Virginia

WASHINGTON — Hundreds of West Virginia National Guard members will deploy across the nation’s capital as part of the Trump administration’s assumption of control over policing in the District of Columbia in what it says is part of a nationwide crackdown on crime on homelessness.

The move comes as federal agents and National Guard troops have begun to appear across the heavily Democratic city after Trump’s executive order on Monday federalizing local police forces and activating about 800 D.C. National Guard troops.

By adding outside troops to join the existing National Guard deployment and federal law enforcement officers temporarily assigned to Washington, President Trump is exercising even tighter control over the city. It’s a power play that the president has justified as an emergency response to crime and homelessness, even though district officials have noted that violent crime is lower than it was during Trump’s first term in office.

A protest against Trump’s intervention drew scores to Washington’s Dupont Circle on Saturday afternoon before a march to the White House, about a mile and a half away. Demonstrators assembled behind a banner that said, “No fascist takeover of D.C.,” and some in the crowd held signs that said, “No military occupation.” Trump was at his Virginia golf club after Friday’s summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska.

Gov. Patrick Morrisey, a Republican, announced Saturday that he was sending a contingent of 300 to 400 National Guard members.

“West Virginia is proud to stand with President Trump in his effort to restore pride and beauty to our nation’s capital,” Morrisey said.

Morgan Taylor, one of the organizers of Saturday’s protest, said demonstrators who turned out on a hot summer day were hoping to spark enough backlash to Trump’s actions that the administration would be forced to pull back.

“It’s hot, but I’m glad to be here. It’s good to see all these people out here,” she said. “I can’t believe that this is happening in this country at this time.”

Protesters said they are concerned about what they view as Trump’s overreach, arguing that he had used crime as a pretext to impose his will on Washington.

John Finnigan, 55, was taking an afternoon bike ride when he ran into the protest in downtown Washington. A real estate construction manager who has lived in the capital for 27 years, he said that Trump’s moves were “ridiculous” because “crime is at a 30-year low here.”

“Hopefully some of the mayors and some of the residents will get out in front of it and try and make it harder for it to happen in other cities,” Finnigan said.

Jamie Dickstein, a 24-year-old teacher, said she was “very uncomfortable and worried” for the safety of her students given the “unmarked officers of all types” now roaming Washington and detaining people.

Dickstein said she turned out to protest with friends and relatives to “prevent a continuous domino effect going forward with other cities.”

The West Virginia National Guard activation suggests the administration sees the need for additional manpower, after Trump played down the need for Washington to hire more police officers.

Maj. Gen. James Seward, West Virginia’s adjutant general — a chief aide to the governor and commanding general of the National Guard — said in a statement that members of the Guard “stand ready to support our partners in the National Capital Region” and that the Guard’s “unique capabilities and preparedness make it an invaluable partner in this important undertaking.”

Federal agents have appeared in some of the city’s most highly trafficked neighborhoods, garnering a mix of praise, resistance and alarm from local residents and leaders across the country.

City leaders, who are obligated to cooperate with the president’s order under the federal laws that direct the district’s local governance, have sought to work with the administration, though they have bristled at the scope of the president’s takeover.

On Friday, the administration reversed course on an order that aimed to place the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration as an “emergency police commissioner” after the district’s top lawyer sued to contest. After a court hearing, Trump’s attorney general, Pam Bondi, issued a memo that directed D.C.’s Metropolitan Police Department to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement regardless of any city law.

District officials say they are evaluating how to best comply.

In his order Monday, Trump declared an emergency, citing the “city government’s failure to maintain public order.” He said that impeded the “federal government’s ability to operate efficiently to address the nation’s broader interests without fear of our workers being subjected to rampant violence.”

In a letter to city residents, Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Democrat, wrote that “our limited self-government has never faced the type of test we are facing right now.”

She added that if Washingtonians stick together, “we will show the entire nation what it looks like to fight for American democracy — even when we don’t have full access to it.”

Brown and Pesoli write for the Associated Press. AP writer Josh Boak contributed to this report.

The family of Virginia Giuffre, a woman who accused financier Jeffrey Epstein of sex-trafficking and assault, has expressed surprise at recent statements from United States President Donald Trump, alleging that Epstein “stole” her from his spa.

In a statement released late on Wednesday, the family called for more information to be released about the Epstein case.

“It was shocking to hear President Trump invoke our sister and say that he was aware that Virginia had been ‘stolen’ from Mar-a-Lago,” the family’s statement said.

“We and the public are asking for answers; survivors deserve this.”

Questions about Trump’s relationship with Epstein have dogged the president in recent weeks, with critics calling on him to release further documents the US government may have.

Trump himself has weighed in on the controversy, most recently while returning from his trip to Scotland this week.

A fallout over employee poaching?

As he flew on Air Force One, Trump brought up Giuffre, one of Epstein’s most high-profile accusers.

