Transparency News 11/5/14

Wednesday, November 5, 2014  

State and Local Stories

There was an election yesterday . . . 
Election result maps at VPAP

Henrico County Circuit Court records can now be accessed online, ending the county’s distinction as the lone locality in the state without the service. Henrico Circuit Court Clerk Yvonne G. Smith said Monday that she ended the practice of blocking online, off-site access to the records to ease demands for information being made of clerks on the phone and at the clerk’s office. “It was just getting to be too much for our people here,” she said. “Especially in civil cases.”
Times-Dispatch

During the annual joint meeting Tuesday night between Lynchburg City Council members and members of the Lynchburg City School Board, council members and Mayor Michael Gillette praised Superintendent Scott Brabrand and other school officials for their transparency in reporting on student performance — particularly regarding the Standards of Learning tests.
News & Advance

National Stories

The Justice Department has turned over more than 64,000 pages of documents congressional lawmakers were seeking as part of their investigation into the botched gun-running operation known as Fast and Furious. The material was handed over to the House Oversight and Government Reform panel late Monday in what aides describe as an election eve “dump.” In total, 64,280 pages arrived on Capitol Hill — all material that had been withheld from Congress by President Obama, who used executive privilege to keep the information from lawmakers.
Fox News

State Ethics Commission Director Herb Hayden violated the S.C. Freedom of Information Act byfalsely telling a Nerve reporter that a commission letter sent to Gov. Nikki Haley had been destroyed, according to a settlement in a lawsuit against Hayden and the commission.
The Nerve

Facebook Inc. said requests by governments for user information rose by about a quarter in the first half of 2014 over the second half of last year. In the first six months of 2014, governments around the world made 34,946 requests for data.
Reuters

U.S. Supreme Court justices on Tuesday appeared to be leaning toward ruling that a former air marshal can seek whistleblower protections for disclosing sensitive information to the news media about the absence of security officers on certain flights.
Reuters