Transparency News 8/18/17

Friday, August 18, 2017

State and Local Stories

Temperatures in the upper 80s may have contributed to the relatively slow trickle of visitors to a downtown Lynchburg master plan “pop-up” listening session at the corner of Fifth and Federal streets earlier this week. A series of “pop-up” listening sessions were held this week at various locations in the city. The sessions serve as an opportunity for the city to collect citizen input for the creation of the Downtown 2040 Master Plan. The purpose of the pop-up listening sessions is to get out in the community and receive feedback from people who may not normally attend public meetings, said planner Rachel Frischeisen, who sat at a table with fellow planner Dylan Bishop.
News & Advance

Last weekend’s violence in Charlottesville is opening a new conversation about how local governments issue permits for groups to hold marches and rallies.
WVTF

National Stories
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Retired state workers in Michigan have taken to social media to cry foul on an Illinois-based transparency group that has requested the names and pension amounts for government retirees.  In a memo last week, the state’s Office of Retirement Services informed pensioners that American Transparency — a Burr Ridge, Ill. nonprofit with a data processing center in Boca Raton, Fla. — had used the state’s Freedom of Information Act to seek the information. The agency assured retirees that no “sensitive information” such as Social Security numbers, dates of birth, contact information or medical records would be released.  
Lansing State Journal

A Washington-based nonprofit is deepening its legal feud with Vermont over public records, filing a new lawsuit Monday that seeks supposed private emails between Vermont’s former attorney general and the New York attorney general. The Energy & Environment Legal Institute has brought a handful of lawsuits in Vermont and New York seeking records related to what the group describes as a “cabal among activist attorneys general” in a case involving oil giant Exxon Mobil.
VT Digger

A lawsuit filed Thursday says the Trump administration must turn over visitor logs pertaining to four offices within the White House complex. In its case, the progressive advocacy group Public Citizen takes a narrower approach than groups behind expansive Freedom of Information Act litigation in New York. The Trump administration ended the voluntary disclosure of partial visitor logs in April, describing generously redacted Obama lists as creating a facade of transparency. The Obama White House agreed in 2009 to release some logs to end lawsuits that began under George W. Bush, after two district court defeats. But the Obama administration also sought and received a 2013 appeals court ruling that FOIA doesn’t cover presidential visitors. The new lawsuit filed in D.C. seeks to make use that 2013 ruling from the D.C. Circuit, which despite being reviled by transparency activists says some White House offices are covered by FOIA.
Washington Examiner

Editorials/Columns


Calls for stricter control of “hate speech” have grown louder after Charlottesville. Some people argue it’s only sensible, especially in these days when America is divided along so many political and cultural fault lines. We respectfully disagree for if popular majorities start down the road of circumscribing fundamental civil liberties of a minority of citizens, the very concept of a democratic republic is at risk.
News & Advance