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# Shooting after Chiefs' Super Bowl parade latest violence to mar sports celebrations By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS February 14, 2024. 6:21 PM EST --- The shooting after the Kansas City Chiefs' Super Bowl victory parade Wednesday was just the latest example of violence erupting during a championship celebration. Here are other shootings that have taken place over the last decade either the night a team won a league championship or during the ensuing parade or rally. ## JUNE 2016: CLEVELAND CAVALIERS Police said a person was shot twice in the leg and received injuries that weren't life-threatening during a parade and rally for the Cavaliers' NBA championship. ## JUNE 2019: TORONTO RAPTORS Four people were shot and wounded at a downtown Toronto rally for the NBA champion Raptors. Police said others suffered minor injuries as they tried to get away from the shooting. ## OCTOBER 2020: LOS ANGELES DODGERS Two people were shot to death in Sylmar, California, the night the Los Angeles Dodgers won the World Series. Family members of Juan Carlos Guillen and Marco Antonio Vazquez said the two men were trying to stop people who were smashing car windows with baseball bats. ## JULY 2021: MILWAUKEE BUCKS Two shootings left three people wounded in downtown Milwaukee the night the Bucks won their first NBA title in 50 years. Police said the injuries weren't life-threatening. The shootings were across the Milwaukee River from Fiserv Forum, the Bucks' home arena. ## JUNE 2022: DENVER NUGGETS After the Nuggets' championship parade last year, a shooting took place in downtown Denver that injured two people, though police said they didn't believe the incident was associated with the celebration. ## OCTOBER 2022: TEXAS RANGERS An argument resulted in shots being fired at a parking lot near the Rangers' World Series championship parade, though nobody was injured.
# Chiefs says all players, coaches and staffers are safe and accounted for after parade shooting February 14, 2024. 6:53 PM EST --- KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) - The Kansas City Chiefs said all their players, coaches and staffers and their families "are safe and accounted for" after a deadly shooting occurred Wednesday at the end of the Super Bowl championship parade. "We are truly saddened by the senseless act of violence that occurred outside of Union Station at the conclusion of today's parade and rally," the Chiefs said in a statement. "Our hearts go out to the victims, their families and all of Kansas City." Police said one person was killed and more than 20 were injured in the shooting that occurred at the end of the parade to celebrate the Chiefs' Super Bowl victory. Chiefs trainer Rick Burkholder said he was with coach Andy Reid and other coaches and staff members at the time of the shooting. Burkholder said the team was on buses returning to Arrowhead Stadium. "At this time, we have confirmed that all of our players, coaches, staff and their families are safe and accounted for," the Chiefs said in their statement. "We thank the local law enforcement officers and first responders who were on scene to assist." The NFL issued its own statement saying it was "deeply saddened" and adding that its "thoughts are with the victims and everyone affected." Chiefs quarterback and Super Bowl MVP Patrick Mahomes said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, "Praying for Kansas City." He included three emojis of hands in prayer. Offensive tackle Donovan Smith, defensive tackle Mike Pennel and safety Justin Reid were among the Chiefs players offering similar statements of support on social media. "My thoughts and prayers are with everyone affected by today's incidents - a huge thank you to the first responders who ran towards the sound of danger," offensive guard Trey Smith posted on X. "You're the ones who should be celebrated today." Defensive end Charles Omenihu called for a change in gun laws. "Prayers for those affected at today's parade," Omenihu said in an X post. "A time of celebration ends in tragedy. When are we going to fix these gun laws? How many more people have to die to say enough is enough? It's too easy for the wrong people to obtain guns in America and that's a FACT." The parade was a celebration of the Chiefs' 25-22 overtime victory over the San Francisco 49ers that gave them their second straight Super Bowl title. "Please join me in prayer for all the victims in this heinous act," Chiefs linebacker Drue Tranquill said in an X post. "Pray that doctors & first responders would have steady hands & that all would experience full healing."
# Massive landslide on coastal bluff leaves Southern California mansion on the edge of a cliff February 14, 2024. 4:00 PM EST --- DANA POINT, Calif. (AP) - A massive landslide on a coastal bluff has left a Southern California mansion on the edge of a cliff, but authorities have determined that the ocean-view home and neighboring residences are not in immediate danger. The slide occurred last week in the city of Dana Point after back-to-back drenching storms that also caused numerous mud and debris flows throughout the region. The city's building inspector assessed the residential structures and a geotechnical engineer observed the slide site, the city said in a statement Wednesday. "At this point, the City has deemed that no additional action is necessary, and out of an abundance of caution has recommended that the property owner contract for a professional engineering assessment of the property," the statement said. "The house is fine, it's not threatened and it will not be red-tagged," the owner, Dr. Lewis Bruggeman, told KCAL-TV. "The city agrees that there's no major structural issue with the house." More rain is in the Southern California forecast, arriving by late Sunday night and possibly lasting into Wednesday.
# House Intelligence Committee chair delivers cryptic warning of a serious national security threat By ELLEN KNICKMEYER, MATTHEW LEE, and KEVIN FREKING February 14, 2024. 7:17 PM EST --- WASHINGTON (AP) - The Republican head of the House Intelligence Committee urged the Biden administration on Wednesday to declassify information about what he called a serious national security threat. A senior congressional aide speaking to The Associated Press pointed to concerns about Russian anti-satellite weapons. Rep. Mike Turner gave no details about the nature of the threat, and the Biden administration also declined to address it. But several leading lawmakers, including House Speaker Mike Johnson, cautioned against being overly alarmed. The congressional aide said he understood that the threat relates to a space-deployed Russian anti-satellite weapon. Such a weapon could pose a major danger to U.S. satellites that transmit billions of bytes of data each hour. The aide, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter, said it was not yet clear if the Russian weapon has nuclear capability, but said that is the fear. The threat Turner raised concerns about is not an active capability, according to a U.S. official familiar with the intelligence. The official, who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity, added that intelligence officials consider the threat to be significant, but it should not cause panic. Turner issued a statement urging the administration to declassify the information so the U.S. and its allies can openly discuss how to respond. He also sent an email to members of Congress saying his committee had "identified an urgent matter with regard to a destabilizing foreign military capability" that should be known to all congressional policy makers. He encouraged them to come to a SCIF, a secure area, to review the intelligence. Turner has been a voice for stronger U.S. national security, putting him at odds with some Republican colleagues who favor a more isolationist approach. He has called for the renewal of a key U.S. government surveillance tool while some fellow Republicans and liberal Democrats have raised privacy objections. And he supports continuing U.S. military aid for Ukraine in its war against Russia at a time that the funding remains uncertain because of opposition in the Republican-led House. Johnson said he was not at liberty to disclose the classified information. "But we just want to assure everyone steady hands are at the wheel. We're working on it and there's no need for alarm," he told reporters at the Capitol. Democratic Rep. Jim Himes, the ranking member of the Intelligence Committee, said in a statement that the classified information is "significant" but "not a cause for panic." The Senate Intelligence Committee said it has been tracking the issue. "We continue to take this matter seriously and are discussing an appropriate response with the administration," Sen. Mark Warner, the Democratic committee chairman, and Sen. Marco Rubio, the Republican vice chairman, said in a statement. "In the meantime, we must be cautious about potentially disclosing sources and methods that may be key to preserving a range of options for U.S. action." The rapidly evolving threat in space was one of the primary reasons that the U.S. Space Force was established in 2019. A lot of that threat has to do with new capabilities that China and Russia have already developed that can interfere with critical satellite-based U.S. communications, such as GPS and the ability to quickly detect missile launches. In recent years the U.S. has seen both China and Russia pursue new ways to jam satellites, intercept their feeds, blind them, shoot them down and even potentially grab them with a robotic arm to pull them out of their programmed orbits. One of the key missions of the Space Force is to train troops skilled in detecting and defending against those threats. In its 2020 Defense Space Strategy, the Pentagon said China and Russia presented the greatest strategic threat in space due to their aggressive development of counterspace abilities, and their military doctrine calling for extending conflict to space. The White House and lawmakers expressed frustration at how Turner raised his concerns. His announcement appeared to catch the Biden administration off-guard. National security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters at the White House that he already had been due to brief Turner and other senior congressional leaders on Thursday. Sullivan did not disclose the topic or provide any other details related to Turner's statement. "I'm focused on going to see him, sit with him as well as the other House members of the Gang of Eight, tomorrow," Sullivan said. "And I'm not in a position to say anything further from this podium at this time." He acknowledged it was not standard practice to offer such a briefing. "I'll just say that I personally reached out to the Gang of Eight. It is highly unusual, in fact, for the national security adviser to do that," Sullivan said. He said he had reached out earlier this week. Johnson said he sent a letter last month to the White House requesting a meeting with the president to discuss "the serious national security issue that is classified." He said Sullivan's meeting was in response to his request.
# Conservative group tells judge it has no evidence to back its claims of Georgia ballot stuffing By RUSS BYNUM February 14, 2024. 4:06 PM EST --- SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) - A conservative group has told a Georgia judge that it doesn't have evidence to support its claims of illegal ballot stuffing during the the 2020 general election and a runoff two months later. Texas-based True the Vote filed complaints with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in 2021, including one in which it said it had obtained "a detailed account of coordinated efforts to collect and deposit ballots in drop boxes across metro Atlanta" during the November 2020 election and a January 2021 runoff. A Fulton County Superior Court judge in Atlanta signed an order last year requiring True the Vote to provide evidence it had collected, including the names of people who were sources of information, to state elections officials who were frustrated by the group's refusal to share evidence with investigators. In their written response, attorneys for True the Vote said the group had no names or other documentary evidence to share. "Once again, True the Vote has proven itself untrustworthy and unable to provide a shred of evidence for a single one of their fairy-tale allegations," Raffensperger spokesman Mike Hassinger said Wednesday. "Like all the lies about Georgia's 2020 election, their fabricated claims of ballot harvesting have been repeatedly debunked." True the Vote's assertions were relied upon heavily for "2000 Mules," a widely debunked film by conservative pundit and filmmaker Dinesh D'Souza. A State Election Board investigation found that surveillance camera footage that the film claimed showed ballot stuffing actually showed people submitting ballots for themselves and family members who lived with them, which is allowed under Georgia law. The election board subpoenaed True the Vote to provide evidence that would assist it in investigating the group's ballot trafficking allegations. True the Vote's complaint said its investigators "spoke with several individuals regarding personal knowledge, methods, and organizations involved in ballot trafficking in Georgia." It said one person, referred to in the complaint only as John Doe, "admitted to personally participating and provided specific information about the ballot trafficking process." Frustrated by the group's refusal to share evidence, Georgia officials took it to court last year. A judge ordered True the Vote to turn over names and contact information for anyone who had provided information, as well as any recordings, transcripts, witness statements or other documents supporting its allegations. The group came up empty-handed despite having "made every additional reasonable effort to locate responsive items," its attorneys David Oles and Michael Wynne wrote in a Dec. 11 legal filing first reported Wednesday by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. True the Vote's founder and president, Catherine Engelbrecht, didn't immediately respond to an Associated Press email seeking comment Wednesday. She and another member of the group were briefly jailed in 2022 for contempt for not complying with a court order to provide information in a defamation lawsuit. The suit accused True the Vote of falsely claiming that an election software provider stored the personal information of U.S. election workers on an unsecured server in China. Prior to the State Election Board's investigation, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation looked into True the Vote's assertion that it was able to use surveillance video and geospatial mobile device information to support its allegations. In a September 2021 letter, Vic Reynolds, who was then the GBI's director, said the evidence produced did not amount to proof of ballot harvesting. State elections officials opened their own investigation after receiving True the Vote's complaint two months later. When pressed to provide names of sources and other documentation, the group last year tried to withdraw its complaint. One of its attorneys wrote that a complete response would require True the Vote to identify people to whom it had promised confidentiality. The State Election Board refused to shelve the complaint and went to court to force True the Vote to turn over information. In addition to names, the judge ordered True the Vote to provide copies of any confidentiality agreements it had with sources. The group's attorneys replied: "TTV has no such documents in its possession, custody, or control."
# As Marvel reveals the new 'Fantastic Four' cast, here's a look back at all the past versions By LINDSEY BAHR February 14, 2024. 4:44 PM EST --- Pedro Pascal is jumping from Star Wars to Marvel. The "Last of Us" and "Mandalorian" actor is set to play Reed Richards (also known as Mister Fantastic) in the newest incarnation of "The Fantastic Four," the studio announced Wednesday. The rest of his squad was revealed, too, with Vanessa Kirby stepping up as Susan Storm (The Invisible Woman), Joseph Quinn of "Stranger Things" as Johnny Storm (The Human Torch), and Ebon Moss-Bachrach of "The Bear" as Ben Grimm (The Thing). In the announcement, the gang was depicted in a retro illustrated Valentine's Day card that had fans guessing this version takes place in the 1960s. "The Fantastic Four" is among Marvel's longest-running comics series and the titular crew is one of its most beloved groups. Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, the scientists-turned-superheroes are relatable and wry in their interactions as a team - even when they aren't fighting supervillains. When it debuted in November 1961, it was a refreshing revelation that helped inform the Marvel voice and set a path for Iron Man and Spider-Man. But the so-called first family of Marvel has not had the most distinguished transition to the big screen, with false starts and bad reviews often trailing. First came a $2 million Roger Corman production in 1994 that was never ultimately released, with Alex Hyde-White as Reed Richards, Rebecca Staab as Susan Storm, Jay Underwood as Johnny Storm and Michael Bailey Smith as Ben Grimm. The shoestring production was directed by Oley Sassone. Just a year after Corman's was shelved, 20th Century Fox acquired the rights to the characters and began developing what would become two films under director Tim Story, though that would take about 10 years and see several directors come and go (including Chris Columbus, Raja Gosnell and future "Ant-Man" helmer Peyton Reed). In 2005's "Fantastic Four" and its 2007 sequel "Rise of the Silver Surfer," Ioan Gruffudd was Reed, Jessica Alba was Susan, Chris Evans was Johnny and Michael Chiklis was Ben. Fox tried again, with Josh Trank at the helm, and a cast led by Miles Teller, Kate Mara, Michael B. Jordan and Jamie Bell. But the 2015 film was panned by critics and lost the studio over $80 million. Plans for a sequel were scuttled and a few years later, Disney acquired Fox - bringing the Marvel characters back under its corporate umbrella. The new "Fantastic Four" will mark the first time the mutant misfits will be together as part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, overseen by Kevin Feige ( John Krasinski played a version of Mister Fantastic in 2022's "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" ). The film is set to be directed by "WandaVision" veteran Matt Shakman, with a planned July 25, 2025, theatrical release.
# Protesters pour red powder on US Constitution enclosure, prompting evacuation of National Archives By ASHRAF KHALIL February 14, 2024. 5:28 PM EST --- WASHINGTON (AP) - The National Archives building and galleries were evacuated Wednesday afternoon after two protesters dumped red powder on the protective case around the U.S. Constitution. The incident occurred around 2:30 p.m., according to the National Archives. There was no damage to the Constitution itself. A video posted on the X social media platform shows two men covered in reddish-pink powder standing in front of the equally splattered horizontal glass case that houses the Constitution. "We are determined to foment a rebellion," one man says. "We all deserve clean air, water, food and a livable climate." Police then led the pair away. "The National Archives Rotunda is the sanctuary for our nation's founding documents. They are here for all Americans to view and understand the principles of our nation," Archivist of the United States Colleen Shogan said in a statement. "We take such vandalism very seriously and we will insist that the perpetrators be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law." The building is expected to be open Thursday.
# Tinder, Hinge and other dating apps encourage 'compulsive' use, lawsuit claims By BARBARA ORTUTAY February 14, 2024. 5:17 PM EST --- Stuck in dating app loop with no date in sight? A lawsuit filed Wednesday against Match Group claims that is by design. Tinder, Hinge and other Match dating apps are filled with addictive features that encourage "compulsive" use, the proposed class-action lawsuit claims. The lawsuit filed in federal court in the Northern District of California on Wednesday - Valentine's Day - says Match intentionally designs its dating platforms with game-like features that "lock users into a perpetual pay-to-play loop" prioritizing profit over promises to help users find relationships. This, the suit claims, turns users into "addicts" who purchase ever-more-expensive subscriptions to access special features that promise romance and matches. "Match's business model depends on generating returns through the monopolization of users' attention, and Match has guaranteed its market success by fomenting dating app addiction that drives expensive subscriptions and perpetual use," the lawsuit says. It was filed by six dating app users and seeks class action status. Representatives for Dallas-based Match did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment. Though it focuses on adults, the lawsuit comes as tech companies face increasing scrutiny over addictive features that harm young people's mental health. Meta Platforms, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, for instance, faces a lawsuit by dozens of states accusing it of contributing to the youth mental health crisis by designing features on Instagram and Facebook that addict children to its platforms. Match's apps, according to the lawsuit against the company, "employs recognized dopamine-manipulating product features" to turn users into "gamblers locked in a search for psychological rewards that Match makes elusive on purpose."
# House Homeland chairman announces retirement a day after leading Mayorkas' impeachment By KIMBERLEE KRUESI February 14, 2024. 7:03 PM EST --- NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - Tennessee Republican U.S. Rep. Mark Green on Wednesday announced that he won't run for a fourth term, pointing to the impeachment of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas just the day before as among the reasons it is "time for me to return home." "Our country – and our Congress – is broken beyond most means of repair," Green said in a statement. "I have come to realize our fight is not here within Washington, our fight is with Washington." As chairman of the Committee on Homeland Security, Green was a driving force behind the Mayorkas impeachment push over border security in a deeply partisan and highly unusual attack on a Cabinet official. His panel conducted a months-long investigation of Mayorkas, his policies and his management of the department, ultimately concluding Tuesday that his conduct in office amounted to "high crimes and misdemeanors" worthy of impeachment. Green has served since 2019 in the 7th Congressional District, which was redrawn in 2022 to include a significant portion of Nashville. He previously served as an Army surgeon and in the state Senate and is from Montgomery County. Green flirted running for governor in 2017, but suspended his campaign after he was nominated by former President Donald Trump to become the Army secretary. He later withdrew his nomination due to criticism over his remarks about Muslims and LGBTQ+ Americans, including saying that being transgender is a disease. He also urged that a stand be taken against "the indoctrination of Islam" in public schools and referred to a "Muslim horde" that invaded Constantinople hundreds of years ago. After winning the congressional seat in 2018, Green once again made headlines after hosting a town hall where he stated, without citing evidence, that vaccines cause autism. He later walked back his comments but not before state health officials described the Republican as a " goofball." "As I have done my entire life, I will continue serving this country -– but in a new capacity," Green said Wednesday, not disclosing if he will run again for governor in 2026, where the seat will up for grabs because Republican Gov. Bill Lee is prohibited from running under Tennessee's gubernatorial term limits. In 2022, Green's middle Tennessee congressional seat was among seats that Republicans drastically carved up during redistricting. Those congressional maps are now facing a federal lawsuit, but that case isn't scheduled to go to trial until April 2025. So far on the Republican side, Caleb Stack has pulled petitions to run for the now open congressional district. Former Nashville Mayor Megan Barry announced last year that she would run for the position as a Democrat. "I expect candidates who agree with Mark Green or are even more extreme will announce campaigns, and I look forward to taking on whoever makes it through that primary," Barry said in a statement.
