The Senate will vote for the second time this year on whether to consider legislation that would establish a nationwide right to in vitro fertilization — Democrats’ latest election-year attempt to force Republicans into a defensive stance on women’s health issues. Senators will vote Tuesday on whether to move forward with the legislation, a second try after Republicans already blocked it once earlier this year. The bill has little chance of passing, but Democrats are hoping to use the do-over vote to put pressure on Republican congressional candidates and lay out a contrast between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump in the presidential race, especially as Trump has called himself a “ leader on IVF.” The push started earlier this year after the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos can be considered children under state law. Several clinics in the state suspended IVF treatments until the GOP-led legislature rushed to enact a law to provide legal protections for the clinics. Democrats quickly capitalized, holding a vote in June on the congressional bill from Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth and warning that the U.S. Supreme Court could go after the procedure next after it overturned the right to an abortion in 2022. The legislation would also increase access to the procedure and lower costs. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said on the floor Tuesday morning that the vote is a “second chance” for Republicans. “Americans are watching, families back home are watching, and couples who want to become parents are watching, too,” Schumer said. All but two Republicans voted to block the Democratic legislation in June, arguing that the federal government shouldn’t tell states what to do and that the bill was an unserious effort. Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska voted with Democrats to move forward on the bill. Meanwhile, Republicans have scrambled to counter Democrats on the issue, with many making clear that they support IVF treatments. Trump last month announced plans, without additional details, to require health insurance companies or the federal government to pay for the fertility treatment. In his debate with Harris earlier this month, Trump said he was a “leader” on the issue and talked about the “very negative” decision by the Alabama court that was later reversed by the legislature. But the issue has threatened to become a vulnerability for Republicans as some state laws passed by their party grant legal personhood not only to fetuses but to any embryos that are destroyed in the IVF process. Ahead of the its convention this summer, the Republican Party adopted a policy platform that supports states establishing fetal personhood through the Constitution’s 14th Amendment, which grants equal protection under the law to all American citizens. The platform also encourages supporting IVF but does not explain how the party plans to do so. Democrats say that if Trump wants to improve access to the procedure, then Republicans should vote for their legislation. Duckworth, a military veteran who has used the fertility treatment to have her two children, has led the Senate effort on the legislation. “How dare you,’” she said in comments directed toward her GOP colleagues after the first vote blocking the bill. Republicans have tried to push alternatives on the issue, including legislation that would discourage states

Italo Medelius was leading a volunteer drive to put Cornel West on North Carolina’s presidential ballot last spring when he received an unexpected call from a man named Paul who said he wanted to help. Though Medelius, co-chairman of West’s “Justice for All Party,” welcomed the assistance, the offer would complicate his life, provoking threats and drawing him into a state election board investigation of the motivations, backgrounds and suspect tactics of his new allies. His is not an isolated case. Across the country, a network of Republican political operatives, lawyers and their allies is trying to shape November’s election in ways that favor former President Donald Trump. Their goal is to prop up third-party candidates such as West who offer liberal voters an alternative that could siphon away support from Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee. It is not clear who is paying for the effort, but it could be impactful in states that were decided by miniscule margins in the 2020 election won by Democrat Joe Biden. This is money West’s campaign does not have, and he has encouraged the effort. Last month the academic told The Associated Press that “American politics is highly gangster-like activity” and he “just wanted to get on that ballot.” Trump has offered praise for West, calling him “one of my favorite candidates.” Another is Green Party candidate Jill Stein. Trump favors both for the same reason. “I like her very much. You know why? She takes 100% from them. He takes 100%.” Democrats are exploring ways to lift Randall Terry, an anti-abortion presidential candidate for the Constitution Party, believing he could draw voters from Trump. But the GOP effort appears to be more far-reaching. After years of Trump accusing Democrats of “rigging” elections, it is his allies who are now mounting a sprawling and at times deceptive campaign to tilt the vote in his favor. “The fact that either of the two major parties would attempt financially and otherwise to support a third-party spoiler candidate as part of its effort to win is an unfortunate byproduct” of current election laws “that facilitate spoilers,” said Edward B. Foley, a law professor who leads Ohio State University’s election law program. “This phenomenon is equally problematic whichever of the two major party engages in it.” One key figure in the push is Paul Hamrick, the man on the other end of the call with Medelius in North Carolina. Hamrick serves as counsel for the Virginia-based nonprofit People Over Party, which has pushed to get West on the ballot in Arizona, Maine, Minnesota, Pennsylvania and Virginia, as well as North Carolina, records show. In an interview, Hamrick declined to say who else besides him was orchestrating the effort and he would not divulge who was funding it. He vigorously disputed any suggestion that he was a Republican, but acknowledged that he was not a Democrat, either. His history is complex. Hamrick was chief of staff to former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman, a one-term Democrat who was booted from office in 2003 and later was convicted and sentenced to prison on federal bribery, conspiracy and mail fraud charges. Hamrick was charged alongside his former boss in two separate cases. One was dismissed and he was acquitted in the other. Though he insists he is not a

A body camera captured every word and bark uttered as police Sgt. Matt Gilmore and his K-9 dog, Gunner, searched for a group of suspects for nearly an hour. Normally, the Oklahoma City police sergeant would grab his laptop and spend another 30 to 45 minutes writing up a report about the search. But this time he had artificial intelligence write the first draft. Pulling from all the sounds and radio chatter picked up by the microphone attached to Gilmore’s body camera, the AI tool churned out a report in eight seconds. “It was a better report than I could have ever written, and it was 100% accurate. It flowed better,” Gilmore said. It even documented a fact he didn’t remember hearing — another officer’s mention of the color of the car the suspects ran from. Oklahoma City’s police department is one of a handful to experiment with AI chatbots to produce the first drafts of incident reports. Police officers who’ve tried it are enthused about the time-saving technology, while some prosecutors, police watchdogs and legal scholars have concerns about how it could alter a fundamental document in the criminal justice system that plays a role in who gets prosecuted or imprisoned. Built with the same technology as ChatGPT and sold by Axon, best known for developing the Taser and as the dominant U.S. supplier of body cameras, it could become what Gilmore describes as another “game changer” for police work. “They become police officers because they want to do police work, and spending half their day doing data entry is just a tedious part of the job that they hate,” said Axon’s founder and CEO Rick Smith, describing the new AI product — called Draft One — as having the “most positive reaction” of any product the company has introduced. “Now, there’s certainly concerns,” Smith added. In particular, he said district attorneys prosecuting a criminal case want to be sure that police officers — not solely an AI chatbot — are responsible for authoring their reports because they may have to testify in court about what they witnessed. “They never want to get an officer on the stand who says, well, ‘The AI wrote that, I didn’t,’” Smith said. AI technology is not new to police agencies, which have adopted algorithmic tools to read license plates, recognize suspects’ faces, detect gunshot sounds and predict where crimes might occur. Many of those applications have come with privacy and civil rights concerns and attempts by legislators to set safeguards. But the introduction of AI-generated police reports is so new that there are few, if any, guardrails guiding their use. Concerns about society’s racial biases and prejudices getting built into AI technology are just part of what Oklahoma City community activist aurelius francisco finds “deeply troubling” about the new tool, which he learned about from The Associated Press. francisco prefers to lowercase his name as a tactic to resist professionalism. “The fact that the technology is being used by the same company that provides Tasers to the department is alarming enough,” said francisco, a co-founder of the Foundation for Liberating Minds in Oklahoma City. He said automating those reports will “ease the police’s ability to harass, surveil and inflict violence on community members. While making the cop’s job easier, it makes Black

