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A Lesbian couple have become the first to share in the US Navy tradition of the 'first kiss' since the repeal of the American military's "don't ask, don't tell" rule. (Petty Officer 2nd Class Marissa Gaeta (L) kisses her girlfriend of two years, Petty Officer 3rd Class Citlalic Snell at Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek in Virginia Beach Photo: AP)Petty Officer 2nd Class Marissa Gaeta of Placerville, California, descended from the USS Oak Hill amphibious landing ship and shared a quick kiss in the rain with her partner, Petty Officer 3rd Class Citlalic Snell of Los Angeles. Gaeta, 23, wore...

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (AP) -- A Navy tradition has caught up with the repeal of the "don't ask, don't tell" rule on gays serving openly in the U.S. military. The Navy said two women shared the coveted "first kiss" Wednesday when the USS Oak Hill returned home to its Virginia base. Marissa Gaeta of Pacerville, Calif., descended from the ship and shared a quick kiss with her partner, Citlalic (SEET-lah-leek) Snell of Los Angeles. The crowd screamed and waved Navy flags around them. Both women are fire controlmen in the Navy. They met at training school and have been dating...

NORFOLK Police arrested six protesters this morning while disbanding the Occupy Norfolk campsite at Commercial Place downtown. The protesters' tents were removed in a move by the city that they said was unexpected. The arrests were peaceful, although some protesters taunted police in riot gear while officers blocked off the park so public works crews could take down tents and clean it. Shortly after 9 a.m., two people were placed into handcuffs as protesters shouted at officers who would not allow them back into the park.

BALTIMORE (AP) -- A Maryland congressman says his nephew was killed in a random shooting near Old Dominion University in Virginia. Democratic Rep. Elijah Cummings of Baltimore in a statement Sunday talked about the death of Christopher Cummings in his off-campus apartment. He says his nephew's roommate, Jake Carey, was critically wounded in the attack Friday. Both were students at the university in Norfolk. The congressman urged the community to cooperate with police. He says his family remains in shock over the "senseless tragedy."

Nonpartisan Redistricting Commission to Hold Hearing Tonight in Norfolk at Norfolk State University, 7:00 PM Dear Constituents, I would like to call your attention to an important hearing tonight in Norfolk that will directly impact the future of our state's legislative districts and who will be your next representatives to Congress and the General Assembly. An independent, bipartisan commission on redistricting will hold it's only Hampton Roads hearing tonight at Norfolk State University in the New Student Center, Ballroom 149, beginning at 7:00 pm. I hope you will consider attending this meeting and letting your voice be heard by those...

NORFOLK Thirteen Somalis and one Yemeni captured after four Americans were killed aboard a yacht last month are scheduled to appear in U.S. District Court in Norfolk this afternoon on piracy, kidnapping and gun charges. The men were brought into the federal courthouse in downtown Norfolk this morning. The group was turned over to the Justice Department on Wednesday after being held aboard the carrier Enterprise since the Feb. 22 shooting deaths of the Americans. A Navy spokesman said the Somalis were removed from the ship by Department of Justice officials. A federal grand jury indicted 14 suspected pirates, the...

A former Norfolk Community Services Board employee who collected about $320,000 in pay and benefits over 12 years even though she did not show up for work will not be prosecuted for fraud by the Commonwealth’s Attorney, said three sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Police found no evidence of wrongdoing by Jill McGlone, the sources said. McGlone, who had worked at the agency as an office assistant, was fired in last May after officials learned she collected pay while sitting at home. Police learned that she attempted numerous times to return to work after being suspended in...

NORFOLK - Christine Boone wasn't about to miss an opportunity to meet Sarah Palin. The Plainview woman camped out overnight at Hastings Entertainment in Norfolk to get an autographed copy of the former vice presidential candidate's new book "American by Heart: Reflections on Family, Faith and Flag." Boone was part of a large crowd of more than 1,000 people who gathered at the store for the Saturday book signing. Her long, overnight wait was worth it, she said, even though she only got to spend a few seconds with Palin. "I was up there crying. She (Palin) stood up and...

