Wednesday, July 1, 2015
|
|
State and Local Stories
Some of the biggest legislative accomplishments of the year in Virginia will go into effect Wednesday, including laws intended to protect the victims and prosecute the perpetrators of campus sexual assault, regulate Uber and limit the use of drones.
Washington Post
Just weeks before her trial was scheduled to begin, Hopewell Mayor Brenda Pelham has settled a $2.35 million lawsuit for writing on Facebook that a candidate for sheriff and city policewoman was “part of the Klan.” “I never intended to suggest that Catherine Mitchell was a member of the Ku Klux Klan, or that she was part of a conspiracy to remove (former Hopewell Police) Chief (Steven) Martin because of his race or that she was in any way a racist, and I had no evidence of these things,” Pelham said in a statement released through her attorney. “My remarks were comments about a political race and were never intended to be defamatory.” Details of the settlement were not made public. David P. Corrigan, Pelham’s attorney, said neither he nor Pelham would comment further.
Times-Dispatch
The fight over sectarian public prayer in Pittsylvania County is over. The Pittsylvania County Board of Supervisors has decided they will not appeal a federal judge’s May 29 decision barring supervisors from leading prayers at the start of board meetings. Rebecca Glenberg, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia, said she and her client were pleased the litigation has ended. But the board’s attorney, state Sen. Bill Stanley, said the county prevailed in the case because the court granted its motion to dissolve and/or modify a March 2013 permanent injunction against the board’s practice. “I commend the board members for standing up against federal government intrusion into the business of this local government entity, and for continuing to fight for what is right, fair and just under the First Amendment of the Constitution,” he said.
Register & Bee
A former principal of Stuart Elementary School has filed a defamation lawsuit against Patrick County Public Schools Superintendent William D. Sroufe and the county school board. Muriel Tamera Waldron is seeking $5.2 million in actual damages and no less than $350,000 in punitive damages along with costs, post-judgment interest and other relief. The suit alleges that the manner in which Waldron was removed from her position as principal and reassigned, allegedly without notice, on April 24 resulted in “defamation by implication” because it allegedly implied she was “guilty of conduct justifying such action,” the lawsuit says. On the day Waldron was removed as principal, the suit says, her email account was terminated and she was denied further access to the school. The suit alleges that Sroufe or associates told 76 or more teachers, staff and others that Waldron had been removed and that further questions would not be addressed. The lawsuit alleges that Sroufe and the school board knew that implication was false and that Waldron had an outstanding reputation.
Martinsville Bulletin
Better late than never. James City County is certainly a place where historical preservation is valued. In a quest for openness and transparency, the Planning Commission will have to complete the unfinished work of the past Wednesday evening by filling in some of the missing pages of history. A new database that will archive meeting minutes — written accounts of actions and discussion at meetings — was nearly completed when workers in the Records Management division of the county discovered something. More than 20 of the meeting minutes on file had not been approved by the commission, a standard practice for public bodies. To rectify the problem, the current Planning Commission had to approve the missing minutes. Planning Commission chairwoman Robin Bledsoe said the database for the meeting minutes would be a valuable public resource. "The new database will serve as a great resource for the public at large to fully understand how the county representatives are serving them as well as our current commissioners and board supervisors and future commissioners and supervisors," Bledsoe said.
Virginia Gazette
In the most recent showdown between the City of Petersburg and the office of Sheriff Vanessa Crawford, city officials say that she refuses to give the whereabouts of thousands of dollars in city-owned assets. The sheriff denies the claim. The disagreement shows the scars that remain following the April 1 jail closure, that sent Petersburg’s roughly 136 inmates to Riverside Regional Jail. The former city jail now operates as a temporary lock up for defendants awaiting court hearings. Since the closure, the city has substantially reduced the personnel and vehicle resources available to the Sheriff’s Office. According to the city’s fleet inventory list, two vehicles have been unaccounted for since the city began paring down the sheriff’s fleet of 43 vehicles and two hauling trailers, following the start of the closure. The vehicles were used by Crawford’s office but are owned by the city and will be redistributed to other city departments.
Progress-Index
National Stories
The State Department released 3,000 pages of emails from Hillary Clinton's tenure as the country's chief diplomat on Tuesday, in compliance with a judge's order to make the documents public. U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras ordered the State Department to release emails from the former secretary of State's private account every 30 days beginning June 30. The last batch of emails will be released in January 2016.
USA Today
It's one of the nation's most important founding documents but the Declaration of Independence — the document that paved the way for the creation of the United States — hasn't always been treated with the care you might expect. Since it was signed in 1776, the Declaration was haphazardly transported around the country in carriages, a sailing ship and even an unprotected car. "It was terrible," said David Ward, senior historian at the National Portrait Gallery. "It was put in a burlap bag. They rolled it up all the time, which you're not supposed to do. It was exposed to light, it was exposed to smoke." And at some point along the way, someone slapped a big, dirty handprint on the bottom left-hand corner—and never fessed up to it. The dark smudge on the nation's famed document has baffled historians for years.
CNN
Oklahoma’s Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled that the state must remove its Ten Commandments monument at the state Capitol because it violates the state Constitution, which bans using public property for the benefit of a religion. In a 7-2 decision, justices found that the statue violated Article 2, Section 5 of the state’s Constitution, which says: “No public money or property shall ever be appropriated, applied, donated, or used, directly or indirectly, for the use, benefit, or support of any sect, church, denomination, or system of religion, or for the use, benefit, or support of any priest, preacher, minister, or other religious teacher or dignitary, or sectarian institution as such.”
Politico
D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser’s effort to outfit District police officers with body cameras hit a fresh obstacle Tuesday, when council members tried to block implementation of the program next year unless she ensures public transparency. The D.C. Council voted Tuesday on the final details of the city’s 2016 budget — and included an amendment dictating that Bowser’s rollout of 1,200 additional police body cameras move forward only if she finds an estimated $1.5 million to cover the cost of Freedom of Information Act requests for footage. “The ball is in her court,” Council Chairman Phil Mendelson (D) said. “What we did is say it’s subject to appropriation.” The extra cost, he said, is something that “she is completely able to fund.”
Washington Post
The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court ruled late Monday that the National Security Agency may temporarily resume its once-secret program that systematically collects records of Americans’ domestic phone calls in bulk. But the American Civil Liberties Union said Tuesday that it would ask the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, which had ruled that the surveillance program was illegal, to issue an injunction to halt the program, setting up a potential conflict between the two courts.
New York Times