Conflicting federal policies may force thousands of residents in flood-prone areas to pay more for flood insurance or be left unaware of danger posed by dams built upstream from their homes and worksites, according to an Associated Press review of federal records and data. The problem stems from a complex set of flood policies and some national security precautions taken after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. To get the best discount on flood insurance, the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s points-based rating system requires communities to chart all the homes, businesses and critical facilities endangered by a potential dam failure and warn people of their risk. But that’s difficult or even impossible in some communities, because other federal agencies restrict the release of such information for hundreds of dams that they own or regulate across the U.S., citing security risks. The quandary has persisted for years, though federal officials have been warned of its implications. Federal “dam information sharing procedures costs communities points, homeowners money, and potentially citizens lives,” a California emergency services official warned in a January 2020 presentation to FEMA’s National Dam Safety Review Board at an invitation-only meeting attended by dozens of federal and state officials. The meeting’s minutes were provided to the AP this summer, nearly two-and-half years after the news organization submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to FEMA. Since that meeting, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has begun publicly posting maps of areas that could be flooded if one of its hundreds of dams were to fail. But similar information remains restricted by other federal agencies, including by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which regulates about 1,800 power-producing dams, and by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, whose 430 dams in the western U.S. include some of the nation’s largest structures. The Bureau of Reclamation said in response to questions from the AP that it is revising its policies and will start sharing more information about dam-failure inundation zones in 2025, though it said the process could take more than eight years to complete for all its dams. Meanwhile, FEMA is accepting public comment through Sept. 9 on potential revisions to its Community Rating System, which awards discounts on flood insurance in communities that take steps to reduce risks. During a FEMA public hearing Wednesday, the floodplain administrator for Phoenix — the nation’s fifth largest city — raised concerns that the conflicting federal policies regarding dam flood zones were unfair to communities trying to get better insurance discounts for their residents. “I believe this is a punishment to us,” Phoenix floodplain administrator Nazar Nabaty told FEMA officials. One community’s frustrations Another community that has been affected by the information-sharing gap is Sacramento, California, which ranks among the most at-risk regions in the U.S. for catastrophic flooding. California’s capital sits at the confluence of two rivers and about 25 miles (40 kilometers) downstream from Folsom Dam, a large Bureau of Reclamation structure with a capacity that could cover the equivalent of the entire state of Rhode Island with a foot of water. During a review about five years ago, Sacramento County achieved one of the best-ever scores in FEMA’s rating system. But the county did not qualify for the top flood-insurance discount because the Bureau of Reclamation’s restrictions regarding Folsom Dam made it impossible

Ordinary Americans are “getting whacked” by too many laws and regulations, Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch says in a new book that underscores his skepticism of federal agencies and the power they wield. “Too little law and we’re not safe, and our liberties aren’t protected,” Gorsuch told The Associated Press in an interview in his Supreme Court office. “But too much law and you actually impair those same things.” “Over Ruled: The Human Toll of Too Much Law” is being published Tuesday by Harper, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers. Gorsuch has received a $500,000 advance for the book, according to his annual financial disclosure reports. In the interview, Gorsuch refused to be drawn into discussions about term limits or an enforceable code of ethics for the justices, both recently proposed by President Joe Biden at a time of diminished public trust in the court. Justice Elena Kagan, speaking a couple of days before Biden, separately said the court’s ethics code, adopted by the justices last November, should have a means of enforcement. But Gorsuch did talk about the importance of judicial independence. “I’m not saying that there aren’t ways to improve what we have. I’m simply saying that we’ve been given something very special. It’s the envy of the world, the United States judiciary,” he said. The 56-year-old justice was the first of three Supreme Court nominees of then-President Donald Trump, and they have combined to entrench a conservative majority that has overturned Roe v. Wade, ended affirmative action in college admissions, expanded gun rights and clipped environmental regulations aimed at climate change, as well as air and water pollution more generally. A month ago, the Supreme Court completed a term in which Gorsuch and the court’s five other conservative justices delivered sharp rebukes to the administrative state in three major cases, including the decision that overturned the 40-year-old Chevron decision that had made it more likely that courts would sustain regulations. The court’s three liberal justices dissented each time. Gorsuch also was in the majority in ruling that former presidents have broad immunity from criminal prosecution in a decision that indefinitely delayed the election interference case against Trump. What’s more, the justices made it harder to use a federal obstruction charge against people who were part of the mob that violently attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in an effort to overturn Trump’s defeat by Biden in the 2020 election. Gorsuch defended the immunity ruling as necessary to prevent presidents from being hampered while in office by threats of prosecution once they leave. The court had to wrestle with an unprecedented situation, he said. “Here we have, for the first time in our history, one presidential administration bringing criminal charges against a prior president. It’s a grave question, right? Grave implications,” Gorsuch said. But in the book, co-authored by a former law clerk, Janie Nitze, Gorusch largely sets those big issues aside and turns his focus to a fisherman, a magician, Amish farmers, immigrants, a hair braider and others who risked jail time, large fines, deportation and other hardships over unyielding rules. In 18 years as a judge, including the past seven on the Supreme Court, Gorsuch said, “There were just so many cases that came to me in which I saw ordinary Americans, just everyday, regular people

One child was killed and another was injured after a wind gust blew a bounce house into the air at a baseball game in Maryland on Friday night, local officials said. Local emergency personnel received a call in Waldorf, Maryland, at about 9:21 p.m. Friday from the Regency Furniture Stadium reporting that a moon bounce house became airborne because of a wind gust while children were inside. At the time, the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs minor league baseball team was playing a game, and “the moon bounce was carried approximately 15 to 20 feet up in the air, causing children to fall before it landed on the playing field,” according to a news release from the Charles County government posted on its website. Emergency personnel who were already at the stadium for the game, along with trainers from the baseball team and several volunteer first responders, began caring for patients within minutes, the release said. A 5-year-old boy from La Plata, Maryland, was flown to Children’s National Hospital in Washington, where he was later pronounced dead, the release said. A second child also was flown out by Maryland State Police with non-life-threatening injuries. Courtney Knichel, general manager of the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs said in a statement released by Charles County that “our entire organization shares our condolences with the family mourning the loss of a child, and concern for the child who was injured.” Charles County Government Commission President Reuben B. Collins II also expressed his condolences. “We extend our deepest empathy to the children and their families during this difficult time,” he said. “We thank our EMS team and the Maryland State Police for their swift actions to ensure the children received immediate care.” The team canceled Saturday night’s baseball game and is offering counseling and support to families, players and fans who attended the game, the Charles County release said. (AP)

The Senate will pursue a spending increase next year of about 3.4% for defense and 2.7% increase for non-defense programs under an agreement reached by top Democratic and Republican lawmakers on the Senate Appropriations Committee, setting up a certain clash with the House, which is pursuing less spending in both categories. Under an agreement reached last year by President Joe Biden and then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy, spending was set to increase 1% for defense and non-defense programs in fiscal year 2025, bringing the tallies to about $780.4 billion for non-defense and $895.2 billion for defense. Some senators said the increase would not keep up with inflation and would be tantamount to a cut for many programs. The bipartisan Senate agreement unveiled this week will provide $13.5 billion more in emergency funding for non-defense programs and $21 billion more for defense programs than the Biden-McCarthy agreement provided. Meanwhile, House Republicans are pursuing a more austere course, allowing for a 1% increase for defense, but significant cuts for non-defense, coming to a roughly 6% cut on average, though some programs would be cut much more and some GOP priorities not at all. While some Republican senators were clamoring for more defense spending, Democrats insisted on similar treatment for non-defense programs. “I have made clear that we cannot fail to address the insufficient funding levels facing us and that I absolutely will not leave pressing nondefense needs behind,” said Sen. Patty Murray, the Democratic chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee. Murray has been negotiating with Sen. Susan Collins, the ranking Republican on the committee, on discretionary spending for next year. Such spending does not include mandatory spending on major entitlement programs, namely Social Security and Medicare, which represent about two-thirds of annual federal spending and does not require an annual vote by Congress. Collins said the U.S. is facing one of the most perilous security environments in the last 50 years and that threats from Iran, Russia and China “must be met with the resolve to invest in a stronger national defense.” “Under this agreement, additional funding for our military would be accompanied by efforts to halt the flow of fentanyl at our borders, invest in biomedical research, and maintain affordable housing programs,” Collins said. The Republican-led House has been acting more quickly on spending than the Senate. It has passed four of the 12 annual spending bills so far while the Senate has not yet passed any. However, all four House bills have generated veto threats from the White House, drew widespread Democratic opposition and have no chance of passing the Senate in their current form. That means a protracted, monthslong battle that will likely require one or more stopgap spending bills to keep the federal government fully open when the new fiscal year begins Oct. 1. With the elections and lawmakers spending so much time away from Washington, Congress is not expected to get the final spending bills over the finish line until after the elections. Final passage could also be pushed off to next year if one party manages to win the White House and both chambers of Congress. The agreement that leaders of the Senate Appropriations Committee reached on spending comes as the committee was set to take up its first three spending measures on Thursday. (AP)

