Transparency News 6/14/17

Wednesday, June 14, 2017



State and Local Stories

Portsmouth Councilman Mark Whitaker is not entitled to know what happened in the elevators and third-floor hallways of the Portsmouth Judicial Center over three days in April. Defense attorney Don Scott asked last month to review videos recorded by the Sheriff’s Office, fearing there could have been inappropriate contact between the government and the special grand jurors who indicted his client. A special prosecutor assigned to the case objected, however, and retired Hampton Circuit Judge William Andrews III agreed Monday. He noted that the Sheriff’s Office held a central role in Whitaker’s case and, under state law, a person can’t legally subpoena “a party” to his or her investigation for documents.
Virginian-Pilot

From a video wall to Dodge Caravans, Ken Spirito, former executive director of Newport News/Williamsburg International Airport, often left the Peninsula Airport Commission in the dark about purchases, including some that needed commission approval, a state audit found. The June 2 Virginia Department of Transportation audit centered around a loan that auditors say former commissioners improperly guaranteed in 2014, using taxpayer money to secure credit for startup airline People Express. But another part of the audit examined the commission's general financial practices under Spirito. Among other things, auditors found Spirito approved certain contracts without informing the commission or without providing the justification for them.
Daily Press

In its first meeting since state auditors released a sharply critical report about the Peninsula Airport Commission, the Newport News City Council, whose former city manager was chairman of that commission, did not publicly comment on the findings. "You all keep it in the news, why should we?" Mayor McKinley Price said after the meeting, when asked why there was no discussion of the airport audit.
Daily Press

Rolling Stone magazine agreed to pay $1.65 million to settle a defamation lawsuit filed by a University of Virginia fraternity over a debunked story about a rape on campus, the fraternity said Tuesday. The settlement closes the final chapter of a lengthy legal saga sparked by the 2014 story "A Rape on Campus," which was retracted after a police investigation found no evidence to back up the harrowing account of the woman identified in the story only as "Jackie."
Daily Progress



National Stories
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The National Women’s Law Center filed suit Monday against the Education Department in an effort to force the release of information about federal enforcement of Title IX, a law that governs how schools handle campus sexual harassment and assault. In a complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the D.C.-based nonprofit group alleges the department has wrongfully failed to release public records that should have been released by now under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
Washington Post

As Delaware lawmakers try to hammer out a budget for the upcoming fiscal year, much of the work is still being done in secret. Republican and Democrat leaders of the House and Senate continue to negotiate behind closed doors after the Democratic House speaker and Senate president directed the budget-writing committee to halt its work last month amid public outcry about cuts the panel had approved. Meanwhile, the budget committee and legislature's controller general are refusing to release documents outlining further potential cuts.
Delmarva Public Radio

The Sebastian County (Arkansas) Circuit Court has ruled that the Fort Smith School Board violated the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act when members emailed back and forth regarding a slate of School Board officers that occurred over a period of several days. Circuit Judge Stephen Tabor said, in his order, "the undisputed facts establish a meeting of the Fort Smith School Board took place in which public business was discussed, rationale was put forth and decisions were made. The undisputed facts also establish that no notice was given.”
4029 News


Editorials/Columns


From time to time judges impose gag rules. They order participants not to talk about trials that involve themselves. Judges do not give running accounts of what occurs in courtrooms, either. They do not publicly criticize the prosecution or the defense - unless they warn the respective counsels of inappropriate conduct. And while the state legislature names Virginia's judges in a system affected by partisanship, judges refrain from partisan activity. They do not endorse candidates or promote platforms. They do not need to stay mute, however. A situation in Augusta County is testing the boundaries of judicial speech. The attitudes of judges with daily experience in courtrooms might have been of interest to Augusta voters, but the outspoken jurists did not play partisan games. The rules of judicial ethics allow them to do what they did.
Richmond Times-Dispatch

Time has not been kind to the Freedom of Information Act. It was enacted more than 50 years ago to give citizens the right to obtain documents from federal agencies. Not long after it went into effect, the consumer advocate Ralph Nader wrote a law review article titled “The Freedom From Information Act” denouncing the law as weak and ineffective. Five decades later, not much has changed. Last year, on the 50th anniversary of FOIA, a veteran media lawyer concluded in a law review article that Mr. Nader had been proved right over time. He dismissed FOIA as “deeply flawed — in fact, its terms have allowed agencies to defeat the very purpose of the act.” That veteran media lawyer was me. Which left me with some explaining to do when a study released a few weeks later found that I had brought more FOIA suits over the preceding eight years than any other media lawyer in the country.
David McCraw, New York Times