State Sen. Scott Surovell, D-Fairfax, and Charles Stimson, the rector of the George Mason Board of Visitors, disagree on whether the board’s executive committee can meet and take actions this week. “It has come to the attention of Senator Lucas and myself that you have called a George Mason University Board of Visitors Executive Committee for October 15,” Surovell wrote to Stimson last week. Surovell asked Stimson to confirm that he agrees the “GMU BOV currently has no quorum to take actions” and to confirm that “in the absence of a functioning quorum for the BOV that the Executive Committee has no authority to meet or take any actions.”

The Prince William County School Board is considering taking action after an argument between two school board members escalated into a shouting match, Board Chair Dr. Babur Lateef confirmed last week. Board members Erica Tredinnick (Brentsville) and Vice Chair Tracy Blake (Neabsco) had a heated interaction regarding school clubs for conservative-leaning students after the school board meeting on Oct. 1. Tredinnick and Lateef told the Prince William Times that in upcoming school board meetings, the board will determine in closed session if Blake violated the board’s code of ethics and could vote in open session on the proper course of action in step with the school board’s policies.

One day after posting a video of two students fighting at Rocktown High School in Harrisonburg, Rockingham County school board member Matt Cross said in a school board meeting that not only would he not take the video down from his personal social media page, he would have “whip[ped] his kid’s butt” if they had been in the video. At the Monday meeting at Wilbur S. Pence Middle School in Dayton, school board chair Sara Horst and board members Jackie Lohr and Ashley Burgoyne signed a public statement, expressing “strong disapproval” of Cross’s actions, citing concerns about the students’ privacy and the use of his private Facebook account to conduct “public business” with another school board.

After receiving backlash for its new media restrictions, the Pentagon released a revised version last week that press freedom advocates say attacks the very act of reporting itself. By redefining ordinary reporting as “solicitation” of information, the rules risk turning basic newsgathering into grounds for punishment, and could make it harder for the public to know what the military is doing. After receiving backlash for its new media restrictions, the Pentagon released a revised version last week that press freedom advocates say attacks the very act of reporting itself. By redefining ordinary reporting as “solicitation” of information, the rules risk turning basic newsgathering into grounds for punishment, and could make it harder for the public to know what the military is doing.