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All Access
There was no newsletter yesterday, March 20.
It’s Sunshine Week!
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Local
Prince William County Commonwealth’s Attorney Amy Ashworth has been ordered to pay $22,250 in attorney fees after violating Virginia’s Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA, a law designed to ensure public access to government activities. In a Tuesday email to InsideNoVa, Ashworth said her office “disagrees with the judge’s ruling” and referred to the Feb. 27 motion for reconsideration. The motion goes on to claim Juarez’s principal goal in the matter was merely to obtain attorney fees, not to receive the requested documents to which she was made privy prior to the opening of litigation. Per the motion, “The Petitioner has not substantially prevailed in this matter, because she received all relevant, unredacted, documents prior to the commencement of litigation.”
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Sunshine Week
Restaurants vary, from their food and decor to their cleanliness standards. When dining out, patrons have an unspoken expectation of quality and cleanliness, but sometimes this expectation can go unmet. Knowing whether a restaurant had recent health violations can empower diners to make informed decisions about where they eat. Individual restaurants or restaurants of a certain kind are searchable. This includes fast food restaurants, food trucks, traditional sit-down restaurants and everything in between. Inspections are also searchable by the locality and ZIP code they occurred in.
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Sunshine Week
Happy Sunshine Week. This is the time set aside each year to raise awareness around the need for open government and our right to know what the government is doing. Ironically, we were set this week to go to court to defend this fundamental right, but a hearing over a request our executive editor made under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act has been delayed until April. What is important to understand about FOIA laws is that they start with the premise that the government is for and by the people and that the people have the right to view meetings and records to understand not just actions by governments, but the deliberation processes leading to actions. The rather simple concept gets complicated quickly. To illustrate how complicated, and how different agencies handle the exact same requests, I’d like to share a story that began last fall.
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TENTATIVE CONFERENCE SCHEDULE
10:00 – 11:00 Animal testing transparency
11:00 – 11:20 Need to Know: Minium v. Hines
11:30 – 12:00 Buried treasures at the courthouse
12:00 – 1:30 Lunch program
awards
keynote speaker
VCOG annual meeting
1:30 – 2:00 Access and Gen Z
2:00 – 2:20 Need to Know: Courthouse News Service v. Smith
2:20 – 2:50 AI, Open Data and Civic Innovation
3:00 – 3:20 Need to Know: NPR v. Department of Corrections
3:20 – 4:20 The Transparency Gap in Local Solar and Data Projects
Thanks to our conference sponsors and donors.
Tom Blackstock
Boone Newsmedia
Christian & Barton, LLP
Roger Christman
The Harrisonburg Citizen
Joshua Heslinga
Megan Rhyne
Richmond Times-Dispatch
Sage Information Services
Jeff South
Thomas H. Roberts & Associates, PC
Virginia Association of Broadcasters
Virginia Poverty Law Center
WHRO, Norfolk
Willcox & Savage
WTVR, Richmond
“Democracies die behind closed doors.” ~ U.S. District Judge Damon Keith, 2002
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