# Putin says Russia prefers Biden to Trump because he's 'more experienced and predictable' February 14, 2024. 6:07 PM EST --- MOSCOW (AP) - President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday that Russia would prefer to see President Joe Biden win a second term, describing him as more experienced than Donald Trump. Speaking in an interview with a correspondent of Russian state television, Putin declared that he will work with any U.S. leader who is elected, but noted unequivocally that he would prefer Biden's victory when asked who would be a better choice from the point of view of Russia. "Biden, he's more experienced, more predictable, he's a politician of the old formation," Putin said. "But we will work with any U.S. leader whom the American people trust." Asked about speculation on Biden's health issues, Putin responded that "I'm not a doctor and I don't consider it proper to comment on that." Biden's team worked to alleviate Democratic concerns over alarms raised by a special counsel about Biden's age and memory. They came in a report determining that Biden would not be charged with any criminal activity for possessing classified documents after he left office. Putin noted that the talk about Biden's health comes as "the election campaign is gaining speed in the U.S., and it's taking an increasingly sharp course." He added that allegations of Biden's health problems were also circulating at the time when they met in Switzerland in June 2021, adding that he witnessed the contrary and saw the U.S. leader in a good shape. "They talked about him being incapacitated, but I saw nothing of the kind," Putin said. "Yes, he was peeking at his papers, to be honest, I was peeking at mine, not a big deal." At the same time, Putin noted that he sees the Biden administration policy as wrong. Russia-West ties have plunged to their lowest levels since the Cold War era after Putin sent his troops into Ukraine in February 2022. "I believe that the position of the current administration is badly flawed and wrong, and I have told President Biden about that," Putin said. Putin has claimed that he has sent troops into Ukraine to protect Russian speakers there and to prevent a threat to Russia's security posed by Ukraine's bid to join NATO. Ukraine and its Western allies have denounced Moscow's action as an unprovoked act of aggression. Putin argued that Moscow was forced to act after Ukraine and its allies refused to fulfill a 2015 agreement to grant more powers to separatist territories in eastern Ukraine, where Moscow-backed separatists launched a rebellion in 2014. "We only can regret that we didn't act earlier, thinking that we are dealing with decent people," Putin said. Asked about Trump's statement on Saturday, in which he said he once warned he would allow Russia to do whatever it wants to NATO member nations that are "delinquent" in devoting 2% of their gross domestic product to defense, Putin responded that it's up to the U.S. to determine its role in the alliance. Trump's statement sharply contrasted with Biden's pledge "to defend every inch of NATO territory," as the alliance commits all members to do in case of attack. It shocked many in Europe, drawing a pledge from Poland, France and Germany to bolster Europe's security and defense power. Putin noted that Trump's statement followed his policy during his first term when he prodded NATO allies in Europe to increase their defense spending. "He has his own view on how relations with allies should develop," Putin said about Trump. "From his point of view, there is some logic in this, while from the point of view of the Europeans, there is no logic at all, and they would like the U.S. to keep carrying out some functions they have fulfilled since the formation of NATO free of charge." He described NATO as a "U.S. foreign policy tool," adding that "if the U.S. thinks that it no longer needs this tool it's up to it to decide." Asked about his impressions from his last week's interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, Putin said he expected Carlson to be more aggressive. Putin used the interview to push his narrative on the fighting in Ukraine, urge Washington to recognize Moscow's interests and press Kyiv to sit down for talks. "I expected him to be aggressive and ask the so-called tough questions, and I wasn't only ready for it but wanted it because it would have given me a chance to respond sharply," Putin said. Carlson didn't ask Putin about war crimes Russian troops have been accused of in Ukraine, or about his relentless crackdown on dissent. "He didn't allow me to do what I was ready for," Putin said, describing Carlson as a "dangerous man."
# Special counsel asks Supreme Court to let Trump's 2020 election case proceed to trial without delay By ERIC TUCKER, ALANNA DURKIN RICHER, and MARK SHERMAN February 14, 2024. 6:58 PM EST --- WASHINGTON (AP) - Special counsel Jack Smith urged the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday to let former President Donald Trump's 2020 election interference case proceed to trial without further delay. Prosecutors were responding to a Trump team request from earlier in the week asking for a continued pause in the case as the court considers whether to take up the question of whether the former president is immune from prosecution for official acts in the White House. Two lower courts have overwhelmingly rejected that position, prompting Trump to ask the high court to intervene. The case - one of four criminal prosecutions confronting Trump - has reached a critical juncture, with the Supreme Court's next step capable of helping determine whether Trump stands trial this year in Washington or whether the proceedings are going to be postponed by weeks or months of additional arguments. The trial date, already postponed once by Trump's immunity appeal, is of paramount importance to both sides. Prosecutors are looking to bring Trump to trial this year while defense lawyers have been seeking delays in his criminal cases. If Trump were to be elected with the case pending, he could presumably use his authority as head of the executive branch to order the Justice Department to dismiss it or could potentially seek to pardon himself. Reflecting their desire to proceed quickly, prosecutors responded to Trump's appeal within two days even though the court had given them until next Tuesday. Though their filing does not explicitly mention the upcoming November election or Trump's status as the Republican primary front-runner, prosecutors described the case as having "unique national importance" and said that "delay in the resolution of these charges threatens to frustrate the public interest in a speedy and fair verdict." "The national interest in resolving those charges without further delay is compelling," they wrote. Smith's team charged Trump in August with plotting to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, including by participating in a scheme to disrupt the counting of electoral votes in the run-up to the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, when his supporters stormed the building in a violent clash with police. "The charged crimes strike at the heart of our democracy. A President's alleged criminal scheme to overturn an election and thwart the peaceful transfer of power to his successor should be the last place to recognize a novel form of absolute immunity from federal criminal law," they wrote. Trump's lawyers have argued that he is shielded from prosecution for acts that fell within his official duties as president - a legally untested argument since no other former president has been indicted. The trial judge and then a federal appeals court rejected those arguments, with a three-judge appeals panel last week saying, "We cannot accept that the office of the Presidency places its former occupants above the law for all time thereafter." The proceedings have been effectively frozen by Trump's immunity appeal, with U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan canceling a March 4 trial date while the appeals court considered the matter. No new date has been set. Trump's appeal and request for the Supreme Court to get involved could cause further delays depending on what the justices decide. In December, Smith and his team had urged the justices to take up and decide the immunity issue, even before the appeals court weighed in. But the court declined. The Supreme Court's options include rejecting the emergency appeal, which would enable Chutkan to restart the trial proceedings in Washington's federal court. The court also could extend the delay while it hears arguments on the immunity issue. In that event, the schedule the justices set could determine how soon a trial might begin, if indeed they agree with lower court rulings that Trump is not immune from prosecution. On Wednesday, prosecutors urged the court to reject Trump's petition to hear the case, saying that lower court opinions rejecting immunity for the former president "underscore how remote the possibility is that this Court will agree with his unprecedented legal position." But if the court does wants to decide the matter, Smith said, the justices should hear arguments in March and issue a final ruling by late June. Prosecutors also pushed back against Trump's argument that allowing the case to proceed could chill future presidents' actions for fear they could be criminally charged once they leave office and open the door to politically motivated cases against former commanders-in-chief. "That dystopian vision runs contrary to the checks and balances built into our institutions and the framework of the Constitution," they wrote. "Those guardrails ensure that the legal process for determining criminal liability will not be captive to 'political forces,' as applicant forecasts."
# Review: 'Bob Marley: One Love' doesn't stir By JAKE COYLE February 8, 2024. 2:15 PM EST --- Bob Marley was born in 1945, the son of an 18-year-old mother and a much older white man who had nothing to do with his son. As a boy raised in poverty, he often slept on the cold ground. Five years after moving to Kingston's Trench Town, he made his first record, at 17. Not 20 years later, he was dead. By then, Marley had become the face of not just reggae, Rastafarianism and Jamaica, but of revolution, resistance and peace. He left behind a body of work that has only grown more monumental with time. "Redemption Song." "No Woman No Cry." "War." "Trench Town Rock." "Get Up Stand Up." "Lively Up Yourself." "One Love People Get Ready." The Beatles could argue they were bigger than Jesus but no one thought - like some did Marley - that they were actually the Second Coming. So, yeah, it's a lot for a movie -- any movie. "Bob Marley: One Love," directed by Reinaldo Marcus Green, is a noble but uninspired attempt to capture some of the essence of Marley. Its lived-in textures and attention to Marley's political consciousness, just by themselves, are enough to make "One Love" something more substantial than many recent, glossier music biopics. But the power and complexity of Marley is still out of reach for "One Love," which takes a typical biopic framework in plotting itself around the run-up to an important concert with flashbacks mixed in. When footage of the real Marley inevitably plays over the credits, it's a painful comparison to the ruminative but inert movie that played before it. The first thing you notice about the performance by Ben Kingsley-Adir, the talented British actor of "One Night in Miami..." and "Barbie," is that he's got the voice. His Marley has the growl and lilt of the singer's resonant Jamaican accent. But what the performance is missing - an absence so clear when the real Marley turns up - is the physical dynamism and charismatic velocity of Marley. The sheer vibrancy of Marley, who spent afternoons playing soccer and had at least 11 children in his short life, would undoubtedly be a tall order for most films. "One Love," set in the aftermath of a 1976 shooting that wounded Marley, follows a more contemplative Marley in self-imposed exile in London - on tour in Europe, recording the 1977 album "Exodus" and ultimately receiving a diagnosis of cancer. Marley was by many accounts a more private person than often remembered, so the rendering here is surely a genuine aspect of a man rife with contradictions. "One Love," which lists four screenwriters and was made with Marley's estate (Ziggy and Cedella Marley are producers), appears to have wrestled with finding a single portrait, and the movie's patchwork pacing occasionally shows signs of that struggle. But just as he showed in "King Richard," Green is skilled at finding intimacy in the lives of larger-than-life figures. Early in "One Love," Marley and his band assemble in a smoke-filled living room to play "I Shot the Sheriff," and it's moments like these that work far better than those in the public eye. The performance that bookends the film is the One Love Peace Concert, which was put on in Jamaica in 1978 as a way to heal the divided, violent country. Marley, during "Jammin'," brought the rival party leaders Edward Seaga and Michael Manley on stage. The turmoil in Jamaica weighs heavily on Marley throughout film; images of fields aflame run repeatedly as a reflection of his memories. Though largely set in Europe, the real through line of the film is Marley as consumed with the plight of his countrymen, and others in similar situations around the world. When white executives push back against touring in Africa due to its lack of infrastructure, he replies, "So we build it." How all of this percolates in Marley and gets filtered into the music is, ultimately, what "One Love" is about. "The music and the message are the same thing," Marley explains. "One Love" is attuned to the communal aspect of Marley's life - he rarely appears alone in the film - yet few other individuals come through vividly. The events of the film are years after the breakup of the Wailing Wailers so Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer are little seen. The most notable supporting roles go to Lashana Lynch as Rita Marley, his wife, and James Norton, as Island Records founder Chris Blackwell. Though "One Love" drifts into increasingly conventional biopic scenes, its spirit remains fairly true to Marley - enough, at least, that you overlook some of its faults. But what's harder to forgive is the lackluster music performances peppered throughout. Ben-Adir doesn't himself sing the songs but relies on Marley recordings - which is fine. Yet when Marley and company take the stage, Green sticks to largely drab coverage. Precisely when "One Love" should be, as Marley was, striving for transcendence, it feels like it's going through the motions. Come on, you want to plead, and stir it up. "Bob Marley: One Love," a Paramount Pictures release is rated PG13 by the Motion Picture Association for marijuana use and smoking throughout, some violence and brief strong language. Running time: 107 minutes. Two stars out of four.
# Shaquille O'Neal's No. 32 jersey is the first to be retired by the Orlando Magic By TIM REYNOLDS February 13, 2024. 11:16 PM EST --- ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) - Shaquille O'Neal was Orlando's first in lots of ways. First No. 1 overall draft pick. First player to make an All-Star team in a Magic uniform. First rookie of the year. First All-NBA selection. And the first big-time superstar to leave the franchise. It's that last part that he figured might cost him. O'Neal never thought that the Magic would raise his jersey to the rafters of their arena. But he was wrong, and on Tuesday night, Orlando retired O'Neal's No. 32 - another first for the team and its first star. Most fans stayed for the postgame ceremony, even after the Magic fell to Oklahoma City. "You know, there's an old saying: Never forget where you come from," O'Neal said. "And my professional career started here. I've been living here mostly all my life. The fans have been hospitable. The people have been very, very hospitable. I never thought this day would happen." The Magic, who are celebrating their 35th season, drafted O'Neal No. 1 overall in 1992. They've never retired a number for a player, but decided their anniversary season was the right time. Many of O'Neal's former Orlando teammates were there Tuesday night, including Penny Hardaway, Dennis Scott and Nick Anderson. O'Neal brought Anderson to the lectern at one point in the ceremony, telling him he should have been the first to get the jersey retirement from the Magic. "There's no one more deserving to be the first than Shaq," Magic CEO Alex Martins said. "Shaq put the Orlando Magic on the map. And the foundation of his Hall of Fame career started right here in Orlando." O'Neal - who has No. 34 retired by the Los Angeles Lakers and No. 32 retired by the Miami Heat - is the third player to have his jersey retired by three franchises, joining Wilt Chamberlain and Pete Maravich. Chamberlain's No. 13 has been retired by the Philadelphia 76ers, Golden State Warriors and the Lakers. Maravich had No. 44 retired by the Atlanta Hawks and No. 7 retired by the Utah Jazz and the New Orleans Pelicans - even though he never played for that franchise. His number is retired in New Orleans because he played there for the Jazz and went to LSU. "It means that every franchise you played for, they enjoyed you," O'Neal said. "The fans enjoyed you. The people enjoyed you. They appreciated your hard work." There are 11 players - Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Clyde Drexler, Julius Erving, Elvin Hayes, Bob Lanier, Moses Malone, Earl Monroe, Dikembe Mutombo, Oscar Robertson, Nate Thurmond and Charles Barkley - to have jerseys retired by two franchises for whom they played. Barkley, like O'Neal, is part of the award-winning cast of Turner Sports' "Inside The NBA" program. Many other players have been honored by multiple teams or in multiple ways. Bill Russell's No. 6 is retired by Boston and, after the Hall of Famer's death, was retired leaguewide by Commissioner Adam Silver. Michael Jordan never played in Miami; his No. 23 is retired there. Kobe Bryant had both of his numbers, 8 and 24, retired by the Lakers. The Magic were 70-176 in their first three seasons, then got O'Neal and went 41-41 in his rookie year, 50-32 with the team's first playoff appearance in his second season, 57-25 with a trip to the NBA Finals in 1994-95 and finally 60-22 - still the franchise record for wins - in his fourth and final season with Orlando. The ceremony had O'Neal seated adjacent to center court on a throne, one big enough to make the 7-footer seem small. The stories flowed - the one about O'Neal arriving in the city known for Walt Disney World wearing Mickey Mouse ears seemed to delight the crowd - and O'Neal savored them all. The banner was hoisted amid a display of fireworks in a darkened arena, roughly an hour after the game ended. "There's no other place I would have wanted to start my career," said O'Neal, whose words were often drowned out by cheers. "Orlando will always have a special place in my heart." O'Neal learned how to be a pro in Orlando. His first few months in the city, he said, were spent living in an airport hotel with his entire family. By the time Scott explained to him that he needed to buy a house, O'Neal said he had run up a $900,000 hotel bill. He speaks with reverence about his time in Orlando, and now having gone through four jersey retirements - LSU also gave him the honor, along with the three NBA clubs - O'Neal made no secret of what this one meant. "Truthfully speaking, this will probably be the most impressive one," O'Neal said. O'Neal left Orlando after the 1995-96 season for the Lakers, having played 295 regular-season games with the Magic. But he remains sixth on the team's all-time scoring list - four of the five players ahead of him played at least twice as many games for Orlando - and third all-time in rebounds for the Magic. "This is where it all started," O'Neal said. And it's where his number will sway.
# Chocolates, flowers and procrastination. For many Americans, Valentine's Day is a last-minute affair By DEE-ANN DURBIN February 14, 2024. 6:41 AM EST --- In a classic "Saturday Night Live" sketch, a young man hands his girlfriend a Valentine's Day gift: a bear dressed in a bee costume that he picked up at the drugstore. "When did you get this?" she asks with a strained smile. "One minute ago," he replies. It has more than a ring of truth. For a day meant to celebrate romance and the depths of feeling we have for loved ones, a large portion of Valentine's shopping is done at the last minute. In each of the past two years, nearly half of U.S. spending on Valentine's Day flowers, candy and cards occurred between Feb. 11 and Feb. 14, according to Numerator, a market research company. But sales do not peak until Valentine's Day itself. Walmart - which sells nearly 40 million red roses for the holiday - says around 75% of its Valentine's Day sales occur on Feb. 13 and 14. Those two days account for 80% of Kroger's sales during Valentine's week. "Although stores begin pushing their Valentine's Day inventory weeks ahead of the day, before the holiday itself, most consumers save their shopping for the last minute," said Amanda Schoenbauer, an analyst with Numerator. For last-minute shopping, Americans still tend to spend a lot. This year, they're expected to shell out a collective $25.8 billion, according to the National Retail Federation. Candy is the most popular gift; nearly 60% of Valentine's shoppers planning to buy some. Greeting cards are second. Some of that spending takes place well before the holiday. Target says consumers start snapping up Valentine's home décor soon after Christmas ends. Valentine's-themed potted plants were also popular this year, Target said, and many of those plants were bought early rather than closer to the holiday as is usually the case with cut flowers. Yet procrastination seems to be part of the holiday tradition, according to data from Walgreens, which sold 44% of its Valentine's candy and 56% of its Valentine's cards on Feb. 13 and 14. Delivery companies help some consumers shave it even closer. Uber Eats says its flower orders peak on Valentine's Day between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. Uber Eats says it also appears to be a resource for forgetful lovers: Its flower orders are 60% higher than average on the day after Valentine's Day. Procrastinators can make it tough for businesses to keep customers satisfied. Linda Bryant grows many of the flowers she sells at Just Bouquets, her flower shop in Panama, Nebraska. Usually she delivers the flowers herself, but on Valentine's Day her husband helps. "Valentine's would not be my favorite florist holiday just because it's stressful," she said. "I don't go out. I'm too tired. But I love making people happy." Bryant sympathizes with the people who call in orders on Valentine's Day. She spent a lot of time trying to figure out how many flowers to order for her shop this Valentine's Day. The decision was made last minute. "The people who call on February 14 are usually desperate," she said. "I try to be kind and remind them, it's always February 14. The date doesn't change." One could argue that people order flowers at the last minute just to keep them fresh, but the procrastination trend extends beyond gifts that can wilt. In 2023, 30% of OpenTable reservations for Valentine's Day were made the day before and 18% were made on the day of. Flowers and cards from the drugstore are one thing, but you're likely to miss out on a special date if you wait too long. Meadow Brook Hall, a historic estate in Rochester, Michigan, says the 115 tickets available for its annual Valentine's Day dinner sold out weeks ago. The venue gets requests all the way through Valentine's Day, says Katie Higgins, Meadow Brook's marketing and communications manager. The week before the dinner, 50 couples were on the wait list. Joseph Ferrari, a psychology professor at DePaul University in Chicago, says around 20% of men and women are chronic procrastinators. But in the case of Valentine's Day, there are other reasons consumers might put things off. "There's a lot of fatigue. We just did Christmas, now you're hitting me up for this," he said. Others procrastinate because they fear failing or buying the wrong gift, he said. Ferrari has some advice: Don't procrastinate when it comes to telling people you love them. "We should be celebrating love all the time, not just once in a while," he said.
