The city of Richmond wants a judge to order its former Freedom of Information Act officer to stop filing FOIA requests for city documents. In recent court filings in former FOIA officer Connie Clay’s lawsuit claiming she was wrongfully fired for speaking up about Richmond’s failure to follow transparency laws, the city’s lawyers accused Clay of filing burdensome FOIA requests related to her ex-boss, former city spokeswoman Petula Burks. The city’s representatives also accused Clay of “leaking incorrect information to the news media about this case” and accused her of helping to stir up news coverage of how much the city is paying attorneys from Ogletree Deakins law firm to fight Clay in court. Because those invoices contain information about the city’s “litigation strategy,” the government’s attorneys argued, Clay’s use of FOIA is an attempt to “gain improper insight into the city’s case strategy and secure an unfair tactical advantage.” “This apparent strategy of requesting documents via FOIA, releasing them to the press and feigning ignorance as to their impact is neither appropriate nor constructive,” the city’s lawyers wrote. Clay made 11 FOIA requests to the city over six weeks, according to the court filing. Some of those requests, the city argues, “appear intended to humiliate and harass” Burks.

Aretha Ferrell-Benavides is no longer city manager following her termination, Thursday evening, by Martinsville’s city council. Following a closed session deliberation lasting more than two hours, councilors voted 4-1, with Mayor L.C. Jones casting the dissenting vote, to terminate Ferrell-Benavides for cause. In its motion before the vote, councilors related the termination to a number of factors, which included commission of an act involving malfeasance and dishonesty, violation of city charter and codes, unsatisfactory performance, and behavior deemed by the city council to adversely affect the confidence of the public or integrity of the city. Councilors did not provide detail about these factors.

Prince William Circuit Court Judge Kimberly Irving ruled Thursday in favor of Oak Valley homeowners in their appeal of the PW Digital Gateway data center rezoning. The final implications of the case — which seeks to halt the 22-million-square-foot data center campus near Gainesville — were not immediately clear. An appeal is likely. But Irving’s ruling, for now, effectively voids plans for the project.The 12 plaintiffs — all Oak Valley neighborhood residents — argued two points: whether the timing of the county’s Digital Gateway public hearing advertisements in the Washington Post complied with Virginia statute or county ordinance for proper notice; and whether materials relevant to the application were made available to the public at the time of the initial ad.

The two Reston-area developers behind Gigaland, a company asking Fauquier County to rezone 200 acres outside Remington for up to seven data centers, hired a political marketing firm in an effort to drum up support. But the campaign backfired last month when the messages swamped Fauquier County supervisors’ mailboxes – and dozens turned out to be spurious. Now developers Art Lickunas and Roland Talalas are left trying to explain what happened. They say an email campaign run by the company they hired apparently ran off the rails. That was pretty clear to Fauquier County Supervisor Ike Broaddus, whose mailbox was crushed by messages. Supervisor Rick Gerhardt said he was similarly stunned. “It came to my attention when, no lie, I ended up with about 20 emails in less than three minutes, all with the same text but coming from personal email addresses,” he said.

Pace-O-Matic and people associated with the so-called “skill games” developer were the largest donors to a federal political action committee that was among the highest contributors to Sen. Aaron Rouse in his campaigns for lieutenant governor and state Senate. That money — about $135,000 — was initially donated by Pace-O-Matic and people associated with the developer to the federally registered Our States Matter PAC. Our States Matter disbursed $195,000 to Rouse’s campaigns within a roughly four-month period, according to data collected by the State Board of Elections. The origin of most of that money was not discoverable until about six weeks after the Democratic primary election for lieutenant governor took place. That delay in reporting is due to a difference in reporting requirements and deadlines between the Federal Election Commission and the State Board of Elections during the 2025 “off-year” elections. That difference in reporting deadlines created a loophole that allows for federal PACs to temporarily shield the source of their money, even as they contribute to state candidates in Virginia’s off-year elections.

The Thomas Balch library holds one of the largest record collections in Virginia, with historical records dating back to the founding of Loudoun County in 1757. In fact, Loudoun is one of only a few of Virginia’s counties whose records have not been destroyed by fire, war or environmental factors, according to the Loudoun County website. Secrets about how these records were preserved were unveiled during a presentation Aug. 7 at the Thomas Balch Library.