Transparency News 9/30/16

Friday, September 30, 2016


 
State and Local Stories
 
The Virginia Department of Corrections has agreed to pay a secret supplier of lethal injection drugs $16,500 per execution under a new state contract, more than 30 times higher than what prison officials say they would have had to pay last year for a supply of chemicals sufficient for one execution. In early 2015, an equivalent batch of drugs would have cost $525.14, according to the Department of Corrections. In 2013 and 2014, a batch would have cost a little less than $250, according to the agency, which calculated the costs by reviewing past invoices. Virginia’s process for buying execution drugs changed dramatically this year after the General Assembly passed a law allowing the Department of Corrections to buy special-ordered drugs from compounding pharmacies rather than getting them directly from pharmaceutical manufacturers. The legislation was intended to ease the state’s purchase of drugs that have become increasingly difficult to acquire as pharmaceutical companies pull back from participating in the death penalty.
Richmond Times-Dispatch

On July 15, after Loudoun County requested additional information from the firm acting on behalf of AT&T, the company’s law firm asked the county’s Department of Building and Development to “not disclose to the public, whether in response to a Freedom of Information Act request or otherwise,” any “components” of the following applications: SPAM-2015-0028 (approved), WAIV-2015-0038 (approved), SPAM 2016-0067 (active -- the one just filed), BUILDING/ZONING PERMIT No. B50384250100, BUILDING/ZONING PERMIT No. B40427130100, BUILDING/ZONING PERMIT No. B50349970100 and MECHANICAL PERMIT No. M50330840001. The law firm said the applications included engineering and construction drawings and plans that would “reveal critical structural components,” such as security equipment systems, ventilation systems, fire protection equipment and more. Walsh Colucci also argued the applications were exempt because “the disclosure of such information would jeopardize the safety and security of AT&T’s facility and its occupancies ‘in the event of…[a] threat to public safety.’” “There are likely to be other exemptions under FOIA that apply considering the importance of this facility to AT&T’s operation,” the firm said. 
Loudoun Times-Mirror

In the early 1770s, slave Rachel Findlay sued her master for her freedom. She knew the law. Her maternal grandmother had been an illegally enslaved Native American, and Findlay’s mom likely had some African blood. Being a descendant of a Native American was one of the few circumstances under which blacks could sue to be emancipated. Documents show that in 1773 the courts in the area now known as Powhatan County near Richmond ruled in her favor. Before Findlay could hear the verdict, though, her owner sold her and her daughter to another family in the western part of the state. Other court papers show that wasn’t the end of Findlay’s fight. Piecing together tax documents from this courthouse and lawsuits from that has helped archivists like Greg Crawford, Library of Virginia’s local records program manager, find stories that would have remained unknown. It’s why the Library of Virginia this year launched “Virginia Untold: The African American Narrative,” an online database of documents that pulls once-separated local, state and private collections into one home. The records are mostly pre-Civil War, a period that was often a brick wall for researchers and genealogists because such records are scarce.
Virginian-Pilot

Property owners owe about $177,000 in delinquent taxes to Front Royal – information the town soon could post in local newspapers. Town Council plans to consider reviving an old practice of advertising information about delinquent real estate taxes. Councilman Eugene Tewalt asked town staff recently to look into publishing the names of property owners in arrears for taxes and amounts. Director of Finance B.J. Wilson said Thursday the town used to publish a list of property owners and unpaid taxes in local newspapers. Advertising or at least publicizing delinquent tax accounts is a common practice by some municipalities, Wilson said. Frederick County makes such a list available on its website. Shenandoah County does not publish a list in local newspapers or online but the treasurer’s office can provide a list on request.
Northern Virginia Daily



National Stories


A federal appeals court on Wednesday soundly struck down New Hampshire's ban on ballot selfies concluding it restricted innocent, political speech in the pursuit of what the judges called an "unsubstantiated and hypothetical danger" of vote-buying. A three-judge panel unanimously concluded that the state's 2014 ban was unconstitutionally over broad. "The ballot selfie prohibition is like burning down the house to roast the pig," wrote Judge Sandra Lynch in a 22-page decision. The state will now weigh its options, which include appealing this case to the U.S. Supreme Court, Deputy Secretary of State David Scanlan said.
Governing

The U.S. government will open the doors next week to a new agency, with stronger data protections, meant to shorten by many weeks the time it takes to vet government workers seeking "secret" and "top secret" security clearances. The National Background Investigations Bureau will be headed by Charles Phalen, who has worked as a security executive at the CIA, the FBI and defense contractor Northrop Grumman, officials said on Thursday on a conference call with reporters.
Reuters


Editorials/Columns

Taxpaying troublemakers. Cynical citizens. Bellyaching burghers.  Virginia Beach is full of these party poopers.  They seem to materialize every time city officials get ready to embark another amazing-but-pricey project that promises to put the Resort City on the map. This time, it’s changes to a deal involving the $200 million-plus sports and entertainment arena that’s brought them out. “No Arena! This has been a sketchy proposition, since day one,” one wrote on Councilman John Moss’s Facebook page this week. Oh boy. The worst worrywarts are the ones fretting about what goes on in closed-door sessions, where elected officials are briefed on multimillion-dollar projects – such as the arena – and refuse to disclose details to the people they represent.
Kerry Dougherty, Virginian-Pilot

 

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