# Some worry California proposition to tackle homelessness would worsen the problem By TRÂN NGUYỄN February 14, 2024. 3:27 PM EST --- OROVILLE, Calif. (AP) - Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom is urging voters to approve a ballot initiative that he says is needed to tackle the state's homelessness crisis, a change social providers say would threaten programs that keep people from becoming homeless in the first place. In 2004, voters approved legislation that imposed a tax on millionaires to finance mental health services, generating $2 billion to $3 billion in revenue each year that has mostly gone to counties to fund mental health programs as they see fit under broad guidelines. Newsom wants to give the state more control over how that money is spent. Proposition 1, before voters on the March 5 ballot, would require counties to spend 60% of those funds on housing and programs for homeless people with serious mental illnesses or substance abuse problems. The single formula would mean rural counties such as Butte, with a homeless population of fewer than 1,300 people, would be required to divert the same percentage of funds to housing as urban counties such as San Francisco, which has a homeless population six times bigger. San Francisco Mayor London Breed said she supports the measure. Butte County officials have expressed concerns. The funding from the millionaire tax in Butte County has mostly gone to prevention services to combat high suicide and childhood trauma rates. Officials estimated they would have to divert at least 28% of current funding from existing programs toward housing. They say the change could cause cultural centers, peer-support programs, vocational services and even programs working with homeless people to lose funding. Tiffany McCarter burst into tears when talking about how the African American Family & Cultural Center she runs in rural Oroville, a city in Butte County, might have to close its doors. The 14-year-old center with a mission of breaking the cycle of trauma in the Black community relies heavily on mental health funding from the county. The center offers an after-school program, art and dance classes and anger management sessions - designed to steer young people away from the streets. McCarter said some have learning disabilities or parents who are incarcerated. "I'd love to solve the homeless problem," McCarter, the center's executive director, said as the halls filled with laughter of children who ran around her to win her attention. "But then which one of my kids are we going to leave behind?" With makeshift tents lining streets and disrupting businesses in communities across the state, homelessness has become one of the most frustrating issues in California and one sure to dog Newsom should he ever mount a national campaign. The Democratic governor has raised about $10 million to back the ballot measure and has appeared in television ads promoting it, indicating it's one of his top political priorities. Already he has pushed for laws that make it easier to force people with behavioral health issues into treatment, and he touts the proposition as the final piece of the new approach. "We are in a unique position to take what we have been promoting - these promises - and make them real, and finally address the issue that defines more stress and more frustrations than any other issue in this state," Newsom said at the proposition kickoff event. Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg, who authored the 2004 millionaire tax, said the funding is meant to serve homeless people with serious mental illnesses and that county officials and providers "miss the big picture." "While it has funded many good programs over 20 years, it has gotten away from the original purpose," Steinberg said. "Nothing is more important than alleviating the unacceptable suffering of people living and dying on our streets." The two-part measure would authorize the state to borrow $6.38 billion to build 4,350 housing units, half of which would be reserved for veterans. It also would add 6,800 mental health and addiction treatment beds. Newsom's administration already has spent at least $22 billion on various programs to address the crisis, including $3.5 billion to convert rundown motels into homeless housing. California is also giving out $2 billion in grants to build more treatment facilities. But the crisis is worse than ever, many say. The state accounts for nearly a third of the homeless population in the United States; roughly 181,000 Californians are in need of housing. A recent survey by the University of San Francisco's Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative found about two-thirds of homeless people in California have a mental health disorder, but only 18% had received recent treatment and only 6% had received any addiction treatment despite rampant abuse. The state needs some 8,000 more beds to treat mental health and addiction issues, according to researchers who testified before state lawmakers last year. California has 5,500 beds, down from as many as 37,000 more than a half-century ago, the governor said. The proposal could also add beds in locked psychiatric facilities, which advocates say could force more people into involuntary treatment. Newsom and state lawmakers haven't decided what types of facility would be built. "From a humanitarian and civil rights perspective, we vehemently oppose Proposition 1," said Mark Salazar, executive director of Mental Health Association of San Francisco, which serves more than 15,000 people monthly. "There are studies that show over and over that coercing treatment just doesn't end well for the individual." Mark Cloutier, CEO of Caminar, which provides mental health services, employment placement and supportive housing to mostly young adults, believes the ballot measure is needed because the lack of housing and treatment beds means many people end up in jail or the emergency room. Joe Wilson, who runs Hospitality House in San Francisco, said more housing and beds are needed but not at the expense of other programs like his organization's two drop-in centers in the Tenderloin neighborhood and Sixth Street Corridor. Workers there, most of whom were once homeless, help navigate services for people, update resumes, and drive them to appointments. "Everyone agrees that we need more resources for housing," he said. "Is this the best way to do it? We don't believe so." One of the center's workers, Anthony Hardnett, a San Francisco native who was homeless and suffered from addiction issues, said many people he has helped have become independent and productive by learning new skills and hobbies, like in the chess club he hosts. The group connected more than 30 people to jobs last month. "You've got to show them something different to change their mindset," Hardnett said. "We can't just give up on them." In the Butte County city of Chico, about 165 miles (265 kilometers) north of San Francisco, providers say the city's only drop-in center for troubled youth is at risk. The 6th Street Center for Youth also offers rent assistance to college students, but workers do not believe that would protect it from having its budget cut. Solace Kalkowski, who uses the pronoun they, found themself sleeping in their truck after a breakup a few weeks ago and said the center kept them from ending up chronically homeless. "It's a healthy outlet for me to come where people will listen and give you advice," Kalkowski said. "I've been working on myself and being more productive. ... Me having this chance, I'm blown away."
# Detecting Russian 'carrots' and 'tea bags': Ukraine decodes enemy chatter to save lives By SAMYA KULLAB February 14, 2024. 7:32 AM EST --- SEREBRYANSKY FOREST, Ukraine (AP) - As the radio crackles with enemy communications that are hard to decipher, one Russian command rings out clear: "Brew five Chinese tea bags on 38 orange." A Ukrainian soldier known on the battlefield as Mikhass, who has spent months listening to and analyzing such chatter, is able to quickly decode the gibberish. It means: Prepare five Beijing-made artillery shells and fire them on a specific Ukrainian position in the Serebryansky Forest, which forms the front line in the country's restive northeast. Hiding in the basement of an abandoned home 12 kilometers (7 miles) away, Mikhass immediately warns the commander of a unit embedded in that part of the forest, giving him crucial minutes to get his men into trenches, saving their lives. On the defensive and critically short of ammunition and soldiers after two years of war, Ukrainian forces are increasingly resorting to an age-old tactic - intelligence gleaned from radio intercepts - in a desperate effort to preserve their most vital resources. The painstaking work is part of a larger effort to beef up and refine electronic warfare capabilities so that soldiers can be warned earlier of impending attacks, while having the battlefield intelligence needed to make their own strikes more deadly. To prevent enemy drone attacks, signal-jamming is also on the rise. After months of near stalemate along the 1,000 kilometer (621 mile) front line, Ukraine expects fierce attacks in the year ahead from a Russian enemy determined to wear down its defenses to forge a breakthrough. Russian President Vladimir Putin has said there will be no peace until Russia achieves its goals, which include recapturing the entire Donbas region of eastern Ukraine, which it illegally annexed in 2022. The commander elevated last week to lead Ukraine's army, Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi, has highlighted the importance of electronic warfare, and the country's defense ministry has increased spending on the people and technology behind it. ## SAVING LIVES Russia, which controls about one-fifth of Ukraine, has the advantage of a more developed domestic weapons industry and it uses conscription and coercion to call up troops. For Ukraine, ammunition shortages have forced brigades to use shells sparingly and only after locating precise targets. Difficulty in mobilizing troops means Ukrainian commanders must be extra protective of soldiers' lives as they try to fend off ferocious Russian attacks. It is within this context that better surveillance, eavesdropping and jamming have become more urgent. Several kilometers south of where Mikhass is positioned, in the Donetsk region town of Konstantinivka, the 93rd Brigade's Electronic Warfare unit is using jammers to stave off attack drones, the main driver of injuries for soldiers in the region. The platoon commander is alert, staring at a laptop that shows signals picked up by small antennas planted near the front line. When a Russian Lancet attack drone approaches their area of operation, his screen lights up with activity. The commander, known on the battlefield as Oleksandr, flips a switch to activate the jammer which interferes with the drone's radar; it's the equivalent of shining a bright light in someone's eye to disorient them. "It's a must," he says of their operation. "A lot of guys are dying because of drones." Radio operators like Mikhass work in shifts around the clock. The antennas he relies on to pick up Russian radio signals are camouflaged, jutting out of trees in the forest near Kreminna, close to Russian positions. From a quiet basement command center nearby, Mikhass and other soldiers chain smoke cigarettes and listen through headphones. A new and sophisticated signal-finding antenna, which resembles a carousel, uses triangulation to locate where the radio waves are emanating from. They cross-reference what they hear against images they gather from reconnaissance drones and use detailed maps of their enemy's positions to slowly piece together what it all means. They are part of a 50-man intelligence unit dubbed the Bunnies of Cherkess - the name inspired by the Chinese military strategist Sun Tzu, who advised warriors to feign weakness when one is strong. "No one takes bunnies seriously, right?" said Cherkess, the commander of the eponymous unit. Radio intercepts reveal that the Kremlin is determined to control the entire Serebryansky Forest, which divides Ukraine-controlled Lyman from Russian-occupied Kreminna. It's part of an effort to reach Torske, a village in Donetsk that is west of Kreminna. From Torske, Russia will be closer to recapturing the nearby hub of Lyman, which would be a devastating setback for Ukraine and disrupt its ability to move supplies to the front. ## DECODING ORDERS Cherkess and his men, most of whom are volunteers who signed up for the infantry, understand the stakes couldn't be higher, especially as signs grow that support from Western allies is less secure. After listening to hours and hours of Russian communications each day, much of it related to troop rotations, artillery fire and drone reconnaissance, they gradually build an understanding - with help from specialized computer software - of what it all means. "Cucumbers" are mortars, "carrots" are grenade launchers -- and locations are conveyed in a numerical code with a corresponding color. It took the unit months to decode these Russian orders. The arrival of new combat equipment and ammunition - and especially infantrymen - signals a fresh attack is imminent. "(A soldier) is not interested in what kind of radar Russians have, he needs information on if there will be an attack tonight, and who will come, if they will have tanks, if they have armored vehicles or if it's just infantry," said Cherkess. "And we have to understand how long we have to prepare. A week? Two weeks? A month?" Advance word of enemy troops being rotated in and out is also useful to Ukrainian soldiers seeking to go on the offensive, he said. That is when they can exact maximum personnel losses. The previous week, a Russian assault operation was carried out against a neighboring brigade. But the Ukrainian soldiers positioned there were prepared to greet them. ## STAYING AHEAD The importance of electronic surveillance can't be underestimated, said Yaroslav Kalinin, the CEO of Infozahyst, a company under contract with Ukraine's Defense Ministry. Before the war, Infozahyst provided anti-wiretapping services for the offices of the president and prime minister. Once the war began, the company pivoted to help the army by manufacturing a versatile signal direction finding system, which is now in high demand. The government recently doubled its contract with Infozahyst, according to Kalinin. The buildup of surveillance capabilities is partly a recognition of the need to catch up to the Russians, who invested heavily in this technology long before it invaded Ukraine. Kalinin believes that better and smaller devices that are easier to hide and move around will eventually give Ukraine an edge. The Russians know they are being listened to and routinely try to deceive their enemy with bogus information. It is up to Mikhass and other radio operators to discern the signal from the noise. "Their artillery helps us," he explained. "They say where they will shoot, and then we check where the shells landed." "38 orange," the location Mikhass recently heard about for an upcoming attack, is represented on a map by a small dot. And it is surrounded by hundreds of other dots that signify locations they have decoded. "We need a lot of time to uncover these points," he said. And, as Russia steps up the pressure, the clock is ticking.
# Democrats cheer New York win as good omen for November. But is it enough to calm anxiety over Biden? By ANTHONY IZAGUIRRE and WILL WEISSERT February 14, 2024. 3:37 PM EST --- WASHINGTON (AP) - Former U.S. Rep. Tom Suozzi's winning back his Long Island House seat could provide a blueprint for Democrat Joe Biden 's reelection campaign heading into November, demonstrating his party's strength in competitive suburban territory that also happened to be where Donald Trump grew up. But the good news followed several rough days for the White House, which watched House Republicans vote to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Tuesday. That followed a special counsel's conclusion that characterized Biden's memory as "faulty," "poor" and having "significant limitations," though also saying charges weren't warranted against the president for mishandling classified documents. So how far Suozzi's win will go to calm Democrats' anxiety about the president's age and low approval ratings is hardly clear. The Democratic former congressman's emphatic victory came in a special election where heavy snowfall may have affected turnout and with nearly nine months still to go in the presidential race. He made immigration a centerpiece of his campaign, playing political hardball with an issue that had helped the GOP win in previous cycles. He also called Biden "old." Suozzi easily topped Mazi Pilip to replace expelled former Republican New York Rep. George Santos, narrowing the GOP House majority to 219-213. The district backed Biden by 8 points in 2020 but voted for Santos during 2022's midterm election - when Republicans fared better across New York than expected by campaigning on getting tough on immigration and combating crime rates that had risen in some areas. After Santos' ouster, the special election to replace him was seen as a dead-heat - though Suozzi was the more familiar figure. He won the seat in 2016 and was reelected twice before retiring in 2020 and losing in the Democratic primary to incumbent Gov. Kathy Hochul. A surge of migrants arriving to large, Democrat-run cities, including New York, has turned security along the U.S.-Mexico border into an especially tricky issue for Biden's party across the country. Queens is home to one of New York City's few large-scale tent housing facilities for migrants - and yet Suozzi took the issue head on. "This is the template for Democrats everywhere because you could not imagine a district that could have been more hostile to what the stereotype of a Democrat is," said Lis Smith, a national Democratic strategist and advisor to Suozzi's campaign. "You just need to go on offense and say, 'I'm the one who wants to secure the border. It's the Republicans who want chaos at the border.'" That's "a very easy message that can be adopted by Democrats across the country," Smith said. During the campaign, Suozzi spoke often about strengthening immigration policy, and said he would support a temporary closure of the U.S.-Mexico border to slow the influx of migrants, echoing Biden's recent willingness to do the same. Last month, Suozzi rushed to Queens' tent migrant housing area for a rebuttal news conference directly after Pilip held an event there seeking to link him to federal immigration policy. Souzzi was a vocal supporter of a bipartisan Senate deal on immigration that Republicans turned against after Trump, the former president and current Republican presidential primary front-runner, urged them to do so. Souzzi even began his victory speech by scoffing at being attacked as "the godfather of the migrant crisis" and "sanctuary Souzzi." That resonated with Lois Clinco, 59, who said she voted for Suozzi because she hopes he can "keep the migrants out, because we're overpopulated now." Still, Grant Reeher, a political science professor at Syracuse University, cautioned against extrapolating Suozzi's win, noting the snowstorm and a short runup to the special election which also had unique, Santos-related contours. "If I were a Democratic consultant or strategist, I would be taking a huge grain of salt before I base my playbook on this election," Reeher said. Biden's reelection campaign noted that Democrats have racked up a series of special election and off-year legislative victories since he took office. It also said that more immigrants had arrived to Queens County in the last year than in all of Chicago - emphasizing how important the issue was to Suozzi's win. White House, spokesman Andrew Bates called Tuesday's result "a devastating repudiation of congressional Republicans." "Tom Suozzi put support for the bipartisan border legislation – and congressional Republicans' killing of it for politics – at the forefront of his case," Bates said in a statement. "The results are unmistakable." Despite years of Trump stressing a law-and-order message, Republicans have seen their support slip in many suburban areas as the former president has solidified his hold on the national GOP. Still, Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson shrugged off larger implications of Tuesday's race for his party. "The result last night is not something, in my view, that Democrats should celebrate too much," Johnson told reporters Wednesday, adding that Suozzi "ran like a Republican, he sounded like a Republican talking about border and immigration because that's the top issue on the hearts and minds of everybody." But Suozzi also promoted defending abortion rights, echoing a message Democrats have used around the country since the Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to an abortion. New York will have a referendum on the November ballot asking voters to bar discrimination based on "pregnancy outcomes." Despite not explicitly guaranteeing the right to an abortion, supporters argue the measure will further protect access to the procedure, and Democrats see it as a way to drive turnout. Suozzi's victory could also be viewed as a personal slap for Trump since the former president's childhood home was in the Jamaica Estates section of Queens. Still, Trump advisors blamed Pilip's defeat on her not embracing the "Make America Great Again" movement more closely. New York Republican chair Ed Cox said the party isn't abandoning its winning issues and would defeat Suozzi when he's up for reelection in November. That's when, he said, "the campaign resets to focus on Joe Biden and Democrats' disastrous open-borders, soft-on-crime policies, rather than the specific circumstances that brought about this special election." But Suozzi didn't exactly embrace Biden. He even said during a television interview, "The bottom line is he's old." Suozzi also suggested that he didn't think it would be helpful to have Biden campaign alongside him for this race. "If I were advising him," Reeher said of the president, "I would have a big red headline on top that says 'consider this race with caution, there are a number of things here that may not apply to you.'"
# Democrat Tom Suozzi flips George Santos' seat in Congress By ANTHONY IZAGUIRRE February 14, 2024. 4:17 AM EST --- Democrat Tom Suozzi won a special election for a U.S. House seat in New York on Tuesday, coming out on top in a politically mixed suburban district in a victory that could lift his party's hopes heading into a fiercely contested presidential election later this year. Suozzi defeated Republican Mazi Pilip to take the seat that was left vacant when George Santos, also a Republican, was expelled from Congress. The victory marks a return to Washington for Suozzi, who represented the district for three terms before giving it up to run, unsuccessfully, for governor. It's unclear how long his next stint on Capitol Hill will last, as a redistricting process unfolds that could reshape the district. But for now the result narrows the already slim Republican majority in the House. And it provides Democrats a much-needed win in New York City's Long Island suburbs, where the GOP showed surprising strength in recent elections. Suozzi stressed his campaign trail theme of bipartisan cooperation in a victory speech that was briefly interrupted by protestors criticizing his support of Israel. "There are divisions in our country where people can't even talk to each other. All they can do is yell and scream at each other," he said, acknowledging the demonstrators. "That's not the answer to the problems we face in our country. The answer is to try and bring people together to try and find common ground." "The way to make our country a better place is to try and find common ground. It is not easy to do. It is hard to do," Suozzi told supporters at his election night party in Woodbury. Suozzi's win will likely reassure Democrats that they can perform well in suburban communities across the nation, which will be critical to the party's efforts to retake control of the U.S. House and reelect President Joe Biden. Still, forecasting for November could be complicated given that turnout, already expected to be low given the abbreviated race, was potentially hampered by a storm that dumped several inches of snow on the district on election day. Both campaigns offered voters free rides to the polls as plows cleared wet slush from the roads. In the short term, the result could be a factor in ultratight votes in the House, where Republicans hold just a 219-212 majority. In an example of how important one seat can be, House Republicans voted Tuesday night to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas by a single vote, punishing the Biden administration over its border policies. At a polling place on Long Island earlier in the day, 59-year-old Eliezer Sarrias said he cast a ballot for Suozzi because the former congressman appeared more able to work with the opposing party to reach agreements and end congressional gridlock. "The constituents elect our officials to perform a certain job, and we've really had a very stagnant congressional year," Sarrias said after voting at a middle school in Levittown. "Even with the migrants now, we had bipartisan deal in Congress and suddenly it evaporated, like, why? Do we really need to wait for another president to come, or aren't the issues that are pressing to everyone important at the moment?" On the campaign trail, Suozzi, a political centrist, leaned into some of the same issues that Republicans have used to bash Democrats, calling for tougher U.S. border policies and a rollback of New York laws that made it tougher for judges to detain criminal suspects awaiting trial. The unusual midwinter election became necessary after Santos was ousted by his colleagues in December, partway through his first term. Santos won office in what had been a reliably Democratic district partly by falsely portraying himself as an American success story - a son of working class immigrants who made himself into a wealthy Wall Street dealmaker. But many elements of Santos' life story were later exposed as fabrications, and he was indicted on multiple charges including allegations he stole money from Republican donors. He has pleaded not guilty. With no time for a primary before the special election, Democrats nominated Suozzi, a political centrist well known to voters in the district. Republican leaders turned to Pilip, a relatively unknown candidate with a unique personal backstory. Born in Ethiopia, she migrated to Israel as part of Operation Solomon and served in Israel's defense forces before eventually moving to the U.S. and winning a seat in Nassau County's legislature in 2021. Pilip conceded the race and said she congratulated Suozzi in a phone call Tuesday night. "Yes we lost, but it doesn't mean we are going to end here," Pilip told supporters at her election watch party. Biden's campaign manager was quick to link the victory to the upcoming presidential race: "Donald Trump lost again tonight. When Republicans run on Trump's extreme agenda – even in a Republican-held seat - voters reject them," Julie Chavez Rodriguez said. Trump responded to the result in a post on his social media site Truth Social, calling Pilip a "very foolish woman" who was "running in a race where she didn't endorse me and tried to 'straddle the fence,' when she would have easily WON if she understood anything about MODERN DAY politics in America." The short campaign was dominated by issues - abortion, immigration and crime - that are expected to shape crucial suburban races nationwide in this year's battle for control of Congress. Despite being an international migrant once herself, Pilip hammered Suozzi over an influx of asylum-seekers into New York City, accusing Democrats and Biden of failing to secure the U.S. southern border. In response, Suozzi spent much of the campaign talking about the need to strengthen border policy, pointing out times when he bucked his own party on the issue while in Congress. In the final stretch, Suozzi said he would support a temporary closure of the border to slow the number of arrivals, similar to comments that Biden has made. Suozzi counterattacked Pilip on abortion, saying she couldn't be trusted to protect abortion rights in places like New York where it remains legal. Pilip said she is personally against abortion but wouldn't force her beliefs others and would oppose any attempt by Congress to impose a nationwide ban. She has also said mifepristone, an abortion medication, should be available nationally. Both candidates expressed unwavering support for Israel in its conflict with Hamas, even appearing side-by-side in an unusual joint event intended to convey solidarity. Democrats and Republicans will get a chance to fight over the congressional seat again in November's general election, though the battleground may look different. That's because the state's congressional districts are set to be redrawn again in the next few months because of a court order. Democrats, who dominate state government, are widely expected to try to craft more favorable lines for their candidates. New York is expected to play an outsize role in determining control of Congress this year, with competitive races in multiple contests in the suburban and exurban rings around New York City.
