Free Republic

Suspect called 'difficult to work with' Police in Moneta, Virginia, said a shooter fired at a WDBJ-TV media crew in the middle of their live shot at Bridgewater Plaza, killing the cameraman and correspondent and fleeing the scene. Multiple outlets reported the suspect shot himself, but police haven’t yet confirmed. The Associated Press, citing police, released the suspect’s name as Vester Lee Flanagan II, age 41, of Roanoke. But he went by another name while working as a reporter at that station, as well as ones in North Carolina and Texas: Brice Williams. Officials with the ATF and FBI are...

The gunman who shot and killed a Virginia TV crew was a man dressed all in black. Cameraman Adam Ward captured the man approaching as he fired at him and reporter Alison Parker. The shooter has not yet been identified. According to the station manager Jeffrey A. Marks, it appears that the cameraman was shot first, and Parker was shot while running away.

<p>According to a former WDBJ employee, Vester L. Flanagan — the man authorities say they’re seeking in connection with Wednesday’s fatal shooting of two journliasts — worked at WDBJ as a reporter about a year using the on-air name Bryce Williams.</p>

A news crew for a CBS affiliate in Virginia was gunned down during a live report near the Bedford County-Franklin County line in Moneta early Wednesday morning, law enforcement officials said. Police and emergency services were on the scene, which remains active. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms is also involved in the investigation. WDBJ7 reporter Allison Parker, 24, and cameraman Adam Ward, 27, were killed by an unidentified assailant who approached the pair as they were filming an interview at the Bridgewater Plaza and fired in their direction as many as eight times. Footage of the shooting aired...

A gunman killed a reporter and videographer for a CBS affiliate in Virginia in a shooting that was broadcast live Wednesday morning. Alison Parker and Adam Ward, a reporter and cameraman for CBS Roanoke affiliate WDBJ-TV, died in the shooting, Parker's mother confirmed to CBS News. WDBJ-TV reports that deputies from Franklin County and Bedford County were on the scene. The shooting happened at Bridgewater Plaza in Moneta, Virginia.

Democratic Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe is facing scrutiny after reports surfaced that he boarded a state-owned aircraft to travel to a recent U2 concert also attended by Bill and Hillary Clinton. Super PAC America Rising filed a series of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests with the office of the Virginia governor asking for documents related to McAuliffe’s travel and schedule since he assumed the governorship in January 2014. […] Last week, reports surfaced that McAuliffe paid for a state-owned aircraft to transport him to a U2 concert on July 31 at New York City’s Madison Square Garden, a trip...

The Democratic Governors Association is looking to give its members a greater say in drawing congressional boundaries during the 2020 redistricting process. The group announced Tuesday that Virginia Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe and EMILY’s List President Stephanie Schriock would lead fundraising and other efforts in a new initiative aimed at helping Democrats in 18 targeted states. McAuliffe, a major fundraiser who is close friends with Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Rodham Clinton, said the initiative “is about ensuring more Democratic governors can be at the table in 2020 to prevent the kind of far-right gerrymandering we saw in 2010.” …

RICHMOND — Virginia Republicans will reject Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s pick for the state’s newest Supreme Court justice and install their own choice, igniting a political firestorm that will come to a head when lawmakers return to Richmond in two weeks. McAuliffe’s nominee, Fairfax Circuit Court Judge Jane Marum Roush, has already been sworn in, meaning Republicans will take the rare step of unseating a justice after she has taken the bench. Leaders of the GOP-controlled General Assembly announced they plan to elect Virginia Court of Appeals Judge Rossie D. Alston, Jr., who previously served on the Prince William County circuit...

"......When Mr. [Tony] Rodham was short on cash in 2010, Mr. Clinton helped get him a job for $72,000 a year raising investments in GreenTech Automotive, an electric car company then owned by Terry McAuliffe, an old friend of Mr. Clinton’s and now the governor of Virginia. “I was complaining to my brother-in-law I didn’t have any money. And he asked McAuliffe to give me a job,” Mr. Rodham said during the court proceedings, which were the result of a lawsuit over unpaid legal bills filed by his lawyer in a child support case. A brother down on his luck...

Try as they might, when proponents of early federally funded pre-school education ala Head Start try to make the case for their cause, they can’t quite seal the deal. “There is one study that shows that the benefits of pre-K education will wash out after four years,” Governor Terry McAuliffe, D-VA, claimed at the Center for American Progress (CAP) on Friday, April 10, 2015. He then said, “I’ve talked to kindergarten teachers who say it makes a difference.” But kindergarten would fall within that four-year window and he offered no examples of studies that show differing conclusions. Maybe this is...

