Wednesday, April 2, 2014
State and Local Stories
State Del. Tag Greason, a leading Republican lawmaker and state budget negotiator, shot off a testy email to a disagreeable constituent March 28, calling the Leisure World parent community resident “the problem,” saying she was wasting his time and questioning “how intellectually lazy” she is. When asked Monday about the exchange, Greason apologized and said he should have “handled it differently.”
Loudoun Times-Mirror
PORTSMOUTH School division Superintendent David Stuckwisch put his budget and finance director on administrative leave this week in connection with an investigation by The Virginian-Pilot into allegations of financial mismanagement. For the past three months, The Pilot has been looking into whether the division has used its money in ways that run contrary to state law and proper accounting practices – and to a grand jury report released in 2013 that chastised the division for failing to return year-end surplus money to the city. On Friday, Stuckwisch gave the latest in a series of interviews about the financial matters to The Pilot. Monday morning, he called to say that key details provided Friday were inaccurate. The incorrect information, Stuckwisch said, was provided to him by the finance director, Meera Phaltankar.
Virginian-Pilot
Advocates and opponents of expanding Medicaid in Virginia revisited familiar arguments Tuesday at a lengthy public hearing over Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s proposed budget. The governor wants a roughly $96 billion, two-year budget that includes expanding Medicaid eligibility, which most Republican lawmakers oppose. The impasse could lead to a state government shutdown if the budget is not passed by July 1. More than 100 people signed up to speak at Tuesday’s Virginia Senate Finance Committee hearing on the governor’s proposed budget. Politically active nonprofits, including the liberal Moveon.org and the tea party group Americans for Prosperity, had urged their supporters to attend.
Free Lance-Star
Ray Reed, The News & Advance’s political reporter since 2007, retired Tuesday, capping off a newspaper career spanning more than 40 years. Reed came to the Lynchburg newspaper from The Roanoke Times to cover the Virginia General Assembly.
News & Advance
Loudoun Supervisor Eugene Delgaudio (R-Sterling) and his controversial conservative lobbying group Public Advocate of the United States will likely not be forced to pay financial damages for the unauthorized and doctored use of a gay couple's photo in campaign literature. A federal district court judge in Colorado, where the campaign flyers were used in state elections in 2012, ruled March 31 largely in favor of Public Advocate, finding that it had no commercial purpose in using the photograph because “it was involved in an important exercise of its First Amendment rights with respect to a controversial issue in the context of an election,” according to Delgaudio. "Public Advocate['s] actions are evidence that same-sex marriage can at the very least be considered as relating to political concerns of the community. Therefore, I find that the mailers reasonably relate to a matter of public concern," Senior Judge Wiley Y. Daniel stated.
Loudoun Times-Mirror
After this Watchdog.org reporter learned some local Northern Virginia police departments are randomly scanning — and storing — the date, time and location of license plates, I decided to file a records request for my own data in my own city. Sometimes, understanding a story means being a part of it. So, following the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia’s appeal to citizens across the Old Dominion, I made a Freedom of Information Act request for all data related to the instances Alexandria police had captured my license plate. After all, every Virginian has the right under the Government Data Collection and Dissemination Act to access all of his or her personal records the government has on hand. When I called the police department’s public information office, the pleasant woman who answered the phone said she’d never heard a person make that request before, and directed me to a data department. The woman who answered the phone there told me flat-out that I couldn’t have those records.
Watchdog.org Virginia Bureau
Hopewell City Councilwoman Brenda Pelham is asking that a $2.35 million lawsuit filed against her by a former candidate for sheriff whom she accused of being “part of the Klan” in a Facebook post be dismissed. Pelham, who is African-American, also asked in court papers that the “racially charged” case be moved to Hopewell from Colonial Heights, where the lawsuit was filed, because Catherine Mitchell, who filed the suit, is looking for an unfair advantage.
Times-Dispatch
James City County launched a new website this week for the Comprehensive Plan review and also began accepting applications from landowners wanting to change their land use designations, according to releases. The website for “Toward 2035: Leading the Way” is available atjamescitycountyva.gov/comprehensiveplan and features information about the Comp Plan and how to get involved.
Virginia Gazette
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