# Trump's pick to lead the RNC is facing skepticism from some Republicans By BRIAN SLODYSKO February 13, 2024. 8:03 PM EST --- WASHINGTON (AP) - In pushing Michael Whatley as the next leader of the Republican National Committee, Donald Trump zeroed in on the North Carolina GOP chairman's dedication to "election integrity," baselessly suggesting he would ensure the 2024 race "can't be stolen." Some of Trump's most ardent supporters in Whatley's home state would, no doubt, like a word. Whatley has been accused by some Republicans of essentially manufacturing his win as state party chairman last year following a chaotic vote, which resulted in a legal challenge that offered evidence some ballots were improperly cast. While Whatley and his allies acknowledged that technical problems made voting with the party's mobile app difficult, they vehemently deny that the irregularities changed the outcome of the contest and note that the lawsuit was dismissed. But for some conservatives, primed by years of Trump urging vigilance against voter fraud, the episode instilled a suspicion that the party contest was stolen by a Washington Beltway fixture whose work for the George W. Bush administration and as a lobbyist they viewed skeptically. "I can only conclude two possibilities. One, he felt he needed to cheat to win. Two, he is completely incompetent. Both are disqualifying," said Whatley's challenger, John Kane Jr., who described himself as "unquestionably" the true "MAGA candidate" in the contest. The controversy surrounding Whatley's election to the GOP's top political post in North Carolina is one of several emerging signals suggesting challenges ahead. Trump is aiming to wrest control of the RNC by muscling Whatley through in an orchestrated ouster of the organization's current chair, Ronna McDaniel. But in doing so, he's elevating someone with a relatively scant national profile and a gilded resume that includes links to establishment figures largely reviled by the hardline activists who are most vocal in supporting Trump. Whatley, 55, declined through a spokesman to comment for this story. The Trump campaign did not respond to a message. If Whatley ultimately becomes RNC chair, he would be charged with leading the effort to defeat President Joe Biden at a time when the party is struggling to raise money and navigating a restless far-right flank. To his critics, Whatley represents more of the same at a time when they're seeking more dramatic change. ## 'A complete overhaul' "We need a complete overhaul of the RNC. Choosing, or anointing, someone that is the male version of Ronna is the exact opposite of what the RNC needs at this time," said Sigal Chattah, an RNC committeewoman for Nevada who is closely aligned with the group Turning Point, which advocated for McDaniel's ouster. Whatley's allies portray him as a steady hand and strategic thinker with decades of Republican political experience, stretching from the mountains of western North Carolina to the halls of Congress and the executive branch. A formative political experience came when Whatley was still a sophomore at Watauga High School. He volunteered for the 1984 reelection campaign of Jesse Helms, a hard-edged conservative senator whose crusades against civil rights, art and homosexuality presaged the GOP's embrace of grievance politics under Trump. Yet for much of his professional life, Whatley's political sensibilities appeared to align far more closely with the party's mainstream and corporate establishment. He spent much of his 20s as a student earning four degrees, including a law degree, as well as a master's in theology, from Notre Dame. Later, he clerked for a federal judge in North Carolina before departing for Washington as Bush campaigned for the presidency. One early assignment dispatched him to Broward County, Florida, where he worked among a team of lawyers on Bush's behalf to dispute the outcome of the 2000 presidential contest. "It was really the first time that Republicans got down into the trenches and fought," Whatley recalled during a 2021 appearance on an election integrity panel at the Conservative Political Action Conference. "We knew if we were not there, they were going to steal it." After the Supreme Court ruled in Bush's favor, Whatley landed a job in the Department of Energy, which was he followed by a two-year stint working for Sen. Elizabeth Dole, the North Carolina Republican. ## Oil and gas lobbying Lobbying on behalf of oil and gas giants soon became his calling, however. He launched his own firm, the Patriot Group, in 2005. But it wasn't until joining forces with two other oil and gas lobbyists in 2009 that his fortunes precipitously rose. Their firm, HBW Resources (the W stands for Whatley), became a political will-bending force. HBW became a key proponent of the Keystone XL pipeline. Whatley was also an architect of a federal and state-level campaign that played a pivotal role in stopping a bipartisan push to enact cleaner standards for oil used in the U.S. The regulations would have drastically curtailed imports of crude extracted from the oil sands of Alberta, Canada - a labor-intensive process that requires so much energy usage that fuels derived from the region are considered among the world's dirtiest. But the legislative push collapsed after the campaign amped up pressure in Congress as well as members' home states. To advance their aims, Whatley's firm also established the Consumer Energy Alliance, a nonprofit organization that presented itself as nonpartisan. In reality, the group was supported by some of the world's biggest oil companies, including Chevron, ExxonMobil and British Petroleum, as well as major industrial energy users. The group has been accused of using deceitful tactics to generate support for their efforts, including allegations that they gathered petition signatures under misleading pretenses for local initiatives in Ohio, Wisconsin and South Carolina. After a major corruption scandal at the North Carolina Republican Party, which saw the party's former chairman convicted in a bribery scandal, Whatley ran to replace him and stepped down from the nonprofit after he won. He left the firm that he helped found in 2022. ## Army of poll watchers His focus soon turned to "election integrity." As Trump railed against fraud ahead of the 2020 election, Whatley said he recruited hundreds of lawyers, as well as an army of poll watchers, to fan out across the state. After Trump won the state, he took credit for the effort, claiming that it stopped Democrats from cheating. "They knew if this happens, we were going to scream bloody murder," Whatley said in 2021 . "Because we put so much pressure on the system more than a year in advance, it really came down to being a pretty clean election." But to Democrats, many of the North Carolina GOP's tactics are tantamount to voter intimidation or suppression, which they say is ironic in light of Whatley's own contested election last year, as state party chair. "The next chair of the Republican Party is running on election integrity. His own election was called into question. And a lot of people in North Carolina don't think he was elected fair," said Anderson Clayton, chairwoman of the North Carolina Democratic Party. As Whatley looks to take the reins of the RNC, which will require approval by the organization's 168 voting members, much of his success will turn on whether or not he can raise enough money to turn around the organization's dismal finances. The RNC has been significantly outraised in recent months by the Democratic National Committee, reporting cash reserves of just $8 million at the end of last year, while carrying $1 million in debt. Art Pope, a North Carolina businessman and major conservative donor, said Whatley was well-equipped to lead the organization. But he wasn't sure that the underlying dynamics would change. "When the Republican National Committee was helping with Donald Trump's legal fees, a lot of people didn't want to give" for that reason, said Pope. "Anyone who has been, or will be, the Republican National Committee chairperson will have that challenge."
# Democrats and Republicans hold Black History Month celebrations with an eye on November's election By MATT BROWN February 14, 2024. 12:57 PM EST --- WASHINGTON (AP) - Black History Month, often a time to recognize the contributions of African Americans in U.S. history, was marked in the nation's capital this week with a focus on present divides and the November election when Black turnout will be integral to the outcome. At the White House, the Biden administration on Tuesday hosted more than two dozen family members of civil rights icons and major historical figures for a gala celebrating Black history. Vice President Kamala Harris made a surprise appearance where she praised the families and recounted the administration's commitment to Black communities. A few hours later, Republicans held a reception in Washington's U Street neighborhood, a key part of Black history in the city, to celebrate former GOP officials and activists who have engaged Black voters. The White House has taken Black History Month as an opportunity to highlight the administration's efforts on priorities such as education, voting rights and jobs. Republicans see a chance to win more votes from a core Democratic constituency, noting President Joe Biden's lower popularity with Black adults and the criticism he has taken for inflation and his handling of the border. Biden's approval rating among Black adults was 42% in a January poll by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, a substantial drop from the first year of his presidency. Democrats are spotlighting Biden's support with civil rights stalwarts and lambasting Republicans for enacting policies restricting how educators discuss race and history in the classroom. "We know that those who don't remember their history are doomed to repeat it," said Democratic Rep. Terri Sewell, to the families assembled at the White House. Sewell represents Selma, Alabama, where white police beat Black civil rights marchers in 1965 on a day remembered today as "Bloody Sunday." "At a time when extremists seek to erase our history and roll back our progress, we should take a lesson from our foremothers and forefathers," she said. Republicans held their own Black History Month celebration later that evening with about 100 people. "As RNC Chair, I have made it a mission to reach out to communities and voters that we have ignored as a party," said Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel during Tuesday night's event. "Black voters are going to make history this November because they're going to vote Republican at the highest level we've ever seen," McDaniel predicted to applause from the audience. The RNC intends to expand its number of community outreach centers in Black communities after the GOP primary concludes. The party has been optimistic about its chances to improve its poor margins with Black voters since Republicans made slight inroads with them in the 2022 midterm elections. But the party's current focus on issues like the teaching of race and history may risk mobilizing Black voters against the GOP. Republican officials in at least a dozen states have enacted policies that regulate how educators discuss topics including race, history and gender in the classroom. "This moment in time is evidence that our history is unbannable, that teaching it is core to our progress, and that Black history is American history," Nevada Rep. Steve Horsford, chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, told the White House crowd. The Biden campaign dismissed GOP Black voter outreach as insincere and noted that former President Donald Trump, the current front-runner for the GOP nomination, had dinner in 2022 with Nick Fuentes, a Holocaust-denying white nationalist. "In Donald Trump's Republican Party, celebrating Black History Month means teaching kids that slavery benefited Black people, papering over slavery as the cause of the Civil War and sharing well-done steaks doused in ketchup with white supremacists at Mar-a-Lago," said Biden campaign communications director Michael Tyler. "I'm sure they'll serve up plenty of the same at their little event." The Trump campaign did not respond to a request for comment. On Tuesday, the Biden campaign rolled out new ads targeting Black voters by highlighting the administration's investments in historically Black colleges and universities as well as the number of Black officeholders appointed by Biden, including Harris, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. And the Democratic National Committee on Wednesday unveiled digital ads targeting HBCUs in battleground states that touts Biden's record on student debt. Democrats point to record-low Black unemployment, policies capping the cost of insulin and Biden's cancellation of about $137 billion in student loan debt as policies they hope will boost support among Black voters. And party officials and strategists stress that its emphasis on Black voters extends beyond a single month of events. Biden also moved to increase Black political power when he upended precedent to place South Carolina and its substantial Black population first in the party's primary calendar. South Carolina Rep. Jim Clyburn, a veteran of the Civil Rights movement and a close Biden ally, co-chairs the president's reelection campaign. According to some of the assembled Republican activists on Tuesday night, many of whom are Black, the GOP simply lacked the sustained efforts needed to court more Black voters. Quenton Jordan, a Republican activist who won an award at the event, said that the GOP is now "putting forth an effort to capture the Black vote where in previous years, that just wasn't the case." "I remember when we had a greater pool," said Ken Blackwell, a former Ohio Republican secretary of state who received an award at the reception. "That's why this is important. To reengage, to give our narrative and give them a choice. But first, we've got to show up."
# Republican Michigan elector testifies he never intended to make false public record By COREY WILLIAMS and JOEY CAPPELLETTI February 14, 2024. 4:51 PM EST --- LANSING, Mich. (AP) - A Michigan Republican accused of participating in a fake elector plot after the 2020 presidential election testified Wednesday that he did not know how the electoral process worked and never intended to make a false public record. "We were told this was an appropriate process," James Renner, 77, said during a preliminary hearing for a half-dozen other electors who face forgery and other charges. If he had known any part of the process was illegal, Renner - who served with the state police during the 1970s - said he "would have challenged it." "My background was enforcing the law, not breaking the law," he testified under cross-examination by a defense attorney for one of the electors. Attorney General Dana Nessel has said Renner, of Lansing, was one of 16 Republicans who acted as false electors for then-President Donald Trump. Charges against Renner were dropped last year after he and the state attorney general's office reached a cooperation deal. He was called to testify Wednesday by the prosecution. Renner, who has served as a precinct delegate and volunteer with the Michigan Republican Party, said he and other electors attended a Dec. 14, 2020, meeting at the party's headquarters in Lansing. He was asked to replace an elector who canceled. They signed a form that authorized them to be electors. There was a companion sheet that purported that Trump had won the election, Renner testified. Renner added that his understanding was that the Republican electoral slate votes would be used if it later was deemed that Trump had won. Fake electors in Michigan and six other battleground states sent certificates to Congress falsely declaring Trump the winner of the election in their state, despite confirmed results showing he had lost. Georgia and Nevada also have charged fake electors. Republicans who served as false electors in Wisconsin agreed to a legal settlement in which they conceded that Joe Biden won the election and that their efforts were part of an attempt to improperly overturn the 2020 results. In between witness testimony Wednesday, a defense attorney for one of the Republican Michigan electors discussed the 1960 election between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon in which Hawaii's Republican governor certified a Republican slate of electors after the initial count had Nixon winning the state by about 100 votes. But Democratic electors met anyway and insisted that Kennedy would win an ongoing recount. The Democrats were right, and when it came time for Congress to consider which group of electors to count, it chose the Democratic one. It was Nixon himself, who was presiding over Congress as the outgoing vice president, who made the decision. Kahla Crino, a Michigan assistant attorney general, said in court Wednesday that the 1960 Hawaii case became inspiration for multiples slates of fake electors in battleground states. "Somehow, your honor, this became, and the people do not dispute, that this became inspiration for a multistate criminal conspiracy that was absolutely linked to the Trump campaign," Crino said. The Associated Press on Wednesday reached out to the Trump campaign for comment. Trump-allied lawyer Kenneth Chesebro could be called as a defense witness when the Michigan hearing resumes, possibly in April. Chesebro pleaded guilty in October to one felony charge of conspiracy to commit filing false documents in the Georgia election interference case. He was sentenced to probation. Prosecutors alleged Chesebro unlawfully conspired with Trump and lawyers associated with his campaign to have a group of Georgia Republicans sign a false elector certificate and to submit it to various federal authorities. He also communicated with Trump campaign lawyers and Republican leaders in other swing states won by Biden to get those states to submit false slates of electors as well, prosecutors alleged. Dan Schwager, who served in 2020-2021 as general counsel to the secretary of the U.S. Senate, testified Tuesday in the Lansing courtroom that a fake Certificate of Votes from Michigan was submitted to the Senate after the 2020 election. But the purported Certificate of Votes didn't match an official document signed by Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and feature the Michigan state seal, Schwager said. When announcing charges last July, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said the fake electors allegedly met Dec. 14, 2020, in the basement of the state's Republican Party headquarters "and signed their names to multiple certificates stating they were the duly elected and qualified electors for president and vice president." Certificates of votes are opened by the vice president, and the votes counted by members of Congress. The defendants have insisted that their actions were not illegal, even though Biden won Michigan by nearly 155,000 votes over Trump, a result confirmed by a GOP-led state Senate investigation in 2021. In December, former Michigan GOP Communications Director Anthony Zammit testified that he believed an attorney for Trump's campaign "took advantage" of some of the 15 Republicans. Preliminary hearings don't involve a jury and are for the judge to determine if there is sufficient evidence to substantiate the charges. A seventh defendant, Kenneth Thompson, had his case postponed because his attorney didn't show up. The other eight defendants will have preliminary examinations at later dates.
# Democrats retain majority in the Pennsylvania House with a 102-100 partisan divide By BROOKE SCHULTZ February 13, 2024. 8:29 PM EST --- HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) - Democrats retained their slim majority in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives on Tuesday after voters elected a former school board member to represent them in a Philadelphia suburb that has been trending more to the left. Jim Prokopiak's election to the Bucks County seat will give Democrats a 102-100 majority in the House, which they have sought to defend in four special elections in the past year. A Republican lawmaker's resignation last week shifted the power back to Democrats, and Prokopiak's win kept it in place. He defeated Republican challenger Candace Cabanas and will replace former state Rep. John Galloway, who resigned to serve as a magisterial judge. Cabanas has said previously she plans to run again during the general election. "What I heard from voters is that Bucks County residents need help supporting their families, want control over their own bodies, and ensure they have the ability to chart their own paths in life," Prokopiak said in a statement. "I'm committed to taking my conversations with voters to Harrisburg and making their dreams a reality." While campaigning, Prokopiak, 49, said his goals as a lawmaker aligned with the party's larger ambitions since they retook the chamber - more money for K-12 education, preserving access to abortions and a higher minimum wage. "No one can afford to live on the federal minimum wage in this area," he said. "If we're going to be talking about good-paying jobs and creating life-sustaining jobs, the first thing we have to do is raise the minimum wage because it's clear that is not sustaining anybody." Democrats have kept all six seats that have gone up for special elections in the past year, in mostly reliably Democratic districts. Prokopiak will represent a seat that has favorably elected Democrats in past election cycles. Galloway's seat has trended Democratic, and Republicans have slowly been losing their grip on the county as a whole. The race drew national attention from the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, which spent $50,000 to protect the party's majority in the chamber. It was a first step for the committee, which has said it is planning to spend at least $60 million on statehouse races nationally this cycle, the group's largest-ever budget. It will feature special emphasis on erasing GOP majorities in Arizona and New Hampshire and in the Pennsylvania Senate while holding small Democratic majorities claimed in 2022 in Minnesota and Michigan. "This victory is a promising sign for Democrats up and down the ballot this year – it's clear that momentum is on our side," Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee President Heather Williams said in a statement, adding that their focus will be on defending the House majority and flipping the state Senate. Democrats in Pennsylvania have used their newfound power this year to advance a number of the caucus' priorities, and they have a philosophical ally in the governor's office with Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro. The Legislature remains politically divided with a firm Republican majority in the Senate. "Over the last year I think, since the Democrats have been in the majority, they've pushed legislation that has helped the middle class," Prokopiak said previously. "I want to do that."
