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He admitted to murdering three fellow students, but Christopher Darnell Jones Jr. still has privacy rights. The University of Virginia contends that such rights trump the expressed desire of the families that Jones devastated — families who still don't know why their sons died and hope the lessons learned from their deaths could keep other students safe in the future. The university now finds itself defending why the most important pages in a review of the shooting, which cost Virginia taxpayers $1.5 million, have been redacted. "Those portions of the reports cannot be disclosed under FERPA without student consent," UVa spokeswoman Bethanie Glover told The Daily Progress in an email. Megan Rhyne, director of the Virginia Coalition for Open Government, contends that UVa is taking an overly expansive view of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, a federal law better known as FERPA. "FERPA doesn't mean that you can't mention somebody," said Rhyne. "There's this tendency to think it shields anything and everything about a student."

Texts and emails exchanged between senior officials with the Virginia Department of Health during the water crisis contradict the timeline laid out in a city-commissioned report detailing how city officials responded to the catastrophic failure of Richmond’s water treatment plant. The messages show officials in VDH's Office of Drinking Water were not aware of the severity of the situation until around 3 p.m. on Jan. 6, despite the city's claim that a VDH representative was on site at the plant by 12:30 p.m. that day. The messages were obtained by the Richmond Times-Dispatch through a Freedom of Information Act request. Hundreds of the responsive documents were partially or fully redacted under the working papers exemption to Virginia's FOIA.

The Prince William County Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office has been ordered to pay a $22,250 sanction for violating Virginia’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The FOIA law is intended to promote government transparency and public awareness of government activities. Valeria Juarez, a citizen of Fairfax County, filed a lawsuit in 2023 after a series of FOIA requests either failed to include all requested documents or contained so many redactions that they were unreadable. Juarez contended that the Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office initially failed to provide 172 requested emails, and when they were eventually produced, they were so heavily redacted that they contained no meaningful information.

Purcellville Police Officer Carl “Ben” Nett, who also serves as the town’s vice mayor, has been pulled from active duty and is subject to an internal affairs investigation being conducted by the Prince William Police Department. The action comes at a time when the Purcellville department is facing staff shortages in the wake of a series of retirements and resignations. Since Nett announced his candidacy for the Town Council last year, town residents have questioned the ethics of a council member while he also works as a town employee. Critics noted that as a council member, Nett would have oversight of his boss, the town police chief. The council also made a last-minute change to the agenda to convene a closed session to discuss personnel matters relating to Zoning Administrator Summer Wilkes. After the closed session Kevin Wright, Erin Rayner and Stought declined to certify that the information discussed during the closed meeting met the requirements protected by Virginia Freedom of Information Act. Council members Rayner and Stought told Loudoun Now that they were concerned that information reviewed by the council that did not meet legal or personnel requirements for a closed meeting.

A few minutes after describing Lynchburg’s LGBTQ community as an “abomination before God” during the public comment period at Tuesday’s city council meeting, a resident representing a group called City Elders accused a city councilman of intimidating him. As Greg Berry continued his remarks on another topic, someone in the audience began to cough loudly in protest of Berry’s previous comments about the LGBTQ community. Mayor Larry Taylor instructed she stop coughing loudly, or be removed from Council Chambers. As Berry finished his remarks, Ward IV Councilman Chris Faraldi left his seat on the dais and walked around the perimeter of Council Chambers to the back of the room. He then walked into the audience where he gave the person who protested Berry’s comments a hug in support of her and in opposition to what Berry said. On his way back to the dais, Faraldi walked by Berry and told him, “That was uncalled for,” in response to Berry’s comments about the LGBTQ community.