An independent watchdog within the IRS reported Wednesday that while taxpayer services have vastly improved, the agency is still too slow to resolve identity theft cases with delays that are “unconscionable.” Overall, the 2024 filing season went smoothly, according to the latest National Taxpayer Advocate report to Congress, especially after the IRS received a massive funding boost provided by the Democrats’ Inflation Reduction Act that President Joe Biden signed into law in August 2022. “Not to be overly dramatic, but during the last four years, I believe we have progressed from a place of despair to a place of hope and optimism for the future of the agency and therefore for taxpayers,” said Erin M. Collins, who leads the organization assigned to protect taxpayers’ rights under the Taxpayer Bill of Rights. Still, she said, “IRS delays in resolving identity theft victim assistance cases are unconscionable.” The report details the federal tax collector’s performance in modernizing its technologies, the speed with which it answers its phones and the rate it sends out refund checks, among other things. The time it takes to resolve self-reported identity theft cases has worsened since the previous report in January, when it was nearly 19 months. As of April, the IRS took more than 22 months to resolve these cases and had roughly 500,000 unresolved cases in its inventory, according to the report. It said further harm could befall identity theft victims, who are often dealing with other related issues. For instance, tax refunds can be delayed, contributing to financial insecurity. “These delays are particularly challenging for low-income taxpayers who may rely on these refunds to pay their day-to-day living expenses or expenses accrued throughout the year, such as medical bills. In addition, these identity theft victims may struggle to secure certain kinds of loans, such as mortgages,” the report said. In response to the Wednesday report, the IRS said in an emailed statement that “although taxpayers continued to see major improvements from the IRS during the 2024 tax season, the IRS recognizes that the backlog of identity theft cases remains one of the most significant ongoing service gaps.” The agency is working on improvements, according to the statement, including “identifying, training and moving additional resources to work these important cases” and “engaging with stakeholders within and outside the IRS to identify and prevent evolving tax-related identity theft threats.” The IRS originally received an $80 billion infusions under the Inflation Reduction Act, but that money is vulnerable to potential cutbacks. Last year’s debt ceiling and budget cuts deal between Republicans and the White House resulted in $1.4 billion rescinded from the agency and a separate agreement to take $20 billion from the IRS over the next two years and divert those funds to other nondefense programs. Additional money for the IRS has been politically controversial since 2013 when the agency during the Obama administration was found to have scrutinized political groups that applied for tax-exempt status. A report by the Treasury Department’s internal watchdog found that both conservative and liberal groups were chosen for close review. “I believe the IRS has turned the corner, and with the additional multiyear funding provided by the Inflation Reduction Act, particularly for Taxpayer Services and information technology modernization,” Collins said. “I am bullish that the taxpayer experience will continue to

Improved weather conditions aided firefighters Tuesday as they battled a rural northern California wildfire that destroyed two structures and threatened the community of Palermo, which is near where the state’s deadliest wildfire struck six years ago. The fire spread over about 1 square mile (2.6 square kilometers) in the initial hours Monday evening but was static overnight and containment reached 15%, said Capt. Dan Collins of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or Cal Fire. Winds subsided, marine air brought some cooling and “the conditions are favorable for us this morning,” he said. An early start to aircraft operations was requested. The cause of the blaze — dubbed the Apache Fire — was under investigation. Evacuation orders were in effect for several areas but Collins did not know how many people were affected. The destroyed structures included one house and an outbuilding that may have been a shed or garage, he said. One firefighter had a minor injury. Palermo had a population of about 9,400 in the 2020 census. The town is about 65 miles (105 kilometers) north of Sacramento. It is part of Butte County, which is also home to Paradise, where California’s deadliest wildfire killed 85 people and destroyed 11,000 homes in 2018. (AP)

Embracing Donald Trump’s strategy of blaming the U.S. justice system after his historic guilty verdict, Republicans in Congress are fervently enlisting themselves in his campaign of vengeance and political retribution as the GOP runs to reclaim the White House. Almost no Republican official has stood up to suggest Trump should not be the party’s presidential candidate for the November election — in fact, some have sought to hasten his nomination. Few others dared to defend the legitimacy of the New York state court that heard the hush money case or the 12 jurors who unanimously rendered their verdict. And those Republicans who expressed doubts about Trump’s innocence or political viability, including his former hawkish national security adviser John Bolton or top-tier Senate candidate Larry Hogan of Maryland, were instantly bullied by the former president’s enforcers and told to “leave the party.” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., said she’s voting for Trump “whether he is a free man or a prisoner of the Biden regime.” She also posted the upside-down American flag that has come to symbolize the “Stop the Steal” movement Trump started with allies before the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. The swift, strident and deepening commitment to Trump despite his felony conviction shows how fully Republican leaders and lawmakers have been infused with his unfounded grievances of a “rigged” system and dangerous conspiracies of “weaponized” government, using them in their own attacks on President Joe Biden and the Democrats. Rather than shunning Trump’s escalating authoritarian language or ensuring they will provide checks and balances for a second Trump term, the Republican senators and representatives are upturning longstanding faith in U.S. governance, and setting the stage for what they plan to do if Trump regains power. On Friday, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, demanded the prosecutors Alvin Bragg and Matthew Colangelo appear for a June hearing on the “weaponization of the federal government” and “the unprecedented political prosecution” of Trump — despite the fact that Biden, as president, has no authority over the state courts in New York. “What we’re gearing up for is if Trump wins, he’s going to use the apparatus of the state to target his political opponents,” said Jason Stanley, a professor at Yale and the author of “How Fascism Works.” Stanley said history is full of examples of people not believing the rhetoric of authoritarians. “Believe what they say,” he said. “He’s literally telling you he’s going to use the apparatus of the state to target his political opponents.” At his Trump Tower on Friday in New York, the former president returned to the kinds of attacks he has repeatedly lodged in campaign speeches, portraying Biden as the one who is “corrupt” and the U.S. as a “fascist” nation. Trump called the members of the bipartisan House committee that investigated the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol “thugs” and said Biden was a “Manchurian candidate,” a phrase inspired by the 1960s movie portraying a puppet of a U.S. political enemy. A Trump campaign memo contained talking points for Republican lawmakers, suggesting they call the case a “sham,” “hoax,” “witch hunt,” “election interference” and “lawfare” designed by Biden, whom it called “crooked.” Biden faces no such charges, and the House GOP’s efforts to impeach the president over his son

America’s first Black astronaut candidate finally rocketed into space 60 years later, flying with Jeff Bezos’ rocket company on Sunday. Ed Dwight was an Air Force pilot when President John F. Kennedy championed him as a candidate for NASA’s early astronaut corps. But he wasn’t picked for the 1963 class. Dwight, now 90, went through a few minutes of weightlessness with five other passengers aboard the Blue Origin capsule as it skimmed space on a roughly 10-minute flight. He called it “a life changing experience.” “I thought I really didn’t need this in my life,” Dwight said shortly after exiting the capsule. ”But, now, I need it in may life …. I am ecstatic.” The brief flight from West Texas made Dwight the new record-holder for oldest person in space — nearly two months older than “Star Trek” actor William Shatner was when he went up in 2021. It was Blue Origin’s first crew launch in nearly two years. The company was grounded following a 2022 accident in which the booster came crashing down but the capsule full of experiments safely parachuted to the ground. Flights resumed last December, but with no one aboard. This was Blue Origin’s seventh time flying space tourists. Dwight, a sculptor from Denver, was joined by four business entrepreneurs from the U.S. and France and a retired accountant. Their ticket prices were not disclosed; Dwight’s seat was sponsored in part by the nonprofit Space for Humanity. Dwight was among the potential astronauts the Air Force recommended to NASA. But he wasn’t chosen for the 1963 class, which included eventual Gemini and Apollo astronauts, including Apollo 11’s Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins. NASA didn’t select Black astronauts until 1978, and Guion Bluford became the first African American in space in 1983. Three years earlier, the Soviets launched the first Black astronaut, Arnaldo Tamayo Mendez, a Cuban of African descent. After leaving the military in 1966, Dwight joined IBM and started a construction company, before earning a master’s degree in sculpture in the late 1970s. He’s since dedicated himself to art. His sculptures focus on Black history and include memorials and monuments across the country. Several of his sculptures have flown into space. (AP)

