Transparency News 9/25/17
Monday, September 25, 2017
Nominations are being accepted for VCOG’s Freedom of Information Awards, to be presented in the fall of 2017. Entries should be submitted by October 9, 2017, by filling out the form linked above or by mailing the same information to VCOG, P.O. Box 2576, Williamsburg VA 23187.
State and Local Stories
Nominations are being accepted for VCOG’s Freedom of Information Awards, to be presented in the fall of 2017. Entries should be submitted by October 9, 2017, by filling out the form linked above or by mailing the same information to VCOG, P.O. Box 2576, Williamsburg VA 23187.
State and Local Stories
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Teacher salaries in Bristol, Virginia, lag behind the average pay in the state and nation. In the 2016-17 school year, Bristol Virginia Public Schools teachers made about 5.2 percent less than the state average from the previous year, according to a Bristol Herald Courier analysis of information obtained through the Freedom of Information Act. The gap for Bristol Virginia teachers is exacerbated by the fact that the state is behind the national average.
Herald Courier
In the first two weeks of summer break, dozens of Roanoke students returned to the classroom to retake the Standards of Learning exams that determine school accreditation. Three months later, the push to retest students from schools struggling to become fully accredited appears to have paid off. Virginia allows elementary and middle school students to retake SOLs if they narrowly missed passing or had other extenuating circumstances. For Roanoke Superintendent Rita Bishop, nearly every child in the urban school district whose situation crossed her desk before last spring met that definition. She approved all but 19 of the 470 requests to retest elementary and middle school students, according to heavily redacted public records provided by the district under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act.
Roanoke Times
“In recent years, we’ve seen big data revolutionize the way business leaders approach decision-making,” said Sallie Keller, director of the Biocomplexity Institute of Virginia Tech’s Social and Decision Analytics Laboratory. ”It’s time to level the playing field. Together, we can bring those same benefits to the public sector and improve day-to-day life in our communities.” This statement from Keller marked the conclusion of her laboratory’s third annual Data Science for the Public Good Program (DSPG), a 10-week learning experience where students and faculty team up to tackle persistent problems in local, state, and federal government. Leaders in law enforcement, education, transportation, and emergency services were in attendance for the DSPG symposium, where students presented the results of their initial data analyses — studies that Keller’s lab will pursue in greater depth throughout the coming year.
Augusta Free Press
National Stories
Minnesota was one of 21 states whose election systems were targeted by Russian-affiliated hackers before last year's elections, the federal government revealed Friday. "Entities acting at the behest of the Russian government" made the hacking attempt in the period leading up to the 2016 election, Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon said in a statement. The revelation came from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. State computers recognized the IP addresses that scanned the system and blocked them, so the breach attempt was foiled. Last year, the federal government told the Associated Press that hackers thought to be Russian agents had targeted more than 20 states before the 2016 elections. Friday's calls from Homeland Security to election officials in 21 states were the first official confirmations of the affected states.
Governing
Presidential son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner has corresponded with other administration officials about White House matters through a private email account set up during the transition last December, part of a larger pattern of Trump administration aides using personal email accounts for government business. Kushner uses his private account alongside his official White House email account, sometimes trading emails with senior White House officials, outside advisers and others about media coverage, event planning and other subjects, according to four people familiar with the correspondence. POLITICO has seen and verified about two dozen emails.
Politico
Editorials/Columns
In some places, such as Virginia, the law is overly broad and open to interpretation by officials. Virginia’s Freedom of Information Act also includes more than 170 exemptions, which effectively undermine its intent. The result is that officials have ample opportunity to conceal records that might prove inconvenient if made public, or to meet in closed session for sensitive discussions merely to avoid the glare of a public spotlight. One could shrug these decisions off as minor missteps, but they continue to happen in Virginia — and will continue to do so until public access to information is considered a fundamental right. Just as easily, the commonwealth could slide in the other direction, toward the states cited in that AP story, and see its government and its officials become less transparent and less accountable, to thumb its collective nose at the public’s right to know. Citizens cannot let that happen. They must make access to public information and government transparency central to their decision-making at the polls. Virginia may not have the best record on these issues, but things will be worse absent voters’ vigilance.
Virginian-Pilot
Herald Courier
In the first two weeks of summer break, dozens of Roanoke students returned to the classroom to retake the Standards of Learning exams that determine school accreditation. Three months later, the push to retest students from schools struggling to become fully accredited appears to have paid off. Virginia allows elementary and middle school students to retake SOLs if they narrowly missed passing or had other extenuating circumstances. For Roanoke Superintendent Rita Bishop, nearly every child in the urban school district whose situation crossed her desk before last spring met that definition. She approved all but 19 of the 470 requests to retest elementary and middle school students, according to heavily redacted public records provided by the district under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act.
Roanoke Times
“In recent years, we’ve seen big data revolutionize the way business leaders approach decision-making,” said Sallie Keller, director of the Biocomplexity Institute of Virginia Tech’s Social and Decision Analytics Laboratory. ”It’s time to level the playing field. Together, we can bring those same benefits to the public sector and improve day-to-day life in our communities.” This statement from Keller marked the conclusion of her laboratory’s third annual Data Science for the Public Good Program (DSPG), a 10-week learning experience where students and faculty team up to tackle persistent problems in local, state, and federal government. Leaders in law enforcement, education, transportation, and emergency services were in attendance for the DSPG symposium, where students presented the results of their initial data analyses — studies that Keller’s lab will pursue in greater depth throughout the coming year.
Augusta Free Press
National Stories
Minnesota was one of 21 states whose election systems were targeted by Russian-affiliated hackers before last year's elections, the federal government revealed Friday. "Entities acting at the behest of the Russian government" made the hacking attempt in the period leading up to the 2016 election, Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon said in a statement. The revelation came from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. State computers recognized the IP addresses that scanned the system and blocked them, so the breach attempt was foiled. Last year, the federal government told the Associated Press that hackers thought to be Russian agents had targeted more than 20 states before the 2016 elections. Friday's calls from Homeland Security to election officials in 21 states were the first official confirmations of the affected states.
Governing
Presidential son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner has corresponded with other administration officials about White House matters through a private email account set up during the transition last December, part of a larger pattern of Trump administration aides using personal email accounts for government business. Kushner uses his private account alongside his official White House email account, sometimes trading emails with senior White House officials, outside advisers and others about media coverage, event planning and other subjects, according to four people familiar with the correspondence. POLITICO has seen and verified about two dozen emails.
Politico
Editorials/Columns
In some places, such as Virginia, the law is overly broad and open to interpretation by officials. Virginia’s Freedom of Information Act also includes more than 170 exemptions, which effectively undermine its intent. The result is that officials have ample opportunity to conceal records that might prove inconvenient if made public, or to meet in closed session for sensitive discussions merely to avoid the glare of a public spotlight. One could shrug these decisions off as minor missteps, but they continue to happen in Virginia — and will continue to do so until public access to information is considered a fundamental right. Just as easily, the commonwealth could slide in the other direction, toward the states cited in that AP story, and see its government and its officials become less transparent and less accountable, to thumb its collective nose at the public’s right to know. Citizens cannot let that happen. They must make access to public information and government transparency central to their decision-making at the polls. Virginia may not have the best record on these issues, but things will be worse absent voters’ vigilance.
Virginian-Pilot
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