Transparency News 2/19/20

Wednesday
February 19, 2020

Register today for VCOG's annual conference
March 20, Harrisonburg
Early-bird pricing through March 1.

Details & tickets

state & local news stories

FOLLOW THE BILLS WE FOLLOW WITH VCOG'S
BILL TRACKING CHART

Thank you to our corporate partners, who are sponsoring VCOG's conference in March:

Richmond Times-Dispatch
Sage Information Systems
Thomas Roberts & Associates
WHRO
WTKR/WGNT
WTVR
WWBT
-- Your Name Here (join them, by clicking here)

Plus, several individual sponsors:

Andrew Bodoh
Becky Bowers-Lanier
Roger Christman
Paul Fletcher
Dick Hammerstrom
Joshua Heslinga
Lawrence McConnell
Megan Rhyne
-- Your Name Here (join them, by clicking here)

today's stories

Following another series of buyouts in recent weeks that drained their already gutted newsroom, the staff at the Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk faced another uncertainty in 2020: where would they go after the sale of their longtime office in downtown Norfolk? On Tuesday, the staff learned what many saw as the worst case scenario: they were moving to Newport News to the office of the Daily Press, a former rival that combined with the Pilot after owner Tribune Publishing purchased the Pilot in 2018.
WAVY

Private universities arguably get to have their cake and eat it, too, when it comes to the kind of oversight to which public schools are subject: Private institutions get to avoid the inconvenience of responding to Freedom of Information Act requests while enjoying the benefit of government funds by way of federal loans and grants. Supreme Court precedent, as well as current federal statute, have both played a role in shielding private universities from federal information oversight. Experts who spoke to The College Fix said private universities, by dint of accepting federal money, are still subject to some level of federal oversight, though “significant gaps” still remain between public and nominally private institutions.
College Fix