Adell reached up to catch TJ Rumfield's deep fly for the Colorado Rockies in the fourth inning, but the ball grazed the outside of his glove before bouncing off his head and over the wall for a solo homer.

There was brief confusion on the field when the ball caromed back into the outfield. Rumfield stopped at second base, initially unsure of the ruling, before proceeding around the bases to give Colorado an 8-0 lead on the way to an 8-2 victory.

It was similar to an infamous blunder on May 26, 1993, when Canseco, then playing for the Texas Rangers, lost track of a long drive hit by Cleveland's Carlos Martínez. The ball bounced off Canseco's head and over the right-field wall for a home run.

Rumfield's gift homer ended the night for Angels starter Grayson Rodriguez, who gave up three homers and eight runs in 3 2/3 innings.

The play also stood in stark contrast to some of Adell's fielding exploits this season, including a game in which he robbed the Seattle Mariners of three would-be home runs. After that one, former Gold Glove outfielder Torii Hunter, now a special assistant to the general manager for the Angels, said Adell had “probably the greatest defensive game I’ve ever seen.”

Adell struggled at times with fielding early in his major league career, including a play during the 2020 season when a deep drive by Rangers outfielder Nick Solak bounced out of Adell's glove for what was ruled a rare four-base error. But Adell has had far more fielding highlights than lowlights since, and he was chosen a Gold Glove finalist in 2024.

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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb

The report released early Wednesday by the U.S. Trade Representative said Canada, Mexico, Taiwan and the United Kingdom and some other countries would face 10% additional tariffs for allegedly failing to enforce a forced labor import ban.

A 12.5% additional tariff would be imposed on China, Japan, India, South Korea, Brazil and Switzerland and dozens of other countries.

“The failure of our most important trading partners to address the importation of goods made with forced labor is unacceptable. This creates a dynamic where American workers are forced to compete globally on an unlevel playing field,” USTR Ambassador Jamieson Greer said in a statement.

He added that "each of our trading partners must do more to ensure that trade does not perversely encourage and entrench forced labor globally.”

This latest barrage of tariffs is likely to unsettle key trading partners that have been hit by waves of tariffs since President Donald Trump returned to office early last year.

Just two weeks ago, the European Union approved a tariff deal with the United States to cap tariffs on most EU exports at 15%. It followed intense debates among the EU’s 27 nations and threats by European lawmakers to block the agreement.

Trump recently returned from a visit to China, where he and its leader Xi Jinping discussed expanding market access for American businesses in China and increasing Chinese investment into U.S. industries. The two leaders agreed to set up separate boards of trade and investment — though few details were provided.

The new tariffs would not take effect immediately. They are subject to public comment and review.

The investigation into alleged failure to prevent imports of goods allegedly made by forced labor was conducted under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974. The strategy would enable Trump to skirt limits on his tariffs imposed by the Supreme Court.

The report defined forced labor as “work or service exacted from a person under the menace of any penalty for its nonperformance and for which the worker does not offer himself voluntarily.”

The Supreme Court ruled in February that Trump had overstepped his authority by using a different law – the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) of 1977 – to impose sweeping tariffs on U.S. trading partners.

The Trump administration has said it would appeal a federal judge's order making all companies that paid the duties on those earlier tariffs eligible for refunds.

Earlier this week, the administration separately proposed 25% tariffs on imports from Brazil, charging that the world’s 10th-biggest economy engages in trade practices that are “unreasonable’’ and that “burden or restrict U.S. commerce.’’

The USTR said its investigation showed Brazil had lax anti-corruption enforcement and unfair tariffs of its own, among other things.

Democrats chose a nominee for a U.S. House race in New Jersey that could decide control of the chamber. But much of the focus is on California, home to Hollywood but not a governor's race packing much star power.

Here are takeaways from primary elections in California, Iowa, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico and South Dakota.

Iowa Democrats rally behind former Paralympian in marquee Senate race

Democrats stunned by how Trump has remade American politics have spent the past decade debating which type of candidate is best positioned to energize voters and win elections, not moral victories.

Iowa marked the latest stop in this sometimes agonizing conversation.

The party’s establishment supported Josh Turek, a state representative who presented a compelling personal biography that included competing for the U.S. in four Paralympics. State Sen. Zach Wahls, meanwhile, offered himself as a more disruptive player, refusing to back Chuck Schumer as Democratic leader if he were elected.

Democratic voters united behind Turek, who will face Republican Ashley Hinson in the fall.

At this point, many of the party’s most fractious races are behind them. But Turek's win could be closely watched in Michigan, where one of the last major Democratic primaries will unfold on Aug. 4. Rep. Haley Stevens is emerging as the establishment candidate there vying against state Sen. Mallory McMorrow and progressive Abdul El-Sayed.

Both races are important for Democrats increasingly bullish about retaking the Senate majority in November. To get there, they must protect their Michigan seat while looking for pickup opportunities in places like Iowa.

The results in the fall could have longer-term implications as Democrats look to rebuild their standing in the Midwest, which swung to Trump in 2024.

Trump's endorsement streak faces setback in Iowa

In just the past month, the power of Trump’s endorsement helped end the political careers of two senators — John Cornyn of Texas and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana — and Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky.

But the president was unable to lift Rep. Randy Feenstra to victory in Iowa’s Republican primary for governor. Trump jumped in with his backing last week but Feenstra narrowly lost to Zach Lahn.

The development is a rare setback for Trump, who basks in his ability to sway the vote among Republicans with his endorsement. And it sets up what Democrats see as one of their best opportunities to pick up a governorship this year.

Democrats nominated Rob Sand, who ran unopposed in the primary. A native of Decorah, Iowa, he has the rural roots that have become rare among Democrats. Perhaps most importantly, he’s a proven winner in a Republican-leaning state, having been elected twice as auditor.

Lahn was not well known in Iowa politics when he launched his campaign in November, but he built support among conservatives. He championed policies including a total ban on abortion and keeping liberal ideology out of public school classrooms.

Lahn criticized Feenstra for not showing up to debate his primary opponents and spending limited time on the campaign trail. He was endorsed by former U.S. Rep. Steve King, who Feenstra unseated in the 2020 Republican congressional primary.

California’s dramatic race for governor drags on

The California governor’s race has been especially dramatic this year.

With Gov. Gavin Newsom barred from seeking a third term, about 60 names were on the ballot to succeed him. None of them were the state’s most prominent names, including former Vice President Kamala Harris and Sen. Alex Padilla. One of the bold-faced names that did come forward, former Rep. Eric Swalwell, withdrew after being accused of sexual assault, which he denied.

For Californians dizzied by the twists, it will take a bit longer to have clarity on their choices for governor.

Under the state’s primary system, all candidates appear on a single ballot and the top two finishers advance to the November general election, regardless of party.

In the final days of the campaign, much of the attention focused on Democrats Xavier Becerra, the former congressman and state attorney general who was also health secretary under President Joe Biden, and Tom Steyer, a billionaire known for his climate activism. Republican Steve Hilton campaigned with Trump’s endorsement.

The three were leading in early returns after polls closed.

If Becerra were to advance to one of the two slots on the fall ballot, he presents a natural choice for voters more comfortable with a traditional candidate. Steyer and Hilton have both presented themselves as significant change agents.

Governed by establishment-oriented Democrats for two decades, the results will indicate the level of change that’s being sought in a state that’s confronting serious challenges ranging from affordability to crime. And it will signal whether the $200 million Steyer put into the race from his own money turned out to be a good investment.

Independents emerge in red-state Senate races

If Democrats hope to compete in red-state Senate contests this fall, they may have to abandon their party’s nominees and rally around independents.

That’s one of the takeaways after voters on Tuesday finalized general election matchups in Montana and South Dakota, where little-known Democrats earned their party’s nominations. In both states, however, higher-profile independent candidates also qualified for the general election ballot.

It’s much the same in Idaho and Nebraska, which held Senate primaries last month. Democratic leaders in Nebraska are openly endorsing independent Dan Osborne over their party’s nominee, who has promised to drop out to make it easier for Osborne to win.

In Montana, independent Senate candidate Seth Bodnar, the former University of Montana president, looks like the strongest opponent to Republican Kurt Alme — on paper, at least. Bodnar raised more money than all of the five Democratic primary candidates combined. He’s even significantly outraised Trump-backed Alme.

In South Dakota, three-term incumbent Republican Mike Rounds cruised to his party’s nomination Tuesday. He’ll face Democrat Julian Beaudion, a former highway patrol trooper and small business owner, on the November ballot. But it’s a former Democrat now running as an independent, military veteran Brian Bengs, who some Democrats believe may be the tougher challenger.

The Democrats shift toward independents reflects the party’s toxic brand in Republican strongholds.

Absent congressman gets a Democratic challenger

One of the most closely watched U.S. House races is set.

Democrats nominated Rebecca Bennett to take on incumbent Republican Rep. Tom Kean Jr. in New Jersey’s 7th congressional district.

The district, which stretches from the New York City suburbs to the Pennsylvania border, is critical for Republicans as they defend a narrow majority in Congress. The race was always going to be one of the most competitive on a map that has been increasingly gerrymandered to protect both parties. But it’s under particularly close scrutiny because of Kean’s extended and unexplained medical absence.

He's missed more than 100 votes since casting his last one on March 5.

Bennett, a former Navy pilot, was among the Democrats in the primary who made the absence and the lack of clarity surrounding it an issue, arguing Kean wasn’t around to protect money for a new rail tunnel connecting New Jersey and New York City. That line of attack will likely only grow heading into the general election.

Trump reiterated his endorsement of Kean on Monday. And the congressman released a statement Tuesday saying he is “focused on my recovery" and would return to “in person work within a matter of weeks.”

New Mexico could make history in governor's race

The stage is set for Deb Haaland to make history this fall after the former U.S. interior secretary secured the Democratic nomination for governor in New Mexico.

Haaland, who served under Biden for four years, was the first Native American to serve as a presidential cabinet secretary. And this fall, the citizen of Laguna Pueblo could become the first Native American woman elected governor of any U.S. state.

She defeated Albuquerque-based District Attorney Sam Bregman, the father of Chicago Cubs All-Star Alex Bregman, in a Democratic primary campaign that emphasized her ancestral roots in addition to lowering costs and her governing experience.

Haaland will face Republican Greggory Hull in the general election.

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Associated Press writer Hannah Fingerhut in Des Moines, Iowa contributed to this report.

More primaries are being held on Tuesday as well. Democrats are banking on a rare chance to regain ground in Iowa, a rural state that has repeatedly eluded them in recent years. Republicans, meanwhile, are grappling with a New Jersey congressman whose unexplained absence could put their already slim majority at risk.

— California: Voters weighed in on who should lead the nation’s most populous state, where there is no clear leader among candidates vying to advance in the race to succeed Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom. Plus, U.S. House races are on the ballot, along with the Los Angeles mayor’s race.

— New Mexico: Contests in the state include primaries for congressional seats, a U.S. Senate seat and a long list of statewide offices, but the governor’s race is the main attraction. Former Interior Secretary Deb Haaland won the Democratic nomination Tuesday night, putting her on a historic path for Native American leaders.

— New Jersey: One of this year’s most closely watched House midterms will take place in the battleground district represented by Rep. Tom Kean Jr., who has drawn public scrutiny and concern after missing more than 100 House votes due to an undisclosed medical issue. Democratic voters selected Rebecca Bennett, a former Navy helicopter pilot, to take him on this fall.

— Read more about races in Iowa, Montana and South Dakota.

LA mayoral candidate Nithya Raman says she trusts the voters

Raman is a member of the City Council and is running to the left of incumbent Mayor Karen Bass.

Raman spoke to reporters as she entered an election night gathering as polls were closing.

She said she loves Los Angeles because it has given so much to her family.

“What I want to do is to preserve this as a city that continues to allow immigrants to come here, to dream big here, to feel safe here,” she said.Here's the latest:

Zach Lahn wins

Republican nomination for Iowa governor

Lahn defeated four Republicans, including U.S. Rep. Randy Feenstra, who was endorsed by Trump.

Lahn owns an investment company and lives on a farm in eastern Iowa that has been in his family for a century. He previously worked for conservative political organization Americans for Prosperity.

Lahn will face State Auditor Rob Sand, the lone Democrat currently holding statewide office, in November. They are running to replace outgoing GOP Gov. Kim Reynolds.

Unopposed in his primary and absent a clear Republican opponent, Sand has had a long runway to hone his moderate message and amass an $18 million campaign chest.

Tom Steyer says he’ll ‘wait til every ballot is counted’ in California governor’s race

The billionaire climate activist told supporters he and his backers “know we finished really strong.”

Steyer pledged to advance progressive policies like universal healthcare and aggressive climate policy, ideas he reiterated as votes were still being tallied.

“We should have a system based on fairness, not on asking for fairness,” he said.

Steyer’s campaign spent or booked more than $203 million in ads for broadcast TV, cable and radio, yielding accusations from some that he had tried to buy the election.

But Steyer noted that major corporate interests, including a major California utility, dumped money into defeating him because he’s the candidate willing to take them on.

“I welcome their hatred,” Steyer said.

LA Mayor Karen Bass thanks supporters, predicts winning a second term

Bass thanked supporters for having faith in her after a tough first term and predicted she will win in November.

Early returns in the race are coming in.

Bass told supporters she appreciated the support when others doubted her.

“I love you. I appreciate you. I appreciate you for believing in me,” she said.

Bass, a Democrat, is facing challengers from both ends of the political spectrum.

Bass told supporters she’d devoted her life to serving the city and “I’m going to continue to do that all the way to victory in November.”

California Rep. Brad Sherman survives challenge from younger Democrat for House seat

The 15-term congressman has advanced to the November general election after defeating a challenger seeking generational change.

Sherman, 71, was being pushed by Jake Levine, a 42-year-old lawyer who argued that it was time to move on from the veteran lawmaker.

The 32nd District stretches from the San Fernando Valley to Malibu and is considered a safe seat for Democrats.

GOP nominee Gregg Hull says he’ll have momentum in New Mexico governor’s race

“This fall, we will face Deb Haaland in the general election and we’re going to win,” Hull said. “And I respect that she has served in various positions over her career, but New Mexico families are hurting, and the policies of the last eight years under one-party control of this state have failed.”

A grandfather, Hull said he wants to bring high-paying jobs to the state so young people won’t have to leave.

The U.S. Senate general election fundraising battle has already begun in Montana

The winners of tonight’s U.S. Senate primaries in Montana face an uphill fundraising battle to catch up with independent candidate Seth Bodnar. Bodnar, who advances directly to the November general election, has raised more money than all Democratic candidates on tonight’s ballot combined.

Bodnar has also outraised Kurt Alme, who won the Republican nomination tonight. Alme, who is backed by Trump, will test whether the weight of Trump’s endorsement can overcome a substantial fundraising disadvantage.

Rep. Randy Feenstra concedes in Iowa GOP governor primary to Zach Lahn

Feenstra, who was endorsed by Trump, said late Tuesday that he called Lahn to concede. The Associated Press has not declared a winner in the race.

Feenstra told supporters in Hull that the outcome “wasn’t what we probably wanted” but that it would start a new chapter. He said he called Lahn to tell him to “carry the torch” and offered a prayer as he continues the campaign.

“I am all in to help him out,” Feenstra said. “Let us never hang our heads.”

The U.S. Senate general election fundraising battle has already begun in Montana

The winners of tonight’s U.S. Senate primaries in Montana face an uphill fundraising battle to catch up with independent candidate Seth Bodnar. Bodnar, who advances directly to the November general election, has raised more money than all Democratic candidates on tonight’s ballot combined.

Bodnar has also outraised Kurt Alme, who won the Republican nomination tonight. Alme, who is backed by Trump, will test whether the weight of Trump’s endorsement can overcome a substantial fundraising disadvantage.

Supporters wait outside watch party, hopeful for a glimpse of Spencer Pratt

While A-listers finished arriving at Spencer Pratt’s election night party, a growing gaggle of supporters were outside waiting to see if they could catch a glimpse of the LA mayoral candidate.

Susie Tho, 38, said she came because she wanted to shake Pratt’s hand and congratulate him.

Tho said she is a Democrat but voted for Pratt, even though she worried she would be judged for it. She was born and raised in LA and said she was voting for a change after feeling like the city had “gone downhill.”

“I just wanted a clean and safe street for my child to grow up in,” she said. “I miss the LA that I grew up in.”

Democratic lawmaker Scott Wiener advances in bid to replace Nancy Pelosi

The California state senator joined the scramble among Democrats to replace the retiring former House speaker.

Pelosi is a San Francisco political institution. The competition has been fierce among Democrats to replace her in the safely Democratic 11th District seat.

Republican Jim Desmond advances in redrawn Southern California House district

The San Diego County supervisor advances to the November ballot in a San Diego-area congressional seat that Democrats redrew to give their party a shot at a pickup.

Desmond was endorsed by Trump and Rep. Darrell Issa, a conservative who retired rather than run in the new 48th District.

San Jose mayor says his campaign for California governor is ending

Democrat Matt Mahan acknowledged to supports shortly after polls closed that he wouldn’t be moving on to the November general election.

Mahan entered the race in January to major fanfare from tech and business leaders who poured millions into his campaign. But he struggled to translate that into broader name recognition and support.

Mahan said his work on homelessness and housing helped improve the campaign and that he would continue to make his voice heard for the well-being of Californians.

“Our mission has only just begun,” he told supporters.

Gregg Hull is Republican nominee for New Mexico governor

Hull has pointed to his time as mayor of fast-growing Rio Rancho as a blueprint for how he would govern, promising to attract large employers to a state where poverty rates are among the highest in the nation and wages among the lowest.

He beat out small business owners Duke Rodriguez and Doug Turner for the GOP nomination and will face an uphill battle in the general election. Republicans have not won a statewide office in New Mexico in 10 years.

Spending in California’s governor race shatters records

This year is already shaping up to be costly for elections across the country, with candidates in Texas, Illinois, Kentucky and Georgia setting spending records within their state or office. But nothing comes close to the amount spent by billionaire and California gubernatorial candidate Tom Steyer. He has spent over $200 million of his own money to fund his campaign, setting the record for both the costliest campaign this year and in California gubernatorial history.

California’s voters: by the numbers

California stands as the most populous state in the country with a citizen voting-age population of 26.1 million in 2024. Its electorate is also one of the most diverse. Nearly one-third of California voters identify as Hispanic or Latino, which is the second-highest share among all U.S. states. Asians make up 15% of the state’s voters.

The state stands out economically as well with a median household income of $102,870, over $20k more than the U.S. median. Despite its reputation as a Democratic stronghold, California’s political landscape is far from monolithic. Rising housing costs, immense income inequality and regional identities contribute to complex cross-sections of political identities that complicate sweeping state narratives.

Mid-decade redistricting in California

California’s primaries are taking place in newly drawn congressional districts approved by voters last November. The map, pushed forward by Gov. Newsom, was designed to create more favorable conditions for Democrats. It came in response to Trump’s call for redistricting that would bolster Republicans’ position in midterms this fall.

Crowd roars as Haaland takes stage as Democratic nominee for New Mexico governor

A mariachi band played and supporters chanted “Deb! Deb! Deb!” as Haaland arrived on stage to address the crowd.

She outlined her own time as a single mother in saying she’s experienced struggles that are familiar to many New Mexicans. But, she said, a better New Mexico is possible with grit, creativity and persistence.

She said she’d work to lower costs, make healthcare more accessible, improve education and make communities safer.

Iowa’s Democratic US Senate candidate Josh Turek says he feels hope

Turek said he wants to help families like his own be able to achieve the American Dream once again and be “a voice for the voiceless.”

“I am feeling hope here in Iowa for the first time in a very long time,” Turek said to big cheers.

Turek thanked his Democratic primary opponent, Zach Wahls, for making him a stronger candidate. He soon pivoted to Ashley Hinson, the Republican he will face in the general election, arguing the congresswoman doesn’t serve everyday Iowans.

“I will fight for you — all of you — no matter what,” he said.

Spencer Pratt and his supporters are arriving at an LA restaurant

Pratt entered with his wife, Heidi Montag.

Some supporters are wearing campaign hats and t-shirts, while others are in full glam as they pull up to the valet stand.

Dozens of news cameras and reporters are set up in front of a black curtain blocking off the entrance of the Mexican restaurant.

Fellow former reality TV star Brody Jenner was among those seen arriving.

Iowa Democrat Josh Turek celebrates nomination for Senate

Turek smiled and popped a wheelie on his chair as he approached the stage to celebrate his primary win. Democrats in Des Moines roared with excitement.

“Iowa sure does love an underdog, and we have done it tonight,” he said. “I am honored to be your nominee.”

A sea of campaign signs were lifted in the air.

Joe Mitchell is GOP nominee for Ashley Hinson’s Iowa US House district

Mitchell was endorsed by Trump.

He defeated state Sen. Charlie McClintock in the Republican-leaning 2nd District.

The seat is open because Hinson is running for U.S. Senate.

Emergency at bank leads California Democrat to cancel election night party

State Assemblywoman Jasmeet Bains, who is competing for a chance to face vulnerable Republican U.S. Rep. David Valadao in November, announced she was canceling the party because of the incident.

Police remained encircled around a bank Tuesday evening in downtown Bakersfield, where a man was holding several people inside.

In her statement, Bains said she was canceling the event “to avoid creating a large gathering of people in close proximity to this incident.”

Steve Hilton wants to break Democrats’ winning streak in California

“We cannot let this chance for change slip away,” said Hilton, a former Fox News host who has Trump’s endorsement in the California governor’s race.

California hasn’t had a Republican governor since Arnold Schwarzenegger left office in 2011.

Hilton said he can win if he and one of his Democratic rivals advance to the general election in November. He’s pledging to cut regulations and reduce costs in the state.

“This state needs change, and it can’t be provided by a Democrat,” he told reporters in Southern California about an hour before polls were set to close.

Haaland greeted by supporters, including from her own community of Laguna Pueblo

Singers from Laguna Pueblo, where Haaland is an enrolled citizen, congratulated her on winning the Democratic primary for New Mexico governor. Then, they performed traditional songs to honor her.

Haaland thanked New Mexicans earlier on social media for “believing in what we can build together.”

Supporters were gathered in the Old Town neighborhood of Albuquerque for the event that included a prayer in Tiwa, one of many Native languages spoken among tribes in the state, and traditional hoop dancing.

Democratic Governors Association head says Haaland’s life story ‘one of resilience’

Chair Andy Beshear said Haaland, a former tribal administrator who helped oversee education and childcare programs, will be a champion for New Mexico’s residents.

“She knows the pain New Mexicans are feeling right now, which is why she will never stop fighting to bring down costs and create jobs, strengthen schools, expand affordable health care, and create safer communities,” he said.

Zach Wahls vows support for winning Iowa Democratic Senate candidate Josh Turek

“The work that we began together one year ago this month does not end tonight. It is going to end in November when Rep. Josh Turek defeats Ashley Hinson in November,” Wahls, a state senator from Iowa City, told supporters in an upstairs bar near the University of Iowa.

Wahls praised his competitor, despite disagreements over policy the future of the party.

“Josh and I competed hard against each other,” he said. “Josh is a good man. He will be an infinitely better United States senator than Ashley Hinson.”

The room burst into applause.

Hinson, Iowa’s 2nd District representative, easily won the Republican primary Tuesday for the seat being vacated by two-term GOP Sen. Joni Ernst, who is not seeking a third term.

Iowa’s vote history keeps the Senate seat in play for Democrats

Republican U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson and Democratic state Rep. Josh Turek won tonight’s U.S. Senate primaries in Iowa, setting the stage for a competitive race in the fall.

Democrats are eyeing the open seat vacated by retiring Republican Sen. Joni Ernst. Before Ernst’s election in 2014, Iowa was represented by Democrat Tom Harkin for three decades, marking a period where Democrats were still competitive statewide.

Iowa also backed former President Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012, indicating how a strong Democratic candidate can resonate with Iowa voters despite the state’s recent Republican lean.

Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks wins GOP nomination in Iowa’s 1st District

Miller-Meeks defeated David Pautch, who also ran against her in 2024.

Miller-Meeks went on to eke out a win in the general election that year, earning a third term after a recount confirmed her roughly 800-vote lead over Democrat Christina Bohannan.

Ashley Hinson speaks of bipartisanship after winning Iowa’s Republican US Senate primary

Hinson dubbed it “a resounding victory” in a statement, before listing what she wanted to continue doing in Congress: make life more affordable, take on “Big Pharma and Big Health Insurance” and “root out corruption in Washington.”

“My record is one of delivering bipartisan results for Iowans, and that’s exactly what I’ll do in the United States Senate. I’ll work with anyone, from any party, to get things done for Iowa,” she said.

Iowa Democrats cheer and wave Josh Turek signs in Des Moines

The supporters started waving the campaign signs featuring Turek’s signature Paralympic gold medal after The Associated Press called the race in his favor.

Turek defeated Zach Wahls for the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate. Cheers erupted after CNN announced the race call live on air.

Turek, a relative newcomer to elected office, won his state House seat in 2022. He played professional wheelchair basketball in Europe, and he competed for the U.S. in four Paralympics, including as recently as 2021.

Christina Bohannan came close to winning Iowa’s 1st District in 2024

The winner of the Democratic primary for the district in southeast Iowa is seeking the seat for the third time.

In 2024, she came within about 800 votes of unseating Republican U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks.

She defeated first-time candidate Travis Terrell in the Democratic primary.

An LA Democrat sees hope in outsider Spencer Pratt

Pratt has campaigned on disillusionment with the city’s liberal leadership, something that was echoed by his supporters at a block party on Sunday.

Deanna Madrid, a Democrat, was particularly frustrated by the growing influence of the Democratic Socialists of America.

“Their ideas never pan out in the reality,” she said. “They ignore the residents.”

She believes Mayor Karen Bass, also a Democrat, has done too little with homelessness, while bungling the devastating Palisades Fire — which destroyed Pratt’s home and thousands of others — and its aftermath. Madrid said Pratt represented change from the city’s status quo.

“I believe he’s running on his truth. And his truth is now our truth,” Madrid said.

Josh Turek wins Iowa Democratic US Senate primary

Turek is a former Paralympian and relative newcomer to public office, winning his state House seat in 2022.

His primary race against Zach Wahls was upended by a flood of outside support that boosted him in the final stretch. Democratic political operation VoteVets spent millions of dollars to blanket the airwaves, social media and mailboxes.

He will next try to flip the seat currently held by GOP Sen. Joni Ernst, who is retiring.

Deb Haaland wins Democratic nomination for New Mexico governor

One of the first Native American women elected to Congress and the nation’s first Native American Cabinet secretary could break another political barrier. As the Democratic nominee for governor, she is on her way to become the first Native American to hold that position in any U.S. state.

Haaland’s primary win makes her the frontrunner in November. Democrats have consolidated control over every statewide elected office in New Mexico over the past decade.

As interior secretary under President Joe Biden, Haaland championed public lands conservation and oversaw a first-of-its-kind federal investigation into the abuse of Native American children at government-run boarding schools. On the campaign trail in New Mexico, Haaland focused on reducing costs for families while emphasizing her ancestral roots in the state and experience in the nation’s capital. She’s a member of Laguna Pueblo.

US Supreme

Court allows Alabama to use congressional map favoring Republicans in this year’s elections

The Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed Alabama to use a congressional map favoring Republicans in this year’s elections, blocking a lower court ruling that the redistricting plan intentionally discriminates against Black people.

The justices granted the state’s emergency appeal to use a map it adopted three years ago that has a majority-Black population in just one of its seven congressional districts.

The high-court order is the latest development in a redistricting frenzy that is part of a broader push by President Donald Trump to try to hold on to Republicans’ slim House majority in the November elections. It comes a day before an important deadline that Republican Gov. Kay Ivey had already extended in the state’s desire to use the map in special primary elections in August.

Rebecca Bennett tells Rep. Tom Kean Jr. ‘we are coming for you’

Addressing supporters at an Election Night party after winning the Democratic nomination in New Jersey’s battleground 7th District, Bennett called the Republican incumbent a “coward.”

“You are failing us, and you do not deserve to represent us in Washington,” the former Navy helicopter pilot said to Kean, who has been away from Congress with an unspecified illness for months.

Bennett’s victory over three other Democrats in the closely-watched district sets up the state’s premier contest in November. The district has flipped in the last two midterm elections.

Introducing his wife, Bennett’s husband told the crowd that Tuesday marks their 14th wedding anniversary.

Ashley Hinson wins GOP nomination to replace Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst

Hinson, who is endorsed by Trump and Ernst, defeated former state Sen. Jim Carlin.

The former TV anchor is in her third term representing Iowa’s 2nd District, in the northeastern part of the state.

She got into the race for Senate almost immediately after Ernst said she was retiring. Hinson won her most recent election with the support of 57% of voters.

A closer look at New Mexico’s voting population

New Mexico has the highest share of Hispanic or Latino voters among U.S. states and the second-highest share of American Indian or Alaska Native voters, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Despite Indigenous people accounting for nearly a tenth of New Mexico’s voting-eligible population, New Mexico did not elect its first Native American member of Congress until Deb Haaland’s historic victory in 2018.

After serving as U.S. secretary of the interior under former President Joe Biden, Haaland is running in tonight’s Democratic gubernatorial primary.

Rebecca Bennett wins Democratic primary in New Jersey’s 7th District

Bennett, a former Navy helicopter pilot, will take on Rep. Tom Kean Jr. this fall. Her win over three other Democrats in the closely-watched district sets up the state’s premier contest for November, when the party hopes they can flip the seat.

Winning in districts like the 7th, which includes bedroom communities and farm towns as well as Trump’s Bedminster golf club, will be key to Democratic hopes of gaining control of the narrowly divided House.

The win comes as Kean has missed more than 100 votes in the House because of a medical issue that his office has declined to specify.

Republican voter in Sacramento suburb says she’s frustrated with state’s high costs

Rosamaria Cerezo, a 57-year-old substitute teacher, said Democrats, including Gov. Gavin Newsom, have failed to make California more affordable.

“Both my husband and I have two jobs each just to make ends meet,” Cerezo said outside a polling location in Elk Grove.

She planned to vote for Republican Steve Hilton, a conservative commentator, in the crowded race to replace Newsom. She wanted to back the GOP candidate she thought had the best chance of advancing to the general election in November.

Democratic voters in a Sacramento suburb split on contentious race

Outside a polling location in Elk Grove, Tamara Alton, a 65-year-old marriage and family therapist, said she was voting for incumbent Rep. Doris Matsui in the 7th District.

Alton said she’s more familiar with Matsui than her younger challenger, Democrat Mai Vang, a Sacramento City Council member.

“I’m going with who I know,” she said.

Democrat Khydeeja Alam, 42, a small farmer who also works for the state, said she planned to vote for Vang.

Alam, who is Muslim, said Matsui didn’t do enough to engage with Muslim Americans after the war in Gaza began.

“She’s not been accessible, which has been a really big disappointment,” Alam said.

New Jersey’s 7th Congressional District: By the numbers

New Jersey’s 7th District remains one of the most competitive U.S. House districts in the country. In 2018, former Democratic Rep. Tom Malinowski unseated longtime Republican incumbent Leonard Lance, flipping the seat after decades of GOP control.

Malinowski managed to hold off now-Rep. Tom Kean Jr. in 2020, but following redistricting, the district seesawed back to Republicans in 2022 when Kean won by 2.8 points.

In 2024, Kean expanded his margin to 5.4 points, but Trump won the district by only 1.1 points that same year, making the race for this seat anyone’s game.

California voter says he has ‘no political home’

John Sileo, a 65-year-old business owner, said he voted for candidates who would put a check on Trump and also California’s liberal government.

The self-described moderate Republican said he never liked Trump and voted for Democrat Joe Kerr for Congress rather than the two Republican contenders.

“Trump has a monopoly now and you’ve got to at least turn the House,” he said outside a vote center in Orange.

Sileo said he refused to vote for Steve Hilton for California’s governor because he is backed by Trump, and wouldn’t vote for Xavier Becerra because he sees him as a continuation of Democrats’ policies in the state.

“I voted for Tom Steyer because at least he’s a disruptor,” he said. “He was the best of poor choices.”

LA voter says she went with ‘anybody but Spencer Pratt’ for mayor

Deanna Crane, 33, said “anyone with a pulse other than Spencer Pratt” would suffice for mayor.

She ultimately went with Nithya Raman because she was unhappy with the way Karen Bass handled the wildfires last January as well as her progress on addressing homelessness.

She said the main issue on her mind was broadly “community,” making sure the people around her were cared for and could afford to live. She went with Tom Steyer in the governor’s race because she felt like he was the most progressive candidate.

“I don’t particularly love voting for a billionaire,” she said. “That was a rough one.”

New Jersey voter thinks politicians should have military service background

Frank Coit is a retired orthopedic shoe store owner and Democratic voter from Somerville, where he said he voted for Rebecca Bennett for U.S. House.

A Vietnam War Army veteran, Coit said he liked and appreciated her military service. Bennett served about 15 years in the Navy, working as a helicopter pilot.

“I think every politician going should have some military service,” he said.

California Democratic voter wants to ‘stand up’ to Trump

Vanessa Rosella, a 47-year-old teacher, said she focused her pick for California’s next governor on the candidate she felt would best defend the state against the president.

“We need someone to stand up,” said Rosella, who cast her ballot for Xavier Becerra.

She said she considered voting for Tom Steyer, but she felt the state didn’t need a billionaire in charge when affordability has become such a critical issue.

Polls have closed in New Jersey and parts of South Dakota

In-person Election Day voting concluded in New Jersey at 8 p.m.

Comparable primaries from past elections can offer clues about when to expect the first vote results and how long the vote count might take.

In the New Jersey gubernatorial primaries last year, the AP first reported results at 8:03 p.m. or three minutes after polls closed. The last vote update of the night was at 11:43 p.m. with about 93% of total votes counted.

Although South Dakota spans two time zones and some polls close at 8 p.m. ET, state law requires that no results are released until the final polls have closed at 9 p.m. ET.

Republican voter in New Mexico says GOP candidate most likely to curb violent crime

While a Democrat is favored to win the governor’s job in New Mexico, many voters on the outskirts of Albuquerque cast ballots in the Republican primary.

The fire station serving Edgewood is the town’s only polling place. Registered Republican A. J. Rodriguez voted for Gregg Hull, who he says is most likely to be elected, and be in a position to rein in violent crime and government spending.

“The state keeps voting blue, and we’re getting hammered by policies that aren’t working,” said Rodriguez, a retired sheriff’s office lieutenant. “We need someone who can actually put up a good fight.”

Competitive US House district nudges first-time Iowa primary voter

Sophia Brown was voting in her first primary in part because she sees Iowa’s 1st District as within reach for Democrats in November.

“I’ve seen the races be so close, so getting out here earlier feels like it might have an impact,” said Brown, a pharmacist for University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics.

Brown voted for Christina Bohannan, who is seeking her third chance against Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, a Republican elected in 2020 and reelected twice by narrow margins.

The 25-year-old resident of Coralville, just outside the University of Iowa’s home in Iowa City, said she often encounters people in her work without health insurance and unable to pay for prescribed medication.

“I see people every day who can’t get discharged from the hospital with the medicine they need,” she said. “That’s something that bothers me, and we need someone who is more acutely aware of that.”

Democrats look to Iowa to rebuild in the heartland

Iowa wasn’t always a Republican stronghold.

Before Trump reshaped American politics, this was the state the lifted the political career of Barack Obama and sent Tom Harkin to the Senate for five terms.

The party is particularly excited about Rob Sand, who is running unopposed for the Democratic nomination for governor. A native of Decorah, Iowa, he has the rural roots that have become rare among Democrats. Perhaps most importantly, he’s a proven winner in a Republican-leaning state, having been elected twice as auditor.

Republicans head into the primary with five candidates. Trump jumped in last week to endorse Rep. Randy Feenstra.

This is the first open contest for the governor’s seat since 2006. Democrats are hoping that a combination of the economic fallout from Trump’s tariff policies, rising gas prices stemming from the Iran war and the lack of a Republican incumbent could give them their best opportunity in years. Sand also has a fundraising advantage over the Republicans, including Feenstra.

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Iowa has some of this year’s most competitive House races

1. In southeastern Iowa’s 1st District, Republican U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks again faces a challenge from businessman David Pautsch, who earned 44% of votes against the incumbent congresswoman in the 2024 primary. Three-time Democratic candidate Christina Bohannan, who came about 800 votes shy of unseating Miller-Meeks in the last election, has the Democrat congressional committee’s support but must first fend off her primary opponent, first-time candidate Travis Terrell.

2. In northeastern Iowa’s 2nd District, former state Rep. Joe Mitchell, endorsed by Trump, and state Sen. Charlie McClintock are Republicans seeking U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson’s open seat. Three Democrats want the nomination: state Rep. Lindsay James, former nonprofit leader Clint Twedt-Ball and Kathy Dolter, a former dean of nursing at an Iowa community college.

3. In southcentral Iowa’s competitive 3rd District, Republican incumbent U.S. Rep. Zach Nunn and Democratic state Sen. Sarah Trone Garriott are both unopposed on the primary ballot.

From ‘The Hills’ to City Hall?

Spencer Pratt rose to fame on “The Hills,” a show about young people living in Los Angeles. Now he wants to be the city’s mayor.

Pratt’s home was destroyed in the Palisades Fire, and he blames Mayor Karen Bass for the widespread destruction. He is campaigning on a promise to clean up Los Angeles, but faces long odds in a city that hasn’t elected a Republican as mayor since 1997.

His campaign has drawn attention with videos generated by artificial intelligence. One of them casts Pratt as Batman, saving a dystopian city from Bass, portrayed as the Joker.

New Jersey Rep. Tom Kean Jr. says he’s returning soon

The Republican has been absent from Congress for months because of an unspecified medical issue.

He issued a statement saying “I will continue putting our constituents first” and “I am optimistic about the road ahead.”

“Right now I am focused on my recovery and under the advice of healthcare professionals. I will transition from virtual work to in person work within a matter of weeks,” said Kean, who is seeking a third term in November. “I look forward to sharing my experience with the public.”

Kean told a local political blog nearly two weeks ago that he expected to be back “in the next couple of weeks.”

Democrat Xavier Becerra, a former state attorney general and U.S. health secretary, pitched himself as a steady leader able to work the levers of government. Meanwhile fellow Democrat and billionaire climate activist Tom Steyer promised progressive change. And Republican Steve Hilton, a conservative commentator and former British political adviser, said he would give the famously liberal state a badly needed reset after years of one-party rule.

“This state needs change, and it can’t be provided by a Democrat,” Hilton said in Southern California before polls closed.

California puts all candidates on a single primary ballot regardless of party, and the top two finishers advance to the November general election. About 60 candidates were on the ballot, most of them largely unknown to the state’s roughly 23 million voters.

The end of the voting period, which began in early May, concludes a chaotic contest without a clear front-runner. Candidates tried to elbow each other out in the final stretch as each sought to convince voters that they were best prepared to lead the most populous state and one of the world's largest economies.

Republican Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco and Democrats Katie Porter, a former member of Congress; and Matt Mahan, the mayor of San Jose were among other contenders in the race. Mahan conceded in a speech to supporters shortly after polls closed.

Affordability has been a key theme

The through line of the race was how to tackle the state's notoriously high cost of living.

Drivers were paying $6.08 per gallon at the pump as of the end of May, $1.65 higher than the national average, according to AAA. Meanwhile the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office has estimated that the typical home is about $775,000, more than double the national average. And Californians pay the second-highest residential electricity rates behind Hawaii, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Some candidates proposed suspending the state’s gas taxes, which total roughly 70 cents a gallon, while others floated subsidizing in-state tuition at public colleges. A few of the Democrats said they would eliminate private health insurance in favor of a government-run system with no premiums, while the Republicans vowed to increase oil and gas production and reduce regulations.

Steyer promised Tuesday night to deliver for working families.

“We showed that a better California is possible,” Steyer said.

Democratic leaders have not done enough to bring costs down, said Republican Rosamaria Cerezo, a 57-year-old substitute teacher who planned to vote for Hilton.

“Both my husband and I have two jobs each just to make ends meet,” she said.

Primary system creates uncertainty

Earlier in the race, Democrats worried about possibly being locked out of the general election even though they count 45% of the state's registered voters compared to Republicans' 25%.

The concern was that their relatively crowded field of candidates could split the Democratic vote enough for the two Republicans to advance under the single primary system, which was first used at the statewide level in 2014. But in the race's final days, it was Republicans who feared a potential lockout.

Brett Christensen, a 55-year-old school safety monitor from Orange who is not registered in a political party but tends to vote Republican, chose Hilton.

“He’s the only viable Republican candidate that can make it to the runoff,” Christensen said.

Candidates squabbled over their records

Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell’s resignation and withdrawal from the race after sexual assault allegations were made against him left an opening for Becerra, who previously had struggled to gain traction.

Highlighting his long political resume, Becerra started raising more money and won the endorsements of powerful labor groups and Latino legislative leaders.

But that momentum also made him a target, and his rivals criticized his leadership as health secretary including his handling of an influx of unaccompanied migrant children at the U.S.-Mexico border in 2021, when Becerra's Department of Health and Human Services was responsible for shelters where they were housed.

Democrat Tamara Alton, a 65-year-old marriage and family therapist, was voting for Becerra because of his experience.

“I'm going to go with him because I want somebody that knows what they're doing,” Alton said.

Steyer's campaign spent or booked more than $203 million in ads for broadcast TV, cable and radio, according to tracker AdImpact. On the campaign trail, he was attacked over past investments in fossil fuels and private prisons at a hedge-fund he founded in the 1980s and left more than a decade ago to focus on political giving and climate activism. And some accused him of trying to buy the election.

“Some folks are out to prove that they can actually buy elections," Becerra said in an interview with a popular YouTube channel that he promoted on social media Tuesday. “We're going to prove just the opposite — money does not buy you leadership in California.”

But some Democratic voters said they chose Steyer despite uneasiness with his wealth because of his focus on tackling climate change.

Jude Mayer, 24, said she was not thrilled about voting for a billionaire but Steyer “is talking about the environment in the way that I want to hear about it.”

A final result could take a while

All California voters receive a mail ballot, and election officials count those that are received up to a week after Election Day so long as they are postmarked by then. That often results in a drawn-out count, with no winners declared until days or even weeks later.

It is the first time in over two decades that there has not been a political superstar in the governor’s race. In 2003, A-list actor and Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger rocketed into office in a recall election that ousted then-Gov. Gray Davis; in 2010, former Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown cemented a political comeback by winning nearly three decades after his first two terms; and in 2018, Newsom had already established a national profile after stints as lieutenant governor and San Francisco mayor and won easily.

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Associated Press writer Amy Taxin in Orange, California, contributed.

Turek, who defeated state Sen. Zach Wahls for his party's nomination, now faces a full-throttled Republican defense of the retiring two-term Sen. Joni Ernst’s seat, which the GOP considers pivotal to keeping its Senate majority.

Hinson, endorsed by Trump and Republican leaders, prevailed over former state Sen. Jim Carlin to secure the GOP’s nomination for Senate.

The Senate primaries were among many competitive races in Iowa attracting national interest, including from the White House. President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance have both touched down in the state this year to shore up Republican enthusiasm.

Trump suffered a rare loss of a candidate he backed in this year's Republican primaries. Zach Lahn won the Republican primary for Iowa governor over U.S. Rep. Randy Feenstra, who was endorsed by the president. Trump said in his Friday endorsement of Feenstra that “Randy is MAGA all the way!”

Lahn previously worked for conservative political organization Americans for Prosperity.

Democrats feel hopeful that high prices, lost manufacturing jobs, shuttered healthcare facilities and a struggling agricultural economy will help the party dismantle the all-GOP federal delegation and Republican statehouse trifecta.

State Auditor Rob Sand, the lone Democrat currently holding statewide office, is the party’s nominee for governor. Unopposed in the primary, Sand has been able to hone his moderate message, remind voters of his rural upbringing and amass an $18 million campaign fund.

Tense Senate primary grappled with Democratic establishment and electability

While many voters felt Turek and Wahls were largely aligned on key Democratic positions, Turek prevailed in convincing voters that he’s better to go up against Hinson.

Turek told an election night crowd that he has been a fighter his whole life and will fight for Iowans in Washington.

