The 47-year-old mother and 29-year-old man, who live in the Alexandria section of Fairfax County, told police they would chain the 9-year-old boy and his 7-year-old sibling by the ankle to “’scare them’ so they wouldn’t leave the apartment,” according to court charging documents in Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court.

The two were arrested Aug. 16. According to court records, the 9-year-old borrowed a cellphone from a roommate in the apartment, who is not charged. The 9-year-old used the phone to send a photo of his chained foot to an older sister, who called 911.

Police said when they knocked on the apartment door they could hear chains rattling in the apartment.

The roommate told police the two kids were routinely chained when both the 47-year-old and the 29-year-old were not home, according to a search warrant affidavit.

The boys are now in the custody of their father, who did not live in the apartment and was not charged, according to WRC-TV, which first reported on the arrests. He said his sons did not tell him when they visited him that they were being chained.

“When I heard, I was like, ’Wow, why did this happen?’ Children don’t deserve to be treated like this. We don’t have the right to treat them like this. Maybe a criminal, but not innocent children,” he told the station in Spanish.

Last month’s arrest was not the first time the mother’s parenting drew attention from authorities. Court records show that in 2019, a then-16-year-old daughter of the mother obtained an emergency protective order, and that the mother was charged with misdemeanor assault. The disposition of that case was not clear from juvenile court records.

The public defender’s office, which represents the mother, did not immediately return a call Tuesday morning seeking comment. A phone listed for the court-appointed attorney who represents the 29-year-old man was not working Tuesday.

The mother has been released while she awaits trial. The 29-year-old man remains jailed.

A pretrial hearing is scheduled for Oct. 2.

A Fairfax County judge accepted the insanity plea from Xuan-Kha Tran Pham, 50, of Fairfax on charges that included malicious wounding and assault.

Pham was arrested and charged in May 2023 after the attack. Two staffers were injured, including an intern who was working her first day. The intern was struck in the ribs, and the other staffer was struck on the head repeatedly.

Connolly, a Democrat who represents parts of northern Virginia, has said Pham came there intending to kill him.

Pham’s defense attorney, public defender Dawn Butorac, told WRC-TV that Pham has had serious mental illness for decades and was not properly medicated at the time of the attack.

“Unfortunately, he’s suffered from delusions about government conspiracies and a variety of other things and he’d gone to a variety of government agencies in an attempt to get help because he believed the government was imprisoning him and all sorts of other things,” Butorac said.

Pham will now be sent to a psychiatric hospital for treatment.

In a written statement, Connolly said he hopes Pham gets the treatment he needs “so that he does not harm anyone else or himself.” He said the attack shows the consequences of incendiary political rhetoric that is “too frequently expressed by too many people.”

“Hate speech and calls to violence are never acceptable and must always be condemned,” he wrote. “Failure to be civil and show respect for our differences will only result in more incidents like we experienced in May 2023.”

Russell Richardson Vane IV, 42, of Vienna, Virginia, had been in jail since his arrest in April.

At a plea hearing Wednesday in federal court in Alexandria, Vane admitted that he used castor beans to create ricin at his home.

Ricin is a toxin that occurs naturally in castor beans, and federal law requires anyone in possession of ricin to register and obtain a license.

Vane came to authorities’ attention after an online news outlet reported that a militia group, the Virginia Kekoas, had severed ties with him because they were alarmed by what they considered his loose talk about homemade explosives.

The Kekoas questioned whether he might be a government informant, according to court papers.

Authorities searched Vane’s home and found a plastic bag with castor beans along with a handwritten recipe for extracting ricin, according to an FBI affidavit. Subsequent tests confirmed the presence of ricin.

At earlier court hearings, Vane’s lawyers argued that prosecutors overstated the danger of Vane’s conduct and said it was virtually impossible for ricin produced in the home to be used as a lethal weapon. They also said that Vane had never threatened anyone.

Prosecutors, though, said Vane’s actions were alarming. They said there is no legitimate reason for an ordinary person to produce ricin, and they also expressed concern about Vane’s efforts to fake his own death. Prosecutors introduced evidence that Vane tried to legally change his name in Fairfax County court and that he posted a fake online obituary of himself.