O.J. Simpson, who was infamously acquitted of charges he killed his former wife and her friend but later found liable in a separate civil trial, has died. He was 76. Simpson’s attorney confirmed he died Wednesday night in Las Vegas. A message posted Thursday on Simpson’s official X account said he died after battling cancer. “He was surrounded by his children and grandchildren,” the statement said. Simpson earned fame, fortune and adulation through football and show business, but his legacy was forever changed by the June 1994 knife slayings of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman in Los Angeles. Live TV coverage of his arrest after a famous slow-speed chase marked a stunning fall from grace for the sports hero. The public was mesmerized by his “trial of the century” on live TV. His case sparked debates on race, gender, domestic abuse, justice and police misconduct. A criminal court jury found him not guilty of murder in 1995, but a separate civil trial jury found him liable in 1997 for the deaths and ordered him to pay $33.5 million to family members of Brown and Goldman. A decade later, still shadowed by the California wrongful death judgment, Simpson led five men he barely knew into a confrontation with two sports memorabilia dealers in a cramped Las Vegas hotel room. Two men with Simpson had guns. A jury convicted Simpson of armed robbery and other felonies. Imprisoned at age 61, he served nine years in a remote northern Nevada prison, including a stint as a gym janitor. He was not contrite when he was released on parole in October 2017. The parole board heard him insist yet again that he was only trying to retrieve sports memorabilia and family heirlooms stolen from him after his criminal trial in Los Angeles. “I’ve basically spent a conflict-free life, you know,” Simpson, whose parole ended in late 2021, said. Public fascination with Simpson never faded. Many debated if he had been punished in Las Vegas for his acquittal in Los Angeles. “I don’t think most of America believes I did it,” Simpson incredulously told The New York Times in 1995, a week after a jury determined he did not kill Brown and Goldman. “I’ve gotten thousands of letters and telegrams from people supporting me.” Twelve years later, following an outpouring of public outrage, Rupert Murdoch cancelled a planned book by the News Corp-owned HarperCollins in which Simpson offered his hypothetical account of the killings. It was to be titled, “If I Did It.” Goldman’s family, still doggedly pursuing the multimillion-dollar wrongful death judgment, won control of the manuscript. They retitled the book “If I Did It: Confessions of the Killer.” “It’s all blood money, and unfortunately I had to join the jackals,” Simpson told The Associated Press at the time. He collected $880,000 in advance money for the book, paid through a third party. “It helped me get out of debt and secure my homestead,” he said. Less than two months after losing the rights to the book, Simpson was arrested in Las Vegas. One of the artifacts of his murder trial, the carefully tailored tan suit he wore when he was acquitted, was later donated and placed on display at the Newseum in Washington, D.C. Simpson had been told

President Joe Biden on Saturday signed a $460 billion package of spending bills approved by the Senate in time to avoid a shutdown of many key federal agencies. The legislation’s success gets lawmakers about halfway home in wrapping up their appropriations work for the 2024 budget year. The measure contains six annual spending bills and had already passed the House. In signing it into law, Biden thanked leaders and negotiators from both parties in both chambers for their work, which the White House said will mean that agencies “may continue their normal operations.” Meanwhile, lawmakers are negotiating a second package of six bills, including defense, in an effort to have all federal agencies fully funded by a March 22 deadline. “To folks who worry that divided government means nothing ever gets done, this bipartisan package says otherwise,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said after lawmakers passed the measure Friday night just hours before a deadline. He said the bill’s passage would allow for the hiring of more air traffic controllers and rail safety inspectors, give federal firefighters a raise and boost support for homeless veterans, among other things. The Senate passed the bill by a vote of 75-22. Lawmakers sought votes on several amendments and wanted to have their say on the bill and other priorities during debate on the floor. It had been unclear midday if senators would be able to avert a short shutdown, though eventual passage was never really in doubt. “I would urge my colleagues to stop playing with fire here,” said Sen. Susan Collins, the top-ranking Republican member of the Senate Appropriations Committee. “It would be irresponsible for us not to clear these bills and do the fundamental job that we have of funding government. What is more important?” The votes came more than five months into the current budget year after congressional leaders relied on a series of stopgap bills to keep federal agencies funded for a few more weeks or months at a time while they struggled to reach agreement on full-year spending. In the end, total discretionary spending set by Congress is expected to come in at about $1.66 trillion for the full budget year ending Sept. 30. Republicans were able to keep non-defense spending relatively flat compared with the previous year. Supporters say that’s progress in an era when annual federal deficits exceeding $1 trillion have become the norm. But many Republican lawmakers were seeking much steeper cuts and more policy victories. The House Freedom Caucus, which contains dozens of the GOP’s most conservative members, urged Republicans to vote against the first spending package and the second one still being negotiated. Democrats staved off most of the policy riders that Republicans sought to include in the package. For example, they beat back an effort to block new rules that expand access to the abortion pill mifepristone. They were also able to fully fund a nutrition program for low-income women, infants and children, providing about $7 billion for what is known as the WIC program. That’s a $1 billion increase from the previous year. Republicans were able to achieve some policy wins, however. One provision will prevent the sale of oil in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to China. Another policy mandate prohibits the Justice Department from investigating parents who exercise free

Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley said Friday that she raised $12 million in February, a haul that will likely allow her to remain in the Republican primary against former President Donald Trump past next week’s Super Tuesday — even though she can’t point to an upcoming state where she expects to beat him. The former ambassador to the United Nations noted that she outraised Trump in January and insisted that the donations have continued to flow despite her not having a long-term plan to challenge — or even really dent — the former president’s commanding lead in the primary. “When I go into a fundraiser,” she said during a meeting with reporters in Washington, “They don’t ask me, ‘What’s your strategy?’ They don’t ask me, ‘What’s your plan?’ All they say is, ‘Thank you for giving me hope.’” Haley got some good news later in the day, when moderate Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins became the first senators to endorse her, defying most top GOP leaders who have lined up behind Trump. Murkowski has her own personal history with the former president, who in 2021 vowed to personally campaign against her when she was up for reelection the following year — though that threat didn’t stop the senator from winning another term in 2022. Collins said late Friday that Haley’s “experience as a successful Governor and as a strong representative of our country as ambassador to the United Nations makes her extremely well-qualified to serve as our first female president. She has the energy, intellect, and temperament that we need to lead our country in these very tumultuous times.” Murkowski’s home state of Alaska and Collins’ home state of Maine are among the 15 holding GOP primaries Tuesday. Haley’s announced February total has not yet been verified by official campaign finance filings. Still, Haley argues that another strong month with donors shows that Republicans are hungry for a viable alternative to Trump. Haley, who is also a former South Carolina governor, is the last Trump challenger standing from a field that was once crowded with more than a dozen Republican White House candidates. Trump has swept every early GOP contest heading into Saturday’s primary in the nation’s capital — including trouncing Haley in South Carolina. But Haley outraised Trump in January, taking in $11.5 million while her allied super PAC brought in another $12 million. The former president’s campaign raised $8.8 million in January with his primary super PAC taking in another $7.3 million. Asked about Haley announcing her strong February fundraising, Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said, “Our focus is now on Joe Biden and the general election.” “Republican voters have delivered resounding wins for President Trump in every single primary contest and this race is over,” Cheung said. As Biden steps up his own fundraising and travel around the country amid his own reelection campaign, the president has also zeroed in on Trump while largely assuming the race with Haley is over — calling his presidential predecessor a threat to the nation’s core values and very democracy. Haley says she’s “not anti-Trump” and doesn’t fault Republicans for voting for him in the primary. After her meeting with reporters, she held a campaign rally in Washington ahead of its GOP primary on Saturday — though there are

