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"If the subpoena stands the reporter will be excluded from the courtroom during the trial and prevented from speaking with colleagues about it."
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A Virginian-Pilot reporter has been subpoenaed by a special prosecutor to testify at the upcoming trial of City Councilman Mark Whitaker, a step that First Amendment experts say can have a “chilling effect” on press freedom. The Pilot has opposed the subpoena and will argue against it at a motions hearing Monday in Circuit Court. “This legal maneuver is an attempt to stop The Pilot’s coverage by a particular reporter who understands the nuances of this complicated story,” Marisa Porto, the paper’s executive editor, said in a statement. “We believe this sets a dangerous precedent for court coverage locally and across Virginia.” If the subpoena stands, Scott Daugherty – who has written at least 18 articles about the case and has led The Pilot’s coverage – will be excluded from the courtroom during the trial and prevented from speaking with colleagues about it.
The Virginian-Pilot
There are, in effect, two Potomac Yard controversies. The first is over the actual closure of the southern entrance to the Potomac Yard Metro station. It was announced in May that the Potomac Yard Metro Station, which was originally planned to have a northern entrance centered in commercial development and a southern entrance closer to the residential development, had exceeded its cost estimates and the project’s southern mezzanine would be eliminated. The second controversy was the silence by the city on the entrance’s elimination for nearly a year after it was first known. The outrage at this silence was compound by the revelation from a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request from private citizens that the silence had not been required by confidentiality agreements.
Alexandria Gazette Packet
The state Board of Social Services delayed a decision Wednesday on whether to remove members of Rockbridge County’s social services board. The state board discussed the investigation into the Rockbridge-area board behind closed doors for more than an hour at its regular meeting in Lynchburg. Following the closed session, board members pushed back any action until Aug. 15. Three state board members visited Lexington from May 31 to June 1 to conduct interviews with local residents Mark Reed and Susan Lawrence, who have repeatedly called for the resignation of the board and changes to the department. They also spoke with six members of the board of the Rockbridge Area Department of Social Services. Transcripts of those interviews were sent to state board members yesterday, Assistant Attorney General Ellen Malenke said.
The Roanoke Times
The Charlottesville Police Department is conducting a review of an employee after it received a recording of a phone call between her and a white nationalist charged with pepper-spraying anti-racist activists on Aug. 11. Published on his website as part of a commentary on the arrest of activists who were protesting the conviction of Corey Long earlier this month, Chris Cantwell played a recording of his brief conversation with a department employee. In a news release Wednesday, city officials announced that the police department is reviewing the recording, but they did not release the identity of the employee and declined to comment further, citing the review as a personnel matter.
The Daily Progress
An Abingdon teenager killed last week in a “hood surfing” accident was remembered Tuesday as an amazing kid who made people smile. The funeral for Cody Adkins, 15, who died June 13, was held Tuesday. The victim was not identified by the State Police. State law, changed last year, prohibits the release of a juvenile crime victim without written consent of the family. Discussion of the death and the young man’s name has been widespread on social media in recent days, and his identity was confirmed Tuesday by the Virginia Medical Examiner’s Office, which conducted an autopsy.
Bristol Herald Courier
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