Muh Freeze Peach

While this is certainly interesting, I am not being denied the ability to request records solely on my out-of-state requester status. Specifically, I am being denied the ability to make requests because I am not fulfilling requirements that don't appear in the Virginia Freedom of Information Act and that I have no obligation to fulfill regardless of the city of Charlottesville's erroneous belief that I do. It really makes you wonder about motivation for this move. Was it something I said? FOIA Request submitted the same day I received a denial of future ability to submit FOIA requests. It's not yet clear what the motivation was for making this burdensome request of me. FOIA experts in the state of Virginia tell me that they've never heard of anything like this before. I've reached out to the Public Information Officer's for the city of Charlottesville for comment and will update this post with any new information.  ...

Totally free and legal to speculate. What I find interesting is that they always hit you on residency, but never seem to address the other half of the section of code referencing representatives of news media organizations.  So weird. It's almost like it's by design or something. Anyway. Both of these guys have media backgrounds. Just some food for thought. 

On March 15, 2019, Brian Wheeler, the FOIA Officer for the city of Charlottesville emailed me to inform me that I am required to produce either a second class mailing permit, or an audit of circulation from an independent auditor before the city might follow-up with even more additional inquiries in order to determine if my online news magazine qualifies as having circulation in the state of Virginia. Circulation literally means "the public availability or knowledge of something". If you happen to be in the state of Virginia and are reading these very words you have just confirmed the circulation of my content in the state of Virginia. The verification process detailed by Wheeler can not be found in the Virginia Freedom of Information Act . I also checked the "FOIA Bible" that Mr. Wheeler shared with incoming Charlottesville Police Department Public Information Officer Tyler Hawn and it makes no mention of these absurd "requireme...

Fingers crossed. With any luck, an advisory opinion might be issued in around 14 days here . Note: An advisory opinion is non-binding and un-enforceable, but would bolster my case.

On March 6, 2019, I submitted a FOIA request to the city of Charlottesville for email communication between Washington Post reporter Ian Shapira and Charlottesville Police Department Officer Declan Hickey. I also requested any emails between Shapira and Charlottesville Police Department Public Information Officer Tyler Hawn. The idea for the request stemmed from Shapira's recent article for the Post related to the Charlottesville Police Department's renewed search for two attackers of Deandre Harris on August 12, 2017. In the article, Shapira mentions an interview of Officer Hickey. I wanted to see if any additional details related to this story could be gleaned from emails between Shapira and city officials and law enforcement. The response to my request was somewhat unexpected, but not surprising. On March 13, 2019, Public Information Officer Tyler Hawn responded to my request by releasing a single email. Surprisingly, Hawn stated that app...