An inflation gauge favored by the Federal Reserve increased in January, the latest sign that the slowdown in U.S. consumer price increases is occurring unevenly from month to month. The government reported Thursday that prices rose 0.3% from December to January, up from 0.1% in the previous month. But in a more encouraging sign, prices were up just 2.4% from a year earlier, down from a 2.6% annual pace in December and the smallest such increase in nearly three years. The year-over-year cooldown in inflation is sure to be welcomed by the White House as President Joe Biden seeks re-election. Still, even though average paychecks have outpaced inflation over the past year, many Americans remain frustrated that overall prices are still well above where they were before inflation erupted three years ago. That sentiment, evident in many public opinion polls, could pose a threat to Biden’s re-election bid. January’s month-to-month price increase will likely underscore the concern expressed recently by Federal Reserve officials about the risk of cutting interest rates too soon this year. Minutes from the Fed’s most recent meeting in January showed that most of the policymakers were wary of reducing rates prematurely, before inflation had sustainably returned to the Fed’s 2% target. Thursday’s figures “very much explain why they were right to be cautious,” Omair Sharif, founder of Inflation Insights, a consulting firm, said of Fed officials. “They continue to want to get more confidence.” Excluding volatile food and energy costs, so-called “core” prices rose 0.4% from December to January, up from 0.1% in the previous month and the biggest increase in a year. And compared with a year earlier, core prices rose 2.8%, barely down from 2.9% in December. Economists consider core prices a better gauge of the likely path of future inflation. Still, January’s jump follows three months of very low readings in core inflation. And in the second half of last year, core prices rose at just a 1.9% annual rate. Fed officials have welcomed the long-term decline in inflation and have continued to signal that they will likely cut their benchmark interest rate multiple times this year. Most economists expect the first reduction to occur in May or June. One trend that is helping keep a lid on price increases is a growing consumer pushback against still-high prices, particularly for packaged foods, cars and other physical goods. CEOs at a range of companies, from PepsiCo to McDonald’s to General Mills, have said in the past month that their companies are slowing price increases for their products to pre-pandemic levels after steeper price hikes had resulted in lower sales volumes. The consumer pushback has come from people like Shannon LoConte, who said she stopped buying name-brand potato chips once their price approached $7 a bag. She has also cut back on Vanilla Coke because the only way to obtain it at an affordable price was to buy it in bulk. “There is a certain point where I had to say enough is enough,” said LoConte, 30, who lives outside Charleston, South Carolina and works in marketing. “If it’s $7 for this bag of chips and I can go get $7 worth of groceries or go make my own baked potatoes, I’m going to just go do that, instead.” Inflation, as measured by the Fed’s

The city of Pittsburgh did not adequately maintain or repair a bridge and failed to act on inspection reports, leading to the corrosion of the structure’s steel legs and its collapse into a ravine, federal investigators said Wednesday. The city-owned Forbes Avenue bridge fell down on Jan. 28, 2022, plunging a bus and four cars about 100 feet (30 meters) into the Fern Hollow Creek. Another vehicle drove off the east bridge abutment and landed on its roof. There were injuries but no one died. After investigators presented their findings, three members of the National Transportation Safety Board agreed that poor inspections and insufficient oversight were among the probable causes of the collapse. “The Fern Hollow Bridge collapse should never have happened,” NTSB chair Jennifer L. Homendy said, describing the incident as a wake-up call. Homendy cited extensive corrosion to the uncoated weathering steel and “repeated failures to act” on damage to the bridge that was known for years. In some areas, the steel had deteriorated to the point of visible holes in the structure. “The city of Pittsburgh was responsible for inspecting and maintaining the Fern Hollow bridge,” said NTSB senior structural engineer Dan Walsh. “Similar maintenance and repair recommendations were made in the inspection reports for more than 15 years leading up to the collapse. But the city failed to act on them, resulting in progressive corrosion to the point of failure.” The office of Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey said the administration does not dispute the NTSB findings and noted the bridge inspections were performed by consultants. The city has created a new Bridge Maintenance Division and increased funding for bridge maintenance and repairs by 300%. Pittsburgh communications director Maria Montaño said in an email that the city has since examined inspection reports for all the bridges it owns “and has been working diligently to address all critical tasks identified in those reports.” She said most “high priority” tasks have been resolved or are in the process, and the city has reviewed all of its bridges’ “fracture critical” components and made sure they are draining properly. Four people were injured, two of them severely, when the bridge collapsed just hours before President Joe Biden arrived in Pittsburgh to promote spending on infrastructure. Attorney Steve Barth, who represents bus driver Daryl Luciani in litigation against the city and engineers involved with the bridge, said the NTSB findings confirmed what his own experts had concluded. Barth said there were “multiple levels of failure, from data collection, recording that data, implementation of any recommendations and then oversight.” There are at least six lawsuits involving the bridge collapse, Barth said. Luciani needed shoulder surgery, had back and neck injuries and is dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder, Barth said. The accident required Luciani to be out on worker’s compensation for a lengthy period, his lawyer said. Montaño declined to comment on the pending litigation. The presentations expanded on findings released by the NTSB last May, when investigators said drainage problems led to the deterioration of the structure’s legs and that debris, dirt and leaves had not been cleared. The old bridge was about 50 years old when it collapsed and had been under a 26-ton (24,000 kilograms) posted weight limit, with annual inspections required by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation since 2014. Investigators

After months of negotiations and delays, the Senate on Thursday voted to move forward on legislation that would provide wartime aid to Ukraine and Israel. While far from a final vote, it was a momentary victory for Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, a strong supporter of the aid for Ukraine, in particular, despite a growing number in his party who have opposed it. But the deep Republican divide over the aid, along with contentious debate over a border policy compromise with Democrats that was blocked by GOP senators earlier this week, has recently left a small group of senators in his conference fuming — and some even calling for his removal. “WE NEED NEW LEADERSHIP — NOW,” Utah Sen. Mike Lee posted on X after the text of the border bill was released on Sunday evening. He added in another post, “Senate GOP leadership screwed this up — and screwed us.” While McConnell’s job isn’t immediately in danger, and the vast majority of the conference still supports him, the growing anger from a small section of his caucus has rattled GOP senators and upended their regular private meetings, which have devolved into occasional yelling and frustration. Shortly before the vote Thursday to move forward on Ukraine aid, Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley said McConnell isn’t listening to his members as a growing number of them have opposed the foreign assistance. “He’s so focused on Zelenskyy,” Hawley vented to reporters afterward, speaking of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. “He’s got bigger problems than Zelenskyy.” In an interview Thursday with The Associated Press, McConnell said he’s not going anywhere. “They’ve had their shot,” he said of his critics, referring to the 2022 leadership election, in which Florida Sen. Rick Scott challenged him and received 10 votes out of 49 Republicans. He would not say, though, whether he will run for leader again after the November election. “I haven’t made any announcement on that yet,” McConnell said. McConnell, 81, was first elected party leader in 2007 and is now the longest serving party leader in Congress. He has long enjoyed a fierce loyalty from the majority of his GOP conference, many of whom were elected because of his steady acumen on campaigns and benefitted politically from his focus on confirming conservative judges to the federal bench. But the last several years have tested the party stalwart, as he has struggled with some health issues and as Donald Trump has remained a powerful force in the party and become the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination this year. His relationship with the former president has been strained, and the two haven’t talked since before the violent Jan. 6, 2001 attack on the Capitol by Trump’s supporters. And the critics’ calls for a leadership change have grown louder, and more open, in recent weeks amid the divisions over whether to support the border compromise with Democrats and whether to support aid for Ukraine’s war against Russia. McConnell says he’s seen it all before — internal angst amid the rise of the right-wing tea party almost 15 years ago, and yearly fights over spending, for example. “We’ve always had a lot of divisions,” he said. “I think the fact that we’re in a presidential election, the fact that the border is a huge issue to both sides elevated this

