0 3 . 1 9 . 2 5
All Access
It’s Sunshine Week!
I’m having technical difficulties with this app this morning. Sorry about the wonky formatting.
Much of Cardinal’s reporting on broadband deployment in Virginia has referenced the following sites, all publicly accessible. The Virginia Telecommunication Initiative, or VATI, website is www.dhcd.virginia.gov/vati. The $1 billion project fund includes about $750 million from the American Rescue Plan Act, along with state, local and private funding.
https://cardinalnews.org/2025/03/19/sunshine-week-track-the-spread-broadband-in-virginia-with-these-tools/
Miss your chance to bring up a burning issue at a recent town hall meeting with the Alexandria City Council? City Council Member R. Kirk McPike is asking City Manager Jim Parajon to formalize a schedule so that Council can hold quarterly town hall meetings. The city will start the effort after Council approves the FY2026 budget and it goes into effect on July 1. City Council has been conducting more town halls in recent years, but without a set schedule. The effort started in early 2023 when McPike asked City Manager Jim Parajon to look into the city funding more of the events. Parajon added $40,000 to his base Fiscal Year 2024 budget (and all subsequent budgets), setting aside $10,000 per meeting to cover translators, sound equipment and other costs.
https://www.alxnow.com/2025/03/18/alexandria-to-formalize-schedule-for-quarterly-town-hall-meetings/
He asserted that law enforcement kept him in jail for two days after cellphone location data proved he was innocent. He sued Henrico County police for $11 million. The county paid him $225,000. But the first thing he wanted was an apology. The Henrico Division of Police settled a lawsuit brought against it by a Lakeside resident arrested in the summer of 2023. That suit alleged that resident Kevin Lopez was improperly arrested following a bloodhound search and that he was held in jail for two days after his innocence was proven. A check invoice obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request shows that Henrico settled the suit for $225,000. Eleven different Henrico police officers, sergeants and detectives were named as defendants in the suit, as well as 10 unidentified police employees.
https://richmond.com/news/local/crime-courts/article_9ad53748-0433-11f0-bee2-df9001fbe3f3.html
Virginia is expected to soon begin shielding many past criminal convictions — including certain lower-level felonies — from public view. If a person meets certain criteria, such as not committing more crimes for a certain number of years, they can have some past convictions sealed under a law that was approved four years ago and is expected to soon go into effect — though it’s too soon to know exactly when. The change will mark the first time in Virginia history that criminal convictions can be sealed from public scrutiny. And acquittals in felony cases — including murder cases — can be sealed upon a defendant’s request so long as the commonwealth’s attorney agrees. That opens the prospect that court records of public trials could be sealed immediately following a verdict.
https://www.dailypress.com/2025/03/18/sealing-of-criminal-convictions-including-some-felonies-will-be-a-first-in-virginia/
A lawsuit that blamed security problems at a downtown Roanoke hookah lounge for the fatal shooting of one its customers was settled for $250,000. The full amount of the settlement became public Monday, after The Roanoke Times filed a petition in Roanoke Circuit Court that challenged the partial sealing of the figure when the agreement was approved by a judge last month. In asking that the exhibit be unsealed, The Roanoke Times cited two decisions by the Virginia Supreme Court holding that the amount of money paid to settle a wrongful death lawsuit is presumptively open to the public.
https://roanoke.com/news/local/crime-courts/article_f3c04850-041c-11f0-821d-0bc3b3c087c4.html
Information on how the city of Danville has been spending gaming-tax revenues from Caesars Virginia is just a click or two away. City Manager Ken Larking has posted a chart listing items the revenues have gone toward over the nearly two years the company has operated a casino in Danville. It was Danville City Councilman Lee Vogler who had requested during a council meeting last month that the city manager post online a simple, easy-to-understand list of what the city has spent gaming tax revenues on so far.
https://godanriver.com/news/local/government-politics/article_c34ae7d6-00e6-11f0-954e-93a67f4b93a6.html#tracking-source=home-top-story
Whether the public wants to talk about the “issue of the season” or “green cheese on Mars,” the Warren County Board of Supervisors plans to keep splitting the comment period during meetings into two sessions. Board of Supervisors Chairman Jerome K. “Jay” Butler, Vice Chairman John W. Stanmeyer and supervisors Richard A. Jamieson and Cheryl L. Cullers recently revisited the policy for meeting agendas that provides two, 30-minute periods for public comments. Supervisor Vicky L. Cook did not attend the work session. Concerns arose at a previous meeting that the split public comment period meant some people who wanted to speak had to wait until the second section opened hours later.
https://www.nvdaily.com/nvdaily/warren-county-supervisors-debate-splitting-public-comment-period/article_6474e971-7983-5ec3-9608-fdd3cd222f18.html
|