Giuffre died by suicide in April at her farm in western Australia. Previously, as a teenager, she had worked as a spa attendant at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, where her father was also employed in maintenance.

Trump accused Epstein, a convicted sex offender, of poaching employees like Giuffre.

“People were taken out of the spa, hired by him. In other words, gone,” Trump said. “When I heard about it, I told him, I said, ‘Listen, we don’t want you taking our people.’”

He added that Epstein’s actions caused a rupture in their relationship: “Not too long after that, he did it again. And I said, ‘Out of here.’”

His statements sparked a flurry of new media coverage. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt has since defended Trump’s actions.

“The fact remains that President Trump kicked Jeffrey Epstein out of his club for being a creep to his female employees,” she said.

Upon taking office for a second term, Trump and his officials pledged to release government documents related to high-profile cases, including the assassinations of figures like civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr and US President John F Kennedy.

Many of the files in question have been the subject of numerous conspiracy theories.

In the case of Epstein, conspiracy theories have swirled about the circumstances of his 2019 jailhouse death and the potential influence he wielded over powerful acquaintances.

Figures in Trump’s current administration, like Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) director Kash Patel and his deputy director Dan Bongino, openly speculated whether Epstein had a “black book” or “client list” that he used to coerce government and industry leaders.

Attorney General Pam Bondi fuelled those rumours when she appeared on Fox News in February and said such a list was “sitting on my desk right now”.

Family calls for Maxwell to ‘rot’

Thus far, the Trump administration’s document releases have failed to produce major revelations about the Epstein scandal.

In July, the FBI and the Department of Justice issued a joint statement also affirming that their review revealed no client list and no evidence that Epstein blackmailed figures of power.

That review, however, did little to abate speculation among those who have been following the Epstein conspiracy theories, including members of Trump’s “Make America Great Again” (MAGA) base.

Reports have since emerged that the Justice Department briefed Trump about his name appearing in the Epstein files, and Democrats have sought to leverage the controversy to dent Trump’s popularity.

Trump, meanwhile, has called for federal grand jury records to be released, though experts point out that those are unlikely to contain the full scope of evidence in the Epstein case.

Justice Department officials also met last week with Ghislaine Maxwell, a convicted sex offender and former girlfriend of Epstein who is accused of sex-trafficking and grooming victims on his behalf.

Attorney General Bondi has said some Epstein materials cannot be released, as they contain sensitive information about victims.

Maxwell, meanwhile, has offered to testify before Congress in exchange for a pardon and has petitioned the Supreme Court to review her case. She is serving a 20-year sentence in federal prison.

In Wednesday’s message, Giuffre’s relatives urged the government not to pardon Maxwell for her crimes.

“Ghislaine Maxwell is a monster who deserves to rot in prison for the rest of her life,” their statement read.

The family of Virginia Giuffre, who was among Jeffrey Epstein’s most well-known sex trafficking accusers, said that it was shocking to hear President Trump say the disgraced financier “stole” Giuffre from him and urged that Epstein’s former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell remain in prison.

Giuffre, who had accused Britain’s Prince Andrew and other influential men of sexually exploiting her as a teenager trafficked by Epstein, has been a central figure in conspiracy theories tied to the case. She died by suicide this year.

Her family’s statement is the latest development involving Epstein, who took his own life in a New York jail in 2019 while facing federal sex trafficking charges, and the Republican president, who was his one-time friend. Trump denied prior knowledge of Epstein’s crimes and said he cut off their relationship years ago, but he still faces questions about the case.

Trump, responding to a reporter’s question on Tuesday, said that he got upset with Epstein over his poaching of workers and that Epstein had stolen Giuffre from his Palm Beach, Fla., club.

“It was shocking to hear President Trump invoke our sister and say that he was aware that Virginia had been ‘stolen’ from Mar-a-Lago,” the family’s statement said.

“We and the public are asking for answers; survivors deserve this,” it continued.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt noted the president was responding to a reporter’s question and didn’t bring up Giuffre himself.

“The fact remains that President Trump kicked Jeffrey Epstein out of his club for being a creep to his female employees,” she said.

The family’s statement comes shortly after the Justice Department interviewed Maxwell, who was convicted in 2021 on sex trafficking and other charges and is serving a 20-year sentence in Tallahassee, Fla. Deputy Atty. Gen. Todd Blanche interviewed Maxwell in a Florida courthouse, though details about what she said haven’t become public.

Maxwell’s lawyers have said she testified truthfully and answered questions “about 100 different people.” They have said she’s willing to answer more questions from Congress if she is granted immunity from future prosecution for her testimony and if lawmakers agree to satisfy other conditions.

A message seeking comment about the Giuffre family’s statement was sent to Maxwell’s attorney Thursday.

A Trump administration official said the president is not currently considering clemency action for Maxwell.

Giuffre said she was approached by Maxwell in 2000 and eventually was hired by her as a masseuse for Epstein. But the couple effectively made her a sexual servant, she said, pressuring her into gratifying not only Epstein but his friends and associates.

