With politicians — most notably our current President — using social media to communicate directly to the world, the question is now being asked whether a lawmaker is violating the First Amendment when they actively block people from following them online. One federal court has chimed in, finding that a politician in Virginia crossed the line when she temporarily banned a constituent from commenting on her Facebook page. [More]
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Investigation Shows Chipotle Norovirus Outbreak Probably Caused By Sick Employee
By 7.26.17 — Updated: 7.30.17
After its food safety crisis in 2015 and 2016, Chipotle implemented new procedures, including everything from blanching produce to shutting down and sanitizing a restaurant if anyone, employee or customer, vomits inside. The problem, it turns out, is that it doesn’t matter how good your protocols are if stores don’t actually follow them. [More]
Grandfather Of Waitress Confronts Customer Who “Only Tips Citizens”
By 8.22.16
A Virginia restaurant customer not only refused to tip her waitress after a recent meal, but left a note on the receipt that implied the server was not a citizen and therefore somehow not deserving of a living wage. When the waitress’s grandfather heard about it, he called the customer out online and confronted her in person when she complained to the restaurant after the picture of the receipt went public. [More]
Tyson Fires Employees Linked To Graphic Video Of Abused Chickens
By 8.11.16
Tyson Foods, the largest chicken-processing company in the U.S., fired 10 employees after an animal rights group secretly taped workers at four Virginia processing plants mistreating and abusing chickens. [More]
Comcast Incorrectly Insists Customer Still Owes $400; Her Credit Score Drops By 215 Points
By 12.14.15
In spite of the fact that Comcast has proven time and again that it’s completely ill-prepared to handle the accounts of more than 20 million customers, credit bureaus still believe it when the cable giant insists that a customer still owes money. [More]
County Ticketing Cars For Lapsed Inspections While They Are At Garage To Be Inspected
By 10.12.15
Talk about low-hanging fruit… If you’re on the hunt for cars that have lapsed inspection stickers, where are you most likely to find them? Probably outside of garages that perform inspections. Garage operators in one Virginia county say they are being unfairly hassled by a zealous parking enforcement officer — to the point where one mechanic was arrested for allegedly assaulting the ticket-giver. [More]
Uber Debits $1,537 From Passenger’s Checking Account For 6-Day Ride That Didn’t Happen
By 8.19.15
This story should teach two lessons to any Uber passenger: First, always check to make sure that your ride is concluded when you get out of the car. Second, don’t do anything that directly links your checking account to Uber. It’s a lesson learned the hard way for a Virginia woman whose account was hit for more than $1,500 because of a glitch with the ridesharing service. [More]
Costco Joins In Virginia Crackdown On Bulk Cigarette Buyers
By 7.28.15
Following reports of Costco shoppers loading up entire trucks full of large boxes of cigarettes, presumably with the purpose of reselling them on the black market in other states, the wholesale club is now posting signs indicating that these customers will face much more scrutiny going forward. [More]
City Asks For Fiber Network Help, 5 Years After Being Left At Altar By Verizon FiOS
By 7.23.15
Back in 2009, it looked liked Alexandria, VA, residents would get a new high-speed Internet option in the form of Verizon FiOS. The city even went through the bureaucratic process of issuing Verizon a franchise. Then the D.C.-area community got dumped at the altar by Big V and has been looking for someone, anyone to step in ever since. [More]
Verizon Tells Another Customer To Switch To Fiber Or Lose Landline Service
By 7.9.15
Even though his landline service was working fine, a man in Virginia was recently told by Verizon that he had two weeks to switch to the company’s fiberoptic service or lose his account altogether. [More]
Privacy Advocates Sue Virginia Police Over Data From Automatic License Plate Scanners
By 5.6.15
By itself, your license plate doesn’t say much except in what state, month, and year you registered your car. But start tracking where and when that license plate goes, and you’ve suddenly got a whole huge pile of personal data about all the comings and goings in someone’s life. We’ve reported before that license plate scanning by public and private entities is both widespread and unregulated. Now, the ACLU is suing police in one state to get them to stop. [More]
Virginia’s Highest Court Says Yelp Doesn’t Have To ID Anonymous Reviewers
By 4.16.15
For nearly two years, we’ve been telling you about the Virginia carpet cleaner trying to compel Yelp to identify seven of anonymous users so that the business could name them in a defamation lawsuit. After Yelp lost legal battles in both the trial and appeals courts, the state’s highest court today ruled in favor of the review site, but only because the subpoena was served in the wrong state. [More]
Obedience School Sues Yelper For $65K Over Negative Review
By 3.26.15
A few months ago, a Virginia woman began taking her dog to obedience class, and when the training wasn’t what she expected, she requested a pro-rated refund and wrote a negative review of the school on Yelp. Now she’s facing a $65,000 defamation lawsuit. [More]
Virginia Limits Retention Of License Plate Capture Data To 7 Days
By 3.16.15
We’ve shared with you before the that both private companies and law enforcement are combining images of motorists’ license plates with geographic data about where those plates were spotted. Some states have passed laws limiting how long this data can stay in databases or banning its collection altogether, and Virginia has joined that list as of this month. [More]
Faith V. Greed: The Battle Between Faith-Based Organizations And The Payday Loan Industry
By 3.10.15
“The Bible condemns gaining wealth through usury; and the writers of Scripture warn about gaining wealth through exploiting the poor… [but] The State of Alabama allows Payday lenders to charge an annual interest rate of 456%.” [More]
Fired McDonald’s Employees Say They Were Told “Too Many Black People” Working There
By 1.22.15
A new federal lawsuit filed against McDonald’s and a franchisee for the eatery alleges that more than a dozen black employees were fired simultaneously because they supposedly did not fit into the color palette desired by their employer. [More]
Ting Mobile Buys ISP, Will Provide Gigabit Internet To Virginia College Town
By 12.17.14
Charlottesville, Virginia is home to the University of Virginia, and also to Blue Ridge InternetWorks, an independent Internet service provider that has been working to fiber up the college town with gigabit Internet access. Ting, a company that we know as a discount mobile carrier, announced this week that it will buy the small ISP to enter the gigabit-capable broadband biz. [More]
Yet Another Court To Hear Yelp’s Argument Against Revealing Reviewers’ Names
By 10.27.14
For more than two years, a carpet cleaning company in Virginia has been trying to compel Yelp to turn over the identities of reviewers the company accuses of posting false and defamatory information. While both a trial court and a state appeals court have told Yelp to fork over that info, the crowdsourced reviews site has not yet done so — and tomorrow it takes its case before the highest court in Virginia. [More]
