A yearslong legal challenge to Gov. Glenn Youngkin over access to records concerning his administration’s changes to voting rights restoration entered a new chapter this year, after the Virginia Court of Appeals in August ruled that the case, lodged by the Virginia NAACP, can move forward. A court had issued an order in Youngkin’s favor in 2024, but its failure to address attorneys fees led to the successful appeal that has continued the case. Late last month, Youngkin petitioned Virginia’s Supreme Court to appeal the continuation of the case, with his legal team arguing that the law doesn’t mandate attorneys fees be included in the substance of a case and that the NAACP’s complaints about the lingering attorney’s fees issue came months after the 2024 ruling. “The need for a clear, bright-line rule is evident in this matter,” Youngkin’s petition to the state Supreme Court stated. As the governor, his legal representation stems from the office of the attorney general. In response to Youngkin’s petition, lawyers for the NAACP countered that the fees are a minor part of the larger issue their lawsuit is trying to address: whether the administration skirted Virginia Freedom of Information Act rules concerning their inquiry into how the administration handles voter rights restoration.

George Mason University’s Board of Visitors met virtually last week in a meeting of the Board’s executive committee without a quorum. With Mason’s BOV consisting of only six members since late August — two members short of the eight required for a quorum outlined in their bylaws — the Oct. 15 committee meeting was the first official meeting since an Academic Affairs Committee meeting on Sept. 10 and a full board meeting on Aug. 1. With the BOV down to six Visitors, the scheduled Sept. 25 full board meeting was postponed. The choice to hold a committee meeting without the required quorum has sparked outcry from various Mason organizations. During the meeting, Rector Cully Stimson maintained the Board’s right to hold the meeting, citing Article IV Section 5 of the BOV’s bylaws which states, “When in the judgment of the Rector, Board action is likely to be required, a call shall be issued simultaneously for both a special Board meeting and an Executive Committee meeting with notice to all members of the Board. Should a quorum of the Board fail to be present, the Executive Committee shall be convened.”

When a Richmond Sheriff’s Office supervisor approached the family of a teenager who had just been pepper sprayed in the face at a Turnstile concert by an off-duty deputy who was working security, he asked how they were. “Not good,” the teen’s mother said, according to body camera footage obtained by The Richmonder. The father said he was “concerned,” and recapped how he got a call as the show ended from a Turnstile band member who was trying to connect him with his son. Sheriff Antionette Irving indicated her office’s internal affairs division has finished a “preliminary investigative report.” But the sheriff hasn’t released the report to the public, and her office has invoked a Freedom of Information Act exemption to block its release. The Richmonder has filed several Freedom of Information Act requests related to the incident. The sheriff’s office has provided some records but withheld others.

Members of the data center watchdog group Protect Stafford gathered in the lobby of the county Government Center early Wednesday like a baseball team victorious after nine innings. Well, it was more like an extra-inning win — because it was after 2:30 in the morning. Still, clad in their organization’s light blue T-shirts, they celebrated the fact that the Stafford Board of Supervisors had just instituted what is believed to be the most stringent data center regulations in Virginia. After a more-than-nine-hour meeting, the supervisors voted 4-2-1 for new rules, the most significant of which would require data center buildings to be 750 feet from adjacent homes, schools, or the Rappahannock and Potomac rivers. That’s an increase from the current setback of 100 feet.

Two state law enforcement groups have warned the Warrenton Town Council that sharing email access with any third parties might put the town at legal risk and threaten access to law enforcement databases. Yesterday, the town received letters from the Virginia Association of Chiefs of Police and the Virginia Police Benevolent Association, expressing support for Police Chief Tim Carter and condemning a council effort that could grant broad access to town emails involving the town’s Commission on Open and Transparent Government and its attorney, Whit Robinson. “As has been communicated by Chief Carter, the town attorney, and the former town manager, granting unfettered, unsupervised access to the town’s computer servers —which contain criminal justice information, confidential investigative data, victim information, and sensitive personnel records —would constitute a serious violation of state and federal law,” said one of the letters signed by Blacksburg Chief John Clair of the state police chief association.

Former Middletown treasurer and town manager Rebecca Louise Layman pleaded guilty Wednesday in Frederick County Circuit Court to eight felony counts of embezzling from the town. Layman, 52, embezzled more than $74,000 between 2019 and 2022 while she was in “sole control” of handling salary payments to town employees, Frederick County Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Heather Enloe said. She will be sentenced next month. Layman was indicted on the eight embezzlement charges in April 2024 and again on four more counts earlier this year. Prosecutors agreed to not prosecute the newer charges as part of the plea deal.