Transparency News 9/20/17

Wednesday, September 20, 2017



State and Local Stories

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Numerous troopers with Virginia State Police appear to have covered their names on their uniforms during Saturday's pro-Confederate rally and counterprotest in Richmond. What appeared to be tape covered the names, generating questions on social media. Some people wondered if the concealment was illegal or in violation of policy. Virginia State Police policy on utility uniforms says uniforms issued to sworn personnel will have "a cloth name strip immediately above the right breast pocket."  However, State Police has no policy on whether or not troopers can conceal the cloth name strip, according to Corinne Geller, the agency's spokeswoman.
Richmond Times-Dispatch



National Stories
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Michigan State University lost a public records lawsuit against ESPN for the second time in two years. The most-recent lawsuit stems from a Freedom of Information Act request ESPN submitted in February, for police reports containing allegations of sexual assault over several months as well as records of arrests.  "As is not entirely uncommon under FOIA, the public body denied the request," Michigan Court of Claims Judge Cynthia Stephens wrote in a ruling last month. "That denial sparked a sequence of events that is different from those that normally occur in conjunction with a FOIA request." What was different is that MSU sued ESPN and asked the court to issue a decision on whether some police reports could be withheld through a FOIA exemption relating to open police investigations. 
Lansing State Journal

Oregon's secretary of state announced Monday he will audit Portland Public Schools, an unusual move prompted by his concerns over the district's decision to sue a parent and reporter to keep records secret. Dennis Richardson said Portland residents have complained loudly to him about the district's high-profile problems. Oregon's largest school district has had such a rough go of it, the search firm for the new superintendent told the school board the next leader would need to address a "great deal of hurt and pain." Richardson specifically cited the district's decision to sue public records requesters as one reason why it deserves an audit. The reporter and parent asked for records of employees on paid leave, information that the district has released before. Reporter Beth Slovic at the Portland Tribune, who is being sued, has reported that the district put one worker on paid leave for years.
The Oregonian

The Internal Revenue Service improperly withheld information from requesters after Freedom of Information Act requests were filed, according to a report from the Treasury inspector general for tax administration. Auditors evaluated a sample of 70 FOIA requests and found that the agency improperly withheld information in 10 of these cases. The IRS withheld publicly available information as well as information taxpayers wanted regarding their own cases such as tax information and examination reports.
The Washington Free Beacon

Reporters and special interests groups critical of President Trump's Environmental Protection Agency have filed Freedom of Information Act requests at a record-breaking pace, a rate of over 60 a day. Through last week, 10,970 have been filed, many so broadly worded that it will take years to answer. What's more, there are still several weeks left in the fiscal year for more to come in. The most ever filed for a full year has been 11,820 in fiscal year 2007.
Washington Examiner

The Senate passed the Open, Public, Electronic and Necessary (OPEN) Government Data Act, championed by Senators Ben Sasse (R-NE) and Brian Schatz (D-HI). The bill was incorporated into a package of amendments (S.Amdt.1003) representing the final negotiated Senate FY18 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) (S. 1519; H.R. 2810). “The Data Coalition and our member companies have been diligently working with both Senate and House champions since February 2015 to get the OPEN Government Data Act signed into law,” said Hudson Hollister, Executive Director of the Data Coalition. “By requiring all federal agencies to publish their information in open, machine-readable formats, this reform will bring about greater efficiency within government and unprecedented transparency outside government.”
Data Coalition