NORFOLK Four Community Services Board [1] executives and an assistant who knew an employee was collecting a salary with benefits for 12 years without showing up for work have been fired or forced to resign, the head of the agency said Friday. The agency is turning over its findings to the FBI, state and city police for their investigations, CSB Executive Director Maureen Womack said. The agency found no evidence that other staffers collected any of the money Jill McGlone received, Womack said. No additional firings are expected for now. Depending on additional evidence found by law enforcement agents, there...

NORFOLK The FBI has joined a growing list of law enforcers trying to figure out how a woman who didn't show up for work at a community services organization for 12 years continued to be paid and to what extent others might be involved. City Attorney Bernard Pishko said the employee is no longer on the payroll and that others in the organization are being questioned to see whether they had any involvement in a scheme to funnel money. As of Tuesday, no one else with the Norfolk Community Services Board had been suspended or fired. "These are people that...

Virginia officials reacted with bipartisan dismay on Monday to Defense Department budget shifts that will cost the state thousands of jobs in coming years and will dramatically impact the economies of the Norfolk area and Northern Virginia. Most of the immediate reaction revolved around Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates's proposal to close the U.S. Joint Forces Command. It is a major employer in Hampton Roads, including Norfolk and Virginia Beach, whose elimination could translate into the loss of 6,100 military, civilian and contractor jobs in the region. But a proposal to slash the Pentagon's budget for military contractors over the...

WASHINGTON -- Officials briefed on the decision say Defense Secretary Robert Gates plans to eliminate a major military command in Norfolk, Va., and try to cut the Pentagon's use of outside contractors by 10 percent next year. The plan was to be announced at a Pentagon press conference on Monday. It is part of a broader effort to trim $100 billion from the military's mammoth budget in the next five years, as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan begin to wind down and Congress turns its attention more to domestic priorities.

NORFOLK -- They wake each morning to pray the Liturgy of the Hours and chant it again before they go to sleep. They pray the rosary, spend time in contemplative prayer and gather each Sunday to discuss the Gospel. In almost every way they are like the members of other chapters of the Lay Fraternities of St. Dominic, except they are incarcerated. The chapter, located at Norfolk State Prison, has about 35 members, 17 of whom have made their final profession in the Dominican order. It is the only Dominican chapter in a prison. Ruth Raichle, the Catholic chaplain...

Four underwater unmanned vehicles went missing Sunday during training to conduct search, classify and map missions. The Navy, Coast Guard and local authorities were searching for the missing vehicles in the Thimble Shoals Channel between the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel and the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, a Navy news release said. Communication was lost with four of the 13 unmanned vehicles Sunday about 1 p.m. while the vehicles were using bottom-mapping sonar to look for mine-like contacts in the water as part of the training. Search and recovery operations began immediately. Efforts continued Monday using small-craft, shore-based teams, air assets and marine...

"Some people think that my life began at birth, but my life's journey began long before I was born."

Final Navy Seal charged in the "fat lip" of an Iraqi terrorist found not guilty, breaking on FNC per Brett Bear.

Virginia military jury found a Navy SEAL not guilty on charges of punching a suspected Iraqi terrorist. Matthew McCabe, a Special Operations Petty Officer Second Class, was facing three charges: dereliction of performance of duty for willfully failing to safeguard a detainee, making a false official statement, and assault. The suspected terrorist McCabe was accused of punching is Ahmed Hashim Abed, who is the suspected masterminded the grisly killings of four American contractors in Iraq six years ago. This follows four days of pre-trial motions, jury selection and testimony before a Judge Advocate General, Captain Moira Modelewski, at the Naval...

