• Sunshine Week Reception: Check out our photos from the Sunshine Reception, March 11, at the Virginia General Assembly Building. Thanks to VCOG, the Va. FOIA Council, the Va. Press Association and the Va. Association of Broadcasters for their co-sponsorship of the event.
  (March 11, 2010)
• Sure, here's your FOIA data, but...: When Harrisonburg-area citizen David Briggman asked his local school board for employee salary data, the school handed it over, as required by law. Then, they sent a letter to all school district employees to let them know. Legal? Absolutely. Good policy? Absolutely not. (March 4, 2010)
• FOIA in the courts: Friday in Warren County, a judge ruled that the Department of Social Services there did violate FOIA, but that the violations were "technical" and "minimal." The judge did award some attorneys' fees to the plaintiff. And earlier this week, a Prince William judge again rescheduled the hearing date on a FOIA case involving the county school system's visitor identification software. Read the judge's letter ruling in the Warren County case, and read the defendant's response brief in the Prince William case. And here's an editorial related to the Prince William case. (February 25, 2010)

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• Selover v. Warren Department of Social Services: (February 25, 2010)
• FOI Advisory Council Opinion AO-01-10: Records that have been entered into evidence and made part of the public record at a public hearing may not subsequently be withheld from disclosure as exempt records of a criminal investigation or prosecution. (February 1, 2010)
• FOI Advisory Council Opinion AO-13-09: A motion to convene a closed meeting must identify the subject of the meeting, state its purpose, and provide a reference to an applicable exemption. Quoting or paraphrasing a statutory exemption states the purpose of the meeting, but does not identify the subject. FOIA places the duty to identify the subject of a closed meeting upon the public body holding the meeting, not its attorney. (December 17, 2009)

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• Federal suit challenges Va. FOIA residency rule: A former Virginia citizen challenged the exclusionary nature of Virginia’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) in Richmond’s federal court January 19. Virginia’s statute denies FOIA rights to anyone not a citizen of Virginia. Mark McBurney twice sought FOIA documents after Virginia’s Department of Child Support Enforcement (DCSE) admitted mishandling his child support case. DCSE denied both requests, ostensibly because he was no longer a Virginia citizen. A similar federal court challenge against the exclusionary aspect of Delaware’s FOIA succeeded in 2006. (February 3, 2009)
• Concealed gun permit database debate: The General Assembly needs to strike a delicate balance in dealing with whether a list of concealed-carry holders should be public (April 10, 2007)
• David Poole: VPAP provides transparency for "anything goes" fund-raising (March 11, 2007)

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