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All Access
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Last day to register!
Today’s the last day to register for VCOG’s conference this Thursday.
Read about our panels, speakers, snacks and plans for our annual gathering.
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Local
While the city of Richmond was in the throes of the water crisis, Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center struggled to keep the heat on, and staffers carried buckets of water up the elevators to flush toilets. For seven days in January, the region’s largest hospital had no regular supply of water for its steam boiler or faucets. The hospital asked ambulances to go elsewhere and canceled elective procedures, costing the health system roughly $20 million in revenue. The hospital has identified alternate sources of potable, bottled and bulk water if the hospital’s supply becomes disrupted or contaminated, according to a partially redacted copy of the medical center’s emergency operations plan obtained by the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
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Local
He’s a police officer. He’s the vice mayor. He apparently wants to be Purcellville’s police chief, too. In a letter to a consultant hired by interim Town Manager Kwasi Fraser to review Purcellville’s police department, Vice Mayor and Purcellville Police officer Carl “Ben” Nett made it clear that he intended to become the town’s chief of police. The Times-Mirror has obtained a copy of a six-page letter Nett wrote to the contractor, Mike Jones, outlining organizational changes he recommends that would lead to his promotion as chief of police. Jones has verified to the Times-Mirror that this letter was sent to him by Nett. Nett told the Times-Mirror Jones had asked for his assessment of the police department. “As Vice Mayor, recently elected to a four-year term, I have the unique distinction of determining the police department budget and, with that, the authority to directly address many of the issues negatively impacting our department,” Nett wrote.
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In other states
When public records reveal sensitive details, the desire for privacy collides with the need for government transparency. The recent deaths of actor Gene Hackman and his wife Betsy Arakawa-Hackman have sparked investigations, drawn international media attention and put an important question in front of a New Mexico judge: Do privacy concerns in this case outweigh the public’s right to have full access to documents, photographs, videos and bodycam footage created during official investigations into the Hackmans’ February deaths? Typically, New Mexico’s freedom of information law – the Inspection of Public Records Act (IPRA), passed by the state legislature in 1993 – would permit members of the media and other interested parties to obtain copies of law enforcement documents and images generated by such inquiries. Among the exceptions are some classes of information found in law enforcement records – such as medical records and images of death. The Hackman estate wants to entirely block access to photographic records of the Hackmans.
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Federal
As th emost-watched halftime show of all time—one that exclusively featured Black performers—Kendrick Lamar’s historic performance during Super Bowl LIX was bound to draw some complaints. But according to a Federal Communications Commission response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request from WIRED, the single biggest source of anger was not about the performance itself. It was that there were not enough white people on stage. In response to WIRED’s FOIA request, the FCC published 125 complaints sent to the agency from some of the more than 133 million people watching. Some complained about the “vulgar” and “obscene” language uses, others focused on their inability to understand “this rap crap,”
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Federal
Both John F. Kennedy and his brother, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, were briefed by CIA officials on an Agency counterintelligence operation to break into the French Embassy in Washington for the “removal of documents,” according to formerly Top Secret FBI reports declassified in full for the first time as part of the release of the Kennedy assassination papers and published today by the National Security Archive. The Top Secret reports dated June, July, and August, 1975, were drafted by the FBI’s Intelligence Division after the Bureau learned that the CIA had compiled the “Family Jewels”—a highly classified 693-page dossier on activities “where the CIA may have exceeded its mandate.”
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Federal
CLAIM: Project 2025, a conservative policy blueprint for a Republican presidency, recommended government officials use encrypted messaging apps such as Signal to evade transparency and recordkeeping laws.
RATING: False. Project 2025 training videos do advise future political appointees to avoid creating a paper trail of communications that could be obtained through a public records request, but the recommendations involve talking to other staff in person, rather than using a specific messaging application.
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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.
Lee Albright
Tom Blackstock
Boone Newsmedia
Paul Casalaspi
Christian & Barton, LLP
Roger Christman
The Daily Progress
Maria Everett
Mark Grunewald
The Harrisonburg Citizen
Joshua Heslinga
Megan Rhyne
Richmond Times-Dispatch
Sage Information Services
Jeff South
SPJVA-Pro Chapter
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
Follow us on: X / Facebook / Instagram / Threads / Bluesky
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