During its Sept. 9 meeting, a divided Purcellville Town Council adopted new rules surrounding its meeting policies, including removing the three-minute allotment given to public speakers and limiting the discussion time of council members on agenda items. But this week’s Town Council meeting agenda includes even stricter guidelines for public speakers. “Comments targeting or criticizing individual Town employees, Council Members, or private citizens are not appropriate for this forum,” according to new guidelines listed in the agenda packet. The guidance also prohibits profanity, vulgarity, personal attacks, or threatening language and limits each speaker’s time to two and a half minutes and warns that disorderly conduct would results in a warning and, if necessary, removal from the meeting. That language was added to the agenda by Mayor Christopher Bertaut who said it “parallels a similar statement placed in Loudoun Board of Supervisors meeting agendas and is based on both Town’s Public Meeting Conduct Policy and Town Council Policies and Procedures.” But neither the School Board nor the Board of Supervisors put restrictions on criticizing members of the elected body. County Chair Phyllis J. Randall (D-At Large) told Loudoun Now that public criticism is something that elected officials sign up for, even when it is uncomfortable.

The state senator and Charlottesville Democrat is continuing his campaign for answers surrounding the resignation of University of Virginia President Jim Ryan under pressure from the Trump administration Department of Justice over his handling of diversity policies at the school. After a long list of questions Deeds submitted to the university rector and vice rector went unanswered, Deeds submitted a public records request to the university last Thursday for all communications, meeting records, legal counsel records, DOJ investigation materials, financial records and governance and transparency records related to Ryan’s departure. The university has repeatedly said it cannot answer Deeds’ questions due to ongoing DOJ investigations, but interim UVa President Paul Mahoney at a board meeting last week said at least two of those investigations have now been closed.

A high-stakes divorce involving the son of one of the wealthiest men in Virginia and a social media-savvy child psychologist has drawn international attention and was recently sealed by an Albemarle County judge, leaving many of the details shielded from public view. On Aug. 18, Judge Cheryl Higgins ordered the entire file sealed, including pleadings in which Cara Goodwin accused her husband of abandoning her and their children on Christmas Day 2023 to pursue a relationship with a University of Virginia student and the family’s former nanny. Other filings reportedly include Peter Goodwin’s acknowledgment of the affair.

ICE and CBP have become centerpieces of President Donald Trump’s quest to deport millions of undocumented immigrants from US soil through aggressive law enforcement tactics and billions of dollars in new federal funding. But CJR spoke to nearly two dozen reporters, editors, and other people at news organizations and open-records watchdog groups across the country who have filed FOIA requests with the agencies, and who say that ICE and CBP officials routinely deny or ignore those requests. The agencies have never been particularly open with the press, but many reporters believe that their experience is part of an enhanced effort by the Trump administration to conceal immigration agency operations, even in possible violation of federal law. Some also described the agencies’ press offices as functionally useless, with media officials providing few, if any, answers to even their most basic of inquiries.