Category Archives: Virginia

Liberty University fined $14m over ‘culture of silence’ around sexual assault

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Christian evangelical institution punished victims ‘for violating the student code of conduct’ as ‘assailants were left unpunished’

Liberty University has been hit with a $14m Department of Education federal fine for creating “a culture of silence” around sexual assault, failing to support victims of violence and then failing to properly report them correctly under the law.

Announcing the fine on Tuesday, the department said in a statement that the Christian evangelical institution had punished sexual assault victims “for violating the student code of conduct”, while “their assailants were left unpunished” – a violation of federal law.

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Super Tuesday 2024 live: millions of voters head to polls in the US as Haley suggests she could stay in the race

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Donald Trump looks all but certain of Republican presidential nomination as Nikki Haley rejects suggestions of third-party bid and says she may keep fighting

Over at CNN, Ronald Brownstein has an analysis piece which looks a little at the potential weakness of Donald Trump support away from his core base. Brownstein writes:

[Trump’s] performance so far reflects his success at transforming the Republican Party in his image. He’s reshaped the Republicans into a more blue-collar, populist and pugnacious party, focused more on his volatile blend of resentments against elites and cultural and racial change than the Ronald Reagan-era priorities of smaller government and active global leadership that former South Carolina Gov Nikki Haley has stressed.

But while the primaries have underscored Trump’s grip on the GOP, they have also demonstrated continued vulnerability for him in the areas where he has labored since he first announced his candidacy in 2015 – particularly among the white-collar suburban voters who mostly leaned toward the GOP before his emergence. The early 2024 nominating contests have shown that a substantial minority of Republican-leaning voters remain resistant to Trump’s vision.

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Home explosion near Washington DC kills one firefighter and injures 11

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Firefighters were called to home in Sterling, Virginia, by report of gas smell, and explosion took place 30 minutes later, officials said

One firefighter was killed and nine others were injured on Friday when an explosion in a Washington DC suburb leveled a home where they were investigating a gas leak. Two other people were also injured.

The firefighters were called to the home in Sterling, Virginia, by a report of a gas smell shortly after 7.30pm and a fiery explosion took place about 30 minutes later, officials said.

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Virginia senator Tim Kaine condemns Biden’s arms transfer to Israel

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On Saturday, Kaine joined chorus of Democrats criticizing Biden for going around Congress and demanded an explanation

Virginia senator Tim Kaine has added his voice to a rising chorus within the Democratic party questioning the Biden administration’s legislatively unconstrained transfer of US munitions to Israel.

In a news release on Saturday, the Democratic senator – a member of the Senate armed services committee – said weapons transfers must come under congressional oversight.

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Judge temporarily bars removal of Confederate memorial in Virginia

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Restraining order issued after a group filed a lawsuit and a letter that was signed by more than 40 Republican congressmen

A Confederate memorial was blocked on Monday from being removed from Arlington National Cemetery in northern Virginia, with a court order setting back the push to remove symbols that commemorate the Confederacy from military-related facilities.

A federal judge on Monday issued a temporary restraining order barring removal of a memorial to Confederate soldiers at the nation’s foremost military cemetery. A group called Defend Arlington, affiliated with a group called Save Southern Heritage Florida, filed a lawsuit Sunday in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, seeking the restraining order. A hearing has been scheduled for Wednesday.

The Associated Press contributed reporting

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Virginia museum to return 44 stolen or looted works to Egypt, Italy and Turkey

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Virginia Museum of Fine Arts says it received ‘irrefutable evidence’ 44 ancient art objects had been stolen or looted

Virginia’s state-run fine arts museum has begun the process of returning 44 pieces of ancient art to their countries of origin after law enforcement officials presented the institution with what it called “irrefutable evidence” that the works had been stolen or looted.

The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts announced in a news release on Tuesday that it had “safely delivered” the pieces to the Manhattan district attorney’s office in New York, which it said had conducted an inquiry into the artworks as part of a broader investigation, along with the Department of Homeland Security. The DA’s office will facilitate the return of the objects to Italy, Egypt and Turkey, according to the Richmond museum.