# A Georgia judge is set to consider whether to remove Fani Willis from the election interference case By KATE BRUMBACK February 14, 2024. 9:27 AM EST --- ATLANTA (AP) - A Georgia judge who is deciding whether to toss Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis off of the state's election interference case against former President Donald Trump has set a hearing for Thursday that is expected to focus on details of Willis' personal relationship with a special prosecutor she hired. As soon as allegations of an inappropriate romantic relationship between Willis and attorney Nathan Wade surfaced last month, speculation about the future of the case began to swirl. Even if the prosecution isn't derailed, the upheaval has certainly created an unwanted distraction for Willis and her team and could undermine public confidence in the case. The defense attorney who first exposed the relationship says it creates a conflict of interest and is asking the judge to dismiss the indictment and to prohibit Willis, Wade and their offices from further involvement in the case. In a response filed earlier this month, Willis acknowledged a "personal relationship" but said it has no bearing on the serious criminal charges she's pursuing and asked the judge to dismiss the motions seeking her disqualification without a hearing. The law says "disqualification can occur if evidence is produced demonstrating an actual conflict or the appearance of one," Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee said during a hearing Monday. Because he believes "it's possible that the facts alleged by the defendant could result in a disqualification, I think an evidentiary hearing must occur to establish the record on those core allegations." The highly anticipated hearing, like all courtroom proceedings in the case, will be streamed live on the judge's YouTube channel, as well as by news outlets. McAfee has said it could continue into Friday. As he makes another run for the White House and faces three other criminal prosecutions, the former president has exploited the revelation of the relationship, repeatedly referring to Wade as Willis' "lover" or "boyfriend" to try to cast doubt on Willis' motivations and the legitimacy of the case. Other Republicans have piled on, using the claims to justify calls for investigations into or sanctions against Willis, an elected Democrat who's up for reelection this year. The original motion was filed by former Trump campaign staffer and onetime White House aide Michael Roman, but Trump and several other co-defendants have joined with motions of their own. Roman's motion says Willis and Wade were romantically involved when she hired him in November 2021 to manage an investigation into whether Trump and others committed any crimes as they tried to overturn his 2020 election loss in Georgia. That investigation led to the indictment in August of Trump and 18 others who are accused of participating in a sprawling illegal scheme to keep Trump in office. Four of the people charged have already pleaded guilty after reaching deals with prosecutors. Trump and the remaining 14 have all pleaded not guilty. Willis has paid Wade more than $650,000 for his work and then, Roman alleges, profited personally when Wade used that money to take her on expensive vacations, including cruises in the Bahamas and trips to Aruba, Belize and Napa Valley. His filing also questions Wade's qualifications for the job, saying there's no evidence he had ever prosecuted a felony or handled a racketeering case. Just under a week after Roman's motion was filed, Willis used a speech at a historic Black church in Atlanta to forcefully defend Wade's qualifications and her own decision to hire him. She didn't address the allegations of a relationship in that speech, waiting nearly three more weeks to acknowledge a "personal relationship" in a court filing. Attached to that filing was a sworn statement from Wade saying that the pair began a personal relationship in 2022, after he was hired as a special prosecutor. His statement also said travel expenses for him and Willis were "roughly divided equally between us" and that Willis "received no funds or personal financial gain" from his position as a special prosecutor. McAfee said Thursday's hearing needs to explore "whether a relationship existed, whether that relationship was romantic or non-romantic in nature, when it formed and whether it continues." Those questions are only relevant, he said, "in combination with the question of the existence and extent of any personal benefit conveyed as a result of the relationship." Roman's attorney, Ashleigh Merchant, has subpoenaed Willis, Wade, seven other employees of the district attorney's office and others, including Wade's former business partner, Terrence Bradley. Merchant told McAfee on Monday that Bradley would testify that Willis and Wade's romantic relationship began before Wade was hired as special counsel and that they had stayed together in homes where the county was paying for Willis to stay. Willis sought to quash those subpoenas. She argued Roman's attempts to subpoena people in her office "suggests an eye toward public narrative as opposed to legal remedy" and that anything Bradley knows is protected by attorney-client privilege as he once served as Wade's divorce attorney. McAfee declined on Monday to quash those subpoenas, but agreed to revisit that after Bradley testifies. Aware of the personal nature of some of the details that could arise in Thursday's hearing, the judge said that if there's anything that amounts to "harassment or undue embarrassment," he is "not going to feel inhibited from stepping in, even without an objection from counsel, to move this along and keep it focused on the issues at hand." McAfee also made clear that he does not believe arguments over Wade's qualifications are relevant, saying that as long as an attorney "has a heartbeat and a bar card," it is within the district attorney's discretion to hire him.
# New York City schools went online instead of calling a snow day. It didn't go well By PHILIP MARCELO and ANNIE MA February 13, 2024. 5:47 PM EST --- NEW YORK (AP) - When New York City officials got wind of the major winter storm headed their way, they rewound the clock four years, reopened their coronavirus pandemic playbook, and announced that instead of canceling school, teachers and students would once again meet online. No snow day. Mayor Eric Adams said it was important to give children enrolled in the nation's largest school system stability considering the massive upheaval to education the pandemic had caused throughout the country. Some school districts in other states have done the same since adopting the technology essential in 2020 to make virtual school days possible. Unfortunately for Adams, the plan didn't go so well: Many students, teachers and administrators were unable to log in to their accounts - a problem that city officials blamed on a technology contractor. Naveed Hasan, a Manhattan resident, said he struggled to get his 4-year-old daughter logged on because of the district's technical issues even though his 9-year-old son was able to gain access. He hoped to take both out for sledding later in the day. "It honestly worked out for the best," Hasan said. "I'd rather not have the youngest on a device all day anyways." Schools nationwide shuttered classrooms for the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, and some did not reopen fully for more than a year. Some children barely logged on, and many struggled with the social isolation. The months spent with online education were marked by widespread learning losses. Young students often struggled with the technology, and some parents said online learning was a factor in their decision to delay enrolling their kids. In a November 2020 survey conducted by the EdWeek Research Center, 39% of district leaders said they had converted snow days to remote learning. Another 32% said they would consider the change. But in recent years, some districts, including Fairfax County Public Schools in Virginia, have reverted to prepandemic snow day policies. School systems in Boston and Hartford, Connecticut, among many others, closed in response to Tuesday's storm. Connecticut does not allow remote learning on a snow day to count toward the minimum 180 learning days in the school calendar. The state weighed factors such as the challenges of setting up remote classrooms on short notice, and local officials also reported that parents and students wanted traditional snow days, said Irene Parizi, chief academic officer for the state Department of Education. "Let them have their snow day and go sledding and have their hot chocolate and things like that," Parizi said. With schools closed in Columbia, Connecticut, Susan Smith spent the day at home with her three children, ages 14, 11 and 8. She said she likes traditional snow days, but would also like to see remote learning on some bad weather days. "I still remember being a kid and really looking forward to snow days, so I don't want to completely wipe that off the map with remote learning," Smith said. Adams defended the decision to have NYC schools operate virtually. "Using this as a teaching moment to have our children learn how to continue the expansion of remote learning is so important," the mayor said in an interview on WPIX-TV Monday evening. "We fell back in education because of COVID. We cannot afford our young people to miss school days." Gina Cirrito, a parent on Manhattan's Lower East Side, said she appreciated the structure the remote classes provided for her three sons, even if Tuesday morning was a bit of rough sledding in her household. "I know people around the country get really frustrated with the idea of these remote days and not just letting the kids have a day," she said. "But I don't think the teachers are asking above and beyond and to be honest, they're so far behind. If there's a way to keep their (students') brains a little engaged, I'm all for it." Cirrito said the family had to work through some early morning logistics, including making sure everyone had a functioning computer and a quiet spot in the apartment to work - only to run into the district's login issues. By about 9:15 a.m. her sons - ages 10, 13 and 17 - had settled into the day's routine. "For the kids, it's like riding a bike. Like, 'Here we go again,'" Cirrito said. New York City officials did not say how many students were prevented from accessing online classes but they blamed the problem on their technology contractor, IBM. While both teachers and students recently participated in simulations to prepare for remote instruction, IBM was not involved in those walk-throughs, officials said at a news conference. "IBM was not ready for prime time. That's what happened here," said New York City Schools Chancellor David Banks. In a statement, IBM said it had been "working closely with New York City schools to address this situation as quickly as possible." "The issues have been largely resolved, and we regret the inconvenience to students and parents across the city," the statement read. The morning technical glitches only added to the stress for teachers already scrambling to pivot lessons and assignments to remote work, said Michael Mulgrew, president of the United Federation of Teachers, which represents roughly 200,000 NYC public schools teachers and staff. But Mulgrew said educators anticipated trouble after their experience with distance learning during the pandemic. He noted that by 12:30 p.m., 900,000 students and teachers were utilizing the district's remote learning system - a testament, he said, to how teachers were able to keep their classes engaged despite the morning challenges. "It's also a good lesson for students," he said. "This is what happens when things go wrong. You don't get frustrated or angry. You got to figure it out." Mulgrew added that this year's school calendar only allows for one or so snow days, "so you want to save that, just in case." Still, Hasan, a software developer, wondered whether students and teachers alike would have been better served with a snow day, even as he acknowledged Tuesday's accumulations in the city might not have warranted it in a bygone era. "It's like a mental health day for kids to just go and play," he said. "It's already enough of a challenge for parents to figure out how they are going to do their work."
# An Oregon resident was diagnosed with the plague. Here are a few things to know about the illness By REBECCA BOONE February 13, 2024. 6:23 PM EST --- Officials in central Oregon this week reported a case of bubonic plague in a resident who likely got the disease from a sick pet cat. The infected resident and the resident's close contacts have all been provided medication, public health officials say, and people in the community are not believed to be at risk. The cat was also treated but did not survive. Plague isn't common, but it also isn't unheard of in the western United States, where a handful of cases occur every year. It's different from Alaskapox, a rare, recently discovered disease that killed a man in Alaska last month. Here are a few things to know about what the plague is, who is at risk and how a disease that was once a harbinger of death became a treatable illness. ## What is plague? Plague is an infectious disease that can affect mammals. It's caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, which is carried by rodents and fleas. Sunlight and drying can kill plague bacteria on surfaces, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Humans and pets suspected to be sick with plague are typically treated with antibiotics, and sometimes with other medical measures. Plague symptoms can manifest in a few ways. Bubonic plague - the kind contracted by the Oregon resident - happens when the plague bacteria gets into the lymph nodes. It can cause fever, headache, weakness and painful, swollen lymph nodes. It usually happens from the bite of an infected flea, according to the CDC. Septicemic plague symptoms happen if the bacteria gets into the bloodstream. It can occur initially or after bubonic plague goes untreated. This form of plague causes the same fever, chills and weakness, as well as abdominal pain, shock and sometimes other symptoms like bleeding into the skin and blackened fingers, toes or the nose. The CDC says this form comes from flea bites or from handling an infected animal. Pneumonic plague is the most serious form of the disease, and it occurs when the bacteria gets into the lungs. Pneumonic plague adds rapidly developing pneumonia to the list of plague symptoms. It is the only form of plague that can be spread from person to person by inhaling infectious droplets. All forms of plague are treatable with common antibiotics, and people who seek treatment early have a better chance of a full recovery, according to the CDC. ## Am I at risk of plague? In the U.S., an average of 7 cases of human plague is reported each year, according to the CDC, and about 80% of them are the bubonic form of the disease. Most of those cases were in the rural western and southwestern U.S. A welder in central Oregon contracted it in 2012 when he pulled a rodent out of his choking cat's mouth in 2012 - he survived but lost his fingertips and toes to the disease. A Colorado teen contracted a fatal case while hunting in 2015, and Colorado officials confirmed at least two cases last year - one of them fatal. Worldwide, most human cases of plague in recent decades have occurred in people living in rural towns and villages in Africa, particularly in Madagascar and Congo, according to the Cleveland Clinic. People can reduce the risk of plague by keeping their homes and outdoor living areas less inviting for rodents by clearing brush and junk piles and keeping pet food inaccessible. Ground squirrels, chipmunks and wood rats can carry plague as well as other rodents, and so people with bird and squirrel feeders may want to consider the risks if they live in areas with a plague outbreak. The CDC says repellent with DEET can also help protect people from rodent fleas when camping or working outdoors. Flea control products can help keep fleas from infecting household pets. If a pet gets sick, they should be taken to a vet as soon as possible, according to the CDC. ## Isn't plague from the Middle Ages? The Black Death in the 14th century was perhaps the most infamous plague epidemic, killing up to half of the population as it spread through Europe, the Middle East and northern Africa. It began devastating communities in the Middle East and Europe between 1347 and 1351, and significant outbreaks continued for roughly the next 400 years. An earlier major plague pandemic, dubbed the Justinian plague, started in Rome around 541 and continued to erupt for the next couple hundred years. The third major plague pandemic started in the Yunnan region of China in the mid-1800s and spread along trade routes, arriving in Hong Kong and Bombay about 40 years later. It eventually reached every continent except Antarctica, according to the Cleveland Clinic, and is estimated to have killed roughly 12 million people in China and India alone. In the late 1800s, an effective treatment with an antiserum was developed. That treatment was later replaced by even more effective antibiotics a few decades later. Though plague remains a serious illness, antibiotic and supportive therapy is effective for even the most dangerous pneumonic form when patients are treated in time, according to the World Health Organization.
# Reluctant pastor's son to most-viewed preacher: Shooting puts new spotlight on Joel Osteen By BEN FINLEY February 12, 2024. 8:05 PM EST --- Joel Osteen is one of the most familiar faces in American religion. The pastor who leads the Houston megachurch where a 5-year-old boy was critically wounded in a Sunday shooting that also hit a man in the hip - before the shooter was killed by off-duty police working security - is known for his megawatt smile, wavy hair and widely popular brand of Christianity. The 60-year-old regularly preaches to about 45,000 people a week in a former basketball arena and he's known to millions more through his television sermons. Osteen inherited his calling from his father and increased the size of the congregation almost five-fold. His book, "Your Best Life Now: 7 Steps to Living Your Full Potential" sold nearly 3 million copies. In the mid-2000s, Osteen was viewed by more people than any preacher in the United States, reaching 95 percent of all households, according to Nielsen Media Research. His services over the years have drawn an almost equal mix of whites, Blacks and Hispanics - a diversity not seen in most churches across the nation. Nicknamed the "smiling preacher," Osteen told The Associated Press in 2004 that his message of hope and encouragement "resonates with people." But his laid-back preaching style has also drawn criticism for focusing on feel-good messaging over fiery sermons. Osteen follows a thread of evangelical Christianity called the Prosperity Gospel, which believes that following God brings rewards to followers who devote themselves to him, said Mark Ward Sr., a professor of communication at the University of Houston-Victoria who writes about evangelical mass media. "Essentially, God wants to bless you. And if you have enough faith, he will," Ward told The Associated Press on Monday. "You can prosper. And you can live your best life now. And that is a very appealing message to both white and Black evangelical audiences." Authorities said the critically injured boy is the son of shooter Genesse Ivonne Moreno, 36, who authorities said had a history of mental illness, including being placed under emergency detention in 2016. The weekend shooting at Joel Osteen's megachurch in Houston is not the first time gunfire has caused panic and tragedy at a Texas house of worship. Osteen told his 10 million followers on X, the social media platform, that his church community was "devastated." "In the face of such darkness, we must hold onto our faith and remember evil will not prevail," Osteen stated. "God will guide us through the darkest of times. Together, we will rise above this tragedy and stand firm in our commitment to love and support one another." Decades before Sunday's shooting, Osteen said he never dreamed he would be a preacher and never imagined leading a flock so large. Osteen had never preached - and never had the desire, he has said - until the Sunday before his father died in 1999. John Osteen had founded the charismatic Christian Lakewood Church in an abandoned feed store in 1959. Osteen told The Associated Press in 2004 that as his father's church grew he preferred to be behind the scenes. He had left his studies at Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Okla., in 1982 and joined his father's staff as a television producer. When the elder Osteen was hospitalized, the preacher's son reluctantly stepped to the pulpit. His dad listened to the sermon by telephone from his hospital bed. "The nurses said they'd never seen him so happy, so proud," Osteen recalled in 2004. John Osteen died five days later, and his son "just knew it down on the inside" that God wanted him to preach. Critics have taken Osteen to task for downplaying the sinful nature of humanity and the need for repentance. But Osteen's mother, Dodie Osteen, told the AP in 2005: "We don't preach the gospel sad, we preach it glad." "To me, it's cotton-candy theology," Ole Anthony, president of Trinity, a Dallas-based religious watchdog group told the AP in 2004. "There's no meat. They just make everybody feel good." Osteen is "quite sincere," said William Martin, a professor of religion and public policy at Rice University who lives near the Houston church. He said Osteen often opens his sermons with a joke and doesn't shout at his congregants. "He's upbeat. Doesn't claim to be theologically or philosophically deep," Martin said. Osteen's father expanded Lakewood's already huge congregation at the perfect time: The American media landscape was rapidly changing with the rise of the internet and the deregulation of broadcast media, said Ward, the University of Houston-Victoria professor. Television preachers receiving a large number of donations from their congregations could buy airtime on large cable networks such as the Trinity Broadcasting Network instead of making a hodgepodge of deals with "mom-and-pop" TV stations. "In order to be able to raise that kind of money, you have to have a message that is broadly appealing," Ward said. "And so we have televangelists like Joel Osteen or T.D. Jakes, who have a broadly popular message." Osteen is not overtly political and megachurches like his provide a different experience than many others, Ward said. "You get a feeling of transcendence that's not through vestments and creeds and organ playing but essentially multimedia," Ward said. "The lights go down. You've got large screens with videos. You've got a praise band that's playing at rock-concert decibels." Ward added: "People who are watching are getting a sense of the transcendent through the televised spectacle." Osteen's leads his flock in the former home of the Houston Rockets, where they won two NBA titles in the 1990s and the Houston Comets of the WNBA when they won four. It was also the site of Osteen's first date with his future bride, Victoria, when they went out to watch a Houston Rockets basketball game. Turning the former arena into a church took 15 months and about $75 million to complete. When it opened in 2005, it featured two waterfalls, three gargantuan television screens and a lighting system that rivals those found at rock concerts. Two choir lofts with 12 rows of rich purple pews sat between the waterfalls, accented by live foliage. Absent, however, was a cross, an image of God or Jesus Christ or any other traditional religious symbols. Osteen told the AP in 2005 that his father never displayed such symbols and he simply continued the tradition. Osteen speaks in front of a large golden-colored globe that rotates slowly. Along with classrooms, the addition includes a chapel, a baptismal area, meeting space for young adults and an entire floor dedicated to the church's television broadcast efforts. Osteen told the AP in 2004 that he was providing something that people wanted. "It's sort of like to me it's a good restaurant - if you've got good food, people will come," he said. "So we know we've got to make our services good. They've got to uplift people. They've got to walk away saying, 'You know what, I feel better today.'"