At Wednesday’s plea hearing, U.S. District Judge Anthony Trenga agreed that Vane could be released until a sentencing hearing set for November. He faces up to five years in prison, but would likely receive far less time. His plea deal does not include any recommended sentence.

A call and email to Vane’s attorney seeking comment were not immediately returned Wednesday evening.

With organized retail theft a problem receiving increased attention nationwide, Fairfax County Police Chief Kevin Davis knows his wealthy Northern Virginia jurisdiction is a target.

“I think it makes us very vulnerable. It’s not news to anyone that Fairfax County has a really world-class retail community,” Davis said. “That’s one of the reasons why our commitment to safety is so high.”

On Thursday, Davis highlighted recent successes the county has had in fighting those thefts. At a news conference, he announced the arrest of the alleged getaway driver in the Chanel heist, as well as arrest warrants for two others. He also posted video and screen grabs of four other suspects in the theft, which he hopes will lead to further arrests

Video of the theft shows one of the suspects spraying a fire extinguisher at a security guard as they enter the store. Charges against the suspects include assault with a caustic substance for discharging the fire extinguisher.

Police also announced arrests related to a separate crew that has targeted high-end retail stores in seven different states on both coasts. Deputy Police Chief Gregory Fried said members of this crew are responsible for at least $170,000 in losses across those seven states, including $35,000 in Fairfax County.

The issue of organized retail theft has received increased attention nationally. More than two dozen states have passed laws recently to combat the problem. Hard data on the issue is not easily obtained — last year the National Retail Foundation rescinded a claim in a report it issued that organized retail crime accounted for roughly half of lost inventory.

In Fairfax County, Davis said reported thefts have doubled from 2021 to 2023, from about 4,000 to more than 8,000.

But he said arrests have nearly tripled. As a result, he said that arrests were made in 70% of thefts in 2023, compared with 52% in 2021.

He also touted the importance of retailers doing what they can do to gather evidence, particularly video evidence, that helps police make arrests. He said some retailers are outfitting employees with body-worn camera similar to those worn by police.

While he said his agency is making theft arrests a priority, he said the judicial system needs to take the issue equally seriously. He expressed frustration with low bail amounts for suspects arrested for theft.

“It’s not little Johnny stealing a 3 Musketeers bar,” he said.

The new indictment announced Thursday by federal prosecutors in Richmond, Virginia, charges two Iranian brothers, Shahab Mir’kazei and Yunus Mir’kazei, as well as a Pakistani boat captain, Muhammad Pahlawan, with providing material support to Iran’s weapons-of-mass-destruction program, among other charges.

The brothers are at large. Pahlawan and three of his crew members have been in custody since the Navy SEAL team intercepted their small vessel, described as a dhow, in January.

While boarding the dhow, U.S. officials say Navy Special Warfare Operator 1st Class Christopher J. Chambers fell overboard as high waves created a gap between the two boats.

As Chambers fell, Navy Special Warfare Operator 2nd Class Nathan Gage Ingram jumped in to try to save him, according to U.S. officials familiar with what happened.

Both Chambers and Ingram were declared dead after an 11-day search failed to find either man.

The search of the dhow turned up a variety of Iranian-made weaponry, including cruise and ballistic missile components, according to court documents.

U.S. officials say the dhow was part of an effort to supply weapons to Houthi rebels in Yemen, and that Houthis have stepped up attacks on merchant ships and U.S. military ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden in the wake of the Israel-Hamas war.

The Houthis have been designated as a terrorist group by the State Department since February, according to the indictment. The Revolutionary Guard Corps has been designated a terrorist group by the State Department since 2019.

The new indictment contains additional details linking the dhow to Iran. It alleges the two brothers who work for the Revolutionary Guard Corps paid Pahlawan 1.7 billion rials — about $40,000 in U.S. dollars — to carry out multiple smuggling operations from Iran to the Somali coast near Yemen.

