RELATED: ‘I was freaking out’: Parents shocked after semi slams rear end of school bus carrying kindergartners | ‘Could have been much worse’: Bystanders grateful no one critically hurt when semi smashes back of school bus

A semi-truck slammed into the back of the bus while it was carrying about 30 students across train tracks on Zoo Parkway, Duval County Public Schools said. Four children were injured and taken to the hospital, and one of those families has retained Sam Hartiens, an associate attorney at Campione Law, to investigate the crash and potential claims.

“This is something that you would never expect to happen here in Jacksonville,” Hartiens said. “Once we heard what was going on, this was something that we elected to pursue just because we do specialize in catastrophic cases.”

Hartiens said the child he’s representing is out of the hospital.

“...we are monitoring them for the condition,” he said. “They’re likely needing follow-up care.”

Now, the investigation process begins in trying to gather evidence pertaining to the truck driver.

“The main investigation is trying to figure out what caused this truck to go into the back of the bus,” he said. “Were they distracted? Was there something that didn’t work that should have worked? There’s a lot of questions and more than answers right now.”

Hartiens also described extensive damage from the crash and said the physical evidence will be important to resolving the case.

“It’s really significant, with a lot of force going through it,” he said.

Florida law requires drivers of school buses and certain other passenger or cargo vehicles to stop no closer than 15 feet and no farther than 50 feet from the nearest rail and to look and listen for approaching trains before crossing. It was not immediately clear whether those rules were followed by the bus or the truck.

The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office and Duval County Public Schools did not immediately respond to requests for comment or the crash report. News4JAX knocked on nearby doors of neighbors who may know of the parents and students impacted by this.

The family’s attorney said he will review all available evidence as the investigation continues.

“It seems very intense, not a small little fender bender or a love tap on the back,” Hartiens said. “It’s really significant with a lot of force going through it.”

The downing marked a major escalation in the conflict just two days after President Donald Trump said in a national address that the U.S. has “beaten and completely decimated Iran” and was “going to finish the job, and we're going to finish it very fast.”

The rescue occurred as the U.S. military was conducting a search operation, a U.S. official and an Israeli official said. Three people familiar also confirmed that a search had been underway. All spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitivity of the situation.

No official details were released. The Pentagon notified the House Armed Services Committee that the status of a second service member is not known.

The circumstances that downed the plane were at first unclear. But in an email from the Pentagon obtained by The Associated Press, the U.S. military said it received notification of “an aircraft being shot down” in the Middle East, without providing more details.

Separately, a second U.S. Air Force combat aircraft went down in the Middle East on Friday, according to a U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive military situation. It was not clear if the aircraft crashed or was shot down or whether Iran was involved. Neither the crew’s status nor where the aircraft went down was immediately known.

The New York Times earlier reported that the second aircraft went down.

Those incidents came as Iran fired on targets across the Mideast on Friday, keeping the pressure on Israel and its Gulf Arab neighbors, despite U.S. and Israeli insistence that Iran’s military capabilities have been all but destroyed.

Iran’s attacks on Gulf energy infrastructure and its tight grip on the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world’s oil and natural gas transits in peacetime, have roiled stock markets, sent oil prices skyrocketing, and threatened to raise the cost of many basic goods, including food.

Downed jet could mark a new level of pressure on the US

Prior to word of the rescue, social media footage showed American drones, aircraft and helicopters flying over the mountainous region where a TV channel affiliated with Iranian state television had said earlier Friday that at least one pilot bailed out of the fighter jet.

An anchor had urged residents to hand over any “enemy pilot” to police and promised a reward.

It was the first time the U.S. has lost aircraft in Iranian territory during the conflict and could mark a new level of pressure being placed on the U.S. military.

Throughout the war, Iran has made a series of claims about shooting down piloted enemy aircraft that turned out not to be true. Friday was the first time that Iran went on television urging the public to look for a downed pilot.

Iranian state media said in a post on X that Iran’s military shot down a U.S. F-15E Strike Eagle. The aircraft is a variation of the Air Force fighter jet that carries a pilot and weapons system officer.

Alan Diehl, a former investigator for the Air Force Safety Center, said the Strike Eagle has an emergency locator beacon in a survival kit that can be set to activate automatically or manually.

The Pentagon did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a previous statement that Trump had been briefed but did not offer additional information.

Iran targets a desalination plant and a refinery

News about the fighter jet came after Iran attacked Kuwait’s Mina al-Ahmadi oil refinery. The state-run Kuwait Petroleum Corp. said firefighters were working to control several blazes.

Kuwait also said an Iranian attack caused “material damage” to a desalination plant. Such plants are responsible for most of the drinking water for Gulf states, and they have become a major target in the war.

Sirens also sounded in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia said it had destroyed several Iranian drones, and Israel reported incoming missiles.

Authorities in the United Arab Emirates shut down a gas field after a missile interception reportedly rained debris on it and started a fire.

Activists reported strikes around Tehran and the central city of Isfahan, but it wasn’t immediately clear what was hit.

In Lebanon, where Israel has launched a ground invasion in its fight with the pro-Iranian Hezbollah militant group, an Israeli drone strike on worshippers leaving Friday prayers near Beirut killed two people, according to the state‑run National News Agency

More than 1,900 people have been killed in Iran since the war began on Feb. 28 with U.S. and Israeli strikes. In a review released Friday, the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data, a U.S.-based group, said it found that civilian casualties were clustered around strikes on security and state-linked sites “rather than indiscriminate bombardment” of urban areas.

More than two dozen people have died in Gulf states and the occupied West Bank, 19 have been reported dead in Israel, and 13 U.S. service members have been killed.

More than 1,300 people have been killed and more than 1 million displaced in Lebanon. Ten Israeli soldiers have also died there.

Iran is keeping a chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz

World leaders have struggled to end Iran’s stranglehold on the strait, which has had far-reaching consequences for the global economy and has proved to be its greatest strategic advantage in the war.

The U.N. Security Council was expected to take up the matter on Saturday.

Trump has vacillated on America’s role in the strait, alternately threatening Iran if it doesn’t open the waterway and telling other nations to “go get your own oil.” On Friday, he said in a post on social media that, “With a little more time, we can easily OPEN THE HORMUZ STRAIT, TAKE THE OIL, & MAKE A FORTUNE.”

Spot prices of Brent crude, the international standard, were around $109 Friday, up more than 50% since the start of the war, when Iran began restricting traffic through the strait.

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Mednick reported from Tel Aviv, Israel. Associated Press writers Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Sylvie Corbet in Paris, Sarah El Deeb in Beirut, Tong-hyung Kim in Seoul, South Korea, and Will Weissert, Michelle L. Price, Lisa Mascaro and Ben Finley in Washington contributed to this report.

The rescue occurred as the U.S. military was conducting a search and rescue operation, according to three people familiar who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitivity of the situation. Israel is helping the United States with the operation.

Iranian state media has claimed in a post on X that Iran’s military shot down a U.S. F-15E Strike Eagle.

According to an email from the Pentagon obtained by The Associated Press, the U.S. military said that it received notification of “an aircraft being shot down” in the Middle East. The email did not provide more details.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a previous statement that President Donald Trump had been briefed but did not offer any additional information.

The number of crew on board wasn’t immediately known.

The war now entering its sixth week is destabilizing economies around the world as Iran responds to the U.S. and Israeli attacks by targeting the Gulf region's energy infrastructure and tightening its grip on oil and natural gas shipments through the Strait of Hormuz. U.S. President Donald Trump said U.S. forces will keep hitting Iran “very hard” in the next two or three weeks.

Here is the latest:

White House says Trump won’t appear before press on Friday

The White House at 4 p.m. EST called a “lid” for press, indicating the president would not be making any appearance in front of the media for the day.

The call came hours earlier than normal and signaled the president and White House are remaining tight-lipped as the search-and-rescue mission continued.

Trump declines to speak about search for missing crew member

In a brief telephone interview with NBC News, Trump declined to discuss the search and rescue effort.

He was asked if it would impact negotiations with Iran and said, “No, not at all. No, it’s war.”

Status of a second service member unknown after F-15E shot down

The House Armed Services Committee has been notified by the Pentagon that the status of a second service member is not known after the downing of the fighter jet.

The panel was told that an F-15 was shot down and one service member has been recovered, according to a congressional aide who spoke on condition of anonymity to disclose the private communication.

The other service member’s duty status is unknown, the aide said.

That generally means the Defense Department does not know the person’s whereabouts and they have gone missing.

—- Lisa Mascaro

Second US aircraft went down

A second U.S. Air Force combat aircraft went down in the Middle East on Friday, according to a U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive military situation.

It was not clear if the aircraft crashed or was shot down or whether Iran was involved. Neither the crew’s status nor where the aircraft went down was immediately known.

The New York Times earlier reported that the second aircraft went down.

Also Friday, a U.S. fighter jet was shot down in Iran and one crew member was rescued.

—- Konstantin Toropin

One person killed in fires caused by falling debris in Abu Dhabi

The Abu Dhabi government media office said Friday that one Egyptian national was killed in fires caused by falling debris at Habshan gas facilities, following the interception of an Iranian aerial attack, according to a statement posted on X.

In the same fires, another four expats, including two Egyptians and two Pakistanis, sustained minor wounds, added the statement.

The Abu Dhabi government did not specify whether air defenses had intercepted a missile or a drone.

“Significant damage has occurred at the facilities and an assessment is ongoing,” read the statement.

Iranian official derides the US after downing US aircraft

Iran’s parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf mocked the U.S. after his country shot down a U.S. aircraft over southwestern Iran and at least one crew member ejected.

“This brilliant no-strategy war they started has now been downgraded from “regime change” to “Hey! Can anyone find our pilots? Please?,” Qalibaf wrote on his X account.

Iranian state media has claimed in a post on X that Iran’s military shot down a U.S. F-15E Strike Eagle.

Qalibaf, doubling down on his mockery, wrote, “What incredible progress. Absolute geniuses.”

WHO chief calls for urgent support for health systems in war-affected countries

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus reiterated on Friday his agency’s appeal for $ 30.3 million in immediate funding to support strained health services in Iran and another four Arab countries including Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan and Syria.

“This appeal will support essential health services and trauma care, disease surveillance and early warning systems, mass casualty management and national readiness for chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear emergencies,” he said on the social platform X.

So far, the conflict has killed 3,300, wounded 30,000 and caused the displacement of over 4 million people.

The WHO first launched the appeal on Thursday, explaining that this amount will cover the period from March to August 2026.

Archbishop leading US military’s Catholic chaplains questions whether Iran war is just

Archbishop Timothy Broglio, who heads the Archdiocese for the Military Services, tells CBS News that a case can be made that the Iran war is unjustified.

Broglio was asked during an interview to be aired on Easter Sunday on “Face the Nation” if the war was justified.

“Under the just war theory, it is not,” replied Broglio, who then evoked the specter of a threat of nuclear arms.”

“It’s compensating for a threat before threat is actually realized,” he said. “I would line myself up with Pope Leo, who has been urging for negotiation.”

“The Lord Jesus certainly brought a message of peace and also, I think war is always a last resort,” Broglio added. “I’m not making a judgment about that, because I really don’t know. But I do think that it’s hard to cast this war, you know, as something that would be sponsored by the Lord.”

Israeli official says Israel providing intel for search effort

The official says Israel is assisting with intelligence, but not active in any on-the-ground rescue.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the unfolding operation.

—- Josef Federman

Kuwait defends against air attacks

The Kuwaiti army said on Friday that its air defenses had engaged with seven ballistic missiles, two cruise missiles and 26 drones over the last 24 days, according to a statement posted on its official page on X.

The statement added that interceptions were still going on causing in Kuwaiti skies, causing explosions.

Israeli tank shelling kills one in southern Syria

An Israeli tank fired on a car in the southern province of Quneitra Saturday, killing a young man, Syria’s state-run SANA news agency reported, without giving further details.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a U.K.-based war monitor, said witnesses said that the man was a civilian “and that the attack occurred while he was driving his car on a public road connecting villages near the border strip.” There was no immediate statement from the Israeli military.

After the ouster of former Syrian President Bashar Assad by Islamist-led rebels in December 2024, Israeli forces seized control of a U.N.-patrolled buffer zone in southern Syria, which Israel initially described as a temporary move to protect its borders.

The Syrian government says Israel is violating a 1974 disengagement agreement between the two countries and has called for it to withdraw its forces.

Israel reports new missile launch from Iran

The Israeli army says air defenses are being activated and residents instructed to seek shelter in affected areas.

F-15E Strike Eagle fighter jet has a 2-person crew

Iranian state media has claimed that Iran’s military shot down a U.S. F-15E Strike Eagle. The aircraft is a variation of the Air Force fighter jet that carries a two-person crew consisting of a pilot and weapons system officer.

Alan Diehl, a former investigator for the Air Force Safety Center, said the Strike Eagle has an emergency locator beacon in a survival kit that can be set to activate automatically or manually.

The Pentagon has not immediately responded to repeated requests for comment

Israel suspends airstrikes as search for downed US pilot proceeds

An Israeli official says airstrikes have been halted in areas “relevant” to the rescue effort.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the operation is ongoing.

—- Josef Federman

Tehran resident describes projectile overhead and smoke near medical research center

A resident of central Tehran says she was walking home Thursday when she spotted what appeared to be a missile streaking overhead.

“I saw it go over my head and I heard the explosion,” she said, speaking on condition of anonymity due to media restrictions in Iran.

Then she saw smoke rising from a nearby area of the capital hosting many government buildings, including the offices of Iran’s Supreme Leader, which Israel heavily struck early in the war. Next to that is the Pasteur Institute, which has played a leading role in Iran’s health sector for over a century. An Iranian health ministry spokesman confirmed the institute had been struck on Thursday.

The resident said she’s also seen least two police stations “destroyed” in her area of the capital.

—- Amir-Hussein Radjy

An explosion in southern Lebanon injures three UN peacekeepers amid fighting between Israel and Hezbollah

The peacekeeping mission known as UNIFIL reminded Israel, Hezbollah and other actors of their obligation to ensure the peacekeepers’ safety, including by avoiding combat near their facilities and positions.

“This has been a difficult week for peacekeepers working near the central part of UNIFIL’s area of operations,” UNIFIL said.

Three U.N. peacekeepers were injured, two seriously, in an explosion of unknown origin inside their position in El Adeisse on Friday afternoon, UNIFIL said. Three UNIFIL peacekeepers from Indonesia were killed earlier this week and others were injured.

Aircraft was ‘shot down,’ US military says

According to an email from the Pentagon obtained by The Associated Press, the U.S. military said that it received notification of “an aircraft being shot down” in the Middle East. The email did not provide more details.

Iran accuses the UN nuclear watchdog of siding with its enemies

The Atomic Energy Organization of Iran denounced on Friday what it describes as the U.N. nuclear agency’s “silence” as the US and Israel attacks Iran’s nuclear facilities.

The Iranian agency accused the International Atomic Energy Agency of “not merely inaction but complicity with perpetrators,” according to a statement posted on X. It said it has sent a protest letter to the IAEA’s director. “This historic negligence erodes the IAEA’s little remaining credibility,” read the statement.

The Iranian government has constantly said that it needs to expand its nuclear plants to meet its electricity needs rather than to build weapons.

Jordan and Israel warn of more air attacks

The Israeli military says air defenses are being activated to intercept the fire.

Jordan, the state-owned news agency says alarms are sounding across the country.

One crew member has been rescued after American aircraft went down in Iran, US and Israeli officials say

One crew member has been rescued after an American aircraft went down in Iran, according to one U.S. and one Israeli official, who both spoke on condition of anonymity to describe sensitive ongoing military operations.

US officials are being informed about the rescue operation in Iran

U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson has been notified about the situation with the pilot in Iran, his office said.

The Defense Department has notified the speaker and said it would provide further updates.

The U.S. military has been conducting a search and rescue operation in Iran, according to three people familiar who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitivity of the situation.

Gas tanker affiliated with Japan makes it through the strait

A liquefied natural gas tanker co-owned by Japanese and Omani companies has passed through the Strait of Hormuz, a first passage of a Japan-affiliated vessel through the waterway since the start of the U.S.-Israeli strike on Iran, Japan’s NHK public television said.

The Japanese shipping company Mitsui O.S.K. Lines said the Panamanian-flagged tanker Sohar LNG, also owned by Oman Shipping Company, crossed the strait Friday and is now out of the Persian Gulf, NHK reported.

The tanker was among 45 Japanese-affiliated ships stuck in the area since the start of the war in the region. Mitsui did not disclose other details, such as the ship’s destination, citing security reasons, NHK said.

Four US planes had already gone down during the Iranian war

Four U.S. military planes had gone down during the Iran war before Friday’s search and rescue operation — three fighter jets hit by friendly fire over Kuwait and a refueling tanker plane that crashed in Iraq following an incident with another U.S. aircraft.

The KC-135 refueling aircraft crashed in Iraq while supporting operations in Iran. All six crew members aboard the aircraft died. U.S. officials attributed the crash to an unspecified incident involving two aircraft in “friendly airspace,” and said the other plane landed safely.

Separately, three U.S. F-15E fighter jets were mistakenly targeted by friendly Kuwaiti fire. All six crew members ejected safely.

US has launched a rescue operation after Iranian state media says American fighter jet went down in Iran, AP source says

The U.S. military rescue operation launched Friday after Iranian state media said an American fighter jet went down over southwest Iran and at least one crew member ejected.

Israel is helping the United States with the search and rescue operation, according to an Israeli military officer briefed on the information who spoke on condition of anonymity ahead of a U.S. announcement.

Social media footage showed American drones, aircraft and helicopters flying over the mountainous region where the Iranian channel said at least one pilot bailed out of the fighter jet.

It would be the first time the U.S. has lost aircraft in Iranian territory during the five-week war. It was not clear if the jet was shot down or crashed. The number of crew on board was not immediately known.

The Pentagon and U.S. Central Command didn’t immediately respond to several messages seeking comment. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said “President Trump has been briefed.”

Bahrain cracks down on dissent as Iran war reignites internal unrest

A man detained in Bahrain as the island came under missile attack from Iran vanished for days, until his family was called to a military hospital to retrieve his body, covered in slash marks and bruises. The death of Mohamed al-Mousawi has become a flashpoint in the Sunni-ruled, Shiite-majority country on the war’s front lines, where critics say authorities have revived tactics used to suppress Arab Spring protests in 2011.

Bahrain, a monarchy that hosts the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet, has arrested dozens of people for filming airstrikes and demonstrations or expressing support for Iran.

Bahrain’s Interior Ministry said al-Mousawi was arrested on suspicion of spying for Iran — allegations denied by his family — and that images of his wounds were “inaccurate and misleading.” A Bahrain government statement said the country is defending its national security and denied any sectarianism, saying authorities have acted lawfully and that independent bodies investigate allegations of abuse.

▶ Read more

Iranian motorcyclist describes a tale of two cities in wartime Tehran

A woman in her forties says she has made a point of riding a motorcycle around Tehran as “a form of civil resistance.” Cruising the capital’s streets has also shown her two faces of the wartime capital, she said.

Faced with years of protests, Iran’s Islamic rulers have recently eased enforcement of the mandatory veil and other restrictions on women, including harassing female motorcyclists.

