Transparency News, 8/27/20

 
 
Thursday
August 27, 2020
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state & local news stories
 
VCOG's Virtual Conference
SEPT. 10

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Today, some time late this morning, the Senate General Laws Committee will hear SB 5012, which would require Parole Board votes to be public. Watch here.

Former Prince William County school board Chair Ryan Sawyers is asking the court to order the release of 20,000 private Twitter messages between students and Prince William County Public Schools Superintendent Steve Walts. The move follows a separate, $2.35 million defamation lawsuit filed by Sawyers on July 12 after a complaint about Walts’ Twitter use led the superintendent to stop using the account, @SuperPWCS, in May. The school division has rejected Freedom of Information Act requests from InsideNoVa and the Prince William Board of County Supervisors to release all the messages with students. The school system claims they are part of the superintendent’s personal papers, an exception allowed under state law.  Prince William Circuit Court Judge Kimberly Irving is expected to hear arguments on the release of the Twitter messages in a hearing Aug. 27.
InsideNoVa

The defense ended witness testimony Monday in federal court in the case against a former Rockbridge Regional Jail superintendent, who is accused of accepting bribes and failing to provide inmates with proper medical care. Defense attorney Grady Donaldson did not call any witnesses Monday. U.S. District Court Judge Norman Moon ordered Donaldson and U.S. attorneys to prepare facts and findings over the next several weeks. The judge will render a verdict following the preparation of those documents. John Marshall Higgins faces 21 charges in U.S. District Court in Lynchburg. Higgins was indicted in June 2019 on federal civil rights violations and falsifying documents to obstruct justice.
The News Virginian

Charlottesville City Council appointed a city employee to the Police Civilian Review Board in violation of the oversight panel’s bylaws and ordinance. The council unanimously appointed LaTita Talbert on Tuesday night after a closed session to interview applicants for the CRB and the Planning Commission and to discuss other legal matters. In Talbert’s application, she lists her occupation as a city transit driver and her employer as the city of Charlottesville. She is included on a July 1 city salary list as a relief transit operator. Talbert is also a former member of the Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority board of commissioners. The ordinance that establishes the CRB says “No Police Civilian Review Board voting member shall be a current City of Charlottesville employee.” Board member Phillip Seay is a city employee, but is a nonvoting member. Councilor Heather Hill said the council will meet soon to rescind the appointment. A closed session is scheduled for 1 p.m. Thursday.
The Daily Progress
 

STORIES FROM AROUND THE COUNTRY


A government geek who hoped to flip open her laptop and watch the Maryland State Ethics Commission in action on Thursday was in for a disappointment. The panel, which met at 9 a.m. in its office near the State House, has never live-streamed its meetings. Critics say requiring the public to attend board and commission meetings in person makes it all-but-impossible for time-pressed and far-flung citizens to be full participants in their government — particularly during a pandemic. “Maryland is a backwater when it comes to government openness,” said longtime journalist Tom Sherwood, political analyst for the “Politics Hour” on WAMU (88.5 FM), the NPR station in the Washington, D.C., region.
Maryland Matters

In the days leading up to Clemson University Board of Trustees' vote to remove John C. Calhoun's name from the Honors College thousands of people – including the executive director of the program – took action to demand change from the university, according to an analysis of internal emails The News received through a Freedom of Information Act request.  "It is harder and harder to justify not changing the name of the honors college in the current environment," an email from William Lasser, Honors College Executive Director, wrote in a June 4 email to Mark Land, Vice President of University Relations.
Greenville News
 

 

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