Richmond Public Schools Superintendent Jason Kamras initially accepted the resignation of former Director of Facilities Bobby Hathaway, but was later overruled by the Richmond School Board, according to emails released to The Richmonder under the state’s Freedom of Information Act. The emails also show that the School Board did not receive the first internal investigation into Hathaway until two weeks after the report was completed. … When asked about Kamras’ delay in presenting the report, RPS Communications Director Alyssa Schwenk said that the Board received the report at the May meeting for discussion, which was the next scheduled meeting after the report was filed.

A former school resource officer who was accused of sexually harassing a Loudoun County Public Schools School security officer was decertified as a police officer by the state upon recommendation by the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office. The SRO, Deputy First Class Sodiq Apena, was assigned to Willard Middle School. … Records obtained by Loudoun Now through the Freedom of Information Act show that Apena had been a deputy for around eight years, most of which was spent in corrections and administrative positions. He was then made an SRO despite an LCSO practice to only assigned deputies with at least three years of patrol experience to the in-school duties. In late June, LCSO media relations director Tom Julia said that Apena had “left the LCSO on June 18, 2026, to pursue other employment” after “a comprehensive criminal investigation” concluded that “no criminal violation occurred.” However, a recent FOIA request shows that Apena’s law enforcement certification was revoked by the Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services on June 24, days before LCSO told Loudoun Now that he had been cleared.

Susan Khalil resigned from her seat on the Purcellville Town Council effective Aug. 5. Khalil was elected in November 2024 and her term expires in 2028. … Khalil was part of a majority on council known as “Team Mayberry” that includes Mayor Chris Bertaut, Vice Mayor Carl “Ben” Nett and council member Carol Luke. They were the subject of a recall effort led by town residents in 2025. … In an Aug. 7 statement, Khalil said it was a “painful decision” to resign. She accused “members of the Council minority” of “bullying, threatening and unconscionable” behavior behind closed doors. She said “relentless personal hostility” from those opposed to the council majority’s policy positions affected her family.

Two years ago, then-Washington Post reporter Lisa Rein and I kept hearing from sources that the venerable GI Bill program was marred by fraud. The sources said for-profit trade schools were generating a lot of complaints among veterans and that the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) wasn’t doing much about the problem. Indeed, VA officials declined our requests to interview them about the issue. To investigate, The Post filed public records requests with VA and its Office of the Inspector General, seeking a complaint database and other data about the GI Bill program, as well as law-enforcement files from fraud investigations into 20 schools. The government denied our requests, citing privacy concerns. We filed appeals under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), but VA and its inspector general’s office rejected those, too. Finally, The Post sued in federal court, arguing that the public interest in whether the GI Bill program was being administered properly overrode the privacy rights of fraudsters and cheaters. The legal process was slow, but over many months, the government released some of the databases and more than 8,000 pages of documents from 20 fraud investigations that resulted in criminal convictions or civil fines.