Transparency News 9/30/13

 

Monday, September 30, 2013
 
State and Local Stories

 

Efforts by a conservative group to gain access to data and emails used by a former University of Virginia researcher who studied climate change could change legal interpretations of the state’s freedom of information laws. The Virginia Supreme Court has agreed to hear an appeal by The American Tradition Institute and Del. Robert G. Marshall, R-Manassas, after a Prince William County Circuit judge threw out a lawsuit seeking emails and documents generated by former UVa professor Michael E. Mann. Mann’s research provided evidence of global climate change, but it has been criticized by researchers and organizations who disagree with the results. The high court will not consider Mann’s research. It will focus on defining records “of a proprietary nature” excluded under freedom of information law and whether agencies may charge for review to determine which documents may be released.
Daily Progress

After months of wrangling, Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli's office has found common ground with a Democratic state senator seeking internal records about its contact with a businessman at the heart of a high-profile gift scandal. State lawyers and those for Sen. Donald McEachin hashed out an accord during a brief hearing Friday in Richmond Circuit Court that requires each side to budge from their hard line positions. But to hear them tell it in dueling press statements, both sides won the day. Under the compromise terms with McEachin, Cuccinelli's office backed off its inital quote of more than $14,000 to produce the records -- the hourly rate they'll charge for research has come down to $25 from the original $54 figure. And McEachin agreed to more specificially frame his request to help those researching it find what he wants.
Virginian-Pilot

Parents of students in Richmond schools can soon use mobile phones to track grades, attendance records and balances on lunch accounts. The Richmond school division expects to launch the mobile app in mid-October, with the features to be in full effect by next year, according to Richmond schools spokeswoman Felicia Cosby. It’s one of numerous advancements local school divisions are unveiling, designed to give parents better access to student information.
Times-Dispatch

Using Department of Motor Vehicles records as its core, the state government is quietly developing a master identity database of Virginia residents for use by state agencies. The state enterprise record — the master electronic ID database — would help agencies ferret out fraud and help residents do business electronically with the state more easily, officials said. While officials say the e-ID initiative will be limited in scope and access, it comes at a time of growing public concern about electronic privacy, identity theft and government intrusion.
Daily Progress

A state Attorney General’s Office staffer continued to advise energy companies how to fight landowners suing over natural gas royalties for months after the state’s top law office learned of the communications, a Bristol Herald Courier review of the emails shows. Whether the communications continued with AG Ken Cuccinelli’s knowledge remains a mystery because his office refuses to say when he personally learned of the emails or when he officially shut down the staffer’s contact with the corporate attorneys. “We’re not discussing this further,” spokesman Brian Gottstein wrote. The office maintains that neither Cuccinelli nor the staffer’s supervisors knew of the electronic communications until sometime after the emails took center stage last year in an ongoing federal court battle for at least $30 million in natural gas royalties. Despite being in the spotlight, AG staffer Sharon Pigeon went on to suggest how a corporate lawyer might pull the rug out from under one of the landowner plaintiffs.
Herald Courier

The City of Hampton will get to keep about $700,000 in cash, nine vehicles, electronics and other assets left over from a 19-month undercover cigarette sting. Wednesday, the city received a letter from the bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) — the agency that provided the initial money and cigarettes for the Blue Water Tobacco operation — giving the city permission to keep the assets, City Attorney Cynthia Hudson said Friday.
Daily Press

Christiansburg voters will likely have a say in filling an upcoming town council vacancy after all. Having last week said there was no need for a special election to fill the remaining two years of Councilman Mike Barber’s term, and arguing over how best to appoint a replacement, council members said late last week that they need to examine the state laws that control how such terms are filled. An attorney is scheduled to brief the council at its meeting Tuesday, Christiansburg spokeswoman Becky Wilburn said.
Roanoke Times

Northern Virginia residents can register to vote or check the status of their voter registration duringNOVA Voter Registration Day on Tuesday, Oct. 1, at special locations throughout the region. The jurisdictions listed below are hosting voter registration events in multiple locations. Please contact your local jurisdiction with questions regarding voter registration and elections.
InsideNOVA

