The Chesapeake sheriff’s office on Thursday charged a former employee following an alleged leak of sensitive and confidential documents from within the Chesapeake Correctional Center. Former employee Jeremiah Harrell has been charged in relation to allegedly soliciting, stealing, and distributing a sensitive video and confidential documents, according to a news release issued Thursday. Charges include criminal solicitation, theft or destruction of public records by others, computer trespass and attempt to commit felonies. … The sheriff’s office also said Chesapeake resident Sandra Lewis has been charged with using a person’s identity with the intent to coerce, intimidate, or harass. During the course of the investigation, it was alleged she engaged in doxxing a Chesapeake Sheriff’s Office deputy on social media.

The resolution put forth by Warrenton Councilman Eric Gagnon charging that actions and conflicts of interest should bar Mayor Carter Nevill from participating in future Amazon data center matters was blocked for discussion at Tuesday’s Town Council meeting. The item was barred because the resolution was offered after the three-week deadline to be added to a meeting agenda. Gagnon, a member of the town’s Commission on Open and Transparent Government, promised to get the resolution before the council at the next meeting in April. “I’m announcing this publicly to let everyone know I am formally adding this motion onto the agenda of our April 14 meeting,” he said. The resolution claims the mayor tried to stop the commission’s investigation of whether the town followed proper procedures in approving the data center.

Suspended Martinsville Mayor L.C. Jones filed a sweeping legal challenge Tuesday in Martinsville Circuit Court seeking to quash a ruling to show cause and dismiss a petition seeking his removal from office. The challenge from Jones alleges that the state’s removal process violated his constitutional due process rights and statutory requirements. … Jones argues that he has a “legitimate claim of entitlement” to his elected office, which constitutes a protected property interest under the U.S. Constitution’s Due Process Clause, and that the suspension without a prompt preliminary hearing stripped him of a timely opportunity to defend against the petition’s allegations.

Officials with Hanover County Public Schools are investigating a “possible data incident” that has caused ongoing disruptions to the division’s internet service and other systems, according to an email sent Thursday to the students’ families. In the email, officials acknowledged that web and other services had been unavailable since at least Wednesday afternoon. There is no estimated time for service restoration, they wrote, but teachers and staff are preparing for “at least” a week of technology-free learning.

By all measures, the ability to see what the government is up to in the United States has plummeted to new depths since the beginning of the second Trump administration. For National Sunshine Week in 2025, I wrote about secrecy creep, the adoption of federal secrecy protections implemented by state and local authorities. In Florida and throughout the United States, this threatens the public’s right to be informed about its government. A year later, this creep toward secrecy has become an all-out slide. … Once viewed as a leader in transparency, the Sunshine State now charges exorbitant copy fees that discourage average people from requesting public records. According to the nonprofit MuckRock, 24% of public records requests in Florida come with a copy fee, averaging US$1,623. Only Oregon charges fees more often, at 28% of the time. Fees are intended to help agencies cover the cost of large requests, but they tend to be arbitrary and are often used as a way to get pesky people to go away. And that’s assuming you even get the information you want. One of my own studies from 2019 indicated that, on average, if you requested a public record in Florida, you would receive it about 39% of the time, placing the state 31st in the nation.