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

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

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

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’

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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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Alleged attacker of congressman’s staff had history of mental illness, police say

Xuan-Kha Tran Pham, 49, had also assaulted a women earlier on same day he struck at Democrat’s Virginia office, authorities say

A man who allegedly attacked two congressional workers with a metal baseball bat had a history of mental illness and had assaulted someone else earlier in the day, authorities said.

The man, identified as Xuan-Kha Tran Pham, 49, of Fairfax, Virginia, attacked the Democratic congressman Gerry Connolly’s office on Monday, shattering windows and striking two women, including an intern on her first day on the job, authorities said.

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Suspect named in baseball bat attack at Democratic congressman’s office

Virginia congressman Gerry Connolly condemns ‘devastating and unconscionable’ assault on two staffers

Police in Virginia on Monday named the suspect in an attack in which two staffers at the district office of a Democratic congressman were assaulted with a metal baseball bat and required hospital treatment.

Xuan Kha Tran Pham, 49, was arrested after the attack at Gerry Connolly’s office in Fairfax. Held without bond, Pham faced charges of malicious wounding and aggravated malicious wounding.

Associated Press contributed to this report

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Virginia Beach declares state of emergency after tornado

Officials estimate between 50 and 100 homes damaged by tornado that also downed trees and caused gas leaks

A popular coastal US tourist destination has declared a state of emergency after a tornado moved through the area Sunday and damaged dozens of homes, downed trees and caused gas leaks.

Officials in the city of Virginia Beach, Virginia, said it’s unclear how many homes had been damaged but they estimated between 50 and 100, after the tornado touched down just after 6pm, WTKR-TV reported.

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YouTuber prankster shot and wounded by target of practical joke

Tanner Cook, 21, was reportedly playing joke on man at Virginia mall when victim of prank shot him in abdomen

A popular US YouTube creator who prides himself on making videos in which he displays odd behavior to put people off intends to keep at it, even after one of his targets allegedly shot him nearly to death.

Tanner Cook – who regularly makes videos of himself pranking strangers for nearly 40,000 subscribers of the channel Classified Goons – was reportedly playing a practical joke on a man at a mall in the Washington suburb of Dulles, Virginia, at about midday on Sunday. A friend was recording him when things took an almost deadly turn, according to authorities as well as an interview Cook gave to the local TV station WUSA.

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Virginia prisoners who used toothbrush to escape caught at pancake restaurant

Two inmates dug their way out of cell using toothbrush but were apprehended within hours at Ihop branch

Two prisoners in Virginia managed to escape their cell by digging a hole through a wall with the aid of a toothbrush but were apprehended within a few hours after being tempted to visit a pancake restaurant.

In a statement, the Newport News sheriff’s office said two inmates were found to be missing during a routine head count around 7pm on Monday at the Newport News Jail Annex.

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Hospital video footage shows Irvo Otieno was held down before his death

Seven deputies and three hospital workers charged with second-degree murder in death of Black man at Virginia mental facility

A large group of sheriff’s deputies and employees of a Virginia mental hospital pinned patient Irvo Otieno to the floor until he was motionless and limp, then began unsuccessful resuscitation efforts, newly obtained surveillance video of the incident earlier this month shows.

The footage obtained on Tuesday, which has no audio, shows various members of the group struggling with a handcuffed and shackled Otieno over the course of about 20 minutes after he was led into a room at Central State hospital in Petersburg, Virginia, where he was going to be admitted on 6 March. For most of the duration of the video, Otieno is on the floor being restrained by a fluctuating group that at one point appeared to number 10 people pressing down on various parts of his body.

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Black Virginia man pinned to ground by deputies before his death, family says

Video from state mental hospital of brutal treatment of Irvo Otieno recalls death of George Floyd, lawyer says

Video from a state mental hospital shows a Black Virginia man who was handcuffed and shackled being pinned to the ground by deputies who are now facing second-degree murder charges in his death, according to relatives of the man and their attorneys who viewed the footage on Thursday.

Speaking at a news conference shortly after watching the video with a local prosecutor, the family and attorneys condemned the brutal treatment they said Irvo Otieno, 28, was subjected to, first at a local jail and then at the state hospital where authorities say he died on 6 March during the admission process.

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Virginia boy who shot his teacher won’t face criminal charges, says prosecutor

Six-year-old shot Abigail Zwerner on 6 January while she was teaching class, leaving her seriously injured

A six-year-old boy who shot his teacher in January will not face criminal charges, a prosecutor in Newport News, Virginia, said on Wednesday night.

On 6 January, the first-grader shot Abigail Zwerner while she was teaching class at Richneck elementary school, leaving her seriously injured.

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