A downtown resident, the woman said she rode uptown to the capital’s richest areas, where she found the cafes were packed.

“Now I’m outside on my motorbike. I stopped by the side of the street. There was an explosion. Several people sitting on chairs by the café, looked up, glanced at the sky and started drinking coffee again,” she messaged The Associated Press, communicating anonymously for her safety.

In other parts of Tehran, she said, “the streets where a building has been damaged and destroyed, or the houses around it, are different. It’s like Gaza. Silence. The smell of death.”

— By Amir-Hussein Radjy

Iranian authorities urge expanded search for ejected pilot

Authorities also urged Iranians to search for the American pilot in neighboring Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari province, in addition to Kohkilouyeh and Boyer-Ahmad province.

Tehran resident says the fate of Iranians hangs between two powers that don’t care for the people

The 26-year-old Tehran resident fears an escalation in the war that targets infrastructure could leave civilians without power or water, but said the survival of the Islamic Republic’s theocratic rulers leaves her “more anxious than the bombing.” She spoke on condition of anonymity and through secure channels for security reasons.

“Based on what Trump has been saying, once again I realized that we, the people of Iran are nothing but tools and playthings between these two ideologies and powers of the world,” she said. “Neither our lives nor our well-being matters to anyone. Not to our rulers, who killed (thousands during the January protests) nor to the First World, which has always pursued its own interests.”

The young Pilates instructor has stopped her teaching, she said, because “My body doesn’t want to.” She said the mood in Tehran “is dark” as parts of the city feel empty during the new year holidays, which end Friday. “It is full of checkpoints and there is very little traffic.”

— By Sarah El Deeb

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This story has been corrected to replace a headline to show that Trump budget is seeking $1.5 trillion in defense spending.

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This story has been corrected to show WHO is seeking $30.3 million in immediate funding.

But there's no guarantee her successor will have any better success at placating the president.

Over the last year, Bondi's Justice Department has encountered resistance from judges, grand jurors and its own workforce in trying to establish criminal conduct by one Trump foe after another. A new attorney general will confront not only Trump's demand for political prosecutions — a constant dating back to his first term in the White House — but also the same skeptical court system, and factual and legal hurdles, that have impeded efforts to deliver the sought-after results.

“At the end of the day, it’s not like there were some magic steps that Pam Bondi could have taken to make bad cases look good to grand juries or judges,” Peter Keisler, a former acting attorney general in President George W. Bush's administration, said in an email. "The problem is that the president is demanding that prosecutions be brought when there’s no evidence and no valid legal theory. A new Attorney General won’t change that.”

Bondi was just the latest Trump attorney general pressed to meet the president's demands of loyalty and desire for retribution. Trump in his first term called for Jeff Sessions to investigate Democrat Hillary Clinton and ultimately pushed him out over his recusal from the Russia election interference investigation. He berated another attorney general, William Barr, over Barr's refusal to back his false claims of election fraud in the 2020 contest. Barr resigned soon after.

Bondi arrived at the Justice Department 14 months ago seemingly determined to remain in Trump's good graces unlike her predecessors had, heaping praise on him, offering unflinching support and embarking on investigations into Democrats and the president's adversaries — even amid concerns from career prosecutors about the sufficiency of evidence.

Days after Trump implored Bondi via social media last September to prosecute former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James, the Justice Department did just that, securing indictments in Virginia.

But the win was short-lived: A judge weeks later dismissed the cases after finding that the prosecutor who filed them, Lindsey Halligan, was illegally appointed. Grand juries have since refused to bring new mortgage fraud charges against James and the Comey case is mired in a thorny evidentiary dispute and statute of limitations concerns. Both Comey and James have vigorously denied any wrongdoing and called the cases against them politically motivated.

Since then, a federal grand jury in Washington refused to return an indictment against Democratic lawmakers in connection with a video in which they urged U.S. military members to resist “illegal orders." And a federal judge has quashed Justice Department subpoenas issued to the Federal Reserve as part of an investigation into testimony last June by Chair Jerome Powell about a $2.5 billion building renovation.

The judge, James Boasberg, said that the government has “produced essentially zero evidence to suspect Chair Powell of a crime” and called its justifications for the subpoenas a “thin and unsubstantiated” pretext to force Powell to cut interest rates. A prosecutor on the case subsequently conceded in court that the investigation had not found evidence of a crime.

An additional investigation into a Trump enemy remains underway with prosecutors in Florida scrutinizing former CIA Director John Brennan over testimony to Congress related to Russian interference in the 2016 election. That investigation has been open for months, but has not produced charges and it's not clear that it will. Brennan's lawyers have similarly called the investigation baseless.

One high-profile Trump critic who could face trial in the years ahead is his former national security adviser, John Bolton, though the investigation that produced that indictment and examined Bolton’s handling of classified documents began before Trump took office.

For now, the Justice Department will be led by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, who has a longstanding relationship with Trump after having served as one of his personal lawyers. Several people familiar with the matter told The Associated Press on Thursday that Lee Zeldin, a Trump loyalist and head of the Environmental Protection Agency, has been privately mentioned by Trump as a possible pick.

Whoever holds the job in the long term will almost certainly be expected to carry out Trump's retribution campaign with more success, said Jimmy Gurulé, a former Justice Department official and law professor at Notre Dame. Blanche appeared to acknowledge as much in a Thursday evening interview with Fox News, saying, “I think the president is frustrated, everybody is frustrated ” and “what we saw happen for the past four years is unforgivable and can never happen again.”

“If she was fired because Trump did not think that she was moving quickly enough in bringing criminal cases against his political enemies, then you would expect that the person that would replace her would probably agree to escalate those efforts,” Gurulé said.

“I think it will be an important sign because of what the pope represents, a spiritual leader in the world today, and for this voice, that everyone wants to hear, that says Christ still suffers,” Leo told reporters this week outside of the papal retreat at Castel Gandolfo. “I carry all of this suffering in my prayer.”

Inside the Colosseum, Leo began the procession flanked by two young people holding torches, and followed by clergy.

At the first station, marking the moment Jesus was condemned to death, the meditation prepared especially for Leo's first Good Friday underlined that those with authority will have to answer to God for how they exercise their power.

"The power to judge; the power to start or end a war; the power to instill violence or peace; the power to fuel the desire for revenge, or for reconciliation,'' read the meditation written by Rev. Francesco Patton, who was custodian of the Holy Land 2016-25, charged, among other things, with looking after sacred sites.

Thousands gathered outside the pagan monument, where the procession continued, following the stations as they were recited over loud speakers.

They included Sister Pelenatita Kieoma Finau from Samoa and a member of the Missionary Sisters of the Society of Mary.

"We have been part of our parish stations of the cross, but this is so exciting. It is very meaningful to have the experience of being with the people of Rome on this special occasion,'' she said.

Past processions

John Paul II carried the cross for the entire procession from his first Good Friday as pontiff in 1979 until his hip surgery in 1995, when he carried it just part of the way, according to AP reports at the time.

For the first two years of his papacy, Benedict XVI carried the cross for the first station inside the Colosseum, then followed other bearers in the procession that ends on a platform on the Palatine Hill.

Pope Francis never carried the cross, but participated in the procession until his health worsened. He died after a long illness last year on Easter Monday, which fell on April 21.

Pope John Paul II was just 58 when he became pope, and was known as a hiker and outdoorsman. His two successors were in their late 70s when they began their papacies, and Francis was missing part of a lung due to a pulmonary infection as a young man.

The Way of the Cross commemorates the final hours of Jesus’ life, from his death sentence to taking up the cross to his crucifixion, death and burial. The procession ends outside the Colosseum atop the Palatine Hill.

“The Way of the Cross is not intended for those who lead a pristinely pious or abstractly recollected life,” Patton wrote in his introduction. “Instead, it is the exercise of one who knows that faith, hope and charity must be incarnated in the real world.”

At 70, Leo is physically fit and an avid tennis player and swimmer. Before becoming pope, Leo would work out regularly at a gym near the Vatican, with a plan befitting a man in his early 50s, according to his former trainer.

The pope's Holy Week activities

On Holy Saturday, the pontiff will preside over a late night Easter vigil, during which he will baptize new Catholics, and lead Roman Catholics into Christianity’s most joyous celebration marking Christ’s resurrection.

On Easter Sunday, the pope will celebrate an open-air Mass in St. Peter’s Square before delivering his Easter message and offer the traditional “Urbi et Orbi” blessing to the city of Rome and the world.

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Barry reported from Milan.

When her 20-year-old son Emilio Alejandro Leyva walked out of the doors of the detention facility with dozens of other prisoners, bags and a small release document in hand, she wrapped her arms around her son, who was detained for a robbery, for the first time in years.

“It has been so difficult, but today God has given me so much joy,” said Arias, 43, breaking down in tears. “Today, I feel so happy. This is how all mothers who will have their children released today should feel.”

The outpouring of joy from families comes the day after Cuba's government said it was going to release 2,010 prisoners in what it said was “humanitarian gestures” ahead of Holy Week; it wasn't immediately clear how many were released on Friday.

The release comes as the Cuban government navigates extreme pressure and a crippling oil blockade by the Trump administration, which has openly expressed the desire for regime change and the release of those arrested for protesting.

It was unclear whether any of the prisoners released Friday are among the 1,214 people activist groups say are imprisoned for political reasons in Cuba. The government denies holding political prisoners.

Uncertainty over released prisoners

On Friday, detainees in the La Lima prison on the rural outskirts of Havana said they were woken up at 6 a.m. and heard their names called out. Hours later they were walking into the arms of loved ones awaiting them in front of blue prison gates.

The majority of prisoners interviewed Friday by The Associated Press were not serving time for political charges, though it's uncertain how many of those released were protesters — often charged with public disorder, contempt or terrorism. Many of the more than one thousand people the activist organization Prisoners Defended has registered as detained for political reasons were protesters from the 2021 mass demonstrations on the island, which were met with widespread arrests by the government.

Sporadic protests have broken out in recent months as the island sinks into a deeper crisis. In one March incident, protesters burned the headquarters of the communist party in central Cuba, leading to five arrests.

The lack of information over releases on Friday fueled frustration among human rights and opposition groups, who said the releases were a good sign, but fell short of real change.

“The government presents it as a humanitarian gesture toward prisoners, not as the release of political prisoners,” said Manuel Cuesta Morúa, leader of the Council for Democratic Transition in Cuba, the island’s main opposition platform. “By doing so, it mixes things up to avoid giving the impression that it recognizes political imprisonment in Cuba.”

The group has demanded a government amnesty law and says that people who were previously freed are often placed under house arrest or live under conditions where they can't speak freely.

During a previous release of 51 people in March, organizations monitoring prisons in Cuba noted that 22 had political motives in their cases.

The nongovernmental organization Justicia 11J wrote in a statement Friday that no partial release can be considered progress “as long as the criminalization of the exercise of fundamental rights persists.”

“Although every release represents immediate relief, especially for families, in a context marked by the severity of conditions in the country’s prisons … we warn that this gesture does not constitute a change in the repressive policy of the Cuban state,” the organization said.

US pressure on Cuba

The releases come as U.S.-Cuban tensions are running high. The Trump administration has suffocated the island by imposing an oil blockade, pushing the already stricken island to the brink, crippling hospitals and increasing the number of islandwide blackouts.

Cubans were offered a brief moment of relief this week when U.S. President Donald Trump said the government allowed a Russian ship carrying a nine to 10 day supply of fuel to the island. It wasn't clear if the Cuban or Russian governments made any concessions to allow the shipment to go through. A second Russian tanker is on the way.

Cuba periodically frees prisoners at key moments.

In January 2025, Cuba’s government released 553 prisoners as part of talks with the Vatican, a day after the Biden administration announced its intent to lift the U.S. designation of the island nation as a state sponsor of terrorism.

Cuba's government said Friday's release marked the fifth since 2011, and that it has freed more than 11,000 people.

Despite ongoing uncertainty, scenes of hope emerged outside the La Lima prison on Friday as families wrapped their arms around each other and a father planted a kiss on the head of his child swaddled in pink.

Damián Fariñas, 20, who has served the majority of his 2-year prison sentence for a robbery, was greeted by three beaming friends waiting for him on the street.

“This is freedom, a pardon, owing nothing to anyone. I’m heading out into the world,” he said.

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Associated Press journalists Ramón Espinosa and Ariel Fernández contributed from Havana. Megan Janetsky contributed from Mexico City.

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Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america

The Labor Department reported Friday that hiring marked a turnaround from the loss of 133,000 jobs in February. The job gains were about three times what economists had forecast. But uncertainty surrounding the war with Iran — and its impact on energy prices — is clouding the outlook for the labor market.

The unemployment rate was down from 4.4% in February. That is partly because the labor force — those working and looking for work — dropped by 396,000 in March so fewer people were competing for jobs. In fact, the percentage of people in the labor force dropped to 61.9% last month, the lowest since November 2021.

Health care companies added 76,400 jobs last month, boosted by the return of 31,000 Kaiser Permanente employees to work after the end of a strike in February. Factories added 15,000 jobs last month but have still shed jobs for 14 of the last 16 months. Construction companies added 26,000 jobs, probably partly because of warmer weather last month.

Average hourly wages were up 0.2% from February. Compared to March 2025, they were up 3.5% — the smallest gain since May 2021 and one consistent with the Federal Reserve's 2% annual inflation target.

Labor Department revisions shaved 7,000 jobs off combined January and February payrolls.

The U.S. job market has been in a slump over the past year. Most economists say the impact of the war and higher energy prices was probably not fully reflected in the March jobs numbers.

“The data is mostly backward-looking, and likely does not incorporate any impact from the recent rise in energy prices, or other risks related to the war in Iran,’’ Thomas Simons, chief U.S. economist with the investment firm Jefferies, wrote in a commentary.

Diane Swonk, chief economist at the accounting firm KPMG, said that the economy is getting a lift from big tax refunds made possible by President Donald Trump’s 2025 tax cuts. “But those are now being eaten up by higher energy costs,’’ she said.

Last year, employers added an average of just 9,700 jobs a month, the weakest hiring outside a recession since 2002. Businesses have been reluctant to bring on new workers partly because of uncertainty arising from President Donald Trump’s tariffs on imports and crackdown on immigration. One measure released by the Labor Department on Monday showed the weakest hiring since April 2020 – in the middle of COVID-19 lockdowns.

But firms have also been reluctant to let go of their existing employees, creating what economists describe as a “no-hire, no-fire’’ scenario that locks young applicants out of the job market. At the same time, there are growing worries that artificial intelligence is taking entry-level jobs.

New jobs are heavily concentrated in health care and social assistance (which includes day care and vocational rehabilitation centers). That combined category accounted for more than half the jobs created last month. The trend reflects an aging U.S. population. A graying Japan saw the same thing in the early 2010s, Vanguard economist Adam Schickling wrote in a commentary ahead of Friday's jobs report.

“The larger-than-expected rebound in nonfarm payrolls in March mainly reflects a reversal of the strike and weather effects that weighed on hiring in February, rather than being a sign that the labor market is rapidly gaining momentum,” said Stephen Brown, chief North America economist at Capital Economics. Citing higher oil prices, he warned of the risk that "the hit to consumers’ purchasing power will weigh on demand and therefore hiring in the near term.''

March’s unexpectedly strong hiring is likely to ease pressure on the Fed policymakers to cut interest rates right away to help the job market, giving them time to assess what impact higher energy prices are having on overall inflation.

Worries about the fallout from the war are likely to limit job gains for awhile. “It’s the nature of uncertainties,’’ said Olu Sonola, U.S. head of research at Fitch Ratings. “Companies typically respond by holding back’’ on hiring decisions.

A lot will depend on how long the conflict lasts and what happens to oil prices. The price of benchmark American crude oil closed just below $112 a barrel Thursday. “If that’s $140 next month,″ Sonola said, “God knows what’s going to happen.’’

Mai Truong is the founder of Bo & Mei, which makes games and puzzles designed to celebrate Asian heritage. She’s currently preparing for this year’s holiday shopping season and assessing her hiring plans — but she’s facing lots of unknowns.

The Brooklyn, New York-based company, which had sales of under $500,000 last year, had to pay tens of thousands of dollars in tariffs last year. Truong is not sure what her tariff bill will be this year and whether she will be able to get a refund after the Supreme Court struck down some of Trump's tariffs. The Iran war is also creating unforeseen costs including higher shipping expenses.

Truong is her company's only full-time employee. But she typically hires a couple of contractors, who work in operations, marketing and other areas, to help in the months heading to Christmas.

“It makes everything feel very uncertain,” she said. “On the other hand, there’s so little you can do with the volatility. You just have to stay the course and kind of deal with the variables as they become more clear.”

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Anne D'Innocenzio reported from New York.

A year and a half after winning the White House by promising to lower costs and end wars, Donald Trump is a wartime president overseeing surging energy costs and an escalating overseas conflict.

The war in Iran was largely unpopular even before an American fighter jet was shot down in Iran, a development that dominated headlines on Friday and contradicted Trump’s claim that Tehran's military capabilities have been all but destroyed. One crew member has been rescued.

Earlier in the week, the Republican president offered little clarity to a nation eager for answers during a prime-time address from the White House, his first since the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran more than a month ago, simultaneously suggesting that the war was ending and expanding.

“Thanks to the progress we’ve made, I can say tonight that we are on track to complete all of America’s military objectives shortly, very shortly,” Trump said. “We’re going to hit them extremely hard over the next two to three weeks.”

Trump's comments come roughly six months before voters across the nation begin to cast ballots in elections that will decide control of Congress and key governorships for Trump’s final two years in office. For now, Republicans, who control all branches of government in Washington, are bracing for a painful political backlash.

“You’re looking at an ugly November,” warned veteran Republican pollster Neil Newhouse. “At a point in time when we need every break possible to hold the House and Senate, our edge is being chipped away.”

Republicans confront evolving political landscape

It’s hard to overstate how dramatically the political landscape has shifted.

At this time last year, many Republican leaders believed there was a path to preserve their narrow House majority and easily hold the Senate. Now they privately concede that the House is all but lost and Democrats have a realistic shot at taking the Senate.

Republicans are also struggling to coalesce around a clear midterm message on Iran.

The Republican National Committee has largely avoided the war in talking points issued to surrogates over the last month. The leaders of the party's campaign committees responsible for the House and Senate declined interview requests. Many vulnerable Republican candidates sidestep the issue, unwilling to defend or challenge Trump publicly.

The president remains deeply popular with Republican voters, and he has vocal supporters like Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.

“That was the best speech I could’ve hoped for,” he wrote on social media after Trump's address on Wednesday evening. Graham said Trump “gave the American people a clear and coherent pathway forward.”

Trump made little effort to sell the conflict to Americans before the initial attack. Five weeks later, at least 13 U.S. service members have been killed and hundreds more injured. Thousands more troops have converged on the region, and the Pentagon requested $200 billion in new funding.

The Strait of Hormuz, a key passage for a fifth of the world’s oil, remains closed. The average price for a gallon of gasoline in the U.S. was $4.08 on Thursday, according to AAA, almost a full dollar higher than on President Joe Biden's last day in office.

On Wednesday, Trump insisted that gas prices would fall quickly once the war concluded but offered no solution for reopening the Strait of Hormuz. Instead, he invited skeptical U.S. allies to do it themselves.

He insisted that the war would be worth it.