Giuffre said she was flown around the world for appointments with men including Prince Andrew while she was 17 and 18 years old.

The men, including Andrew, denied it and assailed Giuffre’s credibility. She acknowledged changing some key details of her account.

The prince settled with Giuffre in 2022 for an undisclosed sum, agreeing to make a “substantial donation” to her survivors’ organization.

The American-born Giuffre lived in Australia for years and became an advocate for sex trafficking survivors after emerging as a central figure in Epstein’s prolonged downfall.

Her family’s statement said she endured death threats and financial ruin over her cooperation with authorities against Epstein and Maxwell.

Catalini writes for the Associated Press.

The president of the University of Virginia has resigned his position under pressure from the United States Department of Justice, which pushed for his departure amid scrutiny of the school’s diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) practices.

In an email sent to the university community on Friday and circulated on social media, university president James Ryan said he was resigning to protect the institution from facing the ire of the government.

“I cannot make a unilateral decision to fight the federal government in order to save my own job,” he wrote.

“To do so would not only be quixotic but appear selfish and self-centered to the hundreds of employees who would lose their jobs, the researchers who would lose their funding, and the hundreds of students who could lose financial aid or have their visas withheld.”

Ryan’s resignation has been accepted by the board, two sources told The New York Times, which first broke the story. It remains unclear exactly when he will leave his post.

His departure is the latest indication of ongoing tensions between the administration of President Donald Trump and the academic community.

During his second term, President Trump has increasingly sought to reshape higher education by attacking diversity initiatives, pushing for crackdowns on pro-Palestinian student protesters, and seeking reviews of hiring and enrollment practices.

Ryan’s departure marks a new frontier in a campaign that has almost exclusively targeted Ivy League schools. Critics also say it shows a shift in the government’s rationale, away from allegations of rampant anti-Semitism on campus and towards more aggressive policing of diversity initiatives.

Just a day prior, the Justice Department announced it would investigate another public school, the University of California, for its use of diversity standards.

Ryan, who has led the University of Virginia since 2018, faced criticism that he failed to heed federal orders to eliminate DEI policies.

An anonymous source told The Associated Press news agency that his removal was pushed by the Justice Department as a way to help resolve an inquiry targeting the school.

Ted Mitchell, the president of the American Council on Education, called Ryan’s ouster an example of the Trump administration using “thuggery instead of rational discourse”.

“This is a dark day for the University of Virginia, a dark day for higher education, and it promises more of the same,” Mitchell said. “It’s clear the administration is not done and will use every tool that it can make or invent to exert its will over higher education.”

Virginia’s Democratic senators react

In a joint statement, Virginia’s senators, both Democrats, said it was outrageous that the Trump administration would demand Ryan’s resignation over “‘culture war’ traps”.

“This is a mistake that hurts Virginia’s future,” Senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine said.

After campaigning on a promise to end “wokeness” in education, Trump signed an executive order in January calling for an end to federal funding that would support educational institutions with DEI programming.

He accused schools of indoctrinating “children in radical, anti-American ideologies” without the permission of their parents.

The Department of Education has since opened investigations into dozens of colleges, arguing that diversity initiatives discriminate against white and Asian American students.

The response from schools has been scattered. Some have closed DEI offices, ended diversity scholarships and no longer require diversity statements as part of the hiring process. Still, others have held firm on diversity policies.

The University of Virginia became a flashpoint after conservative critics accused it of simply renaming its DEI initiatives. The school’s governing body voted to shutter the DEI office in March and end diversity policies in admissions, hiring, financial aid and other areas.

Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin celebrated the action, declaring that “DEI is done at the University of Virginia”.

But America First Legal, a conservative group founded by Trump aide Stephen Miller, said that DEI had simply taken another form at the school. In a May letter to the Justice Department, the group said the university chose to “rename, repackage, and redeploy the same unlawful infrastructure under a lexicon of euphemisms”.

The group directly took aim at Ryan, noting that he joined hundreds of other college presidents in signing a public statement condemning the “overreach and political interference” of the Trump administration.

On Friday, the group said it will continue to use every available tool to root out what it has called discriminatory systems.

“This week’s developments make clear: public universities that accept federal funds do not have a license to violate the Constitution,” Megan Redshaw, a lawyer with the group, said in a statement. “They do not get to impose ideological loyalty tests, enforce race and sex-based preferences, or defy lawful executive authority.”

Until now, the White House had directed most of its attention at Harvard University and other elite institutions that Trump sees as bastions of liberalism.

Harvard has lost more than $2.6bn in federal research grants amid its battle with the government, which also attempted to block the school from hosting foreign students and threatened to revoke its tax-exempt status.

Harvard and its $53bn endowment are uniquely positioned to weather the government’s financial pressure.