The federal public defender’s office, which was appointed to represent Pahlawan, did not immediately respond Thursday to emails seeking comment. The two Iranians, who are not in custody, do not have attorneys listed. Arrest warrants for both brothers were issued Wednesday.

The highly anticipated decision issued by U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta comes nearly a year after the start of a trial pitting the U.S. Justice Department against Google in the country’s biggest antitrust showdown in a quarter century.

After reviewing reams of evidence that included testimony from top executives at Google, Microsoft and Apple during last year’s 10-week trial, Mehta issued his potentially market-shifting decision three months after the two sides presented their closing arguments in early May.

“After having carefully considered and weighed the witness testimony and evidence, the court reaches the following conclusion: Google is a monopolist, and it has acted as one to maintain its monopoly,” Mehta wrote in his 277-page ruling. He said Google’s dominance in the search market is evidence of its monopoly.

Google “enjoys an 89.2% share of the market for general search services, which increases to 94.9% on mobile devices,” the ruling said.

It represents a major setback for Google and its parent, Alphabet Inc., which had steadfastly argued that its popularity stemmed from consumers’ overwhelming desire to use a search engine so good at what it does that it has become synonymous with looking things up online. Google’s search engine processes an estimated 8.5 billion queries per day worldwide, nearly doubling its daily volume from 12 years ago, according to a recent study released by the investment firm BOND.

Kent Walker, Google’s president of global affairs, said the company intends to appeal Mehta’s findings.

“This decision recognizes that Google offers the best search engine, but concludes that we shouldn’t be allowed to make it easily available,” Walker said.

For now, the decision vindicates antitrust regulators at the Justice Department, which filed its lawsuit nearly four years ago while Donald Trump was still president, and has been escalating it efforts to rein in Big Tech’s power during President Joe Biden’s administration.

“This victory against Google is an historic win for the American people,” said Attorney General Merrick Garland. “No company — no matter how large or influential — is above the law. The Justice Department will continue to vigorously enforce our antitrust laws.”

The case depicted Google as a technological bully that methodically has thwarted competition to protect a search engine that has become the centerpiece of a digital advertising machine that generated nearly $240 billion in revenue last year. Justice Department lawyers argued that Google’s monopoly enabled it to charge advertisers artificially high prices while also enjoying the luxury of not having to invest more time and money into improving the quality of its search engine — a lax approach that hurt consumers.

Mehta’s ruling focused on the billions of dollars Google spends every year to install its search engine as the default option on new cellphones and tech gadgets. In 2021 alone, Google spent more than $26 billion to lock in those default agreements, Mehta said in his ruling.

Google ridiculed those allegations, noting that consumers have historically changed search engines when they become disillusioned with the results they were getting. For instance, Yahoo was the most popular search engine during the 1990s before Google came along.

Mehta said the evidence at trial showed the importance of the default settings. He noted that Microsoft’s Bing search engine has 80% share of the search market on the Microsoft Edge browser. The judge said that shows other search engines can be successful if Google is not locked in as the predetermined default option.

Still, Mehta credited the quality of Google’s product as an important part of its dominance, as well, saying flatly that “Google is widely recognized as the best (general search engine) available in the United States.”

The Consumer Choice Center, a lobbying group that has fought other attempts to rein in businesses, decried Mehta’s decision as a step in the wrong direction. “The United States is drifting toward the anti-tech posture of the European Union, a part of the world that makes almost nothing and penalizes successful American companies for their popularity,” said Yael Ossowski, the center’s deputy director.

Mehta’s conclusion that Google has been running an illegal monopoly sets up another legal phase to determine what sorts of changes or penalties should be imposed to reverse the damage done and restore a more competitive landscape. He scheduled a Sept. 6 hearing to begin setting the stage for the next phase.

The potential outcome could result in a wide-ranging order requiring Google to dismantle some of the pillars of its internet empire, or preventing it from paying to ensure its search engine automatically answers queries on the iPhone and other devices. Or, the judge could conclude only modest changes are required to level the playing field.

“Google’s loss in its search antitrust trial could be a huge deal — depending on the remedy,” said Emarketer senior analyst Evelyn Mitchell-Wolf.