In a story you won’t see on MSNBC, for the second time in 2 days, a Navy SEAL was acquitted of charges in the infamous terrorist-with-a-fat-lip case. After a day-long trial, a Navy judge took 2 hours to come back with a verdict of not guilty of dereliction of duty for Petty Officer 2nd Class Jonathan Keefe of Yorktown, Va. No word on what the judge did for the other hour and 58 minutes he spent in chambers after giving the evidence the consideration it deserved. The judge, a model of decorum, managed not to use the words “insane,” “bulls**t,”...

Note: The following text is a quote: Alleged Somali Pirates Indicted for Attacks on Navy Ships NORFOLK, VA—Federal grand juries in the Eastern District of Virginia have returned two separate indictments charging 11 men from Somalia with engaging in piracy and related offenses pertaining to attacks on two Navy ships. The indictments charge separate attacks by separate groups on the U.S.S. Nicholas and the U.S.S. Ashland. Neil H. MacBride, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia; George Venizelos, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s New York Field Office; Alex J. Turner, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s...

BAGHDAD (AP) — A U.S. military judge on Friday cleared a Navy SEAL of any wrongdoing in the alleged beating of an Iraqi prisoner suspected of masterminding the grisly 2004 killings of four American contractors. The Blackwater contractors' burned bodies were dragged through the streets and two were hanged from a bridge over the Euphrates river in the former insurgent hotbed of Fallujah in an attack that shocked Americans and galvanized U.S. support for the war. After a daylong trial and fewer than two hours considering the evidence, Navy Judge Cmdr. Tierny Carlos found Petty Officer 2nd Class Jonathan Keefe...

NORFOLK, Va. (AP) -- Eleven Somalis accused of attacking two navy ships off the coast of Africa appeared in Virginia federal court Friday shortly after being indicted on charges of piracy.

NORFOLK Luzel Watson stepped into the Square Deal Barber Shop on Monday. "I just wanted to see if you were taking up a collection for Mr. Mac," Watson said. "Mr. Mac's been doing my hair since I was 16, and now I'm 60." Mr. Mac was Henry McIntosh, 86. He was shot on Saturday during a robbery at his store. He died on Sunday. From city politicians to the poorest person on the street, McIntosh was at home with all of them. "He was here for the neighborhood," Watson said, tears welling up as he gave cash to McIntosh's son....

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After looking for a decade to buy a dark place in the country to practice landings of its noisiest aircraft, the Navy has decided to look at renting airport space for quieter aircraft landing practice and to keep the big jets working at home. Navy Fleet Forces Command in Norfolk, Va., announced Friday that it will survey public and private airfields within 90 nautical miles of Norfolk Naval air station for interest in renting landing strip time for its turboprop planes to practice. The Navy has not abandoned its search for an outlying landing field, said Ted Brown, spokesman for...

Suspected Somali pirates fired on a U.S. Navy warship off East Africa early Thursday in what appeared to be a ransom-seeking attack on an American guided missile frigate, officials said. The USS Nicholas returned fire on the pirate skiff, sinking it and confiscating a nearby mothership. The Navy took five pirates into custody, said Navy Lt. Patrick Foughty, a spokesman. International naval forces have stepped up their enforcement of the waters off East Africa in an effort to thwart a growing pirate trade. [Snip] Thursday's attack came just shy of a year since pirates attacked the U.S.-flagged Maersk Alabama...

NORFOLK Prosecutors handling the courts-martial of two local Navy SEALs charged with not stopping a teammate's alleged assault on an Iraqi detainee faced another setback Friday. Cmdr. Tierney Carlos agreed to exclude a statement made by one of the SEALs to the special agent investigating the allegations in September because the agent didn't advise him of his right to remain silent. As a result, one of two charges against Petty Officer 2nd Class Jonathan Keefe likely will be dropped. The charges against the three SEALs have sparked protests and calls from some in Congress for the cases to be dismissed....

NORFOLK (NNS) -- The commodore of Helicopter Sea Combat Wing Atlantic held a press conference with local media to announce all 17 personnel on board the Navy MH-60S Nighthawk from Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 26 based at Naval Station Norfolk, were successfully rescued from the aircraft. The helicopter crashed yesterday shortly after 1 p.m. on the side of a mountain in West Virginia in more than four feet of snow. "Our primary focus has been the safe evacuation of all the aircrew and passengers," said Capt. Steve Schreiber, commodore, Helicopter Sea Combat Wing Atlantic. "As of this morning all personnel...

