Is the Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority’s private development arm subject to public oversight by citizens and city officials? Last year, RRHA CEO Steven Nesmith answered that question with an explicit yes. This year, however, he’s changed his mind. Asked Wednesday whether the Richmond Development Corporation — an independent nonprofit headed by Nesmith — would have to allow members of the public to attend board meetings or respond to records requests under state law, Nesmith said no. “It’s a nonprofit,” Nesmith said in a phone call with the Times-Dispatch. … Nesmith said that, after he’d publicly committed to running the Richmond Development Corporation as a public entity, he sought “clarification from outside legal counsel” on the matter. That advice altered his opinion on the company’s obligations to the public.

NOTE: Whether or not an entity is subject to FOIA depends on two things — level of public funding and/or whether it’s performing a delegated function. A nonprofit CAN be subject to FOIA if one or both of those criteria are met.

Someone has been fired at Albemarle County Public Schools, but officials aren’t saying who. The School Board unanimously voted Thursday evening to accept Acting Superintendent Chandra Hayes’ “recommended termination of a staff member,” purposely omitting the name of that staff member. When pressed, school division spokesman Jason Grant told The Daily Progress the division doesn’t comment on personnel matters. … Jim Dillenbeck, who served on the School Board for a little more than nine months before he resigned Wednesday at the request of the board’s other members, has said there are at least 15 division employees now on leave. Parents have said they have heard the number is much higher. Dillenbeck shared that number at a town hall with parents at the Northside Library on Oct. 1, describing the situation as a “crisis.” … Six days after the town hall, Dillenbeck resigned. “At a recent town hall, Mr. Dillenbeck revealed information entrusted to him in confidence. He directly contradicted the facts known to this board. He revealed sensitive personnel information that he knew to be confidential. And he publicly legitimized rumors and opinions by stating them as fact, which they were not,” his colleagues on the board wrote in a joint statement that same day. “Mr. Dillenbeck disregarded accuracy and the privacy of staff, and made false statements about the school division, despite repeated requests that he share information honestly and accurately. In the wake of that town hall meeting, families and school communities suffered serious damage.”

A developer proposing to build an advanced nuclear energy project in Amherst County has revealed the specific location that it has in mind. … The disclosure Thursday of the project location comes two days after company officials announced the project during an Amherst County Board of Supervisors meeting but declined to specify exactly where it would go, citing a need for further due diligence. … Chris Hallameyer, Geenex’s director of external affairs, told Amherst County supervisors on Tuesday that the company is “committed to meeting people and fostering open, transparent dialogue as the project advances.”

The Western Virginia Regional Industrial Authority, which is selling land in Roanoke County for a data center, announced earlier this week that it pulled out of a nondisclosure agreement with the buyer. The authority’s initial statement did not answer why it chose to do so. Asked that question by Cardinal News on Wednesday, the authority released another statement saying “communities across Virginia have raised concerns about transparency on data center projects, and the Authority wants to respond to those concerns.” … During the Sept. 11 meeting, many members of a local advocacy group, the Southwest Virginia Data Center Transparency Alliance, spoke and acknowledged that there was little public information about the Wood Haven project available. In a statement sent via text Wednesday, the alliance group said it suggests stakeholders “tell the whole truth from the start, rather than trying to obscure it from the public.” … “To be clear, the community has spoken quite loudly that it does not want extractive industries, including data centers, in the area — especially when those ‘deals’ are negotiated behind closed doors,” the statement from the advocacy group said.

New records released by the Secret Service detailed how a member of Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Virginia, carried a loaded gun past a Secret Service screening checkpoint last year when President Trump was at the club. Freedom of Information Act records, requested by D.C.-based watchdog nonprofit Judicial Watch following a report from Real Clear Politics, detailed how the golf club member apparently inadvertently brought his firearm onto the golf course property while Mr. Trump was playing on the course. According to the heavily redacted records, the member arrived at about noon on Aug. 31, 2025.