Transparency News, 9/16/21

After calling a temporary recess due to a sometimes unruly crowd of activists gathered to protest critical race theory – which officials insist is not taught in local schools – the Prince William County School Board made quick work of its agenda Wednesday night, adjourning about 30 minutes after the meeting began.  In a unanimous vote, the board voted to suspend citizen’s comment time, “in light of the night’s events,” said Woodbridge School Board member Loree Williams.  The school board meeting was scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. but was delayed due to the board’s closed session meeting. Some activists entered the school board chambers around that time, but many others were barred from entry by police officers when the room reached capacity.  That led to arguments between activists and police officers over whether they would be allowed in the room during the meeting. 
Prince William Times

During a Tuesday evening Pittsylvania School Board meeting, Chairman J. Samuel Burton removed two audience members who were refusing to wear masks the correct way. Three sheriff’s deputies came into the room and removed Michael Hall and Barbara Hancock, the mother and campaign manager of Jacob Hancock, who is actively running for school board in the Callands-Gretna District. Hall was holding a Trump 2024 flag and wearing a “Make Virginia Red Again” hat stating that what he was doing was a peaceful protest. He also stated the flag represents freedom and to save America in response to President Joe Biden’s recent vaccine mandates. He also stated it is a fundamental right to peacefully protest.
Star-Tribune

The Pittsylvania County Board of Zoning Appeals was slated to hold a meeting on Monday evening to vote on approving a special use permit for a public garage to furnish sales, service and repair of automobiles. The meeting never made it past minute one. Four of the board’s seven members elected not to show up. For a meeting to be held, it must create a quorum or a minimum number of board members must be present for the meeting to go as scheduled.
Star-Tribune

 

Delaware’s Supreme Court heard arguments Wednesday from a group demanding access to President Biden’s Senate papers now being held at the University of Delaware. The conservative foundation Judicial Watch and the Daily Caller News Foundation are suing the University of Delaware over the school’s denial of requests to access documents from President Biden’s 30 years in the U.S. Senate. Biden gifted the papers to UD in 2011 when he was vice president. The total collection includes more than 1,850 boxes of documents and 415 gigabytes of electronic records.
WHYY

When Florida legislators launch the once-a-decade redrawing of state legislative and congressional district boundaries next week, they will face new obstacles that include a compressed schedule because of a delay in the census process and restoring public trust after a court’s conclusion that the last process was secretly and illegally “hijacked” by Republican political operatives 10 years ago. But despite the hurdles, Florida GOP leaders have held no public hearings, will give no media interviews, and have not responded to requests from voters’ groupsthat they conduct a transparent process devoid of influence from secretive political operators. For the Fair Districts Coalition, a group of nonpartisan advocates that won voter approval for the Fair Districts amendments that require legislators to draw maps that do not favor incumbents or political parties, the Legislature’s approach falls short.
Miami Herald

A federal appeals court has rejected Rep. Devin Nunes’ defamation suit over a magazine story about his relatives in Iowa, but the court revived the lawmaker’s claim that he was libeled when a reporter linked to the story in a tweet more than a year after it was first published. The 8th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday that a lower court judge correctly sided with reporter Ryan Lizza over the 2018 Esquire article, “Milking the System,” about how members of Nunes’ family quietly moved their farming operations to Iowa. However, the three-judge panel said that when Lizza tweeted out a link to the story late the following year, he essentially republished the story after Nunes (R-Calif.) had filed suit over it, rejecting what he said was an implication that the Iowa farm employed undocumented immigrants. “The complaint here adequately alleges that Lizza intended to reach and actually reached a new audience by publishing a tweet about Nunes and a link to the article,” Judge Steven Colloton wrote in an opinion joined by Judges Lavenski Smith and Ralph Erickson.
Politico

 

Citizen activists, angry over any number of things, are increasingly making life miserable for the members of Virginia’s School Boards. As Virginia Coalition of Government Executive Director Megan Rhyne corrected noted in a letter in the Times last week, residents do not have a “right” to speak during public meetings. They are given the privilege of doing so. Public hearings are the only place where the right to speak is guaranteed by state law. Those who shout down others with opposing views, who refuse to follow rules of decorum in giving their own remarks, including accepting time limits, will ultimately force School Board members to write even more rigid rules governing public speech during regular meetings. Beyond the immediate difficulties posed by these angry expressions is the damage that will be done to citizen activism generally. It need not be that way. A case study of positive activism might be useful to all concerned, and it can be found in the very positive actions taken by a Nelson County couple nearly two decades ago.
John Edwards, The Smithfield Times