The newly released documents buttress a report issued late last month detailing how an immigration director was swayed with respect to hundreds of millions of dollars in film and TV investments under the EB-5 visa program. The U.S. Department of Homeland SecurityÂ’s inspector general has released hundreds of pages of emails plus other documents in support of its investigation of improper influence on the EB-5 immigration program. Many of the documents discuss hundreds of millions of dollars in financing for film and television productions from Sony Pictures and Time Warner with prominent politicians including former Pennsylvania governor Ed Rendall and...

BRISTOL, VA (WJHL) - Applications for state jobs in Virginia will no longer will include questions regarding a person's criminal history. Governor Terry McAuliffe signed an executive order removing criminal history questions from state employment applications Friday. Under the order, employment decisions won't be based on an applicant's criminal history unless it's specifically related to the job they are being considered for. While it only applies to state employment applications, the order also encourages similar hiring practices for private employers throughout the Commonwealth. Some business owners we spoke to in Bristol, Virginia are not on board with the idea.

candal: Hillary's emails may be only the tip of an iceberg that could include Clinton Foundation donations to shield Boko Haram from being designated a terrorist group and her brother's involvement in a Haitian gold mine. We doubt Team Hillary was thrilled or her critics surprised Tuesday when the Inspector General for the Department of Homeland Security named Mrs. Clinton's brother, Tony Rodham, in a report about a firm that allegedly received preferential treatment from the Obama administration. The firm, Gulf Coast Funds Management, with Tony Rodham listed as its chief executive, allegedly benefited from what the report says was...

Two of the leading minds tasked with saving Terry McAuliffeÂ’s 2013 Virginia gubernatorial bid from controversy over his shady business dealings will likely serve prominent roles in Hillary ClintonÂ’s presidential campaign. Robby Mook and Josh Schwerin, who served as campaign manager and spokesman, respectively, in McAuliffeÂ’s successful bid, are all but certain additions to the growing Clinton team as the former secretary of state preps for a White House run. Back in 2013, the McAuliffe campaign became embroiled in questions surrounding the ongoing investigations into their candidateÂ’s Mississippi-based electric-car manufacturing company, GreenTech. Thanks in large part to Mook and Schwerin,...

The latest baggage threatening to dog Hillary Clinton’s expected bid for the White House comes in the form of her brother, who allegedly got help from the Department of Homeland Security in smoothing a business deal. The department’s inspector general found that Tony Rodham was given special treatment by DHS’ No. 2 in securing visas for foreigners connected to a deal. Rodham was CEO of an electric car company owned by another longtime Clinton pal, Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, when he got help from DHS official Alejandro Mayorkas securing the visas for investors in the firm. It is not clear...

Many of the key figures cited in a scathing inspector general’s report this week are allies of Hillary Rodham Clinton, marking the latest in a series of stumbles for the former first lady and secretary of state that likely forced her to delay her planned presidential campaign announcement.A Democratic strategist familiar with her team’s thinking said they are scrambling to limit the damage and readjust the campaign rollout schedule after the Homeland Security Department’s inspector general revealed an apparent cronyism scandal that ensnared Mrs. Clinton’s brother, Anthony Rodham, and two of her political confidants, Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe and former...

The No. 2 official at the Homeland Security Department intervened several times in projects with connections to insiders, including Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe and a brother of Hillary Rodham Clinton, according to a report issued by the department's watchdog Tuesday. Alejandro Mayorkas, while head of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, created an "appearance of favoritism" in a program that offers visas to wealthy foreigners willing to invest in American companies, the report says, though it stops short of saying Mayorkas was guilty of wrongdoing. More than 15 whistle-blowers came forward to complain that Mayorkas was giving special treatment to...

The No. 2 official at the Homeland Security Department improperly intervened on behalf of foreign investors in three cases involving the U.S. government soliciting investments in exchange for American visas, the agency's inspector general said Tuesday. Investigators said he helped secure the visas, and created the appearance of favoritism and special access. The investigation could not suggest a motive for the official's involvement.

"The long-anticipated report found no evidence of law-breaking. But members of the department’s staff perceived Mayorkas’s actions as “politically motivated,” and the report concluded that he had 'created an appearance of favoritism and special access.'"

Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe has been hospitalized following a horse-riding accident over the Christmas holidays in Africa that left him with seven broken ribs and fluid around his lungs, a spokesman said Monday. Spokesman Brian Coy said doctors had expected the weeks-old injury to heal on its own, but after identifying increased fluid around the governor’s lungs, they admitted him around noon Monday for a procedure. McAuliffe (D), who attended a Martin Luther King Jr. event in Norfolk on Monday morning and was interviewed by local media there, was admitted hours later to Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center in Richmond....