Transparency News 1/24/19

 

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Thursday
January 24, 2019

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Follow the bills that VCOG follows on our annual legislative bill chart.

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state & local news stories

 

 

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"After 20-plus speakers expressed their disgust regarding a proposed rule change to public presentation guidelines, the Warren County Board of Supervisors at its regular Tuesday meeting delayed a vote and opted to take the matter to a work session."

After 20-plus speakers expressed their disgust regarding a proposed rule change to public presentation guidelines, the Warren County Board of Supervisors at its regular Tuesday meeting delayed a vote and opted to take the matter to a work session. The public presentation, or public comment, period occurs at the beginning of the board’s meeting and allows citizens to relay thoughts or concerns to the supervisors. The changes were initially proposed three weeks after resident Mark Egger spoke for about 30 minutes during the supervisors' November meeting. During that public comment period, he made a series of allegations regarding Front Royal-Warren County Economic Development Authority former executive director Jennifer McDonald. When the board attempted to cut off his comments during that meeting, Egger noted a section of the county code allowing anyone to speak for an unlimited time so long as two board members approve. Egger said during the public hearing that he had not planned on addressing the supervisors again, but the board’s “foolish actions” compelled him “to make another futile attempt.” He said the board needs to amend the meeting rules to coincide with the county code, not the other way around.
The Northern Virginia Daily

Virginia Commonwealth University is withholding nearly 50 pages of documents regarding a recently hired professor who was involved in a racially charged incident at the school late last year. The university is citing personnel exemptions in its decision to withhold several dozen emails to and from the president of the public institution. Virginia’s freedom of information law is notably strict. Frank LoMonte, director of the Brechner Center for Freedom of Information at the University of Florida, said that under Virginia’s FOIA law, “the amount that [a public employee] is paid and the terms of the contract are public record, but just about nothing else is.”
The College Fix

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stories of national interest

New York state has recently taken some critical and long-overdue steps to ensure that the state’s criminal justice system treats the accused fairly, protects indigent criminal suspects, ensures adequate legal representation for all, assists released inmates in their transition back into society, keeps kids out of adult prisons and makes sure criminal cases are processed expeditiously. But while protecting the rights of criminal suspects and convicted criminals, state officials need to be sure they don’t take away the right of the citizens to know who is being accused of crimes, the circumstances behind the allegations and information about who has been convicted of crimes. In another step down a slippery slope, Gov. Andrew Cuomo has proposed amending the state’s Freedom of Information Law to ban the public disclosure of photos of the accused (mugshots), as well as booking information compiled by police when they make an arrest.
The Daily Gazette

The American Civil Liberties Union is demanding the Department of Justice release any records on its use of facial recognition technology, the civil rights group announced Tuesday. The ACLU filed a Freedom of Information Act with the Justice Department seeking facial recognition documents from the department as a whole and its component agencies such as the FBI and DEA. In addition, the group has also requested records detailing the accuracy of any facial recognition technology used by the Justice Department. In October, the ACLU made a similar request from the Department of Homeland Security.
The Washington Times
 

 

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