# What to know about a shooting at Joel Osteen's megachurch By JUAN A. LOZANO February 12, 2024. 6:57 PM EST --- HOUSTON (AP) - A shooter's motive for opening fire in celebrity pastor Joel Osteen's megachurch remained unclear Monday as authorities searched the suspect's home in suburban Houston and identified the weapon used in the attack as an AR-style rifle. The house in Conroe, Texas, is more than 50 miles (80 kilometers) north of Lakewood Church, where Sunday's shooting in between busy services sent worshippers scrambling to find safety. The shooter was identified as 36-year-old Genesse Ivonne Moreno, according to police. Police say Moreno was shot and killed by two off-duty officers working security at the church, one of the largest megachurches in the U.S. Two other people were shot and wounded, including the shooter's young son, who entered the church with Moreno. Here's what to know about the shooting: ## HOW DID THE SHOOTING UNFOLD? The sound of gunshots inside the massive church, which was formerly the home of the NBA's Houston Rockets, startled worshippers just before 2 p.m. Sunday, around the time many people were getting ready to watch the Super Bowl later. Houston police Chief Troy Finner said Moreno entered the church wearing a trenchcoat and backpack and armed with a long rifle. Moreno began shooting and was confronted by two off-duty officers, a Houston police officer and an agent with the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission, who returned fire. "They held their ground in the face of rifle fire at point blank range," said Kevin Lilly, chairman of the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission. Before being shot and killed, the suspect told officers that they had a bomb and were carrying "a yellow in color rope and substances consistent with the manufacture of explosive devices, which appeared to be a detonation cord," according to the search warrant affidavit. Authorities said Monday that no explosives or hazardous material were found at the scene. ## WHO ARE THE VICTIMS? Moreno's son, whom authorities described as a 7-year-old, was shot in the head and remained in critical condition Monday. The boy was initially described Sunday as a 5-year-old. It remained unclear how the boy, who was taken to a Houston children's hospital, was struck by gunfire. Finner said he did not want to speculate but added: "That suspect put that baby in danger." Authorities described the other victim as a man in his 50s who was wounded in his hip. ## WHAT IS KNOWN ABOUT THE SHOOTER? Authorities said Moreno had a history of mental illness, including being placed under emergency detention in 2016, but provided no other details. Houston Police Commander Chris Hassig said Moreno sometimes used both male and female aliases, but he said investigators determined through interviews and past police reports that Moreno identified as female. Authorities said investigators were looking into a dispute involving Moreno and the family of Moreno's ex-husband. Police said Moreno legally purchased in December the AR-15 style rifle that was used in the shooting. Moreno was also carrying a .22-caliber rifle. Investigators also found antisemitic writings by the shooter, and Hassig noted Moreno's rifle had a "Palestine" sticker on the buttstock. He described Moreno as a "lone wolf" who was not acting as any part of a larger group. ## HOW DID WORSHIPPERS INSIDE REACT? Alan Guity, whose family is from Honduras, has been a member of the church since 1998. He said he heard gunshots while resting inside the church's sanctuary as his mother was working as an usher. "Boom, boom, boom, boom. And I yelled, 'Mom,'" he said. Guity, 35, said he ran to his mother and they both lay flat on the floor as the gunfire continued. Guity said he and his mother prayed and stayed on the floor for about five minutes until someone told them it was safe to leave the building. As he was led outside, Guity could see people were crying and looking for loved ones. ## WHO IS JOEL OSTEEN? Osteen, 60, took the helm of Lakewood Church after John Osteen, his father and the church's founding pastor, passed away in 1999. The church has grown dramatically under Joel Osteen and is regularly attended by 45,000 people weekly, making it the third-largest megachurch in the U.S., according to the Hartford Institute for Religion Research. Osteen is a leader of what is known as the prosperity gospel, a belief that God wants his followers to be wealthy and healthy. He is the author of several best-selling books, including, "Your Best Life Now: 7 Steps to Living at Your Full Potential." His televised services reach about 100 countries and renovating his church's arena cost nearly $100 million. After Hurricane Harvey flooded Houston in 2017, Osteen opened his church to those seeking shelter after social media critics slammed the televangelist for not offering to house people in need.
# Shooter entered Texas megachurch with young son and used AR-style rifle in the attack, police say By JUAN LOZANO, ACACIA CORONADO, and JIM VERTUNO February 13, 2024. 10:04 AM EST --- HOUSTON (AP) - The shooter at a Texas megachurch had a history of mental illness and brought their young son to the attack that was carried out using an AR-style rifle and ended in an exchange of gunfire with two off-duty officers, authorities said Monday. Houston police identified the shooter as Genesse Ivonne Moreno, 36, who they say wore a trenchcoat and carried a backpack Sunday upon entering Lakewood Church, which is led by the pastor Joel Osteen. Moreno used both male and female aliases, but investigators who looked at past police reports found that Moreno identified as female, Houston Police Commander Chris Hassig said. The attack happened between services at the Houston megachurch - in a former NBA arena - and sent worshippers scrambling for safety. During the shooting, Moreno's 7-year-old son was shot in the head and remained in critical condition Monday, authorities said. Moreno, who was killed by the officers, was not a known member of Osteen's congregation, said church spokesman Don Iloff. Police and FBI investigators said they had not established a motive for the shooting but were looking into a dispute involving Moreno and the family of Moreno's ex-husband. Hassig and others said Moreno had a history of mental illness, including being placed under emergency detention in 2016, but provided no additional details. ## THE SHOOTER AND THE GUN PURCHASE Investigators found antisemitic writings by the shooter, Hassig said, noting Moreno's former in-laws are Jewish. The rifle also had a "Palestine" sticker on the buttstock. Hassig described Moreno as a "lone wolf" who acted alone. Police searched Moreno's residence in Conroe, a city more than 50 miles (80 kilometers) north of the church. Court records show that Moreno had prior arrests and was involved in a divorce and child custody battle in 2022, in which Moreno's ex-mother-in-law indicated she had sought advice from pastoral staff at Lakewood. The court documents do not indicate which staff the woman contacted. Iloff said he had not found anyone familiar with the contact described in the legal filings. Moreno appeared to have legally purchased the rifle used in the attack in December, and investigators were looking into how Moreno obtained it, officials said. Moreno also carried a .22 caliber rifle into the church, police said. ## DETAILS OF THE SHOOTING Investigators said Moreno and the boy entered the church building shortly before the 2 p.m. Spanish service after Moreno pointed a gun at an unarmed security guard. Moreno began firing once inside, and the guards inside the building - off-duty Houston police officer Christopher Moreno and Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission Agent Adrian Herrera - returned fire and killed the shooter, investigators said. Christopher Moreno is not related to Genesse Moreno, Houston Police Chief Troy Finner said. All the gunfire took place in a church hallway, and none of the violence spilled into the main sanctuary, Hassig said, describing the confrontation as a "gun battle" that lasted several minutes. "They held their ground in the face of rifle fire at point blank range," Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission Chairman Kevin Lilly said of the security guards. "They were a wall that existed between worshippers and terror." Both officers fired their weapons, but investigators do not yet know if Moreno's son was accidentally shot by one of them, Finner said. Police said a 57-year-old man who was shot in the hip was discharged from the hospital. Finner said the shooter told officers after being shot that there was a bomb, but a search found no explosives. ## THE SHOOTER'S RECORD Records in Harris County, where Houston is located, showed that Moreno, under the names Jeffery Escalante-Moreno or Jeffery Escalante, was charged in six criminal cases from 2005 to 2011. The charges ranged from forging a $100 bill, to stealing socks, hats and makeup, to assault for kicking a detention officer. The August 2009 assault conviction sent Moreno to jail for 180 days. In a rambling 2022 application for a protective order against Moreno's ex-mother-in-law that Moreno wrote without help from an attorney, Moreno complained of being threatened and followed and claimed to have had received text messages from FBI Director Christopher Wray. In a separate court filing seeking to be named conservator of Moreno's son, the ex-mother-in-law alleged that Moreno was mentally ill and that the child was being neglected and abused. Telephone messages seeking comment from members of Moreno's family were not returned Monday. ## THE CHURCH Lakewood is regularly attended by 45,000 people weekly, making it the third-largest megachurch in the U.S., according to the Hartford Institute for Religion Research. Osteen said the violence could have been worse if the shooting had happened during the earlier and larger late Sunday morning service. Iloff said Osteen was inside the church but was on the first floor during the shooting, which happened on the second floor. The gunfire terrified worshippers. Alan Guity has been a member of the church since 1998. He said he heard gunshots while resting inside the church's sanctuary as his mother was working as an usher. "Boom, boom, boom, boom. And I yelled, 'Mom!'" he said. Guity, 35, said he ran to his mother and they both laid flat on the floor as the gunfire continued. Osteen, 60, took the helm of Lakewood Church after John Osteen - his father and the church's founding pastor - passed away in 1999. The church has grown dramatically under his leadership. Osteen is a leading promoter of what is known as the prosperity gospel, a belief that God wants his followers to be wealthy and healthy. He is the author of several best-selling books, including "Your Best Life Now: 7 Steps to Living at Your Full Potential." His televised services reach about 100 countries, and renovating his church's arena cost nearly $100 million.
# Woman killed after she opened fire in Joel Osteen's megachurch, boy with her shot, hospitalized By JUAN A. LOZANO February 12, 2024. 1:04 AM EST --- HOUSTON (AP) - A woman in a trenchcoat opened fire with a long gun Sunday inside celebrity pastor Joel Osteen's megachurch in Texas, sending worshippers rushing to find safety while two off-duty officers confronted and killed the shooter. Two other people were shot and injured, including a 5-year-old boy who was in critical condition. The violence erupted shortly before the Houston church's 2 p.m. Spanish service was set to begin, just as the rest of the country was preparing for the Super Bowl. The woman entered the enormous Lakewood Church – a building with a 16,000-person capacity that was previously an arena for the NBA's Houston Rockets -- with the boy who was later hurt in the shootout with police. A man in his 50s was also wounded. Details of the confrontation remain unclear in the hours after the tragedy, and police have not released the woman's identity or a possible motive. It's also unknown what relationship, if any, the woman had to the boy, and who actually shot him and the man. "I will say this," Houston Police Chief Troy Finner told reporters during a news conference outside the church. "That female, that suspect, put that baby in danger. I'm going to put that blame on her." The boy was in critical condition at a children's hospital, while the man was stable at a different hospital with a hip wound. The shooting happened between services at the megachurch that is regularly attended by 45,000 people every week, making it the third-largest megachurch in the U.S., according to the Hartford Institute for Religion Research. Osteen said the violence could have been much worse if it had happened during the earlier, larger 11 a.m. service. Witnesses told reporters that they heard multiple gunshots. Christina Rodriguez, who was inside the church, told Houston television station KTRK that she "started screaming, 'There's a shooter, there's a shooter,' "and then she and others ran to the backside of a library inside the building, then stood in a stairway before they were told it was safe to leave. Longtime church member Alan Guity, whose family is from Honduras, said he was resting inside the church's sanctuary before the Spanish service as his mother was working as an usher when he heard gunshots. "Boom, boom, boom, boom and I yelled, 'Mom,' " he told The Associated Press. The 35-year-old ran to his mother and they both laid flat on the floor and prayed as the gunfire continued. They remained there for about five minutes until someone told them it was safe to evacuate. Outside, Guity said, he and his mother tried to calm people down by worshiping and singing in Spanish, "Move in me, move in me. Touch my mind and my heart. Move within me Holy Spirit." Despite the chaos, Finner said the tragedy "could have been a lot worse" if the two officers had not "engaged" the woman when she opened fire. They had been working security at the church on Sunday, and Finner praised them for their quick actions. The officers work for the Houston Police Department and the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission, respectively. Both have been placed on protocol-mandated administrative duty. After she was shot, the woman told police that she had a bomb, but authorities said no explosives were found when her vehicle and backpack were searched. First responders continued to search the megachurch for hours afterwards. Osteen said Sunday that his congregation is "devastated." He added that he would pray for the victims and for the woman who did the shooting and their families. It was not clear where he was at the time of the shooting. "We're going to stay strong and we're going to continue to, to move forward," he said during the news conference with police. "There are forces of evil, but the forces that are for us -- the forces of God -- are stronger than that. So we're going to keep going strong and just, you know, doing what God's called us to do: lift people up and give hope to the world." Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued a statement saying "our hearts are with those impacted by today's tragic shooting and the entire Lakewood Church community in Houston. Places of worship are sacred." The church has grown tremendously over the past 25 years since Joel Osteen took over after his father's death in 1999 and introduced an upbeat style of Christian televangelism that has captured a following of millions. His televised sermons reach about 100 countries. The elder Osteen founded the church in a converted feed store in 1959.
# Feel the need for speed? Late president's 75-mph speedboat is up for auction February 12, 2024. 3:25 PM EST --- KENNEBUNKPORT, Maine (AP) - It seems former President George H.W. Bush felt the need for speed in the waters off Maine, where he kept a nearly 1,000 horsepower speedboat. And for the right price, someone else can experience its excitement. The vessel is set to go up for auction on Thursday during the 2024 Presidential Salute auction in Houston, said Hutton Higgins, a spokesperson for the George & Barbara Bush Foundation. Proceeds from selling the 38-foot (11.5-meter) speedboat "Fidelity V" will be used to expand offerings at the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library & Museum and The Bush School of Government & Public Service at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas. Bush purchased the 2011-model Fountain 38CC after both he and his son, former President George W. Bush, had left office. The watercraft is emblazoned with a presidential seal and boasts three Mercury outboard engines that can propel the vessel to 75 mph (120 kph). The boat was used in the North Atlantic waters off Kennebunkport, where the Texas family has a summer retreat on the Maine coast. It's the fifth of George H.W. Bush's speedboats to bear the name Fidelity. The first is on display at the Bush library and museum, and the fourth is still in use in Kennebunkport, Higgins said.
# Flowers, chocolates and flash mobs: Valentine's Day celebrations around the world By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS February 14, 2024. 5:33 PM EST --- Flowers, chocolates, handwritten cards - and flash mobs. People around the world expressed their love in myriad ways on Valentine's Day: hanging hundreds of paper hearts in the streets to honor a recently deceased "Valentine's Day Bandit" in Portland, Maine; vowing to cherish and obey democracy by casting votes in Valentine's Day-themed polling stations in Indonesia; and donning heart-shaped sunglasses at a victory rally for the Super Bowl-winning Kansas City Chiefs. Images captured by Associated Press photographers around the globe Wednesday showed love is a many-faceted emotion, employed not just to root for long-lasting romances but to fight for justice and counteract anger and hatred. In Rome, activists wearing matching red-and-black T-shirts reading "One Billion Rising" created a flash mob at the famed Spanish Steps to call for an end to violence against women and girls. In Kenya's capital of Nairobi, women held candles and flowers during a "Dark Valentine" vigil to protest the deaths of at least 16 women police believe were killed by their partners this year. In Washington, D.C., where the vitriol of politics usually reigns, giant fake candy hearts reading "keep the faith," "reach out" and "be kind" sprouted from the White House Lawn, and pink-and-red paper valentine's greetings covered the walls of the East Landing. One enormous card from President Joe Biden's first lady read, "Happy Valentine's Day 2024. Xoxo Jill." For many, love means having a sense of humor, whether it's gathering to celebrate being "married for one day" and mounting life-size kissing skeletons at a "'Til Death Do Us Part" installation in Bucharest, Romania, or carving a dozen hearts and scrawling the message "I love my wife" in the dirt covering the back of a van after a nor'easter in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Tradition also had its place. Couples embraced in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower in Paris, viewed by many as the City of Love; posed for a selfie in front of a hotel in St. Petersburg, Russia, where windows were lit to form a heart; or bought heart-shaped balloons from vendors next to the Bosphorus in Istanbul. In the ultimate gesture of Valentine's Day, Justin Shady proposed to his girlfriend, Nicolette Miller, with a giant, lit-up billboard during a Love in Times Square event in New York. She said "yes," and amid floating streamers and clouds of confetti, the couple sealed the deal with a kiss.
# Black Catholic nuns: A compelling, long-overlooked history By DAVID CRARY April 30, 2022. 12:46 PM EST --- Even as a young adult, Shannen Dee Williams – who grew up Black and Catholic in Memphis, Tennessee – knew of only one Black nun, and a fake one at that: Sister Mary Clarence, as played by Whoopi Goldberg in the comic film "Sister Act." After 14 years of tenacious research, Williams – a history professor at the University of Dayton -- arguably now knows more about America's Black nuns than anyone in the world. Her comprehensive and compelling history of them, "Subversive Habits," will be published May 17. Williams found that many Black nuns were modest about their achievements and reticent about sharing details of bad experiences, such as encountering racism and discrimination. Some acknowledged wrenching events only after Williams confronted them with details gleaned from other sources. "For me, it was about recognizing the ways in which trauma silences people in ways they may not even be aware of," she said. The story is told chronologically, yet always in the context of a theme Williams forcefully outlines in her preface: that the nearly 200-year history of these nuns in the U.S. has been overlooked or suppressed by those who resented or disrespected them. "For far too long, scholars of the American, Catholic, and Black pasts have unconsciously or consciously declared -- by virtue of misrepresentation, marginalization, and outright erasure -- that the history of Black Catholic nuns does not matter," Williams writes, depicting her book as proof that their history "has always mattered." The book arrives as numerous American institutions, including religious groups, grapple with their racist pasts and shine a spotlight on their communities' overlooked Black pioneers. Williams begins her narrative in the pre-Civil War era when some Black women – even in slave-holding states – found their way into Catholic sisterhood. Some entered previously whites-only orders, often in subservient roles, while a few trailblazing women succeeded in forming orders for Black nuns in Baltimore and New Orleans. Even as the number of American nuns – of all races – shrinks relentlessly, that Baltimore order founded in 1829 remains intact, continuing its mission to educate Black youths. Some current members of the Oblate Sisters of Providence help run Saint Frances Academy, a high school serving low-income Black neighborhoods. Some of the most detailed passages in "Subversive Habits" recount the Jim Crow era, extending from the 1870s through the 1950s, when Black nuns were not spared from the segregation and discrimination endured by many other African Americans. In the 1960s, Williams writes, Black nuns were often discouraged or blocked by their white superiors from engaging in the civil rights struggle. Yet one of them, Sister Mary Antona Ebo, was on the front lines of marchers who gathered in Selma, Alabama, in 1965 in support of Black voting rights and in protest of the violence of Bloody Sunday when white state troopers brutally dispersed peaceful Black demonstrators. An Associated Press photo of Ebo and other nuns in the march on March 10 - three days after Bloody Sunday - ran on the front pages of many newspapers. During two decades before Selma, Ebo faced repeated struggles to break down racial barriers. At one point she was denied admittance to Catholic nursing schools because of her race, and later endured segregation policies at the white-led order of sisters she joined in St. Louis in 1946, according to Williams. The idea for "Subversive Habits" took shape in 2007, when Williams – then a graduate student at Rutgers University – was desperately seeking a compelling topic for a paper due in a seminar on African American history. At the library, she searched through microfilm editions of Black-owned newspapers and came across a 1968 article in the Pittsburgh Courier about a group of Catholic nuns forming the National Black Sisters' Conference. The accompanying photo, of four smiling Black nuns, "literally stopped me in my tracks," she said. "I was raised Catholic ... How did I not know that Black nuns existed?" Mesmerized by her discovery, she began devouring "everything I could that had been published about Black Catholic history," while setting out to interview the founding members of the National Black Sisters' Conference. Among the women Williams interviewed extensively was Patricia Grey, who was a nun in the Sisters of Mercy and a founder of the NBSC before leaving religious life in 1974. Grey shared with The Associated Press some painful memories from 1960, when – as an aspiring nurse – she was rejected for membership in a Catholic order because she was Black. "I was so hurt and disappointed, I couldn't believe it," she said about reading that rejection letter. "I remember crumbling it up and I didn't even want to look at it again or think about it again." Grey initially was reluctant to assist with "Subversive Habits," but eventually shared her own story and her personal archives after urging Williams to write about "the mostly unsung and under-researched history" of America's Black nuns. "If you can, try to tell all of our stories," Grey told her. Williams set out to do just that – scouring overlooked archives, previously sealed church records and out-of-print books, while conducting more than 100 interviews. "I bore witness to a profoundly unfamiliar history that disrupts and revises much of what has been said and written about the U.S. Catholic Church and the place of Black people within it," Williams writes. "Because it is impossible to narrate Black sisters' journey in the United States -- accurately and honestly -- without confronting the Church's largely unacknowledged and unreconciled histories of colonialism, slavery, and segregation." Historians have been unable to identify the nation's first Black Catholic nun, but Williams recounts some of the earliest moves to bring Black women into Catholic religious orders – in some cases on the expectation they would function as servants. One of the oldest Black sisterhoods, the Sisters of the Holy Family, formed in New Orleans in 1842 because white sisterhoods in Louisiana, including the slave-holding Ursuline order, refused to accept African Americans. The principal founder of that New Orleans order - Henriette Delille - and Oblate Sisters of Providence founder Mary Lange are among three Black nuns from the U.S. designated by Catholic officials as worthy of consideration for sainthood. The other is Sister Thea Bowman, a beloved educator, evangelist and singer who died in Mississippi in 1990 and is buried in Williams's hometown of Memphis. Researching less prominent nuns, Williams faced many challenges – for example tracking down Catholic sisters who were known to their contemporaries by their religious names but were listed in archives by their secular names. Among the many pioneers is Sister Cora Marie Billings, who as a 17-year-old in 1956 became the first Black person admitted into the Sisters of Mercy in Philadelphia. Later, she was the first Black nun to teach in a Catholic high school in Philadelphia and was a co-founder of the National Black Sisters' Conference. In 1990, Billings became the first Black woman in the U.S. to manage a Catholic parish when she was named pastoral coordinator for St. Elizabeth Catholic Church in Richmond, Virginia. "I've gone through many situations of racism and oppression throughout my life," Billings told The Associated Press. "But somehow or other, I've just dealt with it and then kept on going." According to recent figures from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, there are about 400 African American religious sisters, out of a total of roughly 40,000 nuns. That overall figure is only one-fourth of the 160,000 nuns in 1970, according to statistics compiled by Catholic researchers at Georgetown University. Whatever their races, many of the remaining nuns are elderly, and the influx of youthful novices is sparse. The Baltimore-based Oblate Sisters of Providence used to have more than 300 members, according to its superior general, Sister Rita Michelle Proctor, and now has less than 50 – most of them living at the motherhouse in Baltimore's outskirts. "Though we're small, we are still about serving God and God's people." Proctor said. "Most of us are elderly, but we still want to do so for as long as God is calling us to." Even with diminished ranks, the Oblate Sisters continue to operate Saint Frances Academy – founded in Baltimore by Mary Lange in 1828. The coed school is the country's oldest continually operating Black Catholic educational facility, with a mission prioritizing help for "the poor and the neglected." Williams, in an interview with the AP, said she was considering leaving the Catholic church – due partly to its handling of racial issues – at the time she started researching Black nuns. Hearing their histories, in their own voices, revitalized her faith, she said. "As these women were telling me their stories, they were also preaching to me in a such a beautiful way," Williams said. "It wasn't done in a way that reflected any anger -- they had already made their peace with it, despite the unholy discrimination they had faced." What keeps her in the church now, Williams said, is a commitment to these women who chose to share their stories. "It took a lot for them to get it out," she said. "I remain in awe of these women, of their faithfulness."