Barely 400,000 votes have been cast in two rural Republican primaries over the span of eight days. But both Donald Trump and Joe Biden are behaving like their parties’ nominees already. Trump’s double-digit victory Tuesday in independent-minded New Hampshire, where he was considered more vulnerable than perhaps anywhere else, was a rhetorical tipping point for both Democrats and Republicans. “It is now clear that Donald Trump will be the Republican nominee. And my message to the country is the stakes could not be higher,” President Joe Biden said hours after Trump’s victory Tuesday night. Trump’s team largely agreed, even as he raged about former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley’s unwillingness to leave the race altogether. “I say the general election begins tonight,” said Trump-adversary-turned-advocate Vivek Ramaswamy, who was standing at the former president’s side during his New Hampshire victory speech. “And this man will win it in a landslide.” What comes next for a potential matchup many voters don’t want The bluster is just a sliver of what’s to come over the next 10 months. Both parties are building out sprawling political operations backed by billions of dollars in advertising to shape the all-but-certain general election rematch between the current president and his predecessor. It is a matchup that many voters and some elected officials did not want. Both Biden and Trump have loud detractors within their parties and glaring political liabilities. Yet no other Republican presidential candidate in history has won the first two contests on the primary calendar, as Trump polished off Tuesday night, and failed to clinch his party’s nomination. And Biden, who won New Hampshire’s Democratic primary without even appearing on the ballot, is facing only token opposition in his bid for the Democratic nomination. Hours before Biden’s New Hampshire win was official, the president shifted two key aides from the White House to his Delaware-based campaign. On Wednesday, Biden is serving as the keynote speaker at a United Auto Workers political convention as he works to win over blue-collar workers in critical Midwestern swing states. Trump heads to Phoenix on Friday to address Republicans in a swing state that Biden won by 10,000 votes in 2020. Nikki Haley vows to continue As much as Trump’s team would like to shift its full focus toward Biden, one Republican rival is still standing. And at least for now, Haley is still consuming a significant amount of Trump’s attention. The former president’s campaign unveiled a new anti-Haley website on Wednesday as Trump railed against her repeatedly on social media. “Could somebody please explain to Nikki that she lost — and lost really badly,” Trump wrote on his social media network. “She also lost Iowa, BIG, last week. They were, as certain non-fake media say, ‘CRUSHING DEFEATS.’” Haley’s team vowed on Wednesday to continue fighting Trump for the GOP nomination, even with the prospect looming of an embarrassing home-state primary defeat in South Carolina on Feb. 24. “New Hampshire is first in the nation. It is not last in the nation,” Haley declared before leaving Tuesday night. “This race is far from over. There are dozens of states left to go.” Indeed, primary contests are scheduled in every U.S. state and territory over the next five months ahead of each party’s summertime national conventions. The earliest either Trump or Biden

The IRS is still too slow in processing amended tax returns, answering taxpayer phone calls and resolving identity theft cases, according to an independent watchdog within the agency. While there is “cautious optimism” for an agency that has excavated itself from tens of millions of backlogged tax returns with new federal funding, the report states “the IRS has a tall mountain to climb to achieve its goals of rebuilding the agency, modernizing its systems, and providing the quality service taxpayers deserve.” The federal tax collector needs to improve its processing and taxpayer correspondence issues despite a massive boost in funding provided by the Democrats’ Inflation Reduction Act, according to an annual report Wednesday to Congress from Erin M. Collins, who leads the organization assigned to protect taxpayers’ rights under the Taxpayer Bill of Rights. “The taxpayer experience vastly improved during the 2023 filing season,” the report says. “Despite the improvement, some problems carried over and others are inevitable in a tax system as large as ours. Several stand out.” The report serves as a reality check of sorts as IRS leaders say the funding boost is producing big improvements in services to taxpayers. GOP critics, meanwhile, are trying try to claw back some of the money and painting the agency as an over-zealous enforcer of the tax code. The IRS is experiencing “extraordinary delays” in assisting identity theft victims, taking nearly 19 months to resolve self-reported cases, which the report calls “unconscionable” since a delay in receiving a refund can worsen financial hardships. Additionally, the backlog of unprocessed amended returns has quadrupled from 500,000 in 2019 to 1.9 million in October last year. And taxpayer correspondence cases have more than doubled over the same period, from 1.9 million to 4.3 million, according to the report. The report also says IRS employees answered only 35% of all calls received, despite the agency claiming 85%. The IRS doesn’t include calls where the taxpayer hangs up before being placed into a calling queue. IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel told The Associated Press that the Taxpayer Advocate report “rightfully points out that we have a lot of work to do, but it also rightfully points out that this is not an overnight journey.” The report says the difference between the 2022 filing season and the 2023 filing season “was like night and day.” The IRS has been pulling itself out of decades of underfunding — by the end of the 2021 filing season, it faced a backlog of over 35 million tax returns that required manual data entry or employee review. And while the agency has been on a hiring spree — thousands of workers since 2022 — the new employees are in need of proper training, the report says. The 2023 Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey shows that a quarter of IRS employees don’t think they receive adequate training to perform their jobs well. “It is critical that the IRS make comprehensive training a priority and ensure that new hires receive adequate training before they are assigned to tasks with taxpayer impact,” Collins said. Last April, Werfel released details of IRS plans to use its IRA money for improved operations, pledging to invest in new technology, hire more customer service representatives and expand the agency’s ability to audit high-wealth taxpayers. The federal tax collection agency

Donald Trump was uncharacteristically serious when he implored an audience in eastern Iowa to carry him to a blowout in next month’s Republican caucuses. “The margin of victory is very important, it’s just very important,” Trump told about 1,000 people attending a Wednesday rally aimed at organizing campaign volunteers. “It’s time for the Republican Party to unite, to come together and focus our energy and resources on beating Crooked Joe Biden and taking back our country. Very simple.” For the blustery former president, it was both caution against complacency and a sign that he and his team believe the first contest on Jan. 15 can be not just the start of the nominating campaign, but the beginning of the end. Trump is the overwhelming favorite to win Iowa, one month away from the caucuses. A myriad of well-qualified GOP challengers and anti-Trump groups haven’t changed that dynamic after crisscrossing the state over the last year and spending more than $70 million in Iowa on advertising, according to the media tracking firm AdImpact. And unlike his first time in the caucuses, which he narrowly lost in 2016, Trump’s campaign is now run by Iowa veterans who are not just locking in caucus commitments but building a formidable organization to try to lock in his lead. Among rival campaigns, most question not whether Trump will win, but by how much — and whether a second-place finisher can claim momentum for the rest of the race. “For me, it looked like for a long time there was a narrow lane, but there was a lane, for a not-Trump candidate,” said Gentry Collins, a veteran Republican strategist and former state GOP executive director who ran Mitt Romney’s 2008 GOP caucus campaign. “But there isn’t really a single alternative people can rally around.” Trump was the first choice of 51% of likely Iowa caucus participants in a Des Moines Register-NBC News-Mediacom Iowa Poll published Monday. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has vowed that he will win Iowa, had the support of 19%. Former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, who has suggested she can beat DeSantis in the state and go head to head with Trump in later primaries, was at 16%. Next year’s GOP nomination is officially an open race. But many primary voters believe Trump was cheated in 2020 when he lost his reelection bid to Democrat Joe Biden. Multiple government and outside investigations have not found evidence of any voter fraud, despite Trump’s frequent and repeated false claims that are often repeated by many of his supporters. Trump remains popular with Republicans, both in Iowa and nationally, who credit him for his handling of the economy, the U.S.-Mexico border, and his appointment of three Supreme Court justices who voted to overturn a federally guaranteed right to abortion. “You’ve got basically a quasi-incumbent president,” said Whit Ayres, a Republican pollster and senior adviser to Marco Rubio’s 2016 campaign. “Of course, he’s got the overwhelming advantage.” Beyond Trump’s built-in advantages, a massive and ongoing effort on his behalf in Iowa reflects the campaign’s realization — especially compared to his seat-of-the-pants 2016 effort — that turning out many thousands of Iowans to caucus on a cold January night requires intense organizing. State Republican Party officials who run the contests and strategists with the various campaigns suggest

