Transparency News, 8/16/2022
Tuesday
August 16, 2022
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state & local news stories
VCOG has posted its 2022 annual report online in a colorful, easy-to-read format. Check it out and see what we've been up to!
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Richmond City Councilor Katherine Jordan is calling for a special meeting to discuss the alleged July 4 mass shooting plot Richmond Police claim to have stopped. "Any event of this magnitude should be scrutinized, and I am among those who believe the discussion is not only reasonable but imperative. I have been, and will continue to listen and uplift community concerns and work with my colleagues to find answers to what are legitimate questions," Jordan said. Though Richmond City Council is in August recess, Jordan said she and some of her colleagues have asked for a special meeting to discuss the issue as a body and then share more "substantive information" with the public. State Senator Joe Morrissey, who represents parts of Richmond in the General Assembly, said he disapproved of Mayor Levar Stoney withholding texts and emails related to the mass shooting plot that were requested by CBS 6 through the Freedom of Information Act. "For the mayor to say, 'Well, I'm keeping these documents because they're working papers' is preposterous -- absolutely preposterous. The code did not say he was prohibited from showing it. Let me tell you if those texts or emails showed that he and the chief legitimately thwarted a mass shooting, not only would they have been released, they would have been mounted on cardboard and displayed prominently," Morrissey said.
WTVR
stories of national interest
"Legislators passed the Presidential Recordings and Materials Preservation Act, which made all of Nixon's material public property. However, that measure applied to Nixon only."
For the first two centuries of U.S. history, outgoing presidents simply took their documents with them when they left the White House. The materials were considered their personal property. But for the past four decades, every presidential document — from notebook doodles to top-secret security plans — is supposed to go directly to the National Archives as the material is considered the property of the American people. The rules changed for one reason: Watergate. When President Nixon resigned amid the 1974 scandal, he wanted to take his documents to his home in California — including his infamous tape recordings. Congress realized it would not have access to that material, and they also feared it could be destroyed. So legislators passed the Presidential Recordings and Materials Preservation Act, which made all of Nixon's material public property. However, that measure applied to Nixon only. In 1978, Congress passed the more sweeping Presidential Records Act that has been the standard ever since.
Georgia Public Broadcasting
Police departments in the Pennsylvania Borough of Bellefonte, Ferguson Township, Patton Township, Spring Township, and the Borough of State College all provided security detail and traffic assistance during the seven regular-season games at Beaver Stadium in 2021. At the end of the season, the university reimburses the cost of these overtime hours to each department at double the officers’ regular hourly rates. Penn State University paid $572,119 for officers from five Centre County police departments to work overtime at football games last year, according to data from the agencies. Penn State would not provide details on overtime reimbursements to Spotlight PA because the information “is not considered public.” Under Pennsylvania’s Right-to-Know Law, “state-related institutions” are “generally exempt from the Law’s requirements,” according to the Pennsylvania Freedom of Information Coalition, a group that advocates for government transparency. All five local police departments provided the reimbursement information upon request.
Spotlight PA
editorials & columns
"Those submissions — rendered through a public channel, at the behest of a public official, with the ostensible purpose of modifying the material taught at public schools — should be public."
Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) took office this year with a double message for his fellow Virginians, encouraging them to “love your neighbor” while also urging them to use a new tip line to complain about “divisive” school teaching. In fact, announced just days after his inauguration, Mr. Youngkin’s email tip line itself turned out to be divisive. He has also shrouded the tip line in secrecy, refusing to make public the volume or content of the communiques it has received or the actions the state government has taken in response. If Mr. Youngkin’s tip line has sent any message to teachers, it is: Big Brother is watching, and he won’t tell you what he’s found out. A dozen news organizations, including The Post, filed a lawsuit in April seeking access to the tip line’s submissions. Those submissions — rendered through a public channel, at the behest of a public official, with the ostensible purpose of modifying the material taught at public schools — should be public. American Oversight, an ethics watchdog organization, and the law firm Ballard Spahr filed a second lawsuit this month. It seeks similar information, including how the Youngkin administration has responded to tip line submissions. Youngkin administration so far has stonewalled, with officials saying, preposterously, that tip line submissions should be regarded as the governor’s “working papers and correspondence” and therefore somehow beyond the reach of the public domain.
The Washington Post
