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NOVEMBER 27
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Chesterfield’s commissioner of the revenue has declined an offer by the county’s internal auditor to perform “an extensive review” of the circumstances under which her office inadvertently revealed the Social Security numbers of nearly 2,300 local taxpayers last month. Jenefer Hughes, who was elected commissioner in November 2017, has accepted full responsibility for the mistake. She concluded an audit wasn’t necessary because she and her staff already had handled the matter internally and put in place procedural controls to ensure it doesn’t happen again.
Chesterfield Observer
With Bobby Dyer’s election as mayor, Virginia Beach is ushering in a new era – one that some developers are anxiously awaiting. Former Mayor Will Sessoms believed public-private partnerships could help turn Virginia Beach into a place that rivals other major cities and resort towns. While Dyer hasn’t been an advocate of doling out public money for entertainment projects in tourist districts, he said he is open to considering major developments in the works, including the pier and Dome site. But he believes they should be publicly vetted before he decides whether to support them. “When staff tries to put public-private partnership deals through on the rocket docket, that’s when I have a problem,” he said. “We have to weigh each public-private partnership out on its own merits under the full view of the public. Some of the public privates are not done in the full view of the council, and that is one thing we have got to change.” One of the most important tasks facing Dyer is getting everyone on the City Council to work together while he tries to keep his campaign promises of making the government more transparent and accessible to the public.
The Virginian-Pilot
Front Royal Town Council will finalize details of a resolution regarding money it is owed by the Warren County-Front Royal Economic Development Authority during a Monday closed session. The resolution, which lays out a timeline of the town being overbilled $291,000 over nine years by the EDA, was brought to the table by Councilman John Connolly during a regular meeting last week. Jennifer McDonald, EDA executive director, said the EDA acknowledges that it owes the money and will remedy the situation. Connolly said he wanted the council to pass the resolution because he believes it is time to be honest with the public regarding the matter. He said over the phone Friday that he is OK with the matter being discussed in closed session as it is an item that likely will not be voted on until the following week. He added the purpose of the closed session is to give councilmen a final look at the resolution and consult with legal counsel to ensure everything in it is correct.
The Northern Virginia Daily
One minute, Seamus Hughes was reading the book Dragons Love Tacos to his son. A few minutes later, after putting him to bed, Hughes was back on his computer, stumbling on what could be one of the most closely guarded secrets within the U.S. government: The Justice Department may be preparing criminal charges against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. Hughes, who calls himself "a court records nerd," made the discovery on Thursday while sifting through papers filed over the summer with the Eastern District Court of Virginia. As deputy director of the Program on Extremism at George Washington University, Hughes helps sort through thousands of terrorism records each year, and "for this case," he says, "I was looking at a completely different filing."
NPR
Reporters Committee attorneys filed a motion in the Eastern District of Virginia to unseal the U.S. government's criminal charges against Wikileaks founder Julian Assange after the existence of a criminal complaint was revealed in a separate court filing. “It’s important that the public understand what these charges are, and there’s no longer any justification for keeping the criminal complaint, the docket, and other filings related to the prosecution sealed,” said Reporters Committee Executive Director Bruce Brown.
Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press
Friends, family and hundreds of supporters rallied at the Lincoln Memorial to honor the slain Virginia man and demand answers from federal authorities who have not named the officers who killed him.
The Washington Post
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