“This is what we need in D.C., fighters for the people. And that is what I will be in the United States Senate,” he said to cheers. He also criticized Hinson, saying “she does not represent Iowa and does not represent our values.”

Turek, a relative newcomer to elected office, leaned on his experience campaigning and winning in a red, Trump-won state House district as evidence that he could appeal to independent and moderate Republican voters in November. He played professional wheelchair basketball in Europe, and he competed for the U.S. in four Paralympics, including as recently as 2021. He won his state House seat in 2022.

Turek referred to himself as an underdog when he launched last August and said last week that he still thinks of his campaign that way, especially against Hinson. Still, a flood of outside support and Washington endorsements boosted him in the final stretch. A Democratic political operation spent millions of dollars to blanket the airwaves, social media and mailboxes. An adviser for VoteVets said in a statement Tuesday that they were “ready to continue the fight.”

Political organizations affiliated with U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer, Senate minority leader, and Kirsten Gillibrand, who chairs the Democratic Senate campaign arm, have both contributed to Turek’s campaign committee.

Wahls had criticized the massive cash spend for Turek as insiders’ influence on the race and made his opposition to Schumer as party leader a defining tenet of his campaign. He criticized a coastal playbook that doesn’t work in Iowa.

But Wahls on Tuesday vowed to support Turek in the general election, saying he was committed to beating Hinson.

As Democrats look to reclaim Senate control, Iowa was one of the last states on the map where candidates were still fighting to be the party’s nominee. The GOP Senate campaign arm has committed $29 million to help Hinson, who currently represents northeast Iowa in Congress.

Hinson’s campaign immediately went on the attack against Turek, criticizing what she called his “radical record” and his support from Schumer.

“Chuck Schumer is on the ballot in Iowa – he goes by the name Josh Turek,” the campaign said.

GOP jostling over the governor’s seat

Lahn will face Sand in the race to replace Gov. Kim Reynolds, who opted out of a third bid.

Feenstra said late Tuesday that he called Lahn to concede.

Feenstra told supporters in Hull, Iowa, that the outcome “wasn’t what we probably wanted” but that it would start a new chapter. He said he called Lahn to tell him to “carry the torch.”

Declaring victory, Lahn said he’s not a politician and that as his own biggest donor “I have not been bought and I will not be bought.”

“Tonight is just the beginning,” he said. “The fight starts now.”

Lahn championed policies that appealed to Iowa’s conservative grassroots supporters, including a total ban on abortion and keeping liberal ideology out of public school classrooms.

He also embraced the “Make America Healthy Again” movement.

He was endorsed by former U.S. Rep. Steve King, who Feenstra unseated in the 2020 Republican congressional primary. After Trump endorsed Feenstra Friday, Turning Point Action, the conservative group founded by Charlie Kirk, gave their support to Lahn.

While Republicans celebrate years of progress under Reynolds, the primary has unearthed sticking points over economic development, tax policy and property rights, as well as the relationship between the state’s water quality, farm conservation practices and rising cancer rates.

Primaries in targeted congressional seats

Republican Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, endorsed by Trump, again fended off a 1st District challenge from businessman David Pautsch, who had earned 44% of votes against the incumbent congresswoman in the 2024 primary. Three-time Democratic candidate Christina Bohannan, who came about 800 votes shy of unseating Miller-Meeks in the last election, won the nomination from her party in the district, fending off first-time candidate Travis Terrell.

In northeastern Iowa, former state Rep. Joe Mitchell, endorsed by Trump, secured the Republican nomination for Hinson’s open 2nd District seat over state Sen. Charlie McClintock. State Rep. Lindsay James won the Democratic nomination, defeating former nonprofit leader Clint Twedt-Ball and Kathy Dolter, a former dean of nursing at an Iowa community college.

Republican incumbent Rep. Zach Nunn and Democratic state Sen. Sarah Trone Garriott are both unopposed on the primary ballot in the competitive 3rd Congressional District.

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Associated Press reporter Thomas Beaumont contributed from Iowa City.

And by midway through the opening period, they were down two goals against a fast-skating Carolina Hurricanes team riding the energy from a buzzing home crowd.

No matter. And no panic. Not with these tested Golden Knights.

Tomas Hertl took a backhand pass from Colton Sissons and beat Frederik Andersen from the slot with 3:24 left in the third period, lifting the Golden Knights past the Carolina Hurricanes 5-4 in Tuesday night’s opener of the Stanley Cup Final.

“I've said it all through the playoffs: it's a find-a-way league,” Vegas coach John Tortorella said. “We found a way tonight.”

Game 2 of the best-of-seven series is Thursday in Raleigh, with Vegas already having taken home ice away from the Hurricanes as it chases a second Cup title in four seasons.

“Momentum swings happen quickly,” Tortorella said. “We want to keep the momentum on our side, so there’s no question we’re looking to get two.”

Hertl’s finish off Sissons' feed from the right faceoff circle broke a 4-4 tie and pushed the Golden Knights ahead in an entertaining, back-and-forth start on the sport’s biggest stage. It marked Vegas’ seventh straight win of the playoffs, starting with the last two games of the six-game second-round series against Anaheim and then the shocking four-game sweep of the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Colorado Avalanche.

That series included Vegas erasing a 3-0 deficit to take Game 3, and now the Golden Knights have followed by rallying from another multigoal deficit — this time 2-0 in the opening period — against the team that finished second only to the Avs in the regular season.

“It was a terrible start,” said center William Karlsson, who capped a run of three straight goals that pushed Vegas to a 3-2 second-period lead. “Just like it was against Colorado, a lot of time left. We always believe.”

Things changed after Tortorella gathered his team around the bench during a TV timeout after the Hurricanes had sprinted out to their lead, coming as Vegas had a slow start out of its six-day break while waiting for Carolina to close out Montreal in a five-game Eastern Conference Final.

“Just stick with the program, on our game plan, and not get impatient," said defenseman Brayden McNabb, who had three assists. “They pressure a lot and we want to keep the puck going north, and limit east-west plays.”

Shea Theodore, Ivan Barbashev and Brett Howden also scored for Vegas, with Howden’s postseason-leading 11th score giving the Golden Knights a 4-3 lead just 1:21 into the third period. Carter Hart finished with 23 saves, including a key stop on Seth Jarvis only seconds before Hertl's winner.

Nikolaj Ehlers scored twice for the Hurricanes, the first coming 25 seconds into the game when he got loose on a rush and blasted one past Hart from the left side on the game’s first shot. He followed with a breakaway that gave Carolina a 2-0 lead and sent a charged home crowd into an eruption in the team’s first Stanley Cup Final game in two decades.

Jordan Staal and Shayne Gostisbehere each scored tying goals after Vegas had pushed to a lead, with Gostisbehere skating in clean on the left side to blast one past Hart at 11:19 of the third period and tie it once more at 4-all. Andersen finished with 18 saves.

“I thought they played just a little bit better than us,” Staal said. “They executed their game plan and aggressive on their forecheck and played in our end, and they buried their chances when they had them.”

The Hurricanes went 12-1 through three rounds to get back to the Stanley Cup Final for the first time since now-coach Rod Brind'Amour captained them to the title in 2006. It also comes amid an eight-year playoff streak that has included at least one series win every time as a regular postseason contender.

Carolina swept through Ottawa and Philadelphia before taking the last four games of a five-game win against Montreal to punch through an Eastern Conference Final roadblock. That made the Hurricanes the first team since 1983 to reach the Stanley Cup Final with one loss, and the first since the NHL went to best-of-seven series in all four rounds in 1987.

Meanwhile, Vegas had been getting stronger with every playoff round, winning for 19 of 24 games going back to the unexpected late-season firing of Bruce Cassidy and replace him with Tortorella. That included the shocking result against the Avalanche, who managed just seven goals in four games.

Defense had been the standout feature for both teams, in fact, with Carolina having allowed two or fewer goals in 12 of 13 playoff games. But that wasn't the case in Tuesday's fast-paced series opener, with both teams capitalizing on their chances in an entertaining back-and-forth game before Hertl got Vegas the lead for good.

“This is a totally different team, and that may be part of it too,” Brind'Amour said when asked about comparisons to the 6-2 loss to the Canadiens in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Final. “We’ve got to get up to speed on how this game and this series is going to go. I think we certainly got a taste of that now.”

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AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl

The state’s unusual primary system, in which the top two vote-getters advance to the general election regardless of party, means Democrats have a chance of effectively missing out on a pickup in the San Diego suburbs, where Republican Rep. Darrell Issa's district was redrawn to give it a slight Democratic lean.

Issa retired, and a Republican San Diego County supervisor, Jim Desmond, who advanced to the November ballot Tuesday, stepped in to run. So did an avalanche of nine Democrats — so many that some feared the Democratic vote would be split among them, leaving Desmond and the only other GOP candidate, Jim O’Neil, as the top vote-getters.

That scenario seemed remote on Tuesday night, with several Democrats fighting for the second slot.

“After millions of dollars and a nationwide effort to redraw these districts in response to Texas, Democrats being shut out would be a nightmare,” said Ammar Campa-Najjar, a former Obama administration official who is one of the Democrats running.

California was Democrats' prize in midterms redistricting

California has been the bright spot for Democrats in a redistricting war kicked off by President Donald Trump to help his party retain control of the House. After Texas redrew its map to make as many as five more seats winnable for the GOP, California voters allowed Democrats to suspend their state’s own independent redistricting commission and create a new map in retaliation.

But when Virginia Democrats tried to replicate that, they were blocked by their state Supreme Court. Meanwhile, the conservative majority on the U.S. Supreme Court gutted a key provision of the Voting Rights Act, letting Republicans eliminate some majority-Black congressional districts in the South.

Campa-Najjar, San Diego City Councilwoman Marni von Wilpert and investor Brandon Riker, who is financing his own campaign, are the most prominent Democrats in the race for the seat vacated by Issa. Many Democrats are optimistic their voters will coalesce around one candidate and set up a competitive election this fall against Desmond, whom Trump endorsed.

Younger progressives challenge veteran Democrats

The schism between establishment Democrats and a younger, insurgent progressive wing is a defining characteristic of many of this year's primaries across the country, and it's no different in California.

In Sacramento, city council member Mai Vang is challenging 81-year-old Rep. Doris Matsui, who succeeded her late husband after he died in 2005.

The split in the party was encapsulated at a polling place in the suburb of Elk Grove on Tuesday. Tamara Alton, a 65-year-old marriage and family therapist, said she was voting for Matsui.

“I’m going with who I know,” Alton said.

Democrat Khydeeja Alam, 42, a small farmer who also works for the state, said she planned to vote for Vang.

Alam, who is Muslim, said Matsui didn’t do enough to engage with Muslim Americans after the war in Gaza began.

“She’s not been accessible, which has been a really big disappointment,” Alam said.

Rep. Brad Sherman, whose Southern California district stretches from the San Fernando Valley to Malibu, made it to the November ballot while fending off a challenge by Democrat Jake Levine, a 42-year-old lawyer who argues that it is time to move on from the 15-term congressman. Republican Larry Thompson, a lawyer, also advanced to the general election for that seat.

In a redrawn district that stretches from Napa Valley into conservative Northern California farming communities, 14-term Democratic Rep. Mike Thompson has drawn a younger challenger, former venture capitalist Eric Jones.

And in a safe Democratic district in San Francisco, Scott Wiener, a state lawmaker and former member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, advanced to the November race to replace retiring former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. The suspense is over whether he will face Saikat Chakrabarti, a wealthy former technology entrepreneur who supported Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s insurgent primary in 2018, or Supervisor Connie Chan, who was endorsed by Pelosi.

Republicans grapple with redrawn districts

California's congressional primaries also will determine the fate of Republicans targeted in the Democratic redraw.

In the Central Valley, they redrew the seat held by Republican Rep. David Valadao to make it even more Democratic. Valadao is a survivor of several targeted Democratic campaigns and one of two remaining Republican House members who voted to impeach Trump after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

He’s expected to make it to the general election, so the primary will determine which Democrat faces him — state Assemblywoman Jasmeet Bains, a moderate backed by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, or Randy Villegas, a political science professor at College of the Sequoias and a school board member who represents the party’s liberal wing.

The district was rattled Tuesday evening by an hourslong standoff in downtown Bakersfield between police and a man holding local residents inside a bank. Local officials said the main county building and its ballot drop box remained open, but Bains canceled her election night party, citing the standoff.

In Southern California, sitting Republican Reps. Ken Calvert and Young Kim were drawn into the same conservative district and are battling over their pro-Trump credentials. That was on the mind of Brett Christensen, a 55-year-old school safety monitor who voted for Calvert on Tuesday because he thought the congressman had been a more reliable conservative vote.

“Young Kim’s voting record has not been consistent,” Christensen said outside a polling place in the city of Orange.

In the Sacramento suburbs, Rep. Kevin Kiley, who left the GOP to become an independent and a critic of partisan gerrymandering, hopes to survive in one of the two Democratic-leaning districts where his more conservative district’s voters were scattered.

Meanwhile, in the San Francisco suburbs, six Democrats and two Republicans are running for the seat formerly held by Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell, who resigned and ended his gubernatorial bid amid sexual harassment allegations. The top two vote-getters advance to the November ballot to fill the seat starting in 2027, while a special election will be held June 18 for the remainder of Swalwell's current term.

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This story corrects the spelling of the name of a candidate who is running in San Francisco. It is Saikat Chakrabarti, not Saikat Charkrabati.

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Sophie Austin in Elk Grove, California, and Amy Taxin in Orange contributed to this report.

Hull beat two Republican challengers — public relations professional Doug Turner and former state Cabinet secretary Duke Rodriguez.

“We ran a campaign that focused on the issues, a campaign that focused on who we were and not a campaign that attacked or tore people down," Hull told a crowd that gathered to watch the results roll in. "We did it right.”

Hull said he knows families are hurting and that one-party control in New Mexico has failed. He vowed to give voters a “real choice.”

“This fall, we will face Deb Haaland in the general election, and we’re going to win,” Hull said. “And I respect that she has served in various positions over her career, but New Mexico families are hurting, and the policies of the last eight years under one-party control of this state have failed.”

Former Interior Secretary Haaland won the Democratic nomination for New Mexico governor, giving her a path to become the first Native American woman in the U.S. elected to the office.

Haaland celebrated Tuesday night at a historic plaza in Albuquerque’s Old Town neighborhood, where supporters gathered for a mariachi band, traditional hoop dancing and a prayer in Tiwa, one of many Native languages spoken among tribes in the state.

“I’m the only candidate who has been a single mom," Haaland said. "I’m the only candidate who worked across the aisle in Congress and got bills signed into law.”

Under President Joe Biden, Haaland championed public lands conservation and oversaw a first-of-its-kind federal investigation into the abuse of Native American children at government-run boarding schools. In 2018, the citizen of Laguna Pueblo made history as one of the first two Native American women elected to Congress.

While voters will decide primaries in three congressional seats, a U.S. Senate seat and a long list of statewide offices, the governor’s race is the main attraction. The winner of the November general election will succeed Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, who reached her term limit.

New Mexico has trended left in recent years, and Democrats have won every statewide elected office since 2017.

Surging oil prices have translated into an influx of tax revenue

New Mexico is grappling with high rates of violent crime, chronically underperforming schools and cuts to federal programs that are key safety nets for residents.

“Our challenges today are not new but we must come to the table with new solutions," Haaland told her supporters Tuesday night. “Everything is getting more expensive. The state will step up to put more money back in your pockets."

Despite the state's persistent challenges, the primary election comes at a time of promise for the next governor. Surging oil prices caused by the Iran war have translated into an influx of tax revenue to state coffers. New Mexico is the nation’s second-largest oil-producing state behind Texas, and the industry’s revenue funds an array of progressive social programs that include universal childcare.

For the first time, the primary was open to voters who are independent. The state’s semi-open primary system, which was signed into law by Lujan Grisham last year, allows the roughly 23% of New Mexico voters who are not affiliated with a political party to request either a Democratic or Republican ballot.

Haaland's campaign resonated with voters

On the campaign trail, Haaland focused on reducing costs for families while emphasizing her ancestral roots in the state and experience in the nation’s capital.

She made her first stop Tuesday at San Felipe Pueblo, a Native American community north of Albuquerque.

Meredith Ansera, a project coordinator with the pueblo, said she worked with Haaland during her tenure as a tribal administrator who helped oversee education and childcare programs.

“She knows what our needs are and she’s been there,” Ansera said.

Ann Chavez Barudin traveled 40 miles (64 kilometers) from Santo Domingo Pueblo to attend Haaland's event Tuesday. She said she has followed Haaland’s ascent in national politics and supports her run for governor because of her promises to fill gaps left by Trump administration cuts to social safety net programs.

“I have confidence that she will stand up for Medicare,” said Chavez Barudin, who is a Medicare recipient herself and cares for her older mother who relies on the program.

Haaland defeated Sam Bregman, an Albuquerque-based district attorney and the father of Chicago Cubs All-Star Alex Bregman, who campaigned on a promise to curb violent crime.

“This campaign may be over, but my commitment to the people of New Mexico is not,” he wrote in a statement to The Associated Press.

He criticized Haaland after her name appeared in the Jeffrey Epstein files. She flew on a private jet chartered by one of Epstein's companies during her 2014 unsuccessful bid for lieutenant governor. That flight to a fundraising meeting in Washington, D.C., was paid for by Gary King, her running mate at the time. King's family had sold Epstein a ranch in New Mexico two decades earlier.

Haaland said she was unaware of Epstein’s role in arranging the flight and never met him.

Republican candidate faces an uphill battle

Hull was mayor of fast-growing Rio Rancho and has pointed to his leadership there as a blueprint for how he would govern. He has promised to promote economic growth and attract large employers to New Mexico, where poverty rates are among the highest in the nation and wages among the lowest.

He defeated Turner, whose campaign focused on plans to lift the state’s public education system from the bottom of national rankings, and Rodriguez, who focused on stabilizing the state’s healthcare system, which faces financial troubles and a severe shortage of physicians.

The winner of November's general election will inherit the oil windfall in the state budget that has led to competing ideas on how best to use it — from cutting one-time checks for taxpayers to funding tax credits that would mostly aid low-income residents to eliminating the state's income tax.

The state's reliance on fossil fuels to fund its programs also has proved politically sensitive for Democrats.

Pelley had criticized the program's leadership during a meeting Monday between the show’s staff and Nick Bilton, the new executive producer named by Weiss last week, according to a detailed report on the Status website.

In a termination notice obtained Tuesday night by The Associated Press, Bilton, a former technology journalist and filmmaker with no traditional broadcast news experience, accused Pelley of carrying out an “ambush” against him.

“Yesterday, you hijacked my first meeting with staff to disparage me, my qualifications, and my intentions with remarkable incivility and contempt,” the letter states.

Pelley is accused of a ‘performative display of hostility’

Pelley’s agent did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday night. But Dylan Byers, a senior correspondent for Puck who covers the media, posted a statement on X that quoted the former CBS News anchor as saying he had been asked to undertake questionable journalism that involved “falsehoods and bias.”

"I depart after 37 years at CBS with one emotion — a heart brimming with gratitude for the men and women of CBS News who encouraged and enriched my work, very often at the risk of their own lives. I pray for a day when those people and their ideals are honored again," the statement quoted Pelley as saying.

Status, which said it had heard a recording of the Monday meeting, reported that Pelley grilled Bilton about the firings last week of Bilton’s predecessor, Tanya Simon, and correspondents Sharyn Alfonsi and Cecilia Vega. He also allegedly said that Weiss, who was not present at the meeting, was brought in to kill the news outlet, "and she’s doing exactly that.”

In the dismissal letter late Tuesday, Bilton said Pelley’s “performative display of hostility” demonstrated that he has “no interest in contributing to the future success of the show.”

It has been an uneasy stretch for CBS News

Since Weiss took over the network's news operation last year, it has traveled a bumpy road.

Pelley's termination came just five days after Weiss, who has become a polarizing figure in the media world since taking the reins at CBS last October, told staff in a memo that it was time for a “new approach” at the top-rated newsmagazine.

In the memo, Weiss and CBS News president Tom Cibrowski said their goal for “60 Minutes” was “building a show that thrives in the 21st century.”

“60 Minutes” first aired in 1968 and is the longest-running prime-time show in TV history. Its investigative journalism and probing interviews, sometimes with unwilling subjects, have given it the reputation of uncompromising journalism — precisely the trait that Pelley said he feared was under assault.

Pelley started working for CBS in 1989. He was its chief White House Correspondent from 1997 to 1999, during Bill Clinton's presidency, and anchored “CBS Evening News” from 2011 to 2017.

Along Southwest Military Drive, tents packed with Spurs-related gear have become a common sight during the playoffs. Vendors are selling everything from T-shirts and flags to towels and player cutouts as fans look for ways to show their support for the Silver and Black.

For vendor Andrew Carrillo, the playoff run has become a profitable side hustle.

“It brings in a little casino money,” Carrillo joked.

Carrillo has been selling Spurs gear for the past couple of months. He said sales increase each time the team advances to the next round.

“I pretty much guarantee the Spurs are going to win and I’m going to be out here selling this stuff,” he said.

Carrillo estimates he has earned more than $5,000 during the Spurs’ playoff run.

The money, he said, helps cover his family’s everyday expenses.

“It buys groceries, extra groceries, and puts gas in the vehicles. It helps with the electricity bill and stuff like that. The money is good,” Carrillo said.

Carrillo is not alone.

Other vendors said the Spurs’ success has created a steady stream of customers both in person and online.

Cruz Gutierrez and Antonia Gonzales said their customized Spurs-themed prayer candles have generated hundreds of dollars in sales during the postseason.

Gutierrez said much of that money has gone right back into supporting the team.

“I feel like it’s going right back to the Spurs,” Gutierrez said. “The money we’ve gotten, we’ve used that money to go to some of the games.”

While economic uncertainty continues to weigh on many households, vendors interviewed by KSAT said the Spurs’ success has provided a welcome financial boost.

With the NBA Finals still ahead, many are hoping the city’s Spurs fever continues to drive sales.

However, the NBA has begun cracking down on the sale of unlicensed merchandise.

According to the league, merchandise that uses official team names, logos or player images without authorization may be subject to enforcement. Vendors can still sell products that use generic phrases or references that do not include protected logos, trademarks or player likenesses.

The San Antonio Police Department also issued a statement following the NBA’s enforcement.

“SAPD is aware of potential unlicensed Spurs merchandise being sold around the city. Our Financial Crimes Unit is taking appropriate steps into this matter,” the department said.

More Spurs coverage on KSAT:

• San Antonio woman turns crochet hobby into booming Spurs-inspired business

The justices granted the state’s emergency appeal to use a map it adopted three years ago that has a majority-Black population in just one of its seven congressional districts. The three liberal justices dissented.

The high-court order is the latest development in a redistricting frenzy that is part of a broader push by President Donald Trump to try to hold on to Republicans’ slim House majority in the November elections. It comes a day before an important deadline that Republican Gov. Kay Ivey had already extended in the state’s desire to use the map in special primary elections in August.

The state’s Republican leadership went to the Supreme Court last week, the day after a three-judge court refused to let the state use its preferred map.

The lower court had ordered Alabama to use the same court-drawn map it used in the 2024 elections that sent two Black Democrats to Congress. Black residents comprise a majority or close to it in two of the state’s seven congressional districts.

"The Supreme Court’s decision gives cover to Alabama and others to deliberately and openly discriminate against Black voters without fear of any consequence. The Court’s shameless decision to reinstate an intentionally racially discriminatory map defies any thoughtful or consistent application of the law,” Deuel Ross, director of litigation for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, said Tuesday night.

He said the fund will “continue to throw all of our resources into the fight to ensure that Alabama voters have the fair representation that they deserve.”

Shortly after the court acted, Ivey confirmed that the state will use the map in special congressional primaries in four districts on Aug. 11.

“The U.S. Supreme Court confirmed what I have said all along and that is that Alabama knows our state, our people and our districts best. Today’s decision is a win for the people of Alabama and our elections. Alabama is doing our part to keep America strong, and I am proud our state continues to fight the fight to ensure activists do not get the final say,” Ivey said.

“I will see y’all at the polls August 11!” she said.

The order is the latest development in the fallout from last month’s Supreme Court ruling that struck down a Black-majority district in Louisiana and weakened the federal Voting Rights Act. That ruling has led Republicans in several Southern states, including Alabama, to take steps to reshape voting districts with large minority populations that have elected Democrats.

The Alabama cases stretches back several years. The three-judge panel in 2023 ruled that a map drawn by Republican state lawmakers intentionally diluted the voting power of Black citizens. The court said the state, which is about 27% Black, should have two districts where Black voters are the majority or close to it.

After the Supreme Court’s recent ruling in the Louisiana case, Alabama officials moved to implement the 2023 state-drawn map. The Supreme Court’s conservative majority agreed to lift the injunction that had blocked the map’s use and sent the case back to the three-judge panel for reconsideration in light of the Louisiana ruling.

In the meantime, voters cast ballots in Alabama’s May 19 primaries, and Ivey set the new special August primaries in the districts affected by the map switch.

Upon further review, the judicial panel said it was standing behind its initial finding that there was “undisputed evidence” of intentional racial discrimination.

It said the special congressional primaries should instead proceed under the previous court-approved districts.

The panel was wrong, the high court’s conservative majority wrote in an unsigned opinion that said the lower court “did not heed the presumption of legislative good faith.”

In dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor chastised her colleagues for enabling what promises to be “a chaotic election, held under a never-before-used congressional map that intentionally discriminates against Black Alabamians.”

The use of the court-ordered map led to the 2024 election of U.S. Rep. Shomari Figures, a Black Democrat. The map put into place by Tuesday’s order gives the GOP an opportunity to reclaim the south Alabama seat.

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Associated Press writer Kim Chandler contributed to this report from Montgomery, Ala.

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Follow the AP’s coverage of the U.S. Supreme Court at https://apnews.com/hub/us-supreme-court.

The event featured special appearances, giveaways and free Taco Palenque tacos for the first 700 fans.

Looking to find a place to watch Game 1? Click here to see some of the watch parties scheduled for Wednesday.

More Race For Seis coverage on KSAT:

• NBA Finals schedule: Dates, times, how to watch Spurs vs. Knicks on KSAT 12
• San Antonio bars ready for slam dunk business with start of NBA Finals
• NBA Finals tickets in San Antonio for Spurs-Knicks soar as fans scramble for seats

Just before 7 p.m. Tuesday, Bexar County sheriff’s deputies responded to the 12000 block of Macdona Lacoste Road, near Wisdom Road.

The Bexar County Sheriff’s Office initially said all three people suffered life-threatening injuries.

In an updated statement, BCSO said two of the people appeared to have “downgraded to injured but non-life-threatening.” One person remains in critical condition.

All three people are believed to be the only ones in the vehicle at the time of the crash, BCSO said.

Additional information was not immediately available.

Read also:

• Suspect in Northeast Side stabbing death was longtime friend of victim, relative says

“We are not moving forward with the fund, period,” Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said in response to questions at a House hearing on the Justice Department budget.

"Not moving forward ever?” asked Rep. Grace Meng, a New York Democrat.

“Correct,” Blanche answered.

The blunt declaration marked an extraordinary, and rare, Trump administration turnabout in the face of mounting political opposition to a fund that officials said was meant to compensate people who believe they have been improperly targeted by the criminal justice system. Since the establishment of the fund two weeks ago, it’s been paused by a judge and lambasted by Democrats and Republicans alike who said they were troubled by a lack of oversight and the potential for payouts to participants in the violent Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.

The fund drew concerns even from Republicans

The furor especially complicated matters in the Senate, where Republicans defiantly left town nearly two weeks ago without passing legislation to fund President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement agencies after Democrats said they would offer amendments to scrap or scale back the compensation fund.

Furious, Senate Republicans jettisoned White House security money from the bill and made clear they would not pass the legislation at all unless the administration made major changes to the plan. They had sought reassurances from Blanche before moving forward.

The $1.776 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund” was established last month to resolve Trump’s lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service over the leak of his tax returns. The Justice Department had said it was an appropriate measure to correct what officials have insisted was the weaponization of federal law enforcement during the Biden administration, when Trump faced criminal charges and several of his allies were investigated and prosecuted.

The administration had said that anyone who felt unfairly persecuted could apply for compensation regardless of political affiliation, but Blanche's refusal to publicly foreclose the possibility that people convicted of crimes of violence in the Jan. 6 riot could get payouts alarmed lawmakers. A five-member commission was to have been responsible for deciding on the payouts, though no commissioners had yet been named and the criteria for eligibility remained unclear.

Blanche made clear Tuesday that he stood behind the rationale for the fund even as he was abandoning its implementation, saying: “This Department of Justice, unfortunately, was weaponized against many, many Americans, and we’re trying every day to to fix it. And we’ve made a lot of progress, but we have a lot more to do.”

Merrick Garland, the attorney general under President Joe Biden, has denied allegations of politicization and said his decisions followed the facts, the evidence and the law. The Justice Department under his leadership investigated prominent Democrats too, most notably by appointing a special counsel to investigate Biden's handling of classified information and another special counsel who brought tax and gun charges against Biden's son Hunter.

As part of the same deal to resolve the tax lawsuit, the IRS agreed to drop any pending probes of Trump over whether he’s paid his fair share of taxes. Pressed over whether it was also abandoning that part of the deal, Blanche said “nothing has changed with that,” and said the administration was only backing away from plans to create the $1.8 billion fund.

The administration had earlier hinted at a retreat

Signs of the retreat surfaced Monday when a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press that the Republican president was reconsidering whether to move forward with the fund. The Justice Department said separately it would comply with a Virginia court temporarily blocking the fund, effectively agreeing to pause the plan for at least several weeks.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Monday that he hoped the White House would move to drop the fund, telling reporters, “I do think the best way to handle it is if the administration decides to shut it down themselves."

The hearing Tuesday before a House Appropriations subcommittee was scheduled for discussion of the Justice Department's budget, but lawmakers quickly focused their questioning on the fund.

“This administration has engaged in what are perhaps the most brazen acts of flagrant corruption I’ve ever seen,” Rep. Rosa DeLauro, a Democrat from Connecticut, said before Blanche announced the abandonment of the fund. “And you are at the center of many of them, Mr. Blanche.”

She called the fund “a corrupt payout scheme for the president and his political allies. It is shameful.”

Courts reacted coolly to the fund

The Justice Department’s efforts to move forward with the fund were also facing headwinds in the courts after several lawsuits filed by Trump critics, including a fired Jan. 6 prosecutor and two police officers who helped defend the Capitol.

On Friday, a federal judge in Virginia halted the fund’s formation and any potential payouts for at least two weeks and scheduled a June 12 hearing for arguments on whether to extend her order. Separately, the judge in Florida overseeing Trump’s lawsuit against the IRS ordered the president’s attorneys to respond to “grievous allegations” by settlement critics that Trump abandoned his claims to avoid the court’s scrutiny of an illegal deal.

Skye Perryman, president and CEO of Democracy Forward — which brought one of the lawsuits — said of Blanche’s comments Tuesday, “If you can say it on TV, you should say it in court.”

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Associated Press writer Mary Clare Jalonick in Washington contributed to this report.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has escalated Moscow’s aerial campaign in recent weeks in an apparent bid to take advantage of Ukraine’s shortage of U.S.-made air defense systems and persuade an increasingly pessimistic audience at home that Moscow is prevailing in the 4-year-old war.

Emergency rescue crews digging through the wreckage of apartment buildings pulled out the bodies of a 3-year-old child as well as those of a woman and her 8-year-old son in the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro, officials said.

The attack stretched past dawn, with explosions reverberating across cities. Officials said 16 people were killed in Dnipro and six in Kyiv.

Residents of the capital have been on edge for days after Russia warned last week that a massive aerial attack was coming and told foreign diplomats to leave. None appeared to heed the call and no embassies immediately reported damage Tuesday.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy appealed for more U.S. and European support, describing the massive overnight attack as “an explicit statement by Russia: If Ukraine is not protected from ballistic missiles and other missile strikes, those strikes will continue.”

Putin has stepped up his aerial campaign against Ukraine, with Russian forces recently launching another of their powerful hypersonic Oreshnik ballistic missiles. Ukraine's shortage of air defense systems, in part because of depleted U.S. stocks from the Iran war, has left civilians especially vulnerable to ballistic missiles, even as Kyiv's defenses stop most of Moscow's drones.

A mother and daughter shelter in a bathtub

At least 81 people were wounded in the capital, said Tymur Tkachenko, head of the Kyiv City Military Administration. Iryna Salikova, 37, spent the night lying in a bathtub for protection with her 3-year-old daughter, as blasts reverberated across the city.

“Our window was broken. A cobblestone flew into the children’s room,” Salikova said, although they weren't hurt. “Thank God we’re alive. Today we’re alive, today we’re lucky.”

Russia unleashed 73 missiles and 656 drones across Ukraine, according to the country’s air force, with the main targets including Kyiv, Dnipro and the eastern cities of Poltava, Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia. Ukrainian air defenses destroyed or suppressed 40 missiles and 602 drones.

Dnipro Mayor Borys Filatov proclaimed Wednesday would be a day of mourning for the dead in his city. That announcement came 20 minutes before Filatov said another drone had struck a residential building there about 2:40 p.m.

Putin seeks to change the narrative of the war

Putin is keen to generate some positive news from the conflict that began with Russia’s February 2022 invasion of its neighbor and hasn’t gone according to plan.

Western officials and analysts say Ukrainian drones are pinning down Russian troops on the front line, choking Russian supply lines in occupied regions of Ukraine and disrupting oil facilities deep inside Russia that provide vital revenue for Moscow. That has made the war, which Moscow refers to as a “special military operation,” more visible to Russians and increased pressure on Putin.

U.S.-led peace efforts have fizzled out as the sides made no progress on key differences and after the war in Iran grabbed Washington’s attention. Zelenskyy accepted an unconditional ceasefire demanded by U.S. President Donald Trump but Putin refused.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said in a statement that Tuesday's bombardment struck military-industrial facilities in the Kyiv, Zaporizhzhia, Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Poltava, Khmelnytskyi and Sumy regions.

Ukraine said residential, energy and civilian infrastructure was hit but did not confirm or comment on damage to any military-related sites.

Putin signaled that Russia won’t let up its attacks. He said Tuesday that Ukraine’s May 22 drone attack on a college dormitory in Starobilsk in the Russia-controlled Luhansk region of Ukraine that killed 21 had given the war “a whole new dimension.”

Ukraine said the attack in Starobilsk hit a Russian drone pilot training center.

Man hurled from Kyiv apartment by blast

Hits of 30 ballistic missiles, three cruise missiles and 33 drones were recorded in at least 38 locations across Ukraine, according to regional authorities. Debris from destroyed drones fell on 15 locations, the air force said.

Damage was recorded to residential buildings and other civilian infrastructure in eight districts of Kyiv.

Olena Dniprovska, 65, and her husband Yevhen, 64, were wounded in their apartment in Kyiv’s Podilskyi district.

“I went out into the corridor with the phone, and before I understood what happened, everything fell on my head, the glass, and the door blew off,” said Dniprovska, dried blood streaked across her face and a bandage on her chin. “I ran out into the front door and started calling my husband from the room, but he was also blown out by the blast wave.”

“Now I have nowhere to live, the apartment is completely destroyed, no doors, no windows, no balcony. You can step straight from the room out onto the street,” she said.

In Kharkiv, at least 19 people were wounded in residential areas in the past two days — including 11 on Tuesday.

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Illia Novikov in Kyiv, Katie Marie Davies in Manchester, England, and Barry Hatton in Lisbon, Portugal, contributed.

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Follow the AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

The Knicks have endured a championship drought similar to the Spurs’, though theirs has lasted even longer.

New York’s last NBA Finals appearance came in 1999. Coincidentally, that was the year the Spurs won their first NBA championship by defeating the Knicks.

It’s safe to say it’s been a long time coming.

“I’m a kid that used to be right in the projects and just dreaming of playing basketball at the highest level, and I get to do it with a city that raised me,” Knicks guard Jose Alvarado said. “It’s always going to be emotional. You can’t really put into words how much this means to me and my family.”

The Knicks kept their game-day answers simple, but one topic they were eager to discuss was reaching the NBA Finals and taking it all in.

“Just a lot of great memories,” said Knicks guard Jordan Clarkson, a former Wagner Thunderbird. “Just growing up in this city. A lot of growth here as a kid. It’s just amazing.”

“To be able to have this moment in Knicks history where we’re back here — New York has been hungry to get back to the Finals,” Knicks center Karl-Anthony Towns said. “Being grateful for all the good and all the bad that happens.”

When discussing the challenge ahead, the Knicks acknowledged how much both teams have changed since their last meeting in December during the NBA Cup.

As the higher seed, the Spurs will host the first two games of the NBA Finals at the Frost Bank Center in San Antonio.

Read also:

• ‘I know quite a lot’: Knicks’ Jeremy Sochan touts knowledge of Spurs in interview ahead of NBA Finals

Among them is Fatima Yousufi, who fled her country and arrived in Australia with a backpack and a burning ambition to play international soccer.

Yousufi and others like Mona Amini had been able to study and to play soccer until the Taliban took over and shut down all women’s sports. The national team players left Afghanistan, fearing persecution.

After a frantic evacuation, 13 of the players settled in Australia where for five years they lived, played and trained in the hope of once again being allowed to represent their country.

This week, 23 members of the Afghan Women United program are in a training camp in Auckland, New Zealand and will play games against a team from the Cook Islands.

The national soccer federation doesn’t recognize the women’s team. But in April, soccer’s world governing body granted the Afghan women’s team eligibility for international competition.

“It was a special day that we heard that Afghanistan can represent again our flag in international tournaments," Amini, a midfielder, told The Associated Press in a Zoom call Tuesday. “This is the result of hard work that we did in the past four or five years.”

Seven months ago, the Afghan women played in the so-called “Unite” tournament, and had a win over Libya.

“It was a very special moment because we played in an international friendly tournament, and after three years we heard our anthem,” Amini said. “That was amazing for me.”

A better future

FIFA’s subsequent recognition was another important milestone on a long and perilous journey.

Yousufi, a Melbourne-based goalkeeper, remembers her reaction vividly.

“We’re going to have the national team! That’s the greatest thing ever that could have happened to the team," she said. “It was super important to us, especially thinking of the time when we arrived in Australia and we had lost everything: family, our childhood memories and that national team.”

Yousufi said she left home with one backpack, “to be safe and to continue to be alive.”

“When we came here the most important part of our life was to be a soccer player and to be a soccer team,” she said. "When we we saw we could not be (officially) a national team and we could not represent our country ... it was like I lost the game.”

While many ended up in Australia, there are Afghan players spread across Europe and some in the United States. Coach Pauline Hamill holds talent identification camps and helps pull the squad together for games.

Memories of their darkest days remain a strong part of the team’s motivation to succeed, and to represent women and girls still in their homeland. The Afghan women’s team played its last official competitive match in 2018.

“We couldn’t play freely in Afghanistan," Amini said. “Going out from home was tough because there was the risk of the Taliban seeing us and finding that we were playing soccer. "It was a very tough time and I’m pretty sure every one of the girls, every single one of us, fought hard to create this team and we are very happy right now to stay with each other.”

A student and an athlete

Yousufi was a student and a soccer player, and she said it was difficult even before the Taliban returned to power “for a girl to play football in Afghanistan with such difficulties as family barriers and difficulties of the society to accept a woman in sport.”

“We were thinking of any other outcomes like the danger we were facing, everyday dangers in Afghanistan like bomb explosions. Considering all those things — and it was the same for the other girls — we took all those risks to be part of the national team and to be a football player.”

Then life became even more difficult.

“The only thing humans want is freedom, and the Taliban took our freedom,” Amini said. “It is really difficult that you cannot educate, you cannot play sport, you cannot go outside or you cannot do what you love ... (or) follow your dreams.”

Role models

Amini said the refugee players now were determined to represent all women and girls in Afghanistan.

“We are here and we are going to be trying our best to do something for them, to be the voice of them so that we could have a new generation for the future for the Afghanistan women’s national team,” she said.

Yousufi said she was among a group of players “adopted by the Australian government,” and “we’re now living our life and continuing our journey with football, with our education and also being a voice for all those girls who are in Afghanistan.”

“Our team might be the one to change the way the people think and also the way that things are happening towards the girls and women in Afghanistan," she said. “We're all trying our best show that women and girls can be part of the society and can be someone who is in education or in sport, that women also have the right to do that.”

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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer

In a wide-ranging interview with “The View” co-host Whoopi Goldberg to promote her White House memoir, the former first lady said Tuesday that she had put life in perspective after her husband, former President Joe Biden, was diagnosed with prostate cancer that spread to his bones.

She said she is no longer angry about the way Democrats pressured her husband to end his reelection bid after performing disastrously in a 2024 debate against Republican Donald Trump.

“No, I’m not angry. I mean, what’s the purpose of anger now?” Jill Biden said at the first event for her book, held at the 92nd Street Y in New York following publication earlier Tuesday.

‘I think we were partly in denial’

Jill Biden wrote in the memoir, “View from the East Wing,” that addiction wasn’t something she and her husband talked about. “I think we were partly in denial,” she acknowledged, adding that she wondered why someone who had a family that loved him, a good education and a lucrative career would turn to drugs.

“It’s hard for me to say this, but Hunter was a drug addict,” she said Tuesday.

She said Hunter's spiral into addiction was “a really hard time for our family to go through.” Hunter Biden started abusing alcohol and drugs after his older brother, Beau Biden, died in 2015 of an aggressive form of brain cancer. Hunter has now been sober for several years, she said.

“I'm sorry that I didn't talk about it a little bit more,” she said on stage.

Jill Biden spoke about how proud she is of Hunter for turning his life around, becoming an artist and helping other recovering addicts.

“And I hope that by talking about it more as I go forward I hope that it offers other people hope,” she said. “It is such a tough, tough thing to deal with.”

Hunter Biden wrote about his addiction to drugs and alcohol in a memoir of his own, published in 2021.

His addiction led to federal charges that he lied about his drug use on forms he used to buy a gun. He was convicted after a trial and faced prison time but ultimately received a pardon from his father, who had repeatedly insisted that he wouldn’t use the powers of the presidency to spare his son — until he changed his mind just before turning the office over to Trump, who had talked about exacting “retribution” against those he perceived to be his political enemies.

Fighting cancer has been tough, too

Jill Biden has said she was angry over how the Democratic Party treated her husband after the debate — but has since put that aside after Joe Biden was diagnosed a year ago with an aggressive form of prostate cancer that spread to his bones.

“I think Joe's cancer diagnosis, it really puts life into perspective and you really do appreciate each and every day and a lot of anger that you have, you think, 'What's the point?' You know, ‘What is the point?’ she said. ”And I think that's why Joe and I try to, you know, just take each day that comes and try to find the joys."

The former president, 83, was in the audience for the event, along with many other Biden family members, and received a couple of standing ovations from the packed house.

She said when the doctor told them that her husband of nearly 50 years had a problem, “I never ever thought it was going to be prostate cancer.” She said that type of cancer is one thing, but it becomes “a whole different ballgame” after it attacks the bone.

She didn't go into the details, but suggested the former president's cancer treatment is taking a toll on him.

“Joe's here tonight. You see him. He looks handsome as ever,” she said. "But, you know, cancer drugs, cancer treatments have their consequences and I think those consequences are pretty tough.”

Living in a ‘fishbowl’

Biden, who turns 75 on Wednesday, described some of her favorite memories of life in the White House, including weekends at Camp David and working with military families.

She said the hardest part of the role of first lady, in her experience, is the loss of privacy.

“You really do live in a fishbowl,” she said. “Everybody knows everywhere you are. It's the truth. I couldn't even walk downstairs to my office."

She mimicked how U.S. Secret Service officers would speak into their devices as she walked through the White House, using their code name for her.

“'Capri on elevator. Capri walking down hallway. Capri walking up steps. Capri walking outside,'” Jill Biden said, as the audience laughed. She also cited the scrutiny of her clothes, including one time she was photographed in Washington with her hair pulled into a ponytail by a scrunchie.

’I wore a scrunchie and they wrote about it," she said. "Who cares?”

The killing of 18-year-old Henry Nowak in December drew renewed attention after the killer was sentenced to life with a minimum of 21 years in prison on Monday, and following the release of a video showing police dismissing Nowak when he said that he had been stabbed.