“This is a true investment in your grandchildren and your grandchildren’s future,” Trump said. “When it’s all over, the United States will be safer, stronger, more prosperous and greater than it has ever been before.”

Former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Georgia Republican who was once among Trump's most vocal allies in Congress, lashed out against his Iran policy.

“I wanted so much for President Trump to put America First. That’s what I believed he would do. All I heard from his speech tonight was WAR WAR WAR,” she wrote on social media. “Nothing to lower the cost of living for Americans.”

Time is not on Trump's side

About 6 in 10 U.S. adults say the U.S. military action in Iran has “gone too far,” according to AP-NORC polling from March. Roughly a third approve of how he’s handling Iran overall.

The possibility of sending U.S. forces into Iran also appears politically unpalatable.

About 6 in 10 adults are “strongly” or “somewhat” opposed to deploying U.S. troops on the ground to fight Iran. That includes about half of Republicans. Only about 1 in 10 favor deploying troops.

At the same time, Trump’s approval ratings have remained consistently weak. About 4 in 10 Americans approve of how he’s handling the presidency, roughly in line with how it’s been throughout his second term.

Republican strategist Ari Fleischer, a senior aide in former President George W. Bush’s administration, acknowledged that Trump has not received the polling bump in this war that Bush got after invading Iraq.

Bush, of course, worked to build public backing for the Iraq War before going in. Immediately after the 2003 invasion, Bush's popularity soared, as did the stock market.

Public sentiment and the economy soured only after the conflict stretched on. It ultimately spanned more than eight years, spawning a generation of anti-war Republicans — and sowing the seeds of Trump's “America First” foreign policy.

“My hope is that the Trump experience is the exact opposite of the Bush experience,” Fleischer said.

He said Trump must win the war decisively and quickly to avoid a further backlash, saying there could be a “very significant political upside if things end well, oil comes down and markets rally.”

Fleischer added that Trump's actions will matter much more than his words.

“Ultimately, he is not going to get judged on his persuasion or his explanations or his assertions, he’s going to get judged on results,” he said.

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Associated Press writer Linley Sanders in Washington contributed to this report.

Redick said Doncic had an issue with the hamstring in the first half of the 139-96 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder and was tended to at the break.

“We checked him out, he got work done, he was cleared," Redick said.

Doncic returned to action briefly. On his final play of the game, he spun before trying to go up for a shot against Oklahoma City's Jalen Williams. There was no contact before Doncic stopped, then lay down on the floor while wincing in pain. He left the game for good with 7:39 remaining in the third quarter.

“Those things happen,” Redick said.

Williams, an All-Star in 2025, has missed 27 games this season because of a right hamstring strain. He felt badly for Doncic.

“It’s very, like, spooky in a way to see it happen to him, and I’m the one guarding him," Williams said.

Williams could have stolen the ball after Doncic let it go, but he chose not to take advantage of the situation.

“I tried to let it go out of bounds and give them time to figure it out,” Williams said. “That injury sucks. So I wish him a speedy recovery. Hope it's not anything serious.”

Doncic had scored at least 40 points in five of his previous seven games. He was held to 12 on 3-for-10 shooting against Oklahoma City's relentless defense.

The Lakers trailed 90-58 when Doncic was hurt, so the injury made a bad night worse.

“I mean, it’s something you never want to see as a teammate,” Lakers forward Jake LaRavia said. “So especially in a game like this, it was tough to see him go down. All the prayers for him ... but yeah, you never want to see that.”

Lakers guard Austin Reaves hurt his back during the game, but continued to play. He sat out the fourth quarter with the game out of reach.

“He was in a weird position, stretching for a basketball, loose ball," Redick said. "And he just felt something intercostal, somewhere in his back, in between the ribs. He was able to play through it ... we’ll see how he feels tomorrow.”

The Lakers will host a rematch with the Thunder on April 7.

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This story has been corrected to show that the final score of the game was 139-96, not 139-97.

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

Watch the full press conference below.

Dasaun Williams, 24, of Middleburg was arrested by JSO last November during an undercover drug and gang investigation, but body camera video of the takedown only recently came to light after the family obtained it and posted it to social media.

The video of his arrest, which was sent to News4JAX by Williams’ girlfriend, prompted dozens of requests for News4JAX to look into the takedown and whether officers used excessive force.

Williams, whose mugshot after the November arrest shows him with a swollen face, is facing 27 felony counts related to drug trafficking, selling fentanyl, selling meth and firearms offenses. His attorneys attempted a plea deal, but prosecutors rejected the terms that were offered.

The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office says Williams is linked to the “Out East 1200″ gang.

The video of his arrest, posted on social media and viewed thousands of times, appears to show JSO officers striking Williams in the face, placing multiple knees to his head, and holding a stun gun against his back.

A separate clip shows what appears to be multiple slaps to his face while he is pinned down by officers. Williams also appears to vomit in the video.

Before the takedown, the video shows Williams slowly walking away from officers near a car parked at a Middleburg gas station as one officer tells him to get down before firing a stun gun.

Crump and Williams said they will join Williams’ family in calling for a “full, transparent investigation into the conduct of the deputies involved and a broader pattern of brutal and violent misconduct within the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office.”

Crump and Williams have previously visited Jacksonville after two other recent cases that raised concerns — the families of Erika McGriff and William McNeil Jr. also retained Crump and Daniels after videos surfaced alleging excessive force by JSO officers.

JSO announced the operation, called Operation Red Light, saying it led to the arrests of alleged gang members and seizures of drugs.

The agency has not released the full body-worn camera footage that has circulated online; News4JAX has asked JSO for the complete video, but has so far been able to review only what was posted publicly.

Williams’ arrest report describes a months-long undercover investigation and lists 27 charges, saying Williams sold meth and fentanyl to confidential informants on multiple occasions.

The report’s description of the arrest says, “The Gang Investigations Unit conducted a buy/bust on Dasaun Williams, taking him into custody,” but it does not mention the use of force seen in the video.

JSO said the video is under administrative review, and it can not comment at this time.

News4JAX reached out to JSO about today’s press conference.

“I'm happy to announce I'm staying at Arizona,” Lloyd said during his pre-practice news conference at the Final Four. “We've been able to get some things done the past couple days.”

The school also announced it had reached an extension with Lloyd through the 2030-31 season, though it didn't release financial terms. Lloyd had previously been under contract through the 2029-30 season worth an average of nearly $5.5 million in base and supplemental pay for the coming seasons, along with a buyout that dropped from $11 million to $9 million on Wednesday.

Lloyd, 51, had been considered a top potential target for the Tar Heels, who fired Hubert Davis on March 24 after five seasons. He had deflected questions about the UNC opening as the Wildcats (36-2) kept advancing in the NCAA Tournament to their first Final Four since 2001, including as recently as Thursday in Indianapolis.

Lloyd praised UNC as “a first-class organization” and said he appreciated “the way they've handled this.”

“Arizona basketball, you guys know what it means to me, and when I say it’s a special place, that always comes from the bottom of my heart,” Lloyd said.

“I didn’t want to make this entire Final Four about that because I’m just a small part of something much bigger. But on that same note, I’d also like to let you know that North Carolina is an amazing place. I mean, it’s a 1 of 1. It’s an honor to even be considered for that job.”

Lloyd's comments came a day before the Wildcats (36-2) were set to face Michigan in Saturday night's national semifinals in a matchup of the two 1-seeds in Indianapolis.

Wolverines coach Dusty May has also been mentioned as a possible UNC candidate, but said Friday he'll “never respond to any job speculation.”

“I think it’s well documented how happy I am at Michigan,” May said. “Obviously my private life, my personal life, my family, their happiness is very important. Yeah, I love it at Michigan, but you’ll never hear me comment on any other job unless Michigan lets me go and then I’ll comment on every job.”

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AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-mens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness

Asked whether he’s thinking about reaching 50 goals and catching Nathan MacKinnon for the NHL lead, Caufield deadpanned, “No.” After a brief pause, he smiled and said, “Yeah,” and laughter ensued.

“We’re focused on our team game and winning games, and I think individual stuff comes with that,” Caufield said. “Doing the right things, you get more chances and opportunities. Obviously, it helps when you’re winning games and stuff.”

The Canadiens are winning enough to emerge as a contender to hoist the Stanley Cup and end Canada’s drought that dates to their championship in 1993. They’ve raised a Cup banner more recently than they’ve had a 50-goal scorer, and Caufield has a chance to be the first member of the storied franchise to get to that mark since Stephane Richer in 1990.

"I didn’t know it was (nearly) 40 years," teammate Alex Newhook said. “It’s been fun to watch. It seems like he keeps scoring every night. We’re happy for him. We’re pushing for him. Hopefully he keeps this thing rolling.”

Caufield rolled out of the Olympic break — after not making the U.S. roster — with 17 goals in 17 games, the most of any player in the league. His 83 points are already 13 clear of his previous career high.

“He’s on a tremendous heater right now,” Canadiens captain and leading scorer Nick Suzuki said. “He’s just playing the right way, doing the right things and he’s getting rewarded for it.”

Caufield wasn't always this complete of a player. Undersized at 5-foot-8 and 175 pounds and counted on to produce to offset some defensive inefficiencies, he got sent down to Laval of the American Hockey League in the fall of 2021 when he had no goals and just one assist in 10 games with the Canadiens.

"I think it was worth it," Caufield said, crediting coaches, linemates and others for helping him round out his play. “There’s still a lot more room to grow in my game. I think progressing every year with the team and the staff that we have, it’s pretty easy to kind of find yourself working every day. I think it’s just an addiction to kind of find ways to get better.”

Opponents have noticed the progress from Caufield, who turned 25 in January.

“He thinks the game at a real high level,” New York Rangers coach Mike Sullivan said. “It’s the combination that gives him the competitive advantage that he has. He’s a really good player.”

Sullivan, a two-time Cup champion who also coached the U.S. to gold at the Olympics, called Montreal “one of the emerging teams in the league” because of the mix of high-end skill and speed all over the roster. The Canadiens move the puck around at a rapid pace — on the ice and into the net.

Caufield is a big part of that. Among players with 100 shots on net this season, only two are scoring at a higher rate than his 21.2%, tormenting goaltenders and delighting teammates happy to pick up another assist.

“I enjoy it,” linemate Juraj Slafkovsky said. "You have a goal-scorer like this, you can always pass to him and there is a big chance it’s going in." That’s what we’re trying to do. I hope he can get (to 50) as soon as possible and get a lot more."

The gravity of the situation isn't lost on Caufield, who would be just the seventh Canadiens player to score 50 goals in a season, joining Richer (twice), Guy Lafleur (six times), Steve Shutt, Bernie Geoffrion, Pierre Larouche and Maurice Richard. If he passes MacKinnon and finishes with the most in the NHL, he'd also win the Maurice “Rocket" Richard Trophy named after one of the most decorated players in franchise history.

Caufield insists he's “still hungry." This pursuit, followed by an even more important one in the playoffs, keeps him that way.

“Certainly it’s a good feeling to be producing, but at the end of the day I think I’ve grown a lot as a player and I’m just going to try and continue to do that,” Caufield said. “For me, right now, I still feel like there’s more out there.”

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

Eden and Rance dive deep into the Ecuadorian flavors created by Chefs Maria La Mota and Chason Spencer.

At the time of the recording, Chancho King was a semi-finalist for the prestigious James Beard Award for best Chef in the South region. Stay til the end...

Patchy fog will develop overnight away from the coast, especially for those locations that see any shower or storm.

This weekend will feature a mix of sun and clouds with temperatures in the 80s. In fact, near-record highs are likely on Sunday. The record high temperature on Sunday at Jacksonville International Airport is 91 degrees set in 2017.

An isolated shower or storm is possible each day, but activity won’t be widespread.

A front will approach our area from the north on Monday. It will turn breezy and much cooler with a northeasterly wind. Highs will be in the 70s on Monday with a few showers and storms.

The front will be slow-moving, which will keep the clouds and rain in the forecast on Tuesday. It will be breezy as well with a strong northeasterly wind. The front should clear most of our area on Wednesday, but it will remain mostly cloudy, breezy and cool.

Highs on Tuesday and Wednesday will only be in the 60s due to the clouds and a strong northeasterly wind.

This front will bring beneficial rainfall to our area, which is good news since we are in a drought. Several areas could potentially see over an inch or more of rain.

Regarding the drought, the latest drought monitor reflects the overall pattern over the past few months. Most of our area remains in an extreme drought. An exceptional drought classification has been expanded to include more of our area.

As mentioned above, slight improvement can be expected with the rain in the forecast early next week.

TONIGHT: Partly Cloudy. Patchy Fog Possible. Low 63.

SATURDAY: Sun & Clouds. Isolated Rain & Storms. High 85, Low 62.

SUNDAY: Partly Cloudy. Mainly Dry. High 88, Low 61.

MONDAY: Mostly Cloudy & Breezy. Scattered Rain. High 72, Low 56.

TUESDAY: Cloudy & Breezy. Scattered Rain. High 69, Low 57.

WEDNESDAY: Cloudy & Breezy. Isolated Rain. High 69, Low 60.

The annual Marshmallow Drop, hosted by Wayne County Parks, took place two hours apart in Trenton, Michigan, and Westland, Michigan.

“It was great. The weather is beautiful, and I think this is a great thing to do with all the kids to start off Easter and the weekend, so yeah, I think it’s wonderful,” said Anna Grote (GROH’-tee), a Westland resident who attended with her boyfriend and his 10-year-old son.

Hundreds of children at each place cheered as the helicopter passed by on its way to the drop zone. Once there, a passenger unloaded the treats out of a sack and onto the grass below. The helicopter made three passes, dropping marshmallows for kids in different age groups.

David Alexander was in Westland with his two kids, 7 and 10. The Inkster resident encouraged them “to be the first ones at the line.”

“Ready, set, go. Be the first one, take off,” he said.

Officials stressed that, although tempting, the marshmallow must not be eaten, because they struck the ground. Instead, kids exchanged the fluffy treats for a prize.

Some kids snatched up way more than one, and their parents kindly dumped most back onto the turf, allowing other kids a shot at it.

“Everybody was nice. There wasn't any pushing, there wasn't any shoving, no fighting,” said Alexander, a first-time attendee.

Grote said her boyfriend's son “did not have any difficulty at all” in procuring a marshmallow.

“The thrill of the hunt, right,” she said, laughing.

Varsity 4 Super 6 baseball rankings

Rank, Previous, School, Record, Classification

1. (1) Trinity Christian (16-6, Class 2A)

Quality wins: Baylor (Tenn.), Beachside, Clay, Columbia, Edmond Memorial (Okla.), Lincoln, Lowndes (Ga.), Magnolia Heights (Miss.), North Marion, Richmond Hill (Ga.), St. Johns Country Day, Suwannee, Tocoi Creek, University Christian, West Broward.

Notable: The Conquerors went 2-1 since our last Super 6, including an 11-6 loss to powerhouse St. John Bosco in nine innings at the NHSI, and followed that up with a 9-7 win over nationally ranked Baylor in the finale there. They returned home with an 8-1 win over Clay. Only two Trinity losses have come to local teams (St. Johns Country Day, Creekside). Gage Petrutz (.463, 3 HR, 17 RBI) and Aiden Arnett (.359, 2 HR, 10 RBI) are having excellent seasons at the plate against wicked tough competition. Parker Loew is the only other Trinity batter hitting .300, and he’s right on the nose of that. Tyler Ellis (5-0, 0.70 ERA, 47 Ks, 30 IP) and Brennan Bachtell Jr. (4-0, 1.75 ERA, 28 IP, 39 Ks) are the starters who have multiple decisions who remain unbeaten.

2. (3) Creekside (19-4, Class 7A)

Quality wins: Bartram Trail, Beachside, Bolles, Clay, Hagerty, North Marion, St. Johns Country Day, St. Joseph, Tocoi Creek, Trinity Christian, West Orange, Windermere (twice).

Notable: Solid week for the Knights. They went 2-1, topping St. Johns Country Day (2-1) and Winter Park (5-1). They lost a 2-1 game to Georgia power Lowndes. Dominic Cantona (.350, 2 HR, 16 RBI) bumped his average up 5 points since our last Super 6 against big-time competition. Aramis Guanchez (.319) is right behind. I’m convinced that Creekside can beat any team in 7A with Gavin Duprey or Matt Bysheim throwing. Those guys are elite.

3. (2) Bishop Snyder (15-5, Class 2A)

Quality wins: Baldwin, Bolles, Central (Ala.), Farragut (Tennessee), Fernandina Beach, Hartselle (Ala.), Morgan County (Ga.), Newnan (Ga.), Providence, Sandalwood, South Walton, Suwannee.

Notable: The Cardinals went 1-2 since our last Super 6, with losses to Trinity Catholic (5-2) and Bartram Trail (5-4). They added a quality W over Ponte Vedra (7-1). Not any room for concern for the Cardinals. They’re playing very strong programs and faring very well. Ilias Mamea (.442, 3 HR, 14 RBI) and Tanner Upton (.377, 13 RBI) are leading the offense for Snyder. Cole Dennis (5-1, 1.12 ERA, 63 Ks) is leading the hurlers.

4. (4) St. Johns Country Day (16-6, Class 1A)

Quality wins: Baldwin, Beachside, Bishop Kenny, Clay (twice), Flagler Palm Coast, Providence, Sandalwood, Suwannee, Trinity Christian, University Christian, West Broward, Winter Park

Notable: The Spartans went 2-2 since our last Super 6, topping Clay (6-3) and Bishop Kenny (8-2) while losing to Bolles (3-2) and Creekside (2-1). I’ll say it again for folks who just record watch—you have to take quality of competition into account. The Spartans are a 1A school who have dropped all six games against much larger programs. They close out the regular season next week against Georgia teams North Gwinnett, Parkview and North Oconee. Madden Williams (.375, 3 HR, 17 RBI), Hunter Rodgers (.339, 2 HR, 13 RBI) and Jonas Wells (.333, 13 RBI) lead the bats. While he’s not racking up the monstrous perfect season on the mound like he did in 2025, Brayden Harris (5-2, 81 Ks, 44 IP, 1.75 ERA) remains one of the best arms around. His junior season was just unbelievable.

5. (5) Fernandina Beach (17-3, Class 3A)

Quality wins: Baker County, Baldwin (twice), Bishop Kenny, First Coast, Sandalwood, Tocoi Creek, Trinity Catholic, Union County, West Nassau.

Notable: A 2-0 week, with wins over Fletcher and a quality Tocoi Creek team. They’ve won three straight since a loss to St. Augustine. No reason that the Pirates shouldn’t wrap up the regular season with wins over Fleming Island, Ridgeview and Savannah Christian. Trace Farmer continues to lead the Pirates offensively (.489, 2 HR, 19 RBI).

6. (6) Bartram Trail (13-7, Class 6A)

Quality wins: Bishop Kenny, Bishop Snyder, Bolles, Clay, Columbia, Episcopal, First Coast, Ponte Vedra, Spruce Creek, St. Augustine.