Public universities, however, are far more dependent on taxpayer money and could be more vulnerable. The University of Virginia’s $10bn endowment is among the largest for public universities, while the vast majority have far less.

June 25 (UPI) — The Department of Housing and Urban Development on Wednesday announced plans to move 2,7000 employees from its headquarters in the District of Columbia to space in northern Virginia occupied by the National Science Foundation.

It’s the first major agency to relocate headquarters as part of the Trump administration’s effort to reduce real estate, officials said at a news conference.

HUD is currently on Seventh Street near the National Mall. The 10-story Robert C. Weaver building, which HUD Secretary Turner previously described as “the ugliest building in D.C.,” opened in 1968 shortly after the agency was created. The building is named after the first HUD secretary.

The building was put on the National Register of Historic Places in 2008.

In all there are approximately 9,600 HUD employees nationwide.

Turner posted video of the current and planned headquarters on X.

The building is now occupied by 1,800 employees of the NSF, which is an independent agency of the federal government. A relocation timeline wasn’t announced.

NSF, which was created in 1981, moved into the building in 2017 after 24 years in Arlington, Va.

NSF funds approximately 25% of all federally supported basic research conducted by the United States’ colleges and universities.

The Trump administration is planning a 57% reduction from NSF’s previous $9 billion budget. Those cuts are part of broader reduced funding of health research cuts, impacting the National Institutes of Health.

Michael Peters, the commissioner of the GSA’s Public Building Service, said GSA is “committed to helping them continue to fulfill their mission.”

Peters said there are more than $22 million in yearly operational expenditures of the current HUD building.

“The Robert C. Weaver Federal Building requires hundreds of millions in long-term repairs and this move will ensure they quickly have access to a modern work environment that fits their needs,” Peters said in a HUD news release.

Peters appeared at a news conference with Turner and Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin.

Foundation employees gathered and shouted, “We won’t go!” and “N-S-F,” The news conference was relocated to a more private space in the building, WRC-TV reported.

“It is time to turn the page on the Weaver Building and relocate to a new headquarters that prioritizes the well-being of HUD employees and properly reflects the passion and excellence of our team,” Turner said. “There are serious concerns with the current state of HUD’s headquarters, including health hazards, leaks, and structural and maintenance failures. Many of these risks will needlessly and irresponsibly continue to absorb taxpayer dollars. Relocating is about more than just changing buildings; it’s about a mission-minded shift that we hope will inspire every employee.”

Youngkin, a Republican, supports the change.

“Virginia is a great place to be headquartered, and we are excited to welcome the Department of Housing and Urban Development and their over 2,700 headquarters-based employees to the best state in America to live, work, and raise a family,” Youngkin said. “Since the Trump administration started transforming the federal government to better serve the American people, our team has been focused on seizing the new opportunities that this presents for the Commonwealth.”

The union representing employees of the National Science Foundation released a statement criticizing the move.

“While Secretary Turner and his staff are busy enjoying private dining and a custom gym, NSF employees are being displaced with no plan, no communication, and no respect,” the American Federation of Government Employees Local 3403 wrote in a statement. “This callous disregard for taxpayer dollars and NSF employees comes after the Administration already cut NSF’s budget, staff and science grants and forced NSF employees back into the office.”

The union said it didn’t receive details on the plans to move.

“This kind of let-them-eat-cake approach to government is absurd,” the union said. “At a time when they claim to be cutting government waste, it is unbelievable that government funding is being redirected to build a palace-like office for the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. The hypocrisy is truly dumbfounding.”

The area in Alexandria is also home to other federal offices, including the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services application support center and the office of the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia.

RICHMOND, Va. — Democrats in Virginia have built up a hefty fundraising advantage for their effort to reclaim the governor’s mansion in a November election that is seen as a bellwether for the party in power in Washington ahead of the 2026 midterms.

Democrat Abigail Spanberger, a former CIA case manager turned congresswoman, has a more than 2-to-1 fundraising advantage over her GOP opponent for governor, Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, who has struggled to draw support from her fellow Republicans. Both were unopposed for their party’s nominations and were able to focus on the fall general election without having to overcome a challenge in this week’s primaries. The match-up means Virginia is all but certain to elect the state’s first female governor.

Spanberger has amassed $6.5 million toward her campaign for governor over the last two months after raising $6.7 million between January and March, according to the nonpartisan Virginia Public Access Project. Combined with the money Spanberger raised in 2024, she has gathered $22.8 million and still has $14.3 million in her coffers.

Earle-Sears, meanwhile, spent more than she earned between April and June, bringing in $3.5 million and spending $4.6 million. Between January and March, she also raised a little over $3.1 million. In total, she has raked in nearly $9.2 million since launching her campaign last September. Now, she has a little under $3 million in the bank, according to Virginia Public Access Project data.

In a statement, Earle-Sears’ campaign said the candidate is putting forward a message for Virginians that money can’t buy.

