Following its detailed report of credit card use by Charlottesville City Council members,
The Daily Progress reviewed the credit card policies (and whether members were even issued credit cards) in several Central Virginia localities.
Citing improved cybersecurity, the director of instructional technology for Campbell County Public Schools
removed the email addresses for all district teachers and staff from the system's website, prompting a counterpart in Amherst County to remark, "[W]e are public figures and government employees, and we need to not hide information like email addresses and our names."
A former Roanoke city employee says the reason he told city council members that
he could and would have them them shot is "because they don't pay attention." Robert Gravely said he understood why council members would be disturbed by his words, but
he denied that what he said was a threat. He has been barred from attending city council meetings for the next several months.
Public records contradicted an assertion made by the Norfolk Community Services Board director following a fight at the CSB office that left one man in a coma. The records state that guards are expected to intervene in "altercations" between clients and in "all crimes," the opposite of what the director told
The Virginian-Pilot in an interview after the incident.
After a Hopewell council member denied that he told the outgoing mayor that he would "put your ass in jail," and that the mayor's claim to the contrary was "an idiotic statement,"
The Progress-Index obtained a recording of the meeting and confirmed that the member made the comment.
The P-I also used FOIA to obtain complaints filed with state election officials over the council member's campaign signs. The
records showed that the complaints were made anonymously under a policy adopted earlier this year that allows complainants to request that their identity be withheld.
The chair of the Patrick County Board of Supervisors admitted he made a vulgar comment during a break in a contentious public meeting during which he traded barbs with a local EMT who hosts a controversial radio program. With the mics still recording, Lock Boyce dropped the F-bomb, and said he "killed better people with my bare hands than this." Later, he said
he would have rephrased the statement if he knew he was being recorded.
Shortly after watching a presentation on FOIA and public meetings, the board of the New College Institute went into closed session but
forgot to inform the Martinsville Bulletin reporter on the scene once they came out of that session.
The details of the agreement between Amazon and Virginia over the siting of one-half of the retailer's HQ2 continue to draw scrutiny. The unsuccessful proposals offered by other Virginia localities were released, showing promises of prime real estate, among other incentives.
Many of the proposals were heavily redacted, though, on the ground that, "If [the Virginia Economic Development Partnership] were to receive a reputation as an organization that does not protect such proprietary information, businesses that may have sought to do business in the commonwealth
may choose to bypass the commonwealth and to do business with a more discreet state or country," according to VEDP General Council Sandra Jones McNinch. Meanwhile, residents in Norther Virginia have been
flocking to public meetings to find out how the plan will impact the area.
Prosecutors and defense attorneys sparred over the government's emergency motion in a federal racketeering case against suspected gang members in Danville to
prohibit the disclosure of witnesses' names to anyone outside the defense teams.
More than a month after Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney announced support for a $1.4 billion Richmond Coliseum redevelopment proposal, the mayor's office still
would not release details of that proposal. The city claims the proposal is still subject to ongoing negotiations. Meanwhile, despite the mayor's objections, the Richmond City Council
established a commission to vet the plans when they are released.
Fairfax police
released a second video of the fatal shooting by U.S. Park Police of Bijan Ghaisar, an unarmed motorist. Fairfax earlier released one video of the incident but initially held back on the release of the second one, saying it was an exempt medical record. The faces of the officers and their vehicle license plates were redacted in both videos.
Sen. Rosalyn Dance told a Northern Virginia environmental advocate that he would not be allowed to participate in a public question-and-answer period with officials from Dominion Energy because the town hall meeting was for Dance to hear from her constituents.
"This is not a free-for-all," she said.
The independent co-counsel to the Rappahannock County Board of Supervisors informed the board that
the meter was running on the two FOIA lawsuits filed by a local resident. The county has already spent over $100,000 on the cases, one of which went to the Virginia Supreme Court on a procedural issue that the county lost. "If there is any kind of consensus among board members or a desire to engage earnestly in settlement discussions the sooner the better," the attorney said.
A Bristol Herald Courier review of records obtained in the wake of the massive standstill on I-81 during mid-December's snow storm revealed that Bristol, Virginia, dispatchers were unable to contact Virginia State Police in Wytheville at times because the phone lines were overloaded with calls and that traffic did not seem to move in that area until city workers went out on ATVs to divert traffic.
Much of the video evidence presented during the trial of James Alex Fields Jr., including footage of Fields driving his car into a crowd of protesters during the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, has been made
available to view on a laptop at the Charlottesville courthouse.
