Megan Rhyne's blog

The following is a statement issued by ASNE, the sponsors of the yearly effort known as Sunshine Week (March 14-20). If you know of a Virginia "local hero," please pass that information on to VCOG at vcog@opengovva.org.

Next year's national Sunshine Week (March 14-20) will highlight local heroes across America who have played significant roles in fighting for open government, the American Society of News Editors announced Friday.

Back when he was still roaming the halls of the Virginia General Assembly, and keeping everyone laughing along the way, Del. Chip Woodrum added a nice little provision to the law governing purchases made under the Virginia Public Procurement Act.

Election results of contested seats in Virginia's House of Delegates. Results were taken from the State Board of Elections' Web site, current as of 9:30 a.m., 11/4/09.

An asterisk indicates the incumbent candidate. Bolded names indicate the contest winners.

District

Democrat

On Monday, Oct. 26, the Advisory Committee on Rules of Court, a committee of the Judicial Council of Virginia, issued a revised proposed rule on the confidentiality of juror information. The new rule eliminates the blanket use of anonymous jurors in all criminal cases and reworks a few of the provisions regarding subsequent use of juror information sheets by the attorneys in a case.

A copy of the revised proposal is posted here.

Valerie Garner at Roanoke Free Press did an outstanding job writing up summaries, linking to other news articles, taking pictures and posting videos of VCOG's annual conference .... all on her own. But that's Valerie for you! She's as dedicated to open government in Virginia as VCOG is. Take a moment to look through the materials Valerie's assembled here, as well as some of the links below. And give Valerie a thanks if you ever get the chance.

Thank you to Bob Corso, Ed Reams and the other folks at WHSV in Harrisonburg and Staunton for having me on as a guest for their daily one-on-one feature for the 5:00 news.

Virginia Coalition for Open Government bestows open government awards

in citizen, media and government categories

When it comes to understanding both the letter and the spirit of Virginia's Freedom of Information law, John Edwards, editor/publisher of The Times of Smithfield is one of the state's best. So, it is of little surprise that he would have something to say about a couple of FOIA fights brewing in his home-county of Isle of Wight. Rather than explain the scenarios, or John's argument for why certain things are required by FOIA and certain things are not, I'll let John say it for himself. The following is an editorial he wrote for the Sept. 30 issue of The Times.

This day in 1996: President Bill Clinton signs amendments to the Freedom of Information Act that help usher in a new age of digital democracy. The new law requires the government to make electronic documents available online. http://www.wired.com/thisdayintech/2009/10/1002electronic-foia/

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Today at the FOI Advisory Council's meeting, a representative from the Prince William County Schools, and the county's outside attorney, announced their desire to ask for an exemption to FOIA in the upcoming session. (Actually, they asked for two, but only one is relevant here.)