Private meetings Friday between the owners of the former Yorktown refinery and members of the York County Board of Supervisors revealed some new plans for the facility, most significantly that the company could eventually add 60 new jobs there. The meetings, which were closed to the public, were held Friday morning at county administrative offices in Yorktown. Jim Noel, economic development director for York County, said last week that the company was "trying to keep elected officials informed about its business plan." "They prefer to do that in a setting that is kept confidential for purposes of competition," Noel said. "For their business they felt that's important and we respect that."
Virginia Gazette
 

National Stories

Since 2010, the National Security Agency has been exploiting its huge collections of data to create sophisticated graphs of some Americans’ social connections that can identify their associates, their locations at certain times, their traveling companions and other personal information, according to newly disclosed documents and interviews with officials. The spy agency began allowing the analysis of phone call and e-mail logs in November 2010 to examine Americans’ networks of associations for foreign intelligence purposes after N.S.A. officials lifted restrictions on the practice, according to documents provided by Edward J. Snowden, the former N.S.A. contractor.
New York Times

A federal district court judge agreed with a magistrate judge Monday that documentary filmmakers will not have to hand over outtakes from their film "The Central Park Five."The fact that one filmmaker had researched the subject matter for a college thesis did not mean the documentary several years later was lacking journalistic intent, said Judge Deborah A. Batts of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press

California Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill into law Tuesday that restricts photographers' right to photograph the children of celebrities. The bill goes into effect Jan. 1. The bill, authored by Sen. Kevin de León (D-Los Angeles), punishes someone who intentionally harasses the child of any other person "because of that person's employment." Harassment, as outlined in the bill, means,willful conduct that "seriously alarms, annoys, torments or terrorizes" the child and that "serves no legitimate purpose. It includes "conduct occurring during the course of any actual or attempted recording" of the child's image or voice by following the child or lying in wait and without consent of the parent.
Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press

When on June 9 Edward Snowden stood up in Hong Kong and revealed himself to the world as an NSA whistleblower, the Justice Department wasted little time in targeting his email provider. A new appeals court filing Friday shows the government served a court order on Texas-based Lavabit the very next day, demanding metadata on an unnamed customer that the timing and circumstances suggest was Snowden. The June 10 records demand was issued under 18 USC 2703(d), a 1994 amendment to the Stored Communications Act that allows law enforcement access to non-content internet records without demonstrating the “probable cause” needed for a search warrant. That would include email “To” and “From” lines, and the IP addresses used to access the account, but would not include the content of the email.
Wired

U.S. officials said Iran hacked unclassified Navy computers in recent weeks in an escalation of Iranian cyberintrusions targeting the U.S. military. The allegations, coming as the Obama administration ramps up talks with Iran over its nuclear program, show the depth and complexity of long-standing tensions between Washington and Tehran.
Wall Street Journal

Editorials/Columns

Herald Courier: No matter what precipitated Wes Rosenbalm’s exit from his leadership role at BVU Authority, the change was sudden and secretive in the eyes of the public the agency serves. Sudden, because Rosenbalm has been the CEO of the utility company for a dozen years, and often well-applauded for his leadership. Secretive, because there is little public knowledge about what led to his absence from the office for the past couple weeks, nor the BVU Authority’s Board of Directors decision to hold a special meeting and vote on whether it should accept his resignation. The vote was conducted in public, as required by law. The pre-vote debate and reasons for the decision were expressed behind a closed door.  This is a public utility, even in its spinoff from the city as a separate authority BVU remains a public body subject to all open meetings and public information laws. The job itself is a public service role. The people – ratepayers for electricity, water, sewer, telephone and cable services – pay for the authority’s operations and the employees’ salaries. They also will pay every cent of the exit package Rosenbalm receives. So they deserve to know the cost. And there is precedent indicating they should be told.

Hartford Courant: Since 1975 when Connecticut adopted its Freedom of Information law and was hailed as the leader in the nation for open government, state and local officials have been coming up with ways to water it down and, frankly, just going about breaking the law with impunity. Let's start with the idea that advocating for unaccountable government censorship doesn't help the public interest. All information is value neutral in itself. It can be used for good and bad purposes. But government hiding information on the mere claim that it's possible that someone might use information for bad purposes undermines the very foundation of all true democracies. There cannot be democracy without an informed public.