Engineers in Charlottesville, Virginia worked to remove a 900lb Confederate statue on Saturday, a moment of symbolic reckoning in the university town that was rocked by a white supremacist march in August 2017.
Related: Black Virginia state senator charged with 'injury' to Confederate monument
Continue reading...A Virginia Republican congressman who angered social conservatives in his district when he officiated a gay wedding has lost his party’s nomination.
Related: The Skywalker window: what Democrats must do to destroy Trump's Death Star
Continue reading...The US president urged supporters to 'liberate' three states led by Democratic governors on Friday, apparently encouraging protests against stay-at-home restrictions. 'These are people expressing their views,' Trump said during his daily White House coronavirus briefing.
Continue reading...Advocates and militia members gather in Virginia’s state capitol to protest potential gun control measures
Continue reading...At least 51 people have been injured in a pile-up on a major interstate in Virginia. Authorities do not yet know the cause of the crash, but fog and icy conditions were contributing factors, said Sgt Michelle Anaya of Virginia state police. No deaths were reported but it took emergency crews several hours to clear the road and reopen all lanes of traffic
Continue reading...Abigail Spanberger caught in delicate balance of advancing policy agenda and ensuring Trump is held accountable
At a middle school auditorium three hours south of the capital, where an intensifying impeachment inquiry into Donald Trump consumes all aspects of political life, the Virginia congresswoman Abigail Spanberger greeted a restive crowd of constituents with a PowerPoint presentation on the American system of government.
Continue reading...Virginia doctor Joel Smithers was convicted in May of more than 800 counts of illegally distributing opioids
A doctor who prosecutors said ran a medical practice in Virginia like an interstate drug distribution ring was sentenced on Wednesday to 40 years in prison for illegally prescribing opioids.
Dr Joel Smithers was sentenced in US district court in Abingdon. Judge James Jones sentenced Smithers to 40 years. He faced a mandatory minimum sentence of 20 years and a maximum of life.
Continue reading...Peter Vlaming lost his job after claiming his religion prohibited him from using male pronouns for a student who transitioned
A Virginia high school teacher who was fired for refusing to use a transgender student’s new pronouns has filed a lawsuit.
The Washington Post reported that Peter Vlaming filed suit on Monday against West Point Public Schools, a system outside Richmond.
Continue reading...Trump ally’s political influence may be on the wane as he calls for investigation at evangelical university
Since January 2016, when the head of Liberty University, Jerry Falwell Jr, endorsed Donald Trump for president, the influential evangelical university has been on a fast-track to the heart of American politics. Since being credited with helping Trump earn the loyal support of the Christian right, Falwell has become a regular presence at the White House.
Meanwhile, the university, founded in 1971 by his late father, the Rev Jerry Falwell Sr, has expanded exponentially. Under Falwell Jr’s leadership, the Lynchburg, Virginia, not-for-profit university’s assets have reportedly grown from $259m in 2007 to over $3bn and it has more than 100,000 students.
Continue reading...A federal judge imposed a life sentence on the self-described neo-Nazi who killed Heather Heyer by crashing his car into a crowd of counter-protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia, after a white supremacist rally, saying release would be “too great a risk”.
The 22-year-old neo-Nazi, James Fields of Maumee, Ohio, was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole. He had sought a lesser sentence, apologizing after the court viewed video of him plowing his car into a crowd after the 12 August 2017 Unite the Right rally, also injuring 19 people.
Continue reading...The self-avowed white supremacist who plowed his car into counter-protesters opposing a white nationalist rally in Virginia two years ago, killing one and injuring dozens, has asked a judge for mercy and a sentence shorter than life in prison.
Lawyers for James Alex Fields Jr, 22, said in a sentencing memo submitted in court documents on Friday the defendant should not spend his entire life in prison because of his age, a traumatic childhood and a history of mental illness.
Continue reading...Three people who were wounded in the Virginia Beach shooting remained in critical condition on Sunday, two days after a gunman opened fire in a municipal government building, killing 12.
Related: A mass shooting couldn’t happen in Virginia Beach … until it did
Continue reading...A day after the deadliest US mass shooting this year in which 12 people were shot dead at a government building, Elizabeth Warren was asked what she would do to confront an “overwhelming surge” in such events.
The Massachusetts senator said she wanted to reframe the question, then continued: “It’s not just mass shootings.” Every day in America, she said, gun violence occurs “on sidewalks and playgrounds and people’s backyards. It’s happening family by family across the country. And it doesn’t get the same headlines. And that is wrong.”
Continue reading...America was reeling on Saturday after 12 people were shot dead at a government building in Virginia Beach late on Friday afternoon. It was the deadliest mass shooting this year and prompted fresh demands for gun control reform.
Related: Virginia Beach shooting: 12 dead as city mourns 'the most devastating day'
Continue reading...A gunman killed 12 people and injured at least four others in Virginia Beach, in the latest deadly mass shooting in the US. Authorities said an employee opened fire and shot indiscriminately in a municipal building on Friday. The gunman died at the scene. Police have identified the suspect but have not yet released his name to the public because they have not yet notified his family.
Continue reading...At least four others injured after employee opens fire ‘indiscriminately’ inside municipal building
A gunman killed 12 people and injured at least four others in a Virginia municipal building, in the latest deadly mass shooting to roil the United States.
Authorities said an employee opened fire and shot “indiscriminately” Friday afternoon in a Virginia Beach municipal building that houses several city departments.
Continue reading...Compulsory purchase – or the threat of it – of property on the route of a pipeline for fracked natural gas has left a slew of grievances and lawsuits in West Virginia and Virginia
In July 2015, Neal Laferriere and his wife, Beth, purchased a home in Summers county, West Virginia. The first time they visited the property after purchasing it, they found stakes outlining what they would later find out to be the route for a gas pipeline.
About two years later, representatives for the Mountain Valley pipeline approached the Laferriere family over the land rights to their property. “The land agent was saying if we don’t come to the table they would just take it via eminent domain,” Laferriere told the Guardian.
Continue reading...Speaking outside court in Alexandria, Virginia, before being jailed for a second time for contempt of court, Chelsea Manning says of a fresh grand jury subpoena to testify about her contacts with WikiLeaks: 'Attempting to coerce me … is not going to work'. Having already served 62 days in jail, 28 of them in solitary confinement, she now faces up to 18 months in custody
Continue reading...Virginia recruitment company removes discriminatory listing following a backlash on Twitter
The tech industry has long grappled with problems tied to diversity and inclusion, but a job listing this month seeking “preferably Caucasian” applicants has proved a particularly egregious example.
A job listing from Cynet Systems, a tech recruiting firm based in Virginia, sought an account manager who is “preferably Caucasian who has good technical background”. After a number of Twitter users called attention to the listing, it was removed on Sunday.
Continue reading...Standing nearly 20 feet high, 43 US presidents’ busts, remnants from a bankrupted theme park, are stored in Croaker, Virginia, on the property of Howard Hankins who is seeking to restore the massive sculptures. Hankins has launched a crowdfunding campaign to raise money to relocate the statues to a place where they can be visited by all
Continue reading...