The killer, Vickrum Digwa, 23, who is Sikh, had reported to police that he was the victim of a racist attack by Nowak, who was white.

Officers who arrived at the scene on a residential street in the southern England coastal city of Southampton appeared to take him at his word. But the court determined that Digwa had lied about being the victim of racism.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he was sickened by the video and said there were questions to be answered about how “accusations of racism informed the decision-making in this case."

On Tuesday night, hundreds protested the arrest outside a Southampton police station, with some protesters shouting, “I can't breathe.”

A large group then walked to an area near where Nowak was killed and clashed with riot police, who retreated as they were pelted with chairs, rocks and flares.

Victim complained he couldn't breathe as police handcuffed him

In the video, Nowak is seen lying on his back, telling police he had been stabbed as they grabbed his wrists and tried to make him sit up. He repeatedly said he couldn't breathe.

“You've been stabbed? Whereabouts?” an officer said in the video. “Don't think you have, mate.”

After the sentencing hearing, the victim's father, Mark Nowak, said the case was not about racism or religion, and that he wanted his son's death to lead to safer streets and not to be used to create “further division, hatred or tension.”

But Nigel Farage, leader of the anti-immigration Reform UK party, said on Tuesday that it was an example of so-called two-tier policing — a popular far-right talking point that suggests ethnic minorities are better treated than white people.

Farage urged people to respond to the incident with “pure cold rage,” and called for an end to “anti-white prejudice" and the promotion of the idea “that white lives matter just as much as Black lives.”

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood rejected that there are different policing standards for different communities and urged members of Parliament not to “allow this murder to turn communities against one another."

Mahmood said that she understood people's horror over the video of the tragic death, adding that the government is trying to sharply reduce knife crime.

Police watchdog investigates response by officers

Mahmood called for calm as the Independent Office for Police Conduct investigates the conduct of the officers from the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary. She said online rumors had led to death threats against an officer who wasn't involved in the arrest.

“Misinformation and inflammatory commentary is making a dreadful situation even worse,” she said. “We must all together condemn it.”

In 2024, a stabbing rampage killed three girls and wounded 10 people at a dance class in northern England, leading to nearly a week of widespread rioting after people incorrectly identified the teen suspect on social media as a Muslim asylum seeker. The violent clashes with police were mostly aimed at migrants and Muslims.

The parents of the British-born attacker in that case were Christians from Rwanda. Investigators have not been able to pin down his motivation but have ruled out terrorism. Police found documents on his devices about subjects that included Nazi Germany, the Rwandan genocide and car bombs.

In the case of Nowak, a first-year student at the University of Southampton who had been out with friends, police officers walked up to the scene of what had been reported as an assault. Nowak could be seen on a driveway and was being held up by someone who said he had a mouthful of blood.

Digwa was standing nearby and told officers he had also been injured, pointing to his eyelid that he said was swollen. He claimed that Nowak had knocked off his turban and pulled his hair.

After Nowak was handcuffed, officers lay him on his side and searched for stab wounds. He appeared to have lost consciousness when one of the officers said he was being arrested for assault and read him his rights.

When officers discovered his injuries, they uncuffed him and started CPR, police said.

Judge disputes racism claim

Digwa was convicted of murder in Southampton Crown Court. Judge William Mousley told Digwa that he didn’t believe Nowak said anything racist to him.

“You are the only person to make that claim and it is completely at odds with his previous character,” he said.

In the United Kingdom, where gun ownership is strictly regulated, knives are often used in violent crimes and are also subject to restrictions. In general, people are not allowed to carry bladed weapons except for pocketknives whose cutting edge is no longer than 3 inches (7.62 centimeters).

But Sikhs are allowed to carry ceremonial knives, known as kirpans, for religious reasons.

The judge said Digwa had a small kirpan but also had an 8-inch (21-centimeter) sheathed Sikh dagger that was used as the weapon to kill Nowak.

Mousley said that the religious association of the knives had endangered other Sikhs.

“Your actions have stirred up racial tension in Southampton and across the country which have made many Sikhs worried about their own safety even though they have done absolutely nothing wrong," the judge told Digwa.

Police apologized to Nowak's family and said that the lies told by Digwa had misled officers.

“It is devastating the officers did not believe Henry when he said he’d been stabbed and couldn’t breathe," Police and Crime Commissioner Donna Jones said. “The details of the police response raises serious concerns about police impartiality, fairness and judgment."

Digwa's mother, Kiran Kaur, 53, was convicted of assisting an offender after trying to hide the murder weapon. She will be sentenced on July 17.

The campaign pilgrimage by the two candidates, one from each end of the political spectrum, comes as both men face concerns their respective campaigns could cost their parties winnable races in the November midterms, with control of the Senate at stake for the final two years of Trump's second presidency.

Paxton's meeting with Trump comes after he won the president's coveted endorsement before trouncing Sen. John Cornyn in the Texas runoff last month. They posed together for a picture in the Oval Office.

Senate Republicans feared that Paxton, the Texas attorney general, would be a weaker candidate against James Talarico, the Democratic nominee, in the fall. Paxton has endured an indictment, an impeachment and public disclosure of marital infidelity.

He was also expected to meet with Senate Majority Leader John Thune, who backed Cornyn. Senate Republicans’ campaign arm excoriated Paxton during the primary campaign, accusing him of “repulsive and disgusting” behavior and quoting his estranged wife saying she filed for divorce “on biblical grounds.”

Platner swung by Democrats’ Senate campaign headquarters on Tuesday to meet with several senators, including the group’s chair, New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand. The meeting comes days after the disclosure that he and his wife have had marital difficulties and sought counseling after he reportedly sent sexually explicit text messages to other women.

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, who had backed Maine Gov. Janet Mills in the state’s Democratic primary before she suspended her campaign, told reporters Tuesday afternoon that he had met with Platner earlier in the day.

“We’re going to beat Susan Collins and take back the Senate,” Schumer said repeatedly when asked about Platner’s controversies.

As the questions continued, Schumer tried to change the subject.

“Any other subject you’ve got?” Schumer responded to reporters.

Platner and Paxton are pressing ahead with few apologies

Platner and his wife have criticized media coverage of their marriage, framing it as a private matter that should not shape the campaign. Still, the latest personal issues added fuel to some Democrats' skittishness about Platner, who already faced scrutiny over online posts that were dismissive of sexual assault and a tattoo that is recognized as a Nazi symbol. Platner has apologized for the posts and covered up the tattoo.

Paxton has offered no apologies for his baggage. He framed his win over Cornyn as a “Texas-sized message to Washington,” and thanked Trump — who himself has endured repeated personal and political scandals to win two national elections — for his support.

Like Paxton, Platner was not the choice of his party's Senate brass. But Platner effectively became the presumptive nominee after Mills suspended her campaign weeks ago because of fundraising difficulties.

Maine's primary is on June 9, and Platner would face Sen. Susan Collins, a Republican running for a sixth six-year term, in November. Defeating Collins is crucial to Democrats' attempts to regain control of the Senate. Democrats have repeatedly tried to unseat Collins, but she has always survived. In 2020, Collins won reelection even though Democrat Joe Biden carried the state over Trump by nine percentage points.

In Texas, some Republicans fear they will need to divert critical resources to boost Paxton over Talarico, who has become a national fundraising phenomenon.

Although Republicans have dominated Texas for decades, prominent party leaders have said the race could be genuinely competitive this time. Eight years ago, during the midterm election of Trump's first presidency, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz won reelection over another Democratic fundraising juggernaut, Beto O'Rourke, by less than 3 points.

Republicans hold a 53-47 Senate advantage and earlier in the campaign cycle were heavily favored to maintain their majority. But as Trump's popularity fades and primary fights yield nominees, Democrats have become more confident in their prospects.

Most Democrats and Republicans are taking their usual sides

With control of the Senate on the line, most partisans have generally lined up behind Platner and Paxton, even if begrudgingly, because of their political baggage. Tuesday's fundraising events were the latest evidence. The event for Paxton, with a $1,000 minimum donation required, according to the invitation, is being co-hosted by seven senators, including Cruz. The fundraiser for Platner is being co-hosted by former Biden White House chief of staff Ron Klain.

“My priority is to make sure that Republicans control the majority so we can continue the agenda that we're on,” said Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kansas, on Tuesday. “Ken Paxton is absolutely necessary as far as keeping that majority. I have faith that the people of Texas will support him, and he'll get across the finish line."

Sen. Martin Heinrich, who had endorsed Platner, said he doesn’t believe Maine voters are focused on Platner’s marriage. Asked if Platner still has a shot in the race, Heinrich said “we’ll have to see” and “I suspect so.”

Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a progressive, said her top concern is Platner's prospective constituents.

“I want to hear from him about the economy,” she said ahead of their meeting. “And more about what he talks to the people of Maine about.”

That echoes another leading progressive who, like Warren, has endorsed Platner. Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent who caucuses with Democrats, said he still supports Platner as part of the left's economic populism.

“Of course,” Sanders told reporters Monday. “Why would I not?”

But not all Democrats are on board, including one who first came to the Senate with an outsider persona. Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman, a Democrat who has earned a reputation for speaking and voting against his party, even appeared to relish Platner’s newest controversy, calling him “phustle,” a reference to Platner’s apparent profile uncovered on Kik, a private messaging app.

“So much bizarre and tacky and gross stuff that you lose count. It’s like you need to have a bingo card,” Fetterman said.

The senator stopped short of calling on Platner to drop out, but he echoed some Democrats' private concerns.

“I mean, what’s next?” he said.

He later said, “I’m not going to carry water for that guy.” ___

Beaumont reported from Des Moines, Iowa, and Barrow reported from Atlanta.

As the Spurs find themselves back in the Finals chasing title number six — and their first since 2014 — Spurs players took a moment during Media Day on Tuesday to reflect on how they’re taking in the biggest stage in the sport and process how they got here.

For Julian Champagnie, just seeing the Larry O’Brien Trophy hand-painted on center court took him aback.

“I didn’t know that it was hand-painted,” Champagnie said. “So walking over, I’m thinking it’s a sticker, and then I’m looking at it and I’m like, ‘Yo, this might be painted.’ But it was pretty cool. Obviously, I’ve never seen that before.”

“We (saw) the Larry O’Brien (Trophy) yesterday. That was my first time seeing that as well in person.”

>> NBA releases images of how San Antonio Spurs court will look during Finals against New York Knicks

Carter Bryant, the second youngest San Antonio Spur, could barely contain himself realizing that a lifelong dream had been reached so soon.

“I just had a big ole smile on my face,” said Bryant. “I think being a kid that just dreamed of being here — if you play basketball at any level, your dream is to play in the NBA Finals.”

Fans don’t need to be reminded of Victor Wembanyama’s journey. But while he can virtually block shots standing on his tippy toes, his fire to compete can easily be taken for granted.

After beating the Oklahoma City Thunder to advance to the Finals in a thrilling Game 7, Wembanyama said he wants to win so badly, it’s like his life depends on it. He reflected on how that passion was instilled in him from day one — as an infant.

“Falling in love with basketball happened really early on in my life,” Wembanyama said. “I have pictures of myself with a basketball at an age where I wasn’t even old enough to have memories.”

Now, in just his third NBA season, the phenom from France has reached the NBA Finals in his first postseason appearance — and with a team for which he spearheaded its rebuild.

But while the Spurs have greatly exceeded expectations this season, just reaching the Finals is not good enough to the players.

“I’m definitely grateful to be in this room, to be in this position,” guard Devin Vassell said. “To be here is a blessing. But we’re not satisfied. We’re here to win it all.”

“They’re a good team, they’re here for a reason,” forward Keldon Johnson said, referring to his opponent in the New York Knicks. “... (We’re) just keeping the main thing the main thing. And that’s winning the Finals.”

The final chapter of the Spurs’ storybook season begins Wednesday night, as San Antonio plays host to the Knicks for Games 1 and 2 at the Frost Bank Center.

Read also:

• Homegrown vs. all-in: How Spurs, Knicks compare ahead of 2026 NBA Finals

Interim Superintendent Richard Grill said he is doing what he can to keep employees and families in the loop by holding town halls and employee meetings. He said Crystal City ISD is $9.2 million in debt.

“The district has done a poor job managing its funds and managing its people,” Grill said.

Grill said the district got into the current debt by allocating a high percentage of its budget to staff pay, in addition to overspending the fund balance between 2020 and 2026, from $10,637,069 in the 2020-2021 school year to negative $2,700,773 in the 2025-2026 school year.

On May 19, Grill held a town hall where he announced the district’s jaw-dropping bank balance.

“On Thursday, to make payroll happen, we had less than $500 in our total bank account here,” Grill said on May 19. “That’s amazing, 500 bucks. Not even $500. So, that’s how broke the school district is.”

Then, the district was approved for a $4.5 million loan from a bank. It was enough to pay teachers but not enough to cover outstanding balances.

“Over $1.2 million worth of unpaid debt to vendors and other organizations that we do business with,” Grill said. “We’re trying to do our best to manage a bad financial situation and then also try to keep the programs for their children.”

The district already had a reduction-in-force, which was estimated to yield total annual savings of $3,285,737.

Grill also proposes pay-to-play to handle athletic finances. The pay-to-play model would require parents to pay for their students to play sports and participate in other extracurriculars to offset some district costs.

“I don’t think anybody, when it comes down to it, will enjoy having to pay extra for their child to participate in athletics or band or any other program,” Grill said. “However, the alternative of cutting athletics and cutting fine arts programs to get our budget under control is the even more bitter pill for them to swallow.”

The school board has not yet approved the pay-to-play plan, but for the district serving about 1,500 students, it is a possibility.

There will also be no pay raises next year, and the district will scale back its contributions to employee health insurance. The salary freeze is expected to save the district $534,987.

“An unfortunate situation; however, the district’s paying an enormous cost,” Grill said.

Previously, the district covered 100% of employee-only health insurance at $780 per month, Grill said.

The district plans to scale back and only contribute the state-mandated minimum of $225 per month for employee-only health insurance. This change will leave employees to come up with an additional $555 per month, and that does not include employees with families on their health insurance plan.

“It’s slightly more than $6,000 in reduced income for our employees next year,” Grill said.

The changes all stem from an effort to keep Crystal City ISD open for students and staff. According to a CCISD document, the insurance plan changes will save the district an estimated $1,873,067 annually.

“Just trying to be very honest and very transparent has been working well for me,” Grill said when asked about how he has been addressing these tough conversations. “If (families) continue to keep their children in our school and don’t withdraw to a neighboring school district, then we have a good chance of coming out of this.”

Grill said the district plans to propose a voter-approved tax rate election, also known as a VATRE, in August. This would send voters to the polls to vote on the VATRE in November.

If the VATRE passes, Grill said the district should be OK moving forward. However, if the VATRE does not pass, Grill said Crystal City ISD could face consolidation with either Carrizo Springs, La Pryor or Cotulla independent school districts.

Read also:

• ‘That’s how broke the school district is’: Crystal City ISD has less than $500, interim superintendent says

• DOWNPOURS TONIGHT: Rain ends around SA by 1am
• MORE POP-UPS THRU WEEKEND: Generally afternoon activity, 30% to 50% coverage

FORECAST

TONIGHT

Showers and non-severe storms this evening, then it should be pretty quiet until Wednesday afternoon when scattered, random downpours are expected to develop.

MORE RAIN CHANCES

The pattern doesn’t change much, which means more afternoon splash n’ dash type activity will be around into the weekend.

If you plan to be at an outdoors Spurs watch party Wednesday, do be prepared to dodge rainfall. Thankfully, any downpour that pops up should be short-lived.

Currently, Friday presents our best odds of seeing a downpours thanks to some upper-level help.

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Opinion surveys suggested Lee’s Democratic Party is certain to win more races than its main rival, the conservative People Power Party, which remains in disarray after President Yoon Suk Yeol was removed from office and convicted of rebellion over his martial law debacle in late 2024.

Given its favorable political landscape, experts say the Democratic Party must score a landside victory and win some key races such as the mayoral vote in Seoul, the capital, so as to give Lee a clear boost.

“The conservatives' support base has been fractured and weakened in the wake of Yoon's impeachment, while the liberals' support base has grown stronger. Considering that, results of the elections will determine whether their dominance would prolong for a considerable time," said Jeong Han-Wool, director of the Korean People Research Institute.

South Koreans will elect 16 regional leaders

Up for grabs in Wednesday’s polls are 16 mayoral and provincial gubernatorial posts, 12 of them held by the PPP. Fourteen new members of the 300-member National Assembly will also be chosen in by-elections.

The polls opened at about 14,300 stations at 6 a.m. and are to close at 6 p.m. As of noon, the voter turnout rate stood at 19%, according to the election commission. South Korea has 44.6 million eligible voters.

Some earlier surveys indicated the Democratic Party would win up to 15 of the 16 posts. But newer surveys showed opposition or independent candidates were closing the gap with their Democratic Party competitors or even overtook them in five to seven races.

The Democratic Party entered the elections with a clear advantage because the public still has strong negative feelings about Yoon’s martial law imposition, said Choi Jin, director of the Seoul-based Institute of Presidential Leadership. In addition, voters likely view the Lee administration as a new government that deserves a chance to implement its agenda, he said.

Thursday will mark one year in office for Lee, whose approval ratings hover over 60%. A key factor attributing to Lee’s popularity is what he describes as “pragmatic diplomacy” that eased concerns that his rule would hurt ties with the U.S. and Japan. Whatever the outcome of Wednesday’s election, Lee’s foreign policy agenda will likely remain unchanged, experts say.

Much attention is focused on Seoul's mayoral race

Choi said that a resounding victory for the Democratic Party would be it winning at least 12 races in the elections. He said the party must also win the hotly contested Seoul mayoral race or the Lee government would suffer “a tremendous blow."

The Seoul race pits the Democratic Party's Chong Won-o, a former Seoul district head who rose politically after Lee publicly praised his governance last October, against current mayor and political heavyweight Oh Se-hoon with the PPP.

A Seoul mayor “isn't a post that someone whose campaign solely relies on the president's coattails can afford," Oh told reporters Tuesday.

In a separate news conference Tuesday, Chong said he expected Seoul voters to deliver “a stern verdict” on Oh over what he called the mayor's incompetent and irresponsible governance style.

Election results are crucial for the conservative opposition

The PPP is still struggling with internal feuding between reformists who joined the Democratic Party-led push to impeach Yoon and his loyalists who attempted to protect the embattled leader.

Among the candidates running for the parliamentary by-elections is Han Dong-hoon, leader of the reformist faction who was eventually expelled from the PPP. Surveys show Han, now an independent, holding a slim lead over the Democratic Party's Ha Jung-woo, a former Lee adviser on artificial intelligence, in a race in Busan, the country's second biggest city.

Jeong, the institute director, said that a Han victory could help anti-Yoon reformists regroup and emerge as a new force among the struggling conservatives in South Korea. But Choi, another institute head, said Han's win could worsen a divide in the conservatives because Yoon loyalists would feel a sense of crisis and close ranks further.

“He’s been kind of the last couple of weeks kind of dealing with some shoulder soreness, just kind of more nagging,” manager Aaron Boone said before the series opener against the Guardians. “Then over the weekend, the last couple of games in Sacramento, I think it became a little more than just that, where I noticed with some swings and stuff. It became a little more than just nagging. I think it was affecting him.”

Boone said tests on the team's off day on Monday revealed the bruise. Judge met with team physician later Dr. Christopher Ahmad Tuesday and following Tuesday's 9-4 loss, Boone said Judge will see a specialist on Wednesday.

Judge had an rib injury in March 2020 when doctors discovered a stress fracture in his right rib. The injury occurred when he dove for a ball in September 2019, but Judge did not miss any time because of the injury because the 2020 season was delayed due to the pandemic.

“Tough to say,” Boone said. “We'll look at it and that's why we want a specialist to look at it too and just try and rule out anything or see if there's something else to see.”

In March 2020, doctors discovered a stress fracture in his right rib, stemming from a dive he made in a game the prior September. He was shut down for two weeks, but the season was delayed until July due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Judge is hitting .248 and 17 homers and 38 RBIs. The three-time AL MVP has one homer in his last 18 games since May 10 and ended an 11-game homer and RBI drought with a game-ending, two-run drive in the ninth inning to give the Yankees a 2-0 win over Tampa Bay on May 24.

Judge entered the game against Tampa Bay in a 1-for-24 slump that dropped his batting average to .246. He was hitless in 15 at-bats before singling in the first inning.

“I think probably something that’s been affecting him a little bit here recently, especially this weekend,” Boone said. “So, hopefully, it is something that we just get calmed down here and put it behind us.”

Judge won the batting title last season when he batted a career-high .331 with 53 homers and 114 RBIs in 152 games. He missed 10 games from July 26-Aug. 4 with a flexor strain in his right elbow sustained on a throw to home July 22 in Toronto. He underwent a plasma-rich injection and did not require offseason surgery, though he did not return to the outfield until Sept. 5.

When Judge was hurt last season, Giancarlo Stanton played 17 games in the outfield. Stanton has been out since April 24 with a strained right calf.

On Tuesday, José Caballero made his 22nd career start in right field and third since being acquired from Tampa Bay at the July 31 trade deadline.

Judge had started 52 of New York's first 59 games in right field. Rookie Spencer Jones made four starts in right field before getting sent down May 23 and Cody Bellinger has started two games.

Yankees move prospect Carlos Lagrange to bullpen at Triple-A

The Yankees said Tuesday that prospect Carlos Lagrange is being moved to the bullpen at Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes Barre to possibly provide relief help at the major league level later this season.

"We definitely view him long term as a starter,” Boone said. “But in the 2026 lens, there’s a chance for him to potentially impact us out of the bullpen while not really disrupting anything moving forward.”

Lagrange is rated as New York's fourth-best prospect by MLB Pipeline and the No. 2 pitcher.

Lagrange is 0-3 with a 4.41 ERA in 11 Triple-A starts. Across 49 innings, he has allowed 40 hits and 25 walks, striking out 63 while holding opponents to a .215 batting average.

The 23-year-old is averaging 98.9 mph on fastballs this season and has topped out at 103.0 mph on a fastball after spending time with the Yankees at spring training.

“It’s electric stuff,” Boone said. “The exciting thing for me was, really being around him for the first time, seeing the person and the competitor."

___

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB

Jon Gary, the director of Animal Care Services, said statistics from 2024 to the present show a steady increase in the number of dangerous dog cases in San Antonio.

While the direction of the numbers is not what he and other city officials want, Gary pointed out that the numbers reflect not only attacks but also incidents in which the public has contacted or connected with ACS.

“We’ve increased our staffing, as we increased our ability to respond to instances, we’ve seen an increase in the number of affidavits that we’ve received,” Gary said.

He referenced the connection during a recent public safety committee meeting, during which he presented to city council members.

Gary said that since the agency received more funding, more ACS officers can respond to calls and conduct investigations to determine whether a dog is dangerous or aggressive.

“So, they’ve roughly doubled during that time period, and that’s typically, I think, a lot of it, one, is due to staffing,” he said.

According to the data presented, the number of dog bites or attacks is on an upward trend, as is the number of dogs deemed dangerous or aggressive.

In 2024, just over 100 dogs were deemed dangerous, and 69 were deemed aggressive.

“(A dog is) dangerous if it attacks a person, aggressive if it attacks another animal,” Gary said.

The numbers jumped in 2025 to 283 dangerous dogs and 103 aggressive dogs.

Gary said he believes there is a relation between the high numbers and more people are reporting incidents to 311 and filing affidavits.

“We’re doing a lot better job as an organization of educating the people about their options when it comes to these individuals that are being attacked or being bit.”

He said the investigations sparked by the reports have led to the dangerous dog registry and the public map, which shows where dangerous dogs have been reported in San Antonio and details how aggressive they are.

With the positives, Gary does acknowledge the obvious.

“Ultimately we’re still (seeing) too many dangerous dog attacks,” he said.

Gary stressed that the goal is to dramatically reduce the number of dangerous dog cases in the city and said offering assistance to dog owners is one way to achieve that.

Another way, he added, is to make sure owners are aware of the hardships of having their pet dogs deemed dangerous, such as citations and insurance requirements.

“We’ve done multiple talks about what those violations can be and what can happen if your animal is found dangerous and what those penalties are,” Gary said.

Gary said the key to seeing the numbers drop is being proactive.

“We have some new programs that are out there that we really need to expand on, such as our Pet Care Connect program,” he said. “We’re going in neighborhoods where they’re seeing high instances of free-roaming dogs, and we’re trying to be proactive and prevent it from happening in the first place.”

In addition to ACS doing more, Gary said dog owners must do their part to help bring numbers down.

“It’s really about getting owners to take responsibility and ensuring the dogs don’t get free,” Gary said.

Read also:

• ACS has responded to over 2K animal bite cases in fiscal year 2026 so far, data shows
• San Antonio ranked in top 10 for most dog attacks on mail carriers in 2025, USPS says

The San Antonio Water System said a consultant it hired to examine the feasibility of relocating its Commerce Street chilled water plant, on the site where the city had proposed a 1,000-room hotel as part of a sports and entertainment district, has said moving its facility would cost more than $300 million — roughly triple initial estimates.

Jaime Castillo, SAWS chief of staff and senior vice president of operations support and innovation, confirmed the idea to move the plant is “dead” and that the city had agreed not to pursue putting a hotel on the site.

“On our site, correct,” he told KSAT Tuesday morning. “I don’t know — you’d have to ask them (the city) what are their plans for a hotel. But putting it on our site, everyone seems to have agreed that that’s not a good option."

KSAT requested an interview with the city Tuesday morning but has not yet received a response.

The hotel was included as part of the city’s initial unveiling of the vision for Project Marvel and was shown as being combined with a UT San Antonio School of Hospitality.

The project has been put on the back burner, though, with the uncertainty surrounding the chilled water plant and the city’s focus on nearer-term projects like a new Spurs arena and a potential expansion of the Henry B. González Convention Center.

The plant on Commerce Street is one of two in the downtown “district cooling system,” which chill water down to a slush, which is then used to cool 22 downtown sites, including the convention center, the Alamodome, various hotels and La Villita. The utility has a second district cooling system at Port San Antonio.

Castillo said SAWS has asked its consultant to look into other options, including improving the current site and adding a satellite plant, to handle additional growth in the area related to Project Marvel, such as the arena and surrounding, mixed-use development.

“We’re thinking it’s probably both, but the study will confirm that,” Castillo said.

He also said the utility plans to meet with the “project managers” hired by the city and Spurs.

The City Council approved a contract last month with Accenture Infrastructure and Capital Projects to be the “executive program manager” for Project Marvel, and Spurs Sports & Entertainment announced several partners for the district and arena the following week.

“The consultant needs to know how big of a satellite plant, and we can only know that by engaging with the Spurs and the city,” he said.

SAWS expects the cost of beefing up the downtown cooling district will be borne by those specific customers, not regular ratepayers.

The utility’s request for a rate increase is separate from the plans tied to the chilled water plants. The City Council is expected to vote on that this month.

Read also:

• ‘We’re battling inflation’: Neighbors unhappy about looming SAWS rate hike

Jones said the excitement surrounding the Spurs is real, but it hasn’t changed her position on Project Marvel.

She also confirmed she attended a recent game as a guest of local businessman Tullos Wells, saying the visit was in accordance with the city’s ethics and gift rules, but added the experience only reinforced her push for revenue sharing.

“If we had revenue sharing, we’d be getting a cut of each of these tickets, we’d be getting a cut of concessions, we’d be getting a cut of parking — all the things,” Jones said.

Jones noted the city still faces a $131 million budget gap heading into fiscal year 2028 and said she has already written a letter to Dell Technologies founder Michael Dell — whom she described as the seventh richest person on the planet — asking him to cover part or all of the $489 million the city is on the hook for under the current arena proposal.

She also said she has asked city attorneys to explore admissions and parking taxes, similar to a model used in Fort Worth, to ensure those who use the arena most pay their share.

On the budget front, Jones said she is working with Bexar County Judge Peter Sakai to identify overlapping services — including animal care, vehicle maintenance and utility assistance programs — that could be consolidated to reduce overhead.

Watch the full interview in the video player above.

Read also:

• Downtown anticipates tourist influx while East Side needs improvements, state rep. says

Iran fired missiles toward Kuwait and Bahrain, but failed to hit their targets, the U.S. said. The two fired at Kuwait fell apart en route, while U.S. and Bahraini forces intercepted the missiles aimed at Bahrain.

U.S. Central Command said it responded with strikes on an Iranian military ground control station on Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard said it had targeted the headquarters of the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet in Bahrain and another country in its attack, without naming Kuwait. It said it launched its attack in response to the U.S. firing a missile into the engine room of another oil tanker trying to reach Iran despite the U.S. blockade.

“We had previously warned that in case of aggression, the response would be different and more severe, and we acted accordingly," the Guard said in its statement.

Central Command also said it “downed multiple drones” launched by Iran targeting American forces in Kuwait.

The attacks happened after Iran stopped communicating with mediators about extending a ceasefire in the war with the U.S. and Israel, according to reports Tuesday from two semiofficial Iranian news agencies. President Donald Trump disputed the claim and said talks were continuing.

The reports by the Fars and Tasnim news agencies, both believed to be close to the Guard, came as tensions flared in Israel’s separate-but-related fight against the Iranian-backed militia Hezbollah in Lebanon.

A regional official involved in the mediation, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the talks, told The Associated Press that Iran had not communicated at all on Tuesday after saying that a ceasefire needed to be enforced in Lebanon for negotiations to continue.

Trump says talks ‘going on continuously’

Trump called reports of a cessation in talks “false and erroneous.”

“The conversations between us have been going on continuously, including four days ago, three days ago, two days ago, one day ago and today,” Trump said in a social media post. "Where they lead, one never knows, but as I told Iran, ‘It’s time, one way or another, for you to make a Deal."

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio did not address the reported cutoff in communications as he testified at a congressional hearing in Washington. Instead, he sounded an optimistic note about the nuclear dimension of the negotiations, while cautioning that there’s no guarantee of reaching “a deal that’s acceptable.”

Iran has been trying to increase pressure on Trump over negotiations on the Iran war ceasefire and loosening the Islamic Republic's chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz and the oil, gas and other commodities that normally pass through it. Trump then could potentially push Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to halt or slow the advance of his forces, which have moved deeper into Lebanon than at any time in over a quarter of a century.

The conflicts have increasingly become conjoined, as Iran insists that any potential truce in the war there must also quell the fighting in Lebanon.

Israel and the U.S. maintain the fighting in Lebanon is separate from the Iran war talks.

Inflation takes an economic toll on Iran

Meanwhile, year-on-year inflation in Iran reached a level in May unseen since World War II, underlining the economic pain average Iranians are facing. While the U.S. is eager to ease the Islamic Republic's grip on the strait — through which a fifth of all traded oil and natural gas passed in peacetime — Iran faces economic challenges as its oil-backed economy remains under a U.S. naval blockade.

Economic pressure touched off nationwide protests in Iran in 2017 into 2018, when rising food prices sparked demonstrations that killed over 20 people and saw hundreds arrested. The next year, an increase in government-subsidized gasoline prices caused protests that saw over 300 people reportedly killed.

Then came the protests over the collapsing value of Iran's currency, the rial, at the start of this year. They were the most intense demonstrations to shake the Islamic Republic since its 1979 revolution and the chaotic years that followed. Iran's theocracy met January's protests with a crackdown on demonstrators in January that killed over 7,000 people, according to activists' estimates.

Now, even as hard-liners hold gun-handling workshops and organize marriages under the shadow of a ballistic missile to bolster spirits, experts note there could be new demonstrations if people find themselves priced out of feeding their families.

“I have no doubt that if Trump leaves (Iran without a formal peace deal) ... most probably, we will see something like January by the end of summer because of the economic and social situations," analyst Mohsen Jalilvand said in a video published by Iran's Fararu news website.

Iran faces skyrocketing inflation

Iran's Central Bank said the consumer price index, which measures a basket of goods and services, reached 77.2% in May compared with the year before. The rate is 8.5% higher than in April, the bank added. Inflation in daily and general needs — like medicine, taxi fares, tobacco and communication fees — rose 113.8% from the year before.

A private economic think tank in Iran, the Bamdad Institute of Economic Studies, described the current figures as “an unprecedented rate since World War II.” Iran’s Central Bank did not acknowledge the significance of the figures.

The previous record came in 1942. During the war, the British and Soviets invaded Iran and took over its railway, disrupting food supplies. The lack of food, worsened by a poor harvest, sparked hyperinflation and a famine. Hunger and a typhus outbreak killed many.

Airstrikes this year have greatly damaged Iran's businesses and its oil industry, Meanwhile, the U.S. blockade has been targeting Iranian crude oil shipments trying to reach the international market, a key source of hard revenue. Tax revenues have been depressed by businesses struggling even after the fighting paused.

The rial, which traded at 32,000 to $1 in 2015, now trades at over 1.7 million to $1.

“We will definitely have higher prices," Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian warned in May. "We are fighting, and we must accept this hardship.”

Tehran-based economist Saeed Leilaz, speaking to the AP, warned that annual inflation in Iran could reach 80%.

"Iran’s society cannot tolerate above 25%” annual inflation, he said.

___

Karimi reported from Tehran, Iran. Magdy reported from Cairo. Associated Press writers Jennifer Peltz in New York and Aamer Madhani and Konstantin Toropin in Washington contributed to this report.

Misted in rain, they fastened ceramic nametags onto mesh that covered a cobblestone wall at Omma Poom Park — meaning “mother’s embrace" — in Paju, South Korea.

More than 900 tags, suspended like unmailed letters, formed a quiet monument to years of mass child-parent separations that has created what's likely the world’s largest diaspora of adoptees.

“There are so many tiles that hang, and yet that is merely a small fraction of us that exist,” said Nicole Rieth, adopted to Michigan when she was 4 months old, in January 1989.

“As far as connecting with my birth mother, it’s not about gleaning specific information from her or even necessarily seeking a relationship. I’ve just always wanted to know who I looked like, because I’ve never had that before.”

Each nametag, hand-painted by an artist, carries the adoptee’s name, birth year and birthplace. Colors mark the decade of adoption, and most are red and sky blue, for the 1970s and 1980s, when foreign adoptions peaked. White is for adoptees who died without reunions.

One laminated note fluttered among the tags, left by anonymous parents searching for a child named “Bora.”

“You are not alone. You have a mother and a father,” it said. “I’m so sorry and I love you.”

Resurfaced pain

Paju, which sits near the North Korean border and once hosted U.S. military bases, carries a long memory of foreign adoptions, which began in the aftermath of the 1950-53 Korean War with mixed-race children born to Korean women and American soldiers, regarded as outcasts at home.

Adoptions surged in the 1970s, when the focus shifted to fully Korean children, typically born to unwed mothers or impoverished families. Thousands were sent annually to the West for decades through the mid-2000s, including more than 6,600 a year during the 1980s, when Seoul’s former military dictatorship aggressively sought to reduce mouths to feed.

Omma Poom opened in June 2025 after a yearslong campaign by Paju-based photographer Lee Yong-nam and Me & Korea, an adoptee support group.

Lee, 72, said his interest in adoption issues grew from searching for a Black-Korean childhood friend likely adopted to America.

“Adoptions continued unchecked and now the pain is surfacing,” he said of the visitors, who are mostly younger than the war generation.

1,000 letters to birth mothers

On a hill overlooking Omma Poom, a converted U.S. army building serves as a museum, where some 1,000 profile pages — each containing an adoptee’s photo, birthdate and message to a birth mother — are stored.

One of the profiles belongs to Angela Lee-Pack, adopted to Canada in 1971 at age 2.

“I think about you every day and only wish the best for you,” she wrote to her Korean mother. “I hope one day I will be able to know who I am.”

Growing up in Ontario, Lee-Pack says she endured severe abuse from her adoptive mother, including being locked in a closet without food. She says she was later abused in another home, left at 15, and struggled for years before finding stability as an adult.

Lee-Pack has visited South Korea twice while searching for her birth mother, putting flyers across Seoul and Jeonju.

During her first trip in 2019, a man reached out, believing Lee-Pack was the daughter of a late uncle. The lead unraveled slowly and painfully. The man later found a woman in her 70s whose background appeared to match. But she denied giving up a child and refused contact. Lee-Pack collapsed in her hotel room and cried.

“Every time I look in the mirror I wonder who she is and what she looks like,” she said of her birth mother. “The thoughts never end.”

Lost connections

Rieth says that becoming a mother to two sons led her to begin looking for her birth mother.

According to her adoption file, Rieth was the third child of a couple who relinquished her shortly after her birth in 1988, citing financial hardship during a time when Seoul was actively pressuring families to have fewer children.

Rieth began searching for her biological family in 2024, but letters her adoption agency sent to her birth mother’s last known address went unanswered.

She is now pursuing another search through the National Center for the Rights of the Child, a government office. She wants her sons to know the heritage she grew up without.

“I kind of don’t want to allow myself to hope because the whole journey has been a roller coaster of hoping, finding something out, and diving down into hopelessness, getting a glimmer of a maybe,” she said. “And yet I want to exhaust every effort ... so that there are no regrets.”

Deep scars

During the peak of adoptions, authorities largely ignored rampant fraud, including illegal child procurements from hospitals and orphanages and manipulation of children’s origins. Many were falsely labeled as abandoned orphans to ease placements with Western families.

The deception left generations of Korean adoptees not knowing who they were, where they came from, whether they had been loved, abandoned or stolen.

On the other side were birth mothers pressured to surrender children born out of wedlock, separated from them without consent, or left searching for decades before learning they had been sent overseas under falsified records.

The gathering at Omma Poom came shortly after a group of birth mothers asked South Korea’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission to investigate the alleged illegal adoptions of their children, adding to hundreds of fraud and abuse claims filed by adoptees.

Adopted in 1993 to Michigan, Jalyn Smith's agency in 2021 located her birth mother, who, according to the file, had relinquished Smith after separating from her biological father. The woman declined contact.

Five years later, Smith is pursuing the search again.

“Hanging it up, I felt proud,” Smith said about her name on Omma Poom’s wall. “I feel proud to be part of this community, though it comes with a lot of conflicting feelings of sadness and anger and grief.”

Judge Christine Del Prado, who presides over Bexar County’s 227th Criminal District Court, sentenced Giovanna Blangiardo to 12 years in prison Monday. Blangiardo previously took a plea deal.

In addition to intoxication manslaughter, Blangiardo, 38, originally faced the following charges:

• Manslaughter
• Aggravated assault with a deadly weapon
• Aggravated assault that caused serious bodily injury

According to court records, the manslaughter and two aggravated assault charges were rejected.

Background

Bexar County Sheriff’s deputies responded to a three-vehicle crash at approximately 4:30 a.m. on Feb. 8, 2024, in the 14700 block of Potranco Road, which is located near State Highway 211 and Arcadia Path in far west Bexar County.

BCSO said Blangiardo was driving a Chevrolet SUV westbound when she began veering into the eastbound lanes.

Blangiardo’s SUV collided with a Toyota SUV, which was driven by Whitney Brooke Weddel. A Nissan SUV that was also traveling eastbound swerved to avoid the Toyota but eventually crashed in between Blangiardo and Weddel.

Upon arrival, deputies said two people — Blangiardo and Weddel — were extricated from the crash and taken to a local hospital. Authorities said Weddel was pronounced dead while Blangiardo survived the crash. The driver of the Nissan SUV was not injured.

A report from BCSO states probable cause was obtained for a blood warrant for Blangiardo while she was at the hospital. She was booked by proxy, the report states.

An East Central Independent School District spokesperson told KSAT that Weddel, 39, was an East Central High School graduate and “exceptional teacher” who left the district before the crash.

More coverage of this story on KSAT:

• Woman arrested in 3-vehicle crash in west Bexar County that killed former East Central ISD teacher
• Man, woman extracted by firefighters following 3-vehicle crash on far West Side, BCSO says

Democrats were relishing the chance to put Republican senators on the record about the settlement fund for those who claim to have been politically prosecuted. They were promising scores of votes on the issue when the immigration bill is considered.

“Democrats won’t settle for half measures," said Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York. "We’re going to kill the slush fund permanently and we are going to bury it and bury it deep.”

GOP senators has also revolted against the settlement fund before leaving for a Memorial Day recess two weeks ago. They returned to Washington this week saying they wanted more information from the administration about the future of the fund, which could potentially go to Trump supporters who beat police and attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

The Justice Department said Monday it would comply with a court order pausing implementation of the fund. And then acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said in testimony Tuesday that it was being dropped altogether.

“We are not moving forward with the fund, period,” Blanche said.

Immigration bill caught in settlement uproar

Caught in the middle is legislation that would fund Trump’s immigration enforcement agencies for three years. Republicans abruptly left town May 21 without passing it after Democrats said they would offer amendments to scrap the fund or scale it back, forcing Republicans to go on the record for or against it and endangering the money for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol.

Returning to Washington on Monday evening, Senate Majority Leader John Thune said he wasn’t sure if the immigration spending bill would move this week. “To be determined,” he told reporters.

He offered little more clarity after Blanche's assurances.

“It’s still a work in progress," he told reporters.

Republican senators leaving a lunch meeting Tuesday also said it was still unclear if it would move.

“We'll just have to wait and see,” Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., told reporters. If senators are satisfied with Blanche's testimony, “we'll probably proceed quickly,” he said.

Standoff comes after surprise announcement

The extraordinary standoff comes after Trump announced the fund with no heads up to lawmakers as part of a settlement to resolve his lawsuit against the IRS over the leak of his tax returns. When word of the settlement broke, the Senate was already navigating tricky passage of the immigration legislation with an added $1 billion in White House security costs — including for Trump’s ballroom project.

Furious, Senate Republicans jettisoned the White House security money from the bill and made clear they would not pass the legislation at all unless the White House made major changes to the settlement.

“I do think the best way to handle it is if the administration decides to shut it down themselves,” Thune told reporters Monday, referring to the fund.

The Justice Department said it would comply with a ruling Friday from U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema, who temporarily halted the fund for two weeks. The judge scheduled a June 12 hearing for arguments on whether to extend her order.

Republicans issue rare ultimatum to DOJ

The outrage over the fund came to a head last month at a closed-door meeting between senators and Blanche that Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas described on a recent episode of his podcast as “one of the roughest meetings I’ve seen in my entire time in the Senate.”

GOP senators had been discussing several ways that they could curb the fund, including limiting who can receive payouts, changing the makeup of the commission in charge of settlement decisions, adding some sort of judicial review for applicants or scrapping the fund altogether.

Also complicating matters is Trump’s campaign-year push to defeat GOP lawmakers whom he sees as disloyal, including some of Thune’s most reliable Republican votes in the narrow 53-47 Senate.

Sens. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and John Cornyn of Texas both lost reelection bids in May after Trump endorsed their primary opponents, and it’s unclear how supportive they’ll be of the president’s agenda going forward.

___

Associated Press writers Joey Cappelletti and Eric Tucker contributed to this report.

It’s a matchup few saw coming before the start of the season, mostly because it had been at least a decade since either team had made the NBA Finals and six seasons since the Spurs last made the postseason to begin with in 2019. Tim Duncan’s dreadlocks were still in its infancy.

That’s just one thing to keep in mind. Here are some other defining numbers to crunch before the action gets underway tomorrow night.

Spurs and Knicks history in NBA Finals

• Spurs are 6-0 in NBA Finals Game 1s, holding the league record for most wins without a loss in any particular Finals game.
• Knicks are 2-7 in the NBA Finals, while the Spurs are 5-1.

The Spurs carry momentum off the high of their Game 7 win against top-seeded Oklahoma City, while the Knicks come into Game 1 off nine days rest. This favors a fast start for San Antonio in Game 1. The question is whether attrition will set in later in the series, as the Knicks have played in four fewer games this postseason.

Spurs/Knicks is the ninth Finals matchup featuring one team coming off a four-game sweep and the other coming off a seven-game series. The teams coming off the sweep are 5-3. But when extended to any round of the playoffs, the metric heavily favors the team coming off a sweep, with those teams boasting a record of 20-4.

Differences in team building

• Three of 5 Spurs starters have played their entire career with the team. (Julian Champagnie was traded to the Spurs his rookie year.)
• No Knicks starter began their career with the franchise.