CHARLESTON, W.Va., Feb. 19, 2010 – Thirteen of the 17 passengers stranded in a remote region of West Virginia’s Pocahontas County have been evacuated from a Navy MH-60S Knighthawk helicopter that was forced to land in the area yesterday, National Guard officials said. Rescued passengers are being evaluated by emergency services agencies and transported to a local hospital for further evaluation and treatment. West Virginia Army National Guard medics still are at the landing site and are working with emergency crews to evacuate the remaining passengers, said Mike Cadle, the state public affairs officer. The helicopter reportedly was carrying passengers...

Now that the Department of Defense has made clear its intent to move a Norfolk-based aircraft carrier to Mayport, Fla., the battle between Florida and Virginia shifts to Congress. Members of the Hampton Roads congressional delegation have pledged to fight tooth and nail to block any more money for the project. They’re taking on Florida’s congressional delegation, who outnumber the Virginians by more than two to one and are already claiming victory. Hampton Roads representatives said they are not ready to talk about what might happen if the carrier battle is lost. “We have to continue to have a united...

The Navy is willing to make trade-offs to pay for its strategic decision to move a nuclear aircraft carrier to Florida, according Rear Adm. Bill Burke, who ran the Navy’s portion of the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR). Burke told reporters this week that the QDR, a sweeping review of military strategy and capability, reached the same decision the Navy reached a year ago, because it makes “good sense.” It also made “good sense” at the highest levels of the Pentagon, Burke added. To pay for the move, the Navy could have to make some tough financial decisions down the line....

Norfolk Mayor Paul Fraim has challengers, but it remains to be seen if any of them are a threat to his office. The least likely challenger is 20-year-old ODU junior Ryan Cooper, who plans on running in the May 4 mayoral election. AltDaily spoke via email to the ambitious young man about his chances of winning, how he plans on fighting crime, and how being a door-to-door salesman prepared him to be the next mayor of Norfolk. AltDaily: Let’s start with the blunt, obvious question: You’re a 20-year-old ODU student taking on an incumbent of some 16 years. Do you...

NORFOLK Thousands of Hampton Roads sailors received orders this morning to prepare to deploy to Haiti as part of a massive U.S. effort to deliver humanitarian assistance in the wake of Tuesday’s devastating earthquake. At least four Norfolk-based ships are getting ready to leave for the impoverished country, said Ted Brown, a spokesman with Norfolk’s Fleet Forces Command. The amphibious assault ship Bataan, the guided missile cruiser Normandy and the dock landing ships Fort McHenry and Carter Hall will likely leave port by Friday, the Navy said. Expeditionary forces based at the Little Creek campus of the Joint Expeditionary Base...

RICHMOND, Va. - Two Navy SEALs accused in the mistreatment of an Iraqi detainee will be tried in a U.S. military court in Iraq. A military judge at Naval Station Norfolk on Monday moved the courts-martial of Petty Officer 2nd Class Jonathan Keefe and Petty Officer 1st Class Julio Huertas to Camp Victory, site of the alleged abuse. The trials are set for April. Keefe and Huertas are accused of trying to cover up after a third SEAL allegedly punched an Iraqi suspected in a 2004 ambush that killed four U.S. security contractors. Prosecutors said they would not bring the...

NORFOLK Construction of Norfolk's starter light-rail line is running as much as 41 percent over its original budget, and that has angry local leaders demanding an explanation from Hampton Roads Transit, which manages the project. HRT officials said this week they need $38 million to $40 million more to finish the 7.4-mile transit system, which is just over 50 percent complete. When construction started in October 2007, the budget was $232 million. That figure escalated to $288 million in December 2008. The latest cost estimate is $326 million to $328 million, HRT President Michael Townes said. Officials said the complexities...

