Transparency News 5/17/19

 

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Friday
May 17, 2019

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state & local news stories

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The Library's digital archival team will describe the work they do from the moment a Governor's records are transferred to the state archives until they are released.

Don't miss the Library of Virginia's lecture next week -- May 21 from 12 to 1 p.m. -- on how the library processes gubernatorial records. The event is free and open to the public.
"Millions of Messages," on the LVA website

It’s what you’re charged with when police can’t find anything else — and black Virginians are far more likely to be arrested for disorderly conduct than are whites. Over half of the more than 2,550 disorderly conduct charges brought last year were filed against blacks, a Daily Press review of district court records from across the state found. The court data show wide variance between cities in how often people are accused of disorderly conduct. In Norfolk, 112 of every 100,000 residents faces the charge in a year, while the rate is 22 per 100,000 in Virginia Beach. In each city, the percentage of those charged who are black far outpaces the city’s black population: 73% vs 42% in Norfolk and 49% vs. 19% in Virginia Beach. Police and prosecutors say looking at aggregate data about arrests, convictions, dropped charges and sentencing is misleading because they consider each charge on a case-by-case basis. They say concerns that the data point to bias in the system are overblown. They say different disposition of cases often reflects prior records, too.
Daily Press

The Chief Judge of the 16th Judicial Circuit appointed retired Judge Humes J. Franklin Jr. on May 6 to preside over the cases against Greene County Commissioner of the Revenue Larry Snow and his son, Bryant Snow. The appointment comes less than a month after Judge Dale Durrer recused himself and stated in a letter that incoming Greene County Circuit Court Judge Claude Worrell instead would preside. Larry Snow, 70, is accused of using a computer to gather identifying information that exceeded his authority as a constitutional officer. He allegedly distributed that information to his son, Bryant Snow, 30, who was in Central Virginia Regional jail at the time. 
The Star-Exponent

Records from Facebook’s Ad Library show that a Facebook page called “Joe Morrissey” spent between $500 and $999 promoting a video on Facebook, an outlay that the Democratic state senate candidate did not report to the Department of Elections in his most campaign finance report. If Morrissey operates the page, that lack of disclosure would violate the Campaign Finance Disclosure Act Of 2006, which requires candidates to report spending if it exceeds $1,000 in statewide elections or $200 in other elections during an election cycle. In an interview on Wednesday, Morrissey denied any wrongdoing, saying that another man, who he referred to as Mr. X in an earlier letter to the Department of Elections, created the video and also posted it to Facebook independently from Morrissey or his campaign committee.
WCVE

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stories of national interest

In his first public comments since police raided the home and office of a freelance journalist, San Francisco Police Chief Bill Scott on Wednesday defended the actions police took to obtain the search warrants against the videographer. Scott told the Police Commission that officers followed the “appropriate legal process” before bringing a sledgehammer to the home of freelancer Bryan Carmody on Friday morning in search of information on who leaked a police report to the press on the death of the late Public Defender Jeff Adachi.
San Francisco Examiner

The general counsel for West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice says he thought a meeting in early November, 2017, was meant to mediate disagreements over flood relief allocations, but documents show the result actually set infrastructure and economic development as priorities over housing. 
Metro News

Over the objection of the town’s mayor, South Carolina’s fourth-largest city has gone to court seeking to prevent the release of a police incident report involving a Town Council member and a public middle school. The report involves a conflict between students at Thomas C. Cario Middle School in October and the involvement of Councilman Kevin Cunnane, who was described as “rude” and “belligerent” by school employees in the police report. The incident involved no charges or arrest, and the conflict involving students was listed as a “disturbance.” The incident report was released in April to Mayor Will Haynie, who had filed a Freedom of Information Act request to get it from the town’s Police Department. The report was subsequently obtained and published by the newspaper, and was published on the S.C. Press Association’s website. Now, the town has three FOIA requests pending for the report and related information but also has been threatened with civil litigation by a lawyer representing a child identified in the original, unredacted report. 
The Post and Courier
 

 

 

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