Regardless, she added, a drawn-out appeals process will delay any immediate effects for both consumers and advertisers.

The appeals process could take as long as five years, predicted George Hay, a law professor at Cornell University who was the chief economist for the Justice Department’s antitrust division for most of the 1970s. That lengthy process will enable Google to fend off the likelihood of Mehta banning default search agreements, Hay said, but it probably won’t shield the company from class-action lawsuits citing the judge’s findings that advertisers were gouged with monopolistic pricing.

If there is a significant shakeup, it could turn out to be a coup for Microsoft, whose own power was undermined during the late 1990s when the Justice Department targeted the software maker in an antitrust lawsuit accusing it of abusing the dominance of its Windows operating system on personal computers to lock out competition.

That Microsoft case mirrored the one brought against Google in several ways and now the result could also echo similarly. Just as Microsoft’s bruising antitrust battle created distractions and obstacles that opened up more opportunities for Google after its 1998 inception, the decision against Google could be a boon for Microsoft, which already has a market value of more than $3 trillion. At one time, Alphabet was worth more than Microsoft, but now trails its rival, with a market value of about $2 trillion.

If Mehta decides to limit or ban Google’s default search deals, it could squeeze Apple’s profits, too. Although parts of his decision were redacted to protect confidential business information, Mehta noted that Google paid Apple an estimated $20 billion in 2022, doubling from 2020. The judge also noted Apple has periodically considered building its own search technology, but backed off that after a 2018 analysis estimated the company would lose more than $12 billion in revenue during the first five years after a break-up with Google.

Google’s payments have helped Apple’s steadily growing services division, which generated $85 billion in revenue during the company’s last fiscal year. Apple didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Justice Department’s antitrust division has recently taken on some of the biggest companies in the world. It sued Apple in March and in May announced a sweeping lawsuit against Ticketmaster and its owner, Live Nation Entertainment. Antitrust enforcers have also opened investigations into the roles Microsoft, Nvidia and OpenAI have played in the artificial intelligence boom.

The Biden administration has won some big cases, including blocking mergers of some of the world’s biggest publishers as well as JetBlue Airways and Spirit Airlines. It’s also had some notable setbacks, including in the sugar and healthcare industries.

Google faces several other legal threats both in the U.S. and abroad. In September, a federal trial is scheduled to begin in Virginia over the Justice Department’s allegations that Google’s advertising technology constitutes an illegal monopoly.

——

Liedtke reported from San Ramon, California. Associated Press writers Alanna Durkin Richer and Barbara Ortutay contributed to this report.

U.S. District Judge Rossie Alston set an Oct. 21 trial date for Rui Jiang of Falls Church after holding a competency hearing Wednesday in federal court in Alexandria.

Alston had placed the case on hold earlier this year and ordered the competency hearing. The findings of his competency evaluation are under seal, but Alston ruled after Wednesday’s hearing that Jiang could stand trial.

Prosecutors say Jiang intended to shoot congregation members of the Park Valley Church in Haymarket in September 2023. He was arrested during Sunday services at the church, armed with a handgun and other weapons, after a former girlfriend called police and alerted them to disturbing social media posts he made.

According to authorities, Jiang had recently joined to the church but indicated that he was mad at God and at men for blocking him from having having romantic relationships with women. He left behind a “final letter” in which he said he intended to only shoot and kill men and apologized in advance for any women who might be “collateral damage.”

In interviews with police after his arrest, Jiang acknowledged officers he was mad at God but denied planning to kill anyone, according to court documents. He admitted he was armed inside the church but said he has a concealed carry permit and is frequently armed.

He was initially charged in state court, but federal prosecutors took over the case earlier this year. The indictment charges him with attempted obstruction of religious beliefs, transmission of interstate threats and carrying a firearm during a crime of violence.

The indictment also includes special findings that Jiang selected his victims because of their religious beliefs.

Police touted his arrest last year as an example of fast-moving interagency cooperation between at least three police departments in Maryland and Virginia to apprehend Jiang before any violence occurred. Security personnel at the church had also noticed Jiang’s odd behavior and had begun to question him.

