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All Access
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Crewe resident Greg Marston says he’s planning a civil lawsuit and that he also plans to discuss leaks from the Town’s garbage truck with Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones. Marston expressed disbelief Monday in an email to Crewe officials after he was informed that there are no records at Town Hall pertaining to his complaint about the garbage truck. “Oh good grief, Charlie Brown,” Marston wrote in a reply to Town Manager Phil Miskovic. “I see you have been talking with your friends at the courthouse AGAIN. It’s no coincidence I got the same response from the County.” Marston recently filed a Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA) request seeking “copies of any and all documents referencing the ongoing legal battle between The Town of Crewe, Nottoway General District Court vs. Greg Marston.” Marston also issued a FOIA request seeking “ANY and ALL repair bills on the truck(s) that serve Melody Lane from 1.1.26 through the present. Not just the truck itself. This includes the trash collecting system.” After receiving Manager Miskovic’s response that there are no records responsive to Marston’s request, Marston wrote, “Do you really think anyone going to believe that there’s been no money spent on the trash truck, but it’s fixed but you don’t have a record of the repairs? You are a funny little man!”
Local
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Local
The Western Virginia Industrial Facility Authority confirmed on Tuesday morning that the purchase agreement with Clearview Dynamics for land in Roanoke County is for a potential data center. The authority entered into a purchase agreement with the company a couple of weeks ago for 94 acres of land at Wood Haven Technology Park. … A press release said Gov. Abigail Spanberger’s Exec. Order 22, which banned nondisclosure agreements related to data center projects for state officials and creates community engagement standards, “prompted confirmation now rather than later in the process.” When asked if the authority’s board signed nondisclosure agreements, Executive Director John Hull said that information would need to be requested via the Freedom of Information Act. … The authority’s action to enter into a purchase agreement prompted outcry from some Roanoke city leaders and members of the public, with data center opponents speaking out at the authority’s meeting on Sept. 11. During that meeting, the authority’s board voted unanimously to enter into a purchase agreement but shared no other details. Roanoke Vice Mayor Terry McGuire and community members asked for more information from the board and were told to file Freedom of Information Act requests.
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Opinion
I have more details on this morning’s First Circuit decision (written by Judge O. Rogeriee Thompson) in Doe v. Smith in this post, which deals with the court’s rejection of the winner’s attempt to sue pseudonymously; but the short version of the facts is: Doe won 1.35 billion (yes, billion with a “b”) dollars in the Maine State Lottery. And then he made “Sara Smith,” the mother of his child, sign a non-disclosure agreement (“NDA”) swearing her to secrecy about the win and his identity. But Smith may have spilled about Doe’s lotto win anyway, thus violating the NDA, so Doe brought Smith to federal court (whose jurisdiction arose via the diversity of the parties) seeking an injunction and damages. Doe sought a closed trial, to protect his anonymity, but the court said no: For starters, “historically both civil and criminal trials have been presumptively open.” The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure reflect that common-law history of transparency. Consider Rule 77(b): “Every trial on the merits must be conducted in open court and, so far as convenient, in a regular courtroom.” Or consider Rule 43(a): “At trial, the witnesses’ testimony must be taken in open court,” unless another authority requires otherwise. And while courts applying those rules have sometimes recognized that such openness requirements might “be overcome in proper circumstances,” everyone agrees that an open trial is the baseline….
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