The Knicks have been all-in on winning a title for the better part of the decade. They have been one of the most active teams in the league in free agency and at the trade deadline, and they may have found their final piece in new head coach Mike Brown, who finally has New York in the Finals for the first time in 26 years.

The Spurs, meanwhile, have been sort of a happy accident. They are the second-youngest team to reach the NBA Finals in the shot clock era (25 years and 20 days), based on average age weighted by postseason playing time. Harrison Barnes is the steady veteran presence on the team, and De’Aaron Fox is the only other player who had significant playoff experience before this season.

Even their head coach is homegrown. Mitch Johnson, 39, spent six years on Gregg Popovich’s staff before becoming his permanent successor this season. He could be the sixth rookie head coach in NBA history to win the NBA Finals since the NBA-ABA merger in 1976, joining Paul Westhead, Pat Riley, Steve Kerr, Tyronn Lue and Nick Nurse.

Matchup history this season

• Dec. 16 (NBA Cup final): Knicks win 124-113
• • Wemby came off the bench on a minutes restriction, scoring 18, still nursing a left calf strain that caused him to miss 12 games.
• Dec. 31: Spurs win at home 134-132
• • Champagnie: 36 pts, all threes (11-17).
  • Wemby: 31 pts, 13 reb, 1 blks, 3 TOs (24 minutes)
• March 1: Knicks win at home 114-89
• • Spurs committed 21 turnovers, shot 42% from the field.
  • Knicks outscored Spurs by 16 in the fourth quarter (35-19).
  • NY’s win snapped SA’s 11-game win streak at the time.
  • Wemby: 25 pts, 13 rebs, 4 blks, 7 TOs

>> ‘I know quite a lot’: Knicks’ Jeremy Sochan touts knowledge of Spurs in interview ahead of NBA Finals

In the Knicks two victories over the Spurs, they compiled a 69-39 edge in the final quarter. That trend could very well continue, as the Knicks hold a rest advantage.

With rumblings of Victor Wembanyama’s stamina having come into question throughout the playoffs, he has a chance to either squash that narrative against a more rested team — or be proven liable.

Other fun facts

• Both the Spurs and Knicks have first-year head coaches. The last and only NBA Finals to feature two first-year head coaches was Warriors/Cavaliers in 2015.
• Knicks are riding an 11-game win streak, with a +262 point differential.
• Knicks have the highest postseason offensive efficiency rating (123.3) of any Eastern Conference champion since the number began being tracked by ESPN in 2003.
• Knicks are the first team in NBA history to win three straight playoff games by 25+ points.
• Knicks are 23-0 this season (regular and post) holding opponents under 100 points.
• Knicks opened the market at +170. The only teams that won the NBA Finals as greater underdogs? 2019 Toronto Raptors, 2016 Cleveland Cavaliers and 2004 Detroit Pistons (per Covers).
• Spurs are the fifth team to end a postseason drought of at least six seasons with an NBA Finals appearance.
• Spurs have held opponents to 41% shooting this postseason, the lowest mark of a playoff team since the 2019 Milwaukee Bucks.
• Victor Wembanyama has contested more field goal attempts than any other player this postseason, resulting in as many blocks as baskets allowed (60).
• Devin Vassell has allowed a 24.3% field goal percentage this postseason as a contesting defender, the lowest mark in a single postseason since ESPN began tracking the stat in 2020. Wemby is second at 27.9%.
• Wembanyama made his first NBA Finals in just his third season, faster than notable NBA legends, such as LeBron James (4th), Kobe Bryant (4th) and Michael Jordan (7th).

Read also:

• NBA Finals schedule: Dates, times, how to watch Spurs vs. Knicks on KSAT 12
• San Antonio’s Salesian Sisters of St. John Bosco pray for Spurs’ playoff success
• San Antonio bars ready for slam dunk business with start of NBA Finals

A criminal complaint was unsealed in federal court in Detroit against Vincent Munster, who is chief of the virus ecology section at Rocky Mountain Laboratories in Hamilton, Montana, and Claude Kwe, who works with him.

Munster and Kwe were stopped at Detroit Metropolitan Airport in January after a flight from Paris and nine days in the Republic of Congo. An outbreak of the mpox disease has been linked to more than 2,000 deaths in Congo, a vast region in central Africa, though a two-year outbreak was declared over in April.

Munster “adamantly denied” returning to the U.S. with biological materials or samples, the FBI said in a court filing.

But tests subsequently revealed that Munster and Kwe were traveling with vials of deactivated mpox, the FBI said, yet they had failed to declare them or obtain the necessary permission.

"Any deliberate effort to conceal and smuggle biological materials into the United States without proper authorization is a breach of the public’s trust and could have placed the public at risk,” said Marcus Sykes of the Office of Inspector General at the Department of Health and Human Services.

Munster and Kwe did not immediately respond to requests for comment. They are expected to appear in federal court in Missoula, Montana, on Wednesday.

“This matter is currently under investigation, and NIH is cooperating fully with law enforcement and appropriate authorities,” said the National Institutes of Health, which oversees the lab. “Because this is an ongoing investigation and personnel matter, we are limited in what additional information we can provide at this time.”

There was no mention in the government's court filing about why Munster and Kwe may have wanted to bring the deactivated mpox virus to their lab. But they are virologists who have worked extensively on mpox research, the FBI said.

Munster told investigators at the Detroit-area airport that any necessary documents were in his laptop, “but you don't need them. I do this all the time,” the FBI quoted him as saying.

“It is reasonable to believe that Munster's statements regarding the possession of the required documentation to (customs officers) were materially false,” the FBI said.

The most common symptoms of mpox, according to the World Health Organization, are a rash and fever, but it can sometimes cause serious illness. Most people recover fully.

Mpox, previously known as monkeypox, was first identified by scientists in 1958 during outbreaks of a “pox-like” disease in monkeys. Until a few years ago, most human cases were seen in people in central and West Africa who had close contact with infected animals.

In 2022, the virus was confirmed to spread via sex for the first time and triggered outbreaks in more than 70 countries that had not previously reported mpox.

Officials said the person of interest, identified as a man possibly in his 20s, was last seen May 19, allegedly fleeing from a church near Overlook Parkway and U.S. Highway 281.

The man was last seen wearing a black-and-gray ball cap, a black San Antonio Spurs T-shirt with a No. 1 on the front, dark-colored basketball shorts and black-and-white sneakers while carrying a black backpack.

Anyone with information on the man’s whereabouts is urged not to approach him but to contact the Bexar County Fire Marshal’s Office at 210‑335‑0300.

Residents wishing to remain anonymous can submit tips through Crime Stoppers at 210‑224‑STOP.

Read also:

• Suspect in Northeast Side stabbing death was longtime friend of victim, relative says

His family said in a statement that Bryson died Tuesday evening, days after having a stroke.

“While our hearts are broken, we find comfort in knowing how deeply Peabo was loved and how many lives were touched by his voice and his generous spirit,” the family's statement said. “His legacy and music will live on for generations to come.”

Internationally celebrated for his Disney classics, Bryson also built a career over five decades as one of R&B’s premier balladeers, recording hits including “Feel the Fire,” “I’m So Into You" and “Can You Stop the Rain."

“For more than five decades, Peabo’s extraordinary voice served as the soundtrack to some of life’s most cherished moments,” the family's statement said. “His music carried generations through joyful celebrations, great love stories and enduring moments of comfort and inspiration.”

Born and raised in South Carolina, the singer, songwriter and balladeer launched his career with the group Moses Dillard and the Tex-Town Display in the 1970s. Shortly afterward, Atlanta label Bang Records signed him as a solo artist.

He recorded for Capitol, Elektra and Columbia Records and became one of music’s most sought-after duet partners. Aside from Belle and Dion, he also collaborated with artists including Roberta Flack and Natalie Cole.

His duet with Flack, “Tonight, I Celebrate My Love,” became one of the defining love songs of the 1980s, while “If Ever You’re in My Arms Again” helped expand his audience beyond R&B radio. He later scored No. 1 R&B hits with “Show & Tell” and “Can You Stop the Rain.”

Beyond music, Bryson appeared in stage productions including “Raisin,” “The Wiz” and “Porgy and Bess.” In 2018, he returned with “Stand for Love,” his 21st studio album, produced by hitmaking duo Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis.

Bryson had a stroke in late May and was placed under medical care.

“At this time, the family requests privacy as they navigate this deeply personal moment together,” a statement from his representative read at the time. "The thoughts, prayers and love of friends and fans are welcomed and deeply appreciated.”

In 2019, Bryson made a full recovery after having a heart attack.

Comedian and television host Loni Love said she worked with Bryson on a cruise ship last year and spoke with him for hours on the deck one night after she noticed him sitting alone.

“He shared incredible stories, spoke passionately about his music, and had such a deep love for his craft,” she wrote in a social media post Tuesday. “I am so grateful to have had that special moment with him.”

Bryson's family said memorial and celebration-of-life arrangements will be announced at a later date.

___

This story has been updated to correct that Bryson sang “Beauty and the Beast” with Dion and “A Whole New World” with Belle, not the other way around. It has also been updated to correct a misspelling of “Aladdin."

“Aaron is a guy that I stay really close in touch with, and I know the respect that he has for Myles,” McVay said. “Talked to him about the opportunity to be able to bring (Garrett) on board. If Aaron decides he wants to dust them off at the age of 35, I bet you he could still do it at a pretty high clip.”

While the Rams would never close the door on Donald's possible return to the NFL, McVay confirms it's entirely up to the superstar defensive tackle to open that door if he wants to play alongside Garrett.

The possibility of Donald's return from two seasons in retirement became a hot topic almost immediately after the Rams swung their blockbuster trade Monday to acquire Garrett from the Cleveland Browns. Now 35 years old, Donald walked away in March 2024 after a prolific 10-year career spent entirely with the Rams.

ESPN personality Pat McAfee stoked the idea on Tuesday when he said he had texted about a comeback with Donald. McAfee said Donald told him that Garrett’s arrival in LA “for sure got me thinking,” and that he’s “gotta see if that fire can light back up.”

Donald racked up eight All-Pro selections, 10 Pro Bowl nods, three AP Defensive Player of the Year awards and a Super Bowl ring during 10 seasons in St. Louis and Los Angeles. He went out near the top of his game with a franchise-record 111 sacks as the NFL's best interior pass rusher, saying he was ready to step back from the daily grind required to maintain that level of play.

But because Donald retired at a relatively young age for defensive linemen, his possible return has been a topic of conversation for two full years in Los Angeles, where the Pittsburgh native still spends most of his time with his family. Rams fans openly pined for his return last season while the team appeared capable of making a second Super Bowl run, but Donald resisted the lure.

Donald even worked out with Jared Verse, the first-round pick and rising star edge rusher who was traded to Cleveland along with three high draft picks. The Rams gave up a fortune to get Garrett, the two-time AP Defensive Player of the Year and one of Donald's very few peers in the 21st century.

Garrett has previously spoken of his respect for Donald's game, and the Rams' new superstar nodded along Tuesday while McVay praised Donald.

The Rams' defensive line is already strong, with Garrett joining 12-sack edge rusher Byron Young and strong interior linemen Kobie Turner, Braden Fiske and Poona Ford. Garrett has already secured his No. 95 jersey from Ford, who wore it with the Rams last season.

“There was a conversation,” Garrett said with a laugh.

“A conversation and a couple of bucks?” McVay interjected.

“Maybe more than a couple of bucks,” Garrett said with a laugh. “He was open to it.”

___

AP NFL: https://apnews.com/NFL

In September, Texas halted commercial drivers licenses for many immigrants, including refugees, people with asylum and DACA recipients. The change on Monday will allow those with H-2A visas, designed for temporary agriculture workers, to again hold valid CDLs in Texas. Those eligible who have current CDLs may continue to use them until their expiration date, and those with expired licenses can file to renew them, according to a DPS press release.

DPS indicated the shift was made in line with a new federal guideline from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration published in mid-March, which permits H-2A workers to hold CDLs alongside H-2B and E-2 visa holders, which are temporary non-agricultural workers and treaty investors, respectively. 

Under the new federal guidelines, Texas has only been approved to grant H-2A visa holders commercial drivers licenses for now, the DPS release said. Eligibility for H-2B and E-2 visa holders in Texas “will be announced at a later date,” according to the release.

The limitation to the three types of visas was implemented to prevent “dangerous foreign drivers” from being given licenses, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said in a February statement, claiming that bad actors had previously been abusing access to commercial drivers licenses.  

The reinstatement came hours after DPS announced it would offer CDL license and permit knowledge tests only in English, removing the Spanish option previously offered, according to a DPS press release announcing the change. 

The hands-on CDL skills test, which includes the driving and controls test, has always been conducted exclusively in English. Interpreters were previously barred from the skills portion of the test, and applicants were required to “be able to understand and respond to verbal commands and instructions in English by a skills test examiner,” according to a previous version of DPS’ website prior to Monday’s change.

Gov. Greg Abbott directed DPS in September to “strictly enforce” the federal government’s new English requirements and ordered the agency to conduct English Language Proficiency reviews for all commercial license operators. The changes are also designed to align Texas’ testing requirements with the FMCSA like the changes to CDl eligibility, the release said. The federal agency had its guidance on English language tests altered in May 2025 by Duffy. 

“The issue is simple: We’re not putting up signs in any other language than English. We’re requiring drivers speak and read English as a bare minimum requirement,” Duffy said in an op-ed in Breitbart previewing the 2025 changes.

In late April, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced investigations into five trucking schools for allegedly disregarding English language requirements when administering CDL tests.

Texas’ Department of Motor Vehicles also introduced photo identification requirements for vehicle registrations and renewals in November aimed at preventing undocumented immigrants from legally owning vehicles. Auto industry representatives and some county officials pushed back against the changes, citing safety and economic concerns for those affected.

On Tuesday, the DMV began enforcing new regulations for companies who operate driverless vehicles like Waymo, launching a registration lookup and complaint filing tool online. The restrictions were implemented in response to Senate Bill 2807, which was passed last year by the state Legislature to streamline regulation of private automated vehicles.

Marietta Gonzaba, owner of S’Cute Crochet Creations, is finding success with her handmade Spurs-inspired coyote ear headbands, a product that has quickly gained popularity among local fans.

Gonzaba said her crochet journey started several years ago when she purchased a crochet kit for her older daughter.

“By the time I was able to teach my daughter, she was over it, and I was like, ‘Well, I had fun,’” Gonzaba said.

After teaching herself how to read crochet patterns and experimenting with different projects, Gonzaba began creating a variety of handmade items. During Fiesta season, while making flower headbands, she came up with the idea that would transform her business.

“I always make these flower headbands for Fiesta, and I think I was cleaning a toilet and I was like, ‘Oh man, that’d be very fun, like to put ears, like the coyote ears,’” Gonzaba said. “So I played around with it, and I finally did it, and it was like, ‘Oh, that’s cool.’”

The unique headbands, inspired by the San Antonio Spurs’ coyote mascot, were an immediate hit. Gonzaba said demand surged as soon as she shared photos of the designs on social media.

“It’s been completely overwhelming in the best way,” she said. “Everyone has been so sweet and so encouraging.”

The business currently offers three versions of the coyote ear headbands, including retro Spurs colors, traditional silver-and-black designs and styles featuring decorative flowers. Each pair is handmade.

While a single headband can take close to an hour from start to finish, Gonzaba has streamlined the process by producing components in batches. She also receives help from family members.

“I just make all the pieces, and I have all the separate bags and then my sister, who’s been awesome, has been helping me assemble them,” Gonzaba said. “We’ll just sit here for hours assembling the ears.”

As orders continue to arrive, Gonzaba is already looking ahead. She recently introduced a new design featuring an alien character with ears, which she hopes could become her next popular creation.

Due to high demand, customers interested in purchasing the coyote ear headbands may face a wait and are encouraged to preorder through Gonzaba’s social media pages.

More Spurs coverage on KSAT:

• Spurs announce free watch parties, pep rally and fan events ahead of NBA Finals
• San Antonio bars ready for slam dunk business with start of NBA Finals

Stars officials announced Tuesday the signing of a nonbinding letter of intent to build a new hockey-specific arena and entertainment district about 20 miles north of the downtown American Airlines Center, which they have shared with the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks since it opened in 2001.

The leases at the AAC for both teams expire in 2031. The two franchises have been in a legal dispute about their partnership agreement and management of the building.

The Stars made their intentions known a day after the Mavericks said they have a preliminary agreement on a site for their own new arena about 10 miles north of downtown, but still within the Dallas city limits. The NBA's team deal is for 104 acres on the former site of Valley View Mall, which was demolished three years ago.

A new arena for the Stars is expected to be part of a large-scale redevelopment project at The Shops at Willow Bend, where the last enclosed mall built in Texas is set for demolition.

The Stars submitted their letter of intent to the city of Plano, which placed it on the City Council agenda for consideration at its next meeting Monday. The letter includes plans for the mixed-used project as well as design and construction of the arena.

“This project would present a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for our franchise,” Stars owner Tom Gaglardi said in a statement. “We eagerly await the vote by the Plano City Council and look forward to continuing the conversation to be part of the redevelopment of The Shops at Willow Bend.”

That mall on about 90 acres opened in 2001, and there are open restaurants and parking garages in the area. The new arena would anchor the redevelopment that could include sports, entertainment, retail, dining and public gathering spaces.

The NHL franchise was known as the North Stars before moving south from Minnesota and beginning play in Dallas for the 1993-94 season. The Stars in 1999 became the first of hockey's Sun Belt teams to win a Stanley Cup title.

The Stars won that championship while still playing at Reunion Arena, a building they also shared with the Mavericks after first moving to Dallas. The site of that downtown arena, which was fully demolished in 2009, is about a mile from the AAC.

The NFL's Cowboys were in Dallas during the franchise's first 11 seasons at the city's Cotton Bowl (1960-70), but moved to Texas Stadium in Irving in 1971, the season of their first Super Bowl title. They have played since 2009 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, which is halfway between the downtown areas of Dallas and Fort Worth.

Arlington is also home to the MLB's Texas Rangers, the franchise that began as the Washington Senators in 1961. The Rangers are in their third stadium in Arlington since moving there in 1972. Globe Life Field, their retractable-roof stadium adjacent to AT&T Stadium, opened in 2020.

___

AP NHL: https://apnews.com/NHL

First responders were dispatched just after 10:30 a.m. in the 4300 block of Stockdale Street, which is located near Perrin Beitel.

Officials said a lawn care crew appeared to disturb a bee hive located on the outside awning of a home on Stockdale Street.

In all, at least four people suffered injuries related to bee stings. An SAFD spokesperson said one of the injured was an on-duty firefighter. Another person suffered critical injuries as a result of the bee attack.

The firefighter is expected to make a full recovery, officials said.

At this time, the extent of the other two other people’s injuries are unknown.

This is a developing story. Check back later for updates.

Read also:

• Records: Randolph High School head volleyball coach arrested for improper relationship with student
• SAPD identifies man killed in North Side house fire

“The TEA will not appoint a conservator for our District,” NEISD interim Superintendent Anthony Jarrett said in a letter addressed to district families.

The TEA initially recommended the conservator appointment in April because the agency believed the cellphone policy did not align with state law and the guidance.

During a special meeting with the NEISD Board of Trustees in April, the district voted to revise its policy to implement a bell-to-bell cellphone ban for the 2026-27 school year, according to the letter from Jarrett.

>>NEISD trustees vote to comply with TEA, waive student cell phone policy after investigation

A conservator would provide support to NEISD staff, recommend improvements and report updates to TEA, according to its website.

The TEA pulled its recommendation back because the agency “considers this (cellphone ban) matter resolved,” Jarrett said.

The interim superintendent said the district will continue communicating with families about expectations and next steps as it begins planning for the new policy’s implementation.

More related coverage of this story on KSAT:

• Kids get their phones back as NEISD wraps up school year, cellphone crackdown expands this fall
• NEISD trustees vote to comply with TEA, waive student cell phone policy after investigation

BreAnn Halcumb, 34, was arrested Monday in Panola County on a felony warrant out of Bexar County, records show. The charge is considered a second-degree felony.

In a Tuesday statement to KSAT, Randolph Field ISD (RFISD) acknowledged Halcumb’s arrest. However, the school district said she “tendered her resignation prior to the end” of the 2025-2026 school year and is “no longer employed by RFISD.”

According to an arrest warrant obtained by KSAT Investigates, Randolph High School staff reported to the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office late last month that Halcumb and the student were “spending excessive time together and appearing ‘hip to hip.’”

A school administrator told BCSO that staff discovered more than 160 messages between Halcumb and the student sent between February and April.

The administrator described the messages as “teenage flirting” that violated school policy. The last message sent in April had Halcumb’s personal phone number, records show.

The student’s father told school administrators that Halcumb gave his daughter a ride home after a school sporting event. Records show Halcumb and the student ended up at a park where they were kissing and fondling.

In a separate incident, Halcumb went to the teen’s house to get her nails done. Records show the teenager told her father that kissing and fondling between Halcumb and the teen happened again.

Halcumb told the teenage girl not to tell anyone about their relationship, records show.

The teenage girl told investigators that she was 18 and still a student when the physical contact happened, according to the warrant.

The teen’s parents called Halcumb in May. Records show that Halcumb knew the contact was wrong, but placed the blame on the teen, who Halcumb said, “pushed up on her and tried to kiss her first.”

In its statement, Randolph Field ISD said it could not “comment on the specific allegations or provide additional details” due to the “active law enforcement investigation.”

“The safety and well-being of our students remain our highest priority,” RFISD’s statement to KSAT continued. “Randolph Field ISD is cooperating fully with law enforcement and will continue to do throughout the investigation.”

Halcumb takes job at Bastrop ISD

On Tuesday, KSAT found an April 27 Facebook post that identified Halcumb as the newest head volleyball coach at Cedar Creek High School, which is in the Bastrop Independent School District.

The post, which was made on a page managed by the school’s “Home Court Booster Club,” served as a notification for the school’s volleyball parents to meet Halcumb during an upcoming meeting scheduled for May 18.

A follow-up Facebook post, which was made on May 18, thanked Halcumb for leading the meeting.

KSAT first requested comment via email from Bastrop ISD Executive Director of Communications Evan Moilan just after 12:45 p.m. Tuesday. Without an emailed response, KSAT called Moilan by phone just after 3 p.m.

During the phone call, Moilan told KSAT the district was aware of the “developing situation” regarding Halcumb but offered no further comment. When asked if Halcumb was under investigation by Bastrop ISD, Moilan reaffirmed the district’s “no further comment” stance and hung up the phone.

In an emailed response to KSAT’s original email, Moilan said Bastrop ISD is “reviewing the matter in accordance with district policies.”

“The safety of our students, staff, and community is always our highest priority,” Moilan said.

According to Panola County jail records, Halcumb was released from the county’s custody earlier Tuesday.

A BCSO spokesperson told KSAT Investigates that Halcumb was transported back into Bexar County custody. Jail records show Halcumb was released on bond Tuesday afternoon.

Read more reporting on the KSAT Investigates page.

Jose Luis Rodriguez III, known by his friends and family as Joey, had been “fighting for his life” at the hospital since the Thursday injury, according to a family member.

Victoria Lopez, Rodriguez’s aunt, sat down with KSAT in an exclusive interview on Tuesday and remembered Rodriguez as her only nephew and called this past week a “nightmare.”

“He was ready to go out there into the world and make something of himself,” Lopez said. “It’s just a terrible tragedy.”

Watch the full story on GMSA at 9 on Wednesday, June 3.

Rodriguez was finishing his junior year at Frank Tejada Academy before he died.

San Antonio police told KSAT no arrests have been made in the case, and it is still an active investigation.

The family is hosting a plate sale for Rodriguez from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, June 13. The plate sale will take place at 328 S. San Gabriel.

Read more:

• ‘Fighting for his life’: Teen on life support after falling from truck during Spurs celebration
• Teen hospitalized after falling from vehicle while celebrating Spurs victory near SW Military, SAPD says

Andrew Richard Lukehart, 53, was pronounced dead at 6:19 p.m. after receiving a three-drug injection at Florida State Prison near Starke. He was sentenced to death after being convicted of first-degree murder and aggravated child abuse in 1997 for the death a year earlier of 5-month-old Gabrielle Hanshaw.

When the curtain of the execution chamber went up at 6 p.m., Lukehart was already strapped to a table with an IV in his arm. A priest sat at the foot of the table to pray over him as he died.

When a warden asked Lukehart if he had a final statement, he raised his head to look at a group in the front row of the viewing area and said, "I’m sorry.”

Lukehart then recited the Bible verse Luke 23:34, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do,” which Scripture says Jesus Christ uttered during his crucifixion.

Lukehart lost consciousness almost immediately after the administration of the lethal drugs began. Several minutes into the execution, the warden shook Lukehart and shouted his name, but there was no reaction.

A medic was called in to check his vital signs, and he was declared dead several minutes later.

Lukehart declined a last meal and did not receive any visitors before the execution, though he did meet with a spiritual adviser, Department of Corrections spokesperson Jordan Kirkland said during a news conference.

This was Florida’s eighth execution so far this year, following a record 19 executions in 2025. Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis oversaw more executions in a single year in 2025 than any other Florida governor since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. The previous record was set in 2014 with eight executions.

According to court records, Lukehart was watching his girlfriend's baby in February 1996 while his girlfriend was caring for her older daughter, who had been ill. At some point, the girlfriend said Lukehart drove away from their Jacksonville home, and she couldn't find baby Gabrielle. Lukehart called his girlfriend about 30 minutes later and told her to call police because the baby had been kidnapped and he was chasing the kidnapper.

Later that evening, Lukehart was found in a neighboring county after driving his car off the road. During questioning the next day, Lukehart told investigators that Gabrielle died after he dropped the baby on her head and then shook her. He told police that he panicked and threw the baby in a pond. Law enforcement officers searched the pond and found the child's body.

The Florida Supreme Court denied Lukehart's appeals last week. His attorneys had claimed that medication he was taking for kidney disease could have a negative reaction with the lethal injection drugs. They also argued that having only a month between the signing of Lukehart's death warrant and the execution deprived him of his due process.

The U.S. Supreme Court denied Lukehart’s final appeal Monday.

A total of 47 people were executed in the U.S. in 2025. Florida led the way with a flurry of death warrants signed by DeSantis. Alabama, South Carolina and Texas tied for second with five executions each.

Another execution is planned in Florida later this month. Dusty Ray Spencer, 74, was convicted of fatally stabbing his wife in 1992.

All Florida executions are carried out via lethal injection of a sedative, a paralytic and a drug that stops the heart, according to the Department of Corrections.

The order establishes a framework for the federal government to vet the national security risks of the most advanced AI systems for up to a month before their public release. Participation by AI developers would be voluntary, the order says.

“Advanced AI capabilities make our Nation stronger, but also introduce new national security considerations that require coordinated action across executive departments and agencies,” the order says.

It was not immediately clear to what extent the order differed from the one Trump declined to sign on May 21.

The order says the government would have only 30 days to review an AI system, a shorter time frame than some in the industry were expecting. A longer time period might have been seen as too burdensome for a fast-moving and highly competitive industry.

Trump canceled an Oval Office event with tech industry executives last month because he did not like what he saw in the earlier version of the order's text. “We’re leading China, we’re leading everybody, and I don’t want to do anything that’s going to get in the way of that lead,” Trump told reporters at the time.

That directive was characterized as a voluntary collaboration with participating U.S.-based tech companies, including Anthropic, OpenAI and Google, which are sometimes described as “frontier labs” because they are building the most advanced AI systems. Several companies had been planning to have executives present at the May 21 signing event. Trump ended up signing it without any ceremony.

The White House said in a social media post Tuesday that the executive order "creates a process for frontier labs to voluntarily share cutting-edge cyber models in order to secure critical infrastructure and strengthen the government’s own cyber defenses. We are NOT conducting oversight of all new models, as that level of government overreach would have chilling effects on free speech and innovation."

Juan Londoño, a policy analyst at the libertarian-leaning Cato Institute, said the order is imperfect but “a step in the right direction to prepare the nation for the release of advanced AI systems.”

He applauded the White House's characterization of the process as voluntary but said he was concerned about the vagueness of how the government, led by the director of the National Security Agency, will decide which AI models qualify for scrutiny, and how it will decide which “trusted partners” get early access to them.

Londoño said in an interview that giving so much discretion to the NSA director was a “dangerous precedent” that could enable the government to “weaponize” the policy against companies it is clashing with, like Anthropic.

Plans for a new AI cybersecurity directive followed Anthropic's April announcement of its most advanced AI model, called Claude Mythos, in the middle of the company's legal fight with the Trump administration over a contract dispute with the Pentagon.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and outgoing Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell soon after convened an urgent meeting with Wall Street CEOs, warning them about the risks posed by Mythos' apparent ability to find cybersecurity vulnerabilities in the world’s software. Anthropic has limited access to Mythos to only a small group of trusted partners, such as big tech companies and banks, though it said Tuesday it has expanded that group by another 150 organizations.

Anthropic called Trump's new order “an important step in strengthening America’s leadership in AI” and said it looks forward to collaborating with the White House to support its implementation.

Its chief rival, ChatGPT maker OpenAI, also described the policy as an important step, as did Google.

“As AI capabilities continue to advance, we believe effective safety frameworks should continue to be developed through democratic institutions, informed by technical expertise and broad stakeholder input, to promote accountability and public trust,” said a statement from Chris Lehane, OpenAI's chief global affairs officer.

Democratic Sen. Mark Warner, vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, also welcomed Trump's policy but criticized the administration for having “belatedly discovered the need to redo something it hastily dismantled in its first year.”

Trump repealed many of former President Joe Biden’s guardrails for AI just hours after returning to the White House last year.

—

AP Technology Writer Barbara Ortutay contributed.

The relative, who spoke to KSAT 12 News off camera, said Patrick Jaysen Hernandez, 22, had been friends with the 19-year-old man he’s accused of killing since they were children.

According to an arrest affidavit, Hernandez allegedly stabbed the victim during a fight Monday afternoon at a home on Tampke Place, not far from Nacogdoches Road.

The affidavit said the two men were hanging out with other people, drinking, when the fight broke out.

It said Hernandez told police at some point during the fight the victim began swinging a skateboard and hit a woman in the face.

Hernandez then stabbed the man and left the area in a car, the affidavit said.

A person described as a witness drove the victim to an urgent care hospital on Nacogdoches Road where it was determined he was dead.

The affidavit said Hernandez, meanwhile, created a series of temporary posts on social media, talking about the stabbing and saying he did it in self-defense.

Officers found Hernandez later at a different hospital where the woman injured by the skateboard was being treated.

He was arrested on a charge of murder.

A series of mug shots from the Bexar County jail shows Hernandez has been arrested multiple times, dating back at least to 2021.

Although KSAT 12 News spoke to family members of the victim, the Bexar County Medical Examiner’s Office had not positively identified him as of Monday afternoon. Therefore, his name is not being included in the story at this time.

Read also:

• Records: Ex-Randolph High School volleyball coach arrested for improper relationship with student
• SAPD officer shot armed suspect in self-defense, affidavit says
• Bexar County Sheriff’s deputy who responded to Shavano Park woman’s murder on leave, BCSO says

Brazil's President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said he received the decision “with indignation.” He also blamed the decision by the U.S. administration on his rival in October's elections, Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro, who visited Washington last week. The senator is the son of former President Jair Bolsonaro, once nicknamed “the Trump of the Tropics” by his allies.

The announcement late Monday came after an investigation by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, charging Brazil with lax anti-corruption enforcement and unfair tariffs of its own, among other things.

The U.S. has had a goods trade surplus with Brazil for years.

U.S Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said that he and President Donald Trump had “constructive’’ meetings with Lula and other Brazilian officials. But he said that “we continue to have substantial differences in resolving the issues identified in this investigation.’’

Lula on Tuesday cited other reasons for the punishing tariff proposal. For the first time he named an American official as a hurdle to his relations with Trump and once again he threatened to retaliate.

“I spoke to President Trump for three hours, and that Marco Rubio guy, the head of the State Department, he is anti-Latin American,” Lula said. “He is a deadly enemy of Cuba, a deadly enemy of many Latin American countries. I already told Trump that he does not like Brazil.”

The U.S. State Department did not immediately respond a request for comment from The Associated Press on Tuesday.

Brazil’s government said in a statement that its dialogue with American counterparts, which includes “personal involvement of Presidents Lula and Trump,” is being ”sabotaged by merely electoral and family matters” of the Bolsonaros.

It added that it hopes “the recommendations do not become effective tariffs.”

“But we stress we will adopt every measure that is capable of reducing the damage that might be caused to the national economy, to the jobs and the income of Brazilians,” the country's government said.

Last year, Trump had slapped Brazil with a 50% tariff, mainly to protest its prosecution of Jair Bolsonaro for trying to overturn his electoral defeat in 2022. Trump's relationship with Lula seemed to have improved early May, when the Brazilian visited the White House.

But last week, the Trump administration designated two Brazilian gangs as terrorist organizations, after Sen. Bolsonaro's visit. Lula opposes the designation, which analysts say could bolster his political rival.

Sen. Bolsonaro published in his social media channels a statement he said he sent to Rubio, in which he criticizes the potential new tariff hike for it would cause “serious damages to the Brazilian people — precisely the citizens that see the United States as a partner and a friend.”

“I am writing to formally repeat the request I did to you in person, that the U.S. do not impose tariffs on Brazil,” Sen. Bolsonaro said.

Greer’s office has scheduled a public hearing July 6 on the proposed tariffs.

Trade lawyer Ryan Majerus, a partner at King & Spalding, noted said that the administration’s plan excludes more than half of U.S. imports from Brazil, including aircraft and key minerals.

The Trump administration invoked Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 to launch the investigation into Brazil’s trade practices.

Sen. Bolsonaro travelled to meet officials in Washington last week in the wake of a scandal at home in which he admitted receiving funds from a disgraced banker. Another son, former lawmaker Eduardo Bolsonaro, was also present.

On Tuesday, Trump posted a photo of the Bolsonaros in the Oval office on his social media site.

“These sons of Bolsonaro can be worse than him. They are actually sellouts of our country, they went there to ask a foreign nation to meddle in Brazilian affairs,” Lula said in a speech to residents of the city of Catalao, south of capital Brasilia. “They are traitors.”

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in February that Trump overstepped his authority by using a different law – the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) of 1977 – to impose sweeping tariffs on U.S. trading partners, including Brazil.

However, Section 301 tariffs have survived legal challenges, and the administration is likely to use that authority to impose other tariffs and to recoup some of the tax revenue lost when the Supreme Court rejected the IEEPA tariffs.

Brazil’s president said that during his visit to Washington early May, he handed Trump documents showing that the U.S. has a trade surplus with Brazil.

Documents published by the U.S. Trade Representative show that last year, U.S. exports to Brazil rose nearly 11% to $54.4 billion. Brazilian exports to the U.S. fell 5.7% to $39.9 billion, meaning the U.S. had a trade surplus of more than $14 billion.

The trade imbalance for services is more lopsided in favor of the U.S., with services exports in 2024 reaching $29.6 billion, quadruple the Brazilian services exports to the U.S.

“I am not going to cry about it,” Lula said. “If they (the U.S.) don’t want to buy from us, we will sell to someone else.”

China has been Brazil’s biggest trading partner for about a decade.

____

Mauricio Savarese reported from Sao Paulo.

Today on Texas Eats NOW:

ALETEO AT THE MONARCH

222 South Alamo Street San Antonio, Texas 78205

Perched on the 17th floor of The Monarch Hotel, Aleteo is one of San Antonio’s newest rooftop dining destinations. Opened in 2026, the restaurant offers sweeping views of the downtown skyline while showcasing the bold flavors of Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula. Led by chef Jae H. Lee, Aleteo combines refined cuisine, handcrafted cocktails, and a sophisticated atmosphere that has quickly made it a popular destination for date nights, celebrations, and special occasions.

The menu highlights coastal Mexican flavors through dishes such as fresh ceviches, aguachiles, Octopus Maya with bone marrow, beef rib mole, and lechon asado. Guests can pair their meals with mezcal-forward cocktails and a curated selection of agave spirits while dining beneath a striking canopy inspired by monarch butterfly wings. House-made tortillas crafted from volcanic stone-ground masa further elevate the experience, helping establish Aleteo as one of downtown San Antonio’s most exciting culinary additions.

BRASSERIE MON CHOU CHOU

312 Pearl Pkwy, San Antonio, TX 78215

Brasserie Mon Chou Chou is a celebrated French restaurant located in San Antonio’s Historic Pearl district. Founded by a team of French expatriate chefs, the restaurant has earned a loyal following for its approachable take on traditional French cuisine, combining classic techniques with a lively, welcoming atmosphere. The name, which translates to a term of endearment similar to “my darling,” reflects the warm hospitality and comforting flavors that define the dining experience.

The menu showcases French comfort food inspired by family recipes and regional specialties. Popular dishes include tableside raclette served over baguette, rich lobster bisque baked in puff pastry, steak frites, rabbit à la moutarde, and a rotating selection of imported cheeses presented from an elegant cheese trolley. Guests can also enjoy French favorites such as coq au vin, French onion soup, crème brûlée, and chocolate pot de crème, all served in a vibrant dining room that captures the charm of a classic Parisian brasserie.

Follow Texas Eats and David Elder on Facebook and Instagram for more food info, pictures, videos and giveaways.

• Facebook: @TexasEatsTV
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In his confirmation hearing earlier this year, Mullin portrayed himself as a steadying hand for the Department of Homeland Security after multiplecontroversies roiled his predecessor's tenure. But on Tuesday, Democrats expressed deep skepticism of his ability to change the department, specifically its approach to immigration enforcement and its commitment to the rule of law.

“I want to be very clear, Secretary Mullin, I’m watching closely to see what steps you now take as the new DHS secretary,” said Washington Sen. Patty Murray. "Even now, we are seeing some outrageous proposals.”

Mullin, who just a few months ago was a senator alongside those criticizing him, defended himself, calling the attacks “outlandish” and “just flat wrong.”

Mullin’s appearance at the appropriations subcommittee on homeland security comes as the Senate is weighing legislation that would fund immigration enforcement agencies through the end of President Donald Trump’s term in a maneuver that would bypass the need for support from Democrats, who have demanded restraints before agreeing to fund the agencies.

The attempt to fund those two agencies for the long term has been stalled over separate Republican opposition to a $1.776 billion settlement fund to compensate Trump allies who believe they have been politically prosecuted, a plan that was suspended on Tuesday.

Criticism over Mullin's CBP airport threat

Murray cited Mullin's threats to pull U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers from airports in states that the Trump administration deems “sanctuary cities,” meaning they don't cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

“Your plan to withdraw CBP officers from airports in cities that don’t roll over for Trump, that is insane," Murray said. "It would also spell economic crisis for blue and red states.”

Mullin has set the travel industry on edge with threats to withdraw CBP officers from airports in so-called “sanctuary cities.” There is no strict definition of what constitutes a sanctuary jurisdiction, but the term is generally used to describe cities and states that limit cooperation with ICE. Courts have rejected the idea of pulling funding from them in the past.

Mullin hasn't yet put forward a concrete proposal but has repeatedly suggested publicly that he's weighing the idea.

The U.S. Travel Association said Mullin also confirmed during a meeting with the group last month that he was considering such a move. The trade group had met with Mullin to discuss other Trump administration proposals affecting the travel industry.

U.S. Travel and the major airlines quickly condemned any move to pull CBP officers from airports, and even Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has said it doesn’t make sense to him.

Such a move could upend international travel at a time when millions of visitors are gearing up to come to the U.S. for the World Cup.

Although Democrats criticized Mullin for the suggestion, he wasn't directly asked about the plan during the Tuesday hearing and didn't address the issue.

Murray also said she believed the White House still had significant influence over Mullin and DHS.

“I have yet to see you take back the reins from Stephen Miller,” she said, speaking of Trump's advisor who's one of the architects of the administration's immigration crackdown.

After a blistering opening statement from Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut questioning his commitment to the rule of law, Mullin diverted from his opening statement to defend himself and his department.

“When you start saying it’s unconstitutional, what’s unconstitutional that we’re doing? We swore to uphold the Constitution, just like you swore to the Constitution,” said Mullin, who blamed rhetoric like Murphy’s for a growing number of threats and attacks against his officers.

Mullin defends detainee treatment in New Jersey

Murphy also pressed Mullin over treatment of detainees at an ICE detention facility in Newark, New Jersey. Protesters and Democratic members of Congress have raised concerns about the treatment of immigrants being held in the facility.

Democratic members of Congress who've toured the facility say the food has sometimes contained maggots and criticized the level of medical care for detainees. Murphy added to those criticisms, saying detainees had described “spoiled food, delayed medical treatment, sewage backups" as well as "undue pressure to sign deportation paperwork.”

The Department of Homeland Security has denied any allegations of abuse or mistreatment inside the facility.

Mullin said Tuesday that there are currently about 700 detainees in Delaney which he said is licensed to hold about 1,000 people. He pushed back on the criticism, saying that health inspectors were just recently at the facility and found “zero violations.” Mullin also accused some of the protesters of attacking DHS officers.

“We had officers bit, we had officers scratched, we had officers poked, we had officers hit,” said Mullin.

Peters says Trump administration politicizes disaster response

Mullin also faced criticism about money disbursed for disaster relief through the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Gary Peters, a Michigan Democrat, cited recent reports that Trump has approved more major disaster declarations for red states than blue.

“Do you think it’s right for a president to approve disaster aid based on whether a state voted for him, instead of the amount of damage that actually occurred in the state?” Peters asked Mullin.

“That’s not my experience with the president,” Mullin replied, pointing out that Trump last week issued a flurry of disaster approvals and denials to both red and blue states. Disaster aid “shouldn’t be politicized,” Mullin later added.

Republicans largely expressed support for Mullin's work, saying he was following the rule of law. He did face pushback from Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, who asked whether DHS would be flexible on high fees and quotas for certain types of work visas.

Tuesday's hearing was the first time Mullin has appeared in the Senate since his confirmation hearing in March. Mullin, who was tapped by Trump to lead Homeland Security after his predecessor Kristi Noem was fired, will testify in the House about the budget on Wednesday.

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Associated Press writers Rio Yamat in Las Vegas and Gabriela Aoun Angueira in San Diego, California, contributed.

Texas Secretary of State Jane Nelson announced Tuesday she will resign effective July 17, capping off three and a half years as the state’s top election official. 

“It has been my goal to ensure that voting in Texas is secure, accessible and fair,” Nelson said in a press release. “We have worked extensively to ensure accurate voter rolls and to educate voters about what they need to know to vote with confidence.” 

The press release did not say why Nelson is resigning from her role. Her office did not respond to a request for comment.

By law, Gov. Greg Abbott is required to nominate someone to fill the vacant position “without delay.” It’s unclear how quickly Abbott will move to fill Nelson’s role or whom he is considering for the job. 

Abbott’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but the governor praised Nelson in the press release. “Secretary Jane Nelson has been a true champion for the people of Texas and an extraordinary Secretary of State,” he said. “I am deeply grateful for her long and loyal service and outstanding leadership.”

Nelson, a Republican, served in the state Senate for 30 years before becoming secretary of state in 2023. Nelson was the longest-serving Republican woman in Senate history and the first woman to lead the Senate Finance Committee, which writes the state’s budget.

She was also the first secretary of state to be confirmed by the Senate since 2017. Nelson’s three immediate predecessors resigned without receiving a full-Senate confirmation vote.

The release noted that Nelson presided over “seven successful statewide elections with a cumulative 27 million ballots cast,” and managed the disbursement of millions of dollars in grants to local counties, among other things.

During her time as the state’s top election official, Nelson’s office complied with the U.S. Department of Justice’s request for access to the state’s full voter roll, one of 15 states to do so. The data Nelson’s office handed over included identifiable information about the state’s 18 million registered voters, including dates of birth, driver’s license numbers, and the last four digits of their Social Security numbers. Election security experts and voting rights groups criticized the move,  saying it was a violation of voters’ privacy.

Nelson’s office also began using a federal database called Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements, or SAVE, last year to verify the citizenship status of registered voters. The state said the review identified 2,724 potential noncitizens on the voter roll, but county election officials later determined some of the flagged voters were actually citizens after all. In addition, they found that hundreds of the flagged voters had registered through the Texas Department of Public Safety, which requires proof of citizenship, such as a passport, and keeps copies of such documents on file.

