Category Archives: Virginia

Panel says Confederate memorial at Arlington cemetery should be dismantled

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The commission presented its final report on Confederate-honoring military bases and assets that should be renamed

An independent commission is recommending that the Confederate memorial at Arlington National Cemetery be dismantled and taken down, as part of its final report to Congress on the renaming of military bases and assets that commemorate the Confederacy.

Panel members on Tuesday rolled out the final list of ships, base roads, buildings and other items that they said should be renamed. But unlike the commission’s recommendations earlier this year laying out new names for nine Army bases, there were no suggested names for the roughly 1,100 assets across the military that bear Confederate names.

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Virginia lawsuits indicate pattern of schools ignoring reported sexual assaults

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Two lawsuits are back in front of federal judges, drawing scrutiny to schools’ failure to support students who report assaults


A pair of lawsuits that for years has plagued Virginia’s largest school system with allegations that it ignored students’ accusations of sex assaults are back in front of federal judges.

One of the lawsuits includes allegations of horrific abuse suffered by a student at a Fairfax county middle school and was the basis for a 2014 federal investigation.

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‘Final resting place’: sacred Indigenous objects returned to Australia from US university

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Warlpiri delegation from Yuendumu, north-west of Alice Springs, has collected the seven objects from University of Virginia

Seven sacred Indigenous objects have been returned to central Australia from an American university.

A delegation of Warlpiri men from Yuendumu, north-west of Alice Springs, collected the objects after they were repatriated from the University of Virginia last week.

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Depp-Heard trial verdict: jury rules in favor of Johnny Depp

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The focus of the case was a 2018 editorial Heard wrote calling herself ‘a public figure representing domestic abuse’

The jury in the Johnny Depp-Amber Heard defamation trial has ruled in favor of Johnny Depp, finding that a Washington Post editorial she wrote defamed her former husband.

The jurors’ unanimous decision on Wednesday capped a seven-week trial in a Virginia courtroom which featured dozens of witnesses and experts weighing in on whether Depp was abusive to Heard – or vice versa – during their 15-month marriage.

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Depp-Heard trial: jury to resume deliberations on Tuesday

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Closing arguments ask jurors to consider what their verdict in defamation case will mean for domestic abuse victims

The Johnny Depp-Amber Heard defamation trial headed toward its conclusion on Friday as the dueling parties offered closing arguments after a seven-week trial that has gripped public attention and become something of a litmus test for the state of gender relations.

Seven of 11 impaneled jurors selected for the trial when it started in April spent a couple of hours beginning to deliberate a verdict after the conclusion of those closing arguments, but they won’t return a verdict for a few days at least. They were sent home Friday afternoon until Tuesday in advance of Monday’s Memorial Day holiday.

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Virginia Target workers seek to unionize amid surge in labor organizing efforts

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Company has already reportedly pushed back by trying to use union dues as a tactic to deter workers from supporting the union

Workers at a Target store in Christiansburg, Virginia, have filed for a union election and, if successful, the store would be the first belonging to the retail chain to unionize.

Target has long opposed unionization, with anti-union videos to discourage workers from unionizing. Earlier this year, Target training documents for managers to prevent unionization within stores were leaked.

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‘It was terrifying’: Amber Heard testifies Johnny Depp hallucinated during fight

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Actor denies putting human feces in couple’s bed and claims ‘he was talking to people who weren’t in the room’

Johnny Depp was hallucinating and his sobriety had completely collapsed in the final months of his marriage, his ex-wife – fellow actor Amber Heard – testified on Monday in the civil lawsuit between the two.

Heard was back on the stand as the trial resumed in a Virginia courtroom after a one-week hiatus.

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Amber Heard testifies in Johnny Depp defamation trial: ‘This is horrible for me’

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Actor takes witness stand in Virginia court and tells jurors trial ‘has been one of the most painful things I’ve ever gone through’

Amber Heard took the witness stand in a Virginia court on Wednesday afternoon during Johnny Depp’s defamation lawsuit against her – a make-or-break moment for the actors in a four-week trial that had so far largely focused on Depp’s version of events during their turbulent 15-month marriage.

“I struggle to find the words to describe how painful this is … this is horrible for me to sit here for weeks and relive everything, to hear people that I knew, some well, some not, my ex-husband with whom I shared a life, speak about our lives in the way they have,” she said.

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Depp’s attorneys rest after 13 days of testimony in case against Heard

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Amber Heard’s attorneys demanded judge dismiss defamation case but Judge Penney Azcarate ruled trial will proceed

Attorneys for Johnny Depp rested on Tuesday after 13 days of testimony in the actor’s $50m defamation case against his ex-wife Amber Heard. In court in Virginia, Heard’s attorneys demanded the judge dismiss the action.

Without jurors present, lawyer Ben Rottenborn asked the judge, Penney Azcarate, “to strike the plaintiff’s evidence and award summary judgment in whole or in part to Ms Heard”.

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British-born Islamic State member receives life sentence in US trial

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Alexanda Kotey of the so-called ‘Beatles’ terror cell given a life sentence for each of the eight counts he pleaded guilty to

A member of an Islamic State group that beheaded western hostages in Iraq and Syria, nicknamed “the Beatles” for their British accents, has been sentenced to life in prison in the US.

Alexanda Kotey, 38, originally from Paddington, London, stood motionless as Judge Thomas Selby Ellis delivered his verdict at a district court in Alexandria, Virginia, while members of his victims’ families watched.

