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"The agency failed to provide an accurate summary of the public comments and concerns."
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The Virginia Department of Corrections is asking a federal judge to toss out a lawsuit filed by media organizations aimed at allowing official and media witnesses to view entire execution procedures. Last month, the Richmond Times-Dispatch and several other news organizations sued the Virginia Department of Corrections alleging the First Amendment guarantees the public a right of access to certain government proceedings, including the entirety of executions. In a motion filed Wednesday, the Virginia attorney general’s office asks U.S. District Judge Robert E. Payne to dismiss the complaint, arguing that there is no such right and because the policy in question was implemented in February 2017, the complaint is barred by a two-year statute of limitations.
Richmond Times-Dispatch
Washington County Sheriff Fred Newman claimed Thursday that the family of a man killed in a 2018 shooting had seen a police video of the event, but the family said that’s misleading because the video did not show the shooting. Phillip Cameron Gibson II, 37, died on May 8, 2018, following a pursuit that ended in an officer-involved shooting in Glade Spring. Since then, family members of Gibson’s, Michelle Castle and Paige Fultz, have sought to see body-camera or dash-camera footage of the event. Newman previously declined to release Sheriff’s Office video after the family filed Freedom of Information Act requests. Castle, who is represented by Attorney John Fishwick, filed a FOIA lawsuit on Oct. 1 in Washington County Circuit Court. Castle told the Bristol Herald Courier on Thursday that she, as well as her sister and aunt, viewed a short VSP video clip in June 2018.State Police has not shown the family the Sheriff’s Office video because officials said it was Sheriff’s Office property, according to FOIA responses to the family and the Bristol Herald Courier, which also requested the records.
Bristol Herald Courier
Strasburg Mayor Richard Orndorff Jr. turned himself in to authorities Thursday after he was accused of misusing town and state money. The Virginia State Police Bureau of Criminal Investigation’s Culpeper office charged Orndorff on Thursday with four counts of food-stamp fraud and two counts of obtaining money by false pretense, all misdemeanors, Public Information Officer Sgt. Brent Coffey states in a media release.
The Northern Virginia Daily
Richmond residents and some council members are raising concerns about more than $50 million in public housing revenue bonds that were fast-tracked without enough public input. At the October 14th meeting, Richmond City Council approved an expedited resolution to allocate up to $16 million in public housing revenue bonds to a private developer. This is the third time since September that Council bypassed regular procedure to quickly advance bond measures for the Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority. Fifth District City Councilmember Parker Agelasto expressed concern over RRHA’s lack of public notice and engagement. Agelasto criticized RRHA’s method of advertising its public hearings for being inaccessible to those most-affected. During last month’s meeting, two other expedited bond resolutions were approved. However, the agency failed to provide an accurate summary of the public comments and concerns — until last night’s meeting.
Virginia Public Media
Public money is often handed over in the form of grants. But, there’s a debate about how much of that process should be public information. To get grant money from the government for the Virginia Telecommunications Initiative, companies have to fill out grant applications. Sometimes those applications are challenged. That’s a paper trail that’s led to questions about how much of all those documents should be subject to the Freedom of Information Act.
WVTF
A member of the Portsmouth school board repeatedly asked the court earlier this year to reduce his child support obligations, according to court documents. Part of De’Andre Barnes’ reasoning: His position on the board prevents him from landing some good-paying jobs. “I never said I can’t get a job,” Barnes, 33, explained Friday in Portsmouth Juvenile Domestic Relations Court. “I said it precludes me from certain opportunities.”
The Virginian-Pilot
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"To argue [public libraries are] a relic of the past or a waste of public resources is just asinine."