Continuity gaps within Virginia’s artificial intelligence registry are raising concerns about transparency, oversight and the implementation of standards across state government, state researchers said Monday. JLARC provided lawmakers an update on the registry as part of an ongoing review of the Virginia Information Technologies Agency (VITA), which services 65 executive branch agencies, security, project management, procurement and information technology planning for the commonwealth. The registry’s purpose is to track and approve state projects that would use AI technology. Researchers said that as of Oct. 31, VITA approved 90 out of about 182 cases that were submitted by state agencies frustrated with the agency’s process guidance and the registry using multiple systems that are “not well coordinated.” VITA said the total approved registry AI cases increased to 112 at Monday’s meeting. … However, the problem researchers identified is that case status is not updated regularly, and some agencies are unclear about which types of use cases to include and are not reporting them. Researchers are also unclear whether the cases not entered into the registry comply with state standards.

Several months after she was named a defendant in a lawsuit related to transparency at Richmond City Hall, former city spokesperson Petula Burks reportedly lost her city-issued phone in an airport. In a new court document, attorneys representing Burks and the city revealed there was no digital backup made of the phone that went missing, even though the city was already on notice it was being sued. “The city does not have cloud-based storage of Petula Burks’s cell phone,” W. Ryan Waddell with the Ogletree Deakins law firm wrote in an Oct. 29 report filed with the judge overseeing the case. Ogletree is a private firm representing the city in the case….After learning there was no backup created for the lost device, Clay’s lawyers filed a motion last week asking the court to formally rule that the city has spoiled evidence that should’ve been preserved…. “The city does not create full digital backups of staff cellphones,” said spokesperson Mira Signer. “While this has been a longstanding practice at the city, it runs counter to Mayor Danny Avula’s commitment to building a more transparent government. The mayor and his administration will investigate ways to preserve text messages in the case of a lost cellphone.”

Earlier this year, Spotsylvania County schools installed Evolv weapons detection systems at all five county high schools, as well as the Career and Technical Center and the John J. Wright Educational and Cultural Center. But when school officials decided to place a system at the entrance of the division’s administrative building prior to Monday night’s school board meeting, it wasn’t an extension of the previous decision. Instead, the action was the result of online threats against Superintendent Clint Mitchell and School Board Chair Megan Jackson following Jackson’s decision to dismiss public speaker Shamgar Connors from meetings on two previous occasions. Connors’ dismissal from the Oct. 13 meeting — which came after he spoke out against the division’s handling of a child sex abuse case involving disabled children on a school bus — drew the ire of many on social media. But Jackson reiterated Monday that it wasn’t the topic Connors was addressing that was the issue. Rather, she said, the board took action after he seemingly mocked a serious, traumatic event by making it into a song, and used “racist rhetoric” and a graphic term to describe what the children endured. Connors is banned from attending meetings for the remainder of the school year, as he was served a “no trespassing” notice that advised him the decision was related to his conduct at the Oct. 13 meeting.

Last week, the Frederick County Planning Commission approved the practice of a religious leader leading a prayer before their meetings, something that is already done by the Frederick County Board of Supervisors. The idea was proposed by commission member Vaughn Whitacre, who thought it would be nice to give thanks to God before the meetings…. Frederick County Attorney Andrew Fox said the process would be acceptable if the prayer given is welcoming and focused on the deliberative nature of the Planning Commission process. But he did warn the commission that straying from the regular prayer could land them in some hot water. “There’s really no sure-fire way to prevent any kind of First Amendment challenge to what you may decide to do because it all depends on what you actually do, how it’s perceived by members of the community, and whether… it strays a little too far into what is prohibited under the First Amendment as an establishment of religion,” Fox said. The commissioners pitched an inter-faith approach, but Whitacre felt the prayer should be for “the believers in the God of Abraham and Jacob… Judeo-Christian.”

Smithfield’s Town Council will hold a special closed-session meeting on Nov. 12 to discuss a revised concept for developer Joseph Luter IV’s proposed “Grange at 10Main” at Route 10 and Main Street. The meeting will begin at 10 a.m. in The Smithfield Center at 220 North Church St. The town posted an agenda on its website on Nov. 6. The agenda lists a closed session to discuss two matters. … The Times typically receives advance email notice of special council meetings but in this case received no notice from town officials.

With another legislative year nearing an end, Michigan is poised to remain one of just two states that fully exempts its Legislature and governor’s office from public records requests under the Freedom of Information Act. House Speaker Matt Hall has made clear that his chamber will not take up Senate-approved transparency legislation to expand FOIA even though he personally supported similar bills as recently as last year. “We’re just not going to,” the Richland Township Republican told reporters last week….A recent statewide survey shows that Michigan voters widely support expanding the FOIA law, said Lisa McGraw, with the Michigan Press Association.