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Monday
February 5, 2018
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state & local news stories
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Although the judiciary has not provided any example of how its current legal protections are insufficient, the Virginia Senate will be voting next week on a bill that would exempt the entire judicial branch from the state's Freedom of Information Act. The bill drew concerns from both parties during a committee hearing Wednesday, where the patron, Sen. Richard Stuart, R-Stafford, struggled to explain why it was necessary. He said he wanted the judicial system to make its own rules for what records are released to the public. But even with opposition the bill passed the Senate Courts of Justice Committee on a 10-5 vote.
Richmond Times-Dispatch
Marian M. Bragg’s ongoing Freedom of Information Act saga with the Rappahannock County Board of Supervisors moved a step closer Thursday when her attorney, David L. Konick, filed her opening brief with the Virginia Supreme Court, in Richmond. Known as Bragg I because Mrs. Bragg and Konick filed a second, separate FOIA suit in late December against the BOS, the pair will now wait for the board’s attorneys – Michael T. Brown and Jonathan P. Leinhard of the Warrenton law firm of Walker Jones, PC and the office of county attorney Arthur L. Goff – to file their brief.
Culpeper Star-Exponent
It’s an annual rite in Fairfax County, which has one of the wealthiest, best-educated populations in America: Hundreds of second-graders troop off to private psychologists for IQ tests to prove they’re worthy of advanced academic programs in the public schools. The competition is fierce. Acceptance, some parents believe, can be the key to getting into prestigious Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, a magnet school that routinely sends graduates to the most competitive colleges. “I guess I never made the cut,” said Aaron Moorer, who is African-American and eventually graduated from Mount Vernon High with a 3.8 GPA. “I never made the special class.” Moorer’s family wasn’t aware that hundreds of families file appeals every year, armed with private exams costing more than $500, to persuade bureaucrats their child is deserving. This system exacerbates a problem plaguing gifted-and-talented programs across the nation: Black and Hispanic students almost never file the appeals that can secure their admission. Using the Virginia Freedom of Information Act to obtain 10 years of county records, The Associated Press found that fewer than 50 black and Hispanic second-graders have filed successful appeals. That’s less than 3 percent of the 1,737 second-graders admitted through the appeals process, further skewing a program already heavily weighted toward whites and Asians.
WTOP
A proposal to exempt college students’ cellphone numbers and private email addresses from public records cleared the Virginia Senate Friday. The legislation by Sen. David Suetterlein, R-Roanoke County, would add student telephone numbers and personal email addresses to a list of scholastic records exempt from the Freedom of Information Act. “A lot of folks didn’t know, but the personal contact information for all of our students at our universities and colleges of higher learning here in the commonwealth was open to the Freedom of Information Act,” Suetterlein said. “A lot of folks found that out when they received a whole lot of text messages this year that they did not want.”
The Roanoke Times
A bill intended to protect victims in child pornography cases has been approved by the Virginia House of Delegates on a 98-0 block vote. Proposed by Del. David J. Toscano, D-Charlottesville, HB 1364 seeks to close the public off from preliminary hearings in child pornography cases. This is intended to help protect the survivors from further emotional injury, Toscano said.
The Daily Progress
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national stories of interest
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A federal judge has rejected requests from news organizations to release memos of former FBI Director James Comey's conversations with President Donald Trump, adding that publicizing the documents could harm special counsel Robert Mueller's probe. U.S. District Judge James Boasberg on Friday sided with the Department of Justice after multiple news organizations, including CNN and USA Today, sued for the public release of Comey's memos after their Freedom of Information Act requests were denied. Boasberg agreed with DOJ's contention that releasing any section of any of the memos, which detail nine conversations the then-FBI director had with Trump, could "could reveal sensitive nonpublic information and compromise the investigation."
Politico
Secrecy around tax incentives is no longer remarkable, especially in the handful of states—including Ohio, Rhode Island, Florida, Indiana, Wisconsin, and Arizona—where economic development has been privatized. But in this case, Facebook’s control over who could know what and when they could know it didn’t end there. In Facebook’s final agreement with New Albany, Ohio, signed the day before Governor John Kasich’s press conference, the tech giant sought to further control the release of information, with a highly unusual demand: Officials must give Facebook at least three days before responding to any public records request. In other words, not until after the press conference would reporters get a chance to analyze the agreement. In the approved deal with Ohio’s Tax Credit Authority, Facebook also requests “prior notice” of any public records request, though it doesn’t dictate that notice in days, only demanding it be sufficient to “seek a protective order or other appropriate remedy.” Though Facebook is never directly identified in the agreement, the address listed, 1601 Willow Road, Menlo Park, CA 94025, is Facebook’s headquarters.
