A Martinsville city council meeting has been canceled for Tuesday evening, but two council members have scheduled a community meeting to be held in its place. Shortly after 10 a.m. Saturday, Communications and Community Engagement Officer Kendall Davis sent out a notice that the regularly scheduled city council meeting for Tuesday had been canceled due to lack of quorum. Council members Julian Mei and Aaron Rawls said they found out about the cancellzation from the release. The cancelation of the regular meeting came two days after Martinsville City Manager Aretha Ferrell-Benavides announced to her staff that she was taking time away from her job and had designated Police Chief Rob Fincher to be the point of contact for her office during the absence. The timing of the city manager’s leave, and the notice that a lack of quorum at a regular council meeting during her absence comes amid a fire storm of questions on funding and credit card use among city employees, including Ferrell-Benavides. Sunday afternoon Fincher sent out a statement indicating he would not be attending the meeting.

Fairfax County police released body-worn camera footage today (Friday) that captured last month’s fatal police shooting outside Greenbriar Town Center in Fair Oaks. The shooting on April 23 resulted in the death of a Fairfax man and injuries to two police officers, who sustained gunshot wounds.

A high-ranking official has resigned from town government in Louisa and Mineral. In the Town of Louisa, Arthur D. “Danny” Carter stepped down as interim mayor. In the Town of Mineral, JoAnna Von Arb resigned from her seat on town council. Carter submitted his resignation to interim Town Manager Craig Buckley on May 21, stating he was leaving “for reasons previously discussed, effective immediately.” In an interview on Friday, Carter said he resigned because he “felt like [he] could no longer effectively work with the majority of the current council.” In her resignation letter, Von Arb said it had been an honor to serve the town but after “careful consideration” she’d concluded she could no longer be “a productive member of council due to.” She left the sentence unfinished.

Over the past week, Lynchburg business leaders have been pushing back against the behavior of members of city council, with some suggesting the council’s conduct could be jeopardizing investment in the city. The discussion was initiated by Dave Henderson, managing partner of Hen + Hound Management Co., the restaurant company that owns The Water Dog in downtown Lynchburg. He sent an email to city leaders and the local news media a day after the council’s most recent meeting on May 13. In the email, Henderson said At-large Councilman Martin Misjuns’ actions at the meeting were “unprofessional, hostile, and deeply toxic.”

The Trump administration will not have to provide documents and testimony about billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency—at least for now—as Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts granted the government’s request to temporarily halt movement in a case over whether DOGE has to be transparent about its actions. Roberts granted a request from the Trump administration to stop discovery in an ongoing lawsuit over whether DOGE has to comply with Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, which means its records could be made publicly available. His ruling is temporary and will only apply until the full court can issue a more lasting order about whether or not the Trump administration has to turn over documents, and the justice did not offer any reasoning behind his decision in Friday’s order.

President Donald Trump on Monday issued a full pardon, via social media, to former Culpeper County Sheriff Scott Jenkins, who was convicted in federal court last year in what prosecutors described as a “badges-for-bribes” scheme. “Sheriff Scott Jenkins, his wife Patricia, and their family have been dragged through HELL by a Corrupt and Weaponized Biden DOJ,” Trump wrote Monday on his social media platform Truth Social. In March, Jenkins, a staunch Republican, was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison for accepting over $75,000 in bribes in exchange for appointing numerous Northern Virginia businessmen as auxiliary deputy sheriffs within his department, according to court documents. In December 2024, a jury convicted Jenkins, 53, of Culpeper, of one count of conspiracy, four counts of honest services fraud, and seven counts of bribery concerning programs receiving federal funds.

The Iowa Supreme Court gave citizen engagement and accessibility to public meetings a much-needed boost May 16 in an appeal of a lawsuit against the Iowa City Community School District. The district’s practice of posting full videos of school board meetings on the internet for on-demand public viewing was at the heart of the case. Government officials, staffs of statewide organizations of cities, counties and school boards, and access advocates like the Iowa Freedom of Information Council had awaited the decision with some trepidation. They worried the court might impose liability for statements expressed during public comment portions of governmental meetings and for their republication via internet posting of meeting recordings on government web sites or YouTube.