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White House decries ‘nasty personal smears’ after House Republicans subpoena Biden family – as it happened

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This live blog is now closed. You can follow the action of the third GOP debate here:

Philadephia has elected Cherelle Parker, the first female mayor to lead the city.

Following her victory, Parker, who served 10 years as a state representative for northwest Philadelphia, said:

“Thank you Philly. We did it. We made history, or “her” story. As a little girl, I never dreamed that this moment would arrive but it’s here now… From the bottom of my heart, thank you for believing in me and in my vision for a safer, cleaner greener city with economic oppurtunity for all.”

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Virginia Democrats appear on track to keep majority in state senate

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House of delegates still too close to call as Republican governor Glenn Youngkin’s goal of full control of legislature slips away

Virginia Democrats appeared to be on track to retain their majority in the state senate on Tuesday, depriving Republican governor Glenn Youngkin of a legislative trifecta that would have allowed him to swiftly enact his policy agenda.

Two hours after polls closed in Virginia, where all 140 seats of the state legislature were up for grabs, the house of delegates remained too close to call. Virginia Republicans still hoped to keep their majority in the lower chamber, even as their goal of taking full control of the legislature slipped away.

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Election day 2023: polls close in Ohio and Virginia where abortion rights are at stake; Mississippi partially extends voting – as it happened

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US supreme court justices on today appeared inclined to uphold the legality of a federal law that makes it a crime for people under domestic violence restraining orders to have guns in the latest major case to test the willingness of its conservative majority to further expand gun rights, Reuters reports.

The justices heard arguments in an appeal by Joe Biden’s administration of a lower court’s ruling striking down the law – intended to protect victims of domestic abuse - as a violation of the US constitution’s second amendment right to “keep and bear arms”.

I mean, not taking your recycling to the curb on Thursdays, if it’s a serious problem it’s irresponsible,” Roberts said.

What seems irresponsible to some people might seem like, well, it’s not a big deal to others.”

And the reason that we use the term ‘not responsible’ is because it is the standard this court has articulated” in its three major gun rights rulings in the past 15 years, Prelogar said.

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Virginia teacher shot by six-year-old can go ahead with $40m lawsuit, judge rules

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Abby Zwerner was hospitalized for two weeks after the January shooting and is suing school administrators for negligence

A teacher who was shot by her six-year-old student in Virginia can press forward with her $40m lawsuit against a school system over claims of negligence by school administrators, a judge ruled Friday.

The surprise decision by the Newport News circuit court judge Matthew Hoffman means that Abby Zwerner could get much more than just workers’ compensation for the serious injuries caused by January’s classroom shooting.

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Virginia white voters’ mail-in ballots face fewer challenges, Democrats say

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Ballots from voters of color are being flagged for rejection at much higher rates ahead of election day this month, party analysis says

Virginia Democrats are concerned that non-white voters in the state are getting their mail-in ballots flagged for possible rejection at much higher rates than their white counterparts ahead of a closely watched election day on Tuesday.

Virginia, like all states, requires voters to fill out certain information on the envelope in which they return their ballot. In Virginia that includes their name, address, birth year and last four digits of their social security number. If any of that information is missing, voters have until 13 November to provide it. If they don’t provide it by the deadline, the ballot is rejected.

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‘There is no ban’: Republicans test-drive new abortion messaging

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Ad released in Virginia part of well-funded effort to portray Democrats as abortion extremists and Republicans as reasonable compromisers

The ad opens with the sound of a fetal heartbeat.

“Most people believe that abortion at the moment of birth is wrong, far beyond any reasonable limit. Not Virginia Democrats,” a female narrator says, just before the sound of a baby cooing and crying. “They fought to make late-term abortions the rule, not the exception.”

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Robert E Lee statue that sparked Charlottesville riot is melted down: ‘Like his face was crying’

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Brass from the statue of the Confederate general will be used for a public art installation in Virginia city

At a foundry last weekend, with fire blazing and anti-racist activists watching, the statue of the Confederate general Robert E Lee that sparked the deadly 2017 Charlottesville white nationalist riot was cut into pieces and melted down to liquid brass.