NORFOLKCommodore Uriah P. Levy He left home when he was 10, running away to become a cabin boy, and eventually became the first Jewish commodore in the Navy, the highest rank available at the time. On Sunday, the Jewish chapel at Naval Station Norfolk – the oldest land-based Jewish chapel in the Navy – was rededicated to Commodore Uriah P. Levy, 50 years to the day after it was first named after him. Born in Philadelphia in 1792, Levy had a career that spanned pirate-chasing to authorship – he wrote “A Manual of Internal Rules and Regulations for Men-of-War.” It...

We have a building on fire that dries milk and makes cheese. There was a propane explosion earier, and the building is on fire, but an outside propane tank is in danger, they just filled it yesterday with 30,000 gallons, if that thing goes off it will be like a bomb! They are evacuating a square mile, every person, every business, nursing homes, schools. But this is a small town, if it goes, the whole town will shake!

(snip) The Washington Times Watercooler approached ranking member of the Senate armed services committee Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.) about his thoughts about this issue. Senator McCain backed away from any direct comments only saying, “That’s a judicial issue and one that I have not drawn any conclusion [on]. The judicial process is moving forward.” A spokeswoman for Mr. McCain later followed up saying the Senator does not comment "on matters that are actively being considered by the courts." Mr. McCain is well known for being a Navy POW during the Vietnam War and endured five and a half years of...

Dec 7 Navy SEALs Courts-Martial PROTEST - Norfolk Virginia SUPPORT OUR TROOPS! Type: Causes - Protest Network: Global Date: Monday, December 7, 2009 Time: 8:00am - 6:00pm Location: Naval Station Norfolk City/Town: Norfolk, VA Description As most of you already know, some of our military’s most elite, the Navy SEALs are under fire from the US Government for none other than bloodying the lip of one of the most wanted terrorists in Iraq, the alleged mastermind of the murder and mutilation of four Blackwater USA security guards in Fallujah in 2004. Matthew McCabe, Petty Officer Jonathan Keefe & Petty Officer...

The military is throwing the book at three terrorist-hunting Navy SEALs who captured one of the most wanted in Iraq. It seems one of the commandos may have punched Ahmed Hashim Abed, who intelligence reports said planned the bloody ambush of four Blackwater USA security guards in Fallujah, Iraq, five years ago. Instead of plaudits, three SEALs face court-martial in January. And conservatives are expressing outrage to HUMAN EVENTS. Abed, whom the U.S. command designated "Objective Amber," was nabbed in darkness Sept. 3 by a platoon of commandos from SEAL Team 10, based in Norfolk. The next few hours proved...

Race-carding has now progressed from an offensive bullying tactic to a comical farce in the theater of the absurd. First, Janeane Garofalo became the demented poster-harpy of race-carding, then Jessee Jackson jumped the shark by insisting that political loyalties determine racial identity. Now, in Norfolk, Virginia, an animal shelter’s drive to promote adoption of black-colored pets has been condemned for its racial insensitivity.

NORFOLK Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob McDonnell brought his campaign to Hampton Roads on Saturday, shaking hands and making hand-rolled waffle cones at Doumar’s Cones & Barbecue in Norfolk. “That’s a great American story,” McDonnell said after talking with Al Doumar, the owner, and his son Thad Doumar. “What a great piece of history.” McDonnell shook hands with customers inside and at the drive-in and ate a chocolate ice-cream cone. He faces Democratic state Sen. Creigh Deeds in the Nov. 3 election; Deeds will be campaigning in Hampton Roads on Sunday. In an interview with The Virginian-Pilot, McDonnell said his top...

VIRGINIA BEACH One person was killed and eight others were injured when a Black Hawk helicopter crashed on a Navy ship during joint training with the Army. The services were doing "fast rope" exercises 20 nautical miles off Fort Story about 8 p.m. Thursday, sliding down a rope from helicopters and landing on the fast combat support ship Arctic, when one of the Army helicopters made a hard landing, said Capt. Cate Mueller, a Navy spokeswoman. It was unclear whether the injured were from the Navy, the Army or both. A Navy news release this morning says that members of...