# Voices from the violent civil rights era see attacks on voting rights as part of ongoing struggle By Gary Fields June 8, 2023. 12:05 PM EST --- They are part of a small, vanishing group who lived at the epicenter of the struggle for voting rights six decades ago, an era driven by segregation, violence and the yearning for equality that eventually led to laws bringing the U.S. closer to its promise of democracy for all its citizens. They reflect on the times and their struggles, and why they are certain it all was worth it. On Thursday, a majority of the Supreme Court seemed to reinforce that view by siding with Black voters in a congressional redistricting case from Alabama. Ten years ago this month, the court halted what many consider the heart of that landmark law - the ability of the Justice Department to enforce it in states and counties with a history of voter suppression. The stories from those on the front lines of history recount tragedy, racism, oppression and ultimately hope in seeing a president sign into law a measure designed to ensure equal access to the ballot and fair representation in the halls of political power - from city councils to statehouses to Congress. Stephen Schwerner lost a brother, murdered in Mississippi trying to register Black people to vote. Nearly 60 years after the Voting Rights Act was signed, he remains immensely proud of his brother, Mickey Schwerner, but with a great sense of loss: "I don't think anybody in our family has ever gotten over it." Andrew Young walked with Martin Luther King Jr., on the long road to equality and was with him when he died in Memphis in 1968. Seeing the continued attempts to chip away at voting rights, he knows there are more battles to be fought: "I never thought that the United States or anybody else would be perfect, but I thought we would be constantly getting better." Luci Johnson was a teenager when she witnessed "one of the most historic occasions of the 20th century" - her father, former President Lyndon Johnson, signing the law ensuring access to the ballot for people of color. If she could convey a message to Supreme Court justices as they consider another challenge to the Voting Rights Act, it would be for them to remember "what a privilege they all have with access to the voting booth. I would tell them to do all that they can to make liberty and justice a right for all Americans." Joel Finkelstein was a young lawyer helping draft the document that became the Voting Rights Act of 1965, overwhelmed to be an accidental witness at the signing and yet unaware of the measure's magnitude. He remains hopeful, even as voting rights have been eroded over the past decade: "Somehow this country digs out of these messes with people who you never would expect would be there. Go look at 1860. We got Abraham Lincoln, a country lawyer, self-educated out of Illinois, and he became our greatest president, one of the wisest men we would ever have hold public office." Norman Hill moved from the protests over civil rights to the organization and political clout of the labor movement, where he helped build a groundswell for voting rights. Now in his ninth decade, Hill said the fight must continue, "not just today, not just tomorrow but as long as we live and breathe." Della Simpson Maynor was a teenager who pushed herself to the front of a protest in the small town of Marion, Alabama, and was terrified when police clubbed a pastor who was kneeling to pray. Police later struck her with a club as she tried to get away, and she would hear the gunshot from a state trooper that fatally wounded a young church deacon, Jimmie Lee Jackson. His death prompted a march starting in Selma, which would lead to one of the most violent days of the Civil Rights Movement, Bloody Sunday, when police beat protesters trying to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge: "Without Bloody Sunday, there would have been no voting rights. But without Jimmie Lee Jackson, there would have been no Bloody Sunday." Their voices echo across the past six decades, in searing debates over race, equal treatment and what it means to be an American citizen.
# The first Black woman in the Mississippi Legislature now has her portrait in the state Capitol By EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS February 13, 2024. 7:10 PM EST --- JACKSON, Miss. (AP) - Former Rep. Alyce Clarke was the first Black woman elected to the Mississippi Legislature, and now she is the first Black person - and first woman - to have a portrait on display in the state Capitol. She smiled Tuesday as fellow lawmakers, friends and supporters honored her during a ceremony to unveil the oil painting, which has a prominent spot in the room where the House Education Committee meets. Clarke, an 84-year-old Democrat from Jackson, served 39 years before deciding not to seek reelection in 2023. "Thank God, I've had more good days than I've had bad days," she said during a ceremony. "And I'd just like to thank everybody who's here. I'd like to help everybody who's helped me to get here because I did nothing by myself." Other portraits in the Mississippi Capitol are of former governors and former House speakers, who were all white men. The artist, Ryan Mack, said he based the portrait on a photo of Clarke from the mid-1980s. "I'm a true believer and witness of the good she has done," Mack said, citing her work on education and nutrition programs. The first Black man to win a seat in the Mississippi Legislature in the 20th century was Robert Clark, no relation, a Democrat from Ebenezer who was elected to the House in 1967. He retired in December 2003, and a state government building in downtown Jackson was named for him the following year. Alyce Clarke won a March 1985 special election, and another Black woman, Democrat Alice Harden of Jackson, won a seat in the Mississippi Senate two years later. Several other Black women have since been elected to Mississippi's 122-member House and 52-member Senate, but women remain a small minority in both chambers. Clarke pushed early in her legislative career to establish Born Free, a drug and alcohol treatment center for pregnant women. In the 1990s, she led an effort to establish Mississippi's first drug courts, which provide supervision, drug testing and treatment services to help keep people out of prison. She was instrumental in establishing a state lottery. Clarke filed lottery bills for 19 years before legislators voted in 2018 to create a lottery to help pay for highways. The House and Senate named the legislation the Alyce G. Clarke Mississippi Lottery Law. When lottery tickets went on sale in 2019, Clarke bought the ceremonial first ticket at a Jackson convenience store. Democratic Rep. Robert Johnson of Natchez said Tuesday that Clarke was persistent in seeking support for her alma mater, Alcorn State University. He recalled meeting with a legislative leader about university funding, and he knew Clarke would ask if he had advocated for the historically Black school. "I opened the door and came out, and who is standing outside the door? Ms. Clarke," Johnson said. "I'm going to tell you: The city of Jackson, the drug courts, the lottery and Alcorn State University - nobody had a better champion than Alyce Clarke."
# Ed Dwight was to be the first Black astronaut. At 90, he's finally getting his due By JAKE COYLE February 9, 2024. 10:09 AM EST --- NEW YORK (AP) - Ed Dwight grew up in segregated 1930s Kansas on a farm on the edge of town. An airfield was within walking distance, and, as a boy, he'd often go to marvel at the planes and gawk at the pilots. Most were flying back from hunting trips and their cabins were messy with blood and empty beers cans on the floor. "They'd say to me, 'Hey kid, would you clean my airplane? I'll give you a dime,'" Dwight, 90, recalls. But when he was 8 or 9, Dwight asked for more than a dime. He wanted to fly. "My first flight was the most exhilarating thing in the world," says Dwight, smiling. "There were no streets or stop signs up there. You were free as a bird." It would be years before Dwight entertained the idea of himself becoming a pilot. "It was the white man's domain," he says. But while in college, he saw in a newspaper, above the fold, an image of a downed Black pilot in Korea. "I said, 'Oh my God, they're letting Black people fly,'" Dwight says. "I went straight to the recruitment office and said, 'I want to fly.'" With that decision, Dwight set in motion a series of events that would very nearly lead to him being among the first astronauts. As Dwight progressed through the Air Force, he was handpicked by President John F. Kennedy's White House to join Chuck Yeager's test pilot program at Edwards Air Force Base in California's Mojave Desert. That fabled astronaut breeding ground, site of "The Right Stuff," might have turned Dwight into one of the most famous Americans and the first Black man in space. But at Edwards, Dwight was discriminated against even with Kennedy championing him. After Kennedy was assassinated, Dwight's path to NASA disappeared and he was never selected for the space program. Dwight departed for civilian life and largely receded from history. But in recent years, Dwight is finally being celebrated. The new National Geographic documentary "The Space Race," which premieres Monday on National Geographic Channels and streams Tuesday on Disney+ and Hulu, chronicles the stories of Black astronauts - and their first pioneer, Dwight. "When I left, everyone said, 'Well, that's over. We got rid of that dude. He's off the map,'" Dwight said in an interview by Zoom from his home in Denver. "Now it comes back full force as one of these I-didn't-know stories. It's almost amusing to me that all this furor could come up. But I'm kind of glad it did because something happened here." It wasn't until 1983 that the first African American, Guion Bluford, reached space. But two decades earlier, Dwight found himself at a fulcrum of 20th Century America, where the space race and the struggle for social justice converged. In "The Space Race," astronaut Bernard Harris, who became the first Black man to walk in space in 1995, contemplates what a difference it might have made if Dwight had become an astronaut in the tumultuous '60s. "Space really allows us to realize the hope that's within all of us as human beings," Harris says. "So to see a Black man in space during that period in time, it would have changed things." "Ed is so important for everyone who's followed after, to recognize and embrace the shoulders they stand on," says Lisa Cortés, who directed the film with Diego Hurtado de Mendoza . "There's the history we know and the history that's not had the opportunity to be highlighted." Dwight had experience at a young age with that. His father, known as Eddie Dwight, played in the Negro Leagues for the Kansas City Monarchs. He remembers sitting on Satchel Paige's lap as a child - just one more connection to history running through Dwight's life. In 1957, when the Soviet Union launched Sputnik into orbit, it jolted its Cold War rival into action; NASA was formed the following year. But Dwight still wasn't thinking about becoming an astronaut. "Not in the slightest," he says. "I thought these dudes going into space was the craziest thing I had ever heard in my life." But as the U.S. began pursuing a space program, political leaders were conscious of the image its astronauts could project of American democracy. The first astronauts, the Mercury Seven, were all male and white. In September 1961, Edward R. Murrow, then Director of the U.S. Information Agency, wrote to NASA administrator James Webb. "Why don't we put the first non-white man in space?" wrote Murrow. "If your boys were to enroll and train a qualified Negro and then fly him in whatever vehicle is available, we could retell our whole space effort to whole non-white world, which is most of it." When the Aerospace Research Pilot School was established that November, the White House urged the Air Force to select a Black officer. Only Dwight met the criteria, which included 1,500 hours of flying jet airplanes, a bachelor's degree in science or engineering (Dwight graduated with an aeronautical engineering degree from Arizona State University in 1957) and three consecutive "outstanding" ratings from military superiors. That November, Dwight received a letter out of the blue inviting him to train to be an astronaut. Kennedy called his parents to congratulate them. "And I thought, 'Hell no.' Why in the world would I ruin a wonderful, career to go and hang out with these guys didn't know what the hell they were doing at the beginning?" says Dwight. "NASA was only two-years-old and they were talking about putting a Black guy in space?" But he joined up. While at Edwards, Dwight was celebrated on the covers of Black magazines like Jet and Sepia. Hundred of letters hailing him as a hero poured in. But in training, he was treated with hostility by officers who resented his inclusion in the program and the White House's involvement. "They were all instructed to give me the cold shoulder," Dwight says. "Yeager had a meeting with the students and the staff in the auditorium and announced it - that Washington was trying to shove this N-word down our throats." Dwight describes one incident when he was the only pilot sent out to fly when film producers, along with Jimmy Stewart, came to the base to film the officers. He recounts private sessions with Yaeger "telling me how good the white guys were and how I shouldn't be there." "All that kind of stuff didn't really bother me," Dwight says. "The mission was the main thing. What people didn't know was that I was being handled out of the West Wing of the White House the whole time I was there. Either every day or every other day: 'How's it going? What's happening? What do you need?'" Yeager, who died in 2020, maintained Dwight simply wasn't as good as the other pilots. In his autobiography, Yeager wrote: "From the moment we picked our first class, I was caught in a buzz saw of controversy involving a black student. The White House, Congress, and civil rights groups came at me with meat cleavers, and the only way I could save my head was to prove I wasn't a damned bigot." The tensions were also described in Tom Wolfe's "The Right Stuff." "Every week, it seemed like, a detachment of Civil Rights Division lawyers would turn up from Washington, from the Justice Department, which was headed by the president's brother, Bobby," wrote Wolfe. "The lawyers squinted in the desert sunlight and asked a great many questions about the progress and treatment of Ed Dwight and took notes." Dwight was among the 26 potential astronauts recommended to NASA by the Air Force. But in 1963, he wasn't among the 14 selected. Dwight astronaut future took a more drastic turn when Kennedy was assassinated on Nov. 22, 1963. "Everybody was wondering, 'What's going to happen with Dwight?'" says Dwight. "Everything changed." Kennedy was killed on a Friday. By Monday, Dwight says, he had papers in his mailbox shipping him out to Germany. He quickly met with Bobby Kennedy in Washington, who had the Pentagon cancel those orders. A day after that, he had papers sending him to Canada. Ultimately, Dwight was stationed at Wright-Patterson in Ohio in January of 1964. He graduated the program and totaled some 9,000 hours of air time, but never became an astronaut. He left the Air Force in 1966. Asked if he was bitter about his experience, Dwight exclaims, "God no!" "Here you get a little 5-foot-four guy who flies airplanes and the next thing you know this guy is in the White House meeting all these senators and congressmen, standing in front of all these captains of industry and have them pat me on the back and shake my hand," Dwight says. "Are you kidding me? What would I be bitter about? That opened the world to me." Dwight initially landed at IBM, then he started a construction company. In 1977, he earned his Master of Fine Arts in Sculpture from the University of Denver. Much of his work is of great figures from Black history such as Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington and Barack Obama. Several of his sculptures have been flown into space, most recently one aboard the vessel Orion. NASA named an asteroid after him. To the Black astronauts who followed in his footsteps, Dwight braved their path. "When you talk to the other astronauts, it's never about them. They all want to make sure you understand that for them to do their job, they needed the people who came before and paved the way for them," says Hurtado de Mendoza. "For them, it was really important to include Ed in the story. They all had a story of when they first met Ed Dwight or the first time they heard about Ed Dwight." Dwight, with a little bemusement at how fate has worked out, acknowledges he's proud to be considered a pioneer for Black astronauts. "It's good for them in that they didn't have to go through this crap that I went through. It was a goddamn distraction. It's like wanting to have eyes in the back of your head for all the stuff that was coming at you. I had to absorb that graciously," Dwight says. "If I talked about it - 'Oh, crybaby! You couldn't do this and you couldn't do that.' That's what would have happened if I stepped up to the mic and complained." But complaining wasn't Dwight's nature then, and it isn't now, either. He's not even mad at Yeager. "This guy was being honest to what he was trained to do. The structure of his life, his culture, his personality, all were implanted in Chuck when he was a kid. He didn't know anything about social liberalism. It was foreign to this man," Dwight says. He adds: "That doesn't make what they were doing right." Instead, Dwight is filled with gratitude. His one recommendation is that every congressman and senator be flown on a sub-orbital flight so they can see the Earth from above. Everyone, he thinks, would realize the absurdity of racism from that height. "I'd advise everybody to go through what I went through, and then they'd have a different view of this country and how sacred it is," Dwight says. "We're on this little ball flying around the galaxy."
# National Republican party sides with former Rep. Pete Hoekstra in battle over Michigan GOP chair By JOEY CAPPELLETTI February 15, 2024. 9:50 AM EST --- LANSING, Mich. (AP) - Former Congressman Pete Hoekstra has been officially recognized by the national Republican party as the Michigan GOP chairman in a vote that also affirmed that Kristina Karamo was properly removed from the position earlier this year. The decision was made Wednesday following a unanimous vote by the executive committee of the Republican National Committee, or RNC, to recognize Hoekstra as chair and confirm his status as a voting member of the national party. Some members of the Michigan GOP had coalesced last month to vote Karamo out of the position, a result that she has refused to accept. Since then, dueling factions have claimed to control the state party. Donald Trump had endorsed Hoekstra for the position over Karamo, a once loyal supporter of the former president, whom he previously endorsed in 2022 for Michigan's secretary of state position. Karamo was elected last February to lead the Michigan Republican Party through the 2024 presidential election after losing her secretary of state race by over 14 percentage points. The RNC's decision comes less than two weeks before the state holds its presidential primary and in a year where Michigan Republicans are desperate to win back some power after historic losses in 2022. "We must put our nose to the grindstone over the next several months and focus on party unit to secure a red-wave victory in November," said Hoekstra in a statement following the RNC decision. Hoekstra added that Karamo should "end her misinformation campaign" and "join the fight to re-elect Donald Trump rather than dividing this Party." Hoekstra served as a U.S. representative from 1993 until 2011 and acted as the United States ambassador to the Netherlands under Trump. "Pete will make the Republican Party of Michigan great again and has my complete and total endorsement to be its chairman," Trump wrote on social media on Jan. 26. While the RNC's ruling gives Hoekstra some legitimacy to the position, a final ruling is expected to come in the courts. Karamo has repeatedly said that the RNC had no legal authority in the fight over the chair position and that she would not concede without a court ruling. Karamo did not immediately respond to an email requesting comment on the RNC's decision. Some of Karamo's critics have sued her and asked a judge to resolve the dispute. A hearing on Karamo's motion to dismiss the case is set for February 20. In January, close to half of the Michigan GOP's voting members came together to vote Karamo out as chair, citing fundraising woes and months of infighting. Eight of the state party's 13 congressional district chairs had called on Karamo to resign and her co-chair, Malinda Pego, aided the effort to remove her. Republicans in Michigan are hoping to win an open U.S. Senate seat this year in addition to multiple competitive House races. Control of the Michigan House, which is currently deadlocked at 54-54 after two seats were vacated by Democrats, will also be up for grabs this year.
