Transparency News, 8/29/2022

Monday
August 29, 2022

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state & local news stories

"The records also show that Richmond police shared with the FBI that a location was unknown."

Richmond Police Chief Gerald Smith sounded authoritative on July 6 when he said police had intercepted two men planning to commit a random mass shooting at a city fireworks show. "We do know that they were coming to do a mass shooting at the Dogwood Dell at our Fourth of July celebration," he told CNN that day. A tipster who had overheard a conversation and called police said there was a plot for a shooting at a large July Fourth event in Richmond. Smith erroneously claimed in a July 6 news conference that the tipster specified Dogwood Dell amphitheater in Byrd Park as the target. But not only had the tipster not specified a location, Smith's own department had provided him information in writing before his news conference that the location of any potential incident was "unknown," according to new records the Richmond Times-Dispatch obtained under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act. A police official emailed those records to Smith and an assistant seven minutes before Smith's 2 p.m. July 6 news conference. The records also show that Richmond police shared with the FBI that a location was unknown. That information was vetted by a detective. In an interview last week with the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Smith said his "experience" was part of how he concluded that Dogwood Dell must have been the intended target.
Richmond Times-Dispatch

An ex-Loudoun County Public Schools teacher suing the school board and a school principal has dropped an emergency request that the school district stop investigating her for allegedly leaking confidential information about a student she said sexually assaulted her. However, the former Rosa Lee Carter Elementary School special education teacher’s lawsuit against the school board and Carter Principal Diane Insari Mackey seeking up to $1 million is continuing. Attorney John C. Whitbeck Jr. said on Wednesday that his client still wants the investigation stopped. He said the decision to drop the motion for a temporary injunction was part of a long-term legal strategy. The ex-teacher, who the Loudoun Times-Mirror isn’t naming because she says she was sexually assaulted, said in legal filings that school administrators “repeatedly dismissed and ignored” her complaints and allowed the alleged assaults to continue. At a June 7 board meeting, the woman went public saying administrators were conducting a “smear campaign” against her because of comments made at a March 22 board meeting by a public speaker who criticized the way the district handled alleged sexual assaults of staff.
Loudoun Times-Mirror

stories of national interest

"The union secured an agreement with the county allowing it time to inspect internal affairs files and object to their release before a member of the public can see them."

A new Maryland law allows the public to see police officer disciplinary records. But you can’t see one in Montgomery County until after the police union takes a look. The union secured an agreement with the county allowing it time to inspect internal affairs files and object to their release before a member of the public can see them. Union and county officials say it’s to ensure information still confidential under the law doesn’t slip through, but transparency advocates worry that the arrangement will delay and impede public access. The agreement, obtained by The Washington Post this month through a public records request, was signed by County Executive Marc Elrich (D) several months after the law allowing public access took effect in October.
The Washington Post

The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) process has frequently been plagued with delays, but the massive surge in data production over the past decade means that this problem is only growing. Tackling all of the outstanding FOIA requests manually is not simply burdensome — it is nigh impossible.   “None of us have time to read a petabyte of data in our lifetime,” said John Facciola, retired U.S. magistrate judge and Georgetown adjunct professor of law, during a Digital Government Institute 930gov panel Tuesday.   That’s where AI comes in. Agencies are turning to technology assisted review tools that were originally developed for the eDiscovery process.
Gov CIO Media & Research

Congress has never been closer to passing a federal data privacy law — and the brokers that profit from information on billions of people are spending big to nudge the legislation in their favor. Five prominent data brokers boosted their collective spending on lobbying by roughly 11 percent in the second quarter of this year compared with the same period a year ago, according to lobbying disclosure records reviewed by POLITICO. The $180,000 lobbying bump came as House Democrats and Republicans reached a compromise on a bipartisan bill aimed at giving consumers new powers to limit the collection and sharing of their data.
Politico
 

editorials & columns

"Twigg’s refusal to admit this publicly demonstrates a level of arrogance and contempt for transparency that is unacceptable for any public official."

Love is blind. So is ideology. The Spotsylvania County School system is now firmly in the hands of four blind ideologues who are slowly, but surely, building a body of like-minded people around them. Their goal? We don’t know, because Kirk Twigg, April Gillespie, Lisa Phelps, and Rabih Abusmail continue to stonewall the press, the public, and their fellow board members. Because they won’t, or can’t, speak for themselves, they’re turning to Jon Russell, a right-wing provocateur hired on Aug. 19 to fill the role of manager of executive communications. His job is simply to defend the indefensible: the School Board’s actions. The first mess he’ll try to explain away? The attempt to hire Mark Taylor, his presumptive boss and a fellow home-schooler, as superintendent. At Thursday’s meeting, Board Member Nicole Cole asked Twigg a series of questions about his relationship with Taylor. Twigg refused to answer. Board member Lorita Daniels asked Twigg if he felt he should recuse himself on voting to send a letter in support of Taylor in light of their relationship, and again Twigg refused to respond. Twigg’s refusal to admit this publicly demonstrates a level of arrogance and contempt for transparency that is unacceptable for any public official.
The Free Lance-Star