It’s the presidential election no one is really jazzed about. Relatively few Americans are excited about a potential rematch of the 2020 election between President Joe Biden and Donald Trump, although more Republicans would be satisfied to have Trump as their nominee than Democrats would be with Biden as their standard-bearer, according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. That palpable apathy from voters comes even as both Biden and Trump are facing relatively few obstacles in their paths to lock down their respective parties’ nominations next year. Biden has amassed broad support from Democratic officials as a handful of mostly token primary challengers have struggled to spark momentum. And despite 91 indictments across four criminal cases — including some centered on his attempts to overturn his electoral loss to Biden in 2020 — Trump’s grip on GOP primary voters shows no signs of loosening a month before the first nominating contest in Iowa. “Probably the best way to put it is, I find it sad for our country that that’s our best choices,” said Randy Johnson, 64, from Monett, Missouri. Johnson, who is a Republican, said he wishes there were a third legitimate option for president but that the political system does not make that viable and added: “We’re down to the lesser of two evils.” Andrew Collins, 35, an independent from Windham, Maine, said: “This is probably the most uniquely horrible choice I’ve had in my life.” About half of Democrats say they would be very or somewhat satisfied if Biden becomes the party’s 2024 nominee. About one-third of Democrats would be dissatisfied, and about 1 in 5 would be “neither satisfied nor dissatisfied.” When it comes to the Republican Party nomination, enthusiasm is higher for GOP front-runner Donald Trump. Two-thirds of Republicans would be satisfied with Trump as the Republican nominee for 2024. About one-quarter would be dissatisfied, and 9% would be neutral. Looking at U.S. adults broadly — setting aside party affiliations — there’s still not much enthusiasm for a Biden-Trump rematch. Most U.S. adults overall (56%) would be “very” or “somewhat” dissatisfied with Biden as the Democratic presidential nominee in 2024, and a similar majority (58%) would be very or somewhat dissatisfied with Trump as the GOP’s pick. Nearly 3 in 10 U.S. adults, or 28%, say they would be dissatisfied with both Trump and Biden becoming their party’s respective nominees – with independents (43%) being more likely than Democrats (28%) or Republicans (20%) to express their displeasure with both men gaining party nominations. Deborah Brophy is an independent who says she supported Biden in the 2020 presidential election. But now, the 67-year-old has soured on the president, saying she felt Biden is too focused on dealing with conflicts abroad rather than “what’s going on under his own nose,” such as homelessness, gun violence and the economy. “What’s going on with Biden right now?” said Brophy, of North Reading, Massachusetts. “I don’t think he’s, health-wise, able to continue another four years in office. I think his mind is a little bit going the wrong way in the way of not being able to think.” Yet she is turned off by Trump’s attitude and said he “seems a little racist,” even while praising his business acumen. “So I don’t know

Google took its next leap in artificial intelligence Wednesday with the launch of project Gemini, an AI model trained to behave in human-like ways that’s likely to intensify the debate about the technology’s potential promise and perils. The rollout will unfold in phases, with less sophisticated versions of Gemini called “Nano” and “Pro” being immediately incorporated into Google’s AI-powered chatbot Bard and its Pixel 8 Pro smartphone. With Gemini providing a helping hand, Google promises Bard will become more intuitive and better at tasks that involve planning. On the Pixel 8 Pro, Gemini will be able to quickly summarize recordings made on the device and provide automatic replies on messaging services, starting with WhatsApp, according to Google. Gemini’s biggest advances won’t come until early next year when its Ultra model will be used to launch “Bard Advanced,” a juiced-up version of the chatbot that initially will only be offered to a test audience. The AI, at first, will only work in English throughout the world, although Google executives assured reporters during a briefing that the technology will have no problem eventually diversifying into other languages. Based on a demonstration of Gemini for a group of reporters, Google’s “Bard Advanced” might be capable of unprecedented AI multitasking by simultaneously recognizing and understanding presentations involving text, photos and video. Gemini will also eventually be infused into Google’s dominant search engine, although the timing of that transition hasn’t been spelled out yet. “This is a significant milestone in the development of AI, and the start of a new era for us at Google,” declared Demis Hassabis, CEO of Google DeepMind, the AI division behind Gemini. Google prevailed over other bidders, including Facebook parent Meta, to acquire London-based DeepMind nearly a decade ago, and since melded it with its “Brain” division to focus on Gemini’s development. The technology’s problem-solving skills are being touted by Google as being especially adept in math and physics, fueling hopes among AI optimists that it may lead to scientific breakthroughs that improve life for humans. But an opposing side of the AI debate worries about the technology eventually eclipsing human intelligence, resulting in the loss of millions of jobs and perhaps even more destructive behavior, such as amplifying misinformation or triggering the deployment of nuclear weapons. “We’re approaching this work boldly and responsibly,” Google CEO Sundar Pichai wrote in a blog post. “That means being ambitious in our research and pursuing the capabilities that will bring enormous benefits to people and society, while building in safeguards and working collaboratively with governments and experts to address risks as AI becomes more capable.” Gemini’s arrival is likely to up the ante in an AI competition that has been escalating for the past year, with San Francisco startup OpenAI and long-time industry rival Microsoft. Backed by Microsoft’s financial muscle and computing power, OpenAI was already deep into developing its most advanced AI model, GPT-4, when it released the free ChatGPT tool late last year. That AI-fueled chatbot rocketed to global fame, bringing buzz to the commercial promise of generative AI and pressuring Google to push out Bard in response. Just as Bard was arriving on the scene, OpenAI released GPT-4 in March and has since been building in new capabilities aimed at consumers and business customers, including a feature unveiled in November

Austan Goolsbee, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, suggested Monday that the economy appears to be on what he calls the “golden path,” another term for what economists call a “soft landing,” in which the Fed would curb inflation without causing a deep recession. “Any time we’ve had a serious cut to the inflation rate, it’s come with a major recession,” Goolsbee said in an interview with The Associated Press. “And so the golden path is a … bigger soft landing than conventional wisdom believes has ever been possible. I still think it is possible.” At the same time, he cautioned: “I haven’t moved so far as to say that that’s what my prediction is.” Goolsbee declined to comment on the likely future path for the Fed’s key short-term interest rate. Nor would he say what his thoughts were about the timing of an eventual cut in interest rates. But Goolsbee’s optimistic outlook for inflation underscores why analysts increasingly think the Fed’s next move will be a rate cut, rather than an increase. Wall Street investors foresee essentially no chance of a rate hike at the Fed’s meetings in December or January. They put the likelihood of a rate cut in March at 28% — about double the perceived likelihood a month ago — and roughly a 58% chance of a cut in May. Goolsbee also said he thought inflation would continue to slow toward the Fed’s target of 2%. Partly in response to the higher borrowing costs that the Fed has engineered, inflation has fallen steadily, to 3.2% in October from a peak of 9.1% in June 2022. “I don’t see much evidence now that … inflation (is) stalling out at some level that’s well above the target,” Goolsbee said. “And thus far, I don’t see much evidence that we’re breaking through and overshooting — that inflation is on a path that could be something below 2%.” The Fed raised its benchmark short-term rate 11 times over the past year and a half, to about 5.4%, the highest level in 22 years. Those rate hikes have heightened borrowing costs for consumers and businesses, including for mortgages, auto loans and credit cards Fed officials have remained publicly reluctant to declare victory over inflation or to definitively signal that they are done hiking rates. On Friday, Susan Collins, head of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, said she saw “positive signs” regarding the path of inflation. But she added that “we’re in a phase of being patient, really assessing the range of data and recognizing that things are uneven.” Collins said she hasn’t ruled out the possibility of supporting another rate hike but added that that was “not my baseline.” Last week, the government reported that inflation cooled in October, with core prices — which exclude volatile food and energy prices — rising just 0.2% from September. The year-over-year increase in core prices — 4% — was the smallest in two years. The Fed tracks core prices because they are considered a better gauge of inflation’s future path. (AP)

Two senators from Maine asked the U.S. Army inspector general on Monday to provide a full accounting of interactions with a reservist before he killed 18 people and injured 13 others in the deadliest shooting in the state’s history. U.S. Sens. Susan Collins, a Republican, and Angus King, an independent, told Lt. Gen. Donna W. Martin in a letter that it’s important to understand “what occurred, or failed to occur” at the federal level, including the Army, before Robert Card opened fire at a bowling alley and bar in Lewiston. Fellow soldiers expressed concerns about Card’s mental health before the Oct. 25 shootings. One of them sent a text message in September saying, “I believe he’s going to snap and do a mass shooting,” according to law enforcement. The senators view their federal request as working in tandem with an independent commission that Democratic Gov. Janet Mills is convening to explore the facts related to the shooting, including the police response. “As we continue to grieve the needless loss of life that day, we must work to fully understand what happened — and what could have been done differently that might have prevented this tragedy — on the local, state, and federal levels,” the senators wrote. The senators posed several questions including under what circumstances the Army reports personnel to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, and when the Army seeks to invoke state laws to temporarily remove firearms from a soldier’s possession. An Army spokesperson confirmed that the letter was received and that the inspector general will “work towards getting a response.” The spokesperson had no further comment. Concerns over Card’s mental health during military training led to a 14-day hospitalization at the Four Winds Psychiatric Hospital in Katonah, New York, last summer. The worries continued after Card returned home to Maine. A deputy visited Card’s Bowdoin home twice, once with an additional deputy for backup, to perform a wellness check in September but Card never came to the door, officials said. What happened after that is unclear. The sheriff’s office canceled its statewide alert seeking help locating Card a week before the killings. (AP)

