Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears‘ office and campaign can’t say whether she took a free flight in 2023 from a donor whose business was regulated by the state. Earlier this year, Earle-Sears revised an ethics filing to belatedly disclose that she took other free trips valued at more than $15,780, including a $6,000 trip to Israel. Asked if Earle-Sears made a free trip in 2023 between her home in Winchester and a Republican Party event in Abingdon without disclosing it as required on an ethics filing, her director of communications, David Crane, said: “We’re still trying to figure it out.” Meanwhile, in response to two Freedom of Information Act requests for records about the flight, one filed 15 days ago and the other 12 days ago, Crane offered an initial response Monday afternoon that Earle-Sears’ staff was still working on it. Meanwhile, in response to two Freedom of Information Act requests for records about the flight, one filed 15 days ago and the other 12 days ago, Crane offered an initial response Monday afternoon that Earle-Sears’ staff was still working on it. “Actions as a political candidate are generally subject to election and ethics laws, but might not be public records under FOIA because they concern political business as a candidate rather than public business as a sitting official,” said Alan Gernhardt, executive director of the state Freedom of Information Advisory Council. But, he added, Earle-Sears’ staff still had to respond by now to FOIA requests, one dated July 28 and the other July 31.

The Virginia Department of Social Services is sharing the personal information of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program applicants with the federal government, a VDSS spokesperson confirmed to VPM News Friday. In May, the US Department of Agriculture requested data from states, including “names, dates of birth, social security numbers, residential and mailing addresses.” The request was triggered by a March executive order by President Donald Trump seeking to cut government “waste, fraud and abuse.” The USDA letter to state agencies said the data should have been transmitted to the US Food and Nutrition Service by July 30. A VDSS spokesperson did not say when Virginians’ data was transmitted.

Brian Landrum, a Republican candidate for Gainesville District supervisor, has said he won’t take any donations from data center developers. But as recently as 2023, he served as treasurer for a political action committee tied to former county board member Corey Stewart that accepted a $5,000 donation from a local data center developer. When Landrum announced his candidacy last week to fill the term of the late Bob Weir, Landrum said he hadn’t worked with Stewart since 2018. But Landrum was listed as treasurer for Stewart’s “Prosperity Virginia” PAC on campaign finance reports filed with the Virginia Department of Elections from 2020 to 2023.

A trial for a local judge charged with bribery won’t take place until well into next year, a judge decided Monday. Judge Richard Tyler McGrath, 66, of Mechanicsville, is charged with bribery of a public official, a Class 4 felony that carries the possibility of up to 10 years in prison. He was indicted by a special grand jury in Spotsylvania on June 2. … McGrath, who is free on bond, is the chief general district court judge for the 15th Judicial Circuit who sat primarily in Spotsylvania. He has not been on the bench since his indictment and apparently won’t sit again until at least after his trial.