# Cyberattacks on hospitals are likely to increase, putting lives at risk, experts warn By AMANDA SEITZ February 14, 2024. 11:44 AM EST --- WASHINGTON (AP) - Cybersecurity experts are warning that hospitals around the country are at risk for attacks like the one that is crippling operations at a premier Midwestern children's hospital, and that the U.S. government is doing too little prevent such breaches. Hospitals in recent years have shifted their use of online technology to support everything from telehealth to medical devices to patient records. Today, they are a favorite target for internet thieves who hold systems' data and networks hostage for hefty ransoms, said John Riggi, the American Hospital Association's cybersecurity adviser. "Unfortunately, the unintended consequence of the use of all this network and internet connected technology is it expanded our digital attack surface," Riggi said. "So, many more opportunities for bad guys to penetrate our networks." The assailants often operate from American adversaries such as Russia, North Korea and Iran, where they enjoy big payouts from their victims and face little prospect of ever being punished. In November, a ransomware attack on a health care chain that operates 30 hospitals and 200 health facilities in the United States forced doctors to divert patients from emergency rooms and postpone elective surgeries. Meanwhile, a rural Illinois hospital announced it was permanently closing last year because it couldn't recover financially from a cyberattack. And hackers went as far as posting photos and patient information of breast cancer patients who were receiving treatment at a Pennsylvania health network after the system was hacked last year. Now, one of the top children's hospitals in the country, the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago, has been forced to put its phone, email and medical record systems offline as it battles a cyberattack. The FBI has said it is investigating. Brett Callow, an analyst for the cybersecurity firm Emsisoft, counted 46 cyberattacks on hospitals last year, compared with 25 in 2022. The paydays for criminals have gotten bigger too, with the average payout jumping from $5,000 in 2018 to $1.5 million last year. "Unless governments do something more meaningful, more significant than they have done to date, it's inevitable that it'll get worse," Callow said. Callow believes the government should ban cyberattack victims such as hospitals, local governments and schools from paying ransoms. "There's so much money being paid into the ransomware system now there's no way the problem is going to simply go away on itself," he said. The dramatic increase in these online raids has prompted the nation's top health agency to develop new rules for hospitals to protect themselves from cyber threats. The Department of Health and Human Services said it will rewrite the rules for the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act -– the federal law commonly called HIPPA that requires insurers and health systems to protect patient information – to include new provisions that address cybersecurity later this year. The department is also considering new cybersecurity requirements attached to hospitals' Medicaid and Medicare funding. "The more prepared we are the better," said Deputy Secretary Andrea Palm. But, she added, some hospitals will struggle to protect themselves. She is worried about rural hospitals, for example, that may have difficulty cobbling together money to properly update their cybersecurity. HHS wants more money from Congress to tackle the issue, but Palm said the agency doesn't have a precise dollar amount its seeking. "It's important to note that this has to come with resources," Palm said. "We can't set the industry up not to be able to meet requirements." Becoming the victim of a cyberattack is costly, too. The attacks can put hospitals' networks offline for weeks or months, forcing hospitals to turn away patients. In Chicago, Lurie hospital's network has been offline for two weeks. The hospital, which served more than 260,000 patients last year, has established a separate call center for patients' needs and resumed some care. On Thursday, Lurie's surgeons operated on Jason Castillo's 7-month-old daughter mostly by hand, without some of the high-tech devices usually used. His daughter's planned heart surgery was postponed on Jan. 31, when the hospital found itself under cyber siege. The surgeon talked to Castillo before his daughter was wheeled in for a six-hour surgery, promising that he felt confident he could do the procedure despite the ongoing cyberattack. "She's doing fantastic," Castillo said of his daughter, who is now recovering at home. "It feels like a huge cloud has been lifted from our household." Even once Lurie has restored their network, it'll likely take months of behind-the-scenes work for the hospital to fully rebound, Callow said. "These incidents can affect everything from patient care to payroll," Callow said. "Fully recovering can take months, it's not simply a matter of flicking a switch and everything comes back on."
# Biden allies, rivals both want transcript of his special counsel interview released. It could happen By COLLEEN LONG, ZEKE MILLER, and ERIC TUCKER February 14, 2024. 7:38 PM EST --- WASHINGTON (AP) - President Joe Biden avoided criminal charges around his handling of classified documents in part because of his answers during a lengthy interview with the special counsel investigating him. But the sit-down also opened Biden up to fresh scrutiny over his age and memory, and now the public release of a transcript of that discussion is being sought by both Biden allies and critics seeking political advantage. The five-hour interview over two days, led by special counsel Robert Hur, helped establish that Biden didn't intend to retain most of the sensitive records from his vice presidency that were found at his home and personal office. But Hur's report also repeatedly impugned Biden's memory in a deeply personal way, suggesting, for example, the president couldn't remember when his own son had died. The transcript, if released, could provide a fuller picture of the conversation. The White House has the ultimate say over whether to make public the transcript or audio recording of the interview or to claim executive privilege and keep the interview private. There's precedent for documents related to White House investigations to ultimately become public - but also to be withheld. A transcript of President Bill Clinton's 1998 grand jury appearance related to allegations of a sexual relationship with intern Monica Lewinsky was included as part of Independent Counsel Ken Starr's massive report, which was delivered to the House and subsequently released to the public by Congress following a vote. The Starr team debated extensively how much to disclose in the report, mindful of the graphic and sensitive nature of the findings, said Robert Bittman, who served as a Starr deputy during the investigation. Recognizing that it was ultimately up to the House to decide what to public public, the team gave "all the information (to Congress) that we had so they can make their own decisions." President George W. Bush, on the other hand, invoked executive privilege to block Congress from seeing the FBI report of an interview with Vice President Dick Cheney and other records related to the administration's leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity in 2003. The move angered Congress. Bittman said he did not think it was "necessarily a good thing" for investigative reports to be made public. But now that the Hur report has been disclosed, he said, it would be helpful to release the transcript of Biden's interview "so that people can judge for themselves about whether Hur's opinions about what President Biden said and what he remembered and what he didn't remember is justified." "If you see that the White House objects to it, it probably suggests that the transcripts are not good for the White House," Bittman said, "and if they support release of it, then I suspect that that suggests the transcripts are good for the White House or President Biden." The White House is weighing whether or not to release it. Biden's interview text and the audio recording are classified, because they include a discussion of highly sensitive documents. Any potential release could happen either by a decision of the White House or through the Justice Department working to comply with congressional oversight requests. Both would follow nearly identical procedures. Once a decision to pursue release of the interview was made, the sensitive parts of the document would be sent to the intelligence community to assess what could be declassified and what would need to be redacted. A further review would be warranted to determine if anything discussed about the security of the president's home might impact protective measures. Finally, the White House would need to weigh in, with the advice of the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel, on whether to recommend that Biden invoke executive privilege over what others had cleared for publication. Though Biden didn't invoke executive privilege over the full report, the transcript could well be a different story. Among the documents found in Biden's home were records of deliberations over a potential U.S. troop surge during the Afghanistan war and other conversations within the White House - an area that presidents are particularly loath to have publicly discussed. The interview with Biden was conducted over two days last October, right after Hamas' brutal attack on Israel. Hur and his deputy, Marc Krickbaum, a former Trump-appointed U.S. attorney from Iowa, asked all of the questions. Biden was joined by White House Counsel Ed Siskel, the counsel's office investigations leader Richard Sauber and the president's personal lawyer Bob Bauer. Several other individuals from both sides were in the room as well, according to a person familiar with the interviews who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss them. Separately, House Republicans have reached out to Hur and his representatives on the possibility of Hur testifying before Congress, and he has expressed a willingness to do so, according to two people who were not authorized to speak publicly about the request and spoke on condition of anonymity. Republicans and Democrats alike are interested in more complete details about what went into the report. Biden and his allies say a full transcript would show the president is mentally sharp and will prove that Hur cherry-picked moments solely to make him seem feeble. Biden's attorneys raised their concerns to Attorney General Merrick Garland, who nonetheless decided to keep the report as is and made it public. Bauer, speaking on CBS's "Face the Nation" over the weekend, offered an anecdote that didn't make it into the report but that would be in a transcript. He said Hur acknowledged that sometimes he asked imprecise questions - ones that Biden picked apart. "Now, everybody in the room recognized that was the case, that showed the president was listening carefully and understood precisely what was wrong with those questions," Bauer said. "I didn't come away from the special counsel's failure to ask precise questions and think to myself, 'he has mental acuity problems,' I just thought he was asking bad questions." Republicans, meanwhile, have also requested that the audio of the interviews be made public and want to know more on why Hur chose not to prosecute Biden, particularly when they noted in their report that some evidence showed he held onto and shared with a ghostwriter highly classified information. Hur said in his report that he did find evidence that Biden had willfully mishandled classified records but not enough evidence for a criminal prosecution like the one against former President Donald Trump. Trump, in addition to being charged with intentionally hoarding top-secret documents after he left office, is also accused of obstructing FBI efforts to get them back and of asking staff to conceal evidence from investigators. Biden and his team, by contrast, alerted law enforcement officials after locating classified records, willingly handed over documents to the government and cooperated with investigators by allowing the FBI to search his properties for any additional files. Those voluntary searches stand apart from the FBI's search of Trump's Mar-a-Lago property in 2022, which was done after the FBI got a warrant for the home when it determined that additional classified records were being hidden there. Trump has denied any wrongdoing.
# Palestinians living in US will be shielded from deportation, the White House says By COLLEEN LONG February 14, 2024. 5:41 PM EST --- WASHINGTON (AP) - The White House on Wednesday announced that Palestinians living in the U.S. will be shielded from deportation as the Israel-Hamas war continues, citing "significantly deteriorated" conditions on the ground in Gaza. Palestinians will be covered under what's known as "deferred enforced departure," an authority used at a president's discretion. The directive signed by President Joe Biden effectively allows Palestinian immigrants who would otherwise have to leave the United States to stay without the threat of deportation. That protection will last 18 months, national security adviser Jake Sullivan said, and will give Palestinians who qualify a "temporary safe haven." "While I remain focused on improving the humanitarian situation, many civilians remain in danger," Biden wrote in the memorandum that accompanied the announcement. Biden's decision comes after more than 100 Democratic lawmakers called on the White House to use either deferred enforced departure or a similar authority, called temporary protected status, to ensure that Palestinians currently in the United States would not be forced to return to dangerous conditions in Gaza. "More than 28,000 Palestinians - including thousands of women and children - have been killed in the last four months in Gaza," Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., who led the effort from congressional Democrats, said Wednesday. "Today's decision by the Administration protects Palestinians in the United States from being forced to return to these clearly dangerous and deadly conditions." Palestinians who have been convicted of felonies or "otherwise deemed to pose a public safety threat" do not qualify, Sullivan said. Those who decide to voluntarily return home would also lose any protections from deportation. The president is facing increasing backlash from Arab Americans and progressives for his full-throated support of Israel since the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas, although Biden has insisted he is trying to minimize civilian casualties. More than 27,000 people, mostly women and minors, have been killed in Gaza since Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-ruled territory. Hamas killed more than 1,200 people and kidnapped about 250 more, mostly civilians, in its attack. It's not immediately clear how many Palestinians would be affected by the deferred departure designation, but the number would be small. According to the November letter from lawmakers, there were roughly 7,241 nonimmigrant visas issued to Palestinians in 2022, the most recent year for which data was available, though that isn't an exact correlation to the number of people who would be eligible. The designation is not a specific immigration status, but those covered under the policy aren't subject to deportation. Eligibility requirements are based on terms set by Biden. Others right now included under the same policy are people from Liberia and Hong Kong.
# Sean Wang made a home movie. Now, he and his grandmothers are going to the Oscars By JAKE COYLE February 15, 2024. 7:27 AM EST --- NEW YORK (AP) - Sean Wang's two grandmothers live together. They read the newspaper together. They dance together. They sleep in the same bed and complain about each other's farts. The older of the two, Yi Yan Fuei, is 96. The younger, Chang Li Hua, is 86. They're in-laws but they act more like sisters. When Wang, their 29-year-old grandson, was getting into filmmaking, one of the first he made was a short where Yi and Chang feed him blueberries. When Sean refuses, they kill him and bury him in the backyard. Wang kept shooting them in their Bay Area home, especially after he moved back in with his nearby mom during the pandemic. They got accustomed to his camera being around. But they never thought it would lead to the Academy Awards. "Nǎi Nai and Wài Pó," Wang's deeply charming portrait of his grandmothers, is nominated for best documentary short at the Academy Awards. In it, Wang films Yi and Chang going about their daily lives with bits of playfulness mixed in. They arm wrestle. They play dress-up. They watch "Superbad." But mostly, "Nǎi Nai and Wài Pó," which translates as maternal grandmother and paternal grandmother in Mandarin, captures the joy of two spirited ladies in older age as they occasionally chide their grandson's attempts to turn them into movie stars. "When you first asked us to be movie stars, we were like, 'This must be a joke,'" Chang says in an interview by Zoom alongside Yi, with Wang joining from Los Angeles. "But now that we made this movie and it's going to the Oscars, we do kind of feel like movie stars. Now that this whole experience has happened, we do feel a little prettier." When Oscar nominations were announced last month, it wasn't Bradley Cooper's or Emma Stone's reactions that went viral. It was the celebration, caught on video, of Yi and Chang, with Wang, his mom and producer Sam Davis standing over them. In the film, which is streaming on Disney+, Yi and Chang reflect on mortality and the essential things in life. "As long as I have the newspaper, I can live," says Yi in the film, with magnifying glass in hand. Now, they're in the news, themselves. "Every day I open the newspaper and if I got to see you, that'd be amazing," Yi tells Wang, who, after translating, shrugged: "I don't think we've made it into the Taiwanese newspapers yet." A prominent news story a few years ago partly inspired Wang to make the movie. During the pandemic, when Asian and Asian-American hate crimes were escalating, he saw his grandmothers as a perfect antidote to the hateful stereotyping that followed COVID-19. At the same time, the short, which premiered last year at SXSW, was meant to essentially just be a simple home movie. "That's kind of why we made this movie," Wang says. "It's just so we could have this recollection, this time capsule that captures the essence of these two women. Long after they've passed away, we can have some sort of memento to remember what their lives were like." Yi and Chang both grew up in poverty in wartime Taiwan. Their vivacious attitude ("Doesn't matter if we know how to dance," Chang says in the film. "We'll shake our hips.") is a conscious reaction to hardship they've experienced. In the film, Chang notes that days spent sad pass the same as those spent happy. "So I'm going to choose joy." "There was so much pain in our childhoods," Chang says now, tearing up. "Our late lives are so much more fortunate than what we experienced when we were young. And then to be surrounded by our family, there's so much more joy around us than when we were young." That includes Wang who, when not brightening the days of his grandmothers, has emerged as one of the breakthrough filmmakers of the year. At the same time that "Nǎi Nai and Wài Pó" was landing its Oscar nomination, Wang's feature film directorial debut, "Dìdi," was a sensation at the Sundance Film Festival. At Sundance, "Dìdi," a semi-autobiographical coming-of-age comedy about a teenage Taiwanese American skater kid growing up in Los Angeles, won the U.S Dramatic Audience Award and the special jury award for best ensemble cast – a cast that includes Chang as the mother-in-law. Focus acquired the film, the title of which can mean both "little brother" or a term of endearment for a family's youngest son in Mandarin. "Surreal and bonkers," Wang says of the twin successes. "To have these spotlights on global platforms for these stories that come from such a deep personal place is bonkers." A through line for Wang in his rapidly unfolding filmography is family. An earlier short of his, "3,000 Miles," tenderly stitches together voicemails left by his mother while Wang was living in New York. It concludes sweetly in their reunion. To Wang, his role as a filmmaker is to consider his strongest emotions – and more often than not, those feelings are connected to family. "Making films about my family helps me bridge the gap in my life as a human - seeing my mom not just as my mom or my grandmother not just as my grandmother but as people," Wang says. "I'm still learning to bridge that gap." Now, Wang's family life will converge, of all places, at the Academy Awards. "We're going to the Oscars and I'm going with my grandmas," Wang says, smiling. "It's just, like, a sentence I never thought I would say." For their part, Yi and Chang describe their feelings about attending the Oscars with their grandson in excited unison. "Wonderful! Wonderful!" they shout in English. Asked who they're looking forward to meeting, Chang considers for a moment. "Will Ang Lee be there?" she says. But amid their disbelief, Chang and Yi think there's an important lesson to be found in the success of "Nǎi Nai and Wài Pó" that doesn't have to do with them, but in the grandson behind the camera. Even if the film concludes with Chang cursing Wang as a "freakin' brat." "I want people to realize, especially parents: Don't force your children to walk the path that you want them to walk," Yi says. "Encourage them and support them in their interests, and be open to the paths that they're naturally gravitating towards. Try to water those seeds." Yi and Chang have become famous enough that casting directors have reached out to Wang about other movies. Wang recently relayed an audition offer to Chang for a film shooting in New York. She said she'd have to read the script first. Says Wang: "They're offer only."
# Franklin from 'Peanuts' gets to shine in the spotlight of a new animated Apple TV+ special By MARK KENNEDY February 14, 2024. 9:47 AM EST --- NEW YORK (AP) - The mild-mannered Franklin - the first Black character in the "Peanuts" comic strip - gets to shine in his own animated Apple TV+ special this month in a story about friendship. Franklin is a newcomer who bonds with Charlie Brown and is welcomed to the Peanuts universe in "Snoopy Presents: Welcome Home, Franklin," which premieres on Friday. Co-writer Robb Armstrong, the cartoonist behind the "Jump Start" strip., says he's building on the blueprints that "Peanuts" creator Charles Schulz left. "Whenever you start with good ingredients, you have to work hard to make a bad cake out of it," he says. Race is never explicitly mentioned but Armstrong and co-writer Scott Montgomery make a subtle nod when Franklin surveys the kids in his new town and remarks, "One thing was for sure: There was a lack of variety in this place." "I never wanted to come off preachy or anything, but it needed to be handled in the same way that I handled it in 'Jump Start,'" says Armstrong. "I don't come out and call people anything. I let the characters participate in a problem solving process." The portrait of Franklin that emerges is of a boy who likes baseball and outer space, is good with his hands and listens to Stevie Wonder, Little Richard, James Brown and John Coltrane. When he arrives in town, he's tired of a life constantly moving, since his father's military job takes them from location to location. "I have lived in lot of different places but none that I can call home," he says. But his introduction to the "Peanuts" gang initially goes poorly. He mistakes Lucy's psychiatric booth for a lemonade stand and he freaks Linus out by picking a pumpkin from his patch. "If I didn't know better, I'd swear I was in 'The Twilight Zone,'" Franklin says. "Every time he's moved, he's had to learn how to make friends quick and that meant that he didn't feel he could ever be his authentic self," said director and story editor Raymond S. Persi. "So when he comes to this town, his normal tricks don't work because these are kind of weird kids." Franklin made his first appearance in the newspaper strip on July 31, 1968, prompted by a request from a school teacher for Schulz to integrate his comic strip world in the wake of the assassination of The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Schulz introduced him by having Franklin return Charlie Brown's wayward beach ball one day by the sea. It was a historical meeting and a statement: Many public beaches, like other public facilities such as schools, swimming pools, theaters and restaurants, were segregated at the time. The new Apple TV+ special recreates that first meeting, with Franklin returning Charlie Brown's errant beach ball and then the two building a sandcastle together. "To have this very simple idea of two children who don't know about racism, having fun playing at the beach, building something together, I think was just so smart," said Persi. Franklin and Charlie Brown soon enter a soap box derby competition and their friendship is tested before a deep bond is forged. "They're not perfect. I'm not perfect. But we can get through the rough spots together, as friends," Franklin says. "What I really like about the special is you're getting a chance to see this friendship kind of grow in real time, in the way that real friendships do," says Persi, who has directed animated projects with "The Simpsons," Mickey Mouse and the Minions. As usual for a "Peanuts" show, music plays a key role. Original music by Jeff Morrow leans into sophisticated jazz and, in nods to Franklin, Berry's "Johnny B. Goode," "Nothing from Nothing" by Billy Preston and some Coltrane playing on a jukebox. Armstrong has also used the special to correct some misperceptions about the 1973 classic "A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving." In that special, Franklin sits by himself on one side of the Thanksgiving table, leading some to suggest he's not been fully embraced. In the new special, Franklin is specifically asked to come sit with his new pals on their side during a pizza party celebration. Armstrong says he started with that scene and then had to figure out how the gang got there. The writers came up with a soap box derby. "We needed something that was very highly action-oriented and packed with great risk. It had to be a competition," Armstrong says. The special has plenty of lessons for kids and adults - winning isn't everything, friendships can be messy but rewarding and be your authentic self. "What I'd like people to get out of it is that you don't have to be something different for other people. Being yourself is what's going to bring the right people into your lives," says Persi. Armstrong, who grew up revering Schulz, has a deep connection to Franklin. He became a cartoonist and a friend to Schulz. It was Schulz himself who asked the younger cartoonist if he would lend his last name to the character. So to have him years later spotlight Franklin in a TV special seems almost divine intervention. "Sometimes a miracle happens," says Armstrong. "If someone's got a better answer, I'd love to hear it. I'm just convinced that sometimes God gets involved. And this is that."

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