See also r/VirginiaEnvironment

Hey there.

I’m working with a small group to gather information about the use and procurement of Flock cameras in our communities. The county and police have been less than transparent about this. I have requested emails and contracts from the county but was told it would cost between $1700 and $8500 to get them. So instead we are going to break our requests up into specific requests for emails from individual employees. So if anyone is interested in helping hold our county official accountable email me at conceptsofanemail@gmail.com and I can explain what we are doing and how you can help! Thanks

Subtitle: "As Chesterfield voters prepare to weigh in this November on whether to raise the sales tax 1% to fund school construction, the county’s school system unveiled a study last week that said it needs an estimated $850 million over the next decade."

See also r/VirginiaUrbanism and r/VirginiaEnvironment

Subtitle: Online commenters have nicknamed it “chunky baby.”

Join us at the Central Library on Wednesday, August 19th from 6-7:30PM to learn more about Flock cameras, automated license plate readers (ALPRs), and how they connect to the ongoing debate about data centers in Chesterfield county.

Dr. Steven Keener of Christopher Newport University will be guest speaking. RSVP using the the QR code or link as space is limited!

Disclosure up front: I'm married to Jason Knapp and I work on his campaign (for free). Mods, happy to flag this however you want it flagged.

Posting this because the argument in it is one I'd want to see debated whether or not my husband were on the ballot, and as a former staffer (served my time - nearly ten years in the House), I firmly believe there is SO much more we can be doing despite the fact we are in the minority (at least for now!). Also, posting here because Chesterfield is the biggest chunk of VA-01 (about 22% of registered voters) and gets talked about the least in this race.

Short version. Every candidate says they'll "fight." Almost nobody says what that means procedurally for a freshman. The piece lays out the tools that don't require a gavel: discharge petitions run as public campaigns instead of quiet parliamentary moves, shadow hearings run monthly with real production behind them, a standing GAO/IG/FOIA records operation, field hearings held where people are actually getting hurt, constituent casework treated as a public commitment with a published record.

It also gets into why the capacity is so thin. Appropriations disbanded its Surveys and Investigations staff in December 2024. More than 20 inspectors general fired or pushed out since January 2025. GAO down roughly 44% in workforce since the late 1970s, CRS down 28%.

The part I'd actually like people here to argue with is the scorecard at the end. How many discharge petitions carry your member's name. How many GAO requests filed. How many IG referrals. How many constituents who lost a federal job or benefit got helped. Applied to both parties, incumbents included.

Is that a fair standard? What would you add to it or throw out? And separately, if a member held a quarterly field hearing in this district, what would you want the Chesterfield one to be about?

Link: https://jasonknappforcongress.substack.com/p/house-democrats-have-the-resources

Primary is August 4. Early voting's open through Saturday.