“Clearly the Spanberger campaign needs a lot of help attempting to erase Abigail’s bad voting record on issues that actually matter to Virginians,” press secretary Peyton Vogel said in an email. “This race isn’t being bought — it’s being built on a message that matters.”

Virginia is one of two states, along with New Jersey, that host statewide elections this year. The contests will be closely watched as a measure of whether voters in the shadow of Washington will embrace President Trump’s aggressive effort to overhaul the federal government, or be repelled by it.

Democrats’ outsized fundraising lead ahead of the primaries may reflect local Democratic enthusiasm and the party’s ability to push people to the polls in light of Trump being in office. Mark J. Rozell, dean of George Mason University’s Schar School of Policy and Government, also referenced the noticeable frostiness among leading state Republicans. The party’s statewide nominees have yet to campaign together, despite securing their nominations at the end of April.

“Enthusiasm drives fundraising and in Virginia right now the Democrats’ voting base has much greater enthusiasm“ than Republicans, Rozell said. ”It is reminiscent of Trump’s first term in office when Democratic fundraising and ultimately voting overwhelmed the Republicans in Virginia.”

Money does not guarantee success, however. In the last Virginia governor’s race, former Gov. Terry McAuliffe outspent Republican Glenn Youngkin, who had invested $20 million of his own money in the race. Youngkin still clinched the election by nearly two points.

Youngkin, who is term-limited from seeking reelection, has offered more than $21,000 in support to Earle-Sears through his political action committee.

When asked whether he would donate more, his PAC responded, “Governor Youngkin is working to elect the entire GOP ticket and is urging all Virginians to support the commonsense team this November to keep Virginia winning.”

The Democrats’ fundraising advantage isn’t confined to the governor’s race.

State Sen. Ghazala Hashmi, who eked out a primary win in a close three-way contest for lieutenant governor, raised nearly $1.8 million in her primary race and has $462,000 remaining.

The Republican nominee, conservative talk-radio host John Reid, raised nearly $312,000 since launching his campaign and has $116,000 remaining.

The only statewide GOP candidate with a fundraising lead, incumbent Attorney General Jason Miyares, has $2.3 million in the bank after raising a total of $4.6 million. His Democratic opponent, Jay Jones, has raised $2.7 million. He had about $493,000 left at the beginning of June, reports show.

This year, all three Democratic statewide candidates are backed by Clean Virginia, a political group that pushes for clean energy and often takes on legislative challenges against Dominion Energy, Virginia’s largest utility.

The two groups are some of the most influential entities lobbying on state politics and policy. With energy demand likely to be a key issue in November, their influence could be significant.

According to the nonpartisan public-access group, Spanberger has taken in $465,000 from the environmental organization. On Tuesday, Clean Virginia endorsed Hashmi’s candidacy for lieutenant governor, following its previous donations to her state Senate campaign committee.

During his campaign, Jones also received $1.5 million from Clean Virginia, while his primary opponent, Democrat Shannon Taylor, accepted $800,000 from Dominion Energy between 2024 and 2025. Clean Virginia released attack ads targeting Taylor for accepting Dominion money.

The energy utility has become entangled in other statewide battles. On the Republican ticket, Earle-Sears accepted $50,000 from Dominion in March. Miyares also gained $450,000 from the utility so far this year.

Clean Virginia has donated to both Democrats and Republicans, including to candidates running for the House of Delegates, where all 100 members are up for reelection in November.

Democrats who control the legislature are hoping to keep or expand their thin majority and amend the state’s Constitution to protect rights to voting, marriage equality and abortion.

Democratic candidates have raised about $16.9 million in those races, with $3.2 million stemming from House Speaker Don Scott.

Meanwhile, Republicans have raised $8.8 million, with former Minority Leader Todd Gilbert earning over $643,000, and newly tapped Minority Leader Terry Kilgore raising nearly $470,000.

Diaz writes for the Associated Press.

June 15 (UPI) — A large storm Saturday evening dumped as much as four inches of rain in just a half-hour period in West Virginia, causing flash flooding that left at least three people dead.

Louis Vargo, the director of the Wheeling-Ohio County Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency, said at a news conference Sunday that he had never seen quite the devastation in the county in his 35 years serving the county.

Local officials did not provide details about the three deaths. But Vargo said four or five people were still reported missing, while Wheeling Fire Department Chief Jim Blazier said crews were using drones and dogs to search for them.

The Wheeling Fire Department shared photos of cars submerged in the water of Big Wheeling Creek at the Junior Avenue Bridge.

The National Weather Service said in an early morning advisory Sunday that a flood watch would remain in effect through 8 p.m. local time for southwest Pennsylvania, eastern Ohio and northern West Virginia.

Localized flooding is possible through Monday due to saturated ground and some heavier rain showers with heavy rain possible into Tuesday. There is a marginal risk of excessive rain leading to flash flooding in the region.

More than a thousand customers remained without power on Sunday afternoon, according to data from the Appalachian Power Company.