Notable: Turns out that it was the right call to put the Bears in the rankings last week. They stretched their winning streak to six games, including a high quality 5-4 win over Bishop Snyder. Colby Dean (.355, 2 HR) is leading the Bartram offense. Something to be on the lookout for. Bears head coach Ryan Fitzpatrick will be out of action for a bit after the school had to self report a pitch count violation involving a player who threw a total of 103 pitches instead of the maximum of 95. Players between the ages of 13 and 16 years old are only permitted to throw 95 pitches in a game. Players 17 and older can throw a maximum of 105. The pitcher is permitted to finish facing the current batter even after that pitch count is reached, but must leave as soon as that batter is retired. A source said there was an oversight on the player’s age.

On the bubble

Atlantic Coast (11-9, Class 7A); Baldwin (13-10, Class 3A); Beachside (14-9, Class 5A); Bishop Kenny (12-11, Class 4A); Bolles (15-6, Class 2A); Columbia (12-9, Class 5A); Episcopal (14-8, Class 2A); Flagler Palm Coast (15-7, Class 7A); Fleming Island (14-8, Class 5A); Palatka (16-5, Class 3A); Paxon (11-3, Class 3A); Ponte Vedra (12-9, Class 5A); Providence (13-10, Class 2A); St. Augustine (12-10, Class 4A); St. Joseph (16-4, Class 1A); Sandalwood (15-7, Class 7A); Tocoi Creek (11-12, Class 6A); Union County (16-6, Rural).

The president is reportedly unhappy with the performance of Lori Chavez-DeRemer, the labor secretary, and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. An unnamed administration official said, “He’s very angry and he’s going to be moving people.” The president also apparently polled advisers about replacing Tulsi Gabbard as intelligence chief.

News4JAX political analyst and head of the Jacksonville University Haskell Public Policy Institute Rick Mullaney joined us to discuss President Trump firing the attorney general, who was a Trump loyalist, and what the future may hold.

The movement disorder is the most common one there is.

It can be evident when someone is trying to do a task and a part of their body shakes involuntarily. It keeps getting worse as they try to complete that task.

There are several tests one doctor asks his patients to do throughout the treatment to make sure they get the best results.

Robert Schlag and Aubrey Smith had essential tremors.

For example, their arms would shake while trying to take a drink of water, only for it to get worse the closer the bottles got to their mouths.

Now, both of their tremors are gone after being treated at HCA Florida Orange Park through what’s called a “focused ultrasound.”

“I told everybody I know about this who has tremors, about this procedure,” said Schlag. “So I would definitely spread the word. I love it.”

“I can do more things with both hands, like working with small items,” Smith said. “I like working with wood.”

News4JAX first told you about this procedure more than two years ago.

You might be wondering what happens during that ultrasound?

Dr. Michael Horowitz, who is a neurosurgeon at the hospital, breaks it down.

What is involved is ultrasonic energy being used on the part of the brain called the thalamus.

“The way we do that is by putting someone in an MRI scanner, getting very detailed images of their brain,” Horowitz said. “While they are in the MRI scanner, there is also a device that couples with the MRI scanner that is attached to the patient’s head temporarily. It gives ultrasonic energy, just like an ultrasound, but from about 500 different points. All of those points come down, and all of those energy waves calm down to focus in the same place. We are focusing ultrasonic energy at the point in the brain that we want to damage and heat it up so that it does not work anymore.”

If successful, the tremors either get significantly reduced or go away completely.

Just for clarity, this kind of procedure, right now, can only be done for tremors where a person’s arm is the part of the body that is affected. It does not help with tremor of the mouth, head or legs.

During the entire procedure, a patient is awake.

Over the course of the 90 minutes, Horowitz has each person do simple tests with hopes their performance improves as the right part of the brain is targeted.

“I test people ahead of time with writing, but I also after the procedure when they are out of the room, I test their writing again,” he said. “But when they are in the room, I tested them by giving them a water bottle and asking them to slowly move the water to their mouth as if they are trying to drink. Usually, they will start and [aggressively shake the closer it gets to their mouths]. Then we are ready to treat them. Then they will be very steady or move just a little bit. I also will give them a spoon while they are lying on their back. I give them the spoon like they are eating soup. I will ask them to open their moth really wide and keep it open. Just slowly move the spoon into their mouth, but not let it touch their teeth of their lips.”

Horowitz says HCA Florida Orange Park has treated more than 100 patients with the focused ultrasound.

The FDA approved the procedure to be done on one arm at a time, with a 9-month window between. Horowitz says that specific time frame is to help ensure a patient recovers appropriately.

If someone has tremors in both arms, the nine months give them enough time to decide if they want the other arm treated. That is imperative, especially if they were uncomfortable during the first round of treatment since it is permanent.

On April 1, 2026, St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office deputies responded to South Woodlawn Street after receiving reports of a fight involving multiple people and a stabbing.

When deputies arrived, they located an adult male victim with a stab wound. He was transported to an area hospital for treatment. His condition has not been released.

Through their investigation, detectives with the SJSO Major Crimes Unit identified a 37-year-old man, as the suspect. Investigators say he pulled a knife during the altercation and stabbed the victim.

The suspect was arrested and charged with aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, affray and violation of probation.

That's rare, but it might be this season's reality.

The roster of award-caliber players who won't be winning awards this season continues to grow, with Doncic — the Los Angeles Lakers standout guard and MVP candidate — now out with a left hamstring injury. Minnesota guard Anthony Edwards is certain to miss the league's 65-game award eligibility threshold as well after he was held out Thursday because of illness.

Doncic has played 64 games, so he would fall just short of the mark if his hamstring issue keeps him out for the remainder of the regular season -- which has barely over a week remaining. It's worth noting that BetMGM Sportsbook, among others, took Doncic off the list of MVP betting options following his injury Thursday.

“At this juncture of the season, it’s the last thing you want to see,” Lakers star LeBron James told reporters in Oklahoma City after Thursday's game. “Especially anybody on our team, but when you have an MVP candidate on your team, the last thing you want to see is somebody go down with a hamstring injury."

Edwards can now only reach a maximum of 64 games as well, so he won’t be on the ballot for most major NBA awards either.

What is the 65-game rule?

It was collectively bargained — meaning the league and the players association agreed on the terms — and this is the third season of it being part of the NBA rules.

It applies to player eligibility for five awards — MVP, Defensive Player of the Year, Most Improved Player, the All-NBA Team and the All-Defensive Team. Players have to either play in 65 regular-season games (with some minutes-played minimums in there as well), or at least 62 games before suffering a “season-ending injury."

But even if Doncic's hamstring keeps him out for the rest of the regular season, it wouldn't be classified as “season-ending” unless a doctor — jointly selected by the NBA and the National Basketball Players Association — says he wouldn't be able to play again through May 31.

There is a grievance process and even a way to challenge the rule citing extraordinary circumstances, but neither would be easily utilized.

Who's out of the award races?

Five of the league's six highest-paid players this season — Golden State's Stephen Curry and Jimmy Butler, Philadelphia's Joel Embiid, Milwaukee's Giannis Antetokounmpo and Boston's Jayson Tatum — aren't eligible for awards. Denver's Nikola Jokic is the exception on the highest-paid list, and he'd likely be ineligible if he misses another game as well.

There were 23 players on the list of those winning MVP, MIP, DPOY, All-NBA and All-Defense last season. Of those, at least 10 are out of the running for honors this season: Antetokounmpo, Curry, Edwards, James, Tatum, Detroit's Cade Cunningham, Indiana teammates Tyrese Haliburton and Ivica Zubac, Utah's Jaren Jackson Jr. and Oklahoma City's Jalen Williams. (Most of those 10 have been out of the awards mix because of injuries for some time; Tatum and Haliburton both tore Achilles in last season's playoffs and it was obvious then that they wouldn't hit 65-game marks this year.)

Another four award winners from a year ago — Jokic, Oklahoma City's Lu Dort, Golden State's Draymond Green and Cleveland's Evan Mobley — aren't at 65 games yet this season but, for now anyway, seem on pace to get there.

Will the rule be changed?

Never say never. The union wants changes to the policy, and it's certain to come up in their conversations with the league office. But many players — and even Andre Iguodala, now the head of the players' association — have said in recent years that the 65-game rule is a good thing.

The league doesn't seem inclined to make a change based solely on what would appear to be an extraordinary number of award candidates not hitting the threshold in one year.

“I think it is working,” NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said last month. “I think if you look at the numbers, the pre-implementation of this rule, numbers were going in the wrong direction. I may have this a little bit off: I think the three years before we adopted this rule, almost a third of the All-NBA players had not played 80% of the games. That was a huge issue for the league.”

Scoring champion ... but not All-NBA?

As we said, it's rare, but it has happened. Twice, to be exact.

— 1968-69: Elvin Hayes won the scoring title as a rookie, then wasn't even All-NBA — and didn't win Rookie of the Year, either.

— 1975-76: Bob McAdoo won his third consecutive scoring title and was second in the MVP race — but didn't make All-NBA. Players voted for MVP in those days, and McAdoo was an extremely close second behind Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Dave Cowens was third in the MVP vote but got the second-team All-NBA nod at center, with Abdul-Jabbar the first-team pick.

Doncic could join that list. He was scheduled for an MRI on Friday to determine the extent of his hamstring injury. It's not mathematically certain yet that he wins the scoring title, but it would take something extraordinary for it not to happen.

He's averaging 33.5 points per game, with Gilgeous-Alexander at 31.6 per game. For Gilgeous-Alexander — last season's scoring champion — to overtake Doncic, he would need to go on an unbelievable run. An example: He'd need to score 292 points over the final five games to take over the top spot, and nobody other than Wilt Chamberlain has had a five-game run like that.

Of the previous 79 scoring champions, 64 were first-team All-NBA and 13 were second-team.

Jokic is going to win the league's rebounding and assist titles, while averaging a triple-double yet again. But he's also not assured yet of being on the award ballots.

Why can some players win statistical titles but not win All-NBA?

The thresholds are different.

While the award mandate is 65 games in most cases, players are eligible for most statistical awards if they play in 58 games (or 70% of the season). There are different standards for some stat awards, such as field-goal percentage (minimum 300 made), free-throw percentage (minimum 125 made) and 3-point percentage (minimum 82 made).

A player can win a stat award while appearing in less than 58 games.

For example, last season, San Antonio's Victor Wembanyama played only 46 games but still won the blocked shot title. Even if he played in the minimum 58 games and recorded no blocks in the 12 games needed to reach that number he still would have been ahead of the runner-up, Utah's Walker Kessler.

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AP NBA: https://www.apnews.com/hub/NBA

Alito's illness did not require an overnight hospital stay and he was back on the bench the following Monday, spokeswoman Patricia McCabe said in a statement.

Alito was an active questioner during arguments that day in an important case about mailed ballots and participated in all the court's hearings over the ensuing two weeks.

Alito, who turned 76 on Wednesday, is the second-oldest member of the court, after 77-year-old Justice Clarence Thomas.

The episode was first reported by CNN, which also said the treatment was administered at a Philadelphia hospital. The court did not say where Alito had been taken.

The incident is the latest example of the justices' reticence to discuss their health, at least until the news somehow leaks.

In 2020, the court confirmed that Chief Justice John Roberts had spent a night in the hospital after a fall that required stitches in his forehead, only after the Washington Post reported it first.

Alito was driven by his security detail from Washington to what CNN said was a dinner following a Federalist Society panel that looked at his 20 years on the court.

When he didn't feel well in the evening, “he agreed with his security detail’s recommendation to see a physician before the three-hour drive home” to northern Virginia, McCabe said. He was given fluids for dehydration, she said.

While the justice has not said anything about retirement, speculation has swirled that Alito might soon step down, which would give President Donald Trump the chance to appoint a fourth justice, after the three who were confirmed during his first term.

While Alito is young by Supreme Court standards, he might not want to stay around and gamble on the possibility of Democrats flipping the Senate in the November elections and seeing a Democrat capture the White House two years later.

Retiring in the summer would allow Trump to name a similarly conservative but much younger replacement who would almost certainly win confirmation from the Republican-led Senate.

Shock was not one of them.

“I'm ready for this,” Griffin said Friday, just hours before making his major league debut against Baltimore at PNC Park.

The Pirates are betting big on it, making Griffin the first position player to arrive in the majors before his 20th birthday since Juan Soto did it in Washington in 2018.

Just 628 days after Pittsburgh selected him with the ninth pick in the 2024 first-year player draft, the athletic and mustachioed 6-foot-3 Griffin found a No. 6 jersey hanging in his locker at PNC Park and his name penciled in the seventh spot in the lineup against the Orioles.

On the surface, it seems fast. The reality is that Griffin checked every box — and checked every box quickly — while sprinting through the Pirates' system. The final steps came over the last week when he hit .438 in a handful of games for Triple-A Indianapolis.

Pittsburgh manager Don Kelly felt like Griffin was “pressing” near the end of spring training, when Griffin smashed three homers but also hit just .171. The club made Griffin one of the last cuts before the opening day roster was set. Yet rather than sulk, he headed to Triple-A, made a couple of adjustments, and saw immediate results.

“He just went right down and hit his stride and was able to reset in a couple of days,” Kelly said. “Which again, for anybody, is really impressive, especially for a 19-year-old kid whose hopes and dreams were to make the big leagues.”

That doesn't make Griffin unlike the millions of kids who pick up a bat when they're in elementary school. It's everything that has come after it, however, that has set Griffin apart. He raced through the lower levels of the minors last year, hitting 21 homers, driving in 94 runs, and stealing 65 bases while showcasing the range to play one of the game's most demanding defensive positions.

Yet it's not just the tangible on-field things that won the organization over. Griffin has long carried himself with the maturity of someone far older. He married his high school sweetheart, Dendy, over the winter. And she was the first one he told after Indianapolis manager Eric Patterson called Griffin to his hotel room in Columbus early Thursday to tell him he was heading to The Show.

The next 24 hours were a blur. From the short drive from Columbus to Pittsburgh to the scramble for the Mississippi native's family to make it to the ballpark that's tucked hard against the Allegheny River in time for Friday's first pitch.

Finally, just after noon, Griffin was able to relax. He trotted out to shortstop and took grounders, his frame and arm making him look very much the part of the role he's been preparing for since he was 5.

Griffin's skillset has drawn comparisons to the likes of Hall of Famer Cal Ripken Jr., heady territory for someone less than two years removed from his high school graduation. Still, he's not getting ahead of himself.

“Today is the first day of carving out a legacy that I want to build,” he said. "And I’m ready to do that and try to be right up there with those top guys.”

Griffin is the latest in a string of high-profile arrivals in Pittsburgh, from reigning Cy Young winner Paul Skenes to rookie right-hander Bubba Chandler to catcher Henry Davis.

The future that's been talked about since general manager Ben Cherington was hired in late 2019 is finally arriving. And perhaps it's telling of how far the club has come that Griffin is joining a roster that has undergone a significant upgrade in recent months with the additions of All-Star second baseman Brandon Lowe, All-Star first baseman/outfielder Ryan O'Hearn and veteran designated hitter Marcell Ozuna.

“This team is loaded,” Griffin said. “I get to come in here and just be a piece of this puzzle.”

Perhaps a very big piece. For a very long time. The Pirates and Griffin have engaged in talks about a contract extension that would lock him up for most of the next decade.

Griffin demurred when asked about it on Friday, though he made his intentions very clear.

“All I’m going to say is, I want to be a Pirate for a long time,” he said. "This is a special place and I’m thankful to be here.”

Perhaps most importantly because it means he can shed the “top prospect” label and stop focusing so much on his individual development and instead turn his attention to helping the Pirates make a playoff push for the first time since the mid-2010s.

“Now it’s time to take all the skills that I’ve learned,” he said, "all the adjustments I’ve made. It’s time to go put them on the field and go win some games.”

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

Readers “will not find a printed Las Vegas Sun insert inside,” the Review-Journal wrote in an editorial, noting the Sun maintains a website, has a few hundred thousand followers across social media platforms, and is free to produce its own newspaper.

“We encourage them to do so. The Review-Journal competes with countless sources of news and entertainment, but we would welcome one more. We just don’t want to foot the bill. It is time the Sun stood up on its own two feet,” the editorial said, without specifying the cost.

It was the first day in 76 years the Sun hasn’t been printed, Sun attorney Leif Reid said in an email.

“This does irreparable harm to our community, as no one benefits when a local newspaper is prevented from being published,” Reid said.

The two publications will be in court Friday and the Sun hopes a judge will order printing to immediately resume. Employees are preparing print pages as always in hopes they will be able to publish Saturday, said Robert Cauthorn, chief operating officer.

The now-rare joint operating agreement required the Sun to be printed as a daily insert in the Review-Journal, the state’s largest newspaper. Both companies remained editorially independent with separate newsrooms and websites.

A lower court found the agreement was unenforceable because a 2005 update was never signed by the U.S. attorney general, and in February the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the Sun's appeal.

The Review-Journal editorial called the Supreme Court decision a decisive victory, saying that halting publication of the Sun on Friday was “a result of 6½ years of litigation between the newspapers, precipitated by the Sun.”

Such agreements between rival publications have dwindled as part of a "long, slow goodbye of newspapers as we knew them,” said Ken Doctor, a news business analyst. The Detroit Free Press and the Detroit News ended a 40-year agreement last year. USA Today Co., which owns the Detroit Free Press, recently announced its plans to purchase the Detroit News.

The two papers are longtime rivals

In 1950, the Sun was founded in response to the Review-Journal’s refusal to negotiate with typesetters from the International Typographical Union. The union started its own newspaper and reached out to businessman Hank Greenspun for financial backing. The Greenspuns still own the paper.

The Review-Journal has been publishing since 1909, first as the Clark County Review. It is owned by the Adelson family, who are casino magnates and Republican megadonors.

The Review-Journal’s editorials lean more conservative, while the Sun’s lean liberal. The 1970 law signed by then-President Richard Nixon, called the Newspaper Preservation Act, was designed to save newspapers costs while maintaining competition and editorial variety.

The papers first entered into a joint operating agreement in 1989 when the Sun was struggling to stay afloat financially. The agreement made the Sun an afternoon newspaper during weekdays and a section within the Review-Journal on weekend mornings, while the Review-Journal handled production, distribution and advertising. The Review-Journal also collected all revenue and was required to pay the Sun monthly to cover the Sun’s news and editorial expenses.

In 2005 the agreement was amended to make the Sun an insert in the Review-Journal every morning.

Review-Journal owners sought to end the agreement in 2019, and in response the Sun’s owners filed a lawsuit alleging that ending the agreement violated antitrust laws.

Readers today have more options

The 1970 law allowing such agreements came at a time when news options weren't as prevalent and there was more concern over news monopolies.

Las Vegas — and Nevada as a whole — today have more strong, independent news organizations compared with other places, said Stephen Bates, a journalism and media professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

The Sun also publishes online. But it has argued in court that losing its print product could make it harder to recruit staff, cause a loss in readers, and even force it to close.

Genelle Belmas, a journalism professor at the University of Kansas who specializes in media law, said it would be disappointing if the last joint operating agreement in the country ends. During visits to Vegas, she's enjoyed being able to pick up the Review-Journal and see the Sun folded inside, offering two differing points of view in one place. Online news outlets make it easier for consumers to stay in their echo chambers, she said.

“Every local news outlet we lose — and that includes big towns, small towns, whatever — is a loss of perspective and a loss of a potential alternative view,” Belmas said.

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Associated Press journalist Kathleen Ronayne contributed from Sacramento, California.

Consumer Reports put them to the test.

When every penny counts, there’s nothing more annoying than spending money and time on a cleaning product that doesn’t get the job done.