SNIPPET: "For all his public activity, Bray has rarely, if ever, discussed his life story in detail. His own MAS biography offers vague descriptions of his work as "a long time civil and human rights advocate." A charismatic African-American convert to Islam, Bray spent this entire decade working for Islamist organizations. Prior to joining MAS, Bray was political director of the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC). Those jobs have helped him build a growing public profile and given him access to politicians and policy makers. And that may explain his reluctance to discuss his life before political activism. The Investigative...

NORFOLK -- A French general is set to take command of NATO's only strategic command in North America, becoming the first non-American officer in the alliance's 60-year history to permanently fill a command post.

My sister, who has lived outside of the US for almost 15 years, is moving back to the Norfolk, VA area in 2 weeks. She tells me that the real estate agents she has contacted have told her that she can't get a decent house for less than $350,000 (one she looked at online was $378k) and the houses in her price range are tiny, basically starter homes. Is this true for that area? Personally I find that hard to believe in this market. She is looking to live in Norfolk (her husband will be working there), Chesapeake, VA Beach,...

NORFOLK A man took off his clothes Friday morning and lay in the lush, sun-bathed grassy median in front of the Circuit Court. Cars whizzed by on St. Paul's Boulevard as the man raised his shorts aloft on a stick. Court administrative assistant Pam Vaughan happened to glance out the window. “Please God tell me that’s not a naked man,” Vaughan screamed. That’s when everyone came running. City employee Lonnie Moore said the man had pulled off his shirt, then his shorts, and took a swig from a water bottle before lying down. Court staff pressed against the narrow windows...

NORFOLK Police have recovered more than 2,000 government checks totaling $103,000 and arrested three men after a hotel mix-up led to what police on Wednesday called a quickly formed conspiracy and theft. Police said a contractor with the U.S. Department of Transportation checked into the Doubletree Hotel Norfolk Airport at 880 N. Military Hwy. on Monday and went out. Meanwhile, the hotel mistakenly checked a second guest into the same room. Acquaintances of the second guest went through the contractor’s luggage, police said, and found and took a laptop and the checks. The checks, in various amounts, were to be...

NORFOLK, Va. (NNS) -- USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71) returned to its homeport of Norfolk, Va., April 18 after a successful seven-month deployment supporting Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) and maritime security and coalition operations in the U.S. 5th Fleet Area of Responsibility (AOR). TR and embarked Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 8 flew 3,105 sorties in support of OEF, with more than 61,000 pounds of ordnance dropped on target in support of coalition forces. "The dedication of the ship's crew and naval aviators enabled TR to successfully complete its mission supporting Sailors, soldiers, airmen and Marines on the ground in Afghanistan,"...

WASHINGTON (NNS) -- USS George H.W. Bush (CVN 77) successfully completed acceptance sea trials April 7-9 off the Virginia Capes and is in final preparation for delivery. Acceptance sea trials are the final test of the ship's readiness to begin fleet service. Navy representatives from the U.S. Navy Board of Inspection and Survey tested and evaluated the ship's systems and performance. Acceptance trials will formally conclude April 10. George H.W. Bush is the nation's 10th, and final, Nimitz-class carrier. The ship is designed to carry all current and future aircraft in its embarked air wing until the completion of her...

WASHINGTON, April 8, 2009 – A ship taken by pirates off the coast of Somalia this morning is now presumed to be under the control of its crew again, Defense Department officials said. The cargo ship Maersk Alabama was attacked by pirates early this morning and presumed hijacked, according to information provided by U.S. Naval Forces Central Command. The vessel was en route to Mombasa, Kenya, when it was assaulted about 300 miles off Somalia’s coast, officials said. The Maersk Alabama is home-ported in Norfolk, Va., and has a crew of about 20 U.S. nationals, John Reinhart, president and CEO...