Transparency News 9/2/16

 

Lawyers representing the Daily Press argued Thursday that the Supreme Court of Virginia should have the last word on whether the state's Office of the Executive Secretary of the Supreme Court must release a database containing court case information from around the state. Thursday's hearing, held before three state justices in a Norfolk courtroom, was the latest installment in an ongoing dispute over interpretation of the state's open government statutes. Justice D. Arthur Kelsey asked what was required to be a custodian – a central issue to the case, since FOIA doesn't define a custodian and the closest definition in the state code says that those public officials overseeing a public office which prepares, owns or possesses a record would be considered custodians. Kelsey wondered whether simply having something in an entity's possession was enough to consider that body a custodian of the record. "If custodian meant nothing here, it would just mean 'whoever has the record, hand it over,'" Kelsey said. Lauren Rogers, a lawyer for the Daily Press, said the only guidance in the law seems to make it clear that simple possession is enough to determine that a public body is a custodian. She said the lawsuit seeks to clarify that definition.
Daily Press

A civil rights lawsuit over a 2013 prison fracas is alleging systemic misconduct by the Virginia Department of Corrections whose director, Harold W. Clarke, is at the focus of a hearing set for this morning in Alexandria. The Virginia Attorney General’s office is opposing a bid by lawyers for inmate James H. Raynor to question Clarke over the retention of video monitor recordings. Raynor contends recordings that he asked to be saved would support his claims against a correctional officer, but they were lost or destroyed in violation of state law.
Richmond Times-Dispatch

Prince William County school officials announced Wednesday that they are temporarily shutting down all access to YouTube videos through the school division’s network and computers. The move is in reaction to “the unexplained failure of YouTube and related filtering software to block some inappropriate material,” school officials said in an announcement emailed to parents Wednesday. In a post displayed on school division websites, school officials said they want to “shield students from potentially-inappropriate images that are unexpectedly getting through YouTube and external filters. The change will temporarily make some web-based video content inaccessible on school computers.
Inside NOVA

Abingdon Town Council will unveil a budget transparency system at its regular meeting Tuesday. The new system, on the opengov website, allows viewers full access to the town’s budget information for the last three years. The information, spanning from the 2014 fiscal year through the present, allows anyone to go to the site and look at the town’s budget and expenditures in different ways, according to Chuck Banner, director of finance.
Herald Courier


National Stories
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A former Tennessee and National Press Association president, AP board member, judge, district attorney, newspaper editor and publisher has been become the 16th inductee into the State Open Government Hall of Fame. Selected by a panel from the National Freedom of Information Coalition and Society of Professional Journalists, Sam D. Kennedy becomes another member of the “Heroes of the Fifty States” for his work to promote open government and transparency.  For more than half a century, Sam D. Kennedy has been a First Amendment proponent and active FOI advocate of Tennessee state and local government. Throughout his long career, he served the public in many capacities including positions spanning government, law and journalism.
NFOIC

Months after she left her post as Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton used her private server to send an email to high ranking staff and members of the diplomatic corps about a nuclear energy-related deal with the United Arab Emirates, NBC News confirms. The email was one of over 800 pages of emails, provided to the Republican National Committee in response to a Freedom of Information Act request for documents sent the years following Clinton's tenure as Secretary to top aides still at the State Department.
NBC News

The State Department has agreed to produce by mid-October all of Hillary Clinton's planning schedules during her tenure as U.S. secretary of State. The decision, first reported by the Associated Press, is a reversal after a U.S. government lawyers' warning last week that hundreds of pages would not be released until after the presidential election in December. The agency now plans to complete processing the documents, with about 2,700 remaining, by Oct. 17, according to State Department spokesman John Kirby.
USA Today

A New Jersey appeals court on Wednesday ruled that government agencies may "neither confirm nor deny" the existence of records in response to requests for information by the public, delivering a blow to citizens and news organizations wary of more secretive government. Indiana is the only state that permits such a response by law, according to the decision. However, the so-called Glomar response dates to the 1970s in federal cases, when the CIA fought a request under the Freedom of Information Act, citing national security interests.
Governing


Editorials/Columns

When the Daily Press recently reviewed more than 100,000 donations — something we, and you by the way, are able to do because of the Freedom of Information Act — it turned out that lots of donations are made during the session. During the past five years, more than $227,000. Mostly, they come in on the first day of a session. Everyone sort of shrugs it off because, even though it's against the law, you know, it's not like they had actually started voting yet.
Daily Press