That’s why Consumer Reports expert product testers make messes in CR labs and, sometimes, in their own homes to help you find the best products for your money.

Let’s start with a must-have: paper towels. As you probably know, there can be a big difference in brands.

CR’s tests show Bounty Select-A-Size Sheets are tops for their impressive scrubbing strength. Bounty might be one of the more expensive brands, but the towels absorb so well that you can wring them out and reuse them.

So, you might actually be saving money in the long run.

Multi-purpose cleaners are the way to go if you’re on a tight budget.

CR says Mr. Clean’s Clean Freak spray, at $5 a bottle, is a favorite. It effortlessly cleans most surfaces and features a power nozzle that lets you control the amount of spray.

Another winner, Walmart’s Great Value Multi-Purpose Cleaner for $3. It tackles most jobs, but shines brightest when cleaning glass.

Another $3 deal is Sprayway’s Glass Cleaner. It also tackles chrome, tile and porcelain, in addition to cleaning mirrors and other glass, and dries in a flash.

If you mean business this Spring and need a new vacuum, a CR Best Buy is the bagless Shark Navigator NV360, available at Walmart, Amazon, Target and Home Depot for under $130.

For those tough, greasy kitchen spots, a little baking soda and water can go a long way. Buy a sponge that can handle it.

Scrub Daddy Sponge Daddy requires a little elbow grease, but it was great at removing the remnants of grape juice from the bottom of a glass.

Finally, perk up your coffee machine for Spring. For most models, you can run a mixture of white vinegar and water through the machine, but check your manual.

Run a brew cycle halfway, let it sit for up to an hour, then finish the cycle and rinse with two to three cycles of fresh water.

Don’t forget to change the air filters. Though you can simply wipe down most prefilters, the main HEPA filter should be replaced about every six to 12 months, or as your manual advises.

Troopers from the Perryville station responded shortly before 1:40 p.m. Wednesday to milepost 12.2 on I-78 eastbound in Union Township. The animal was by itself, officials said.

The bear was soon safely secured and taken back to the state police barracks, where it was later turned over to staffers with the state's Environmental Protection Department, who were caring for the animal.

It's not clear how the cub ended up in the ditch or how long it had been there before it was spotted. Details on the bear's condition were not available Friday.

So how can you avoid becoming part of the next crash story on News4JAX?

I rode along with a defensive driving instructor with the Northeast Florida Safety Council to find out.

Ben McCorkel, a former state trooper, demonstrated the basics drivers should follow every time they get behind the wheel.

And it starts even before that.

McCorkel said drivers should begin with a “360” walk-around before getting in the car. He said to look for children, animals, toys or anything near the vehicle, and to check for leaks or other issues with tire pressure.

We know, it takes extra time before you leave, but McCorkel’s lesson was clear: prevention comes first.

And that quick check could be life-saving!

Once inside the vehicle, McCorkel stressed control and keeping both hands engaged.

When I tried to adjust and reached back using one hand, McCorkel stopped me and pointed out that one-handed driving reduces control if something goes wrong.

He said that even taking a hand off the wheel while talking -- another common habit -- can cost a driver reaction time.

On the road, McCorkel told me to keep scanning for pedestrians and for vehicles that might enter the roadway unexpectedly. He said some drivers will pull out without waiting, acting as if they come first.

At a red light, I asked McCorkel how much space drivers should leave behind the car in front of them. He said drivers should stop far enough back to see the front vehicle’s tires touching the pavement.

And when it comes to turn signals, many drivers think that if they’re already in a turn lane, signaling isn’t necessary. But McCorkel said turn signals should be used every time.

So what causes most of the crashes we see in Jacksonville?

In McCorkel’s opinion, it’s speed.

But he noted that driving too fast isn’t the only issue. Drivers going too slowly can also be dangerous and contribute to crashes.

At another intersection, I stopped slightly over the line, while another driver was much farther past it. McCorkel said that technically equates to running the red light.

McCorkel also urges drivers not to text while driving, not to engage with aggressive drivers, and not to play music so loudly that they cannot hear emergency responders approaching.

Residents in Waycross have reported seeing large plumes of smoke rising from the ‘Sergeant Fire’, which is burning just north of Columbia and Baker counties in Florida.

Road closures are in effect due to heavy smoke. According to the Florida Highway Patrol, all lanes on State Road 2 in Sanderson are closed. The Georgia Department of Transportation reports both lanes of State Road 94 Southbound at Main Pasture Road are also shut down.

The Florida Forestry Service says no homes are currently being threatened by the blaze. Several agencies are working together to contain and fight the fire.

This is a developing story.

The sizable increase for the Pentagon, some 44%, had been telegraphed by the Republican president even before the the U.S.-led war against Iran. The president's plan would also reduce spending on non-defense programs by 10%.

“President Trump promised to reinvest in America’s national security infrastructure, to make sure our nation is safe in a dangerous world,” wrote Budget Director Russell Vought.

The president’s annual budget is considered a reflection of the administration’s values and does not carry the force of law. The massive document typically highlights an administration’s priorities, but Congress, which handles federal spending issues, is free to reject it and often does.

This year’s White House document is intended to provide a road map from the president to Congress as lawmakers build their own budgets and annual appropriations bills to keep the government funded. Vought spoke to House GOP lawmakers on a private call Thursday.

Trump, speaking ahead of an address to the nation this week about the Iran war, signaled the military is his priority, setting up a clash ahead in Congress.

“We’re fighting wars. We can’t take care of day care,” Trump said at a private White House event Wednesday.

“It’s not possible for us to take care of day care, Medicaid, Medicare — all these individual things,” he said. “They can do it on a state basis. You can’t do it on a federal.”

Money for immigration enforcement, air traffic controllers and national parks

Among the priorities the White House called for:

—Supporting the Trump administration's immigration enforcement and deportation operations by eliminating aspects of a refugee resettlement aid program, maintaining Immigration and Customs Enforcement funds at current year levels and drawing on last's year's increases for the Department of Homeland Security funds to continue opening detention facilities, including 100,000 beds for adults and 30,000 for families.

-- A 13% increase in funding for the Department of Justice to focus on violent criminals and the president's promise to stop what the White House calls migrant crime.

-- A $10 billion fund within the National Park Service for "construction and beautification” projects in Washington, D.C..

-- A $481 million increase in funding to enhance aviation safety and support an air traffic controller hiring surge.

Cuts to green energy, housing and health programs

— Cancels more than $15 billion from the Biden-era bipartisan infrastructure law, including funds for renewable energy projects and cuts to the National Oceans and Atmospheric Association, or NOAA, grants.

— 19% cut in the Department of Agriculture, ending certain university grants, a 13% cut for the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and about a 12% decrease to the Health and Human Services department, including cuts to a low-income heating assistance program.

The White House is touting cuts of what it calls “woke programs” that often direct federal investments toward low-income communities. The budget used the word “woke” 34 times

For example, the administration is looking to cut Community Services Block Grants, which funds activities such as financial and job counseling and helping people obtain adequate housing. The administration says its cuts would target grants “hijacked by radicals" to promote equity-building and green energy initiatives.

The president also seeks to cut $106 million in funding from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, which it says has “pushed radical gender ideology onto children.”

Supporters and detractors

The Republican chairmen of the House and Senate Armed Services committees applauded Trump’s request for defense spending, saying the money would ensure the country’s military remains the most advanced in the world while confronting growing threats from China, Russia, Iran and others.

“America is facing the most dangerous global environment since World War II,” said Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Ala.

The top Democrat on House Budget Committee, Rep. Brendan Boyle of Pennsylvania, said the president was demanding a massive increase in defense while cutting billions from health care, housing and more.

“This budget represents ‘America Last,’” Boyle said.

Debt, deficits and tough choices ahead

With the nation running nearly $2 trillion annual deficits and the debt swelling past $39 trillion, the federal balance sheets have long been operating in the red.

About two-thirds of the nation's estimated $7 trillion in annual spending covers the Medicare and Medicaid health care programs, as well as Social Security income, which are essentially growing — along with an aging population — on autopilot.

It's the rest of the annual budget where much of the debate in Congress takes place, as Democrats over the years have insisted that changes in the level of spending for defense and non-defense need to be equitable.

The GOP's big tax breaks bill that Trump signed into law last year boosted his priorities beyond the budget process — with at least $150 billion for the Pentagon over the next several years, and $170 billion for Trump’s immigration and deportation operations at the Department of Homeland Security.

The administration is counting on its allies in the Republican-led Congress to push part of president’s beefed up defense spending through its own budget process, as it was able to do last year.

It suggests $1.1 trillion for defense would come through the regular appropriations process, which typically requires support from both parties for approval, while $350 billion would go in the budget reconciliation process that Republicans can accomplish on their own, through party-line majority votes.

Congress still fighting over 2026 spending

The president's budget arrives as the House and Senate remain tangled over current-year spending and stalemated over DHS funding, with Democrats demanding changes to Trump’s immigration enforcement regime that Republicans are unwilling to accept.

Trump announced Thursday he would sign an executive order to pay all DHS workers who have gone without paychecks during the record-long partial government shutdown that has reached 49 days.

Last year, in the president's first budget since returning to the White House, Trump sought to fulfill his promise to vastly reduce the size and scope of the federal government, reflecting the efforts of billionaire Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency.

However, while Trump had sought a roughly one-fifth decrease in non-defense spending, Congress kept such spending relatively flat.

Sen. Patty Murray, the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, called Trump's new budget “morally bankrupt.”

“Trump wants to build a ballroom," Murray said, referring to the White House renovation. "I want to build more affordable housing, and only one of us sits on the Appropriations Committee.”

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Associated Press reporter Bill Barrow in Atlanta contributed to this report.

The Republican-supermajority Legislature approved the Democratic-sponsored change, which now lets people prove they have complied for the last year with child support orders, such as payment plans. The legislation also unties the payment of all court costs from voting rights restoration.

Advocates for years have sought various changes to Tennessee’s voting rights restoration system at the statehouse and in court. They say loosening these two rules marks the biggest rollback of restrictions to voting rights restoration in decades.

“This is huge and this is history,” said Keeda Haynes, senior attorney for the advocacy group Free Hearts led by formerly incarcerated women like her.

Most Republicans voted for it and Democrats supported it unanimously. The law took effect immediately upon Republican Gov. Bill Lee's signature last week.

“I think people are at a point where they want to just remove the barriers out of the way and allow people to be fully functional members of society,” said Democratic House Minority Leader Karen Camper, a bill sponsor.

Easing up after years

In 2023 and early 2024, the state decided that the system did require going to court or showing proof of a pardon, not just a paperwork process, and that gun rights were required to restore the right to vote. Election officials said a court ruling made the changes necessary, though voting rights advocates said officials misinterpreted the order.

Last year, lawmakers untangled voting and gun rights. But voting rights advocates opposed some of the bill's other provisions, such as keeping the process in the courts, where costs can rack up if someone isn't ruled indigent.

A Republican split

Easing up on the financial requirements uncommonly split legislative Republicans. For instance, Senate Speaker Randy McNally voted against it, while House Speaker Cameron Sexton supported it, noting that people aren't getting forgiveness on making their payments.

“They need to continue paying that, and as long as they do, then there’s a possibility (to restore their voting rights)," Sexton said. "I really think that’s harder for people to argue against than maybe what something else was.”

Republican Rep. Johnny Garrett, who voted no, said in committee his vote would hinge on whether “there still can be an (child support) arrearage owed beyond that 12 months.”

For some, backed-up child support payments could reach hundreds or thousands of dollars, and court costs could be hundreds or thousands more, said Gicola Lane, Campaign Legal Center's Restore Your Vote community partnership senior manager.

Advocates credited their narrowed focus, omitting goals such as automatic restoration of rights, no longer tying restitution payments to voting rights, or offering a path for certain people to restore their right who are permanently disenfranchised, including those convicted of voter fraud or most murder charges.

The bill passed the Senate last year and the House this year.

Two decades under the child support rule

Lawmakers gave the child support requirement final passage in 2006 within an overhaul bill that also created a voting rights restoration process outside of court. Critics said the child support rule penalized impoverished parents.

Democrats were then narrowly hanging onto legislative leadership in both chambers. Republicans held a slim Senate majority but GOP defectors voted for a Democratic speaker.

Last year marked the dismissal of a nearly five-year-old federal lawsuit over Tennessee’s voting-rights restoration system. Free Hearts and the Campaign Legal Center represented plaintiffs in the long-delayed case, which saw some election policy changes along the way.

Roughly 184,000 people have completed supervision for felonies and their offenses don't preclude them from restoring their voting rights, according to a plaintiffs expert’s 2023 estimate in the lawsuit. About one in 10 were estimated to have outstanding child support payments, and more than six in 10 owed court courts, restitution or both, the expert said.

Other states' systems

Both Republican and Democratic-led states have eased the voting rights restoration process in recent years. Some states have added complexities.

In Florida, after voters approved a constitutional amendment in 2018 restoring the right to vote for people with felony convictions, the Republican-controlled Legislature watered that down by requiring payment of fines, fees and court costs.

Voting rights are automatically restored upon release in nearly half of states. In 15 others, it occurs after parole, probation or a similar period and sometimes requires paying outstanding court costs, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. In Maine and Vermont, people with felonies keep their voting rights in prison, the NCSL says.

Ten other states including Tennessee require additional government action. Virginia ’s governor must intervene to restore voting rights of people convicted of felonies. In some states, including Tennessee, certain conviction types render someone ineligible.

However, Virginia lawmakers this year have passed a proposed state constitutional amendment to ask voters whether they want automatic voting rights restoration after someone is released from prison. Kentucky lawmakers have proposed a similar change for voters' consideration that would automatically restore voting rights after certain completed sentences, including probation.

It wasn’t until 1989 — when Nashoba was in her late 20s — that she learned a deep secret about her ancestor.

Carterby was one of the Choctaw code talkers — a group of 19 Native American soldiers who used their language to transmit encrypted messages to the Allies during campaigns in northern France. The soldiers were sworn to secrecy and hid details of their service from families for decades.

Over the past 20 years, Nashoba has led advocacy efforts to spotlight the group’s hidden legacy as president of the Choctaw Code Talkers Association. Now, the soldiers’ contributions are recognized in Fort Worth through a new plaque at the city’s Veterans Memorial Park.

The Choctaw Code Talker Historical Marker was unveiled during an April 1 ceremony hosted by the Oklahoma tribe, the Texas Historical Commission and the city’s parks and recreation department. Several descendants of the Native soldiers attended.

“Seeing the marker really brings me a lot of joy,” Nashoba said. “This is what preserves the history for generations to come.”

Choctaw code talkers’ ties to Fort Worth

Members of the Choctaw code talkers were men who volunteered to fight for the U.S. in World War I at a time when Native Americans were not recognized as citizens. Indigenous communities wouldn’t receive citizenship until 1924.

While in the battlefields in France, some of these men were overheard speaking their Choctaw language and were trained to use their words as “code.” They were placed on front lines and command posts so that messages could be transmitted to headquarters.

The soldiers shared words like “tanampo chito” for artillery and “tvshka” for warriors, according to the historical marker. The Germans famously failed to decipher these Choctaw transmissions within 24 hours throughout the war.

The Choctaw group is widely considered to be the first Native American code talkers to serve in the U.S. military. Their work paved the way for the Navajo code talkers during World War II.

“Their story is a testament to the resilience and patriotism of the Choctaw Nation,” Col. Brent Kemp, commander of the 56th Infantry Brigade Combat Team of the National Guard, said at the unveiling. “Their ingenuity and bravery reminds us of the power of cultural heritage and the importance of preserving Indigenous languages.”

The Native American soldiers were in the 36th Infantry Division at Camp Bowie, a westside training site for more than 100,000 soldiers during World War I.

Council member Macy Hill, who represents Camp Bowie, said it was only fitting for Fort Worth to honor the legacy of the code talkers since they walked on the site’s grounds.

“This is where the Choctaw code talkers were initially trained and where they will forever be remembered,” she said.

Descendants carry the torch

As Ta’Na Alexander — the great-great-granddaughter of Carterby — watched the marker’s unveiling in Fort Worth, she couldn’t help but feel proud that her family’s history is slowly spreading across the U.S.

“It’s pretty monumental to realize that more people are starting to recognize the significant part of these men who were sworn to secrecy,” said Alexander, who is Nashoba’s daughter. “This marker connects the past to the future.”

She credits her mother’s leadership for widespread education about the work of Native soldiers.

Last May, the Choctaw Code Talkers Association led the charge to place a bronze sculpture honoring the group at the Choctaw Cultural Center in southern Oklahoma. The artwork depicts three soldiers in the middle of battle.

The organization also advocated for 23 Oklahoma bridges to be renamed after the code talkers and other Native veterans.

The Fort Worth marker was the group’s first venture into Texas, Nashoba said. The group is exploring other statewide recognitions, she added.

For now, Alexander invites Fort Worth residents to stroll through the memorial park to learn that her ancestors’ stories aren’t just about being Native. They’re about what it means to be American, she said.

“You might not be Native or Choctaw, but what we do share in common is that we have the right to vote,” she said. “We have a voice. We have a freedom that exists here that doesn’t exist anywhere else.”

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The Fort Worth Report’s arts and culture coverage is supported in part by the Meta Alice Keith Bratten Foundation and the Virginia Hobbs Charitable Trust. At the Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.

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This story was originally published by Fort Worth Report and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.

“Morning After Grace” is a play that focuses on retiring and retired Baby Boomers in a meaningful way. It’s about people who never thought they’d age.

Playwright Cary Crim joined us on The Morning Show along with her dad, a Jacksonville resident and former TV news anchor Mort Crim, who says the play hits “close to home.”

Customers traveling in the United States, Mexico, Canada and Latin America will now pay $45 for their first piece of luggage and $55 for their second bag, according to United.

“This is the first time in two years the airline has raised bag fees,” United said in a statement.

Some passengers will still receive a free first checked bag, including co-branded credit card holders, certain loyalty-tier members, active military personnel and travelers in premium cabins. Customers who check bags less than 24 hours before departure will pay an additional $5.

United joins JetBlue, which raised checked baggage fees on Monday by up to $9 during peak travel periods, as the war in the Middle East continues to severely disrupt global oil supplies, particularly near the narrow Strait of Hormuz where a fifth of the world's oil typically passes. That has caused crude prices to fluctuate wildly, which affects airlines' operating costs because the fuel their aircraft rely on is refined from crude oil.

JetBlue said charging more for optional services used by select customers helps keep base fares competitive. Like United, it will continue offering a free first checked bag to some customers.

The average price for a gallon of jet fuel in Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles and New York reached $4.88 on Thursday, up from $2.50 before the conflict began on Feb. 28, according to Argus Media. The energy market intelligence company’s U.S. Jet Fuel Index tracks the average prices across those major hubs.

Speaking to investors last month at a conference, United CEO Scott Kirby said the higher jet fuel costs had already added roughly $400 million to operating costs. The CEOs for Delta Air Lines and American Airlines reported similar figures.

Fuel is typically the second biggest expense for airlines after labor. Analysts expect U.S. airlines to pass higher fuel costs on to travelers by increasing add-on fees or ticket prices since they don’t usually have fuel surcharges, while a number of non-U.S. carriers already have added fuel surcharges.

