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Wednesday
April 11, 2018
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state & local news stories
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"He believes it is the first time the media has been offered copies of body-camera video."
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A body-camera video released to the media Tuesday by the Danville Police Department shows the events leading up to the fatal police-involved shooting of Juan Markee Jones, 25, early Sunday morning. Because of “misinformation on social media” and in the interest of public and police safety, Danville Police Chief Scott Booth said he decided to release the video and talk to the media about the incident Tuesday. He said he believes it is the first time the media has been offered copies of body-camera video. Further information will have to come from the state police, Booth said.
Register & Bee
Local leaders are taking a measured tone on the fatal police-involved shooting that killed 25-year-old Juan Markee Jones early Sunday morning. Danville Police Chief Scott Booth released the body-camera video of the shooting to the media Tuesday afternoon. “I was glad he allowed us to see it,” said the Rev. William Avon Keen, president of the Virginia and Danville/Pittsylvania County chapters of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, who is also president of the Danville Ministerial Alliance. “It helped give clarity as to what was going on.”
Register & Bee
Citing a desire to avoid casting any shadow on the issue, Roanoke County Hollins District Supervisor Phil North abstained Tuesday from voting on the regional landfill’s budget. The decision comes after an article in The Roanoke Times examined North’s role in a fraught debate over the future of the Norfolk Southern trash train that hauls the region’s garbage out to the Smith Gap Landfill. North, a retired Norfolk Southern executive who owns stock in the company, faced questions as to whether he had a disqualifying conflict of interest under Virginia law.
The Roanoke Times
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stories of national interest
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When it comes to the open meeting law, Minnesota officials say, the 11 miles separating an out-of-town hotel and St. Anthony City Hall can make all the difference. The state Department of Administration has found that St. Anthony city officials violated the state's open-meeting law in January when they held their annual planning retreat outside city limits. Administration Commissioner Matt Massman, in an advisory opinion published Monday, found that the St. Anthony City Council's long-standing practice of meeting at an out-of-town locale to cement goals and priorities each year was against the law. In holding the goal-setting sessions outside St. Anthony, Massman wrote, "the Council effectively removed themselves from the people that they serve, thus undermining the public policy intent" of the open-meeting law.
Minneapolis Star Tribune
Documents related to Harvard University's admissions process may be filed initially under seal in a lawsuit accusing the Ivy League school of discriminating against Asian-American applicants, a federal judge ruled on Tuesday.
Reuters
A St. Louis judge has issued a gag order temporarily barring all parties involved in the felony prosecution of Gov. Eric Greitens from discussing the case publicly. The governor's attorneys asked for the gag order to be extended to include Missouri lawmakers, but St. Louis Circuit Judge Rex Burlison said he lacked the authority to do so. A grand jury in February indicted Greitens on one count of invasion of privacy stemming from allegations that he took a nude photo of a woman with whom he was having an affair and threatened to release it if she ever spoke publicly about the relationship. His trial is scheduled to begin May 14.
McClatchy
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 "The council effectively removed themselves from the people that they serve, thus undermining the public policy intent" of the open-meeting law."
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editorials & columns
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 "The downside is that the winning state ends up with a costly obligation that has been incurred with zero public input."
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Circumstances rarely provide us with a chance to say any kind words about the Democratic Socialists of America, so we cannot pass up this one. The Washington, D.C., branch wants to know what sort of giveaways governments in the region have promised to Amazon if the e-tailer puts its second headquarters, known as Amazon HQ2, in Northern Virginia. (Fairfax, Loudoun, the District, and Montgomery County, Maryland, are finalists; Fairfax and Loudoun have joined forces to make their pitch.) To that end, the socialists have filed Freedom-of-Information requests. Virginia and its localities are playing their cards close to the vest. The case for doing so makes a certain amount of sense: If one state makes public its best offer, then another state can see it and raise it. From that perspective, releasing the offers works against the interests of the taxpayers, since it might lead to a bidding war. The downside is that the winning state ends up with a costly obligation that has been incurred with zero public input.
Richmond Times-Dispatch
Over the past year, many parents have brought stories about the mistreatment of students in Loudoun’s schools. Fearing retribution against their children, parents initially spoke anonymously about how school administrators and teachers mistreated students with special needs or those suffering from depression and mental illness. The problems were shrouded in the shadows of the school district until a middle-school student with special needs exposed the extent of the district’s callousness with an undercover photo of a child being isolated in a school. The Times-Mirror published that photo on its front page. In an accompanying story, parents came forward with their names to expose the failures of a school system that touts excellence.
Loudoun Times-Mirror
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