Gov. Glenn Youngkin said Virginia’s Standards of Learning tests that students take each spring were 30%-40% harder this year, but his education department cannot provide any documentation that substantiates the claim. Youngkin cited the state’s assessment contractor, Pearson, in his assertion. In response to questions from the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Pearson would not confirm nor deny the governor’s claims. In response to a public records request from The Times-Dispatch, the Virginia Department of Education said Friday: “There are no records from Pearson saying the tests were 30-40% harder.” Tiara Booker-Dwyer said that Pearson did a percent difference calculation, and that is where the 30%-40% claim came from, but a Pearson representative shared it on a computer screen during a virtual meeting, and the department has no documentation of it.

With Danville City Councilman Lee Vogler expected to be hospitalized for the next six to eight months, what will become of his position on council? The seat will be his until it is left vacant. Council does not remove members for missing meetings, said City Attorney Clarke Whitfield. “Councilman Vogler is a city councilman until he is not,” Whitfield told the Register & Bee. “City Council members have no attendance requirements. Until the seat is vacant, there is no replacement process.”

During a public hearing before the King George Planning Commission last week, representatives from Caledon Solar LLC cited a July 26, 2024, letter from the state secretary for natural and historic resources as evidence that solar energy development is permitted on Cedar Grove Farm. That letter was in response to a July 8, 2024, letter from Richard Stuart to Matthew Wells, director of the Department of Conservation and Recreation, which representatives did not cite. In the letter, which the Advance received through a request under the Freedom of Information Act, Stuart—the property owner as well as the county attorney and a state senator representing District 25, which includes King George—informed Wells of his intent to proceed with the project, despite DCR’s contention that such development would be inconsistent with a conservation easement on the property. “Please consider this my formal communication to you of my intent to proceed,” Stuart wrote in the letter. “I also must advise you that if you take any action to impede my right to proceed, it will be met with swift legal action.”

Bill Riddick made the right choice to resign as Smithfield town attorney after four decades of service. As he noted in his resignation letter, there was no viable path forward with a Town Council that is duty-bound to get to the bottom of how Riddick was paid well in excess of his contractual rate for the past seven years. Riddick will be remembered fondly by many for his role in what he describes as the “golden age” of Smithfield. We thank him for his service and wish him well in future endeavors. His departure simplifies the way forward for a Town Council that not only owes taxpayers accountability and transparency on the Riddick billing debacle but must heed the mandate voters have sent in two consecutive elections: Radically reform town governance to be more accountable to the citizens it serves. Despite a lot of lip service about being transparent with citizens, the Town Council has been decidedly secretive since the Times first reported the results of its investigation into Riddick’s billing. That includes two long closed sessions preceding votes, with no public discussion, to hire an outside lawyer to review the matter and to renew Riddick’s contract. The Town Council must release full transcripts of the closed sessions instead of revealing just the parts that feed a narrative designed, incredibly, to paint Riddick as the least culpable person in this sad saga, which never would have occurred had he simply followed the rule of law.

Last year, Nate Sanford filed a “silly story” for Spokane’s alt-weekly Inlander about a state senator getting into a Twitter argument with an AI porn spambot. The bot was eventually suspended after Spokane’s mayor reported the account. But a city employee mentioned to Sanford, now a reporter at KNKX and Cascade PBS, that they’d been testing AI tools at work. That offhand comment sparked Sanford’s curiosity about how local governments were actually using generative artificial intelligence and led to a series of investigations that revealed how chatbots are quietly embedding into the machinery of local government. Sanford used extensive public records of ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot logs from city employees to show, among other things, the city of Bellingham’s draft AI policy was written with the help of ChatGPT.