The Richmond School Board improperly redacted documents related to an investigation into alleged misconduct by a school division employee, a Richmond Circuit Court judge ruled Wednesday. The documents are related to the departure earlier this year of Ronald “Bobby” Hathaway, the former director of facilities and custodial services for Richmond Public Schools. The school division conducted an investigation into Hathaway before he left the role, but kept most details of the investigation secret by heavily redacting documents before releasing them in response to Freedom of Information Act requests. “Disclosure of these documents is exactly the degree of sunshine FOIA contemplates in a free and open form of governance,” Judge Tracy Thorne-Begland wrote in his decision. … “The documents in question do not contain data, facts or statements that are of a private nature,” Thorne-Begland wrote in his decision. “They contain allegations of malfeasance, discrimination, and favoritism by public employees and the investigative steps and conclusions reached by the board in reviewing the allegations.”

A Virginia Board of Pharmacy committee decided on Wednesday to fine the Danville Area Humane Society $500 for violating state code in its euthanasia recordkeeping. The animal shelter, the only one in Danville, will also be required to undergo a random inspection within the next 12 months, and then once every three years. The shelter must also pay for the inspections. At a hearing in Richmond, the board, which regulates pharmacy licenses and controlled substances for animal shelters, concluded that the shelter violated state code in failing to maintain proper records for animals that were put down through euthanasia. The violations affected more than 1,800 animals in 2023. … “We initially chose to attend the hearing so we could update the board on changes we have made to our recordkeeping practices,” shelter officials said in a Facebook post. “However, after learning that the hearing could be attended, recorded, shared and misrepresented publicly, we decided not to expose our staff to that process.” And yet, the hearing still occurred.

Tuesday’s immigration enforcement sweep appeared to be the second major immigration operation in Greene County in less than six weeks. It followed the May 14 roundup that resulted in the detention of 26 men, all of them apparently Latino. Officials have not disclosed how many people were detained Tuesday, and neither Greene County Sheriff Steven Smith nor U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement responded to Daily Progress requests for more information. … The operation unfolded amid a growing dispute over transparency. After the May roundup, The Daily Progress filed a Freedom of Information Act request seeking records identifying those detained. Maj. Josh White with the Greene County Sheriff’s Office eventually provided a list in which all names had been redacted. In his accompanying response, White cited federal law 5 U.S.C. § 552, an explanation that drew a sharp rebuke from Megan Rhyne, executive director of the Virginia Coalition for Open Government. “Nope, nope, nope,” Rhyne told The Daily Progress. “They’re citing federal FOIA which doesn’t apply. That is completely wrong. They need to give you a state law response.”

The Virginia Beach School Board on Tuesday narrowly adopted a series of motions walking back a new policy that restricts the classroom laptop usage of the district’s youngest students before expanding the ban’s scope to entirely include first-graders. In a 6-5 vote, the board moved to rescind the motion passed at the board’s June 8 meeting…. From the start, Tuesday’s meeting was uneasy. Three members cast votes against supporting the meeting’s agenda, a process that is usually unanimous and procedural.

A split Warren County Board of Supervisors ended the interim county administrator’s contract and chose a temporary replacement Tuesday night. Vice Chairman Tony F. Carter made the motion at the beginning of the meeting to end J. David Martin’s temporary contract and employment agreement as the interim county administrator, effective immediately. … Supervisors made no comments on the contract termination during the meeting. Carter then made the motion to appoint Deputy County Administrator Jane Meadows as interim county administrator, effective immediately, at a salary of $181,500. The motion passed 5-0. Supervisors again made no comments.

The Alexandria Police Department today (Wednesday) released body camera footage from a fatal shooting of a homicide suspect in the city’s West End last month. Police Chief Tarrick McGuire also publicly disclosed the names of the victim as 27-year-old Emily Ramirez and the suspect, her boyfriend, 38-year-old Hector Amaya.