Virginia

VIENNA, Va. (AP) — Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen announced that 100,000 businesses have joined a new database that collects “beneficial ownership” information on firms as part of a new government effort to unmask shell company owners.

Yellen said in remarks Monday that the new Treasury database that is collecting beneficial ownership information sends the message that “the United States is not a haven for dirty money.”

NORFOLK, Va. (AP) — A former U.S. Navy SEAL who says he shot Osama bin Laden is at the center of a much different fight in Virginia, where plans for a military-themed brewery are drawing opposition over his alleged racist and homophobic remarks.

Robert J. O’Neill has a small ownership stake in Armed Forces Brewing Company and has served as its brand ambassador. His recent social media complaint about a Navy sailor who performs as a drag queen and a police report alleging he used a racial slur are fueling efforts to stop the brewery from opening in military-friendly Norfolk.

ARLINGTON, Va. (AP) — The owner of a Virginia house that exploded as police tried to execute a search warrant is believed to have died in the blast, officials said Tuesday, as details emerged about numerous grievances he expressed against neighbors and others on social media and in lawsuits.

James Yoo, 56, was identified by Arlington County Police Chief Andy Penn at a news conference as the person whose actions brought police to the Arlington home after he fired a “flare-type gun” from inside the house into the neighborhood more than 30 times.

ARLINGTON, Va. (AP) — Hours before a massive explosion destroyed a duplex and shook a Virginia suburb of Washington, D.C., a suspect inside his home fired a flare gun 30 to 40 times into the neighborhood, drawing a large police response, officials said Tuesday.

All officers escaped serious injury but it was unclear what happened to the suspect who was inside when the building was leveled by the explosion Monday night, Arlington County, Virginia, police spokesperson Ashley Savage said.

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) — A statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee that was a focal point of a deadly white nationalist protest in 2017 has been melted down and will be repurposed into new works of art.

The Jefferson School African American Heritage Center, a Charlottesville-based Black history museum, said Thursday that the statue had been destroyed.

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Former Virginia House Speaker Eileen Filler-Corn has decided against a bid for governor in 2025 and will instead run next year to represent the competitive northern Virginia congressional seat being vacated by a fellow Democrat, U.S. Rep. Jennifer Wexton.

Filler-Corn, who has served in the Virginia General Assembly since 2010 and was the first woman and first Jewish person to hold the post of speaker, discussed her decision with The Associated Press on Tuesday afternoon before filing official paperwork.

NORFOLK, Va. (AP) — The company that owns the salvage rights to the Titanic shipwreck has cancelled plans to retrieve more artifacts from the site because the leader of the upcoming expedition died in the Titan submersible implosion, according to documents filed in a U.S. District Court on Wednesday.

The decision could impact a looming court battle between the company and the U.S. government, which has been trying to stop the 2024 mission. U.S. attorneys have said the firm’s original plans to enter the ship’s hull would violate a federal law that treats the wreck as a gravesite.

ABOARD A U.S. MILITARY AIRCRAFT, Oct 9 (Reuters) - The United States' top general on Monday warned Iran not to get involved in the crisis in Israel and said he did not want the conflict to the broaden, as Lebanese armed group Hezbollah fired a salvo of rockets onto northern Israel

The White House earlier on Monday said that Iran was complicit even though the United States has no intelligence or evidence that points to Iran's direct participation in attacks in Israel by Palestinian Islamist group Hamas.

HAMPTON, Va. (AP) — Students were dancing in the aisles and their seats in the Hampton University auditorium long before Vice President Kamala Harris took the stage for the first stop of her fall college tour.

Jaden Clemons and Layth Carpenter, both 18-year-old freshmen, said they viewed Harris as “authentic” and “relatable” as the alum of Howard University, another historically Black school.

(AP) --- The U.S. government has warned a Virginia judge that allowing an American Marine to keep an Afghan war orphan risks violating international law and could be viewed around the world as “endorsing an act of international child abduction,” according to secret court records reviewed by The Associated Press.