The Shadow
Welcome back once again Shadowers! “Information, information, and more information! has been dumped on the Shadow like a Category 5 hurricane. From both the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, and the Shadow’s “tip line” completely blowing up with all sorts of news and tips from dozens of shadowers, the boat is swamped with glorious info! If you’re one of the 50+ folks who’ve sent something in over the past two weeks, I profusely apologize for the delay, we’re working through almost 2 weeks of backlog and it’s still flooding in with no end in sight.
Before we dive in, I want to say thank you to all the supporters, readers, and critics of the Shadow. We’ve quickly grown to almost 4,000 members in a few short months and growing by 100’s daily now with new shadowers. Welcome! The discourse and debates have been rousing, revealing, and at times, eye-popping.
The other item I wanted to let you know about is we’re going to make a small change in the way the weekly columns are presented. Why? To more clearly present fact. It seems that instead of our public officials spending time on fixing the many fact-proven issues the Shadow is bringing to light, they have decided a better use of their time is to descend into the “hey look over there, nothing to see here” obfuscation tactics and weaponized use of retaliation, intimidation, rumor-mongering, and fabricating false information that clearly contradicts the very documents they themselves have provided.
How can you call a “fact” a lie when the “fact” came directly from yourself?
This retaliatory behavior isn’t just isolated to the Shadow. It is expanding to anyone who questions an official’s authority and their apparent disregard for the law. One citizen was blatantly attacked directly during a City Council meeting, causing a public uproar with other citizens for the Mayor’s unprofessional and unethical response.
And it seems that the more facts come to light, the deeper the Mayor and Vice Mayor descend into the depths of muck and mire, to the point that last week the Virginian Review had to issue a formal Cease and Desist Letter to the Vice Mayor to stop his blatantly apparent disparagement and defamation of the Virginian Review, its owners and employees.
How low will they go on the ladder of unprofessional and unethical behavior, and what will it take for them to finally stop? The amount of wasted energy and breath from these officials could have cleaned up every issue and more by now.
The whole point these guys are completely missing is so simple: just operate within the law that everyone must follow and The Shadow will disappear!
I also want to mention that the City is now charging the Virginian Review an average of $200 per FOIA request. Currently, they have a bill of over $800. I find this extremely unsettling as since the Virginian Review is a news agency, requesting information that is of major public interest and not for a commercial transaction, fees for news agencies are commonly waived. It seems this is just another form of retaliation to keep making it difficult for the public to know and understand our City’s operations and actions.
By now you have probably figured out that while I’m tough on accountability, I ferociously defend all journalistic endeavors and agencies. Yes, there are natural competitive tet-a-tets between us, but The Recorder and the Alleghany Journal are critical for the public to know what’s going on in their communities and I would never wish any negative financial impact on them.
And, I’m usually not the type to put my hat out and ask for assistance, but if you find the Shadow’s articles and research valuable, I sure would appreciate it if you’d consider subscribing to the Virginian Review. That would surely help to keep my computer whirring, my coffee machine delivering, and of course local community news on your doorstep or on your phone every day. To do so would be a strong vote for the First Amendment’s Freedom of the Press.
Secondly, we seem to be diving into several very large, very complex issues facing the Alleghany Highlands. In order to go deeply into the weeds of fact required for many of the City’s major issues, The Shadow’s weekly columns just don’t have enough space to do them justice. In this light, the Shadow weekly columns will now provide a summary of what’s happening around our community, with pertinent links to full-length stories and facts so you can make up your own mind.
So in the space that we have left, here’s a very brief roundup of what’s happening.
First up is Part Two of the Covington Building Department Crisis article from last week. Official city records obtained through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request revealed that the City of Covington is allegedly not only illegally operating an uncertified building department, but has also apparently allowed the 410 on Main Corporation to host at least 10 or more unpermitted public and private events in their building, even though the building is still considered under construction and operating without required building approvals. You can read the full story in the Virginian Review here: https://virginianreview.com/264570/
In City Council news, Mayor Tom Sibold attacked Dewey Perkins during the public hearing to discuss the issues between Brandon Wright and Dewey. Things just aren’t adding up here, and it seemed the City had already ruled in favor of Wright before the public hearing was held. Speculation on the reasons for this ruling in favor of Wright is several-fold. Some sources say Wright might be trying to oust Dewey from his property in order to bring in a Toyota Dealership. Others say there’s an artisan water source that the city wants. Still, others think the City is trying to create extra parking for the school and sporting events next door. There’s an active discussion on this on the Shadow Facebook page if you’d like to weigh in.
Other snippets the Shadow is actively researching are the reports that the building housing the local Department of Social Services (LDSS) has been condemned by the Fire Marshall and that the building is a fire trap. Multiple sources have apparently stated that one fire escape plan includes jumping out of the second-story window and aiming for the roof of a car. When questioned about why doesn’t the LDSS just provide inexpensive ladders for everyone, the requests were denied. It seems the director has been trying to get a new building for the department, but so far, it seems there’s been little to no action on the part of Chairman David Crosier to address this situation, along with other alleged low-performance issues now being brought to light. More on this when we receive the information back from our FOIA request.
I’m out of time, and out of coffee, but never out of time and energy to do what all investigative journalists do best; observe and report.
