When an employee of the Richmond Water Treatment Plant called a state agency to report an overflow of fluoride into the drinking water supply, he said no one was taking action to address the problem. That’s according to an incident report that CBS 6 obtained from the Virginia Department of Emergency Management (VDEM).

Hanover County Sheriff David Hines is pursuing all available legal remedies in order to thwart a public records request seeking the names of his employees. Hines is appealing a ruling issued in February at Virginia’s Court of Appeals, where judges ruled that Hines had to release the names of employees in response to a FOIA request from a private citizen. Hines has argued that he needs to keep the names private in order to be able to staff undercover operations, like drug buys and bodyguard details. His lawyers said releasing names would make it impossible for those units to operate, and thereby make the county less safe. But judges on the appeals court found that Hanover County’s argument “flies in the face of the stated and clear purpose” of Virginia FOIA law. Judges said that hypothetical, future operations don’t justify secrecy, and that the county didn’t actually prove that their future operations would be jeopardized.

A former Pulaski town councilman charged with four misdemeanors received a deferred disposition on Friday on all charges. Michael Reis, a former member of the Pulaski Town Council, was charged with three class 1 misdemeanors and one class 3 misdemeanor in 2024 relating to alleged ethics and conflict of interest law violations in his role as a public official between January 2021 and April of that year. The charges against Reis stemmed from his role in facilitating the appropriation of public funds to benefit the renovation of the Calfee Community & Cultural Center, a local institution that came to be known as the Calfee Training School when it first was a school for Black children in 1894, and Wide Angle Strategies LLC, a consulting firm with a vested interest in the center.

A consultant paid to review security at the official residence of Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro after it was firebombed by a late-night intruder said Friday that his team’s findings will not be made public. Retired state police Col. Jeffrey Miller said in a statement that the “sensitive nature” of the findings he has given to Shapiro and state police “precludes their release to the public for obvious reasons.”