“It felt like an execution,” said Jalane Schmidt, co-founder of Charlottesville Black Lives Matter and a professor at the University of Virginia.

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Tropical Storm Ophelia makes landfall in North Carolina as it moves up east coast

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Governors of Virginia, North Carolina and Maryland declare states of emergency as storm expected to bring heavy rainfall

Tropical Storm Ophelia made landfall on the coast of North Carolina near Emerald Isle early on Saturday as the storm moved north along the US east coast.

Before the storm’s landfall, the governors of Virginia, North Carolina and Maryland declared states of emergency. Ophelia was predicted to bring heavy rainfall, tropical-storm-force winds and minor flooding along the states’ coasts through the weekend.

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Virginia: baby and dog die after being left for hours in car, police say

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Police say woman, 40, arrested and charged with felony child neglect as sheriff’s office says charges could be upgraded

A 11-month-old baby and a dog died after being left in a car for over six hours in Virginia, authorities announced on Wednesday.

Police responded to a call at a hospital in Newport News at about 4pm on Tuesday after a man in his 80s entered the emergency room and said he had a “deceased child” in the back of his car, the York-Poquoson sheriff’s office said in a press briefing.

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Virginia library at risk after rightwing push to defund it over LGBTQ+ books

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Samuels Library set to close on 1 October after far-right community members claimed LGBTQ+ books were pornographic

A public county library in Virginia is at risk of shutting down after a group of far-right community members launched a campaign to defund it on accusations it held “pornographic books” though in fact the works usually just explore LGBTQ+ themes.

Samuels Library in Front Royal’s Warren county is set to close on 1 October as public funding has been withheld by the Warren county board of supervisors since July, cutting off crucial financial support.

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Virginia police chase involving stolen ambulance results in a dozen crashes

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Darell T Caldwell of Maryland was finally apprehended after the multi-highway chase and vehicular theft spree injured five

A Maryland man stole an ambulance and left a wake of more than a dozen hit-and-run crashes in Virginia this weekend before being arrested in Washington DC, authorities said.

Virginia state police said there were no reports of serious injuries in Saturday’s crashes on portions of Interstate 66, Interstate 395 and the George Washington Memorial Parkway.

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High school student and relative killed in Virginia graduation shooting

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Virginia representative calls for more gun safety policies after suspect was arrested for killing two people and wounding five

A high school student and a relative were killed on Tuesday evening at a mass shooting at the young man’s graduation event in Richmond, Virginia, where five other people were shot and wounded.

Gunfire rang out outside a downtown theater, where the graduation ceremony had just ended, causing hundreds of attendees to flee in panic, weep and clutch their children, authorities and witnesses said.

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Two killed and five injured in Virginia shooting after high school graduation

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Police say a graduate, 18, was one of the dead while a 19-year-old was arrested for second-degree murder

Seven people were shot, two fatally, when gunfire rang out outside a downtown theater in Virginia where a high school graduation ceremony had just ended, causing hundreds of attendees to flee in panic, weep and clutch their children, authorities and witnesses said.

A 19-year-old suspect tried to escape on foot but was arrested and would be charged with two counts of second-degree murder, interim Richmond police chief Rick Edwards, said during a news conference on Tuesday night at which he confirmed the two fatalities.

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At a glance: what you need to know about Canada wildfires and smoky US skies

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Hazy skies hung over north-eastern US a day after the midwest received a similar alert from the Environmental Protection Agency

Canada is dealing with a series of intense wildfires that have spread from the western provinces to Quebec, with hundreds of forest fires burning. Wind has carried smoke from the fires southward, triggering air-quality alerts throughout the United States.

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Tuesday issued a poor air-quality alert for New England, a day after parts of Illinois, Wisconsin and Minnesota received a similar advisory. Last week, US officials as far south as Maryland, Virginia and Pennsylvania reported being affected by the wildfires.

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