Columbia Journalism Review
Newsworthy video from school surveillance cameras can’t be withheld from the public on the grounds of student privacy, a group of open-government groups argues in a brief filed with a Pennsylvania appeals court. The brief, authored by the Brechner Center’s Frank LoMonte and David Jadon, supports television journalists from Harrisburg who used their state’s Right-to-Know-Law to request footage of a school-bus security camera that captured an altercation between a parent and a student. The Central Dauphin School District is withholding the video on the basis of the federal student privacy law, the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, because it contains identifiable images of students. But in an August 2017 decision, a trial judge ordered the records released. The judge found that FERPA applies only to “education records” maintained centrally with the student’s permanent file, not to a security video that is typically held in the district’s transportation office for a brief period and then erased.
Student Press Law Center
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 "Facebook also requests 'prior notice' of any public records request to seek a protective order or other appropriate remedy."
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editorials & columns
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 "Former Sheriff Bill Watson might feel emboldened about ignoring our FOIA request because the sanction is minor."
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Last year stories about painful experiments on dogs conducted at the McGuire VA Medical Center came to light — prompting legislation at both the state and federal level. Researchers had induced heart attacks in the dogs, implanted pacemakers, and forced them to run on treadmills. In response, U.S. Rep. Dave Brat of Virginia introduced a bill to prevent the VA from conducting painful experiments on dogs, and state Sen. Bill Stanley has introduced legislation to bar the use of state funds for painful and medically unnecessary animal experiments. So you can understand why VCU would not be forthcoming about what it is doing with more than three dozen non-human primates in its care. Understanding, however, is not the same as excusing. The school’s freedom-of-information officer, Michele Howell, says VCU could dig up such information, though it would probably charge more than $2,500 to do so — a suspiciously high figure. But even then, “much of the information you’ve requested may fall under the (Virginia Freedom of Information Act) exemption” for “proprietary” information gathered in the course of research. Well. Even if the information is exempt from mandatory disclosure, VCU still could release it. FOIA exemptions don’t require withholding information; they merely permit withholding. Turning the info loose is always an option. Why does VCU seem so reluctant to?
A. Barton Hinkle, Richmond Times-Dispatch
Transparency is essential for good government. It stems from a respect for the citizens we were elected to represent, and an understanding that involving and empowering the people affected by government actions leads to better policies. Parents, students, teachers and community members are the best advocates for student education. When we are transparent with the public, they are empowered to be involved in the process. This leads to better education opportunities for all students. As 2018 began, Prince William County School Board Chairman Ryan Sawyers announced he wants the school board to become more transparent. This presents exciting opportunities. We both ran to make this happen, and look forward to the dialogue. There are three ways we could radically increase transparency with the public:
* Initiate a forensic audit of the school division
* Publish all FOIA requests and responses
* Allow school board members to place items on the agenda
Willie Deutsch and Alyson Satterwhite (PWC School Board members), InsideNoVa
Leave it to Bill Watson, the former Portsmouth sheriff, to keep things ... classy. You might have read this week that the three-term incumbent wasn’t happy with The Virginian-Pilot’s request to review his work-issued cellphone. It’s owned by the public, the residents of Portsmouth, and its contents fall under the Freedom of Information Act. Maybe the lawman forgot the law. Reporter Ana Ley had been trying to review text messages and records of the sheriff’s phone calls because several former and current deputies had said they were forced to campaign for Watson at election time. She wanted to try to verify those claims. The sheriff eventually lost to Michael Moore in November. But the phone has gone missing. Vanished, as if Penn and Teller had used some prestidigitation to make it go “poof!” Here’s what Watson uttered days before he left office, according to a Pilot editor who phoned him: Incoming sheriff’s officials could use his old phone as “a suppository” for all he cared. Watson might feel emboldened about ignoring our FOIA request because the sanction is minor. Willful violation is a civil penalty of $500 to $2,000, according to the Code of Virginia. Stiffer penalties, including possible jail time, might have lessened some of his bravado. Former sheriff, you don’t have to like us. Heck, you can even despise us. You do have to obey the law. Even you, Mr. Watson, aren’t above it.
Roger Chesley, The Virginian-Pilot
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