As 850,000 Virginians (and millions nationwide) went without food stamps this fall during the federal government shutdown, the giant reconciliation bill Congress passed this summer set off a timer for states to reduce their error rates in computing the disbursement of funds to recipients. States that don’t comply risk losing their funding. That means Virginia must drop its error rate from where it hovers now around 11% down to 6% by 2027. Otherwise, the state could be on the hook for $270 million annually. Enter “SNAP Forward,” an initiative spearheaded by Gov. Glenn Youngkin through an executive directive this past August with the express purpose of reducing the state’s SNAP error rates. It’s work that incoming Gov.-elect Abigail Spanberger’s administration will inherit. Youngkin has publicly referenced the initiative and his administration’s efforts to slash SNAP error rates repeatedly in recent months, most recently in his final budget presentation to lawmakers last month, but has shared few details. The Mercury gleaned a clearer picture of the progress so far through a series of Freedom of Information Act requests and by reviewing Youngkin’s proposed state budget.

As Richmond leaders have tried to rebuild trust in the wake of last year’s water crisis, they’ve promised to beef up long-term infrastructure planning and be clear with the public about what’s being done to prevent another system failure. However, officials are refusing to release a financial planning document that shows how much Richmonders’ monthly water bills could potentially increase in order to fund the $1.4 billion in water infrastructure upgrades the city hopes to complete over the next decade. … The rate modeling has been discussed in public settings as an important part of the city’s long-term plans to fix the water system, and City Council members have been given verbal, closed-door briefings on at least some of the data. Department of Public Utilities Director Scott Morris has said the information would be shared with neighboring counties that rely on city water, because they too have a stake in the system’s future. But when The Richmonder sought a copy of the water rate analysis last month through a Freedom of Information Act request, officials refused to release the document, saying it’s being kept confidential as part of Avula’s mayoral working papers.

For at least the third consecutive year, Chesterfield County officials are declining to identify any of the locality’s hundreds of police officers. Under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act, The Times-Dispatch requested the 2025 salaries of Chesterfield’s 4,757 employees. Responsive records show the county’s salaried employees collectively earned $332,488,293. … Meanwhile, county officials redacted the names of 512 police department employees, including 306 officers, 72 detectives, 68 sergeants, 25 lieutenants, new recruits and several human resources staffers. Altogether, those employees were paid more than $45 million in 2025. Explaining the redactions, Chesterfield FOIA officer Crystal Dabney cited an exemption to Virginia’s FOIA that shields the names of undercover law enforcement officers from disclosure. Although not every member of Chesterfield’s police force is currently an undercover officer, officials have previously argued that any officer could participate in undercover operations at any point. In 2023, transparency advocate Alice Minium and the organization OpenOversightVa sued Chesterfield police over its practice of redacting names. Chesterfield police initially prevailed in lower courts, but Minium has since appealed the decisions to the Virginia Court of Appeals, which earlier this year rejected the same undercover officer argument used by the Hanover County Sheriff’s Office to justify similar redactions.

As of today, the local police and fire emergency radio channel is a lot less noisy. That’s because Prince William County police switched to all “encrypted” radio communications on Monday, Jan. 5. It’s the first time the main communications channel has been made inaccessible to the public in the department’s more than 50-year history. The change means that the routine chatter between dispatchers and police officers can no longer be heard on scanners that pick up public first responder channels. Nor can it be followed via websites and apps such as “Broadcastify” or “Open Mhz.” The proliferation of such tools — which are easy and free to access — was partly why the decision was made, said Lt. Jonathan Perok, a Prince William County police spokesman. … “While we recognize there are community members that benefit from these transmissions, there is currently no way to decipher between someone listening to the transmissions for good reasons versus those with nefarious intentions,” he added.

Franklin County supervisor Dan Quinn is questioning a recent decision by his colleagues to censure him following an investigation into campaign signs in October. Supervisors unanimously voted in November to censure Quinn for actions they deemed to be disorderly conduct in a closed session meeting. … Quinn claims their vote was an attempt to silence him after recent allegations he made concerning conduct of some county staff and supervisors. … Quinn received a letter from Franklin County Attorney Jim Guynn notifying him of possible disciplinary action for his accusations of “unethical” conduct of supervisors as well as releasing the names of candidates for the county administrator position.

As the two men blamed for Charlottesville’s most notorious modern-day gunfight face sentencing later this week, a federal court has released surveillance video capturing the struggle, the salvo of rifle fire and the mayhem that unfolded under the city’s iconic “I Love Charlottesville A Lot” mural almost exactly three years ago. The footage, released at The Daily Progress’ request, shows what the prosecution and defense have long sparred over: a husband stepping toward the line of fire to save his kidnapped wife from human traffickers.

Only weeks ago, the Warren County Board of Supervisors took a strong and principled stand by adopting a new Legal Services Transparency and Review Policy. The policy was clear in its intent: ensure that legal advice guiding major public decisions is documented, accessible, and publicly justified, unless a very specific exemption under Virginia’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) applies. Passed at the final meeting of 2025, the new policy offered a hopeful sign that greater accountability and clarity would guide county decision-making in 2026. But now, at the very first meeting of the new term, troubling signs have emerged. The January 8 agenda does not list the policy as a closed-session item, but the meeting itself opens with a closed session. The official motion? That the Board enter a private meeting to consult legal counsel on “meeting policy and procedures” is a vague and overly broad justification under Section 2.2-3711(A)(8) of FOIA.

Sgt. Jordan Mazur spent eight years deciding what the public could — and couldn’t — know about the NYPD. Now, he’s written a how-to guide for prying records out of government agencies’ hands. New York’s Freedom of Information Law, also known as FOIL, grants the public the right to request records from government agencies. Mazur, who most recently served as the NYPD’s records access appeals officer, has self-published a step-by-step manual, “FOIL Made Simple,” that guides individuals on how to obtain important documents from bureaucracies that may be predisposed to resist disclosure. Mazur’s book offers a rare glimpse behind the curtain from someone who has fielded tens of thousands of requests at one of the city’s busiest agencies. In the book, he urges patience, personal relationships and precision as the keys to success. And his number one tip? Be polite.