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“Cullen has kept silent on the direction of his inquiry, even declining to confirm or deny the governor’s participation.”
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Two days after Gov. Ralph Northam denied being photographed in blackface or a KKK robe, lawyers quietly launched an investigation, in part to settle the mystery surrounding a 1984 yearbook picture that sparked political scandal. Almost three months since the photo surfaced, few details about that investigation, led by former Virginia attorney general Richard Cullen, have been made public. Recently, Northam told a crowd of reporters he had cooperated with the independent probe paid for by Eastern Virginia Medical School. Still, Cullen has kept silent on the direction of his inquiry, even declining to confirm or deny the governor’s participation. But documents obtained by The Virginian-Pilot through public records requests provide a peek into the investigative process.Cullen’s firm, McGuire Woods, spent 156 hours in February alone digging into the Norfolk medical school’s history of yearbooks. The records, extensive time-keeping logs of the firm’s activity, reveal a legal team experienced in conducting inquiries for private clients. They also highlight the steep cost of damage control in an age of extreme partisanship and 24-hour news. The school has racked up over $116,000 in legal and public relations fees as of March 31. Among the bills, the school footed a $562 invoice for a consultant to fly from Arlington to Norfolk.
The Virginian-Pilot
Following an uproar over revelations that Virginia’s largest university allowed the conservative Charles Koch Foundation to give input in some personnel decisions, the school is tightening its rules governing agreements with donors to ensure they don’t infringe on academic freedom. The changes at George Mason University in Fairfax come after disclosures last year that the Koch Foundation received a say in the hiring and firing of some professors under older donor agreements that provided millions of dollars to the school. University President Angel Cabrera said at the time that the agreements “fall short of the standards of academic independence I expect any gift to meet.” The new rules implement recommendations made in October after a committee reviewed hundreds of agreements and found nearly 30 containing potentially problematic provisions. The new rules, approved this week by a task force including members of the administration and the faculty senate, will make it easier for the public to review relevant future agreements. Existing agreements, though, may still be shielded from public review. The Virginia Supreme Court is taking up arguments later this year on whether past donor agreements are subject to disclosure under the state’s Freedom of Information Act. The school has argued that those contracts are in possession of the George Mason University foundation, which argues it’s a private organization exempt from the law’s disclosure requirements.
U.S. News & World Report
Charlottesville officials on Friday denied claims by members of the initial Police Civilian Review Board about the city police chief’s willingness to work with them. They also gave the board a final deadline to complete its work. Meanwhile, one board member struck back at the city, accusing it of omitting information from a news release. Brackney was not quoted in the release, and a department spokesman said the release was a joint endeavor by the city and the police department. When asked for further comment, Brackney disputed a Wednesday Daily Progress story about the meeting. She called the headline — which said that the police board members stated at the meeting that the “chief won’t set [a] public meeting” — “disingenuous and inherently false.”
The Daily Progress
The Loudoun County Board of Supervisors hosted its first of two public hearings on the heavily debated Comprehensive Plan Wednesday night. More than 100 speakers addressed supervisors during the hearing, with the vast majority urging the board not to adopt the Planning Commission’s proposed plan that calls for tens of thousands of new homes in Loudoun in the decades ahead. The new plan, which will include the county’s General Plan and Countywide Transportation Plan, will serve as the county’s guide for land use and transportation through 2040. One hundred thirty-eight speakers were slated to speak on Wednesday.
The Loudoun Times-Mirror
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“Those lip movements were ‘consistent with chewing’ the hash brown his client purchased at a McDonald’s immediately before he was pulled over.”
“The court’s declaration is, frankly, astonishing considering the General Assembly voted unanimously in 2018 to create sweeping access to court records the OES wanted to restrict.”