The federal public defender’s office, which is representing Jiang, declined comment Thursday.

The ruling issued Thursday from U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema overturns three of the 10 counts of conviction against Ali Al-Timimi. But she upheld other counts that could leave him with decades of prison time beyond the 15 years he already served.

Al-Timimi, 60, was indicted in 2004, and convicted and sentenced in 2005. Prosecutors said the U.S.-born scholar, who grew up in the nation’s capital and had earned his doctorate in computational biology shortly before his arrest, enjoyed rockstar status among his small group of followers.

At a private gathering a few days after the Sept. 11 attacks, Al-Timimi told his followers — some of whom trained for jihad by playing paintball in the Virginia woods — that an apocalyptic battle between Muslims and the West loomed, and that Muslims were obliged to defend the Taliban if they had the ability to do so, according to trial testimony.

Several members did travel as far as Pakistan and received military training from a militant group called Lashkar-e-Taiba, but none ever actually joined the Taliban.

After Thursday’s ruling from Brinkema, what happens next for Al-Timimi is unclear. He was released from prison in 2020 and placed on home confinement, partly because of the coronavirus pandemic and partly because his appeals have been bogged down in delays for nearly 20 years.

The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond still has not heard Al-Timimi’s initial appeal of his conviction, but it’s expected the appeal can now proceed. Among other issues, Al-Timimi’s lawyers have contended that his conviction violates the First Amendment by punishing him for his speech.

Al-Timimi would presumably remain on home confinement while the appeal is heard unless prosecutors or the judge sought to have him returned to prison.

The counts that were overturned relate to whether they were based on an unconstitutionally vague “crime of violence.” The issue stems from Supreme Court cases over the last nine years that have affected many criminal cases across the country.

Prosecutors had contended the convictions should stay in place, but Brinkema said soliciting treason is not inherently a crime of violence and could be accomplished “through aiding and comforting the enemies, which does not necessarily require the use, attempted use or threatened use of physical force.”

She rejected allegations that prosecutors failed to disclose information that the government sought to use another northern Virginia cleric, Anwar al-Awlaki, against Al-Timimi as an informant, and that al-Awlaki tried unsuccessfully to lure Al-Timimi into illegal conduct as part of a government sting.

Al-Awlaki later left the U.S. and became a leader in al-Qaeda before he was killed in a U.S. drone strike.

Prosecutors have long argued that they disclosed everything they were supposed to disclose about the meeting between the two clerics. Brinkema, in her ruling Thursday, confirmed that she reviewed the documents in question years ago and had also concluded that the defense was not entitled to any of the information because it did nothing to suggest al-Timimi’s innocence.

Neither the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia nor Al-Timimi’s lawyers responded to emails seeking comment Friday.

FALLS CHURCH, Va. (AP) — One of America’s most conservative congressmen was locked in a tight renomination battle against an opponent endorsed by former President Donald Trump in Virginia’s primary election Tuesday.

Rep. Bob Good, who chairs the hard-right House Freedom Caucus, is seeking a third term representing Virginia’s 5th Congressional District, but state Sen. John McGuire has mounted a strong challenge that highlights frictions in the party.

Ballots remained to be counted, and the close margin made the race too early to call. Virginia observes the Juneteenth holiday and isn’t expected to count votes Wednesday as a result. McGuire led Good by 327 votes, or 0.52 percentage points, out of 62,495 ballots counted as of 12 a.m. Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Democrats in northern and central Virginia chose nominees to replace popular incumbents who aren’t seeking reelection. In House District 7, Eugene Vindman won a crowded Democratic primary to try to hold the seat being vacated by U.S. Rep. Abigail Spanberger, who is running for governor in 2025, while Republicans chose Derrick Anderson.

And in House District 10, voters chose Suhas Subramanyam from a field of 12 Democrats to try to hold the seat held by U.S. Rep. Jennifer Wexton, who is not seeking reelection to her northern Virginia seat after being diagnosed with a rare, incurable neurological illness. Republican voters nominated Mike Clancy for that seat.