Nelson’s use of SAVE has led to at least two lawsuits by voting rights groups who claim the database is inaccurate and could lead to the disenfranchisement of eligible voters. They also argued the state should have checked DPS records before sending the list of potential noncitizens to county election officials for investigation. Last month, Nelson’s office asked DPS to check the entire list of potential noncitizens against its driver’s license records. 

The lawsuits are still pending in federal court.

In the past year, Nelson’s office has also come under scrutiny from county election officials following the overhaul of the state’s election management and voter registration system, known as TEAM. 

Since its release a year ago, election officials have repeatedly asked Nelson’s office to fix the system’s functionality problems, which they say make completing already time-consuming voter registration tasks less efficient.

Disclosure: Texas Secretary of State has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune’s journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

Natalia Contreras covers election administration and voting access for Votebeat in partnership with the Texas Tribune. Natalia is based in Corpus Christi. Contact her at ncontreras@votebeat.org.

Kostyuk won an intense all-Ukraine quarterfinal against Elina Svitolina 6-3, 2-6, 6-2 on Tuesday. That set up Kostyuk against Russian teenager Mirra Andreeva, who thumped Romanian veteran Sorana Cirstea 6-0, 6-3.

In men’s play, 20-year-old Jakub Mensik ended the run of Brazil's Joao Fonseca with a 6-4, 6-3, 7-6 (3) victory.

“It was one of my best performances so far,” Mensik said.

The 19-year-old Fonseca beat 24-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic in five sets in the third round and then eliminated two-time runner-up Casper Ruud in the fourth round.

Mensik collapsed to the clay with cramps upon edging Mariano Navone in a fifth-set tiebreaker in the second round and also needed five sets to advance in the fourth round against Andrey Rublev.

For a place in Sunday’s final, Mensik will face second-seeded Alexander Zverev, the 2024 runner-up, who beat rising Spanish player Rafael Jodar 7-6 (3), 6-1, 6-3.

Kostyuk leads Andreeva 2-0 on the tour; the second win in the Madrid final a month ago. Kostyuk didn’t shake hands at the net, following protocol for Ukrainians with opponents from Russia and its ally Belarus since the war started four years ago.

“We had a very difficult night again in Ukraine, especially in Kyiv, so many people dead,” Kostyuk said. "I want to give this match to Ukrainian people and to their resilience. Slava Ukraini! (Glory to Ukraine!)”

Russia launched hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles against Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities overnight, killing at least 18 civilians and wounding more than 100 others, authorities said Tuesday.

“I texted my family if they were OK. This is pretty much all I can do,” Kostyuk said. “The biggest thing I can do is sit here and talk about it so more people can find out about it so they don’t get used to this terrible life.”

Svitolina said friends in Ukraine told her about the attacks just hours before the match.

“Just very sad that we all have to really put up with this heaviness and pain every single day, and scared moments not knowing what’s going to bring the next day,” Svitolina said.

She will leave Roland Garros to look after the daughter she has with French tennis player Gael Monfils, but will be cheering on Kostyuk.

“Hopefully she can get the title,” Svitolina said. “It’s going to be massive for Ukraine.”

No. 7-seeded Svitolina got off to a slow start but worked her way back, matching No. 15 Kostyuk’s power from the baseline. Kostyuk was better on the important points in the decider and improved her impressive 2026 record on clay to 17-0.

She's the first Ukrainian woman to reach the semifinals at Roland Garros in the Open era since 1968. Svitolina has reached the semis at the other three Grand Slams but failed for the sixth time to win a French Open quarterfinal.

Andreeva will appear in her second French Open semifinal, two years after the first. She was asked about the challenges of playing a Ukrainian in wartime.

“Well, for me it doesn’t matter who I play,” Andreeva said. “I really try to play against the ball that is coming at me. Usually it doesn’t matter to me who I’m playing against, so I’m trying to really focus on the game and on the game plan.”

Asked whether she found it frustrating to hear Russian opponents avoiding the issue, Kostyuk said she wished “there was some more clear stance on what’s going on.”

“Especially when your country is killing other people,” she added. “I don’t know how you can sleep at night peacefully when you know that this is going on, and you have nothing to say about it.”

After a week of hot weather, rain arrived in Paris and play started and finished under the closed roof of Court Philippe-Chatrier. Competing in the quarterfinals for the first time in 17 years, Cirstea struggled to find her rhythm against her 19-year-old rival.

The 36-year-old veteran, playing the final season of her career, immediately dropped her serve. She didn't hold serve or win a game until the first game of the second set. Andreeva’s deep, accurate groundstrokes and charges to the net took a toll on 18th-seeded Cirstea, whose attempt to come back was shortlived.

“I felt like it was one of my best matches so far this tournament,” Andreeva said. “Super happy to be back in semis.”

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AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis

A victory would put him in the conversation as the greatest New York Knick ever, and at the same time earn New York sports immortality status.

After just four years, he is all over the record book for a Knicks franchise that has been around for all 80 NBA seasons. He is already third on its career list in playoff points. The Knicks have advanced in the postseason every year since Brunson arrived in 2022, after winning one series in the two decades before.

Now they are in the NBA Finals for the first time since 1999, with a shot to win their first title since 1973.

Patrick Ewing, Walt Frazier and Willis Reed — in some order — are widely regarded as the top players in franchise history. If Brunson can lead the Knicks to the title now, there’s an argument he could be the best of them all.

“Well, right now a lot of people say he’s the greatest Knick ever because of getting them to the finals and obviously if he wins a championship,” Frazier said. “So I don’t think he’s the greatest Knick ever — I always say it’s Willis, and Willis said it’s Patrick, and Patrick says it’s Patrick. So he would definitely be on Mount Rushmore. We’ll put him up there if he can bring this title.”

Brunson is averaging 26.9 points in the postseason, slightly up from his 26 per game in the regular season. The Eastern Conference finals MVP is making history just by reaching the finals, as he and his father, Rick, a Knicks assistant who played for them in 1999 when Jalen was just shy of 3 years old, will become the first father-son duo to play in the finals for the same franchise.

None of this was expected when Brunson signed in New York. This wasn't Victor Wembanyama arriving in San Antonio from France as the No. 1 pick in the draft as a 7-foot-4 giant whose array of skills made it easy to forecast that he could become one of the greats of the game.

Brunson stands just 6-2 and doesn't appear to be blessed with explosive speed. That's how a two-time NCAA champion and college player of the year at Villanova ended up as just a second-round pick in 2018. He landed in Dallas at the same time as Luka Doncic, and seeing how easy the Slovenian sensation made the game look had Brunson wondering about his own abilities.

“It made me kind of question myself to see how hard I actually had to work to be in the position I wanted to be,” he said.

He was largely a backup in his four seasons in Dallas before the Knicks spent more than $100 million to pry him away. It's probably the best decision they ever made — and with what Brunson has done in New York at that low cost for a now perennial All-Star, one of the best free agent moves any team ever has.

The Knicks have just two NBA titles, and the wait for a third has lasted so many generations that Brunson would easily join New York sports icons such as Joe Namath, Derek Jeter or Reggie Jackson, still celebrated around the five boroughs long after their championships, if he can win just one now.

Get it and the second-team All-NBA pick would be confirmed as a superstar. Of course, the opposite could happen. If Brunson struggles against the Spurs' good defensive guards and the Knicks lose, there will be critics quick to say they need more because Brunson just isn't quite a 1-A.

“I mean, I don’t really care what people say, so at the end of the day I’m not going to base my judgment or evaluation of him as a player off people that never played the game and just never been in that situation,” teammate and close friend Josh Hart said. “So I know he doesn’t really care about it, I don’t really care about it. At the end of the day those quote-unquote people are irrelevant.”

Around New York, it's clear the respect Brunson commands. Mets slugger Juan Soto hit a home run and performed the hand gesture Brunson uses to celebrate a 3-pointer. Jets coach Aaron Glenn said the impact the captain has on the club is evident.

“I mean, you can tell that the leadership, the fight, everybody follows that, and it’s easy to follow that,” Glenn said. “He’s a guy, and I continue to say this, that leadership really comes down to one word and that’s ‘influence.’ You really see the influence that he has, and it’s not always verbal. It’s a lot of just what he does and how he operates.”

Brunson doesn't seem to seek the spotlight and will never ooze coolness like Frazier, the stylish “Clyde” known for his colorful suits. But a title puts him in the same club, and membership has long-lasting benefits.

“I can’t walk the street, it’s like I’m in a parade. Anywhere I go people are like, ‘Oh, there he is, there’s Clyde! There’s Clyde!’” Frazier said. "So if these guys win another title — man, I can’t spend money now in New York. I’ll never have to spend money again in this city.

“And that’s what I want to show the players. Hey man, I’ve been doing this for 50 years. Fifty years just for winning two titles! So you guys can have it if you just win one title.”

___

AP Pro Football Writer Dennis Waszak Jr. in Florham Park, New Jersey contributed to this report.

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AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/nba

Rubio defended the Trump administration's approach to Iran and other global hotspots in back-to-back hearings before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and a House Appropriations subcommittee. He was briefly disrupted by protesters at each session.

In his first public testimony since the Iran war began at the end of February, Rubio said the Iranians have agreed to negotiate on nuclear points that they had not been willing to address in the past but would not offer an assessment on what those talks might produce.

“They have agreed to negotiate aspects of their nuclear program that just a month ago, just a year ago, they were refusing to even mention,” Rubio told the Senate. He noted, however, that there was no guarantee "it will lead to a deal that’s acceptable” and that negotiations have been made difficult by the instability of Iran’s leadership.

Rubio's optimism ran counter to pessimistic reports from two semiofficial Iranian news agencies that Iran has stopped communicating with mediators after Israel threatened to bomb Beirut as it fights the Hezbollah militant group. President Donald Trump disputed that Iran has cut off communication with mediators, calling the Iranian reports “false and erroneous.”

Democrats criticize Trump administration's approach to Iran, and Rubio defends it

Rubio's wide-ranging testimony was met with fierce objections from Democrats, including tough questions about the status of U.S. foreign assistance to respond to diseases such as the Ebola outbreak in Africa. Rubio insisted the dismantlement of the U.S. Agency for International Development had not affected Washington’s ability to assist with global humanitarian responses.

Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., blasted Rubio and Trump for foreign aid cuts and overseas intervention. Van Hollen specifically took aim at the U.S. and Israeli decision to strike Iran, accusing the Republican president of entering the war on behalf of Israel.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “said he’s been waiting 40 years to do this," Van Hollen said. "It turns out he finally found a president who was both stupid and reckless enough to join him. Let’s face it, Mr. Secretary, the Trump foreign policy has become a dumpster fire."

Rubio's testimony, which took place as Israel and Lebanon began a new round of political talks at the State Department, did not provide definitive answers on any of the main questions of the day.

He said Iran is not guaranteed a massive payout for reopening the Strait of Hormuz, the crucial waterway for global oil shipments, and would have to commit to further concessions on its nuclear program to get significant sanctions relief.

“The more they give, the more they would get,” he said, later adding, “They’re not going to get it as a signing bonus.”

Rubio also said there are indications that Iran’s new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, is taking a bigger part in the discussions despite not being seen publicly since the war began.

"I think there are indications out there that he is increasingly engaging at some level, although all of his communications have been in writing and through intermediaries,” he said.

Democratic senator says drugs being on boats isn't a targeting criterion for US strikes

Rubio dismissed questions about the legality of Pentagon strikes against dozens of alleged drug-smuggling vessels in the Caribbean Sea and the eastern Pacific Ocean, which have killed more than 200 people since early September.

Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia said the military's targeting criteria for those strikes do not include drugs being present on the boat. He called it “odd” but said he could not share much more because the criteria are classified.

Rubio pushed back, saying on every strike a legal officer makes a determination on whether it is legal. He also said the U.S. military has “walked away from strikes” multiple times because they did not meet the targeting criteria.

The Trump administration says the U.S. is at war with drug cartels, while many Democrats have questioned the legality and effectiveness of the strikes.

The Republican former senator faces another pair of hearings Wednesday, also about the State Department's annual budget request, though questions again are expected to focus on top foreign policy issues.

Rubio wades into Taiwan arms sales opposed by China

Rubio acknowledged that the Trump administration is holding up a potential $14 billion arms sale to Taiwan but said it remained under consideration and would not be canceled. He noted that the U.S. sold arms to Taiwan in December worth $11 billion.

He said the deal is not under review because of pressure from China, although he said the Chinese bring up the issue in discussions with the United States. Trump has described it as a great negotiating chip.

“They are constantly talking about Taiwan arms sales, but that in no way is what is holding up our decision-making or the White House’s decision-making,” Rubio said. “It is something the president will have to decide on the timing of when and how that is executed on.”

On another issue involving China, Rubio said Iran has Chinese military equipment from its previous relationship but noted that the U.S. has seen no indication that anything provided has “changed the dynamic in the battlefield.”

However, the State Department last month imposed sanctions on three China-based entities for providing satellite imagery that enabled Iran’s military strikes against U.S. forces in the Middle East.

Protesters chant at Rubio about Cuba

Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants, also was questioned about the Trump administration’s escalatory behavior toward Cuba, as Trump has hinted that the small island country could be the next U.S. target after operations in Iran are wrapped up.

He faced chants from protesters who urged him to “stop killing Cubans” when he entered the Senate briefing room. The protesters were quickly pulled from the room. Their chants also included “Let Cuba live!”

Rubio defended the administration's approach and said it would remain focused on changing the Cuban government's policies.

"I really don’t believe this system is capable of reform unless new people take over or a new mindset takes hold,” he said.

Despite a series of meetings between U.S. and Cuban officials, Trump and Rubio have renewed threats against the island's government, which take on greater weight after the administration announced criminal charges against former President Raúl Castro.

Over his congressional career and now as America's top diplomat, Rubio has maintained that Cuba is a national security threat because of its ties to U.S. adversaries and that Trump is intent on addressing it.

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Amiri reported from New York. AP writer Didi Tang contributed.

After drawing outcry in Congress and the courts, however, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told lawmakers on Tuesday that the administration was scrapping plans to create the fund. That potentially means the suit — and the possibility that the president could still cash in — might be back on.

Trump hasn’t been shy about turning the presidency into a major source of personal benefit, involving everything from merchandising deals to crypto ventures to high-dollar political and official events at his properties.

Asked about possible self-dealing, the White House called such suggestions “the same, tired narrative that Democrats have pushed against President Trump, his family, and his administration for a decade.”

"President Trump only acts in the best interests of the American public — which is why they overwhelmingly re-elected him to this office, despite years of lies and false accusations against him and his businesses from the fake news media," spokesperson Anna Kelly said in a statement. “There are no conflicts of interest.”

Here are some key ways Trump has reaped rewards for himself, his children and allies in his second term:

Suing his government and deals favoring his family

Last year, the president submitted a claim seeking $230 million in compensation from the Justice Department for a FBI search of his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida as part of an investigation into whether he took classified records from the White House.

In January this year, Trump, his two eldest sons and the family's business, the Trump Organization, filed a $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS and Treasury Department after a former IRS contractor illegally leaked Trump's tax returns.

In an attempt to resolve those cases, Trump's government agreed that $1.776 billion in taxpayer funds be distributed to people who believe they were targeted by past administrations for politically motivated prosecution — including the Trump supporters imprisoned for attacking police while overrunning the U.S. Capitol in 2021.

After blowback from even some congressional Republicans, the Justice Department now said it would comply with a ruling temporarily blocking the fund. Blanche was clearer on Tuesday, telling a House committee that, “We’re not moving forward with the fund.”

But there was less clamor about another part of the deal allowing the government to drop pending IRS audits into Trump and his relatives. Blanche said the Justice Department was not abandoning that part of the agreement.

Separately, the Air Force has agreed to purchase interceptor drones from Powerus, a Florida-based company linked to Trump’s family. And ProPublica reported that direct intervention from the White House preceded the Pentagon agreeing to loan $620 million to Vulcan Elements, a North Carolina startup linked to Donald Trump Jr.

Trump Organization spokesperson Kimberly Benza denied any ethical conflicts between the White House and the family business.

“The Trump Organization operates completely separate from the presidency and is in full compliance with all ethics and conflict-of-interest laws,” Benza said in a statement.

As for Powerus, Benza said Eric Trump was “a passive investor in a vehicle that, among many others, holds an interest” in the company, but wasn't involved in its decision-making or management.

Trading in financial markets he can help move

Trump has traded stocks and bonds in unprecedented ways for a sitting U.S. president.

Office of Government Ethics filings show Trump made more than 3,600 stock trades in the first quarter of 2026 alone — transactions far exceeding $100 million in value.

Many of those trades involved sizable purchases of shares of technology and artificial intelligence giants like Nvidia, Dell, Oracle and Palantir before Trump's administration took policy actions favoring those firms.

Similar disclosures last year show that Trump bought up more than $300 million in bonds issued by companies, states and municipalities even as he repeatedly pressed the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates — a move that could help drive up the value of his holdings.

Crypto ventures

Trump's family has raked in big profits in the crypto sector since he was reelected. A key driver has been the $TRUMP meme coin, announced the day before Trump took office. Some 220 of the top investors were invited to a subsequent, private reception with the president.

Trump's family also has a controlling stake in World Liberty Financial, a crypto firm co-founded with the president's special envoy Steve Witkoff and run by his son Zach. It has its own stablecoin, USD1, and got a major boost when, just before Trump took office, an investment fund linked to the United Arab Emirates bought a large stake in it.

An Abu Dhabi state-backed investment firm, MGX, subsequently pledged to use $2 billion worth of USD1 to purchase a stake in Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange — a move that further bolstered World Liberty Financial.

Trump-branded bonanza

Beyond the digital realm, scores of companies pay to license the president's name for physical products, from Bibles, guitars and sneakers to watches, fragrances and a gold-hued cellphone.

Trump has promoted many such goods on social media, particularly during his 2024 campaign, but they've also made conspicuous appearances at the White House.

When French President Emmanuel Macron and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited last summer, Trump showed them a merchandise room off the Oval Office stocked with goods for sale on his website. A few months later, video emerged of Trump at the White House spraying Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa with bottles of his “Victory 47” cologne and perfume, which he gave him as a gift.

The president displayed hats emblazoned with “Trump 2028” on the Resolute Desk while meeting with congressional Democrats last year. And, during a televised Cabinet meeting in May, at every seat was a red hat commemorating America's 250th anniversary.

Each hat sells for $55 on Trump's website.

Paydays for the president's properties

The Republican National Committee and various political groups associated with Trump and the GOP have held fundraisers and political events at Mar-a-Lago, as well as Trump's estate in Bedminster, New Jersey, and his golf clubs in Doral, Florida, and Sterling, Virginia.

The LIV Golf league, controlled by the Saudi Public Investment Fund, which is helmed by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, has held events at Doral. Trump will host the G20 summit there in November.

That means world leaders, support staff, business executives, journalists and the bevies of others involved will be paying the Trump Organization, which purchased Doral in 2012, to attend. The president has already tried to head off criticism of self-dealing around the summit, saying that government attendees will be billed “at-cost" and “We will not make any money on it."

Renovation and construction projects

Qatar gave Trump a $400 million jet that he intends to employ as Air Force One, then store at his presidential library after he leaves office. The gift has undergone extensive taxpayer-funded rebuilding and security upgrades that lawmakers estimate may exceed $1 billion.

Trump has also ordered up scores of renovation projects meant to leave his mark on Washington while passing on the costs to taxpayers.

He long insisted that wealthy donors would pay for the $400 million ballroom he demolished the White House's East Wing to build — only to seek $1 billion in federal funding for security upgrades he says the military and Secret Service have sought as part of the project.

At least $15 million in public funds is going for a ceremonial arch. The National Park Service is also paying a contractor $13.1 million to carry out the Trump-directed renovation of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.

Meanwhile, Senate Republicans will meet Tuesday to discuss next steps after the Justice Department said it would comply with a court order pausing the implementation of a $1.776 billion settlement fund designed to compensate President Donald Trump’s political allies.

Trump has tapped Federal Housing Finance Director Bill Pulte to be the acting director of national intelligence to replace Tulsi Gabbard. Trump made the surprise announcement Tuesday on Truth Social.

The Latest:

US military stops 7th ship trying to run blockade of Iranian ports

The U.S. military has stopped a seventh ship trying to run its blockade of Iranian ports on Tuesday, U.S. Central Command said in a social media post.

The Botswana-flagged merchant vessel M/T Lexie was stopped by a U.S. aircraft firing a Hellfire missile into its engine room after the crew ignored repeated warnings from U.S. forces over 24 hours, the post said. The halting of the Lexie comes just days after U.S. forces halted another merchant vessel, the Lian Star, using a similar approach.

This latest halt brings the total of commercial ships disabled by U.S. forces to six because one stopped vessel was ultimately allowed to continue on its way. Another 122 ships have been redirected, the military said.

Justice Department not abandoning other part of Trump settlement, Blanche says

Blanche said that while the Justice Department was scrapping plans to create the ‘anti-weaponization’ fund, it was standing by another part of Trump’s settlement with the Internal Revenue Service over the leak of his tax returns.

As part of that deal, the IRS agreed to drop all pending probes of Trump over whether he’s paid his fair share of taxes.

Pressed over whether it was also abandoning that part of the deal, Blanche said “nothing has changed with that,” and that the administration was only retreating on plans to create the $1.8 billion fund.

News of ‘anti-weaponization’ fund being scrapped catches Democrat by surprise

Blanche revealed that the administration was backing down on the proposed fund under questioning by Rep. Grace Meng, the top Democrat on the subcommittee.

Meng pressed Blanche on the administration’s plans for the fund, asking him: “Not moving forward, ever?” Blanche responded: “Correct,” prompting Meng to let out a surprised “oh.”

The Justice Department on Monday had only committed to temporarily pausing the plans for the fund to comply with a court order blocking it.

Trump administration scrapping plans to create a $1.8 billion ‘anti-weaponization fund’

Blanche told lawmakers that the administration was backing down after widespread political backlash and setbacks in the courts.

Blanche’s comments during a House committee hearing came in response to mounting pressure from Republicans for reassurances that the Justice Department’s plans were off the table before they would move forward with legislation funding President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement agencies.

The Trump administration had previously defended the fund as an appropriate measure make up for what officials insist was a weaponized Justice Department during President Joe Biden’s Democratic administration, a claim the Biden administration strongly denied

Democrats slam plans for ‘anti-weaponization’ fund

Democrats opened the hearing with Blanche to rail against the administration’s plans to create a $1.8 billion fund to compensate Trump allies who believe they were unjustly investigated and prosecuted.

Rep. Rosa DeLauro, a Democrat from Connecticut called the proposed fund an “extraordinary display of self-dealing” and a “corrupt payout scheme for the President and his political allies.”

“It is unconscionable, this sort of a scandal would ruin any other administration,” she said.

Rubio wraps up full day of congressional hearings, first since Iran war began

The Secretary of State testified for nearly five hours in total before lawmakers on Capitol Hill, starting with a Senate Committee hearing in the morning and a House subcommittee hearing in the afternoon.

Rubio faced a wide array of questions that ranged from the Iran war, Trump’s peace plan for Gaza, U.S. support for Taiwan and a U.S. stockpile of birth control that was supposed to go to foreign countries.

Both hearings were punctuated by the shouts of protestors, some of whom called Rubio a war criminal for U.S. operations in the Middle East and Latin America.

Rubio will face the House Committee on Foreign Affairs Wednesday morning.

US won’t use $9 million stockpile of contraceptives, Rubio says

Democratic Rep. Grace Meng of New York questioned Rubio about the fate of the stockpile, which as of last year was stored in a U.S.-funded warehouse in Geel, Belgium. It includes contraceptive pills, contraceptive implants and IUDs that could spare women in war zones and elsewhere the hardship of unwanted pregnancies.

The Trump administration’s dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development, which managed foreign aid programs, left the supplies’ fate uncertain.

Meng also asked about the cost of storing the birth control. Rubio said he didn’t know what the cost was, adding that some of the contraceptives have been destroyed. He said they’re not distributing them per an executive order.

“We’re not going to use them or the government of the United States is not going to be involved in distributing contraceptives and all these other things around the world,” Rubio said.

Hearing featuring acting Attorney General Blanche getting underway

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche is expected to face questions from lawmakers over the Trump administration’s plans to create a $1.8 billion fund meant to compensate allies of the Republican president.

The administration is facing pressure from Republicans to scrap the fund that has provoked outrage over the mere possibility that violent pro-Trump rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, could be eligible for payouts.

A person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press on Monday that Trump was reconsidering whether to move forward with the fund established to resolve his lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service over the leak of his tax returns.

— Alanna Durkin Richer

Democrats introduce legislation to rein in AI use by the military

Democrats in Congress are introducing legislation to rein in AI use among the military as the Trump administration pushes for its expanded use.

U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York introduced legislation Tuesday that, if passed, would prohibit the use of AI for nuclear weapon launches, establish controls on its use for surveilling U.S. citizens, and broadly restrict the use of fully autonomous weapons systems, according a statement released by her office. The bill also codifies a policy that requires humans to always be involved in decisions to use force or other “high-consequence” actions.

Gillibrand’s bill comes just months after Michigan Sen. Elissa Slotkin, also a Democrat, introduced a similar bill.

The proposed legislation comes as leaders in the Pentagon, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth have insisted that the Pentagon be allowed to use the technology in any legal way it sees fit.

Rubio says China hasn’t provided help to Iran that ‘in any way impeded our operations’

Rubio told lawmakers on a House subcommittee that Iran has Chinese military equipment from their previous ties but said the U.S. has seen no indication that anything provided has “changed the dynamic in the battlefield.”

The remarks came several weeks after the State Department sanctioned three China-based entities for providing satellite imagery that enabled Iran’s military strikes against U.S. forces in the Middle East.

The Trump administration alleged that one company collected satellite imagery of U.S. and allied military facilities to support Iranian imagery request during the Iran war. Another company provided satellite imagery to Iran during the military operation and the third published open-source images detailing U.S. military activity.

Rubio does not support Netanyahu’s plan of seizing 70% of Gaza

Rep. Rose DeLauro of Connecticut, the ranking Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, pressed Rubio on where the U.S. stands with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s goal of seizing 70% of Gaza to defeat the Hamas militant group.

Rubio said Netanyahu’s statement was not part of President Trump’s 20-point plan to end the conflict between Israel and Hamas. The plan would end Hamas’ rule and rebuild the territory.

“We have a plan — it doesn’t call for that,” Rubio said. “And at the end of the day, we understand that what we want, and I think what the Israelis would ultimately want, is a Gaza that is governed by a non-Hamas” entity.

Testy exchange between Murphy, Mullin kicks off hearing

The budget hearing with DHS Secretary Mullin is already getting heated.

Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy used his opening statement to lambast Mullin and his department.

Murphy said while Mullin vowed during his confirmation hearing to keep the department out of the news, he’d done the opposite. He slammed Mullin’s threats to pull CBP officers from airports and accused the department of reckless spending.

“Every day, this agency is breaking the law at scale and wasting billions of taxpayer dollars. DHS does not implement the law any longer. It makes up the law,” said Murphy.

Mullin, who until just a few months ago was a senator alongside Murphy, diverted from his prepared remarks to respond to Murphy.

“I do have an opening statement here, but, wow, Senator Murphy, the outlandish claims you made there, it’s just flat wrong,” said Mullin who blamed rhetoric like Murphy’s for a growing number of threats and attacks against his officers.

Democratic lawmaker blasts ‘insidious sledgehammer’ to foreign aid during Rubio’s second hearing

Rep. Lois Frankel, one of the senior Democrats on the House Appropriations Committee, said that when Rubio was first confirmed to be America’s top diplomat she was hopeful about what he had presented as his “commitment to democracy and American leadership.”

“And then what happened? DOGE came in with Elon Musk,” the Florida lawmaker said.

She added that Musk and his allies’ time in the administration has had “devastating consequences” that resulted in the dismantling of USAID agency, terminating critical health and development programs, and forcing thousands of experienced public servants out of government.

Rubio faces continued protests during second hearing

When Rubio began his testimony before a House Appropriations subcommittee on Tuesday afternoon, a man stood up with a sign and urged the Secretary of State stop supporting Israel and what the man said was “genocide.” The man was quickly led out of the room.

Rubio faced protesters during an earlier hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. They raised concerns that sanctions against Cuba were hurting children on the island nation.

This is the first time Rubio is testifying to lawmakers since the Iran war began.

Mullin hearing kicks off in Senate

A Senate budget hearing with Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin is getting started.

Mullin is at the appropriations subcommittee on homeland security.

The Senate is currently weighing legislation that would fund immigration enforcement agencies through the end of President Donald Trump’s term.

That’s designed to bypass any need for Democratic support. They’ve demanded restraints on ICE and Border Patrol before agreeing to fund the agencies.

But that funding attempt has been caught up in Republican opposition to a $1.776 billion settlement fund to compensate Trump allies who believe they have been politically prosecuted.

Mullin’s likely to face questioning about conduct of immigration enforcement officers, treatment of detainees at an ICE facility in New Jersey and security preparations for the World Cup.

Rubio faces more grilling during second congressional hearing of the day

Rubio is testifying for the second time Tuesday before lawmakers on Capitol Hill.

The stated reason is the State Department’s budget, but questions will likely veer into issues concerning the Iran war, the Trump administration’s campaign against drug cartels in Latin America and U.S. support for Taiwan.

The former Republican senator from Florida sat for well over two hours of questioning on Tuesday morning in front the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. In the afternoon, he’ll be testifying before a subcommittee of the House Committee on Appropriations.

Like the Senate hearing, the hallways outside the room included protestors. Some called Rubio a terrorist and told him to stop killing children in Gaza and Iran when he walked into the room.

Mullin faces Senate grilling on DHS budget, immigration crackdown and World Cup worries

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin is slated to appear Tuesday in the Senate to answer questions about the agency’s budget, at a time of intense scrutiny about how the Trump administration is carrying out immigration enforcement and preparing for the World Cup.

The Senate is weighing legislation to fund immigration enforcement agencies through the end of Trump’s term in a maneuver that would bypass the need for support from Democrats, who have demanded restraints. The attempt has stalled over separate Republican opposition to a $1.776 billion settlement fund to compensate Trump allies who believe they have been politically prosecuted.

Mullin, who was tapped by Trump to lead Homeland Security after his predecessor Kristi Noem was fired, is appearing in the Senate Tuesday for the first time since his confirmation hearing in March. On Wednesday, he’ll testify in the House about the budget.

From festering infections to untreated cancer, ICE detainees across the US describe medical neglect

An investigation by KFF Health News and The Associated Press has found that hundreds of detainees across at least 33 states allege immigration detention facilities are failing to provide adequate medical care.

Detainees allege they didn’t receive medications on time — or at all — for conditions including high blood pressure, diabetes, depression, epilepsy, Parkinson’s and HIV. Requests for help went unanswered for weeks. Blood sugars rose. Infections festered. Cancers remained untreated. Detainees collapsed and had seizures.

U.S. jails and immigration detention centers have long struggled to meet the medical needs of the people in their charge. But the system is sagging under an influx of detentions since Trump returned to office: More than 75,000 immigrants were being detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement as of mid-January, up from around 40,000 a year earlier.

KFF Health News and AP asked the Department of Homeland Security to respond to the findings six days before publication but it did not provide comment.

▶ Read more

Trump keeps getting checkups because ‘he likes the results,’ Oz says

The CMS administrator faced another question about the president’s more-than-annual physicals. The president went for the fourth known checkup of his second term last week.

“I think he likes the results,” Oz responded. “He aces the test every single day, and I do actually believe that he is curious to make sure everything is going in the right direction.”

His getting so many physicals was more of a sign of his “very meticulous” nature, Oz contended, because he “wants to know all the numbers” and stay on top of them.

Oz says he trusts Trump’s judgement, when asked why Pulte is qualified to serve as director of national intelligence

Oz was repeatedly questioned about why Pulte is qualified for the role when he has no known experience with intelligence or national security.

He called Pulte “a great guy” and said, “I know him socially” but had not worked with him in his job.

When pressed, Oz said, “You’re asking me a question that’s not in my lane. I’m so focused on making sure Americans are healthy.”

He later said that he appreciated reporters want an answer but said, “I’m not going to be the one giving it to you.”

Oz says Trump’s health is ‘spectacular’

The CMS administrator, who is a physician by trade, says the almost 80-year-old president has “excellent” health, according to his medical records.

Trump went for another checkup at Walter Reed last week.

“That amount of energy and that amount of mental acuity does not exist in a vacuum,” Oz told reporters at the White House on Tuesday. Referring presumably to Trump’s physical body, Oz said: “you have to have a vessel to carry it.”

Trump appears to dispute state media reports that Iran cuts off talks

Trump in a social media post on Tuesday disputed that Iran has cut off communication with mediators, calling Iranian reports of a cessation in talks “false and erroneous.”

“The conversations between us have been going on continuously, including four days ago, three days ago, two days ago, one day ago, and today,” Trump said. “Where they lead, one never knows, but as I told Iran, ‘It’s time, one way or another, for you to make a Deal. You’ve been doing this for 47 years, and it cannot be allowed to go on any longer!’”

Fars and Tasnim, two semiofficial Iranian news agencies, reported earlier Tuesday that Iran had stopped communicating with mediators about extending a ceasefire in the war with the U.S. and Israel.

Oz reveals TrumpRx is adding 160 more drugs

The CMS administrator announced during the White House press briefing that 160 new medications are being added to the government’s discounted drug website TrumpRx.

That brings the total number of drugs on the site to more than 750, Oz said.

The news comes two weeks after the Trump administration unveiled partnerships with various online pharmacies to add some 600 generic drugs to the platform.

Even with generics added, experts said the potential savings heavily depend on a patient’s situation. For the vast majority of Americans who have health insurance, using that coverage to get medications is cheaper than paying cash through TrumpRx.

Rubio Senate hearing ends as House hearing nears

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has wrapped up his hearing before the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, which was his first before Congress since the Iran war began.

Rubio will face the House Appropriations Committee at 2 p.m.

Lights, camera, press briefing: The Dr. Oz show comes to the White House

Dr. Mehmet Oz is about to be in the spotlight. It’s a place where he’s already comfortable.

The heart surgeon and longtime daytime TV host, now running the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, will lead Tuesday’s White House press briefing as the fourth administration official to stand in for press secretary Karoline Leavitt during her maternity leave.

Oz rose to prominence on Oprah Winfrey’s talk show before spinning off his own series, “The Dr. Oz Show,” in 2009. And though he now leads one of the Trump administration’s wonkiest agencies, he’s still found ways to use his camera showmanship to his advantage.

With social media videos and speeches around the country in recent months, he’s become one of the most public promoters of the administration’s efforts to fight healthcare fraud.

Democratic senator calls Rubio absence during US-Iran talks in Pakistan ‘embarrassing’

Sen. Jacky Rosen of Nevada called out her former senate colleague for being at a party while Vice President J.D. Vance led a delegation to Pakistan in April to meet with their Iranian counterparts.

Rubio was actually cage-side with Trump at a UFC event in Miami as the peace talks with Iran failed on the other side of the world.

“I just feel that’s embarrassing for us and it’s embarrassing for you,” Rosen said. “We confirmed you to be in the negotiations that are happening. And it’s just unthinkable to me that you are not you are missing high stakes negotiations or that you’re not involved. It’s sad.

In one of his more sharp rebukes, Rubio defended his absence.

“I was co-located with the president in the midst of a high stakes negotiation, so that I could immediately inform him about events occurring halfway around the world,” he said. “I was where I needed to be at that moment.”

Republicans offer first takes on Trump’s pick for intelligence chief

Some Republicans are voicing skepticism about the qualifications of President Donald Trump’s choice to serve as the acting director of national intelligence.

“I don’t see any evidence of qualifications for that job, but as you know, the Senate doesn’t have a role to play in acting (appointments,)” Sen. John Cornyn of Texas said of Trump’s choice, Bill Pulte.

“I do not know Mr. Pulte at all. I do not know if he has any intelligence or military background. I don’t even know if he has a security clearance. I know nothing about him at all,” said Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine.

Collins said she had not made a firm decision yet “because maybe there’s a lot in his background that is relevant to this important position.”

Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., said Pulte “doesn’t seem qualified.”

“Beyond his absence of apparent qualifications, maybe there’s something I don’t know about,” Cassidy said.

‘No one is begging’: Rubio defends US unsteady stance in Iran negotiations

In a tense back-and-forth, Democratic Sen. Cory Booker and Rubio argued over who has the upper-hand in the more than two month war between U.S. and Iran.

The New Jersey lawmaker pointed to the unsteady ceasefire between Washington and Tehran, which has been further tested in recent days by back-and-forth attacks.

“We are the strongest nation on the planet Earth, and we’re in a stalemate with Iran,” Booker said to the secretary. “And now we’re begging to get back into a deal that you all trashed in the first place.”

“There’s no one begging,” Rubio responded, detailing what he called the dire situation of Iran’s economy. “I don’t know where you’re getting this perception that Iran is stronger.”

Rubio says Afghan allies can’t come to US but will try to resettle them elsewhere

The secretary said he could not commit to Democratic Sen. Chris Coons to resettle more than 1,000 Afghans who assisted America’s war effort and relatives of U.S. service members to the U.S. as was promised under the Biden administration.

Rubio said the U.S. is in talks with multiple countries to take a few hundred of them in order to avoid sending them back to the Taliban where they will likely face reprisal.

Those individuals have been stranded at a U.S. base in Doha for the past year as the Trump administration’s immigration actions have left them in a limbo.

The refugees at Camp As-Sayliyah include Afghans who served as interpreters and with Special Operations Forces as well as the immediate families of more than 150 active duty U.S. military members.

The plaintiffs argued in two lawsuits that Trump’s order should be found unconstitutional because the states and Congress, not the president, have the power to set election rules. They also told the court that the move imposes a costly burden on state election officials to comply and would spread fear about the possibility of prosecution.

"This is going to be a sea change in the way that some states administer their ballots," said Michael Cohen, who was part of a team representing California, adding that “it will be difficult to overstate the disruption that this will cause.”

Trump's executive order, the second one aimed at elections during his second term, comes as he continues to raise the specter of widespread voting by noncitizens as a reason to change election rules. But states already have detailed processes aimed at keeping their voter rolls accurate, and voting by noncitizens has been shown to be rare. It also is a felony that can be punishable by deportation.

His latest order is being challenged through multiple lawsuits, including two filed in U.S. District Court in Boston.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which represented the League of Women Voters in one of the two Boston cases, has called the order “a dangerous attempt to disenfranchise eligible voters nationwide." The group said the order transforms "the U.S. Postal Service from a neutral mail carrier to an arbiter of who may cast a ballot by mail.”

“This case challenges an extraordinary and abusive assertion of executive power over the administration of federal elections,” the organization said in its complaint.

The hearing comes less than a week after another judge declined to halt the order. U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols, a Trump appointee in Washington, agreed with the Trump administration’s contention that it was too early to block the order because it has yet to be implemented.

The administration, in its motions to dismiss the lawsuits, argued that the plaintiffs lack standing to bring their claims. They also argued the motions are premature and that plaintiffs lack the legal basis to bring their Administrative Procedure Act claim, which governs how federal agencies develop and issue regulations.

Stephen Pezzi, a lawyer for the Trump administration, said the harms the plaintiffs referenced were subjective, since much can change with the voting list before it is finalized. He also said no one would be prosecuted for violating the executive order.

Missouri Solicitor General Lou Capozzi, speaking for the states supporting the list, argued it was too early to say how his state might use the list, but that it was “unlikely” any voter would be removed this year from the voter rolls because of it.

“We are not exactly sure how we would use it,” Capozzi said, adding that "we don't want this process to be strangled in the crib, so to speak.”

U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani took the requests for motions to halt the order, along with motions to dismiss the cases under advisement.

During oral arguments, Talwani expressed concerns about whether the federal system envisioned under the executive order could be ready for the upcoming midterm elections and about the risks posed to election workers who rely on a state list that differs from the federal one. She also raised doubts about the reliability of a federal list — noting, for example, women who changed their names after getting married or someone who has moved from state to state might be missed.

“Isn’t there a reasonable fear and concern on behalf of voters that they will be precluded?” Talwani asked.

Trump issued the order in March after a bill he supported to overhaul voting stalled in Congress. The order would have had the federal government create a list of eligible voters and then directed the Postal Service to deliver mail ballots only to those on the list. Election officials argued that it was ripe for abuse and could cause chaos, and the postal union has objected to the idea of mail carriers policing ballots.

The Postal Service has published a proposed rule required by Trump's executive order in the Federal Register. Among other things, the rule would not apply to primary elections or overseas ballots.

Since his 2020 presidential election l oss to Democrat Joe Biden, Trump has groundlessly claimed mail voting is rife with fraud and has launched a federal investigation into that year’s vote, even though repeated audits and investigations, including ones run by Republicans, found it was free of widespread fraud. Trump also has said he wants to “take over” election administration in Democratic areas.

The artist Wyland says he hand-painted the sprawling mural that covered roughly 17,000 square feet (1,580 square meters) across two of the building's walls.

The mural stood for nearly three decades before workers began painting over it last month, causing an uproar among residents who admired the mural's grand scale and message of ocean conservation.

The area’s World Cup organizing committee said in a statement that, in place of Wyland's mural, new artwork is planned "that captures this current historical moment and reflects the energy, unity, and global spirit surrounding the World Cup 2026.” It said a portion of Wyland's mural would be preserved.

Wyland filed suit Monday in U.S District Court in Dallas saying that World Cup organizers, along with the building's owner and management company, painted over his mural without his consent or even notifying him. He says their actions violated a 1990 federal law passed to protect visual artists from destruction of publicly displayed works.

Wyland is seeking at least $25 million in damages. His lawsuit says world soccer's governing body, FIFA, and other defendants “hastily and irrevocably destroyed a civic landmark” to promote the World Cup.

“Though FIFA claims they were working to develop art for the host city, in truth, they defaced an historic fixture of the host city,” the artist's lawsuit says.

A FIFA spokesperson said Tuesday the federation “has no involvement in this whatsoever” and referred a reporter to the tournament's local organizing committee.

A spokesperson for the North Texas FWC Organizing Committee declined to comment. The committee isn't named as a defendant in the lawsuit.

A spokesperson for Slate Asset Management, which manages the building where the mural was painted over, said in a statement that local World Cup organizers asked Slate in March to donate the mural space for “a new public art installation.”

“Slate is not being compensated in any way for the use of the wall space and was told by the local groups that Mr. Wyland had been notified,” the management company's spokesperson said in an email.

Dallas is hosting more World Cup matches than any of the other sites in the event co-hosted by the U.S., Canada and Mexico, with nine matches set to be played at AT&T Stadium in suburban Arlington, home of the Dallas Cowboys.

Wyland's Dallas mural, titled “Whaling Wall 82,” was finished in 1999 and is among more than 100 similar murals known as Whaling Walls the artist painted around the world to promote the conservation of ocean life.

An online petition protesting the mural's destruction and calling for protecting of public artwork in Dallas has received more than 2,600 signatures.

Wyland's lawsuit alleges violations of the Visual Artists Rights Act, a 1990 federal law that protects artwork of “recognized stature” even if someone else owns the physical artwork.

A judge cited that law in 2018 when he ordered a property owner to pay a group of New York graffiti artists $6.7 million for whitewashing dozens of their spray-painted murals on buildings that once housed a factory in Queens. The ruling was upheld on appeal.

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Bynum reported from Savannah, Georgia.

Jacobs was on the field Tuesday for the Packers’ second week of organized team activities. Packers coach Matt LaFleur said before Tuesday's practice that Jacobs’ situation hasn’t caused distractions.

“I would say business as usual,” LaFleur said.

Jacobs was arrested May 26 in Brown County, Wisconsin, on allegations of strangulation and suffocation and other offenses. Hobart/Lawrence Police Chief Michael Renkas said police had been dispatched to a complaint involving Jacobs on the morning of May 23.

Jacobs has issued a statement through his lawyers saying he “vehemently denies the allegations.” He was released from a Wisconsin jail Wednesday during the Packers’ first week of OTAs while authorities investigated the case.

