APARTMENT SHOOTING-OFFICER

Police: Off-duty sergeant shot man in Virginia apartment

RESTON, Va. (AP) — Law enforcement authorities say the man who fatally shot another man Friday at an apartment building in northern Virginia is a police sergeant with Washington’s Metropolitan Police Department. WTTG-TV reported Saturday the sergeant was off duty when the shooting happened. The Fairfax County Police Department hasn’t released his name. The agency says the sergeant opened his apartment door and found a man standing in the doorway. Police say the sergeant reported he fired his weapon when the man began to raise a firearm in his direction. The man was later identified as 29-year-old Reston resident Daniel Matheson. He died at a hospital.

REDSKINS NAME

Reports: Washington to shed ‘Redskins’ name Monday

ASHBURN, Va. (AP) — Washington’s NFL team will get rid of the name ‘Redskins’ on Monday, according to multiple reports. USA Today, ESPN, The Washington Post and Sports Business Journal reported owner Dan Snyder and the organization would announce the move two weeks before the start of training camp. It’s unclear when a new name will be revealed for one of the league’s oldest franchises. The team launched a ‘thorough review’ of the name July 3. That came in the aftermath of several prominent sponsors calling for a change.

VIRUS OUTBREAK-FOREIGN WORKERS

As beach towns open, businesses are short foreign workers

BOSTON (AP) — Businesses in beach communities and mountain getaways up and down the East Coast are fretting about a shortage of workers as the summer season picks up steam. The concern comes after the Trump administration announced last month that it was extending a ban on green cards and adding many temporary visas to the freeze, including J-1 cultural exchange visas and H-2B visas. Workers with these visas are employed in forestry to fisheries to hospitality businesses. Businesses said they would like to hire Americans but that labor pools in their communities are too small. Other challenges are high housing prices.

AP-US-NATION’S-CAPITAL-PSYCHEDELICS-

Activists seek to decriminalize ‘magic’ mushrooms in DC

WASHINGTON (AP) — Despite pandemic conditions that made normal signature-gathering almost impossible, activists in Washington, D.C., say they have enough signatures for a November ballot initiative that would decriminalize natural psychedelics such as mescaline and psilocybin mushrooms. They claim the plant-based psychedelics can successfully treat depression, trauma and addiction. The initiative would direct the police to treat such natural psychedelics as a low law-enforcement priority. But even if it passes, supporters acknowledge it will probably be blocked in some way by Congress, which retains the right to alter or even overturn D.C. laws.

DUMPSTER FIRE-BODY

Body of woman found in burning dumpster in Virginia Beach

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (AP) — Law enforcement authorities in Virginia Beach say firefighters have found the body of a woman in a burning dumpster. Police in a statement say officers responded to a report of a dumpster fire around 12:40 p.m. Saturday. Firefighters discovered the body after they extinguished the fire. The Virginia Beach Fire Department and the police department’s homicide unit are jointly investigating the case. Authorities have not provided any additional information.

AP-US-BLACK-NAVAL-PILOT

US Navy welcomes 1st Black female Tactical Aircraft pilot

KINGSVILLE, Texas (AP) — The U.S. Navy has welcomed its first Black female Tactical Aircraft pilot. The Navy on Thursday recognized that Lt. j.g. Madeline Swegle had completed naval flight school and would later this month receive the flight officer insignia known as the “Wings of Gold.” The Naval Air Training Command tweeted that Swegle is the Navy’s “first known Black female TACAIR pilot.” According to Stars and Stripes, Swegle is from Burke, Virginia, and graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 2017. Officials say she is assigned to the Redhawks of Training Squadron 21 in Kingsville, Texas.

FEDERAL DEATH PENALTY-HISTORY-Q&A

Q&A: US government not as prolific an executioner as states

CHICAGO (AP) — President Donald Trump’s administration wants to restart federal executions this month, 17 years after the last one. Executions carried out by federal authorities have stopped, restarted and stopped again for long stretches since the first one in 1790, when U.S. marshals hanged a mariner in Maine for fatally shooting the captain of a slave ship. The federal government has never been a prolific executioner, putting to death just a few hundred people since the 1700s. States, meanwhile, have executed more than 15,000 people. The vast majority of executions in recent decades have been by lethal injection. That’s the only method authorized for federal executions.

PORT OF VIRGINIA-GRANT

Port gets funding for electric ship-to-shore cranes, trucks

NORFOLK, Va. (AP) — The Port of Virginia plans to replace two diesel-powered, ship-to-shore cranes and several gas-powered container tractors with electric versions using $14 million it will receive from the state. The money is part of the $93.6 million the state received from a federal settlement with Volkswagen that resolved allegations that the automaker violated the Clean Air Act by equipping thousands of diesel motor vehicles with software designed to cheat on federal emissions test.  John Reinhart is the port’s CEO. He told the Virginian-Pilot Friday that “the port is trying to be holistic in its approach”  to reducing emissions.