Transparency News 5/30/17

Tuesday, May 30, 2017



State and Local Stories

Critical evidence is yet to be examined in the Virginia State Police investigation into the death of Hampton Roads Regional Jail inmate Jamycheal Mitchell, according to Portsmouth Commonwealth’s Attorney Stephanie N. Morales. Virginia State Police have been unable to interview medical personnel who worked with Mitchell or obtain certain documents from NaphCare, the jail’s former health care contractor, Morales said. On Wednesday, Morales requested that the Portsmouth Circuit Court convene a special grand jury to look into Mitchell’s death, but three Portsmouth Circuit Court judges rejected her request on Friday. A special grand jury would have had the power to subpoena the records from NaphCare. On Friday afternoon, Morales filed a motion appealing their decision and released a five-page statement challenging the judges. She argued that the special grand jury is “essential to enable the commonwealth to obtain yet-unseen documents and yet-unexamined witnesses.” An attorney for NaphCare said the company has cooperated with Virginia State Police and is unaware of any requests for documents from state police investigators.
Richmond Times-Dispatch

An audit of Virginia Medicaid’s processing system revealed several vulnerabilities that left Medicaid beneficiaries’ data exposed, according to a recent report from the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the Inspector General. Further, Virginia’s Department of Medical Assistance Services failed to secure its Medicaid data in a method in line with federal requirements. While the report didn’t detail the specific vulnerabilities to prevent a potential exploit, OIG sent full details and recommendations to the department for review. These flaws were so severe that it could have allowed a hacker to gain access to Medicaid data, compromise the integrity of Virginia’s Medicaid program or disrupt services. Officials said there was no evidence to suggest the system had been breached.
Healthcare IT News



National Stories
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The number of lawsuits filed against the federal government over access to records is at an all-time high, according to a report released Tuesday by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, a federal information research center at Syracuse University. The clearinghouse’s data shows that 63 lawsuits were filed in April, the most in any month in the last 25 years, and May is on track to match or break April’s totals. While some lawsuits were brought by news outlets, others were from a variety of other records seekers. Coca-Cola sued the Internal Revenue Service to obtain information about an audit. A few were filed to block records release. Princeton University filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Education to keep records about a university investigation from becoming public.
Reveal

A shadowy international mercenary and security firm known as TigerSwan targeted the movement opposed to the Dakota Access Pipeline with military-style counterterrorism measures, collaborating closely with police in at least five states, according to internal documents obtained by The Intercept. The documents provide the first detailed picture of how TigerSwan, which originated as a U.S. military and State Department contractor helping to execute the global war on terror, worked at the behest of its client Energy Transfer Partners, the company building the Dakota Access Pipeline, to respond to the indigenous-led movement that sought to stop the project. More than 100 internal documents leaked to The Intercept by a TigerSwan contractor, as well as a set of over 1,000 documents obtained via public records requests, reveal that TigerSwan spearheaded a multifaceted private security operation characterized by sweeping and invasive surveillance of protesters.
The Intercept