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ACLU helped draft article at heart of Depp v Heard case for $3.5m donation, court hears

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American Civil Liberties Union’s general counsel testifies that at least $500,000 came from fund connected to Elon Musk

The ACLU helped Amber Heard draft the Washington Post article accusing Johnny Depp of abuse after the organization was promised a $3.5m donation from her divorce – though at least $500,000 of it eventually came from a fund connected to Tesla founder Elon Musk, jurors in the Depp-Heard defamation trial heard on Thursday.

The American Civil Liberties Union’s general counsel, Terence Dougherty, testified that the organization decided to propose Heard as an ambassador for the group after Heard pledged the sizeable donation over 10 years.

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Johnny Depp details severed finger incident in court: ‘Nothing made sense’

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Actor continues testimony on his life and marriage with Amber Heard, including events that marked the end of their relationship

Johnny Depp’s courtroom exploration of his life and marriage with Amber Heard continued in the US on Wednesday, with the court viewing a photograph of the actor’s partially severed finger.

Depp testified that Heard had become enraged when he had started drinking in Australia during the filming of one of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise films and had thrown a bottle of vodka at him, severing the top of his finger.

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Johnny Depp testifies that alleged abuse of Amber Heard ‘never happened’

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Actor takes stand in defamation trial and denies Heard’s domestic abuse claims, saying ‘I have never struck any woman in my life’

Taking the stand in his libel lawsuit against his ex-wife Amber Heard, Johnny Depp said her domestic abuse allegations against him were disturbing, heinous and “not based in any species of truth”.

“Nothing of the kind ever happened,” Depp said in court on Tuesday. “Never did I myself reach the point of striking Ms Heard in any way. Nor have I ever struck any woman in my life.”

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Jury in Johnny Depp-Amber Heard defamation case hears of ‘mutual abuse’

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Couple’s relationship counsellor says Heard would ‘initiate a fight’ at times while ex-assistant says she was ‘belligerent and abusive’

The dueling defamation case between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard dug further into the heart of an often toxic and violent relationship on Thursday as jurors heard from the couple’s marriage counsellor, Heard’s former personal assistant and Depp’s addiction specialist.

Dr Laurel Anderson, who was employed by Depp and Heard as a counsellor to discuss their relationship, described “mutual abuse” between the two. She said that, on more than one occasion, Heard had initiated incidents to stop Depp leaving, stemming from her fear of abandonment, according to Anderson. She also said she had seen photos of Heard with bruises.

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Court hears US hostage’s emotional letter to father as IS trial continues

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Peter Kassig, who was later killed, described paralysis and hope and offered words of comfort to his family

An American hostage’s harrowing story about captivity at the hands of the Islamic State militants who would kill him was recounted in court in Virginia on Wednesday.

A letter from the late Peter Kassig was read aloud during the terrorism trial of El Shafee Elsheikh, a 33-year-old former British citizen and alleged member of a kidnap-and-murder cell known to captives as the “Beatles” because of their British accents.

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IS terrorists who kidnapped James Foley ignored efforts to negotiate, court hears

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Foley’s brother and mother testify at Virginia court trial of El Shafee Elsheikh, accused of kidnap and murder of US journalist

The Islamic State terrorists who kidnapped American journalist James Foley never made serious attempts to negotiate a ransom before brutally executing him, family members have told a court.

Foley’s brother and mother took the witness stand at US district court in Alexandria at the terror trial of El Shafee Elsheikh, a Briton accused of playing a leading role in a hostage-taking scheme that resulted in the deaths of Foley and three other Americans – Steven Sotloff, Peter Kassig and Kayla Mueller.

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How the Islamic State trial could change the future of US terrorism cases

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As a Virginia jury hears horrific allegations, experts say the trial of El Shafee Elsheikh sets an important precedent

As the trial against the accused Islamic State fighter El Shafee Elsheikh began this week on American soil, jurors in a northern Virginia courtroom were quickly exposed to accounts of unimaginable brutality.

Elsheikh, prosecutors alleged, carried out terrorist acts that involved the grisly deaths of four Americans – the journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff, as well as the aid workers Kayla Mueller and Peter Kassig.

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Virginia governor Youngkin apologizes after mixing up Black state senators

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Louise Lucas noted she received a text from Glenn Youngkin congratulating her for a speech Mamie Locke gave

The Virginia governor, Glenn Youngkin, has apologized after mistaking one Black legislator for another in a text message.

Youngkin is the new Republican governor of the state, which has trended Democrat in recent election cycles but stunned observers by picking Youngkin as its new leader last year over a centrist Democrat candidate.

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‘A slap in the face’: uproar in Virginia as governor relaxes school mask rules

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Most families want masks in schools – so why did Virginia’s new governor make them optional?

Emily Paterson was finally feeling able to relax. Her two sons were now fully vaccinated, and with mask policies in place at their school in northern Virginia she felt safe sending them every day, even as the Omicron variant surged.

Then Virginia’s new governor, Glenn Youngkin, took office on 15 January of this year – and, with his second executive action, he made masks in schools optional.

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Nor’easter lashes eastern US with snow and wind gusts near hurricane force

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  • Philadelphia, New York and Boston in path of storm
  • Flooding, high winds and cold weather expected

A nor’easter with hurricane-force wind gusts battered much of the US east coast on Saturday, flinging heavy snow that made travel treacherous or impossible, flooding coastlines and threatening to leave bitter cold in its wake.

The storm thrashed parts of 10 states, with blizzard warnings from Virginia to Maine. Philadelphia and New York saw plenty of wind and snow, but Boston was in the crosshairs. The city could get more than 2ft of snow by early Sunday.

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