West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey has declared a state of emergency in Ohio County.

June 2 (UPI) — Five people were shot, including one person fatally, in a shooting that erupted at a large outdoor gathering in southern Virginia over the weekend, authorities said.

According to preliminary information, the early Sunday shooting involved gunmen in a Chrysler sedan and individuals at a party in the 100 block of Carver Drive in Danville, a city of about 42,000 near the Virginia-North Carolina border.

The Danville Police Department said in a statement that the shooting occurred shortly before 1:30 a.m. local time Sunday. Officers dispatched to the area following reports of shots fired found a deceased man, later identified as Jay’Shaun Tiejae White, 22, in the front passenger seat of a Chrysler sedan with gunshot wounds to his upper body.

Officers found the suspected driver of the vehicle, identified as a 26-year-old man, suffering from a gunshot wound on an adjacent street. The victim was then transported by ambulance to Sovah Health Danville.

Three additional victims later arrived on their own at the health center with injuries from the gunfight, the police department said.

The victims have been identified as two men, ages 31 and 25, and a 19-year-old woman. The woman has since been treated and released, while the three men have been transferred to other medical facilities, police said.

Juwan Montel Baker, 26, of Danville, has been arrested in connection with the shooting. Police said he was a passenger in the sedan, and he has been charged with three counts each of discharging a firearm from a moving vehicle, malicious wounding and use of a firearm in the commission of a felony.

According to The Gun Violence Archive, there have been at least 127 mass shootings involving four or more people shot so far in the United States this year.

May 26 (UPI) — Former Culpeper County (Va.) Sheriff Scott Jenkins won’t have to go to prison for bribery after President Donald Trump pardoned him on Monday.

Trump accused a “corrupt and weaponized Biden” Department of Justice of engaging in an “overzealous” prosecution of Jenkins that resulted in his December conviction on bribery and other charges in the U.S. District Court of Western Virginia.

“In fact, during his trial, when Sheriff Jenkins tried to offer exculpatory evidence to support himself, the Biden [-nominated] Judge, Robert Ballou, refused to allow it, shut him down and then went on a tirade,” Trump said Monday in a Truth Social post.

“In federal, city and state courts, radical left or liberal judges allow into evidence what they feel like, not what is mandated under the Constitution and rules of evidence,” Trump continued.

“This sheriff is a victim of an overzealous Biden Department of Justice and doesn’t deserve to spend a single day in jail.”

He said Jenkins “was persecuted by radical left ‘monsters’ and ‘left for dead,'” so he granted him a full and unconditional pardon.

The federal court in December convicted Jenkins of accepting $70,000 in bribes and campaign contributions to appoint local businessmen as auxiliary deputy sheriffs and in March sentenced him to 10 years in prison, The Hill reported.

He was convicted on seven counts of bribery concerning programs receiving public funds, four counts of honest services mail and wire fraud, and one count of conspiracy.

Jenkins was the Culpeper County sheriff from 2012 until losing his bid for re-election in 2023.

Two of those from whom he was convicted for accepting bribes were undercover FBI agents.

Although the alleged bribers were from those who lacked training and weren’t vetted, Jenkins offered them badges and sheriff department credentials, federal prosecutors said.

After Jenkins in March was sentenced to serve 10 years in prison, prosecuting U.S. Attorney Zachary T. Lee said those who received the badges and credentials did not provide any services for the county or the sheriff’s office.

“Scott Jenkins violated his oath of office and the faith the citizens of Culpeper County placed in him when he engaged in a cash-for-badges scheme,” Lee said in a statement.

“We hold our elected law enforcement officials to a higher standard of conduct,” Lee added. “This case proves that when those officials use their authority for unjust personal enrichment, the Department of Justice will hold them accountable.”

RICHMOND, Va. — U.S. Rep. Gerald “Gerry” Connolly, an outspoken Democrat who sought key reforms in the federal government while bringing transformational development to his populous Virginia district, died Wednesday. He was 75.

Connolly, who most recently held a prominent position as the ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, served in Congress for more than 16 years.

He died at home in the company of family members, his family said in a statement. Connolly announced in 2024 that he had esophageal cancer and said a few months later that he planned to retire from Congress. His death leaves House Republicans with a 220-212 majority.

The spirited and at times bullheaded Fairfax Democrat became known for his voluble nature and willingness to engage in spirited debates. In one hearing, he accused Republicans of engaging in a witch hunt against the IRS, asking a witness if they ever read Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible.”

“I am heartbroken over the loss of my dear friend,” said Democratic Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia. “To me, he exemplified the very best of public service.” He said Connolly “met every challenge with tenacity and purpose, including his final battle with cancer, which he faced with courage, grace, and quiet dignity.”

A fixture of Virginia politics for three decades, Connolly was first elected to the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors in 1995. On the county board, he steered the transition of northern Virginia’s Tysons Corner from a traffic-heavy mall area to a downtown business hub.

