TRANSPARENCY
Hopewell’s ‘five-alarm fire’ financial situation and more Va. headlines
• Virginia Secretary of Finance Stephen Cummings said Hopewell’s financial situation is “a five-alarm fire” that “cannot continue.” A consulting firm told the city, which has lost its credit rating and is unable to issue bonds, that it’s unlikely to get a clean audit this year.—Richmond Times-Dispatch • The Republican-dominated Lynchburg Electoral Board has ousted its registrar […]
FOIA Friday: What Virginia officials withheld or disclosed, May 26–June 2, 2023
One of the less noticed features of the Virginia Way is the long-running tendency of the commonwealth’s leaders to conduct their decision-making behind closed doors. While the Virginia Freedom of Information Act presumes all government business is by default public and requires officials to justify why exceptions should be made, too many Virginia leaders in […]
FOIA Friday: What Virginia officials withheld or disclosed, May 19-26, 2023
One of the less noticed features of the Virginia Way is the long-running tendency of the commonwealth’s leaders to conduct their decision-making behind closed doors. While the Virginia Freedom of Information Act presumes all government business is by default public and requires officials to justify why exceptions should be made, too many Virginia leaders in […]
FOIA Friday: What Virginia officials withheld or disclosed, May 12-19, 2023
One of the less noticed features of the Virginia Way is the long-running tendency of the commonwealth’s leaders to conduct their decision-making behind closed doors. While the Virginia Freedom of Information Act presumes all government business is by default public and requires officials to justify why exceptions should be made, too many Virginia leaders in […]
In FOIA case, Va. Supreme Court draws ‘bright line’ upholding open meetings
In a split opinion on transparency laws, the Supreme Court of Virginia on Thursday upheld a more expansive definition of what counts as a public meeting of government officials. The case, which centered on an impromptu meeting that took place in Prince William County to discuss local unrest in May 2020 after the police killing […]
FOIA Friday: What Virginia officials withheld or disclosed, May 5–11, 2023
One of the less noticed features of the Virginia Way is the long-running tendency of the commonwealth’s leaders to conduct their decision-making behind closed doors. While the Virginia Freedom of Information Act presumes all government business is by default public and requires officials to justify why exceptions should be made, too many Virginia leaders in […]
Some Virginia newspapers powered political disenfranchisement, brutalization of Black people
When 10-year-old Alice Powell was mysteriously killed in 1885, the Norfolk Virginian and the Richmond Dispatch put together a timeline of her murder, which they blamed on Noah Cherry, a Black man who was lynched soon after the newspapers published the story. But the timelines didn’t agree with each other, or with the county’s death […]
New information in 138-year-old Virginia Beach lynching shatters state’s genteel veneer
According to a news story, Medora Alice Powell was singing a Christian hymn, “The Sweet By-and-By,” as the 10-year-old girl left for school early in the morning on Friday the 13th of November in 1885. She took a solitary path through a portion of the rural area then known as Princess Anne County where Holland […]
There’s more to Senator Warner’s local press resolution than a commendation
My eye was drawn to a short story in the Virginia Mercury last week about the commonwealth’s senior U.S. senator, Mark Warner, supporting a resolution that endorses the need for robust, independent local news organizations. The 338-word piece by Meghan McIntyre was rich with alarming statistics about brutal declines local news organizations have suffered from […]
In FOIA ruling, Va. Supreme Court upholds public’s right to be in meeting rooms
Government bodies in Virginia cannot ask the public to sit in a separate room and observe their meetings through a video feed only, according to the Supreme Court of Virginia. In a unanimous opinion released Thursday, the high court concluded the Suffolk City School Board violated the Virginia Freedom of Information Act in the summer […]
Warner backs resolution declaring local news essential to democracy
Amid dire shortages of local news outlets nationwide, U.S. Sen. Mark Warner, D-Virginia, is backing a resolution recognizing the industry “serves an essential function in the democracy of the United States.” “In Virginia and across the country, local news outlets are relied on to keep our citizens informed, combat disinformation, and serve as a crucial […]
Leaving Virginia. Again.
On a sticky Sunday afternoon in August 1997, my dad and I parked along Jamestown Road in Williamsburg and got out for a brief, self-guided tour of William and Mary’s old campus. A dreamy, humid haze hung over the deserted place, with the Sunken Gardens and sylvan brick paths lush and late-summer green. I said […]