Greene County leaders now say staff are free to talk to the press after multiple county employees said they were previously gagged under county “policy.” Those leaders, who have denied there ever was such a policy, were prompted to speak after First Amendment lawyers and advocates sent a letter to the county supervisors last month demanding they rescind the policy. “It remains a mystery how Greene County employees came to believe they were strictly prohibited from speaking to the press if no such thing was ever communicated to them,” Seth Stern, director of advocacy for the New York-based Freedom of the Press Foundation and one of the letter’s signatories, told The Daily Progress in an email. “There is no policy and there has never been a policy prohibiting staff members from speaking to the press,” Steve Catalano, chairman of the Board of Supervisors, wrote in an email to Stern. 

Hanover County Public Schools has removed twice as many books from its school libraries as any other school division in the state and accounts for more than one-third of removed books over the past five years, according to a new report from the state legislature’s watchdog commission. The Monday report from the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission shows that the Hanover school division has removed 125 book titles from its school libraries between July 2020 and March 2025.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott doesn’t want to reveal months of communications with Elon Musk or representatives from the tech mogul’s companies, arguing in part that they are of a private nature, not of public interest and potentially embarrassing. Musk had an eventful legislative session in Texas this year. In addition to his lobbyists successfully advocating for several new laws, Abbott cited the Tesla and SpaceX CEO as the inspiration for the state creating its own efficiency office and has praised him for moving the headquarters for many of his businesses to the state in recent years. As part of an effort to track the billionaire’s influence in the state Capitol, The Texas Newsroom in April requested Abbott and his staff’s emails since last fall with Musk and other people who have an email address associated with some of his companies. Initially, the governor’s office said it would take more than 13 hours to review the records. It provided a cost estimate of $244.64 for the work and required full payment up front. The Texas Newsroom agreed and cut a check. After the check was cashed, the governor’s office told The Texas Newsroom it believed all of the records were confidential and asked Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, whose office referees disputes over public records, to allow the documents to be kept private.