Transparency News 7/17/15
Friday, July 17, 2015
State and Local Stories
Newport News’ 311 contact center has gone mobile, as more residents are using the resource to report issues and ask questions about city services. The new free mobile app lets residents easily report problems, such as potholes and streetlights that are out, storm water problems related to rain and trash pick-up issues, City Manager Jim Bourey wrote in his weekly memo to the City Council. It also lets residents snap a photo of the issue and view other issues that have already been reported.
Daily Press
The Richmond City Council would receive more cohesive, timely information about big-ticket, city-funded development projects such as the Bon Secours Washington Redskins training camp and Stone Brewing facility under legislation advanced Thursday. The proposal from Councilwoman Ellen F. Robertson, 6th District, would require the administration of Mayor Dwight C. Jones to attach detailed fiscal and economic impact statements to qualifying economic development projects that come before the council for approval. City staff want to give council members the information so long as releasing details do not negatively affect negotiations, said Chief Administrative Officer Selena Cuffee-Glenn.
Times-Dispatch
National Stories
Public bodies are unintentionally releasing confidential personal information on a regular basis, research reveals. Freedom of information website WhatDoTheyKnow.com, which automates FOI requests and publishes responses, says it has recorded 154 accidental data leaks made by councils, government departments, police, the NHS and other public bodies since 2009. This amounts to confidential data being wrongly released on average once every fortnight. Public authorities operate under a code of conduct that requires personal information to be removed or anonymised before data is released.
The Guardian
Editorials/Columns
The disclosures in recent years by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden and subsequent news reports of federal intelligence agencies hacking into commercial systems, using secret courts to collect digital records and hunting for vulnerabilities online might have created a perception that the U.S. had its own digital affairs in order. That it had secured its systems to prevent the kind of attacks its agencies were capable of inflicting elsewhere. It didn’t. Turns out, federal agencies left their own digital doors wide open — and, apparently, some windows, too. That has proven true repeatedly, as the federal government has been caught failing to take even basic steps to update its protocol for safeguarding certain systems connected to the Internet.
Virginian-Pilot
Don’t get too excited over the decline in lobbying money spent on Virginia legislators. Although heading in the right direction, the decline is minimal. From November 2014 to April 30, 2015, lobbyists spent $456,418 — just $15,689 less than the $472,107 spent during the same period the previous year. Go back a couple of years, and the numbers look better. From November 2012 to April 2013, lobbyists spent $540,609 — or $84,191 less than during the most recent comparable period.Some critics say the laws still are not adequate to prevent influence peddling. But our focus here is on timing, rather than text. Based on the figures compiled by the Virginia Public Access Project, the biggest drop in lobbyist spending occurred from 2012-13 to 2013-14 (from $540,609 to $472,107). But this decline came before laws adopted in 2014 even could have taken effect. The decline occurring after the first round of reforms — from 2013-14 to 2014-15 — was even less notable (from $472,107 to $456,418). Not until this time next year will we have figures allowing us to compare the possible impact of the second round of reforms.
Daily Progress
Filming in public is not a crime, even if you are filming a government building. But given the obvious and reasonable concerns about potential terrorist threats, it is only prudent for law enforcement to try to find out why someone would be doing so. A filmer who refuses to engage in conversation or even to speak at all is naturally going to arouse suspicion. Is he a civil libertarian trying to make a point, or the next Timothy McVeigh?
Times-Dispatch
State and Local Stories
Newport News’ 311 contact center has gone mobile, as more residents are using the resource to report issues and ask questions about city services. The new free mobile app lets residents easily report problems, such as potholes and streetlights that are out, storm water problems related to rain and trash pick-up issues, City Manager Jim Bourey wrote in his weekly memo to the City Council. It also lets residents snap a photo of the issue and view other issues that have already been reported.
Daily Press
The Richmond City Council would receive more cohesive, timely information about big-ticket, city-funded development projects such as the Bon Secours Washington Redskins training camp and Stone Brewing facility under legislation advanced Thursday. The proposal from Councilwoman Ellen F. Robertson, 6th District, would require the administration of Mayor Dwight C. Jones to attach detailed fiscal and economic impact statements to qualifying economic development projects that come before the council for approval. City staff want to give council members the information so long as releasing details do not negatively affect negotiations, said Chief Administrative Officer Selena Cuffee-Glenn.
Times-Dispatch
National Stories
Public bodies are unintentionally releasing confidential personal information on a regular basis, research reveals. Freedom of information website WhatDoTheyKnow.com, which automates FOI requests and publishes responses, says it has recorded 154 accidental data leaks made by councils, government departments, police, the NHS and other public bodies since 2009. This amounts to confidential data being wrongly released on average once every fortnight. Public authorities operate under a code of conduct that requires personal information to be removed or anonymised before data is released.
The Guardian
Editorials/Columns
The disclosures in recent years by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden and subsequent news reports of federal intelligence agencies hacking into commercial systems, using secret courts to collect digital records and hunting for vulnerabilities online might have created a perception that the U.S. had its own digital affairs in order. That it had secured its systems to prevent the kind of attacks its agencies were capable of inflicting elsewhere. It didn’t. Turns out, federal agencies left their own digital doors wide open — and, apparently, some windows, too. That has proven true repeatedly, as the federal government has been caught failing to take even basic steps to update its protocol for safeguarding certain systems connected to the Internet.
Virginian-Pilot
Don’t get too excited over the decline in lobbying money spent on Virginia legislators. Although heading in the right direction, the decline is minimal. From November 2014 to April 30, 2015, lobbyists spent $456,418 — just $15,689 less than the $472,107 spent during the same period the previous year. Go back a couple of years, and the numbers look better. From November 2012 to April 2013, lobbyists spent $540,609 — or $84,191 less than during the most recent comparable period.Some critics say the laws still are not adequate to prevent influence peddling. But our focus here is on timing, rather than text. Based on the figures compiled by the Virginia Public Access Project, the biggest drop in lobbyist spending occurred from 2012-13 to 2013-14 (from $540,609 to $472,107). But this decline came before laws adopted in 2014 even could have taken effect. The decline occurring after the first round of reforms — from 2013-14 to 2014-15 — was even less notable (from $472,107 to $456,418). Not until this time next year will we have figures allowing us to compare the possible impact of the second round of reforms.
Daily Progress
Filming in public is not a crime, even if you are filming a government building. But given the obvious and reasonable concerns about potential terrorist threats, it is only prudent for law enforcement to try to find out why someone would be doing so. A filmer who refuses to engage in conversation or even to speak at all is naturally going to arouse suspicion. Is he a civil libertarian trying to make a point, or the next Timothy McVeigh?
Times-Dispatch
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