Statewide, voters selected Hung Cao as the Republican nominee to the U.S. Senate to take on Democrat Tim Kaine.

Here’s a look at the major battles on the ballot:

House District 5

Conventional politics might suggest a congressman with the conservative credentials of Good would be safe in a primary. But he earned the wrath of Trump when he endorsed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for president. He switched back to Trump after DeSantis dropped out, but Trump is endorsing McGuire and portraying Good as a backstabber.

Trump continued to bash Good as he campaigned for McGuire in a telephone rally Monday night.

“Unlike Bob Good, John McGuire will not let you down,” Trump said, adding that McGuire is “strong on the border” and “will always defend your under-siege Second Amendment.”

Good says he considers Trump the best president in his lifetime and only endorsed DeSantis because Trump is constitutionally limited to only one more term.

McGuire, for his part, claimed victory late Tuesday and thanked Trump for “believing in me.” No winner has been called by The Associated Press.

“There are still a few votes left to count, but it’s clear that all paths end with a victory,” McGuire said in a written statement.

Good, meanwhile, posted a statement on social media saying his campaign “implemented the best early voting operation that the 5th District has ever seen.”

“We are still waiting for the results of mail-in ballots and provisional ballots,” he said. “We are doing what we can to ensure we have teams of observers and legal counsel to ensure all the votes are properly counted in the coming days.”

Good also alienated Republican insiders by voting to oust House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, throwing the party into a measure of chaos.

Seeking to capitalize is McGuire, a state legislator and former Navy SEAL who has echoed Trump’s attacks on Good, calling him a “never Trumper.”

Good has bashed McGuire as a serial campaigner who announced his congressional bid just one week after winning election to a four-year term in the state Senate.

If Good loses, he would be the first House incumbent to go down to a primary challenge this year, with the exception of one race in which two incumbents faced off due to redistricting.

The winner will face Democrat Gloria Tinsley Witt, who defeated Gary Terry and Paul Riley.

The 5th Congressional District stretches from Charlottesville in the north, past the far western suburbs of Richmond, through Lynchburg and down to Danville and the North Carolina border.

House District 7

Vindman, a political newcomer who was nonetheless familiar to voters for his role in Trump’s first impeachment, has won the Democratic nomination in the 7th Congressional District for what will be a closely watched congressional seat in November.

Vindman, who crushed his opponents in fundraising, won in a crowded seven-person field that included four women of color who were all current or former officeholders in Prince William County, a suburban area outside the nation’s capital that constitutes the largest portion of the district.

The former Army officer gained a measure of fame when he and his twin brother, Alex, reported their concerns about Trump’s 2019 call to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in which Trump sought an investigation of Biden and his son, Hunter.

Vindman highlighted his opposition to Trump in his campaign and in a victory statement issued Tuesday evening said, “our grass-roots movement is coming for the extreme MAGA agenda. Virginia voters are first and foremost values driven, and want to elect leaders with integrity who preserve fundamental rights and freedoms and not extremists.”

He faced criticism from some local officials who said he was unconnected to the region’s political dynamics.

In a battle between a former Army Green Beret and a former Navy SEAL, Republican voters chose the Army man, Anderson, over Navy veteran Cameron Hamilton.

Anderson and Hamilton were the top two fundraisers in a six-person field. Anderson drew support from House GOP leadership in Washington, while Hamilton had support from members of the House Freedom Caucus.

The district, which stretches from Prince William County south to Fredericksburg and west past Culpeper, tilts just slightly toward Democrats.

House District 10

Subramanyam defeated fellow Democratic candidates former Virginia House Speaker Eileen Filler-Corn, state Sens. Dan Helmer and Jennifer Boysko, and former Virginia Education Secretary Atif Qarni. Wexton endorsed Subramanyam.

Republican voters chose Clancy from a field of four candidates.

House District 2

In Virginia’s coastal 2nd Congressional District, Missy Cotter Smasal, a Navy veteran who runs a nonprofit that honors fallen servicewomen, defeated Jeremiah “Jake” Denton IV, a constitutional law and civil rights attorney, in the Democratic primary.

