Access Conferences

PRESS RELEASE - for immediate release

Open government group announces 2014 award winners

A Fairfax mom and the state’s library will be honored Nov. 14

(exact times and panelists are subject to change)

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10:00 - 10:15

Welcome from VCOG’s president Craig Fifer and Williamsburg City Manager Jack Tuttle

10:15 - 11:25

PANEL 1: Lax: Are Virginia’s laws as bad as they say?

Sarah Bryner, Center for Responsive Politics
Vivian Paige, Political observer
Gordon Witkin, Center for Public Integrity

Virginia Coalition for Open Government
Board of Directors
November 30, 2012

Craddock-Terry Hotel & Event Center
Lynchburg, VA

The meeting was called to order at 8:00 a.m., by Dorothy Abernathy, President.

By Brenda Acevedo

RICHMOND, Va. – Thanks to the Internet, citizens have greater access to government records and other public information, representatives of government agencies said Friday at a panel discussion at the state Capitol.

"The whole idea is that you should be able to go online and not have to ask," said Emily Siebert, a marketing and public relations specialist for the Virginia Information Technology Agency, which oversees the state government's computer operations.

By Talisha Williams

RICHMOND, Va. – Colleges and universities sometimes deny student journalists access to information that by law should be open to the public, a campus newspaper editor told the Virginia Coalition for Open Government on Friday.

Katie Thisdell, editor-in-chief of The Breeze at James Madison University, said officials at the Harrisonburg school treat the twice-weekly student newspaper differently from "real news organizations," such as the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

VCOG hosted David Cuillier's Virginia stop as part of his Access Across America tour. Below are videos of the 2-plus-hour presentation, and this link is to the useful handouts that were given to all participants.
 

Access 2009 panel examines judicial selection in Virginia

Richmond trial attorney Coleman Allen told a VCOG audience that he's practiced in both Virginia and West Virginia. He's seen good and bad judges in each state, and has concluded that both states' judicial selection processes (West Virginia elects; Virginia appoints) have merits and drawbacks.

by Megan Rhyne

Though the Freedom of Information Act takes up pages and pages and pages in the Virginia Code, the speakers on a panel at VCOG's fall conference agreed that the act is as much about relationships as it is about procedure.