District Attorney David Lasee said it’s too soon to make a formal charging decision.

“Our office has requested additional investigation, as there is reason to believe that additional evidence may exist that would impact whether criminal charges are appropriate, and what charges would be issued. ... The investigation remains open and is ongoing,” Lasee said last week.

Packers safety Xavier McKinney indicated this wasn't Jacobs' first day back with the team since the arrest. This was only the second OTA practice that was open to the media. The first such workout occurred Wednesday, when Jacobs was getting released from jail and therefore wasn't practicing.

Jacobs wasn't in the locker room during the Packers' media availability after Tuesday's practice, but quarterback Jordan Love discussed how the team has addressed the situation.

“We’ve talked internally,” Love said. “Everyone knows what the situation is there and we’ve talked, but obviously the details, everybody’s keeping that under wraps right now just out of respect for the situation and obviously all the legal stuff that’s going to be playing out. But it’s great to have Josh here with us, being able to work with us and get back to work."

Love was asked if he has considered the possibility the Packers might not have Jacobs for at least part of the upcoming season.

“There’s always questions,” Love said. “I was shocked when I saw it, and like I said, it’s one of those things we’re going to let it play out. There’s a lot of uncertainty when you hear something like that of what might happen. But we’ll see, we’ll let it play out and go from there.”

Jacobs rushed for 929 yards and 13 touchdowns last season. The Packers have nobody else on their roster who ran for as many as 200 yards for them a year ago.

That followed a 2024 season in which Jacobs ran for 1,329 yards and 15 touchdowns while earning his third Pro Bowl selection.

Jacobs, 28, has rushed for 7,803 yards and 74 touchdowns in his seven-year career, which included five seasons with the Raiders. He earned All-Pro honors and had an NFL-leading 1,653 yards rushing with Las Vegas in 2022.

NOTES: Bo Melton apparently is exclusively a wide receiver again. Melton spent much of last year working out at cornerback, though all of his actual playing time still came on offense and special teams. “I would anticipate him sticking with wide receiver,” LaFleur said. ... LaFleur said the Packers currently aren't planning on having joint practices before their preseason games at Pittsburgh and Cincinnati, though he didn't rule out the possibility. The Packers are expecting to have a joint practice with Arizona before their Aug. 28 home preseason game with the Cardinals. LaFleur's younger brother Mike is Arizona's new head coach.

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AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl

The S&P 500 rose 0.1% after drifting between small gains and losses through the day. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 228 points, or 0.4%, and the Nasdaq composite edged up by less than 0.1%. All three set all-time highs.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise helped lead the market, and its stock soared 19.5% after it reported a profit for the latest quarter that blew past analysts’ expectations. It credited demand from customers building their artificial-intelligence capabilities.

Marvell Technology leaped 32.5% for its best day since its stock began trading in 2000 after Nvidia’s CEO, Jensen Huang, suggested at a conference in Taiwan that Marvell could be “the next trillion-dollar company.” The last company to enter the expanding club of behemoths was Micron Technology, which is likewise riding the AI wave. Nvidia, which slipped 0.7%, has seen its total value top $5 trillion.

Generac climbed 5.7% after saying it signed a deal to provide backup power generators to an unnamed “leading hyperscale data center operator.”

Such “hyperscalers” are spending tremendous amounts of money to build huge AI data centers, which are powering what proponents believe is the next great revolution for the global economy.

Alphabet is one of those hyperscalers, and the parent company of Google said it’s raising $80 billion in cash to help pay for its investments by selling shares of its stock. It’s planning to spend as much as $190 billion on equipment and other investments this year.

That’s more than all the stock of The Walt Disney Co. is worth, and Alphabet is forecasting its spending on investments next year will “significantly increase.”

Such huge sums raise the question about whether AI can produce the profits and productivity necessary to make all the investment worth it. Critics have already been talking about the possibility of a bubble in AI investment, and Alphabet’s stock fell 3.9%. It was one of the heaviest weights on the S&P 500.

All told, the S&P 500 rose 9.82 points to 7,609.78. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 228.91 to 51,307.79, and the Nasdaq composite inched up 7.09 to 27,093.90.

Analysts have been saying the broad U.S. stock market may be set for a slowdown following an unrelenting streak of nine straight winning weeks for the S&P 500, its longest since 2023. The rally has been largely due to strong profit reports from U.S. companies, as well as hopes that the United States and Iran will reach a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. That would allow oil to flow freely again from the Persian Gulf and hopefully lower its price.

In the oil market, prices rose again to claw back more of last week’s slump. Brent crude oil, the international standard, climbed 1.1% to settle at $96.00 per barrel, and it’s still well above its roughly $70 level from before the war.

In the bond market, Treasury yields were relatively steady.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury slipped to 4.45% from 4.47% late Monday. It briefly jumped after a report said that U.S. employers were advertising many more jobs at the end of April than economists expected, a potential signal of continued health for the U.S. labor market. But it quickly pulled back to where it was just before the report’s release.

High yields worldwide recently have threatened to slow economies and undercut prices for stocks and all kinds of other investments. They have already forced the average long-term U.S. mortgage rate to its most expensive level in nine months, and they could curtail companies’ borrowing to build the AI data centers that have supported the U.S. economy’s growth recently.

In stock markets abroad indexes rose across much of Europe and Asia.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng jumped 2.5% for one of the world’s biggest moves.

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AP Business Writers Yuri Kageyama and Matt Ott contributed to this report.

LUBBOCK — Parasitic, flesh-eating flies are 25 miles away from the U.S.-Mexico border, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said Tuesday, refuting a claim by a Texas state lawmaker that the insects were just one mile away.

State Rep. Don McLaughlin, a Uvalde Republican, made that claim in a statement Monday. In doing so, he demanded greater state protection for the billion-dollar cattle industry threatened by the New World screwworm.

Rollins, at a news conference Tuesday, called McLaughlin a “well-intentioned state legislator.”

“When that false information gets out, it causes significant panic,” Rollins said. “And rightly so, especially if it’s coming from elected officials and the media.”

Rollins said that with the new case just 25 miles away from Texas, the department would ramp up communication efforts.

It’s the closest the flies have been detected since state and federal officials started monitoring cases in November 2024, when cases were confirmed in Mexico. Texans are increasingly worried that the federal response has not done enough to stop the flies’ northern migration. 

McLaughlin, channeling that frustration in his Monday letter, called on Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, and House Speaker Dustin Burrows to organize a Texas-led emergency response. McLaughlin suggested it be modeled after Operation Lone Star — the state’s response to unauthorized border crossings.

“For more than a year, I have joined Texas ranchers in sounding the alarm while federal regulators have moved at a snail’s pace,” McLaughlin said in a statement. “Today, the threat is no longer hundreds of miles away. It is at our doorstep.”

McLaughlin said Texas can’t afford to wait until the screwworm crosses the border. For more than three decades, the pest was eradicated. However, cases were reported in 2023 south of the U.S., including Panama, Costa Rica and Nicaragua.

The screwworm burrows into the flesh of living animals and lays eggs in their open wounds. While the fly causes diseases primarily in animals and livestock, pets, wildlife and humans can also be infested. Rollins said the risk to the public and food safety is low.

Once cases were being reported out of Mexico, Texas cattle and livestock ranchers began warning others how the screwworm could devastate their industries. Texas leads the U.S. in cattle production, bringing in $15 billion a year to the state.

“There is no doubt that this is a very, very serious threat to our livestock,” Rollins said.

Dudley Hoskins with the USDA said when the department received confirmation of the case 25 miles away, Rollins deployed a team to South Texas, as part of the USDA’s unified incident management team, to work with the TAHC.

The federal government has taken steps to stop the screwworm from affecting cattle and livestock, including investing $100 million into research, traps, and mounted patrol officers known as tick riders at the border.

Earlier this year, Rollins visited the Rio Grande Valley with Abbott and said the USDA and state response teams had taken proactive steps to prepare the region to eradicate the screwworm. They released sterile male flies to mate with female screwworm flies, making them lay unfertilized eggs. Rollins also ordered the closure of all southern ports of entry to livestock last year.

As of Tuesday, nearly 1,900 active animal cases in Mexico and almost 27,000 since November 2024.

Renzo Downey contributed reporting.

Trump made the surprise announcement Tuesday on social media that Pulte would be replacing Tulsi Gabbard, the former Hawaii congresswoman who had served as the director of national intelligence. Trump said Pulte will keep his other positions even as he fills in for Gabbard, who resigned last month after revealing her husband’s cancer diagnosis.

The Republican president cited Pulte's work at the FHFA and his role as chair of the mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as indicating that his real estate work would overlap with the skills needed to coordinate 18 federal agencies tasked with aspects of foreign and domestic security.

“William has deep experience managing the most sensitive matters in America, the safety and soundness of the Markets," Trump posted on Truth Social.

Trump's choice to elevate Pulte, who would also continue in his post at FHFA, shows how the president is putting a greater priority on loyalty to him, even as the Iran war has damaged Trump politically going into November's midterm elections and raised concerns about the quality of advice that aides are giving to a president who has rewarded flattery.

It’s unclear what national security expertise Pulte brings to bear as the U.S. faces conflict in the Middle East, helps Ukraine defend itself against Russia's assault and manages the emergence of artificial intelligence as a military tool. But Pulte, who's 38 years old, has been a frequent guest on Air Force One as Trump has traveled to Mar-a-Lago, his home and club in Palm Beach, Florida.

On one such flight, the housing finance director stood in a doorway as Trump discussed with reporters the ballroom he’s building at the White House and handed Trump a series of renderings of the project that the president held up.

Questions about Pulte's experience

Several Senate Republicans reacted skeptically to Pulte’s appointment, questioning whether the housing finance director has the experience necessary to oversee the intelligence agency.

“We don’t need a weaponized DNI. We need professionals there," said Senate Majority Leader John Thune, a Republican from South Dakota. "I’m trying to get more information about the current state of their thinking about that position. And, again, if he’s somebody they want in that position permanently, he’s got, as you all know, a lengthy road ahead of him.“

Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton, who leads the Senate Intelligence Committee, said in response to questions about Pulte's national security credentials: “I have no observations on the matter.”

Republican Sens. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and John Cornyn of Texas, all of whom are leaving the chamber after this year's elections, joined the chorus of wariness against Pulte.

“Doesn’t seem qualified,” Cassidy said.

“I don’t see any evidence of qualifications for that job,” said Cornyn, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee.

“When we looked at his background for the current confirmation, I thought most of his experience was in the building industry,” Tillis said. “I didn’t know he had any national security experience.”

Democrats noted that Pulte's major qualification appeared to be his enthusiasm for fulfilling Trump's requests.

“The concern is not only that Mr. Pulte lacks the ‘extensive national security experience’ required by statute for the job, which was created after intelligence failures led to the deaths of thousands of Americans on 9/11," said Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., in a statement. “It is that he appears to have been selected precisely because the White House believes he will provide the narrative it wants, not the intelligence we need.”

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., said Pulte has been “abusing his authority” as the federal housing finance director and Trump is now "rewarding his lackey — who has no national security experience — with a perch atop our nation’s intelligence community. What could go wrong?”

Robert Weissman, co-president of Public Citizen, the liberal consumer rights advocacy group, warned that Pulte was “Trump's hatchet man” who would use the government against those Americans who object to the president's actions.

“Placing Pulte in this post would position him to use the nation’s massive surveillance apparatus and police capacity to harass, intimidate and threaten the many, many people that Trump considers his enemies," Weissman said.

Pulte's attacks on Trump foes

As the grandson of the founder of PulteGroup, one of the country's largest homebuilders, Pulte has cut a combative streak on social media and used his post at the FHFA to attack perceived opponents of the Trump administration.

His time overseeing mortgage finance has been linked with criminal referrals over allegations of mortgage fraud by public officials Trump sought to punish, including New York Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat; Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif.; and Lisa Cook, a board member of the Federal Reserve, who was nominated by a Democratic president, Joe Biden.

The prosecution against James was dismissed in November after a judge concluded that the prosecutor who filed the charges was illegally appointed. Other referrals made by Pulte, including against Schiff and Cook, have not yielded any criminal charges. Lawyers for both have denied any claims of wrongdoing. But Trump did try to use the possibility of mortgage fraud as grounds for removing Cook from the Fed.

Cook’s lawyer accused Pulte of pursuing mortgage fraud on a partisan basis, focusing on Democrats and refusing to pursue similar allegations against Republicans.

Pulte told reporters at the White House several months ago that he had also made criminal referrals regarding at least one Republican official, but he declined to provide the name.

He has famously gone after then-Fed Chair Jerome Powell for not cutting the central bank’s benchmark interest rates as aggressively as the president wanted. He has also been linked to ideas such as the 50-year mortgage and efforts to lower mortgage rates through the purchase of home loan debt that have not paid off as promised, as mortgage rates began to climb after the Iran war started at the end of February.

Pulte has a reputation for cultivating enemies. In a legal feud pursued by Pulte that involved his family namesake's homebuilding company, he accused his grandfather’s widow of insider trading. He was believed to be the driving force behind a website trashing an aunt as a “fake Christian.” And he publicly blasted another relative as “a fat slob,” “weirdo” and “grifter,” according to court records.

Politico reported in September that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent threatened to punch Pulte in the face. The showdown occurred at a private dinner, and the treasury secretary claimed that he had heard Pulte had been badmouthing him to Trump.

Still, he had fans inside the White House elsewhere.

“Bill Pulte is a terrific guy, very careful person, very much in the details of things, trusted by the president, and a really, really close friend to everybody in the White House,” Kevin Hassett, the director of the National Economic Council at the White House, told reporters on Tuesday. “He'll do a great job.”

If formally nominated, Pulte would need to be confirmed by the Senate to hold the position full-time.

In his first term, Trump at various points had acting officials leading the Justice and Defense departments and in top posts at Homeland Security and the Interior.

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Associated Press writers Joey Cappelletti and Seung Min Kim in Washington contributed to this report.

In a secret-ballot vote, Rahman defeated Cyprus' Ambassador Andreas Kakouris 99-91, with three countries not voting. He will succeed Germany's former Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, whose one-year term ends in September.

The presidency of the world body rotates by region and this year it was the Asia-Pacific region’s turn.

While the presidency of the General Assembly is largely ceremonial, it is also prestigious. It is the U.N. organ where countries large and small can speak, and is the scene of the only annual gathering of world leaders, in September.

The General Assembly controls the U.N. budget, adopts treaties, addresses global issues from poverty to corruption, and passes numerous resolutions that while not legally binding almost always reflect global opinion.

It has taken the spotlight in reacting to the wars in Ukraine and Gaza because action by the U.N. Security Council has been blocked by the veto power of Russia on Ukraine and, often, the United States on Gaza.

Rahman was selected as foreign minister in February by Bangladesh’s new prime minister, whose party won a landslide victory in parliamentary elections. They were the country’s first since a mass student-led uprising in 2024 toppled the previous prime minister, Sheikh Hasina.

Rahman previously served as national security adviser in the interim government led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus, and as an ambassador.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres congratulated Rahman, saying, “Your remarkable political and diplomatic experience are a guarantee of success not only to the General Assembly but to the United Nations as a whole.”

He praised Rahman’s commitment to the ambitious program to reform the 80-year-old United Nations to meet the challenges of the 21st century.

Rahman told diplomats assembled in the General Assembly hall that its 81st session will open “at a historic crossroads” when “trust in our organization is being tested on multiple fronts.”

Conflict and war — which the U.N. was established to prevent — are inflicting “untold suffering, development gains remain fragile and uncertain, and in some cases are regressing,” he said. “Despite advancements in human rights, we witness a general backsliding of certain rights and freedoms across the world and shrinking humanitarian space.”

Rahman said this is happening at a time when the U.N. is facing financial stress. “This is a challenge I will confront with all of you,” he told the assembly.

The United States, which has historically been the largest contributor to the U.N. budget, is billions of dollars in arrears.

.

The dinner, cut short in April by a gunman who prosecutors say was trying to assassinate Trump, will now take place on July 24. It will be a more intimate gathering with “significantly enhanced safety measures and new access procedures,” said Weijia Jiang, president of the White House Correspondents' Association.

Jiang did not say where the dinner would be held. But Trump, on his Truth Social platform, revealed it would be at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel on Pennsylvania Avenue — former site of the Trump International Hotel.

The president said he’d been invited to return and speak, and had accepted the invitation. He called the rescheduling “a sign of Strength and Fortitude.”

“This announcement is a very good thing in that we cannot allow Lunatics to change our way of life, or even its scheduling,” Trump wrote.

He added he hadn't decided on whether to give his originally intended speech, in which he was widely expected to attack the press. “I don’t know whether or not I will give the same rather nasty statements, at least as it concerns certain people, but we will soon find out," he wrote. “In any event, it will be a 'HOT' ticket!”

Rescheduling decision took time

Jiang, in her announcement, noted that “rescheduling was not automatic,” and had involved much consideration and input from board members.

She emphasized the dinner’s stated purpose: “a celebration of a free press and the vital role of journalism in our democracy for over a century.”

“We will not allow an act of violence to have the last word, especially during a year when we are reflecting on the 250th anniversary of America and everything we stand for,” Jiang said.

It was not clear how large the rescheduled dinner would be, or whether it would be a full-scale dinner at all. Jiang made reference to a “more intimate gathering” than the original event, attended by close to 3,000 people at the Washington Hilton, but did not give details, saying they'd be shared directly with attendees.

Her remarks were in line with recent speculation that a rescheduled event would have to be pared down, a nod to financial as well as security concerns.

Concern expressed for wounded officer

Jiang also made note of the Secret Service officer who was shot in April and has been recovering. “Our thoughts remain with the officer who was injured and with everyone who experienced that evening,” she said. “We are indebted to the US Secret Service, law enforcement and the hotel staff whose swift response protected our guests and our staff.”

Though Jiang always insisted the dinner should be rescheduled, not everyone felt the same way.

Some critics said they felt it would be a good idea to scuttle the whole event permanently — not only for security reasons, but for what they saw as an unseemly enterprise of journalists hobnobbing in formal wear with the subjects of their reporting.

“It undermines the public faith in how the press does its work, and it makes it look like we are pals with the people we cover,” Kelly McBride, an ethics expert at the Poynter Institute, a journalism think tank, said in May.

Under a deal made public in March, French company TotalEnergies is getting $1 billion — essentially a refund of its leases for offshore wind projects off New York and North Carolina — if it invests the money in fossil fuel projects instead.

State attorneys general from Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Rhode Island and Vermont joined New York in challenging the cancellation of the lease off New York, the larger of the two projects and the bulk of the payout. They say it will harm their states’ economies, energy grids and climate goals.

“This administration cooked up a sham deal to pay a foreign energy company hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to abandon offshore wind and invest in oil and gas instead," New York Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement. "We are fighting back to stop this illegal agreement that threatens to erase over a thousand union jobs and cheat millions of New Yorkers out of clean, affordable energy.”

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said she and James will continue to aggressively fight back against President Donald Trump’s “overt and never-ending hostility toward offshore wind." Trump, who often talks about his hatred of wind power, has said his goal is to not let any “windmills” be built.

The complaint filed in District Court for the District of Columbia names administration officials, including Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, as defendants, and argues that they canceled the lease without following proper procedures. The states are asking a federal judge to vacate the lease cancellation and settlement agreement with TotalEnergies' subsidiary, Attentive Energy.

Separately, a coalition of renewable energy groups filed a complaint in District Court in Oregon on Sunday over Pentagon officials not completing national security reviews for new onshore wind farms on private lands. They say this inaction has brought a total halt to all wind project development. The Pentagon has said its siting clearinghouse is actively evaluating land-based wind energy projects and it's a complex, time-consuming process.

In response to the New York-led lawsuit, the Interior Department said Tuesday the only thing blatantly unlawful was the process by which these offshore wind leases were negotiated and imposed under the Biden administration, funneling taxpayer dollars into unreliable, unaffordable energy projects. A spokesperson said the lease buybacks were voluntary agreements that no one was forced to sign, which were reviewed and approved by the Department of Justice.

Burgum also defended the TotalEnergies deal last month during a hearing at the House Natural Resources Committee.

U.S. Rep. Dave Min, a California Democrat, asked Burgum if it's appropriate for Interior to send $1 billion to a foreign oil company to stop producing energy, while people are dealing with sky-high utility bills.

Burgum said TotalEnergies was simply refunded their money, which they have already invested in other energy projects in the U.S.

“They essentially gave the U.S. government an interest-free loan and their money was refunded to them,” he said.

Min said the cancellation of TotalEnergies’ offshore wind leases is a case study on Interior's “economically illiterate and unlawful energy strategy.”

TotalEnergies purchased the lease off New York and New Jersey, in 2022, for $795 million. This was planned as a larger project, with the potential to generate 3 gigawatts of clean energy to power nearly one million homes. It would have brought $10 billion in savings to ratepayers across New York, with $500 million in savings for low-income households, on electricity bills, according to the complaint filed Tuesday.

TotalEnergies also purchased a lease for its Carolina Long Bay project in 2022 for about $133 million. It aimed to generate more than 1 gigawatt there, enough to power about 300,000 homes.

Burgum has said companies were sold a product that was only viable when propped up by massive taxpayer subsidies when they bid for these offshore wind leases in 2022, under former President Joe Biden.

The Trump administration is spending nearly $2 billion to get energy companies to walk away from U.S. offshore wind projects. It adopted this strategy after federal courts thwarted Trump’s efforts to stop offshore wind development through executive action.

Democrats in Congress are investigating the TotalEnergies agreement, and California is investigating a deal that ended a floating offshore wind project, Golden State Wind, proposed off the state's central coast.

Bluepoint Wind also agreed to end its lease for an offshore wind project in the early stages of development off the coasts of New Jersey and New York. Tuesday's complaint does not challenge this agreement, as the lease has not been canceled yet.

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The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

Gutierrez is a board-certified OB-GYN and obesity medicine specialist who sees patients at Methodist Physicians Westover Hills OB/GYN, a new clinic in Far West San Antonio affiliated with Methodist Hospital | Westover Hills. The practice offers pregnancy care, gynecologic care and women’s health services for patients at many stages of life.

Gutierrez said one of the biggest challenges for expecting moms today is sorting through the nonstop flood of online advice.

“I see so many patients come in armed with questions or concerns they got off TikTok, Instagram or Facebook,” Gutierrez said. “The No. 1 thing I tell people is, ‘Use online information carefully. Turn to your OB-GYN or trusted medical sources when you have questions.’”

Below are some of the most common pregnancy myths -- and what an OB-GYN wants moms to know.

1. Myth: Pregnancy means you should stop exercising

Many assume pregnancy means scaling back physical activity completely. Gutierrez said exercise is actually encouraged in most healthy pregnancies.

“We recommend women have 150 minutes a week of moderate intensity aerobic exercise,” she said.

Walking, swimming, stationary biking, yoga and Pilates are generally considered safe options. However, she recommends avoiding contact sports, activities with a high fall risk and exercises that involve lying flat on the back for long periods.

Women who were highly active before pregnancy may be able to continue more intense workouts with their doctor’s guidance, but Gutierrez said moderation and hydration are especially important -- particularly during South Texas summers.

2. Myth: You’re supposed to “eat for two”

One of the oldest pregnancy sayings is also one of the most misunderstood.

“Expecting moms need 200 to 300 extra calories a day,” Gutierrez said. “It’s probably not quite as much as many women think it is.”

That increase may be as simple as an apple with a glass of milk or another healthy snack. Most women gain very little weight during the first trimester, with weight gain gradually increasing later in pregnancy as the baby grows more rapidly.

Gutierrez said recommended weight gain depends on a woman’s starting weight before pregnancy.

3. Myth: Cravings are always random

While many cravings are harmless, some can signal nutritional deficiencies.

Gutierrez said one important condition OB-GYNs watch for is pica -- cravings for non-food items like chalk, dirt, laundry soap or ice.

“That is an indication of a particular kind of iron deficiency,” she said.

Chewing ice is one of the most common signs of pica and might warrant iron testing if it becomes excessive.

4. Myth: Limited alcohol during pregnancy is harmless

Questions about alcohol remain one of the most common topics in prenatal visits.

“The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists’ position is that there is no amount of alcohol that is considered safe during pregnancy,” Gutierrez said.

She also advises against marijuana use during pregnancy, even in places where it is legal -- recreationally or medically.

“There are a lot of studies that say marijuana use during pregnancy may be linked to attention deficit and behavioral problems after delivery,” she said.

Tobacco products should also be avoided entirely.

5. Myth: Expecting moms must give up caffeine completely

Unlike alcohol, moderate caffeine consumption is generally considered safe in healthy pregnancies.

“In general, 200 milligrams of caffeine a day is considered safe,” Gutierrez said. “That’s about one 12-ounce cup of coffee.”

6. Myth: All pregnancy food restrictions are overblown

Some food cautions during pregnancy are rooted in legitimate risks -- even if rare.

Seafood can still be part of a healthy pregnancy diet, but Gutierrez recommends limiting large fish like tuna to about twice weekly -- because of mercury concerns -- and avoiding raw seafood altogether.

Deli meat remains another debated topic because of the small risk of listeria contamination.

“The risk is extremely low,” she said. “But technically, the recommendation is to heat deli meat to steaming before consuming it.”

Gutierrez also emphasizes adequate calcium intake during pregnancy, with a recommendation of about 1,500 milligrams daily through dairy or fortified alternatives.

7. Myth: Hot tubs and saunas are fine in moderation

Gutierrez said expecting moms should be cautious with anything that significantly raises body temperature.

“Raising the body temperature can increase risk of birth defects,” she said.

Because of that, hot tubs and saunas are generally discouraged during pregnancy.

8. Myth: More skincare products are safer than people realize

Pregnancy-safe skincare has become a growing source of confusion online, especially with the rise of beauty influencers and trending products.

Gutierrez recommends avoiding retinols and retinoids during pregnancy because excessive vitamin A exposure can be harmful to fetal development.

She also advises caution with heavily fragranced products and certain chemicals commonly found in cosmetics and personal care items.

“Lots of personal care products contain lead, parabens and PFAS,” she said. “They’re endocrine disruptors.”

Instead, she recommends fragrance-free products and mineral-based sunscreens that contain zinc or titanium.

9. Myth: Traveling during pregnancy is always dangerous

For most healthy pregnancies, travel is considered safe -- particularly during the middle of pregnancy.

“Ideally, if people are going to plan a trip, we’d love it to be between 14 and 28 weeks,” Gutierrez said.

After that point, concerns about blood clots, preterm labor and access to medical care become more important.

She recommends getting up regularly to walk and stretch during long flights or drives.

One safety rule she said should never be ignored: wear your seatbelt.

“However tight that seatbelt gets in an accident is much better for the baby than hitting the steering wheel or getting ejected from the vehicle,” she said.

10. Myth: Moms should “bounce back” immediately after birth

One of the biggest misconceptions may come after pregnancy itself.

Gutierrez said many women feel pressure to quickly return to normal routines, responsibilities and even their pre-pregnancy bodies almost immediately after delivery.

“I see a lot of women back in a week or two who are just feeling overwhelmed, exhausted and emotional,” she said.

Instead, she encourages new moms to lean on family, friends and community support during the postpartum period.

“This is what friends and family and neighbors are for,” she said. “I don’t want people to go home and think they have to bounce back immediately.”

The biggest piece of advice? Use online resources carefully.

While online advice can sometimes be helpful, Gutierrez said social media often creates unnecessary fear and confusion during pregnancy.

Rather than relying on every post or video online, she encourages women to rely on trusted medical providers and evidence-based resources like the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists website.

Above all, she wants patients to know they don’t have to navigate pregnancy alone.

“Call your provider any time,” she said. “That’s what we’re here for.”

Have questions about pregnancy? Visit Methodist Healthcare’s website to find women’s care resources and connect with an OB-GYN.

The news was first reported by The University Star, Texas State’s student-run newspaper.

In a Tuesday statement to KSAT, the university identified the student as John Gabriel Mendoza Jr., 18. He was a freshman who studied management, according to the school.

“We extend our heartfelt condolences to his family, friends, classmates, and all those affected by this tragedy,” the university said in its statement.

Deputies attempted a traffic stop on a vehicle just after midnight Monday near Farm-to-Market 2004 and This Way Street in Lake Jackson, the sheriff’s office said.

The driver of the vehicle, who was identified as Mendoza by The University Star, did not stop, deputies said. The deputies then chased after the vehicle for approximately a mile into a neighborhood located in the 100 block of Indian Warrior Trail.

According to the sheriff’s office, the driver went inside a home’s garage and parked before a deputy approached the vehicle, the release said.

The deputy then pulled out his firearm and shot into the vehicle. The sheriff’s office said the gunfire struck the driver.

The University Star reported that Mendoza was the one shot. He was taken to a hospital, where he was later pronounced dead.

The deputy who pulled the trigger has since been placed on administrative leave in accordance with the Brazoria County Sheriff’s Office policy.

KSAT reached out to the Lake Jackson Police Department and the Brazoria County Sheriff’s Office for more information, but neither agency has responded at this time.

The shooting investigation is being led by the Texas Rangers, according to a Brazoria County Sheriff’s Office news release.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

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Craft has worked in public education for 27 years. He was hired to serve as Northside ISD’s superintendent in 2023 after working with Kileen ISD.

“It’s always been about creating opportunities for students,” said Craft in a statement. “I consider myself truly blessed to have served the children within Texas public schools.”

Craft’s evaluation and contract were set to be discussed in closed session during a May 26 board meeting, according to the agenda.

In a statement, the district said the board will meet on June 9 to consider and discuss a transition plan for finding its next superintendent.

Challenges, notable incidents during Craft’s tenure

During Craft’s tenure, Northside ISD has faced several challenges and notable incidents, including a $35 million budget deficit with the possibility of school closures, the conviction of a NISD police officer who shot a woman outside of a football game and the death of a Stevens High School student who passed out during practice.

Northside ISD has also been the subject of “Dangerous Lessons,” a years-long KSAT investigation into students hurting educators.

Brandeis High School Instructional Aide Alfred Jimenez died in 2024 after a student with disabilities pushed him.

In the last three school years, KSAT Investigates found that Northside ISD had the largest number of student-caused injuries reported by educators.

Alfred Jimenez’s widow and others who work in special education have pushed the district to make improvements to training, staffing and safety protocols.

After two years of pressing the district for an interview, Craft agreed to sit down with KSAT Investigates to discuss the changes made since Jimenez’s death and the limitations from the state.

Jimenez’s widow, Margo Jimenez, has been frustrated with the lack of information about what led up to her husband’s death.

“For me, nothing has changed,” Margo Jimenez said. “I have no closure. I still don’t know what actually happened.”

The month after KSAT Investigates’ special aired, Northside ISD school board members questioned Craft about whether there were any plans to offer closure to Margo Jimenez.

“I would not be able to answer that question without legal counsel present,” said Craft during the April 28 board meeting.

Read more reporting on the KSAT Investigates page.

The market in Trujillo was set on fire last June when the women refused to give in to threats. Days later, they marched, demanding protection from authorities. Nothing changed. But that didn’t surprise Saavedra, as police had failed her in August 2024, when her house was attacked with explosives in another extortion attempt.

That level of violence by Peruvian gangs is the main concern for voters who will elect a new president in a runoff election Sunday. Many will leave their homes to vote fearful of becoming crime victims again during their trip to the polls.

“You can’t even stick your head out for fear of being shot,” Saavedra, 49, said.

Illegal gold mining fuels organized crime

The first extortion cases reported in Trujillo took place more than 20 years ago, but the crime has spread throughout Peru in the last five years. During that period, extortion complaints increased fivefold, reaching 28,948 cases last year, while killings doubled, reaching 2,226 in 2025, according to official data.

Police and security experts attribute the expansion of criminal gangs in Trujillo to their involvement in illegal gold mining. They say the gangs initially profited by providing security to illegal gold miners in a nearby town, then used the proceeds to hire hitmen, buy weapons and strengthen their presence in the city.

According to official data, illegal mining generates approximately $7 billion annually, much more than the roughly $1.2 billion generated annually by drug trafficking.

The first victims of extortion were public transportation companies, whose drivers were killed if payment was not made. Transportation workers continue to be targeted, with at least 239 drivers killed last year across the country, according to the independent Observatory of Crime and Violence.

Of those killed, more than half were motorcycle taxi drivers, widely used on the outskirts of cities where roads are often unpaved. But it has been the murders of bus drivers that have triggered transportation strikes and protests.

Experts attribute the increasing power of organized crime in Peru to the profits that decades-old criminal groups are earning from illegal gold mining in the Andes and the Amazon. In 2025, Peru exported 100 tons of illegally mined gold, nearly matching the 109 tons of legally mined gold it exported.

Even schools are crime targets

In a Trujillo neighborhood where a quarter of the country’s footwear is manufactured, union leader Máximo Varas said that around 1,500 small business owners in that industry pay extortionists to be able to work.

“Everyone pays — even I get extorted. No one is safe,” he said.

Across Trujillo, several buses, restaurants, corner stores, nightclubs and even schools have stickers on their facades, including of a puma, a cross and a Batman logo. Police said the stickers indicate that the businesses have paid extortion fees. Authorities sometimes go around Trujillo removing those stickers and replacing them with ones from law enforcement.

For businessman Iván Díaz, 58, violence has increased “unreasonably" in Trujillo. In 2023, he was kidnapped for 11 days by criminals dressed as police officers who dragged him from his office. To obtain a $250,000 ransom, his captors cut off part of two fingers on his right hand and sent videos of the torture to his family to “advance the payment.”

“I had to adapt to reality and keep a cool head,” Díaz said.

In May, the courts sentenced four members of the criminal group Los Pulpos, which emerged in Trujillo in the 1990s and later expanded to neighboring Chile, to life imprisonment for Díaz’s kidnapping.

Authorities have limited resources to fight crime

The Ministry of Economy estimated in July that crime costs Peruvians some $5 billion annually. This figure includes state investment to fund police operations, but also private spending on surveillance cameras and security guards.

Peru’s outlying neighborhoods lack paved roads, potable water and electricity, but above all, they lack a police presence. In contrast, wealthier municipalities like the capital’s San Borja, where the two presidential candidates — the conservative Keiko Fujimori and the progressive Roberto Sánchez — live, have a large number of uniformed officers as well as an additional force of private security agents patrolling their streets.

Security experts maintain that combating crime requires an anti-corruption purge of the national police force, which has some 130,000 officers, and significant funding for investigations.

An agent investigating organized crime groups who asked not to be identified because he is not authorized to speak to the press told The Associated Press that due to a lack of technology, the police cannot track the phones associated with the digital wallets that criminals use to receive extortion payments.

Harvey Colchado, a congressman-elect and retired police officer, said each of the country’s 70 police investigative units had a monthly budget of $29,000 five years ago, but now, they have no funds as the state allocated the money elsewhere. He added that this is compounded by laws approved in recent years with the support of the parties of Fujimori and Sánchez that make it difficult to prosecute criminals.

The laws Colchado referred to eliminated preliminary detention in certain cases and raised the threshold for seizing criminal assets and carrying out searches.

“This is a cancer," Saavedra said. "(Police) don’t have the resources to trace the calls, to know where the messages are coming from. That’s the only way to stop it."

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Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america

Jada shares the heartwarming story of a father and daughter who found each other later in life and now run a business together, Sifuentes Metalsmith at La Villita.

Did you know there’s a local rescue for farm animals? We go to Winding Branch Ranch to learn how they’re changing the lives of our farm animal friends.

Are you stuck in a rut? Author and San Antonian Wendy Valentine shares her seven-step framework to get unstuck with a Midlife Makeover.

According to a 10-page list of settlement terms, requested by The Texas Tribune, Texas Children’s has 90 days from the effective date of the settlement to set up the detransition clinic. The attorney general announced the settlement two weeks ago but because a final settlement has not been signed there is no effective date agreed upon yet. 

The clinic must provide multiple services including access to endocrinology, surgery, primary care, fertility counseling, psychiatry and psychotherapy. Also, the clinic must provide obstetrics and gynecological services to adults who have undergone gender transitioning procedures, although it’s unclear if all adult transgender people who want to seek these services must do so through the detransition clinic. 

The $10 million settlement, first announced on May 15, is the result of a 2023 investigation by the attorney general’s office into Texas Children’s. That same year, Gov. Greg Abbott signed Senate Bill 14 that bars transgender children from receiving puberty blockers and hormone therapies. Previously, all that was known about the settlement was that the hospital agreed to pay $10 million to the state and permanently revoke the medical privileges of three current doctors and two former ones. 

The settlement terms released Monday are the first details about the unusual agreement between the nation’s largest pediatric hospital and the attorney general that would set up the nation’s first “detransitioning clinic.” Detransitioning is the stopping or reversal of transitioning care by social, medical or legal means, and it is rare for people to regret transitioning after taking hormone therapy and surgical interventions. 

Common reasons for detransitioning include lack of family support, financial barriers and social pressure. 

Per the settlement, Texas Children’s must also create a website for the detransition clinic and create a donate page so those individuals wanting to donate money toward the detransition clinic’s efforts, can do so. The hospital must keep a “Potential GAC Patient List” that includes all diagnostic codes detailed by the AG and conduct an internal review of the list to confirm compliance with state and federal laws and the settlement agreement. 

According to Texas Children’s, they have not been asked to share the list and noted to do so would not be legally permissible. “We abide by HIPAA and protecting patient privacy is one of our top priorities,” the hospital said in a statement. 

The attorney general’s office released to the Tribune a “Settlement Term Sheet” and not the complete settlement document between the two parties, as originally requested because one has not been signed. “We’ve aligned on a term sheet and the next step is to finalize the settlement agreement per standard practice,” Texas Children’s said in a statement. 

Other requirements include the removal of all hospital press releases from the Texas Children’s website related to gender transition services. 

As previously announced, TCH must bar any gender-affirming care procedures, what the Texas attorney general’s office calls “sex-rejecting” procedures in the settlement, defined as pharmaceutical or surgical interventions that “attempt to align an individual’s physical appearance or body … that differs from the individual’s sex.” This includes puberty blockers and hormone treatments. Also previously announced was the permanent revoking of medical privileges to three current doctors and two former ones. 

The hospital previously issued a statement insisting it complied with all laws and decided to settle to close a legal chapter that has been, in their words: “wrought with falsehoods and distractions.”  The hospital also noted earlier that the services demanded as part of the settlement were already offered at the hospital.  Late Monday, they emphasized that fact. “The detransition clinic will formalize the supportive, multidisciplinary services we already deliver to all patients who need our care,” the hospital statement said. “This simply provides structure and a name for the services we currently provide.”  

A 2024 study of private insurance by Harvard University’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health found that less than 1% of minors are transgender and received puberty blockers or hormone treatments.

Disclosure: Texas Children’s Hospital has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune’s journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

The video of Shelby Officer Karson Hyder pummeling Cherrie Moore on Friday has circulated widely on social media.

Hyder, 22, turned himself in to the Cleveland County Detention Center Monday morning and was released on a $10,000 secured bond. Court records do not list an attorney for him, and a phone number associated with his name was out of service.

Hyder, who was suspended Friday and fired on Saturday, was responding to a breaking-and-entering call when the scuffle ensued.

According to a warrant, Moore, 34, fled the residence on foot and resisted arrest, assaulting Hyder by “grabbing and ripping (his) uniform.”

A separate warrant filed Monday alleged Hyder “unlawfully and willfully did assault and strike Cherrie Moore” by grabbing Moore “by the arm, pushing her to the ground and striking her in the face with a closed fist, thereby inflicting serious injury possible broken nose and busted lip.”

The State Bureau of Investigation had announced Saturday it had opened an investigation into Hyder.

Moore was initially charged with breaking and entering, resisting arrest and assault on a public officer, but the latter two charges have since been dismissed. She was freed on an unsecured bond. A phone number associated with Moore was disconnected.

Her attorney, Ronald Haynes, told The Associated Press in an email that Moore “is recovering and receiving treatment for her mental health.”

“The heinous actions of former Officer Karson Hyder will forever negatively impact Ms. Cherrie Moore and her family,” Haynes continued. “It’s a small relief that city officials responded so promptly to terminate and charge Mr. Hyder."

The team announced a lineup of free fan activations across San Antonio, including watch parties, giveaways, a downtown pep rally and special River Walk artwork.

Finals pep rally set for Tuesday

The Spurs will host a Finals pep rally at the Red McCombs Community Court at Hemisfair’s Tower Park on Tuesday, June 2.

The event begins at 7 p.m. and will feature special appearances, giveaways and free Taco Palenque tacos for the first 700 fans.

Watch parties planned throughout the Finals

Official watch parties will continue at The Rock at La Cantera for every Finals game. Attendance is free but limited, and fans are encouraged to RSVP through Spurs.com/Playoffs. Entry will be granted on a first-come, first-served basis.

The Frost Bank Center will also host free watch parties for all away games. Tickets are required, though they do not guarantee admission. Fans can join the Spurs Fan Club to receive notifications when tickets become available.

Fans looking to catch the games at local restaurants can also visit participating Pluckers Wing Bar locations in San Antonio and Austin. Customers who wear Spurs gear during Finals watch parties can receive five free wings with the purchase of an adult entrée, while supplies last.

River Walk getting Spurs makeover

The Spurs are also bringing playoff spirit to downtown San Antonio with special bridge artwork along the River Walk.

According to the team, bridges throughout the downtown area will feature Fiesta-inspired Spurs-themed designs during the Finals series.

More fan activations continue

Several fan experiences introduced during earlier playoff rounds will remain in place throughout the Finals, including the downtown pop-up fan shop at CENTRO’s La Zona location.

Fans can also continue taking advantage of partner promotions, including free Taco Palenque breakfast tacos following Spurs victories.

The Spurs and Knicks will meet in the NBA Finals as San Antonio looks to capture its first NBA championship since 2014. Additional playoff information and a full schedule of fan events can be found at Spurs.com/Playoffs.

Read also:

• Wemby vs. the Knicks: It’s fitting that a marquee matchup awaits in the NBA Finals
• NBA Finals tickets in San Antonio for Spurs-Knicks soar as fans scramble for seats

Manuel Ochoa, 66, was pronounced dead at the scene, SAPD said in an updated preliminary report obtained by KSAT.

Ochoa died from orthostatic cardiovascular disease complicated by smoke inhalation, according to the Bexar County Medical Examiner’s Office. His manner of death was ruled an accident.

The fire sparked just after 3 a.m. at a home in the 1200 block of Edison Drive, which is located near Fresno Street.

Upon arrival, San Antonio Fire Department crews said they encountered flames in the back of the home.

Family members told SAFD one of their loved ones, later identified as Ochoa, was still inside the home.

Fire officials found Ochoa dead in an area toward the back of the home, the department said.

Although at least three dogs were saved, SAFD said that multiple pets were also killed in the fire.

The house sustained significant damage to its backside, fire officials said. The cause of the fire remains under investigation.

Read also:

• Man arrested, accused of murder in connection with Northeast Side stabbing, SAPD says
• SAPD officer shot armed suspect in self-defense, affidavit says

The trend has encouraged San Antonio’s Metro Health and H-E-B to relaunch its insulin financial assistance program aimed at helping residents who struggle to afford their diabetes medications.

The program covers $100 per prescription, including refills, for eligible patients.

“We’re partnered with H-E-B and 19 pharmacies, and those pharmacies were chosen because they’re located in the areas where we see the highest hospitalization rates and prevalence rates for diabetes,” said Julius Hunter, Metro Health program coordinator.

Diabetes is the fifth leading cause of death in Bexar County, according to Metro Health.

Morjoriee White, assistant director for community health and safety at Metro Health, said the goal is to make sure that no one has to choose between their health and other expenses.

“We don’t ever want folks to be in a predicament where they have to choose other things and not take care of themselves,” White said.

Beyond the insulin assistance program, the city offers a range of free resources for residents looking to prevent diabetes or better manage their health.

The resources are listed at SA.gov and include:

• free diabetes prevention and self-management classes
• weekly workshops
• fitness and nutrition coaches

Kimberly Galavan joined the Diabetes Prevention Program this year and said it has helped her lose 30 pounds.

“It might be intimidating at first or, you know, it’s hard to accept that maybe you do have this,” Galavan said. “But it is up to you to make that first step. Like, you are in charge of your life, you’re in charge of your health.”

Bexar County residents can click here to find a full list of free diabetes resources and to apply for assistance.

Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran, launched dozens of projectiles and drones toward Israeli soldiers in southern Lebanon and Israeli cities and towns in recent days as Israel's airstrikes killed dozens, including women and children, in Lebanon. Hezbollah did not carry out any attacks on Israel after Trump's announcement.

The ongoing hostilities — despite Trump's announcement and a nominal ceasefire that began in April — are deepening displacement for Lebanon's conflict-weary population. They also are a significant sticking point in negotiations to extend a ceasefire in the U.S.-Israeli war in Iran, as the Islamic Republic wants any such deal to end fighting in Lebanon, too.

Two semiofficial Iranian news agencies reported Tuesday that the country cut off communication with mediators facilitating the ceasefire talks.

Another round of talks between Israel and Lebanon began Tuesday in Washington, where Lebanese negotiators will seek a full ceasefire that will prevent future attacks. The talks began in April and were the first in more than three decades between the countries, which have no formal diplomatic relations. Hezbollah has rejected direct talks, counting on pressure from Iran.

The planned talks come days after Israeli ground troops made their deepest incursion into Lebanon in 26 years and Israel then threatened to strike Beirut’s southern suburbs, causing panic in the Lebanese capital as thousands fled.

Israel says it will keep attacking if Hezbollah does

Trump said Monday he'd spoken with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and had communicated with Hezbollah through mediators, and that no troops would be “going to Beirut." But the intensity of attacks between Israel and Hezbollah continued.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said Tuesday that Israel previously refrained from attacking Beirut out of deference to negotiations between the U.S. and Iran. But he said Netanyahu informed Trump in a phone call late Monday that Israel will attack Beirut's southern suburbs if Hezbollah continues targeting northern Israel, echoing comments from the prime minister the previous day.

Lebanon's top political authorities insist that the talks must continue, despite Beirut's struggles in stopping the strikes, and the mounting pressure from over 1 million displaced people living in difficult conditions.

“Negotiations is the least costly option on Lebanon and the Lebanese people,” Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said. “It is the shortest road to the occupation and allow our people in the south to return to the cities and villages.”

An Israeli drone strike hit a car on the road linking the southern town of Marjayoun with the city of Nabatiyeh, killing James Karam, a dentist from the nearby Christian town of Qlayaa, along with his daughter and son, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported Tuesday.

The Lebanese army said two soldiers were lightly wounded when another drone targeted them on a road outside the city.

Drone strikes killed two Syrians working at a plant nursery in the village of Jibchit and two people in the nearby village of Toul, the news agency reported. A third strike hit a car near the village of Harouf, killing one person.

Two other airstrikes on southern Lebanon killed three people, according to NNA.

The Israeli military said it wasn't aware of any Israeli strikes in the area where Karam and his family members were killed.

NNA also reported that an Israeli airstrike in the southern village of Marwaniyeh on Monday killed six people from the Abdullah family. Hassan and his wife Hanan were killed alongside four children Ali, Ibrahim, Leen and Julia. A third son survived but is undergoing treatment.

Hezbollah said Tuesday its fighters fired anti-tank missiles on Israeli troops who were pushing into the southern village of Hadatha, about 7 kilometers (4 miles) from the Israeli border.

Sirens sounded in several areas in northern Israel, its military said in a statement. It added that “a suspicious aerial target" was identified in the area where Israeli soldiers are operating in southern Lebanon, but that no injuries were reported.

More than 3,400 people have been killed in Lebanon

The latest round of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah has killed 3,468 people in Lebanon and displaced more than 1 million people. According to Netanyahu’s office, at least 27 Israeli soldiers and a defense contractor have been killed in or near southern Lebanon. Two civilians have also been killed in northern Israel.

Israel’s military said late Monday that a soldier was killed in southern Lebanon. It added that seven more soldiers were wounded in the incident, three of them severely.

Hezbollah’s use of hard-to-detect fiber-optic drones has been deadly for the Israeli military, which is struggling to respond.

___

This story has been corrected to say Hezbollah fired at Israeli soldiers in southern Lebanon.

—

Lidman reported from Tel Aviv, Israel.

Her hair covered by a pink bonnet, Basekawike prepares porridge, omelets and bread for breakfast in a shed outside the Evangelical Medical Center in Bunia, the heart of the outbreak in eastern Congo. Lunch and dinner might include fresh fish with fufu, made of mashed plantains, finished off by fruit. She feeds both patients and health workers.

“Even though the patients have this disease, they still feel better when they eat, and the doctors have the energy to treat the sick and give them medication,” Basekawike told The Associated Press as she prepared vegetables and potatoes with goat meat in a large pot. “I’m here for them like a parent, preparing food so they feel comfortable.”

Her contribution may appear like a simple task, but it has become a critical support for the remote region as it grapples with the rapidly spreading Bundibugyo virus, the rare species of Ebola confirmed in May.

As of Tuesday, 321 cases including 48 deaths had been confirmed in the Central African nation’s three eastern provinces of Ituri, North and South Kivu, according to the World Health Organization. WHO spokesman Christian Lindmeier said the number of suspected cases has dropped to 116 from 906 last weekend as many were ruled out after investigation.

Neighboring Uganda's has had 15 cases and one death confirmed, its health ministry said Tuesday. Uganda closed its border with Congo last week despite WHO guidance not to do so.

Meanwhile, Congolese authorities reopened Bunia’s airport on Tuesday for domestic flights, requiring passengers to undergo temperature checks and respect strict sanitary measures.

The International Organization for Migration on Tuesday urged governments to strengthen cross-border coordination instead, warning that border closures could drive people's movement underground and increase transmission risks.

“Viruses do not stop at borders, and neither should our response,” said Ugochi Daniels, IOM deputy director-general for operations. “When borders close, people often continue moving through informal routes where health screening and surveillance are limited.”

The Congo-Uganda border has numerous footpaths beyond formal border posts.

Before the outbreak, the region already faced one of the world's most severe food crises, because of an ongoing conflict that has displaced millions of people as government forces fight rebels. The United Nations has warned that might complicate efforts to manage the spread of the virus among an already wary population.

“Ebola is an additional crisis on top of a crisis,” said Olivier Nkakudulu, who heads the World Food Program in Ituri province.

WFP is facing a critical choice as aid cuts by the U.S. and other major partners have disrupted operations in the vulnerable region. Efforts to contain the disease, which WHO has deemed a public health emergency of international concern, have been hampered.

Meanwhile, attacks by suspicious residents on health workers and the slow delivery of aid because of the conflict have been challenging.

Responders say they have ensured patients' nutritional demands are met as “comfort food” takes on a more significant meaning.

“Today we need to increase the amount because the number of patients has gone up,” said Esther Bao, a nurse and one of the volunteers. She worried about patients who, because of their health situation, “don't eat just any meal.”

Among the rare signs of optimism, at least five people have recovered in the outbreak, which continues to spread.

More than 400 meals have been served since the food assistance began on Thursday, according to Nkakudulu.

But "without more funding, we might not be able to prioritize every suspected case,” Nkakudulu said. "We might have to focus on some and not have food to give to others."

___

Adetayo reported from Lagos, Nigeria. Geir Moulson in Berlin and Mark Banchereau in Dakar, Senegal, contributed to this report.

Ruto said on Monday that the U.S. had a long-standing partnership with Kenya on health matters and that the quarantine facility at Laikipia Air Base was one of 24 facilities that had been established in the event of an Ebola outbreak in the country.

Some Kenyans have opposed the Laikipia facility after the U.S. last week said no American Ebola patient would be allowed to return home and that patients would instead be quarantined at the facility in Kenya. The U.S. intends to commit $13 million to the partnership with Kenya.

The high court on Tuesday extended orders issued Friday suspending the construction of the facility and the arrival of foreign patients. The case had been filed by the Law Society of Kenya and a constitutional watchdog, Katiba Institute, who cited Kenya's fragile health system as unable to handle foreign patients.

Kenyans took to the streets on Monday and Tuesday to protest a plan to quarantine Americans in the country. Protest organizers said two people were killed during Monday’s demonstrations outside Laikipia Air Base.

Speaking for the first time on the matter, Ruto said he agreed to the establishment of the facility based on existing bilateral relations.

“When President Trump asked the government of Kenya to support them by having a center at Laikipia Air Base, I gave the OK because it was an agreement and a partnership with friends who have worked with Kenya for 30-40 years,” he said.

Ruto said the facilities established across the country under the partnership would also benefit Kenyans in the event of an Ebola outbreak.

“We are a responsible government. We know what we are doing. People should relax. Politicians should avoid reckless, unnecessary talk that doesn’t mean anything,” he said.

Kenya has not recorded any Ebola cases, but neighboring Uganda has reported nine cases and one death confirmed. In Congo, 321 cases and 48 deaths had been confirmed as of Tuesday in the Central African nation’s three eastern provinces of Ituri, North and South Kivu, according to the World Health Organization.

Join KSAT 12 Meteorologist Justin Horne this Wednesday, June 2nd, for a fun, fast giveaway sponsored by Gamez Law Firm.

• 📍 Location: Gamez Law Firm, 2943 Mossrock
• 📅 Date: June 3
• ⏱️ Line starts: 8:00 a.m.
• 👕 T-shirt giveaway starts: 9:00 a.m.
• 🎟️ Cost: FREE to the first 100 people in line; must be 18 years of age

Giveaway details (read this part!)

• First 100 KSAT viewers/Spurs fans in line get a shirt
• Limit one (1) T-shirt per person, while supplies last
• Must be 18 years of age to receive a shirt
• Sizes are subject to availability and not guaranteed; recipients will receive the size available at the time of distribution
• No exchanges

Bring your Spurs energy, be ready to “Honk the Horne,” and let’s show up strong for our silver and black as they enter the playoffs.

GO SPURS GO — and don’t forget to watch Larry, Mary and Ashley for the latest in Spurs news!

You can read the Official Rules & Regulations here.

Programmers at the American Cinematheque, a nonprofit arts group that curates for several historic theaters in Los Angeles, heard the cries for comedies and thought, well, what if they did the opposite? Bleak Week, which would conveniently coincide with the city’s June Gloom, could be the art house version of Shark Week.

“We didn’t know how it was going to go,” said Grant Moninger, the group's artistic director. “People may like this … or people may look at it and somehow be offended.”

In 2022, he and Chris LeMaire programmed wall-to-wall selections of world cinema’s most austere offerings, from Elem Klimov’s anti-war epic “Come and See” to Béla Tarr’s 439-minute “Sátántangó.” LA-based film critic Katie Walsh was one of the early champions of the concept. When it was announced she remembered tweeting the “sickos” meme.

“I was just like, yes, this is for me, this for the sickos,” Walsh said. “We were really enthusiastic about it online. I think that they were like, OK, great, this is like a concept that is going to translate.”

From niche experiment to global footprint

Five years later, Bleak Week has gone global. Across June, there will be Bleak Weeks taking place in 100 theaters in 73 cities spanning eight countries, from the United Kingdom and Canada to Puerto Rico and Latin America. In the United States, it’s not just the biggest cities either: There are versions in Columbia, Missouri (Ragtag Cinema), Pittsburgh (Row House Cinema), Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, (Cinema Art Theatre), Brookline, Massachusetts (Coolidge Corner Theatre) and Albuquerque, New Mexico, (Guild Cinema), to name a few.

“Although Bleak Week sounds depressing, it’s really a celebration of the human experience,” Moninger said. “It’s really what cinema is about: empathy and understanding the world.”

Ennui at the movie theater wasn't niche after all. Those nearly 7 ½-hour showings of “Sátántangó” regularly sell out. It’s not uncommon to see famous people both on the stage and in the audience ( Sean Baker and Mikey Madison were spotted at a screening one year of “In a Glass Cave,” about an ex-Nazi pedophile). Even Tarr, the great Hungarian filmmaker who died earlier this year and once said he’d never come back to the United States, made an exception and attended Bleak Week in year two. Expansion soon followed to The Paris Theatre in New York and The Prince Charles Cinema in London.

“The thing about cinema is that you get to experience all the colors of human experience,” said Walsh, who has both attended and served as a moderator over the years. “Bleak Week offers a chance to kind of like revel in this specific feeling in a lot of ways. I just really love it. I see stuff that I would never ever see elsewhere.”

At the end of the movies, Walsh said, “I usually have to go stare at a wall for like 30 minutes.”

Over 300 movies at Bleak Week 2026

The fifth edition is already underway in Los Angeles at the Egyptian Theatre, the Aero Theatre and the Los Feliz 3. On the schedule are appearances by the likes of Isabelle Huppert, who will do Q&As for several films, including “The Piano Teacher” and “Heaven’s Gate,” filmmaker Ari Aster, showing his director’s cut of “Midsommar” and Denis Villeneuve on behalf of his breakout film “Incendies.”

One of the most liberating aspects about the concept is that there’s no genre stranglehold on the idea of bleak cinema. It can be wartime. It can be interpersonal drama. It can be fantasy. It can even be family friendly. They’ve empowered local programmers to make their own selections; This year there are over 300 movies being shown globally.

“They know their audience. They know what films will resonate,” said LeMaire. “It’s fun for us to see all the different approaches.”

The Gene Siskel Film Center in Chicago is focusing on animation, playing movies like Hayao Miyazaki’s “Princess Mononoke,” Martin Rosen’s “Watership Down” and Michael Schaack’s “Felidae.” The Argentina program will include both local films and a retrospective of Aster’s works. At Vancouver’s historic Park Theatre, selections were made by local filmmakers and “friends of the venue.” Actor Finn Wolfhard elected “The Celebration,” “Sinners” cinematographer Autumn Durald Arkapaw chose “The Deer Hunter” and “Anora” producer Samantha Quan picked “The Virgin Suicides.”

The most programmed film this year is Isao Takahata’s animated “Grave of the Fireflies,” about a boy and his sister fighting for survival in post-World War II Japan after losing their parents. One movie they make a point to show every year is “Come and See,” which Moninger said is “the bleakest of the bleak experience.”

The concept is open to interpretation, as long as it’s a narrative film. The one thing it can’t be is a documentary.

“There’s something still yet triumphant about taking horrible experiences or someone’s personal tragedy and being able to turn it into art,” Moninger said. “That’s really one of our only rules is that we just don’t do docs.”

When it’s all said and done, at least in Los Angeles, they make sure to close with something sweet: The three “Paddington” movies. It’s what they like to call a “marmalade chaser.”

General. By appearing in person at the designated location and time, an entry to the KSAT “Honk the Horne” T-shirt Giveaway at Gamez Law Firm sweepstakes (“Sweepstakes”), brought to you by KSAT12 (“Sponsor”) and Gamez Law Firm (the “Co-Sponsor”), entrant acknowledges and agrees that entrant has read, understands, and agrees to be bound by these official Sweepstakes rules (“Official Rules”). By entering the Sweepstakes, entrants agree to waive any right to claim any ambiguity or error in these Official Rules, or the Sweepstakes itself, and agree to be bound by all decisions of the Sponsor, whose decisions are binding and final in all matters related to the Sweepstakes. Failure to comply with these Official Rules or any Sponsor instructions relating to the Sweepstakes’ Official Rules may result in disqualification from the Sweepstakes.

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How To Enter. The Sweepstakes begins at 9:00am on Wednesday, June 3, 2026, and runs through the duration of availability on the same day. (the “Sweepstakes Period”). Sponsor’s time clock will be the official time clock of the Sweepstakes. To enter, you must appear at the designated Co-Sponsor site and be among the first one hundred entrants. Entrants must be the natural person assigned to any submitted email account by the provider responsible for the assigning email addresses for the domain associated with such email account. Entrant must also be an authorized account holder for any submitted telephone number. Limit one entry per person during the Sweepstakes Period. Any attempt by any entrant to obtain more than the stated number of entries using multiple identities, or any other methods will void such entries and that entrant may be disqualified if discovered by Sponsor.

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Prize(s) One “Honk the Horne” T-shirt to the first one hundred entrants at Co-Sponsor site. Limit one (1) T-shirt per person, while supplies last. Sizes are subject to availability and not guaranteed; recipients must be 18 years of age, and will receive the size available at the time of distribution. No exchanges. Approximate Retail Value (“ARV”) of prize: $25.00. ARV of all prizes: $2500.0.00. Unless otherwise stated, subject to winner verification and compliance with these Official Rules, all prizes will be awarded on site directly to winning entrant. Sponsor and Co-Sponsor are not responsible for loss, delay, or damage. There will be no substitution, transfer, or cash equivalent for prizes, except at the sole discretion of Sponsor, which may substitute prizes of comparable value. Limit one prize per person and per household. Payments of all federal, state, and local taxes related to the award of the prize are solely the responsibility of the winner. Prizes may not be sold, bartered, or auctioned. Prize is awarded “as is” with no warranty or guarantee, either express or implied. All properly claimed prizes will be awarded provided a sufficient number of eligible entries are received, but in no event will Sponsor award more prizes than are provided for in the Official Rules. Unclaimed prizes will not be awarded.

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The process could grind to a halt, however, after the Trump administration said Friday that it intended to appeal a federal judge’s order to allow all companies that paid the invalidated duties to seek refunds, not just the ones that filed lawsuits.

Until the Department of Justice informed the judge of its planned appeal, the refund system overseen by U.S. Customs and Border Protection had worked fairly smoothly. Refunds reached the bank accounts of the first successful applicants on May 12, about three weeks after importers and their customs brokers could start submitting claims, according to CBP.

Applications for refunds totaling $85 billion — more than half of the $166 billion the agency estimated the government owes to companies that paid the tariffs on imported goods — were accepted for processing as of May 22, CBP reported in a legal filing earlier in the week. It said it had so far directed the Treasury Department to issue $20.6 billion in refunds.

The administration revealed its appeal preparations while objecting to a demand by Judge Richard K. Eaton for CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott to appear in the U.S. Court of International Trade on June 9. The judge said he wants to know how long it would take to repay all 330,000 importers that might be eligible for refunds and whether he should require the government to speed up the process.

Justice Department lawyers asked Eaton to allow Scott's deputies to appear in his place, arguing that as a high-ranking presidential appointee, the CBP chief could not be compelled to testify. They also argued that Eaton exceeded his authority when he determined that the Supreme Court's ruling entitled “all importers of record’’ to refunds.

“For that reason, defendants intend to appeal the court’s universal injunction," the lawyers wrote, adding that CBP would continue to move “as quicky as it can to process refunds in a phased approach” for businesses that filed legal complaints asserting their rights to refunds.

Eaton responded that he needed to hear directly from Scott whether the government would return all of the money it collected between April 2025, when Trump put what he called “reciprocal” tariffs on most countries, the Supreme Court's decision in late February.

“It is undisputed that the remedy for this unlawful collection is for the United States government to refund the unlawfully collected duties," the judge wrote.

Refunds coming in phases

Customs and Border Protection is handling refund claims in phases, focusing first on payments that weren't finalized before the Supreme Court handed down its 6-3 decision. CBP officials said those later, estimated payments were simpler to process because they remained open in its system.

In Friday’s filing, the Justice Department said the agency required technological upgrades to its refund portal and “importer-specific orders” in each lawsuit that businesses filed before it could recalculate the final tax bills for older “liquidated” accounts.

More than 1,000 companies filed lawsuits in the trade court to recoup their tariff costs. It was not immediately clear how many importers that paid the tariffs did not sue and might not receive refunds if an appeal of Eaton's blanket order succeeds.

Ryan Majerus, a partner on the international trade team at law firm King & Spalding, said he thinks "it’s definitely a fraction of the total in terms of folks who paid” the defunct duties. An appeal would likely affect only imported merchandise that was in the U.S. for 314 days, a time when CPB issues its official determination of the duties owed, he said.

“This doesn’t cover everybody, only those really old entries,” Majerus said about a potential appeal.

But filing an appeal could slow the refund process even if the government “already lost the war” before the Supreme Court, according to Barry Appleton, a professor at New York Law School and managing partner of Appleton & Associates International Lawyers.

“If the government can freeze the refund machinery while it litigates, it buys months, and every month of delay is a month the Treasury keeps the money,” Appleton said.

Price cuts promised

Some national retail chains said they planned to use their tariff refunds refunds to lower customer prices on some items. Walmart Chief Financial Officer John David Rainey told analysts last week that the company would implement price cuts even though the maximum refund it might be eligible for represented less than half of 1% of Walmart’s annual U.S. sales.

Costco intends to return the tariff costs that it passed on to members, CEO Ron Vachris said. How much of its refund the big-box retail chain redistributes, when and in what form, depends on factors such as the size of the refund, when it arrives, and developments in a lawsuit seeking tariff compensation for Costco customers, Vachris told investors Thursday.

Consumers may see refunds first from shipping companies such as FedEx, UPS and DHL, which acted as customs brokers when they delivered products ordered from overseas.

The companies charged either the sellers that shipped the packages or the buyers who received them and submitted the collected tariffs to CBP. All three promised to transmit any refunds they get to the customers that paid the import taxes.

Putting refunds back into the business

The Supreme Court invalidated only the country-by-country tariff rates Trump set by citing the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act. The president also has moved to introduce new tariffs since the court’s Feb. 20 ruling.

Some smaller companies told The Associated Press that the tariff refunds they’ve received so far would go toward paying remaining or future tariffs or getting back on solid financial footing after more than a year of uncertainty and additional costs.

Jay Foreman, CEO of toy company Basic Fun, said he received about $450,000, or 7% of his total claim, over two consecutive days. He took the repayment as a positive sign but that the pace since then seemed like a “total slow roll.”

“It’s time to release the funds back into the economy, especially given how much we and others need these funds to support our businesses,” Foreman said.

Men’s grooming brand Manscaped has received about 30% of the $12 million in refunds it applied for, President Kevin Datoo said. The San Diego company deferred investments and took on debt to pay tariffs on imports from Indonesia, China and elsewhere in Asia, he said.

“We need to shore up the balance sheet because there’s still a whole second chapter here,” Datoo said.

Melkon Khosrovian, who owns Greenbar Distillery in Los Angeles, said he applied for a tariff refund of about $90,000 for 17 different shipments of herbs, spices and packaging that are hard to find domestically. To date, he said he received $18,000.

Khosrovian invested in automating his bottling system last year to reduce personnel costs while his import expenses grew. He recalled how the White House had argued the tariffs would create more U.S. manufacturing jobs.

The tariffs were “painful,” he said. “Our choices were bad and worse: raise prices and lose customers, or keep prices the same and not make any money.”

___

AP writers Anne D’Innocenzio and Stan Choe in New York, and Lisa Leff in London contributed to this report.

___

This story was first published on May. 30, 2026. It was updated on Jun. 2, 2026 to correct the name of the law firm where Ryan Majerus is a partner. It’s King & Spalding, not King & Spalding.

Attorney Elizabeth Russell said she did not take her decision lightly to go to law enforcement after Speedlin Gonzalez ordered her to be handcuffed and placed in a jury box during a courtroom dispute in December 2024.

KSAT Investigates first exposed the altercation in January, weeks before Speedlin Gonzalez was indicted on felony and misdemeanor charges.

Russell walked into hearing ‘on pins and needles’

Russell told KSAT she had been pushing to have her client’s motion to revoke probation hearing take place before Christmas. She thought it would increase the chances of the client being released from jail before the courthouse’s holiday break.

That, combined with what Russell described as multiple incidents of Speedlin Gonzalez threatening to hold her in contempt of court during previous trials in Bexar County Court-at-Law 13, caused Russell to walk into the hearing “on pins and needles.”

“I kind of had this feeling that she was already upset,” Russell said.

Within minutes of the December 17, 2024 hearing starting, Russell’s client incorrectly pleaded true to one of the allegations.

As Speedlin Gonzalez noted the plea, Russell attempted to interject that her client misspoke, according to the court transcript.

Speedlin Gonzalez then accused Russell of coaching her client.

“Judges give grace in order for people to correct themselves because it’s very important that we get what’s accurate on the record. That’s the whole point of it,” Russell told KSAT Investigates. “At the end of the day, my client — who had a below level IQ — said the wrong thing. It’s something that we see multiple times a day in that courthouse.”

After Speedlin Gonzalez again said Russell’s client pleaded true, Russell again attempted to interject.

“You either will hold your tongue and act professionally, or I’m going to hold you in contempt,” Speedlin Gonzalez told Russell, according to the transcript.

The judge then ordered a deputy to have Russell handcuffed and moved to the jury box.

“To me, it was the fact that she hadn’t held me in contempt,” Russell said. “It was the fact that I didn’t have a hearing.”

Russell told KSAT she obtained a copy of the court transcript in January 2025. After reviewing it, she reported Speedlin Gonzalez to law enforcement.

The case was eventually investigated by the Texas Rangers, records show.

Speedlin Gonzalez’s court reporter, Olga Gutierrez, recorded audio of the hearing but later deleted the file, according to a sworn statement given by Gutierrez to the Texas Rangers last December.

Gutierrez told the Rangers it was customary in her profession to delete these types of files.

Gutierrez referred questions from KSAT about the audio file to Bexar County court administration, which referred KSAT back to Gutierrez because she “is the only person who can answer your query since she is the one with first-hand knowledge of any audio recordings used to prepare her transcript.”

Speedlin Gonzalez was indicted by a grand jury in January on charges of unlawful restraint by a judicial officer, a felony, and misdemeanor official oppression, indictment records show.

She was then suspended without pay days later by the State Commission on Judicial Conduct (SCJC).

During a gathering of local Democratic Party candidates ahead of the March 3 primary, Speedlin Gonzalez addressed the criminal case at length.

Footage of Speedlin Gonzalez’s remarks was recorded by a supporter and then posted to social media. The lengthy clip was later deleted. KSAT Investigates, however, had already obtained a copy of it.

Speedlin Gonzalez described her legal woes as being driven by discrimination:

“I’m going to tell you this: when they come for me, they come for every woman in the room. When they come for me, they come for every Latina in the room. When they come for me, they come for every first-generation child of an immigrant because that’s what I am. When they come for me, they come for every bilingual person in the room. I didn’t speak English until I was three-and-a-half, four years old. My first language is Spanish. When they come for me, they come for everybody here that’s from South Texas that has made their way in the world and is now having a stable, successful life. When they come for me, they come for every LGBT person in the room. So, if you think you’re immune, it won’t take long. Because, if they take me down, it’s a domino effect."

Rosie Speedlin Gonzalez speaking to supporters ahead of March 3 primary

Russell pushed back on Speedlin Gonzalez’s comments.

“She put me in handcuffs,” Russell said. “It was her actions that caused me to file the complaint. Not because of any other reason other than her ordering a deputy to place me in handcuffs, after all I was doing was making sure my client’s rights weren’t trampled on.”

Speedlin Gonzalez lost her March primary to attorney Alicia Perez by 30 points and then made a brief court appearance in the criminal case the following month.

Less than two weeks later, she resigned in lieu of disciplinary action as part of an agreement with the SCJC that also prohibits her from ever serving as a judge in Texas again.

The special prosecutor assigned to the case said he then made the decision to dismiss the criminal charges after speaking with Russell.

“I’m a defense attorney at the end of the day, right? So, I don’t ever really want to see people get the max amount of judgment. I just want there to be justice and I do think there was justice,” said Russell. “Ultimately, I didn’t want her to do this to any other attorneys or to any other defendants. And she can’t do that. And she can’t treat people the way that she had treated people leading up to that point.”

The SCJC also received three separate complaints this year accusing Speedlin Gonzalez of abusing her authority by issuing a no-contact order via email.

The order barred her staff from communicating with former employees of the court.

The trio of complaints were set aside as part of the April resignation agreement, records show.

Speedlin Gonzalez did not respond to a request for an interview for this story.

Reached for comment, Speedlin Gonzalez’s defense attorney told KSAT via email: “Rosie Speedlin-Gonzalez has no interest in giving you an interview, Mr. Collier.”

Read more reporting on the KSAT Investigates page.

U.S. employers posted 7.6 million job vacancies in April, the Labor Department reported Tuesday, up from 6.9 million in March and most since May 2024. Economists had forecast just 6.8 million openings.

The department's Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) showed that layoffs fell but so did the number of Americans quitting their jobs - a sign of confidence in their prospects. And the report's measure of gross hiring also dropped in April, suggesting that companies remain reluctant to add new workers even as they hold on to the ones they have.

The American job market has been recovering from a dismal 2025. Last year, companies, nonprofits and government agencies added fewer than 10,000 jobs a month, least outside a recession since 2002.

This year has been better — job growth averaged 76,000 a month from January through April. Big tax refunds — the product of President Donald Trump’s sweeping tax cut bill last year — have given the economy a lift this year, offsetting the impact of sharply higher energy prices since the United States and Israel attacked Iran Feb. 28. But the refunds have mostly been paid out and are fading as an economic booster.

The United States also doesn’t need as many new jobs as it used to. Trump’s immigration crackdown and Baby Boomer retirements mean that fewer people are competing for work. As a result, the so-called break-even point — the number of new jobs needed every month to keep the unemployment rate stable — has dropped to near zero from 155,000 a month two or three years ago, according to an April report by Federal Reserve economists Seth Murray and Ivan Vidangos.

On Friday, the Labor Department will issue its job report for May. The numbers are expected to show that employers added 100,000 jobs last month, according to a survey of forecasters by the data firm FactSet. The unemployment rate is expected to have stayed at a low 4.3%.

“He transcended boxing into every space you can imagine,” she told The Associated Press this week ahead of the 10-year anniversary of Ali’s death on June 3, 2016, after a long battle with Parkinson’s disease.

“Muhammad lived by this mantra: service to others is the rent we pay for our room here on earth," Lonnie Ali said during an interview at The Muhammad Ali Center in Louisville, Kentucky. “He showed up every day with kindness and empathy in his heart for people who are in need."

Ali, known as the “Louisville Lip” in his hometown, rose to prominence as a trash-talking world champion boxer in the 1960s and began speaking about civil rights issues as his star was rising. He is widely regarded as the most famous and influential boxer of all time, winning the heavyweight title three times.

The Ali Center is sponsoring a “Day of Compassion” on Wednesday, the 10th anniversary of his death, to promote acts of service and caring. Lonnie Ali, who serves as the center's lifetime director, said the hope is an expanding annual event to highlight works of service and volunteering.

The day will focus on one of "the core values that made up Muhammad Ali” in an increasingly divided country, she said.

“Today, we are in a place where we are losing touch with our humanity and with each other,” she said. “It’s causing rifts, not just in families and communities, but in this nation. We’re becoming increasingly polarized and separated, and sort of retreating to people who think like us, look like us, and not really reaching out.”

She also challenged political leaders to lead with compassion, noting the recent weakening of the 1965 Voting Rights Act by the Supreme Court.

“We should always be thinking about how we can uplift a community, not how we can make it harder for them,” Lonnie Ali said. “We want equal representation in this country. You can’t have equal representation when you’re denying people voting rights, you can’t do that.”

But there is hope, she said, and she saw that when the city of Louisville came together for a weeklong celebration of Ali's life in 2016. The week was capped by a funeral procession through the city and past her late husband's modest childhood home near downtown Louisville. Former President Bill Clinton and actor Billy Crystal spoke at his funeral, and Will Smith, who portrayed Ali in a 2001 movie, was a pallbearer.

The outpouring of love for Ali at his hometown funeral service was livestreamed to millions around the world. A decade later, Ali’s face graced a U.S. Postal Service stamp for the first time, showing his enduring influence.

“We’re talking about people who traveled thousands of miles to come here, who had never met the man, never laid eyes on him personally, but wanted to ... give their last respects to him: kings, princes, presidents, heads of state, celebrities, sports figures,” Lonnie Ali said.

Patrick Jaysen Hernandez was booked into the Bexar County Adult Detention Center on a $250,000 bond, records show.

Witnesses told SAPD there was an altercation between Hernandez and the victim that turned physical after the victim injured another person.

Good Samaritans found the victim, who police initially said was in his 20s, walking around with a stab wound in the 15000 block of Nacogdoches Road, which is located near Judson Road.

They took the victim to a nearby emergency room where he was pronounced dead upon arrival, San Antonio police said.

Police later obtained surveillance footage. Hernandez was taken into custody at a local hospital, officers said.

Read also:

• SAPD officer shot armed suspect in self-defense, affidavit says

The lineup for the event, which will take place Sept. 18-19 at the T-Mobile Arena, also includes Weezer, Goo Goo Dolls and Kenny Chesney. More artists will be announced at a later date.

Ryan Seacrest will once again host, and fans can hear it all on iHeartMedia radio stations or watch it streaming on Disney+ and Hulu.

The general public can buy tickets on AXS.com starting at 2 p.m. EDT/11 a.m. PDT on June 12. Capital One cardholders will be able to access a presale beginning at 1 p.m. EDT/10 a.m. PDT on June 10.

“The iHeartRadio Music Festival is all about bringing together the biggest artists across every genre for two unforgettable nights, and this year’s lineup truly reflects the incredible diversity of music today,” Tom Poleman, chief programming officer, and John Sykes, president of entertainment enterprises of iHeartMedia, said in a joint statement.

Earlier this year, BTS made a triumphant return after a nearly four-year musical hiatus. “ARIRANG,” the 14-track, fifth studio album from the septet is huge; an ambitious reunion and the band’s first original full-length release since the seven members completed South Korea’s mandatory military service. Not that it has been all quiet at team BTS: The band staggered their enlistments, giving ample time for its members to focus on solo projects while the group was on a break.

They've returned to the stage since then, and iHeartRadio Music Festival is another victory lap.

Judge Joel Perez, who presides over Bexar County’s 437th Criminal District Court, sentenced Heather Rodriquez, 37, to 14 years in prison.

She initially took a plea deal on March 26. According to Bexar County court records, Rodriquez faced two charges:

• Endangering an injured child (1-year-old Jiryiah Johnson) in imminent danger, a second-degree felony
• Child endangerment, a state jail felony

A prison sentence for a second-degree felony tends to range between two and 20 years behind bars.

A source previously told KSAT terms of Rodriquez’s plea deal state that she could receive a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison.

Several witnesses took the stand Monday before Perez announced Rodriquez’s sentence, including the child’s parents, Julian Johnson and Erika Castro.

Jiryiah’s father said his son made his life “better” regardless of how his day went. Johnson said Monday his son’s death has “ruined” him.

“This pain I have is something that’s tortuous,” Johnson said after he was called to the stand. “It’s a void that’s inside of me that keeps swallowing every bit of joy in life.”

One of the child’s cousins said Jiryiah’s death not only affects their family but the “dog owners,” as well.

“Dogs are not born aggressive,” the relative said. “It doesn’t matter what breed and what size. That’s something that they were taught.”

Perez reflected on some of the evidence he reviewed in the case before he made his ruling. The evidence included Rodriquez fighting with law enforcement when they told her they were taking custody of her three dogs.

“That is very, to me, very telling about her true character,” Perez told the court. “For her to be concerned about the dogs, I find just very, very, very aggravating.”

After Perez’s sentencing, Jiryiah’s parents were among the family members who gave victim impact statements.

Rodriquez appeared to become emotional as they spoke.

“This all could have been avoided with a 30-second phone call because we (Johnson and Castro) would have left work without hesitation,” Johnson said. “God forgives everybody, but I can’t.”

Background

According to the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office, Rodriquez was tasked with babysitting Jiryiah Johnson, 1, on Oct. 7, 2024 at a home in the 9700 block of Spruce Ridge Drive in northeast Bexar County.

However, authorities said she decided to sequester Johnson in a room and left her 13-year-old daughter in charge of babysitting before Rodriquez left the home.

The teenager tried to protect Johnson, but authorities said it was a “tug of war” between her and the three dogs. Sheriff’s deputies said the dogs forced their way into the room. Johnson was pronounced dead on Oct. 8, 2024.

Ten days after the attack, a judge ordered the three dogs to be euthanized.

In May 2025, Johnson’s parents filed a $1 million wrongful death lawsuit against Rodriquez and Blackstone Inc., the rental company that owns and manages the home on Spruce Ridge Drive.

More coverage of this story on KSAT:

• Bexar County parents file $1 million lawsuit after son was fatally mauled by 3 dogs
• Bexar County woman indicted by grand jury in dog attack that killed 1-year-old boy, records show
• Bexar County judge denies woman’s request to lower bond in deadly dog attack case
• ‘It hasn’t gotten any easier’: Father of 1-year-old boy killed in dog attack speaks
• Babysitter arrested after dogs attack baby, leaving child with life-threatening injuries
• 3 dogs euthanized after attack that killed 1-year-old boy
• BCSO files two new charges against babysitter arrested for dog attack that killed 1-year-old
• Judge orders three dogs to be euthanized after attack that killed 1-year-old boy
• ‘A heartbreaking scenario’: Sheriff Salazar describes mauling death of 1-year-old boy
• 1-year-old baby attacked by dogs dies, ID’d by Bexar County Medical Examiner’s Office

Four meters (13 feet) beneath them, a team of archaeologists is digging the other way — straight down and back in time, to Roman Paris 2,000 years ago.

In 2019, fire brought Notre Dame’s spire crashing down as the world watched. The cathedral was rebuilt and reopened in late 2024, and now Paris wants to soften the hot, bare square in front of it with trees and shade.

But in a city this old, the soil cannot be turned until what lies beneath it is excavated, in case it is damaged during works.

So a slice of Notre Dame’s forecourt has become an excavation site — an open pit ringed by barriers and crossed by a wooden walkway, a few steps from the line-up.

A modern Da Vinci Code

French media have dubbed it the “dig of the century.”

“It’s a rare opportunity for us to work on something that’s tangibly going to make a difference to the history of Paris,” Lucie Altenburg, a conservator with the Paris archaeology unit, told The Associated Press.

Among the hundreds of objects already found: a fourth-century coin stamped with the face of the Emperor Constantine, and shards of medieval pottery painted on the inside with marks no expert has yet deciphered — like a modern Da Vinci Code.

“It makes Notre Dame feel alive again,” said Emily Carter, 34, a tourist from Manchester waiting in line with her two children. “You come to see the cathedral, then realize there’s another city under your feet. That’s almost more moving.”

The first traces appear 50 centimeters (20 inches) down; 4 meters (13 feet) lower, the team is still pulling up the past. Some days they fill 15 crates — from ground that has lain untouched for decades.

Ancient cities have archaeologists monitoring digs

This is the bargain in every old city: The past is not in a museum down the street — it is under the street.

Cities rise. Each age builds on the rubble of the last, and the ground climbs with it; in Rome, it has risen about 9 meters (30 feet) since the empire fell in the fifth century AD.

When Athens built its metro for the 2004 Olympics, it set off the largest excavation in Greek history and turned up tens of thousands of objects, now shown in the stations themselves. Paris is no different.

It all comes from the island in the Seine, the Ile de la Cite, where Paris began.

Centuries later, Notre Dame rose on the same ground.

At the cathedral's birth in 1163, the entire square was packed with medieval houses, split by a single street, said Camille Colonna, the archaeologist leading the dig.

Digging down, her team has reached their cellars — and therefore also the time in history they represent.

Below them lie Merovingian and Carolingian grain pits, from the sixth to the 10th centuries; below those, darker and deeper still, a dense Roman quarter from the fourth and fifth centuries.

Twenty centuries are stacked in 4 meters (13 feet) of earth — or about the height of two-and-a-half Napoleon Bonapartes standing on top of one another.

“Here you can see the layers — medieval Paris, Roman Paris, maybe even before that,” said Yasmine Benali, 22, an archaeology student watching from behind the barriers. “It makes the city feel less like a postcard and more like something still being discovered.”

Coins, ceramics and mysterious markings

The richest finds here come from the foulest place: the deep pits beneath the medieval houses, old latrines that doubled as rubbish dumps.

Out of them the team keeps lifting whole jugs and cups — thrown away centuries ago, yet still intact — among the broken plates and animal bones.

It’s “rare to find complete ceramics,” said Valentine Breloux, an archaeologist with the unit.

Here the soft waste cushioned them, and centuries later they miraculously came up whole.

Then some other objects came that confounded experts. As conservators cleaned what looked like ordinary medieval pottery, they found faint reddish writing painted on the inside — the same mysterious markings on shard after shard.

What they mean has yet to be deciphered.

Of everything she has cleaned from Notre Dame, Breloux said, these are the most “astonishing.”

Coins can help date the layers

The coins came up as black discs, eaten by rust. But under an X-ray, a face returned: it was Constantine, the Roman emperor who ruled in the early 300s AD.

Such objects also "can be invaluable in giving us the date of the (underground) layer,” Altenburg said.

The Roman finds are the ones the archaeologists value most — the deepest, oldest and least understood. In Roman times, the town was called Lutetia, and its center lay across the river, on the Left Bank.

As the Roman empire collapsed, people pulled back to the Ile de la Cite, where Notre Dame would later rise, and fortified the island with walls of stone taken from earlier buildings.

Colonna’s team found some proof: a Roman doorstep found in the dig, taken from a much bigger building, carried over, turned upside down, and laid in a road as paving.

Paris houses thousands of finds in an archaeology center

Every find leaves the pit and travels north, to the city’s archaeology center — what Colonna calls “a huge archaeological store," a treasure house of Paris.

For archaeologists, the cathedral dig is a rare treat. In France, like elsewhere, they work only where building work is about to begin — a bit like how industrial quarry workers end up unearthing dinosaur remains.

"This only happens because the city of Paris decided it wanted to beautify the area," Altenburg said.

The new square should be mostly finished by 2028: a kind of woodland clearing, with 160 new trees and a thin film of water sliding over the stone to cool it in summer — part of how Paris is bracing for ever hotter summers induced by global warming.

The tourists who now wait in the bare sun beneath the gargoyles will, in a few summers, line up in the shade.

The old underground parking lot will reopen as a visitor center looking onto the Seine.

Until then, the Notre Dame team wants to go deeper still — past the Romans, toward whoever came before them, the Gauls who gave the city its first name.

“The hope is that we are able to go back in time even further than we’ve ever been before,” Altenburg said.

___

Nicolas Garriga in Paris contributed.

By green-lighting controversial “return hubs” outside the 27-nation EU, the regulation represents the EU’s hardest line on migration so far and has drawn sharp criticism from opponents who warn it will endanger migrants and undermine human rights from Spain to Romania.

“The new regulation will speed up the return process and increase returns of persons who have no legal right to stay in the EU,” said Nicholas Ioannides, deputy migration minister for Cyprus, which holds the rotating presidency of the 27-nation bloc.

The deal was struck between the EU's three main institutions — the European Commission, the European Council and European Parliament — during a so-called “trilogue” Monday evening.

“Europe cannot afford another period of standstill,” said Dutch lawmaker Malik Azmani, who shepherded the regulation through the European Parliament.

“There is an urgent need for an effective return policy with higher return rates," he said, adding that only 28% of rejected asylum seekers return to their country of origin, with the majority staying put in the EU. “This situation is deeply concerning. It undermines public confidence in our common migration policies.”

Critics compared the regulation to the immigration policies of the Trump administration, which has struck a series of secretive agreements with nations around the world to deport thousands of people to countries that are not their own. The United Kingdom also planned to deport migrants to Rwanda, but the plan was bogged down in legal red tape and was dropped when a new government came to power in July 2024.

Several EU governments are already in talks with third countries

“Across the Atlantic, we see the violence and fear created by ICE’s brutal immigration enforcement," said Silvia Carter, spokesperson for the Brussels-based Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants, referring to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. “Europe should be learning from the harms of that model, not building its own version of it.”

Law enforcement officers across the bloc no longer need warrants from judges to raid private residences or public institutions like hospitals, she said. “The regulation is going to create a draconian detention and deportation machine."

The provisional agreement will now head to the EU lawmakers and governments, where approval will likely be swift.

“These new rules will ensure swifter, simpler, and more effective procedures across the European Union for returning non-EU nationals who have no right to stay, in full respect of international law and fundamental rights,” said Henna Virkkunen, EU commissioner for technology.

EU member nations will soon be able to set up bilateral deals with countries outside the bloc to build deportation centers. At least five EU nations — Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Denmark and Greece — are already in talks with third countries, mostly in Africa, to host “return hubs” on the model of Italy's detention deal with Albania.

“We are delivering the member states tools in their hands to make those agreements and arrangements with third countries,” Azmani said.

Mélissa Camara, a lawmaker from the French Green party, said the deal was “a historic setback” for human rights in the bloc.