A federal judge on Monday ordered the release of a Maryland man who has been imprisoned for more than four years on charges that he plotted Islamic State group-inspired attacks at an airport and at a shopping and entertainment complex in the Washington, D.C., area. Rondell Henry, 32, of Germantown, Maryland, pleaded guilty in August to attempting to perform an act of violence at Dulles International Airport in Virginia. U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis agreed to sentence Henry to the jail time that he already has served since his March 2019 arrest. Accepting terms recommended by both prosecutors and defense attorneys, the judge also sentenced Henry to lifetime supervised release with mandatory participation in a mental health treatment program. “It’s an unusual resolution for a highly unusual case,” Xinis said. Henry, then 28, abandoned his plan to plow a stolen U-Haul van into pedestrians at the airport because he didn’t think the early-morning crowd was large enough, prosecutors said. Police arrested Henry after he parked the truck at National Harbor, a popular waterfront destination in Maryland just outside the nation’s capital. Henry didn’t harm anybody at either location, but a prosecutor has said that he intended to kill as many “disbelievers” as possible. Henry’s plans were inspired by the July 2016 truck attack by an Islamic State group sympathizer who killed 86 people and injured hundreds of others celebrating Bastille Day in Nice, France, according to prosecutors. Henry’s case remained in limbo for years amid questions about his mental competency. Last year, his attorneys notified the court that he intended to pursue an insanity defense. Henry ultimately agreed to plead guilty to a felony that carries a maximum prison sentence of 20 years. But prosecutors and defense attorneys agreed that an appropriate sentence for Henry would be time served and lifetime supervised release with mandatory mental health treatment and compliance with prescribed medication. “This had the potential to cause mass death, mass casualties, as well as widespread fear,” said a prosecutor, Jessica Collins. Defense attorney Ned Smock said after the hearing that he doesn’t know how long it will take for Henry to be released from custody. “This is by no means a lenient outcome,” said Smock, an assistant federal public defender. “Everybody is on board with the idea that this is an appropriate sentence.” Henry told the judge that he feels “much better” and is committed to getting the mental health treatment that he needs. He said he is looking forward to being reunited with his family, including his mother, stepfather and sister. “This is the most important thing to me,” he added. Several months before his arrest, Henry began experiencing symptoms of schizophrenia and having delusional and paranoid thoughts, according to his attorneys. They say he now takes daily medication to treat his mental health condition and hasn’t been experiencing any delusional thoughts or hallucinations. “His family is thrilled to report that he is himself again,” his lawyers wrote. “He is anxious to return to work, his family, and the law-abiding life he was leading before his mental health deteriorated.” Henry admits that he stole a U-Haul van from a parking garage in Alexandria, Virginia, and drove it around the Washington area overnight. On the morning of March 27, 2019, he drove it to Dulles airport. Henry later

Hurricane Norma made landfall near the resorts of Los Cabos at the southern tip of Mexico’s Baja California Peninsula on Saturday afternoon. The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Norma, once a Category 4 hurricane, made landfall as a Category 1 hurricane with winds of 80 mph (130 kph) near el Pozo de Cota, west-northwest of Cabo San Lucas. Norma is expected to continue weakening over the weekend as it crosses into the Sea of Cortez, also known as the Gulf of California. While in the Atlantic, Hurricane Tammy was very near Antigua and threatened to batter the islands of the Lesser Antilles. Earlier on Saturday, businesses in Cabo San Lucas nailed up sheets of plywood over their windows, and government personnel hung up banners warning people not to try to cross gullies and stream beds after Norma regained strength and once again became a major storm Friday. Norma had weakened early Saturday and was downgraded to Category 1 on the hurricane wind scale. By early afternoon Norma was located 15 miles west-northwest of Cabo San Lucas, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center. It was moving north-northeast at 7 mph (11 kmh). The hurricane was expected to continue on that path through the evening before turning to the northeast and slowing down through Monday. The forecast track would take a weakened Norma toward the mainland of Mexico’s western Pacific coast as a tropical storm. Its languid pace raised the possibility of severe flooding. Norma was expected to dump six to 12 inches of rain with a maximum of 18 inches in places across southern Baja California and much of Sinaloa state. John Cangialosi, a senior specialist at the National Hurricane Center, said the area is vulnerable to rain because it’s a dry region generally. “Six to 12 inches of rain is what is generally forecast, but there could be pockets of up to 18 inches of rain and we do think that will be the most significant impact that could result in flash and urban flooding and mudslides,” he said. Authorities in San Jose del Cabo helped two families of tourist – one Mexico and one from the United States – who had been stranded at the closed airport. Authorities took them to one of the 24 open shelters that by the afternoon held about 1,700 people. There were early reports of downed trees and power poles, but no reported injuries or deaths. The Los Cabos Civil Defense agency urged residents to stay indoors all day as winds and rain increased. Emergency workers rushed around the area evacuating people from low-lying areas and moving them to shelters. Police in San Jose del Cabo rescued two people from their truck when a surging stream swept it away early Saturday. Some informal settlements, away from the hotels that serve tourists, were already isolated by rising water. Some neighborhoods lost electricity and internet service. By late morning, the area’s streets were littered with palm fronds and other debris, and essentially deserted except for occasional military patrols. Strong winds whipped traffic signs, trees and power lines. The U.S. National Hurricane Center said hurricane conditions were already occurring over southern parts of the peninsula. Hotels in Los Cabos, which are largely frequented by foreign tourists, remained about three-quarters full and visitors made no major moves

The White House on Friday released a sweeping set of proposals to bolster Israel and Ukraine in the midst of two wars as well as invest more in domestic defense manufacturing, humanitarian assistance and managing the influx of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border. The total cost of the supplemental funding request was pegged at just over $105 billion. President Joe Biden hopes Congress will move urgently on the legislation, and he made the case for deepening U.S. support for its allies during a rare Oval Office address on Thursday night. The Democratic president’s plan faces some immediate complications on Capitol Hill, even as most lawmakers say they want to help both countries. The House is at a standstill, unable to pass legislation, as the Republican majority struggles to choose a new speaker. The money could also get bogged down in a divided Senate where Republicans have increasingly opposed Ukraine aid and demanded adding additional border policies to the measure. But Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, said the Senate would advance Biden’s proposals as soon as possible. “This legislation is too important to wait for the House to settle their chaos,” he said. “Senate Democrats will move expeditiously on this request, and we hope that our Republican colleagues across the aisle will join us to pass this much-needed funding.” Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., also expressed support, but said the Senate “must produce our own supplemental legislation that meets the demonstrated needs of our national security.” It could take several weeks to write the bill and negotiate its contents. Senate Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Patty Murray, D-Wash., and the panel’s top Republican, Maine Sen. Susan Collins, announced an Oct. 31 hearing on the spending request with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, told reporters Friday that Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine and Hamas’ attack on Israel represent a “global inflection point.” “This budget request is critical to advancing America’s national security and ensuring the safety of the American people,” Sullivan said. The biggest line item in the supplemental funding request is $61.4 billion to support Ukraine. Some of that money will go to replenishing Pentagon stockpiles of weapons that have already been provided. Ukraine has struggled to make progress in a grueling counteroffensive, and the White House has warned that Russia could gain ground if the United States does not rush more weapons and ammunition to the conflict. “The world is closely watching what Congress does next,” Sullivan said. Israel would receive $14.3 billion in assistance under the proposal. The majority of that money would help with air and missile defense systems, according to the White House. While aiding both Israel and Ukraine has broad support in both chambers, some Republicans in both the House and the Senate are wary of linking funding for the two countries. Rep. Roger Williams, R-Texas, said the president’s proposal was discussed in a closed-door meeting of his state’s Republican delegation Friday. Williams said Biden’s proposal to aid both is “a little disturbing” because “he knows he can’t get it done without Israel.” The reaction is emblematic of how Biden’s decision to roll together several different issues, in hopes of broadening the potential political coalition to ensure the legislation’s passage, could also lead