Galloway, came about after two residents filed a lawsuit against the town in 2008 over its practice — since 1999 — of starting its meetings with invocations from members of the public. “I’m hoping the court is taking up the issue to decide it once and for all,” said state Sen. Bill Stanley, who is representing the county against the ACLU. “I hope it brings clarity to an otherwise murky issue.”

Washington Examiner: A commuter train employee has been fired after he was caught cooking the books to boost the on-time performance record for Virginia Railway Express trains. The worker was caught changing the time of a Fredericksburg train that ran in March, according to VRE and the operations service that runs the trains.

National Stories

California agencies would be required to give journalists five days’ notice before they issue subpoenas to a third-party company for telephone records under legislation announced Thursday by a state senator. Democratic state Sen. Ted Lieu, of Torrance, said he would seek the measure to give greater protection for newsgathering operations.
First Amendment Center

Two news organizations on Thursday challenged a judge’s decision to keep the public from learning the details of a case against a man charged with killing a 15-year-old girl. The Associated Press and MaineToday Media, owner of the Portland Press Herald and Maine Sunday Telegram, asked the judge to release a probable cause affidavit containing details from a state police investigation that support a murder charge filed against 20-year-old Kyle Dube, of Orono.
First Amendment Center

Connecticut’s Freedom of Information Commission on Friday denied a bid by Newtown officials topostpone a hearing on a request by The Associated Press for records related to the gunman in December’s school shooting. An attorney for the town asked for a continuance until after the state legislature adjourns on June 5, citing a pending bill that would leave release of some material up to the victims’ families. But the commission said the hearing will take place as scheduled on June 3.
Boston Globe

If attorney general Eric Holder wanted to perform even a momentary Internet wiretap on Fox News' e-mail accounts, he would have had to persuade a judge to approve what lawyers call a "super search warrant." A super search warrant's requirements are exacting: Intercepted communications must be secured and placed under seal. Real-time interception must be done only as a last resort. Only certain crimes qualify for this technique, the target must be notified, and additional restrictions apply to state and local police conducting real-time intercepts. But because of the way federal law was written nearly half a century ago, Holder was able to obtain a normal search warrant — lacking those extensive privacy protections — that allowed federal agents to secretly obtain up to six years of email correspondence between Fox News correspondent James Rosen and his alleged sources.
CNET News

News Corp said on Monday it is still reviewing whether it has any record of a notification from the United States government involving a subpoena for a Fox News reporter's phone records. The media conglomerate was responding to the Justice Department, which said it told News Corp about the seizure of phone records for James Rosen, a reporter with Fox News, in August 2010. "While we don't take issue with the DOJ's account that they sent a notice to News Corp, we do not have a record of ever having received it," said News Corp spokesman Nathaniel Brown, who added the company is looking into the matter. Fox News, which is owned by News Corp, has said it never received a notification from the government.
Reuters

Editorials/Columns

News & Advance: Sometimes, all we can do is shake our heads in utter amazement at the outrageous things politicians and public officials say. For example, consider the statements by Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli and William H. Goodwin Jr., the newly elected vice rector of the University of Virginia Board of Visitors, about the concept of open government and Virginia’s Freedom of Information Act.

Herald Courier: The “Free Flow of Information Act” (H.R. 1962 / S. 987) is a federal shield bill that would protect the public’s right to know by protecting the identities of journalists’ confidential sources. Both versions of the Act introduced in Congress by members of both the Republican and Democratic parties have bipartisan support. Although there are slight differences between the two, either bill would create a much-needed federal “shield” law that would offer, for the first time, a statutory reporter’s privilege that could be invoked when federal authorities seek information, including the identity of a source, from a reporter engaged in newsgathering activities. For centuries, journalists have relied on confidential sources to produce groundbreaking investigative reporting.