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Going to church. Eating at a restaurant. Getting to work and back home each day. Visiting a friend across town, or family in another city. Buying groceries. Getting on or off the highway at a small town or at one of the area’s largest cities. If you’ve done any of these things on a regular basis in the past few years you’ve likely been driving; and if you live in Southwest or Southside Virginia, chances are you’ve been recorded on video thousands of times by dozens if not hundreds of law enforcement surveillance cameras. We pored over tech vendor contracts and other documents obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests, dug into the most recent statewide report available to double-check agency responses. More detail about our reporting can be found near the bottom of this story. We found that 81 of 100 agencies use some form of public-facing surveillance tech.

The agency overseeing Virginia’s horse racing industry didn’t have policies in place covering conflicts of interest, licensing standards, cash handling or facility inspections when it was audited last year. The audit, conducted by SC&H Group and released Feb. 12 by the Office of the State Inspector General, examined the Virginia Racing Commission’s structure, licensing practices and two years of financial records. Auditors found, among other issues, that VRC didn’t document ways to track where HHR machines were, leading to inconsistencies between records and physical counts. In roughly one-quarter of inspections, auditors could not verify that HHR machines had been approved.

Less than two weeks after the CEO of the University of Virginia Health System resigned, another letter of resignation began to circulate, this one claiming to be from the dean of the School of Medicine. That letter was a "hoax," according to Dr. Mitch Rosner, the interim head of the hospital since the resignation of UVa Health CEO Dr. Craig Kent last month. Dr. Melina Kibbe is still dean of the School of Medicine, Rosner said Monday. When The Daily Progress asked UVa Health spokesman Eric Swensen if the health system is investigating who sent the letter and why, UVa Health spokesman Eric Swensen said Rosner and interim UVa Provost Brie Gertler's joint statement is the "full statement on this."

The Library of Virginia announced last week that the Circuit Court Records Preservation Program has awarded more than $2 million in grants to localities across the commonwealth for 2025 for the preservation of records in Virginia’s courthouses. Administered by the Library’s Government Records Division, the CCRP provides resources to preserve and make accessible Virginia’s permanent circuit court records. Since 1992, the CCRP has awarded 2,282 preservation grants totaling over $38 million. Halifax County received $22,373 after requesting $26,863.

Martinsville City Council members and other city officials are discussing the possibility of eliminating some boards and commissions that don’t meet regularly or have unclear mandates. The discussion came during the council’s recent board retreat in Danville. The retreat kicks off the budgeting process for the upcoming fiscal year, which begins July 1. Talk of the Citizen Advisory Board and its purpose kicked off the discussion among councilors and staff, with some wondering if it would be best to just discontinue the body.

Prior to Tuesday night’s vote by the Warren County Board of Supervisors to not renew its funding agreement with Samuels Public Library, Supervisor Richard Jamieson laid out an argument for the county’s ownership of library property. However, in a Wednesday afternoon call, library staff and trustees pulled out receipts to show that Samuels — not Warren County — paid those bills. The ownership of furniture, fixtures, books and equipment at the county’s only library has become a hot topic in recent days.

A federal judge on Monday ruled that the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency’s must release records about its operation as it is likely covered under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), in a major win for watchdog groups calling for expanded transparency into DOGE’s operations which the judge said were being carried out with “unusual secrecy.”