She’ll face Republican U.S. Rep. Jen Kiggans in November.

In a statement Tuesday evening, Smasal took aim at Kiggans and “the MAGA extremism she supports in Congress.”

“I will protect abortion rights and access for all and fight for resources for veterans and military families,” Smasal said. “I will always defend democracy and reject party extremism.”

U.S. Senate

In the Republican primary for U.S. Senate, Navy veteran Cao prevailed over his four opponents for a chance to try to unseat Kaine, a Democrat who is seeking his third term as the state’s junior U.S. senator.

Cao had the most money and previous campaign experience running for higher officer among the Republican primary contenders. He also had Trump’s endorsement.

In a victory post on Facebook, Cao immediately criticized President Joe Biden’s decision on Tuesday to allow certain U.S. citizens’ spouses without legal status to apply eventually for citizenship.

“Tomorrow, we begin our campaign to save the country that saved my life,” Cao stated. “I spent twenty-five years in the Navy, while Tim Kaine spent thirty years in elected office.”

Cao defeated Scott Parkinson, a former congressional staffer for DeSantis, as well as Jonathan Emord, an author and lawyer who often cites his court battles against the Food and Drug Administration. The other Republican candidates were Eddie Garcia, a U.S. Army veteran who owns a mobile app that serves veterans, and Chuck Smith, a former Navy Judge Advocate General’s Corps commander and an attorney.

___

Finley contributed to this report from Norfolk.

Dozens of bottles of cherries and berries — impossibly preserved in storage pits uncovered from the cellar of his mansion on the banks of the Potomac River — were discovered during an archaeological dig connected to a restoration project.

Jason Boroughs, Mount Vernon’s principal archaeologist, said the discovery of so much perfectly preserved food from more than 250 years ago is essentially unprecedented.

“Finding what is essentially fresh fruit, 250 years later, is pretty spectacular,” Boroughs said in an interview. “All the stars sort of have to align in the right manner for that to happen.”

Whole pieces of fruit, recognizable as cherries, were found in some of the bottles. Other bottles held what appear to be gooseberries or currants, though testing is underway to confirm that.

Mount Vernon is partnering with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which is conducting DNA testing on the fruit. They are also examining more than 50 cherry pits recovered from the bottles to see if any of them can be planted.

Records at Mount Vernon show that George and Martha Washington were fond of cherries, at least when mixed with brandy. Martha Washington’s recipe for a “cherry bounce” cocktail survives, and Washington wrote that he took a canteen of cherry bounce with him on a trip across the Alleghenies in 1784.

These cherries, though, were most likely bottled to be eaten simply as cherries, Boroughs said.

The quality of the preservation reflect a high caliber of work. Slaves ran the plantation’s kitchen. The kitchen was overseen by an enslaved woman named Doll, who came to Mount Vernon in 1758 with Martha Washington, according to the estate.

“The enslaved folks who were taking care of the trees, picking the fruit, working in the kitchen, those would have been the folks that probably would have overseen and done this process,” Boroughs said. “It’s a highly skilled process. Otherwise they just wouldn’t have survived this way.”

The bottles were found only because Mount Vernon is doing a $40 million revitalization project of the mansion that they expect to be completed by the nation’s 250th birthday in 2026.

“When we do archaeology, it’s destructive,” Boroughs said. “So unless we have a reason to disturb those resources, we tend not to.”

“In this case, because of these needed structural repairs to the mansion, the ground was going to be disturbed. So we looked there first,” he continued. “We didn’t expect to find all this.”

They know the bottles predate 1775 because that’s when an expansion of the mansion led to the area being covered over with a brick floor.

Mount Vernon announced back in April, at the start of its archaeological work, that it had found two bottles. As the dig continued, the number increased to 35 in six distinct storage pits. Six of the bottles were broken, with the other 19 intact. Twelve held cherries, 16 held the other berries believed to be currants and gooseberries, and one larger bottle held both cherries and other berries.

Boroughs believes they have now uncovered all the cherries and berries that survived.

“There is a lot of information that we’re excited to get from these bottles,” he said.