In 2003, Connolly was elected board chairman, and he continued pushing for transportation investment that had been debated among officials for decades. Connolly sought billions in state and federal dollars to develop the regional rail system’s Silver Line connecting the national capital region to Tysons Corner.

Connolly’s dream was realized with the Silver Line’s opening in 2014, and eight years later, the rail line was extended an extra 11 miles to reach Dulles International Airport.

As the extension opened in 2022, Connolly said: “Doing big things is difficult — the world is filled with naysayers.”

Connolly’s local government experience launched his congressional career. He was elected in 2008 after flipping an open Republican-held seat by nearly 42,000 votes. In his victory speech, Connolly said he would use his position to ensure the federal bureaucracy is “a responsive, accountable instrument for the people we serve.”

“If we insist the government must work for all of our citizens again, we cannot fail,” Connolly said.

Connolly got his first taste of Congress while working as a staffer for the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations in the 1980s. Decades later, Connolly became a member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.

He also served as a member of the House Oversight Committee and led Democrats on subcommittees on government innovation and information technology.

Connolly cosponsored the 2010 Telework Enhancement Act, which requires federal agencies to allow a portion of their employees to telework at least one day a week. In 2014, he cosponsored another bill that reformed federal IT management and has since saved the government billions of dollars, according to the Government Accountability Office.

He also closely followed the financial burden of the slowing U.S. Postal Service, becoming a prominent voice accusing President Trump and former Postmaster General Louis DeJoy of seeking to winnow the postal service to suppress mail-in ballots during the 2020 presidential election.

Connolly reached a new milestone late last year as he was chosen ranking member of the House Oversight Committee. He defeated Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for the position. The victory came shortly after Connolly announced that he had been diagnosed with esophageal cancer and would undergo chemotherapy and immunotherapy.

As ranking member, Connolly called on inspectors general to investigate the Department of Government Efficiency. He and other Democrats also introduced a pair of resolutions demanding the Trump administration turn over documents and information about billionaire advisor Elon Musk’s potential conflicts of interest and the firings of federal workers.

He said in late April that after “grueling treatments,” he learned that the cancer had returned and that he decided to step down from his post on the committee and would not seek reelection.

“With no rancor and a full heart, I move into this final chapter full of pride in what we’ve accomplished together over 30 years,” he said.

Diaz writes for the Associated Press.

FREDERICKSBURG, Va. — Kat Renfroe was at Mass when she saw a volunteer opportunity in the bulletin. Her Catholic parish was looking for tutors for Afghan youth, newly arrived in the United States.

There was a personal connection for Renfroe. Her husband, now retired from the Marine Corps, had deployed to Afghanistan four times. “He just never talked about any other region the way he did about the people there,” she said.

She signed up to volunteer. “It changed my life,” she said.

That was seven years ago. She and her husband are still close to the young man she tutored, along with his family. And Renfroe has made a career of working with refugees. She now supervises the Fredericksburg migration and refugee services office, part of Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Arlington.

That faith-based work is now in peril. As part of President Trump’s immigration crackdown, his administration banned most incoming refugees in January and froze federal funds for the programs. Across the country, local resettlement agencies like hers have been forced to lay off staff or close their doors. Refugees and other legal migrants have been left in limbo, including Afghans who supported the U.S. in their native country.

The upheaval is particularly poignant in this part of Virginia, which boasts both strong ties to the military and to resettled Afghans, along with faith communities that support both groups.

Situated south of Washington and wedged among military bases, Fredericksburg and its surrounding counties are home to tens of thousands of veterans and active-duty personnel.

Virginia has resettled more Afghan refugees per capita than any other state. The Fredericksburg area now has halal markets, Afghan restaurants and school outreach programs for families who speak Dari and Pashto.

Many of these U.S.-based Afghans are still waiting for family members to join them — hopes that appear on indefinite hold. Families fear a new travel ban will emerge with Afghanistan on the list. A subset of Afghans already in the U.S. may soon face deportation as the Trump administration ends their temporary protected status.

“I think it’s tough for military families, especially those who have served, to look back on 20 years and not feel as though there’s some confusion and maybe even some anger about the situation,” Renfroe said.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops announced in April that it was ending its decades-old partnership with the federal government to resettle refugees. The move came after the Trump administration halted the program’s federal funding, which the bishops’ conference channels to local Catholic Charities.

The Fredericksburg Catholic Charities office has continued aiding current clients and operating with minimal layoffs thanks to its diocese’s support and state funds. But it’s unclear what the local agency’s future will be without federal funding or arriving refugees.

“I’ll just keep praying,” Renfroe said. “It’s all I can do from my end.”

A legacy of faith-based service

Religious groups have long been at the heart of U.S. refugee resettlement work. Until the recent policy changes, seven out of the 10 national organizations that partnered with the U.S. government to resettle refugees were faith-based. They were aided by hundreds of local affiliates and religious congregations.

Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Arlington has been working with refugees for 50 years, starting with Vietnamese people after the fall of Saigon. For the last 10 years, most of its clients have been Afghans, with an influx arriving in 2021 after the Taliban returned to power.

Area faith groups like Renfroe’s large church — St. Mary’s in Fredericksburg — have been key to helping Afghan newcomers get on their feet. Volunteers from local congregations furnish homes, provide meals and drive families to appointments.

“As a church, we care deeply. As Christians, we care deeply,” said Joi Rogers, who led the Afghan ministry at her Southern Baptist church. “As military, we also just have an obligation to them as people that committed to helping the U.S. in our mission over there.”

Rogers’ husband, Jake, a former Marine, is one of the pastors at Pillar, a network of 16 Southern Baptist churches that minister to military members. Their flagship location is near Quantico, the Marine base in northern Virginia, where nearly 5,000 Afghans were evacuated to after the fall of Kabul.

With Southern Baptist relief funds, Pillar Church hired Joi Rogers to work part time as a volunteer coordinator in the base’s makeshift refugee camp in 2021. She helped organize programming, including children’s activities. Her position was under the auspices of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which the government contracted to help run the camp.

For Pillar’s founding pastor, Colby Garman, the effort was an easy decision. “It was affecting so many of the lives of our families here who had served in Afghanistan.”

“We’ve been told to love God and love our neighbor,” Garman said. “I said to our people, this is an opportunity, a unique opportunity, for us to demonstrate love for our neighbor.”

Christians called to care for refugees, politics aside

Within five months, as the Afghans left the base for locations around the country, the support at the camp transitioned to the broader community. Pillar started hosting an English class. Church members visited locally resettled families and tried to keep track of their needs.

For one Pillar Church couple in nearby Stafford, Va., that meant opening their home to a teenager who had arrived alone in the U.S. after being separated from her family at the Kabul airport — a situation they heard about through the church.

Katlyn Williams and her husband Phil Williams, then an active-duty Marine, served as foster parents for Mahsa Zarabi, now 20, during her junior and senior years of high school. They introduced her to many American firsts: the beach, homecoming, learning to drive.

“The community was great,” Zarabi said. “They welcomed me very well.”

She attends college nearby; the Williamses visit her monthly. During the Muslim holy month of Ramadan this spring, they broke fast with her and her family, now safely in Virginia.

“She has and will always be part of our family,” Katlyn Williams said.

Her friend Joi Rogers, while careful not to speak for Pillar, said watching the recent dismantling of the federal refugee program has “been very hard for me personally.”

Veterans and members of the military tend to vote Republican. Most Southern Baptists are among Trump’s staunch white evangelical supporters. For those reasons, Pillar pastor Garman knows it may be surprising to some that his church network has been steadfast in supporting refugees.

“I totally understand that is the case, but I think that is a bias of just not knowing who we are and what we do,” Garman said after a recent Sunday service.

Later, sitting in the church office with his wife, Jake Rogers said, “We recognize that there are really faithful Christians that could lie on either side of the issue of refugee policy.”

“Regardless of your view on what our national stance should be on this,” he said, “we as Christ followers should have a heart for these people that reflects God’s heart for these people.”

Unity through faith and refugee work

Later that week, nearly two dozen Afghan women gathered around a table at the Fredericksburg refugee office, while children played with toys in the corner. The class topic was self-care, led by an Afghan staff member. Along the back wall waited dishes of rice and chicken, part of a celebratory potluck to mark the end of Ramadan.

Sitting at the front was Suraya Qaderi, the last client to arrive at the resettlement agency before the U.S. government suspended new arrivals.

She was in Qatar waiting to be cleared for a flight to the United States when the Trump administration started canceling approved travel plans for refugees. “I was one of the lucky last few,” said Qaderi, who was allowed to proceed.

She arrived in Virginia on Jan. 24, the day the administration sent stop-work orders to resettlement agencies.

Qaderi worked for the election commission in Afghanistan, and she received a special immigrant visa for her close ties to the U.S. government. She was a child when her father disappeared under the previous Taliban regime.

The return of the Taliban government was like “the end of the world,” she said. As a woman, she lost many of her rights, including her ability to work and leave home unaccompanied.

She studied Islamic law during her university years. She believes the Taliban’s interpretation of Islam is wrong on the rights of women. “Islam is not only for them,” she said.

The resettlement office includes not only Catholic staffers, but many Muslim employees and clients. “We find so much commonality between our faiths,” Renfroe said.

Her Catholic faith guides her work, and it’s sustaining her through the uncertainty of what the funding and policy changes will mean for her organization, which remains committed to helping refugees.

“I’m happy to go back to being a volunteer again if that’s what it takes,” Renfroe said.

Regardless of government contracts, she wants local refugee families to know “that we’re still here, that we care about them and that we want to make sure that they have what they need.”

Stanley writes for the Associated Press.