Last year’s top priority, a 195-acre waterfront property along Shores Boulevard adjacent to the Moses Creek Conservation Area, slipped away according to Commissioner Ann Taylor and Jen Lombert, executive director and riverkeeper with Matanzas Riverkeeper.

“The number one from last year wasn’t on there, and they didn’t really discuss that the reason it wasn’t there wasn’t because it was purchased — it was because we lost it,” Lombert said. “And I think that that’s a really important cautionary tale.”

The LAMP account currently sits at $5,482,526. St. Johns County added $500,000 from the general fund and transferred $1.5 million from the Tree Bank Fund in January, bringing total fiscal year 2026 funding to $2 million.

Commissioner Ann Taylor, the county’s liaison to the LAMP Board, spoke at the March 3 commission meeting about the program and its future. She is hopeful to see it grow. Even with additional funding she says it makes it hard to purse some of the properties.

“Five hundred thousand dollars, when we look at these amazing properties, doesn’t put a dent in it,” Taylor said. “I’ve had a number of meetings with the Florida Land Trust. It is clear we do not have enough funding for this.”

“These are amazing properties we want to protect and preserve,” she added. “Preservation and conservation is number one for so many of our residents. It is a priority and we need to likewise make it a priority.”

The LAMP Board, led by new chair Wayne Flowers, brought five properties before the commission for the 2025 priority list:

1. Bailey Family Property — Bishop Estates Road, northeast St. Johns County — 67 acres
2. Adams Family Property — County Road 13 South — 94.4 acres
3. Christina Drive Shores Parcels — St. Augustine Shores PUD — 2.8 acres (three lots)
4. Arnold House — 10690 County Road 13 North, Picolata
5. McCullough Creek Property — County Road 13 South — 25.45 acres (two phases)

Topping the list is the Bailey Family Property, a working ranch in northeast St. Johns County.

Commissioner Christian Whitehurst signaled where he believes the county can act now.

“I think we have a great chance to get items 2, 3, 4 and 5,” Whitehurst said. “We have spent years building this up. We have a chance to grab some conservation land and we can only do that if we have adequate funding.”

Lombert said the stakes go beyond any single property.

“Once land is developed, that’s it. You cannot turn back the clock,” she said. “One of the best ways to protect water is to protect the land.”

“There is definitely still a lot of opportunities,” Lombert added. “And one of the great things about the LAMP program is that it’s a willing seller program. These are all people who want their land to be conserved. It’s just a matter of whether St. Johns County has enough funding to buy it.”

Raw Farm of Fresno, California, said Thursday it is voluntarily recalling more than a half-dozen varieties of its cheddar cheese made from raw milk. The recalled batches carry expiration dates spanning from May 2026 to September 2026.

Interest in and sales of raw milk have been rising in recent years, fueled by social media and growing support from the Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Make America Healthy Again movement. Raw milk has not been pasteurized, which kills germs like E. coli, salmonella, listeria and campylobacter.

The Food and Drug Administration began investigating cases of E. coli food poisoning among people who had reportedly consumed the company's products last month and previously requested a recall.

In an update last week, the FDA said it was conducting an inspection of the company's facilities but had not found positive testing for E. coli bacteria among the company's products.

Raw Farm reiterated that point in its announcement Thursday and added that it was conducting its recall “under protest” and in order to chart “a path forward.”

“This voluntary recall is limited to Raw Farm-brand cheddar cheese, and no other products are being voluntarily recalled,” the company said.

The FDA has the authority to order food companies to recall their products when there is a reasonable risk of serious injury or death, but the agency must first give the company the opportunity to voluntarily comply.

The FDA said last week that nine people, including children, have been sickened in the expanding outbreak.

Of eight people interviewed by health officials, seven reported consuming Raw Farm-brand products, according to the FDA. Two people in 2025 reported drinking Raw Farm milk and five people in 2026 said they ate or were served Raw Farm raw cheddar cheese.

Genetic sequencing of E. coli strains from sick people show that they are all closely related, indicating people in the outbreak “share a common source of infection,” the FDA said.

The federal government does not allow the sale of unpasteurized milk across state lines for human consumption. States have widely varying regulations regarding raw milk, with some allowing retail sales in stores and others allowing sale only at farms. Some states allow so-called cowshares, where people pay for milk from designated animals, and some allow consumption only by farm owners, employees or “non-paying guests.”

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Montgomery County police officers responding to a Sunday report about a pedestrian being struck in the Washington, D.C., suburb of Silver Spring found William Yates, the 79-year-old father of lead singer Brendan Yates, injured in a front yard, according to charging documents.

Yates' family said guitarist Brady Ebert, a neighbor who parted ways with the band several years ago, had struck him with a car, police wrote. Yates’ daughter, Erin Gerber, told authorities that she and her husband were getting their kids out of their car when Ebert drove up honking at them and yelling obscenities, then drove into her father.

In video footage obtained from a neighbor, Ebert could be seen driving a gold Buick LeSabre and swerving toward William Yates but missing him, according to the charging documents. Yates then threw a rock at Ebert’s vehicle and Gerber dragged her 3-year-old son onto the lawn to avoid being hit. Ebert then turned sharply into Yates' driveway and struck him as he was trying to run away, investigators wrote. Ebert finally drove across the lawn and left.

Yates told a detective that as he was injured on the ground, Ebert returned and yelled that he “deserved it” before driving off again, according to charging documents.

Yates said Ebert used to be in a band with his son and had been causing problems for his family since being kicked out. He said Ebert had been taunting them for long time, but that his behavior had been escalating.

Ebert, 33, was arrested Tuesday and charged with attempted second-degree murder and first-degree assault, court records show.

During a bond hearing Thursday in which he appeared via video, Ebert called William Yates a “maniac” who threw a rock at him asked the judge to watch the surveillance footage, saying it would “contradict” the authorities' narrative of what happened, The Baltimore Banner reported.

But prosecutor Dominic Plantamura said the footage shows it was a “clearly targeted attack” and that Yates is lucky he wasn't injured more seriously.

Ebert's lawyer, John Costello, acknowledged Ebert’s contentious history with his former bandmate, but said, “That does not, in this instance, warrant extra detention.” Costello’s office declined to comment to The Associated Press.

The judge ordered Ebert held without bond.

According to Plantamura, William Yates was injured so badly that a bone stuck out of one leg.

In a statement, Turnstile said it cut ties with Ebert in 2022, “in response to a consistent pattern of harmful behavior." It said a boundary had to be set after he began threatening violence. While Ebert’s “baseless tirades” continued in public since then, the band said it didn’t address them to protect his privacy. Threats escalated in recent months and then there was a physical attack on Brendan Yates’ father this week, the band wrote.

“We are grateful that Mr. Yates survived, has successfully undergone surgery, and we’re hoping for the best possible outcome in his recovery,” the band said. “We have no language left for Brady.”

Turnstile were underground stalwarts until their 2021 album “Glow On” launched them into mainstream consciousness. They cemented their status this year by winning Grammys for Best Rock Album and Best Metal Performance.

The lawmakers' failure to offer a solution after months of debate raises uncertainty about how Georgians will vote in November and leaves confusion that could end in the courts or a special legislative session.

“They’ve abdicated their responsibility,” Democratic state Rep. Saira Draper said of inaction by Republicans who control the legislature.

Currently, voters make their choices on Dominion Voting machines, which then print ballots with a QR code that scanners read to tally votes. Those machines have been repeatedly targeted by President Donald Trump following his 2020 election loss, and Trump’s Georgia supporters responded by enacting a law in 2024 that bans using barcodes to count votes.

But state law still requires counties to use the machines. No money has been allocated to reprogram them, and lawmakers failed to agree on a replacement.

“We’ll have an unresolvable statutory conflict come July 1,” said House Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Victor Anderson, a Cornelia Republican who backed a proposal to keep using the machines in 2026 that Senate Republicans declined to consider.

Republican House Speaker Jon Burns said he would meet with Gov. Brian Kemp and “take his temperature” on the possibility of a special session.

Kemp spokesperson Carter Chapman said he Republican governor will examine the situation.

“We’ll analyze all bills, as well as the consequence of those that did not pass,” Chapman said Friday.

House Republicans and Democrats backed Anderson's plan, which would have required that Georgia choose a voting process that didn't use QR codes by 2028. Election officials preferred that solution.

“The Senate has shown that they’re not responsible actors,” Draper said. She added that Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, a Trump-endorsed Republican running for governor, seemed more interested in keeping Trump's backing than “doing right by Georgia voters.”

A spokesperson for Jones didn't immediately respond to a request for comment early Friday.

Joseph Kirk, Bartow County election supervisor and president of the Georgia Association of Voter Registration and Election Officials, said he’ll look to the secretary of state for guidance and assumes a judge will rule to instruct election officials how to proceed.

“This is uncharted territory,” he said.

Robert Sinners, a spokesperson for Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who is also running for governor, said officials are “ready to follow the law and follow the Constitution.”

Burns told reporters that his chamber was seeking to minimize changes this year.

“You can’t change horses in the middle of the stream,” Burns said.

Anderson said without action, the state could be required to use hand-marked and hand-counted paper ballots in November.

Election officials say switching to a new system within just a few months, as advocated by some Republicans, would be nearly impossible.

“They made no way for this to happen except putting a deadline on it," Cherokee County elections director Anne Dover said of the switch away from barcodes. Dover said one problem under some plans is that a very large number of ballots would have to be printed.

Lawmakers seemed more concerned about scoring political points than making practical plans, Paulding County Election Supervisor Deidre Holden said.

“If anyone is resilient and can get the job done, it’s all of us election officials, but the legislators need to work with us, and they need to understand what we do before they go making laws that are basically unachievable for us,” Holden said.

Supporters of hand-marked paper ballots say voters are more likely to trust in an accurate count if they can see what gets read by the scanner.

Right-wing election activists lobbied lawmakers for an immediate switch to hand-marked paper ballots, but the House turned away from a Senate proposal to do so.

Anderson said he wasn’t sure if a special session could escape those political crosswinds, but said Georgia lawmakers must fix the problem.

“This is a legislative problem,” Anderson said. “It’s a legislative solution that has to happen.”

Hoiberg received 17 votes from a 61-person media panel, edging Duke’s Jon Scheyer (13) to become the Big Ten’s first national coach of the year since Michigan’s Juwan Howard in 2021. Arizona’s Tommy Lloyd received 11 votes.

“It took us some time to get here, but it was all about getting the right players in here, especially the ones that the fans could get behind,” Hoiberg said.

Hoiberg did just that, building a roster that played an exciting style of basketball, locked down defensively and ignited the Big Red fanbase’s excitement for the basketball program and upended the notion that Nebraska is just a football school.

Nebraska went to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 10 years in 2024 and took a bigger step this season, matching the school record of 26 wins before even getting to March Madness. The Cornhuskers also had a school-record 15 wins in the rugged Big Ten.

Voting for coach of the year was done before the tournament, where Nebraska posted its first March Madness win in nine all-time tries with its 76-47 win over Troy. The run ended with a loss to Iowa in the Sweet 16.

“When the sting does wear off, which it will at some point — maybe — these guys deserve a lot of credit for what they have done for Nebraska basketball,” Hoiberg said.

So will the coach with deep roots in Lincoln.

Hoiberg’s grandfather, Jerry Bush, was Nebraska’s head coach from 1953-63 and his grandfather from his father’s side taught at the school for 30 years. Hoiberg was born in Lincoln and both of his parents are Nebraska graduates.

Hoiberg played at Iowa State and, after a 10-year NBA career, returned to lead his alma mater to four straight NCAA Tournaments. When he took over at Nebraska in 2019, the Cornhuskers had been to the tournament once in 21 seasons.

The Cornhuskers went a combined 7-45 in Hoiberg’s first two seasons, but he laid the foundation for success. Nebraska went 23-11 to reach March Madness in 2024 and, after just missing the bracket last season, went on a run that riveted Husker Nation.

Led by sharpshooting Iowa transfer Pryce Sandfort, versatile Dutch big man Rienk Mast and senior point guard Sam Hoiberg — Fred’s son — the Cornhuskers got off to the best start in school history, winning their first 20 games, leading to the program’s highest ranking in the AP Top 25 at No. 5 with the hometown coach calling the shots.

“This place means a lot to me,” he said.

Scheyer was runner-up after guiding the Blue Devils to a No. 1 ranking the final four weeks of the season and a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.

The Blue Devils’ run came as the fourth-year coach adjusted his approach following last year’s Final Four run with a perimeter-driven lineup, turning inside to pummel opponents in the paint behind star freshman Cameron Boozer, who became Duke’s second straight AP men’s national player of the year Friday.

Arizona spent nine weeks at No. 1 with Lloyd pulling the strings and earned its first Final Four berth since 2001. He was AP coach of the year in 2022, his first season at Arizona.

Voting for AP coach of the year:

Fred Hoiberg, Nebraska, 17

Jon Scheyer, Duke, 13

Tommy Lloyd, Arizona, 11

Dusty May, Michigan, 9

Travis Steele, Miami (Ohio), 9

Grant McCaslin, Texas Tech 1

Shaheen Holloway, Seton Hall, 1

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AP Basketball Writer Aaron Beard contributed to this story.

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AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-mens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness

Four San Pablo Elementary School kindergartners had to be taken to the hospital after their bus, which was taking them to a field trip at the zoo, was hit by a semi as it was stopped at a railroad crossing.

Florida Statute 316.159 says school buses have to stop within 50 feet, but not less than 15 feet, of train tracks and look and listen for oncoming trains.

The impact crumpled the back of the bus and caused significant damage to the tractor-trailer.

The mother of one of the children who was hospitalized told News4JAX that as of Friday, her son was home and resting.

Several people stopped to help after witnessing the crash, and one of them told News4JAX that she was on another school bus and jumped off to help the students, including some who were injured.

“I am grateful that all of the students, staff and driver on that bus, along with the truck driver, are OK,” said the woman, who asked not to be identified. “The situation could have been much worse, but miraculously it wasn’t.”

The crash happened around 10:30 a.m. Thursday on Zoo Parkway near Imeson Park Boulevard, shutting down the road briefly until the vehicles could be moved to another area off the roadway.

Parents said they never imagined their child’s school bus would be hit by a semi-truck, and the damage left behind shows just how serious the collision was.

When News4JAX arrived on the scene, Durham School Services, their safety team, and paramedics were checking the children as parents arrived to pick them up.

Durham School Services shared a statement about the crash.

Thursday morning, while our bus was transporting students and stopped at a railroad crossing, it was struck from behind by a semi-truck.

Local authorities responded to the scene and evaluated all passengers. We understand that four students were transported for further evaluation and treatment. Our concern remains with the safety of our students, and our thoughts are with the students and passengers that were impacted by the incident. We are fully cooperating with local authorities.

Durham School Services

A parent who was also a chaperone was waiting for her 6-year-old daughter to arrive at the zoo when she learned her daughter was on that bus.

She said a teacher notified her right away, then she saw the images circulating online.

“I was like freaking out,” Axia Booker said. “She was on the bus, and it hit them. She like went forward, hit her head on the window, but she was fine. She said she was crying for me, but other than that, she seems to be doing Ok.”

As families walked past our crews on Thursday after picking up their students, children could be heard saying, “Mom, my head hurts.”

In the aftermath of the traumatic incident, parents are encouraged to watch for signs of physical injury, including any pain or bruising, behavioral changes and possible emotional distress, as adrenaline can mask those symptoms at the time.

San Pablo Elementary’s principal shared the following statement with families:

In moments like this, the strength of our community truly matters. Thank you for keeping our kindergarten students in your thoughts and prayers following today’s bus accident.

While the situation could have been far worse, it was understandably a frightening experience for our young students. I know many of you are holding your children a little closer today. I am in direct contact with the families of students who required medical transport. While I’m unable to share specific medical details, I am encouraged by the updates I’ve received regarding their condition and recovery. Please continue to keep these students and families in your thoughts. I will follow up next week with information about rescheduling the kindergarten field trip. In the meantime, I hope you have a safe and restful long weekend, and we look forward to welcoming our students back next week.

Principal Brown, San Pablo Elementary

News4JAX is working to learn more details about the crash, including details about the semi truck driver.

Developers behind the multi-billion-dollar Pearl Square project have announced 655 Pearl, a six-story, 100,000-square-foot office building that will anchor the $750 million mixed-use neighborhood now under construction.

It’s the first new multi-tenant office tower planned for Jacksonville’s North Core in more than 20 years.

For longtime business owners working just feet from the cranes and construction fencing, the announcement marks another step toward a downtown that feels alive again.

‘Everything is growing’

Marvin Hearman has watched the area stall and start again for years. His family-run restaurant, Starving Like Marvin, sits in the center of the Pearl Square footprint.

He told News4JAX reporter Briana Brownlee and photojournalist Jesse Hanson that business is good, but the neighborhood needs more energy.

However, he said he noticed the momentum in the area shifting.

“Last four years, business has been pretty good, and it’s going to get even better,” Hearman said. “I heard previously that tenants didn’t do too well. So for us to come in and knock it out of the box, and it’s growing — everything is growing.”

Hearman added the construction surrounding his restaurant is already shaping the way he operates.

With more residents, office workers, and visitors expected to move through the area, he plans to extend his hours — possibly from closing at 6pm to as late as 1 or 2 a.m.

“We’re all excited. I wish they could open up tomorrow so I can put my chef hat on,” he said with a laugh.

What 655 Pearl will bring

The newly announced office building is designed by Morris Adjmi Architects and BDG Architects, with a ground-floor retail level spanning roughly 25,000 square feet.

According to JLL — the firm overseeing leasing for the project — 655 Pearl is meant to feel less like a traditional office building and more like part of an active urban neighborhood.

JLL’s Michael Loftin said companies today are looking for energized, amenity-rich environments that help attract talent.

“Workspace is no longer viewed as a static line item, but as a strategic tool to attract talent, support culture, and bring people together,” Loftin said in a statement. Employees will be at the center of a dynamic ecosystem of retail, dining, hospitality, and public spaces — all steps from their desks.”

Construction is anticipated to break ground in 2027, with completion expected in 2028.

Impact could be immediate

At E-Luxe Hair Studio, located next to the development, hairstylist Sabrina Sellers said increased foot traffic is exactly what the area has needed.

“I feel like this side of downtown has been dead for a little while,” she said. “It’s going to bring more business — and more food is great, especially for lunch breaks for us, because we like to eat.”

Larger push to remake downtown

The 655 Pearl addition is the newest to the sprawling Pearl Square plan — a nine-block district expected to bring:

• More than 1,200 new apartments and condos
• A full-service Publix grocery store
• Multiple restaurants, including upcoming Italian and Japanese concepts
• Renovated boutique hotel space
• Public plazas, parks, farmers markets, wellness events, and curbless pedestrian-friendly streets

RELATED: Pearl Square to bring apartments, restaurants, beer gardens & jobs to Downtown Jacksonville

Earlier phases of the project, including residential units and retail space, are slated to open this summer with the arrival of the Vandeveer apartments.

Business owners say the scope of the project is what stands out most — not just one building, but a full neighborhood taking shape around them.

‘About to get better’

For Hearman and Sellers, the hope is simple: more people walking by, more activity, and more reasons for customers to stay downtown.

“Downtown has been kind of shaky for a long time,” Hearman said. “With the new development and everything, it’s about to get better.”