“The legalization of return hubs outside the European Union, the green light for the detention of minors, home visits inspired by ICE practices: the legal arsenal serving a xenophobic ideology is now complete,” she said.

EU migration policy has steadily shifted to the right

The EU has continually tightened migration policies after right-wing parties secured the majority of votes in some countries in the 2024 elections to the European Parliament. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, from the center-right European People’s Party coalition, has said that the new measures will prevent a repeat of the 2015 crisis caused by Syria’s civil war, when about 1 million people arrived to seek asylum.

Fueled by people fleeing conflict and poverty across Africa and the Middle East, the 2015 refugee crisis and successive years of irregular migration to Europe drove a rightward shift in the bloc's politics not unlike the anti-immigrant sentiment that buoyed a “ red wave ” in the 2024 election in the United States.

After successfully campaigning on tougher migration policies, the winners of that election, the European People’s Party, the largest political group in the EU, began negotiating migration reform with centrist and left parties only to eventually sidestep them by allying instead with the far right, said Carter, the asylum rights activist. “There was quite an unprecedented shift in the European Parliament."

Advocacy groups warned the regulation would cut deep into the protections granted by the EU fundamental charter on human rights and expose people to risks outside the bloc.

“This deal will give governments much broader powers to detain and deport people," said Marta Welander, a spokesperson for the International Rescue Committee, a humanitarian organization. "It looks set to normalize immigration raids, expand the use of detention in prison-like facilities outside EU territory that are essentially legal black holes, and increase the risk of people being deported to countries where they could face persecution, torture or worse.”

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Follow AP’s coverage of migration issues at https://apnews.com/hub/migration

Japan's Environment Ministry said a record 13 people were killed in more than 230 attacks by bears in 2025.

Police and fire department officials rushed to the Sasakino district of Fukushima in northeastern Japan after receiving an emergency call from the Fukushima Steel Works reporting bear attacks on two employees.

Security camera footage shows a black bear appearing and chasing an employee near the entrance. As the man in his 20s tries to flee, the bear throws him to the ground. It then moves into the compound and injures a second male employee in his 60s.

The bear later injured a third person, a male employee in his 60s at separate company. A woman in her 80s who lives in the neighborhood also was attacked and injured, the Fukushima City Fire Department said.

The three men sustained minor injuries and the woman had moderate injuries but none were considered life-threatening, the fire department said.

The bear had not been caught as of Tuesday afternoon and was believed to be inside the second company compound, which was surrounded by uniformed police carrying long sticks.

Two nearby schools were closed, including Noda Elementary School, which held classes online and put a warning on its website to “avoid non-essential outings and stay safe.”

The bear attack has rekindled last year's nationwide fear that led to Japan's army being dispatched to the northern prefecture of Akita where more than 60 people were attacked by bears, with four killed.

The encroachment by a growing bear population has occurred in a region with a rapidly aging and declining human population that has few people trained to hunt the animals, experts say.

The Japanese government in March estimated the overall bear population at around 57,800. Officials have adopted a road map of bear population management, calling for systematic culling. Under the plan, the number of municipal bear control staff will triple to 2,500 within five years, while the number of bear traps will double.

Bear sightings were reported recently in Tokyo's western suburbs, including the hiking area of Okutama. Park officials have set up additional traps and launched bear alerts on social media.

The government has stepped up a public awareness campaign, urging hikers and mushroom hunters to check notifications about bear sightings and avoid outdoor activity in the early morning and evening when bears are active.

An environment ministry manual advises that anyone encountering a bear should not panic, move slowly and avoid turning around and running. As a last resort, the manual says anyone attacked should turn face down, ball up and cover their neck.

“The point is to save yourself from a fatal wound," according to the manual.

The Cleveland Browns traded the two-time AP NFL Defensive Player of the Year to the Los Angeles Rams for pass rusher Jared Verse and three draft picks in a blockbuster deal on Monday.

Garrett was the unanimous choice for Defensive Player of the Year last season after he had 23 sacks and broke the NFL single-season record. He is expected to report to the Rams' facility on Tuesday and have a news conference to discuss the trade.

Garrett's addition marks the first time the reigning AP NFL MVP and Defensive Player of the Year will be teammates. Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford won his first MVP award last season.

General manager Andrew Berry was able to make a deal after the Browns and Garrett agreed to modify the contract and defer option payments over the 2026-28 seasons in March. The first payment of around $10 million was due on March 28, but was moved to near the start of the regular season.

Garrett demanded a trade at the end of the 2024 season, but signed a four-year contract extension last March with a total value of $204.8 million that made him the highest-paid non-quarterback in NFL history. The contract also included a no-trade clause.

Berry had long said that Garrett would play his entire career in Cleveland, but Garrett's lingering frustrations over the franchise's direction and the chance to start anew meant it was time to move on.

Cleveland is 8-26 the past two years after making the playoffs in 2023.

“As discussions intensified we were stuck at a legitimate crossroads: do we hold on to a truly generational player who has become the identity of our team, or do we make the difficult decision that we think is best for the organization over the long run?," Berry said after the trade was announced.

The Browns get Verse — the 2024 AP NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year — a 2027 first-round selection, a second-round pick in 2028 and a 2029 third-round selection.

Owners Dee and Jimmy Haslam said in a statement that they met with Garrett on Saturday to discuss the trade.

“Trading Myles was never our intent, but we also recognize that certain opportunities demand serious consideration, and we believe this is the right move for our team. Adding a young defensive star like Jared Verse, along with valuable draft assets, are necessary to strengthen a talented young core and align with the youth of our team,” the Haslams said.

Garrett was not seen at the Browns' facility during offseason workouts even though he made a couple of visits to Cleveland during the Cavaliers' NBA playoff run. Garrett has a minority stake in the Cavaliers.

Coach Todd Monken said two weeks ago he had not had a face-to-face meeting with Garrett since being hired in late January. Defensive coordinator Mike Rutenberg said last week he had some conversations over the phone with Garrett about the direction of the defense.

Garrett supported defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz being promoted to head coach before ownership opted for Monken. Schwartz ended up resigning after three years in Cleveland.

The 30-year old Garrett is the first player in NFL history with at least 12 sacks in six consecutive seasons (2020-25) and the only player with double-digit sacks each of the past eight years. His 125½ career sacks are tied for 20th on the league list.

Garrett, who was part of five double-digit losing seasons during his nine years in Cleveland, finally gets a chance to contend for a Super Bowl title.

“Nine years. It’s hard to put into words what that really means when so much of your life has been shaped in one place, around one team, and with one community behind you ... Cleveland made me tougher. You challenged me. You taught me about perseverance, about showing up even when things aren’t easy, and what loyalty really looks like. Through the highs, lows, setbacks, injuries, expectations, inclement weather, and difficult seasons, you all kept showing up. I never took that for granted,” Garrett said in a social media post Monday night addressed “To Cleveland, Northeast Ohio, and every Browns fan.”

The Browns have the sixth-lowest win percentage since 2017 and are 58-90-1. By comparison, the Rams have the fifth-best record over that span at 92-57, including seven playoff appearances and a Super Bowl title in 2021.

The trade also elevated the Rams to Super Bowl favorites.

Another huge trade by Rams

The trade is yet another blockbuster deal swung by Rams general manager Les Snead, whose eagerness to use his draft picks in trades for star veterans has kept the Rams among the NFL’s top teams during coach Sean McVay’s decade on the sideline.

Snead notably acquired star cornerback Jalen Ramsey from Jacksonville in 2019 in a deal that included two first-round picks, securing the cornerstone of the secondary for a team that won a Super Bowl. But the Rams only won it all after they acquired Matthew Stafford in early 2021 in an even bigger trade for Jared Goff and two first-round picks.

Just a couple of months ago, Snead acquired star cornerback Trent McDuffie from Kansas City in a deal for four draft picks, including a first-rounder, to rebuild the secondary that was the weak link of last season’s team.

Before Snead shocked the NFL by picking quarterback Ty Simpson this spring, the Rams had made only one first-round selection over the previous nine years. That pick was Verse, who quickly became a star during his two seasons as the anchor of the Rams’ rebuilt pass rush in the wake of Aaron Donald’s retirement.

Verse had 4½ sacks while being selected as the NFL’s top defensive rookie in 2024, and he had 7½ sacks last season along with three forced fumbles. Byron Young led the Rams with 12 sacks and interior lineman Kobie Turner contributed seven sacks, and both young stars are heading into the final year of their rookie contracts.

With his Rams in title contention in November 2021, Snead acquired vaunted pass rusher Von Miller from Denver in a trade for LA’s second- and third-round picks. Miller contributed nine sacks in 12 games, providing exactly what they needed alongside Donald to win it all.

The current Rams are among the preseason Super Bowl favorites after winning 12 games and reaching the NFC championship game last season. Stafford, the reigning league MVP, is returning at the head of the NFL’s most potent offense last season along with a retooled defense featuring McDuffie and fellow ex-Kansas City star Jaylen Watson as its new cornerbacks — and now they’ve added the most feared pass rusher in the league.

The Rams’ roster in 2026 now includes last season’s NFL leads in yards passing, TD passes, total receptions (Puka Nacua), receiving touchdowns (Davante Adams) and sacks (Garrett).

After the Rams won the Super Bowl in February 2022 and then crashed out of the playoff picture in an injury-filled 2022-23 season, Snead briefly discarded his usual draft philosophy. He rebuilt his roster through a series of key selections in 2023 and 2024, drafting an entirely new defensive line with Verse, Young, Turner and Braden Fiske — along with All-Pro receiver Nacua.

With his rebuilt roster looming as a Super Bowl favorite again, Snead used his depth on the defensive line to make it even better.

Verse's acquisition gives the Browns the past two AP Defensive Rookies of the Year. Carson Schwesinger won last season after leading NFL rookies with 156 tackles and 11 tackles for loss.

“We receive a young, elite player at a premium position who will only continue to improve in his third NFL season. Jared’s passion and relentless style of play will be embraced by our fans. He will fit right in with the established identity of our defense,” Berry said.

___

AP Pro Football writer Rob Maaddi also contributed to this story.

___

AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl

Previously one of President Donald Trump’s most ardent supporters, Greene resigned from Congress in late 2025 after a significant public break with the president. A 28-year congressional veteran, Sessions is a Republican insider bringing deep institutional knowledge to a rapidly moving Washington. As America marks its 250th anniversary, renowned historian Gordon-Reed explores the nation’s founding contradiction with her new book, “Jefferson on Race: A Reader.” And Webb, one of the nation’s leading quantitative futurists, helps us understand the technological forces reshaping nearly every aspect of our lives.  

Other newly announced speakers joining us in September include San Antonio mayor Gina Ortiz Jones, who leads one of the country’s fastest-growing cities and is one of the most prominent leaders pushing back on federal immigration actions in Texas; Jennifer Cowley, president of the University of Texas at Arlington leading the institution at a time of incredible transformation for higher education; content creator and activist Carlos Eduardo Espina, who has built an audience of more than 20 million by telling migrant stories outside of traditional media; and NPR’s critic-at-large Eric Deggans, who will help us consider how a fragmented media landscape is reshaping what it means to be a journalist today. 

Each day brings more for Texans to wrestle with and talk about with one another, and TribFest will be here before you know it.

Get your tickets now to join us in Austin this September.

Disclosure: University of Texas – Arlington has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune’s journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

District officials confirmed to KSAT that graduation ceremonies for Jefferson, Lanier and Brackenridge high schools at Freeman Coliseum have been moved to earlier times on Friday, June 5, due to expected congestion ahead of Game 2 between the San Antonio Spurs and New York Knicks.

The schedule changes are intended to help graduates, families and staff avoid traffic issues.

The revised graduation schedule is:

• Jefferson High School: 8 a.m.
• Lanier High School: 11:30 a.m.
• Brackenridge High School: 3 p.m.

SAISD is encouraging families to plan accordingly. Graduates must arrive one hour before their scheduled ceremony time for check-in and preparation, according to SAISD.

Game 2 of the NBA Finals is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Friday at the Frost Bank Center.

Read also:

• Spurs announce free watch parties, pep rally and fan events ahead of NBA Finals
• Wemby vs. the Knicks: It’s fitting that a marquee matchup awaits in the NBA Finals
• NBA Finals tickets in San Antonio for Spurs-Knicks soar as fans scramble for seats

HOOD COUNTY — Brian Crawford points to the top of a hill northwest of his family’s home garden, just past their gently sloping yard dotted with live oaks beginning to flower.

“All of this would be buildings,” said his wife, Laura Crawford.

“A slab of concrete,” Brian added.

Their property is a 118-acre paradise along the Paluxy River Valley where the couple care for a menagerie of animals including their two enormous donkeys, Little Joe and Hoss, chickens and a herd of African antelope that they inherited when they bought the property nine years ago.

Instead of green, about 600 yards away from their garden, they could soon be looking at 2,100 acres of warehouse-like structures filled with computing servers that process the digital world, flattening their scenic view into something industrial. The site plan calls for a campus that spans almost six times the size of University of Texas at Austin’s main campus. Its Florida-based developer refers to it as the Comanche Circle project, but the eventual company that will run the data center has not been publicly revealed.

This is just the beginning of the data center revolution in Hood County, a rural community of 62,000 people about an hour southwest of Fort Worth. Developers have proposed eight data centers spanning over 7,600 acres, or 12 square miles. While it’s unclear how much power all of the facilities would require, the Comanche Circle data center, plus two other smaller projects from the same developer, could use up to 3 gigawatts of electricity at full capacity, according to its developer — enough to power about 3 million homes. Some of the power could be generated by a new on-site gas plant, and some will likely come from the state’s power grid, according to the project’s concept plan.

Comanche Circle will need an initial one-time “flush and fill” starting next year of 95 million gallons of water for its seven-year buildout, and then 150,000 gallons per day — equivalent to the average use of 500 U.S. households, according to the minutes of the local water district board meeting where the developer made its request. In an email to The Texas Tribune, the developer said that the number submitted to the district board was incorrect and his three data centers combined would use “less than 50,000 gallons per day of groundwater” at full build out.

Hood County locals are relentless in their fight against the data centers, packing county meetings and town halls and voicing their fierce opposition to the facilities threatening to transform their charming, small-town community.

But, county officials say their hands are tied in their ability to stop or slow development. Two efforts by Hood County commissioners to pass a moratorium on data centers failed, as a state lawmaker warned they were acting outside of their authority. And the county has been sued twice by developers — after the commission rejected one data center’s concept plan, citing a lack of information about critical considerations like where they’d get their water from, and then tabled a vote on another.

“I was elected by the people to represent their opinion,” Kevin Andrews, a Hood County commissioner who has lived in the county for two decades, said in an interview. “But I also have to follow the law … and not get the county sued.”

Data center developers are more frequently choosing rural, unincorporated areas like Hood County because it’s an easier path to build, experts say. In Texas, counties typically don’t have the power to block development — unlike city officials who wield zoning authority.

“Texas has always viewed counties as rural toddlers that can’t be trusted with full powers,” said Robert Paterson, a professor at UT-Austin who specializes in land use and environmental planning.

Nearly half of the planned data centers in Texas are set to be built in unincorporated areas, free of city regulations, according to an analysis by the Tribune. This marks a shift as most existing data centers are clustered in cities and only 12% are currently in unincorporated areas.

At least one county, which appears to be the first in Texas, recently placed a one-year pause on data center construction, moving ahead despite the legal risks. The action has already prompted a lawsuit against Hill County and its three commissioners by a data center developer seeking $100 million in damages.

Today, Hood County has the sixth most planned data centers among Texas counties; per square mile, it ranks third. It’s been a magnet for developers because of the cheap land, available power, fiber lines and, importantly, its lack of local business restrictions.

“We love liberty and love a lack of regulation,” said Greg Harrell, chair of the Hood County GOP, at a town hall earlier this year. “Data centers are taking advantage of it… They saw an opportunity.”

The surge of development here mirrors a data center gold rush across Texas over the past year that is outpacing the speed of regulation. A Tribune analysis found the state has 335 existing data centers, with more than 248 in the works. Only Texas and Virginia, which has been the top state for data centers for the past few years, had more than 100 active projects under way as of March, according to Aterio, a company that tracks industrial development.

Massive data centers are also flooding the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, the state’s main grid operator, with requests for power. As of May, ERCOT reported that large projects requesting to connect to the grid totaled 439 gigawatts of power capacity — five times larger than the all-time peak demand on the state’s grid. Of those projects, about 89% are data centers, though energy experts say it’s unlikely that all of them will be built.

The view from a Pecan Plantation resident’s backyard in Hood County where, across the Brazos River, 862 acres are proposed to be developed into the Fort Spunky data center.

The explosion of development is driven by the newest wave of data centers, known as “hyperscalers,” designed to support artificial intelligence computing facilities with thousands of servers, which are much bigger than current data centers that were largely built for cloud storage. Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Open AI are behind planned projects in West Texas and Central Texas.

“Texas is a great state to do business. All of that really has come together to help make Texas, again, one of the national leaders in digital infrastructure,” said Dan Diorio, vice president of state policy with the Data Center Coalition.

Data center developers say their projects will bring billions of dollars of new property on the tax rolls, work training opportunities, job creation and private investment in communities. One company told Hood County commissioners it could potentially increase the county’s tax base anywhere from $5 billion to $20 billion.

However, some commissioners and residents remain skeptical, saying the benefits are uneven, and data centers create few permanent jobs after their labor-intensive construction is finished. For example, one Hood County data center proposal shows a peak construction workforce of 2,000 dropping to a permanent workforce of 220, according to the project’s concept plan.

Hood County Commissioner Dave Eagle said there are “too many unanswered questions” about data centers, and they’re being asked to greenlight plans with incomplete information about their impact on the community.The Tribune reviewed hundreds of pages of concept plans, lawsuits and reviewed hours of testimony from commissioners court meetings to piece together information about the projects. All but one of the seven data center proposals submitted to Hood County omitted estimates for power use; only four noted a potential power source. Just five of the concept plans included projections for water consumption and six listed options for where they would get their water. The eighth project was annexed into the City of Granbury, which had not received any development plans, according to a spokesperson.

Despite the backlash from residents, some Hood County commissioners are increasingly convinced there’s little they can do to stop data centers as more proposals roll in.

“[Data centers] snuck up on us,” Eagle said at a town hall meeting in February. “We don’t understand it and we need more information.”

Brian and Laura Crawford, with their dog Belle, in their backyard across the Hood County line in Somervell County. Brian and Laura have had to commit a significant amount of their time to their activism against the proposed data centers, with Laura working around the clock with Protect The Paluxy Valley.

The Crawfords placed signs outside their property opposing the construction of data centers in the area.

A Mysterious Project

In July 2025, Hood County officials first got wind of a secretive economic development pitch called “Project Patriot,” described on the commissioners’ meeting agenda as “a proposed large capital investment” that came with the creation of 60 “high-wage permanent” jobs.

County Judge Ron Massingill asked the commissioners to take a nonbinding vote signaling the officials wanted the business and would be willing to waive its property taxes.

But at the meeting, commissioners were given virtually no information about the business. It was never referred to as a data center. An economic development official for the city of Granbury, which later annexed the project into its city limits, told commissioners that she was under a nondisclosure agreement and could not answer their questions about the company.

Massingill, who did not respond to interview requests, argued to commissioners that the county had little oversight authority over business anyway, and negotiating a local tax exemption might be the only leverage they would ever have. The county, he said, could ask for “beautification of the building site” and minimize impact to neighbors.

The court voted 3-1 in favor of the letter of support, with Commissioner Nannette Samuelson dissenting. At the meeting she said, “we are setting ourselves up for big industry, losing that small town feel.”

Weeks later, Eagle, a lawyer by trade who’s been a commissioner for eight years, was invited to meet privately with a handful of data center representatives from a different project. Marketing representatives and engineers came to “razzle and dazzle” him, he said, pitching something big and transformative that would bring significant tax revenue to the county. Then, they made the same ask: a property tax waiver.

Eagle grew suspicious. The private meetings, the coded language, the missing details.

“They were trying to take advantage of country bumpkins,” he said in an interview.

He told the industry representatives he wouldn’t support their tax waiver. For Eagle, who loves the comfort and stability of the county, its French Empire-style courthouse and nearby lake, this was ringing alarm bells. What worried him was the unknown scale of data centers.

Other commissioners were contacted privately, too.

In October, Commissioner Jack Wilson placed the tax break on the agenda, but it was pulled before the court could take a vote. Wilson didn’t respond to interview requests.

The proposals kept coming. Three data center plans were submitted that December, and then four more between February and April of this year. They came with playful code names like “Fort Spunky” and “Project Panther,” masking the names of the tech companies that would operate them.

Developers said prosperity would follow. Ryan Hughes, a managing partner and founder of Sailfish Investors, the company developing the Comanche Circle data center, and two others, said in an email to the Tribune their project will bring “substantial private investment, significant tax base growth, and long-term economic benefits to the region.”

But the community would not be so easily convinced.

“Gut Punched”

Downtown Granbury on May 28, 2026. Hood County residents started building information networks as fears of data centers coming to their community were confirmed.

That October, a white sign went up on a barbed wired fence near the Crawford’s home. It was a notice from an energy company seeking a state air permit to build a power plant. The Crawfords worried this was connected to rumors they’d heard about a data center nearby.

Their fears were soon confirmed. The Comanche Circle project was attempting to locate next to their property.

“It’s not just a rumor,” said Laura Crawford. “We felt gut punched. … How can this even be?”

A photo of the sign went up on Facebook. Ranchers, retirees, and longtime residents built an information network almost overnight. Neighbors knocked on doors and warned people about industrial buildings and massive electricity and water demands nobody could quantify.

They flooded Facebook groups with comments and huge banners that read: “Don’t data center my Hood County” at their property fencelines.

The online group quickly evolved into a nonprofit called Protect the Paluxy Valley. The Crawfords began hosting meetings in their backyard. Laura Crawford, who is a retired accountant, said she works around the clock most days researching data center proposals and organizing local opposition. She asks residents to call their commissioners.

In January, the group flooded the county commissioners’ chambers at a meeting to consider the concept plan for the Comanche Circle project.

Residents feared the project would strain the electrical grid and drain their local aquifer. In an email to the Tribune in June, Hughes said the concerns about water use are overblown, noting two nearby golf courses are using more water per acre than his three data center proposals combined.

“It’s like 112 Walmarts on a piece of property,” said Brian Crawford at the meeting. He said there was not enough information from the developer for commissioners to make an “intelligent decision.”

Impatience filled the chambers. Many residents had already been dealing with persistent noise from nearby cryptocurrency mining operations, another industrial project the county had approved. They urged commissioners to not repeat the same mistake and to deny the project’s plan until they have more details on the data center’s impact on traffic, roads, public safety, the watershed, and noise.

At that same meeting, county commissioners reviewed a recommendation by the development commission, a citizen advisory group, to pause data center projects while they studied their impacts and their accompanying power plants. At the time, two other data center proposals had been submitted.

“I’d rather deal with a lawsuit, than destruction of our land,” said Matt Long, a member of the development commission, during the public hearing. Long lives with his wife and nine children in Pecan Plantation, a community that could neighbor one of the county’s proposed data centers. “You were elected to make hard decisions,” he added.

Matt Long in his backyard, which sits along the Brazos River, in the Pecan Plantation neighborhood of Hood County on May 28, 2026. The Pecan Plantation is across the Brazos from the planned Fort Spunky data center.

A butterfly sits on top a Texas thistle on the bank of the Brazos River at Sandy Beach park in the Pecan Plantation neighborhood of Hood County.

But when the vote came, the Commissioners Court tabled the temporary moratorium discussion and voted to grant Comanche Circle a conditional approval, requiring more detailed plans later.

This time, Eagle was the lone dissenting vote.

A State Lawmaker’s threat

By February, Eagle was desperate and feeling the immense pressure from his constituents.

“The people who voted me in. They demand that me, as their elected official, do what I can to slow this down,” he said.

He proposed a six-month moratorium on new industrial development, including data center projects. He and Samuelson believed the county needed time to better understand the scope of what was coming.

The day of the vote, it was standing room only — residents lined the walls and some who couldn’t fit were listening from outside the doors. The meeting dragged on for eight hours.

Commissioner Andrews and Massingill, the county judge, repeated that Texas counties had little authority to restrict development, warning that a moratorium could trigger lawsuits the county could not afford to fight.

“I’m going to encourage you to be brave and stand firm for the people of this county,” one resident told the commissioners.

Eagle argued that Hood County had unique legal authority to act. He pointed to a 1999 state law granting Hood County’ special powers to protect the watershed feeding Lake Granbury and the Brazos River in unincorporated areas. It’s why the commissioners reviewed concept plans to begin with. If industrial projects threaten the watershed, he argued, the county could use this tool to intervene.

The Hood County Commissioners bow their heads in prayer at the beginning of a Hood County Commissioners Court meeting in Granbury on Feb. 24, 2026. The meeting included a vote on a moratorium that would pause construction of proposed data centers.

Texans from Hood County, Round Rock, Waco and Taylor call for Gov. Greg Abbott to issue a special session to address data center regulations, outside the Texas Capitol on Feb. 23, 2026. Leila Saidane for The Texas Tribune

Before the commissioners cast their votes, the county attorney revealed a threat from a lawmaker more than 250 miles away.

Sen. Paul Bettencourt, a Houston Republican, sent a letter to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton that same day asking him to “investigate” any counties seeking to implement moratoriums and “explore any necessary legal actions.”

Eagle said the timing of Bettencourt’s letter wasn’t a coincidence. Samuelson urged her colleagues to stand strong: “There are times when you need courage; stand on principle even if you stand alone.”

Bettencourt, chair of the Senate Committee on Local Government, later defended the letter in an interview, arguing Texas could not allow counties to block growth with “a crazy patchwork quilt” of regulations.

“The point is simply that counties don’t have the constitutional authority to issue building moratoriums,” he said in a social media post about Hood County.

Inside the Commissioners Court, Bettencourt’s message landed hard; momentum vanished instantly.

“I can’t tell you how disappointed I am,” Eagle said before the vote. “You’ve got to wonder what kind of backroom stuff is going on.”

Commissioners killed the moratorium 3-2, with Eagle and Samuelson voting for it.

Data Center Sue

In February, the citizen group packed a town hall of about 50 people.

“There is a fence around us on what we get to do. We are working with a severe handicap,” Eagle told the group, referring to the Legislature.

The next weekend members of the group, including the Crawfords, boarded a bus before sunrise and rode three hours to Austin carrying signs that read, “Support real intelligence not AI” and “Low regulations bring big data centers.” They rallied outside the Capitol, demanding a statewide moratorium, then drove back that same day — arriving home at after sunset so they could attend Commissioner’s Court the next day when the data center moratorium would be back on the agenda.

The second moratorium vote failed exactly like the first.

But in that meeting, commissioners passed a resolution asking Gov. Greg Abbott to call a special legislative session to address the concerns about the industry’s massive electricity and water demands. They also directed staff to ask Paxton to clarify whether Hood County has the legal authority to temporarily halt development under its watershed protection law.

Abbott did not respond to questions about a special session, but spokesperson Andrew Mahaleris said, “Meeting the water and energy needs of Texans remains the Governor’s top priority, and these facilities are required to bring their own water and to disconnect if Texans don’t have what they need. Governor Abbott will continue to work with the Legislature to protect Texans and ensure their voices are heard.” Paxton did not respond to requests for comment.

The commissioners started testing their limits.

Mark Lowery gives public comment and addresses Commissioner Kevin Andrews on a moratorium that would pause construction of data centers in the county during a Hood County Commissioners Court meeting in Granbury on Feb. 24, 2026. The pause would have allowed for the county to assess water and power usage of the proposed data centers in the county.

Beth Macmanee wears a “No Data Centers” sticker during the commissioners court meeting in Granbury. Macmanee had never been to commissioners court meetings before, but has attended every one concerning this issue.

Meeting attendees stand during a 10 minute break. The meeting lasted about 6 hours due to dozens of residents giving public comment on a moratorium that would pause construction of data centers in the county.

In March, commissioners voted unanimously to amend their development regulations, adding stricter requirements for large industrial projects, including data centers.

They expanded the requirements needed in concept plans, including detailed disclosures on water sourcing, energy use and infrastructure, environmental and drainage impacts. They also shrunk the footprint of a new development: buildings, parking lots and other structures could only cover 10% of a property, down from 50%.

Long, who helped craft the rules in his role on the development commission, admitted that the strategy was to make the rules strict enough “so none of them come, no more come in.”

The changes had immediate consequences.

“Fort Spunky,” an 862-acre campus that has requested to pull 100 megawatts from the grid and requires up to 20,000 gallons of water per day, had previously had its concept plan approved by the commissioners. But the plan was brought back to the floor after a local water utility board denied the developer’s request for water. Commissioners argued that without a guaranteed water source the project needed to be reconsidered.

“The fears … are all detached from reality,” said Kevin Pratt, an executive with the developer Pacifico Energy, at the meeting. “The court, through political pressure, keeps moving those goal posts over and over.”

Commissioners revoked the previously approved concept plan, 3-2.

While the decision was met with cheers from the crowd, Massingill warned, “we’re all in for litigation.”

About three weeks later, the lawsuit was filed.

The company claimed the county lacked legal power to deny the project based on concerns about water.

The law firm Husch Blackwell, representing Pacifico, stated in the lawsuit that the commissioners’ decision was “unlawful and premature.” The company asked the court to block the county’s actions, and is seeking monetary relief of no less than $250,000.

More developers came after Hood.

Commissioners twice delayed voting on two other projects, dubbed “Project Red and Project Yellow,” that together would cover 677 acres neighboring two existing power plants.

The commissioners demanded more transparency from developers about their operations and required them to comply with the county’s new development regulations before they would vote.

They were hit with another lawsuit, accusing the county of illegally delaying the data centers. The lawsuit claimed that the two projects would increase the county’s tax revenue by $3 billion and create 60,000 jobs.

On April 6, Hughes, whose Comanche Circle data center had already received conditional approval, joined the chorus of legal threats to send a letter arguing that they should have never been forced to submit a proposal for review to begin. Texas counties only possess powers explicitly granted by the Legislature, he wrote, and Hood County did not even have powers to require a concept plan.

“Political opposition to data centers does not create new county powers,” said Hughes in an email to the Tribune. The lawsuits remain pending.

Purgatory

A billboard lights up with the message “Don’t data center my Hood County” in Granbury on May 28, 2026. The county is facing a lawsuit from a data center developer after the county voted to add stricter requirements for large industrial projects, including data centers.

Last month, more than 160 people filled a ballroom in Hood County overlooking the Brazos River for another town hall, hosted by Mark Lowery, a Republican running for county judge — the official who leads the commissioners court. He is running unopposed and describes himself as “a solid no” for data centers, unlike Massingill, who chose not to seek reelection.

The ballroom’s seats quickly filled. Residents aren’t giving up. They still want to fight. After speaker introductions, the brainstorming began to “right this ship,” as one person said, and to keep exploring ways to stop data centers.

For now, counties like Hood remain stuck in purgatory, watching rapid development overwhelm their communities while waiting for state policy to catch up. Many believe change won’t come until at least 2027, when lawmakers reconvene in Austin. Some state officials have expressed interest in expanding counties’ regulatory authority over data centers. In the interim, lawmakers have been charged with studying the development of data centers and examining the total water usage of data centers in the state.

The development commission has recommended reviving the Hood County data center moratorium proposal, but those efforts have so far been unsuccessful in being added to the commissioners’ agenda.

But on May 12, nearby Hill County approved a one-year pause on the construction of new data centers in unincorporated areas, citing public safety and public health concerns, a vote that commissioners took despite the same risks Hood County officials are facing.

“The data center folks have found a sweet spot in the state that has limited regulations,” said Hill County Commissioner Jim Holcomb. “I think it’s imperative … that we tap the brakes and we get our arms around what we’re faced with.”

Christine Leftwich, the Hood County clerk, said her county’s failure to do the same has “been the biggest disappointment.”

“Hood County should have been the tip of the spear,” she added.

Alex Ford, Apurva Mahajan, Emily Foxhall and Taylor Goldenstein contributed to this report.

Disclosure: Facebook, Google, Microsoft and University of Texas at Austin have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune’s journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

With no candidate taking an outright majority of the vote, the election will head to a second round in June.

But Cepeda and Petro sowed doubt in the results of the first round, claiming without evidence that hundreds of thousands of votes were manipulated and that foreign actors manipulated the results of the election.

Cepeda said he was waiting for electoral authorities to scrutinize the results before accepting the election.

“Only when the vote-counting commissions have fully clarified what happened will we comment on tonight’s results,” Cepeda said, though he acknowledged the vote was likely going to a second round.

Cepeda won 41% of the vote, while de la Espriella won 44% of the votes, with 99.98% of the results counted by electoral authorities.

Cepeda is a progressive senator who has promised to carry on a fraught plan to achieve “total peace" by negotiating peace pacts with guerrillas and criminal gangs. He was consistently leading polls in the run up to the Sunday vote, but in the weeks leading up to the election de la Espriella rapidly gained support with a promise that he would crack down on armed groups.

The neck-and-neck results likely spell trouble for Cepeda in the run-off election, as de la Espriella is expected to scoop up support from voters who threw their support behind another conservative candidate in the first round.

De la Espriella — a newcomer known as El Tigre, or “The Tiger” — has sought to portray himself as a supporter of U.S. President Donald Trump.

“Let the United States of America and democratic parties monitor this runoff election. I will lead this battle; I will be Colombia’s best warrior," de la Espriella said in an impassioned speech Sunday night, pounding his chest behind bullet-proof glass in front of supporters.

Colombian voters are weighing peace deals or a crackdown

Voters across Latin America are increasingly ditching leaders that pitched progressive policies aimed at addressing the root issues of conflict, such as lack of opportunities for young people and corruption. Instead, voters have increasingly turned to candidates promising heavy-handed security crackdowns.

The polarized vote comes as the Trump administration is playing a more aggressive role in Latin America than any U.S. government in decades, placing mounting pressure on countries like Colombia, Mexico, and Ecuador to crack down on crime.

The election has also underscored two sharply diverging visions for the future of peace in a country marked by years of conflict.

On one side, Cepeda has promised to continue Petro’s progressive agenda and a largely failed effort to negotiate peace pacts with armed groups, following a plan that’s likely to sharply contrast with Trump’s vision for Latin America.

On the other side, de la Espriella has promised to fiercely crack down on criminal groups and build 10 mega-prisons, echoing the war on gangs policy of El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele, which has driven down homicide rates but fueled accusations of human rights abuses.

“Today’s election isn’t just important for us, it’s important for all of Latin America,” said Juan Acevedo, a 62-year-old sociologist walking out of a voting station in Colombia’s capital on Sunday morning. “Whoever wins here will suggest to the region if progressive policies will continue or if things are going to return to the right.”

Vote is seen as a referendum on Petro

The election — 10 years after Colombia signed an historic peace pact with guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC — as seen as a referendum on Petro’s policies.

The deal a decade ago had offered hope to break the nation’s vicious cycle of fighting between rebel groups and the government. But violence has since roared back, in part because armed groups have taken advantage of peace negotiations with Petro's government to make territorial gains.

That came to a head in the lead-up to the election. Criminal groups have increasingly launched drone strikes, armed attacks have plagued the race and last June, 39-year-old politician and presidential hopeful Miguel Uribe Turbay was fatally shot at a political rally. Still, Cepeda and Petro have maintained strong support among many because of progressive policies pushed forward under Petro, such as boosting the minimum wage.

Both de la Espriella and Valencia have touted their affinity for Trump, though Valencia’s electoral loss dealt another blow to a once powerful political current known as Uribismo.

Colombians are divided on the way forward

Maria Eugenia, a 57-year-old seamstress on Friday in downtown Bogotá, Colombia's capital, said she welcomed an all-out offensive on an expanding slate of criminal groups, regardless of the human cost.

While she approved of Petro’s pushes to improve the country's medical infrastructure, she said she was voting for de la Espriella because violence in rural areas of the country has gotten out of hand. She said negotiating peace pacts was effectively rewarding armed groups.

“Of course, whenever you come down with a heavy hand, there’s always going to be debate,” she said. “But some people are going to have to fall to clean up what needs to be cleaned up.”

Others, like Acevedo, the sociologist, said a security crackdown such as the one promoted by de la Espriella meant a return to past military campaigns that he said only reinforced Colombia's cycle of violence.

He said he supports Cepeda, adding that while the government hasn't done a perfect job — failing to pass ambitious reforms and follow through on promises to reduce violence — it was better to continue pushing forward with their political coalition's efforts to take a different approach in addressing the country's violence.

He added that his main critique of Petro's administration was the power grabs made by criminal groups as they negotiated with the government. He said he hoped that if Cepeda won, he would strike a better balance between negotiating peace and maintaining control over those groups.

“We're a country that has lived through 60 years of conflict,” Acevedo said. “The danger here is that we return to the times where everyone is saying that the only way to solve our problems is with bullets and more war.”

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Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america

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This story was first published on May 31, 2026. It was updated on Jun. 2, 2026 to correct the first name of the candidate to Abelardo instead of Aberaldo.

Not “Minneapolis Lakers vs. Knicks.” Just George Mikan. The NBA’s first one-of-a-kind big man.

It feels like history repeating itself now. The NBA Finals start Wednesday, with the San Antonio Spurs facing the Knicks for the title. And the marquee for this series — in San Antonio, in New York, in Paris and countless other points around the globe — may as well say “Wemby vs Knicks.”

Victor Wembanyama keeps stepping onto bigger and bigger stages. The latest version of the NBA’s one-of-a-kind big man — a title once held by the likes of Mikan, Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Shaquille O’Neal — will have all eyes on him in this series, and probably for every game he plays for the rest of his life. He’s not “on the way” to superstardom. He’s there. And this series is giving him his first chance at putting champion on his resume.

“This is the best basketball on the planet that’s being played right now,” Wembanyama said after San Antonio won Game 7 at Oklahoma City to capture the Western Conference title. “And the crazy thing is ... I want to do that 15, 20 more times. Let’s hope it doesn’t become an addiction. Maybe it is already.”

It may as well be an addiction. San Antonio is clearly addicted to him.

There’s no Major League Baseball in San Antonio, no NHL team, no NFL team. As far as big-time pro sports go, it’s the Spurs and nothing else. And those who drive five minutes in any direction in this city will see the proof.

School’s out in San Antonio. It’s summer. The city’s public library was buzzing Monday, and a few kids just happened to be noticing a new display not far from the front desk. “Read Like Wemby,” it said, and it featured five books that Wembanyama has been known to read in the past. An Instagram account — wembybooks — starting posting images of him with books, local media in San Antonio caught on and the library came up with an idea.

“We want to make sure people have access to those and people can read them,” said Scott Williams, the marketing manager for the San Antonio Public Library. ”And so, we thought, ‘Let’s do a display and let’s do a book list and make sure that people can easily find what Wemby’s reading so that they can read it too.’”

The results?

“The interest has been huge,” Williams said. ”Ultimately, we’re looking at two things. We want people to pay attention to the library, we want people to come here and notice us, and we want people checking out these books and reading. It’s been a success on both fronts.”

So, Wemby gets people reading.

He also gets people to visit seafood restaurants — even when they’re closed.

Rudy’s Seafood isn’t open on Monday. In a 15-minute span Monday afternoon, four cars showed up. They weren’t there for lunch. They were there to see the Spurs murals — current players and coaches are featured, alongside a freshly re-painted Gregg Popovich, a newly added George Gervin and Manu Ginobili, among others.

Mark and Christina Lerma have family in San Antonio, but they live in Nebraska. They’re not going to the NBA Finals — ticket prices are way too high — but they headed to Rudy’s to pay homage to their favorite team. Mark was wearing a newly acquired Spurs NBA Finals hat and Wembanyama jersey; Christina was dressed all in black and showed off video of a Spurs dress she was wearing on Sunday.

They’ve loved the Spurs forever. And Wembanyama, as one might guess, has quickly acquired a special place in their fandom.

“He’s dominant,” Mark Lerma said. “He changes the game.”

They proudly pointed out that Wembanyama has been to the restaurant to see the tribute to the Spurs, which has been up for years and gets updated as needed.

“A lot of people stop and do selfies,” said Roland Ramirez, who owns the restaurant. “They’re doing graduation pictures with the backdrop. It’s pretty nice for the community. You know, the Spurs are pretty big right now here in San Antonio.”

He has met Wembanyama in the past and was blown away by how he carries himself.

“The first vibe I got off of him was he was just very humble,” Ramirez said. “He talked to my wife ... he was very humble with everybody. You could see all the emotion he had when he won the Western Conference finals and the crying, he’s just a very emotional guy, very humble, very, very nice guy. That’s what people are really feeding off. He’s humble, but he’s hungry for a championship. And when he gets on the floor, he’s a whole different monster.”

He’s different. Just like Mikan was 77 years ago. Wemby vs. the Knicks. A marquee matchup awaits.

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AP NBA: https://apnews.com/nba

Texas Tech (61-8) will play No. 2 Texas (51-12) on Wednesday at Devon Park in a double-elimination format. The Longhorns won the 2025 national championship after beating the Red Raiders in three games. It will be the first championship series rematch in WCWS history— with the previous rematches coming in one-game finals.

Canady’s 99th pitch of the game — and 156th pitch of the day — led to an out in right field to become the first pitcher with multiple shutouts at multiple schools (Stanford) in WCWS history.

Canady (29-6) only had two seven-inning complete games all year, with the last coming on March 20.

Texas Tech won despite going 0 for 12 with runners in scoring position.

Jasmyn Burns sent the first pitch of the fourth inning over the center-field wall for her 19th home run of the season. It was her second hit of the tournament — both home runs.

Texas Tech took advantage of an error in the seventh to add a run. Lauren Allred singled up the middle and center fielder Kristen White’s throw got past the third baseman and Mihyia Davis came home to score. It was White’s third error of the season.

Alabama starter Jocelyn Briski (25-4) took the loss after allowing an earned run and eight hits in five innings.

Texas Tech had a hit in all seven innings, including Burns’ single in the sixth to force a pitching change with runners on first and second.

In the first game, Mia Williams hit her first career walk-off home run to give Texas Tech a 5-4 victory.

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AP college sports: https://apnews.com/hub/college-sports

While inflation has eased from its peak, many everyday items remain more expensive than they were just a few years ago.

So KSAT reached out to Taylor Collins, an associate professor of economics at University of the Incarnate Word, who helped explain why consumers are still feeling the pinch using a tomato.

Collins said rising prices often come down to two simple ideas: supply and demand. In other words, are there more people trying to buy it? Is there less of it to go around?

Growing demand for fresh foods

Consumer preferences have shifted in recent years, Collins said, with more people seeking fresh and organic produce.

“As people are more aware of the unhealthiness within processed foods, they’re opting more for organics,” Collins said. “They want more of those natural goods. That extra demand pushes the price up as well.”

When more consumers compete for the same products, retailers and producers can often charge higher prices.

Rising costs throughout the supply chain

While demand plays a role, Collins said the bigger story may be on the supply side.

Before tomatoes can be planted, farmers need fertilizer — an input that has become significantly more expensive in recent years.

“A big one that gets under discussed is fertilizer has been going up in price significantly,” Collins said.

He noted that much of the world’s fertilizer production is tied to natural gas production, making fertilizer costs vulnerable to fluctuations in global energy markets.

Labor shortages are also affecting agricultural production.

Farms rely on workers to plant, maintain and harvest crops. Collins said labor availability has become a growing challenge, however.

“A lot of the people who are working the tomato fields or farms are struggling with immigration issues right now,” Collins said. “Less labor available is going to push up the price of those tomatoes as well.”

Transportation Expenses

Even after tomatoes are harvested, additional expenses can add up as the product moves through the supply chain.

Tomatoes must be loaded up and transported from farms to distribution centers and eventually to grocery stores. Higher fuel prices are raising the cost at nearly every stage of that process.

“Oil and gas is more expensive, which means running the tractors to harvest those tomatoes, running the trucks to get those tomatoes to the store,” Collins said. “All of that creates an extra cost for the suppliers.”

What Consumers Can Expect

Ultimately, added expenses are often passed on to shoppers in the form of higher prices at the grocery store.

Dr. Collins said when you put together the extra demand and the restriction in supply, it’s pretty hard to see the trend of “increasing prices” slowing down anytime soon.

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