Transparency News 6/16/16

State and Local Stories

There’s a story circulating today about a FOIA Council meeting yesterday. Please note that the story is from 2015. There was no meeting yesterday or any time this week. Here is a list of upcoming meetings for the full council and the records and meetings subcommittees. The public is encouraged to attend.


FOIA COUNCIL

Thursday June 23 - 10:30 AM - House Room D

Monday July 18 - 1:30 PM - House Room C

Monday September 19 - 1:30 PM - House Room C

Monday October 17 - 1:30 PM - House Room C

Monday November 21 - 1:30 PM - House Room C

 

RECORDS SUBCOMMITTEE

Thursday June 23 - 1:30 PM - House Room D

Wednesday July 20 - 10:30 AM - House Room C

 

MEETINGS SUBCOMMITTEE

Monday July 18 - 10:30 AM - House Room C

Thursday August 11 - 1:30 PM - House Room C



What we know: An inmate who had been held at the Portsmouth jail where Jamycheal Mitchell died last year was transferred to a state mental hospital near Petersburg and then died sometime between May 25 and June 8. What we don’t know: the patient’s name, gender and age; when he or she was transferred to Central State Hospital; when exactly he or she died; or why the person had been locked up in jail. State officials and jailers know all of that information but have declined to provide any of it to the Richmond Times-Dispatch, despite multiple Freedom of Information Act requests. “People take a more aggressive approach to restriction (under the act) than they really ought to,” said Nathan A. Kottkamp, a partner at the McGuireWoods law firm in Richmond who specializes in HIPAA. Initially drafted to make it easier for people to transfer health insurance, the law and its privacy applications, which took effect in 2003, originated at a time when concerns about privacy and security boiled over as handheld electronic devices were beginning to proliferate. People were afraid of hackers, system crashes, and information gathering in the nascent age of big data, he said.
Richmond Times-Dispatch
 

National Stories
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With the Obama administration nearing declassification of the still-secret 28 pages of a congressional report on the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, new worries have surfaced that the White House might hand Congress the responsibility for releasing the document, which is said to suggest high-level Saudi complicity in the episode. That possibility has alarmed advocates for disclosing the pages, since there was no clear-cut avenue for Congress to do so. They had always assumed that the White House would act once it had completed its declassification review, and they now fear that involving Congress again is a stalling attack.
New York Times