Developers say that transformation is exactly the point — and that 655 Pearl is one of many pieces still to come.

NASA released the crew’s first downlinked images Friday, 1 1/2 days into the first astronaut moonshot in more than half a century.

The first photo taken by commander Reid Wiseman shows a curved slice of Earth in one of the capsule’s windows. The second shows the entire globe with the oceans topped by swirling white tendrils of clouds. A green aurora even glows, according to NASA.

As of midmorning Friday, Wiseman and his crew were 100,000 miles (160,000 kilometers) from Earth and were quickly gaining on the moon with another 160,000 miles (258,000 kilometers) to go. They should reach their destination on Monday.

The three Americans and one Canadian will swing around the moon in their Orion capsule, hang a U-turn and then head straight back home without stopping. They fired Orion's main engine Thursday night that set them on their course.

After Mission Control shifted the position of their capsule, the entire Earth complete with northern lights filled their windows.

“It was the most spectacular moment, and it paused all four of us in our tracks,” Wiseman said in a TV interview.

They're the first lunar travelers since Apollo 17 in 1972.

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Pittsburgh selected the 19-year-old shortstop's contract from Triple-A Indianapolis before its home opener against the Baltimore Orioles.

The club tipped its hand on Thursday, featuring Griffin on various social media platforms, including an Instagram post with pictures of Griffin at PNC Park and the caption “KG has arrived in Pittsburgh.”

Pittsburgh created room for Griffin on the active roster early Thursday evening, optioning outfielder Billy Cook to Indianapolis, then opened a spot on the 40-man roster by designating infielder Enmanuel Valdez for assignment on Friday.

Griffin is expected to address reporters on Friday morning at the ballpark where the club hopes he can be a lineup fixture for years to come and the team's most consequential position player since former centerfielder Andrew McCutchen, who won the 2013 NL MVP and helped guide Pittsburgh to three straight playoff berths from 2013-15.

Soto also was 19 when he made his major league debut for the Nationals in 2018.

The question when the season started last week wasn't if Griffin would make his big-league debut this year, but when. The answer turned out to be “not very long” after Griffin hit .438 (7 for 16) with three doubles, an RBI and three stolen bases at Triple-A Indianapolis.

The 6-foot-3 Griffin, taken with the ninth overall pick in the 2024 amateur draft, has rocketed through Pittsburgh's farm system. He batted .333 with 21 home runs, 94 RBIs and 65 stolen bases in 122 games at Class A and Double-A in 2025.

Griffin earned an invitation to Pittsburgh's big-league camp and was among the last cuts before the opening day roster was set. While he showcased his power by smashing three home runs during Grapefruit League play — the most by a teenager in spring training in at least two decades — he also struck out more than a dozen times.

The Pirates broke camp with Jared Triolo at shortstop and Nick Gonzales at third. The addition of Griffin likely means Triolo — a Gold Glove winner as a utility player — will head to third.

While Pittsburgh has been in talks with Griffin about a lengthy contract, the Pirates would benefit if any agreement is not finalized until after he plays. The team would remain eligible to receive an extra draft pick through the Prospect Promotion Incentive if it waits until after Griffin's debut to sign him to a multi-year contract.

To receive the pick — which would come at the end of the first round — Griffin would need to accrue one year of service time as a rookie and either win the NL Rookie of the Year or be a finalist for NL MVP.

The Pirates have invested heavily in the amateur draft since general manager Ben Cherington joined the club in late 2019. Pittsburgh already has the highest signing bonus pool ($19.13 million) in the majors available for the 2026 draft.

Griffin will be joining a team off to a 3-3 start after taking two of three in Cincinnati. The Pirates are anchored by one of the best young starting rotations in the majors, led by reigning Cy Young winner Paul Skenes, who picked up his first victory of the season on Wednesday.

Pittsburgh upgraded its woeful offense in the offseason, trading for All-Star second baseman Brandon Lowe and signing first baseman/outfielder Ryan O'Hearn and designated hitter Marcell Ozuna in free agency. Lowe already has three homers this season for the Pirates, whose 10 home runs through six games are tied with the Los Angeles Angels for most in the majors. Pittsburgh finished dead last in homers by a wide margin last season.

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

“I cannot, by contract, tell you when. I cannot tell you who. But I can tell you, direct to the camera, WKRP, after 48 years, is coming to Cincinnati,” D.P. McIntire, who runs the media nonprofit that is auctioning the famous call letters, told The Associated Press. “Book it! It’s done!”

The call sign was made famous by “WKRP in Cincinnati,” a CBS television sitcom that ran from 1978 to 1982. It made stars of actors like Loni Anderson and Richard Sanders, whose bumbling newsman Les Nessman reported on a Thanksgiving promotion gone bad when live but flightless turkeys were dropped from a helicopter.

McIntire remembers watching the show’s first episode — featuring disc jockeys Dr. Johnny Fever (Howard Hesseman) and Venus Flytrap (Tim Reid) — in the living room with his parents and older sister.

“And at the end of the 30-minute episode,” he said, “I got up and I proclaimed, `I’m going to be in radio. And if I ever have the opportunity, I’m going to run a station called WKRP.’”

McIntire said he got his first on-air job at 13 as a news anchor at WNQQ “Wink FM” in Blairsville, Pennsylvania.

Fast forward to 2014, when his North Carolina-based nonprofit acquired the call sign from the Federal Communications Commission. Stations in Dallas, Georgia, and Alexandria, Tennessee, previously bore the letters.

McIntire laughs as he recalls his chat with a woman in the agency’s audio division.

He had two sets of call letters in mind. She told him he needed a third.

“Being the jokester that I am, I said, `Well, if you need three, and if it’s available, we’ll take WKRP,’” he said. “And 90 seconds later, she came back and she said, `Mr. McIntire. Congratulations. You’re the general manager of WKRP in Raleigh, North Carolina.’”

WKRP-LP — 101.9 on the FM dial — went live Nov. 30, 2015. The LP stands for “low power,” a class of station created to serve more local audiences that didn’t want mass-market content.

“Our format is what radio used to be 35 years ago in small-town America,” he said. "There is Greats of the ‘80s, Sounds of the ’70s, '90s Rewind," as well as local news and “specialty programming.”

LPFM is restricted to nonprofit organizations like his Oak City Media, and it’s definitely local.

“Your broadcast capacity is limited to 100 watts,” McIntire said. “So, your average range is between, depending on your terrain and circumstances, 4 and 12 miles (6 and 19 kilometers) in any direction. Enough to cover a small town.”

And, by necessity, it’s a low-budget affair.

The transmitter is in a corner of McIntire’s garage, between a recycling bin and the cleaning supplies. The broadcast antenna sits atop a 25-foot (7.62-meter) metal flagpole in the backyard. The studio — microphones and a mixing board hooked up to a computer — is on the first floor of McIntire’s home.

Like the WKRP of television, McIntire and his partners set out to be “irreverent.” One of their offerings is a two-hour show called “Weird Al and Friends,” focusing on the satirical works of Weird Al Yankovic.

They even had an annual Thanksgiving turkey giveaway. But don’t call the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals — they hand out gift certificates to a local grocery store.

“We don’t toss them out of helicopters,” he said with a laugh.

This news comes hot on the heels of the decision to shutter CBS News Radio after nearly a century in operation. After more than a decade on the air, the 56-year-old McIntire decided it was time to pass the reins.

“We’re in a position where the older members like me who started the station are turning the leadership over to younger members,” he said. “They’re not interested in radio.”

They put out a call for bids to use the call letters on FM and AM radio, as well as television and digital television.

They intend to use the proceeds for a new nonprofit venture called Independent Broadcast Consultants. He said IBC will be “geared specifically toward helping these new broadcasters get up and running, get the consulting that they need in order to be, hopefully, more successful than we have been.”

Oak City Media was all set to hand off the television-related suffixes — WKRP-TV and WKRP-DT — when another group defaulted on the agreement, McIntire said. But he said the Cincinnati deal is in the bag, he just can’t legally discuss it.

“It will be radio,” he said. “But that’s all I can tell you at this time.”

Robert Thompson, who uses a season 2 episode of “WKRP” in his TV history class at Syracuse University, said it’s telling that people see real value in a fictional station whose call letters invoke the word “crap.”

“The value comes from the love of the characters for each other,” he said. “And now by buying this thing, the value comes from our love of the characters themselves.”

Whatever they do with the call sign, McIntire hopes they will be true to the show that inspired it.

“It has a special place in the hearts of an awful lot of people,” he said. “And we have been very, very, very proud to have been a steward of that legacy.”

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This story has been updated to correct that the studio is on the first floor of the home, not the basement.

A New England furniture chain is offering to reimburse customers for products purchased earlier this year if both the UConn men’s and women’s basketball teams reach the championship games.

That means some 20,000 Jordan’s Furniture customers could be fully repaid for $50 million worth of sales if the two teams win their Final Four games on Friday and Saturday.

For Brian Mazzilli of Plymouth, Massachusetts, that could mean a $3,800 refund for a living room sofa and coffee table. Not previously a college sports fan, he has declared himself an enthusiastic new follower of the Huskies.

“We thought the chances were pretty slim, but now we're pretty excited," Mazzilli said in the aftermath of the UConn men's stunning buzzer-beater win over Duke in last weekend's Elite Eight. “It just didn’t seem that both teams from one school making it to the finals — that seems kind of a long shot.”

When UConn's Braylon Mullins hit the winning, 35-foot shot to beat Duke, Mazzilli said he was jumping up and down like he did when the Patriots' Adam Vinatieri kicked the winning, last-second field goal against the Rams in the 2002 Super Bowl to give New England its first NFL title.

Jordan's isn't on the hook for the $50 million itself. It got insurance for the promotion like it did in 2007 when it offered a similar deal if the Boston Red Sox won the World Series — which they did. In that deal, more than 24,000 customers were reimbursed about $35 million.

“We want this to happen,” Eliot Tatelman, the retired president of Jordan’s who is still the face of the Massachusetts-based retailer in TV ads, said in a phone interview Thursday. “Whether they win or lose, I got to pay for the insurance."

Tatelman said he came up with the UConn promotion idea while thinking of ways to increase the company's stature in Connecticut, where other furniture businesses have been around longer.

The promotion was offered to customers who bought furniture, mattresses and accessories at Jordan's from Jan. 20 to Feb. 16 of this year, with some exceptions. The company will send out refund checks if both UConn teams make it to the championship games.

Jordan's, incorporated in 1928 in Waltham, Massachusetts, by Tatelman's grandfather, has eight retail locations in New England. The company was sold to Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway in 1999. It's known for entertainment attractions at its stores — including IMAX 3D movie theaters, a rope course and, in Reading, Massachusetts, depictions of Boston landmarks made of millions of jelly beans.

The undefeated, No. 1-seeded UConn women take on South Carolina in the Final Four on Friday night, while the men's team — a No. 2 seed — plays Illinois on Saturday.

Ukrainian officials claim the Kremlin is changing its tactics to increase civilian suffering, shifting to daytime barrages and preparing to target more key infrastructure.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has signaled Kyiv's openness to a potential Easter truce. The holiday is celebrated on April 12 in Ukraine and Russia.

Zelenskyy also said that Ukraine is preparing for a shift in Russian aerial tactics, with intelligence indicating that future attacks will move beyond energy infrastructure.

Russia's Defense Ministry said 192 Ukrainian drones were shot down overnight across Russia and occupied Crimea.

‘I have no words’

“The Kyiv region is once again under a massive Russian missile and drone attack,” said Mykola Kalashnyk, head of the regional military administration, in a Telegram post on Friday.

Kalashnyk said one person died and at least eight others were wounded in strikes on three of Kyiv’s satellite towns — Bucha, Fastiv and Obukhiv. Earlier in the week, residents of Bucha marked the fourth anniversary of atrocities committed in the town by Russia's invading forces.

Obukhiv resident Lesia Podoriako, 37, told The Associated Press she was at work with her child when she learned her building had been struck.

“I found out about it through Telegram channels. Then all my friends and acquaintances started calling me, telling me that our building was attacked. I have no words. The main thing is that everyone is alive and healthy,” she said.

Another person was killed in Ukraine's northern Sumy region after a Russian guided aerial bomb struck an apartment block, local Gov. Oleh Hryhorov reported. Authorities in the Kherson, Zhytomyr, Kharkiv and Donetsk regions also reported casualties from Friday's attacks.

Ukrainian officials highlighted what they said were increased daytime attacks by Russia, which they said could lead to more civilian deaths. For months, Moscow pummeled Ukraine with nighttime missile and drone strikes that could involve hundreds of drones at a time.

Ukraine’s Foreign Minister, Andrii Sybiha, said in a post on X that “almost half a thousand drones and cruise missiles” attacked Ukraine overnight.

“This is how Moscow responds to Ukraine’s Easter ceasefire proposals — with brutal attacks,” Sybiha said.

Kyiv floats an Easter ceasefire

Zelenskyy on Thursday signaled Kyiv's continued openness to a potential truce on Easter, which falls next week according to the Julian calendar followed by Orthodox churches in Ukraine and Russia.

Zelenskyy told reporters that the proposal had been communicated to Moscow through U.S. channels. He added that the Kremlin's response remains unclear.

Zelenskyy has previously offered a ceasefire for the Easter period — but Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said earlier this week that Moscow wants a lasting peace settlement, not a temporary truce.

President Vladimir Putin unilaterally declared a 30-hour ceasefire last Easter, but each side accused the other of breaking it.

A change in Russian tactics?

Meanwhile, Ukrainian officials said Russia was increasingly striking the country during the day, an apparent departure from months of nighttime barrages.

Andrii Kovalenko, head of the Center for Countering Disinformation within Ukraine's defense ministry, said that the daytime strikes aimed to “increase civilian casualties.”

“That is why the combined attack is carried out on a working day, using a large number of drones and missiles,” Kovalenko wrote on Friday in a Telegram post.

Zelenskyy told reporters on Thursday that Ukraine is preparing for Russian aerial attacks that could target water systems, logistics and other critical networks. After months of sustained strikes on power facilities, Kyiv now expects increased pressure elsewhere.

“According to intelligence documents we have received, the Russians will target logistics – railways and other infrastructure. They will also target the water supply,” Zelenskyy said at a press briefing.

Around midday on Friday, Russian forces dropped five aerial bombs on the city of Kramatorsk, in eastern Ukraine. At least two people were killed and three were injured, according to a Telegram update by Vadym Filashkin, who heads the regional military administration.

Elsewhere in Ukraine on Friday, a Russian drone strike damaged a bus in the southern city of Kherson, leaving the driver seriously wounded and at least eight passengers hurt, according to regional officials.

Separately, authorities reported sustained attacks on Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, beginning on Thursday and continuing into early Friday. Drone strikes near the city center caused several injuries. Two people later died in hospital, local Gov. Oleh Syniehubov wrote in separate Telegram updates.

Bohdan Hladykh, head of Kharkiv’s Department of Emergency Situations, said Russia struck the city at least 20 times during the day on Thursday with explosive drones.

Zelenskyy says battlefield situation has stabilized

Meanwhile, Zelenskyy told reporters that the battlefield situation has stabilized, with recent intelligence assessments pointing to the most favorable conditions for Kyiv in months. While fighting remains intense across eastern sectors, Ukrainian forces have disrupted Russian offensives in recent weeks and regained limited ground.

“On Wednesday I received a report from our intelligence and an analysis from British intelligence. I received MI6’s assessment of the situation at the front: right now, it is the best situation for Ukraine in the past 10 months,” the Ukrainian leader said at a press briefing Thursday.

Zelenskyy added that Ukraine has invited U.S. negotiators to visit Kyiv, as part of ongoing discussions on security guarantees and a broader framework for ending the war. Recent talks have involved senior American officials as well as NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, with Ukraine seeking clearer commitments on long-term defense support and responses to any future Russian aggression.

Ukrainian drones target Russia

Two people were hospitalized on Friday following a Ukrainian drone strike on Russia's Leningrad region, over 1,100 kilometers (684 miles) from the border, said regional Gov. Alexander Drozdenko reported, who added that the drones also set fire to an “unoccupied” building within the Morozov industrial zone.

The settlement of Morozov houses a state-owned plant that makes explosives and components for ammunition, including solid fuel used in Topol-M missile systems. The plant was put under U.S., EU and other Western sanctions following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Twelve people, including at least three Russian soldiers, were injured in a Ukrainian drone strike late Thursday on Russia’s Belgorod region, which borders Ukraine, local Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov reported.

Four drones were downed during the night on the approach to Moscow, mayor Sergei Sobyanin reported Friday. He did not reference any casualties or damage.

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Associated Press journalists Vasilisa Stepanenko in Obukhiv and Derek Gatopoulos in Kyiv contributed.

Zendaya, surprising precisely nobody on the planet, showed up in dazzling blue at Thursday’s New York premiere of “The Drama,” after teasing the bridal theme for weeks by wearing something old, then something new, then something borrowed.

Her strapless Schiaparelli Haute Couture ball gown, accompanied by sapphire earrings, completed the sartorial series just in time for the opening of her movie — a film that has attracted considerable controversy and mixed reviews. Zendaya and Robert Pattinson play a couple whose wedding plans go seriously awry following a dark revelation.

The high-fashion appearances have also echoed the bridal theme of Zendaya’s own life, with unconfirmed speculation flying — fed in part by rings she’s been wearing — that she’s already married to partner Tom Holland.

The actor and her stylist, Law Roach, saved the most spectacular outfit for last. Schiaparelli posted on its own Instagram ​​that the gown, which took some 8,000 hours of work, was made of blue and black raw silk “feathers” in satin stitch embroidery, and contained 27 shades of blue.

“Something old” came in Los Angeles on March 17, where Zendaya wore the same white, off-the-shoulder Vivienne Westwood Bridal gown that she’d worn to the 2015 Oscars.

She transitioned to “something new” at the March 24 Paris premiere — a white custom Louis Vuitton gown with a huge black bow and train.

“Something borrowed” came two days later in Rome, a black Armani Privé dress previously worn by Cate Blanchett, with a plunging neckline framed with stones.

Finally on Thursday, Zendaya completed the circle. “SomethingBlue,” posted Roach.

In case nobody had noticed.

The 6-foot-9, 250-pound forward proved tough enough to score through physical play. Rangy enough to space the floor and shoot from outside. Deft enough as a passer to find teammates, whether against constant double teams coming for him as the top name on every scouting report or while running the entire offense from up top.

“You just want to affect winning in whatever way you can,” Boozer said.

The high-end NBA prospect did that all season for a team that won 35 games, reached No. 1 in the AP Top 25 poll, claimed the top overall seed for March Madness and reached the NCAA Tournament's Elite Eight. Now he's The Associated Press men’s college basketball national player of the year, only the fifth freshman to earn the honor and the second in a row for a Duke program that keeps adding to the longest list of winners in the country.

“It just goes to show more about what our team has done, just because I think that really helps awards like this, having great team success,” Boozer told the AP. “It’s really just not me.”

Boozer, named unanimous first-team AP all-American last month, received 59 of 61 votes from AP Top 25 voters in results released Friday. BYU freshman AJ Dybantsa, another potential top NBA pick, received the other two votes after averaging a national-best 25.5 points per game.

A short list

Boozer, son of Duke and longtime NBA player Carlos Boozer, ranked averaged 22.5 points (ninth in Division I) and 10.2 rebounds (12th) while finishing tied for the national lead with 22 double-doubles. He also averaged 4.1 assists while posting efficient shooting numbers at 55.6% overall and 39.1% from 3-point range.

He joins fellow Blue Devils star Cooper Flagg last year, another Duke player in Zion Williamson (2019), Kentucky’s Anthony Davis (2012) and Texas star Kevin Durant (2007) as freshmen to win the AP award. Each went No. 1 or No. 2 in the NBA draft that year.

“I’m very grateful just that I’m even in those (NBA) conversations,” Boozer said. “I think a lot of people dream of being where I am. Sometimes you’ve got to take a step back and just remember that once upon a time, you were a kid dreaming to be here. So I think it’s very special.”

His coaches think the same of him.

“We’ve been fortunate enough the last two years to have two of the best freshmen to ever play in college basketball back to back,” Duke associate head coach and former Blue Devils player Chris Carrawell said. “And Cam is right up there.

Boozer is Duke's ninth AP winner, each coming from a different player. UCLA is the next closest with five winners, though that included Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (1967 and 1969) and Bill Walton (1972 and 1973) as two-time selections.

UCLA, Ohio State and Duke rival North Carolina are the only other programs with as many as three different players to win the award.

Big-game successes

Boozer arrived at Duke alongside twin brother Cayden after the two led Miami's Columbus High to four straight state championships. By late February, the Blue Devils were starting a four-week reign atop the AP Top 25 that would carry to March Madness. Boozer — who said he looks at winning as a skill — routinely posted top performances in Duke's biggest games, including during a rugged nonconference slate.

He matched a season high with 35 points in a November win against Arkansas. He followed with 29 points against defending national champion Florida. He also had big performances at Michigan State (18 points, 15 rebounds) and flirted with a triple-double (18 points, 10 rebounds, seven assists) in a February win against Michigan.

Along the way, he pushed through bumps and shoves. He closed Sunday's season-ending loss to UConn with 27 points and his right eye swollen from a first-half blow.

“There’s no agenda other than figuring out a way to win,” Wolverines coach Dusty May said. “I’ve seen him play a number of times this year where there’s six guys in the paint, and it’s not as if he’s jumping 40, 50 inches off the floor. His desire to rebound the ball, to set physical screens, to play to his advantages, is as impressive as any freshman that I can recall.”

Managing pressure

The other challenge was managing the scrutiny that comes from expectations for greatness. A missed shot. A turnover. The 3-for-17 shooting while battling rising frustration and Virginia shot-blocker Ugonna Onyenso in the ACC title game.

“He does a great job of flushing it and not letting it dwell on him too much,” Cayden said. “That’s something he’s always been able to do since we were younger. Obviously I talk to him when he needs me to. And I sometimes just understood that, hey, he’s going through something, give him some space for a little bit and he’ll figure it out.”

Cameron said getting away for time alone and putting down the phone helps. He points to prayer and even a recent effort to read more.

The rest of the time, though, he'll throw himself into becoming a better player. There's comfort in that routine, the results yet to fail him.

“I think just being prepared alleviates pressure," Cameron said. "Being ready for a game, watching film, working out, knowing you put your time in, being confident in yourself — I think all that takes away a lot of the pressure that people talk about. At the end of the day, pressure really is what you put on yourself.”

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AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-mens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness

Research shows adults who played sports as kids report better mental health and higher levels of persistence and “grit” later in life. In fact, 94% of women in c-suite executive positions played sports at some level and 74% say sports helped accelerate their careers.

But along with the benefits of youth sports can come a lot of pressure. The American Academy of Pediatrics reports 40% to 50% of youth athletes feel stressed by sports-related expectations.

So how can parents help their children enjoy the game without feeling overwhelmed?

Kids are hitting the field this spring. But what happens when the pressure from parents becomes too much?

Sixty-three percent of children under 18 play sports but the National Alliance for Youth Sports reports 70% of youth athletes experience stress related to performance.

So how can parents help take the pressure off? First, stop acting like this and start by reminding kids that one game doesn’t define them.

Experts say to help children focus on what they can control. Like effort, practice and learning new skills.

Another tip, let the coach do the coaching. Constant instructions from the sidelines can add more pressure for young athletes. And when the game is over ask your child “did you have fun?” Instead of “did you win?”

That small shift can reduce pressure and keep the focus on enjoying the game.

And above all, keep it positive. When kids feel supported, sports can become about much more than winning.

The benefits of youth sports go far beyond the field. Studies show kids who play sports are eight times more likely to stay physically active as adults and even report better mental health later in life.

Experts say the key is making sure the focus stays on enjoyment, personal growth and life skills not just the scoreboard.

The phone conversation was not captured on video, but Woods could be heard saying, “Thank you so much,” as he hung up and the deputy approached. It wasn't clear if Woods was referring to President Donald Trump, whose former daughter-in-law, Vanessa Trump, is dating Woods.

Shortly after the golfer's March 27 arrest, Trump was asked about Woods and told reporters: “I feel so badly. He’s got some difficulty. Very close friend of mine. He’s an amazing person. Amazing man. But, some difficulty.”

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether Trump spoke to Woods after the crash.

The footage also shows how Woods appeared to be astonished as he was handcuffed after failing a sobriety test and a video from the back of the patrol car shows the handcuffed golfer hiccupping, yawning and repeatedly appearing to nod off during the 15-minute ride.

Woods told authorities he was looking at his phone and changing the radio station when his speeding Land Rover clipped the back of a truck and rolled onto its side on a residential road on Jupiter Island. No one was injured.

“I looked down at my phone, and all of a sudden — boom,” Woods told an officer as he knelt on a lawn, prior to his arrest.

Body camera footage shows Martin County Sheriff’s Deputy Tatiana Levenar then conducting a roadside sobriety test and telling Woods: “I do believe your normal faculties are impaired, and you’re under an unknown substance, so at this time you’re under arrest for DUI."

“I’m being arrested?” Woods responded.

“Yes, sir,” Levenar said.

After handcuffing Woods, authorities searched his pockets and found two white pills.

“That’s a Norco,” Woods said after an officer pulled out the pills, referring to a painkiller that contains acetaminophen and the opioid hydrocodone. Authorities would later confirm that Woods was in possession of hydrocodone.

In the body camera footage, Woods told Levenar that he had not drunk any alcohol and that he had taken “a few” medications earlier in the day, though Woods’ words are muted in the released video as he describes some of the drugs.

At the sheriff’s office complex, after Woods was escorted into the “DUI room” where drivers are tested for being under the influence, Woods said, “I’m not drunk. I’m on a prescription medication,” according to a supplemental sheriff’s office report released Thursday.

Woods, 50, pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to suspicion of driving under the influence. He posted a statement Tuesday night saying that he was stepping away indefinitely “to seek treatment and focus on my health.”

Woods agreed to a Breathalyzer test that showed no signs of alcohol, but he refused a urine test, authorities said. Under a change to Florida law last year, refusing an officer’s request to take a breath, blood or urine test became a misdemeanor, even for a first offense.

During the field sobriety test, deputies noticed Woods limping and that he had a compression sock over his right knee. Woods explained he had undergone seven back surgeries and over 20 surgeries on his right leg, and that his ankle seizes up while walking.

Woods, who was hiccupping during questioning, continuously moved his head during one of the sobriety tests and deputies had to tell him several times to keep his head straight, according to an arrest report.

“Based on my observations of Woods, how he performed the exercises and based on my training, knowledge, and experience, I believed that Woods normal faculties were impaired, and he was unable to safely operate the motor vehicle,” Levenar wrote.

Woods is the most influential figure in golf and has become as recognizable as any athlete in the world. The first person of Black heritage to win the Masters in 1997, he has captivated golf fans with records likely never to be broken.

His injuries have kept him from accomplishing more, including from a 2021 Los Angeles car crash that damaged his right leg so badly he said doctors considered amputation. He has not played an official event since the 2024 British Open. He was recovering from a seventh back surgery in October and was trying to return at the Masters, where he is a five-time champion.

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Associated Press writer Mike Schneider in Orlando, Florida, contributed to this report.

Magyar, once an Orbán ally, poses the most serious threat to the nationalist prime minister's hold on power since he took office in 2010.

In an exclusive interview with The Associated Press, Magyar said the European Union's longest-serving leader has led the country on a “180-degree turn” in recent years, endangering its Western orientation while cozying up to Moscow.

Yet despite that drift, “Hungarians still see that Hungary’s peace and development are guaranteed by membership of the European Union and NATO,” Magyar said. “I think this really will be a referendum on our country's place in the world.”

Magyar spoke to the AP on Thursday following an election rally by his center-right Tisza party in Kiskunhalas, a small city of around 25,000 on Hungary's southern great plain. It was one of hundreds of rallies he's held in settlements big and small across the country, a campaign blitz that has him visiting up to six towns a day ahead of the April 12 election.

Orbán has gained a reputation as an inveterate disruptor within the EU for his frequent vetoes of important decisions. He has campaigned by sounding the alarm on a myriad of external dangers he says are threatening Hungarians — the war in Ukraine, a cabal of EU bureaucrats and financial elites aligned against Hungary, and an immigration crisis ever on the horizon.

Magyar, who is leading in most polls, has focused on issues that affect voters' everyday lives, like Hungary’s faltering state health care and public transportation sectors and what he describes as rampant government corruption.

At each of his rallies, he charges Orbán and his nationalist-populist Fidesz party with making Hungary the “poorest and most corrupt” country in the EU — and depicts a “peaceful, humane and functioning” country that is within reach.

Yet alongside that domestic message, Magyar has increasingly portrayed Orbán’s brinksmanship with the EU, and his drift toward Russia, as matters of critical importance for the country’s future.

“I think that Tisza will have an overwhelming electoral victory, because even Fidesz voters do not want our country to be a Russian puppet state, a colony, an assembly plant, instead of belonging to Europe,” he said.

‘The Tisza is flooding’

Magyar and his party's meteoric rise caught many Hungarians by surprise. For nearly a decade and a half, a broad slate of fractured opposition parties had tried and failed to mount a serious threat to Orbán's hold on power.

While opposition politicians often slammed Orbán during debates in parliament, they rarely made efforts to win over his base of support in the rural countryside. Frustrated after a string of bitter losses, many opposition voters descended into political apathy.

Magyar, a 45-year-old lawyer and former Fidesz insider, was previously married to an Orbán ally who served as Hungary’s justice minister. After working for several years as a diplomat in Brussels, he returned to Hungary and took positions in state institutions, gaining familiarity with the workings of Orbán's system.

But then, in the wake of a political scandal in 2024 involving a presidential pardon to an accomplice in a child sexual abuse case, Magyar publicly broke with Orbán's party, accusing it of overseeing entrenched corruption and capturing Hungary's institutions.

He quickly founded the center-right Tisza party — named for Hungary's second-largest river — which, only four months after Magyar's break into electoral politics, won 30% of the vote in European Parliament elections.

As Tisza's popularity grew, a chant heard at its rallies became a motto for its rise: “The Tisza is flooding.”

While Magyar has cast his task in the election as dismantling Orbán's autocratic system, he has promised to keep some of the prime minister's policies he views as positive, such as a fence along the southern border to keep out migrants, and a popular utility reduction program.

Still, his party — a member of the European Parliament's largest, center-right group — diverges from the constellation of far-right political movements in Europe and beyond that view Orbán as a shining example of nationalist populism in action.

In a sign of U.S. President Donald Trump and his MAGA movement's admiration for Orbán, Vice President JD Vance is set to visit Budapest on Tuesday in support of his reelection.

Constructive, but critical

Many EU leaders are watching Hungary's election in the hopes that Orbán will be defeated.

His frequent vetoes — which most recently included blocking a major, 90-bill euro ($104-billion) EU loan for Ukraine — have often been to please his euroskeptic base, Magyar said, “vetoing just to veto so he can say at home that he is vetoing.”

The prime minister's conduct has led to renewed calls within the EU to reform the bloc’s foundational treaties by reducing the number of decisions that require unanimity — a way to buttress against the paralysis that can be caused by intransigent member states.

Magyar said that under a Tisza government, European leaders can expect a “constructive position,” but one that is “critical and willing to debate. We want to be there at the table.”

Despite Orbán's exploitation of the EU's unanimity rules, the ability to veto important decisions is a “valid option,” he continued, adding: “I think the European leaders have no problem with this, they have a problem with the unnecessary troublemaker role.”

“The task of a Hungarian prime minister at any given time is to represent Hungarian interests, and if necessary, to represent them forcefully,” he said. “Whatever it costs.”

Russian energy

Orbán has confounded, and even angered, nearly every other EU leader with his conciliatory approach to Russia and closeness to President Vladimir Putin. Some EU officials, and many of his opponents at home, have accused him of forsaking his commitments to the bloc on Moscow’s behalf.

As nearly every EU country cut off supplies of Russian fossil fuels following the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Hungary, along with Slovakia, maintained and even increased supplies — drawing ire from many countries who accused them of helping finance the war.

While Magyar has condemned Hungary's drift toward Moscow, as well as reports that Russian secret services are meddling in the election to tip it in Orbán's favor, he said his future government will pursue a “pragmatic” approach toward Russia.

“Pragmatism means that we have no say in Russia’s internal affairs, and they don’t have any say in our affairs,” he said. “We are both sovereign countries, and we respect each other, but we don’t have to like each other.”

Magyar has criticized Orbán's government for failing to diversify its energy mix, and advocated for reaching new agreements and constructing new infrastructure to bring oil and gas from other sources into landlocked Hungary.

Still, he said, “this does not mean that we must stop using Russian oil tomorrow. It means that the European Union’s resources must be used well.”

“The consultation process is being steadily implemented and advanced,” said China's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning. Xi Jinping's government is mediating between Islamabad and Kabul, whose representatives resumed the talks on Wednesday in the western Chinese city of Urumqi.

“The three parties have also reached consensus and arrangements on a specific operational mode, including media coverage,” she added, without giving more details.

“Since the recent escalation of the Pakistan–Afghanistan conflict, China has been mediating and promoting talks in its own way, maintaining close communication with both sides through multiple channels and at various levels, and creating conditions and providing platforms for dialogue", Mao said.

She added that both countries “attach importance to and welcome China’s mediation efforts, and are willing to sit down again for talks, which is a positive development.”

Pakistan has witnessed a surge in attacks in recent years, many claimed by the Pakistani Taliban.

Even as the talks restarted, the police reported that a suicide bomber rammed an explosives-laden vehicle into a police station in the Bannu district of northwestern Pakistan late Thursday, killing at least five people and wounding several others.

Pakistan often accuses Afghanistan of providing a safe haven to militants who carry out attacks inside Pakistan, especially the Pakistani Taliban, or TTP.

The group is separate from but allied with the Afghan Taliban, which took over Afghanistan in 2021 following the chaotic withdrawal of U.S.-led troops. Kabul denies that it supports the group.

The fighting between the two sides picked up in February, when Afghanistan’s Taliban government said Pakistan launched strikes in Kabul and several other areas, causing mostly civilian casualties. Pakistan has said it targeted hideouts of TTP, but also that it is in “open war” with Afghanistan.

Instagram: @chef_nickey_

And by season's end, it's well within reach that the top two 3-point shooters in the NBA this season — at least in terms of makes — both might be wearing Hornets uniforms.

Charlotte rookie Kon Knueppel leads the NBA with his Hornets-record 261 made 3s so far this season, and LaMelo Ball is currently third in the league with 243 makes from beyond the arc. Between them: the Los Angeles Lakers' Luka Doncic, who is set to miss some time with a hamstring injury.

Knueppel already has the NBA record for 3s made by a rookie as well.

“He definitely needs to celebrate,” Hornets coach Charles Lee said.

If Knueppel and Ball finish 1-2 in the final standings for made 3s, they would become the second set of teammates in NBA history to hold down the top two spots on that list for a full season. The other, as one would likely guess, were the “Splash Brothers” — Golden State's Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson, who finished first and second in the season standings in four consecutive seasons from 2013-14 through 2016-17 (and nearly did it in 2012-13 as well).

Other pairings have come close. Antoine Walker and Paul Pierce were second and third in made 3s for Boston in 2001-02 (behind Ray Allen, the then-future Celtic who was playing for Milwaukee at the time). And in 1992-93, Phoenix's Dan Majerle tied Indiana's Reggie Miller for the made-3s title, with Suns teammate Danny Ainge finishing third.

Who's in and who's out?

Here's what we know so far regarding the NBA playoff field for this season.

— Eastern Conference playoff teams: Detroit, Boston, New York, Cleveland are in. At this point, Atlanta and Philadelphia would get the other two guaranteed spots but those are not clinched.

— East play-in teams: Nobody is locked into the play-in yet, but entering Friday, the four teams headed there are Toronto, Charlotte, Orlando and Miami.

— East eliminated teams: Milwaukee, Chicago, Indiana, Brooklyn and Washington.

— Western Conference playoff teams: Oklahoma City, San Antonio, the Los Angeles Lakers, Denver and Houston are in. Minnesota is likely to grab the sixth and final guaranteed spot.

— West play-in teams: Phoenix is probably going to the play-in tournament. Portland, the Los Angeles Clippers and Golden State definitely are.

— West eliminated teams: Memphis, New Orleans, Dallas, Utah and Sacramento.

Thursday recap

— Hornets 127, Suns 107: Charlotte clinches no worse than a .500 record.

— Pistons 113, Timberwolves 108: Detroit closing in on East No. 1 seed.

— Thunder 139, Lakers 96: Luka Doncic hurt, Lakers tie 7th-biggest loss in team history.

— Cavaliers 118, Warriors 111: Cleveland on brink of clinching top-4 seed.

— Trail Blazers 118, Pelicans 106: Portland made 20 3s, New Orleans made nine.

— Spurs 118, Clippers 99: Victor Wembanyama sits, Spurs win 11th straight anyway.

Friday's schedule

— Indiana at Charlotte: A winning record this season is going to get Hornets’ coach Charles Lee some award votes.

— Minnesota at Philadelphia: Massive implications seeding-wise for both teams.

— Atlanta at Brooklyn: Hawks closing in on Southeast Division title, possibly No. 5 seed.

— Chicago at New York: Knicks nearing the 50-win mark yet again.

— Utah at Houston: The Rockets know they can’t afford a slipup in this spot.

— Toronto at Memphis: Raptors need a few wins down the stretch to avoid play-in.

— Boston at Milwaukee: Bucks coach Doc Rivers faces his former team, a day before expected Hall of Fame formal announcement.

— Orlando at Dallas: Magic coach Jamahl Mosley enjoyed a lot of nights when he was on the Mavs’ staff. He desperately needs one of those good nights here.

— New Orleans at Sacramento: A pair of teams building for the future.

Saturday's schedule

— Washington at Miami: Bam Adebayo scored 83 against the Wizards last month. The rematch!

— San Antonio at Denver: Wembanyama vs. Nikola Jokic in potential West playoff pairing.

— Detroit at Philadelphia: Sorry, Detroit. Michigan-Arizona Final Four game tips off during this one.

National TV schedule

Friday on NBA TV: Chicago-New York.

Saturday on Prime: San Antonio-Denver.

Saturday on NBA TV: Detroit-Philadelphia.

Betting odds

Oklahoma City (+135) is favored to win the NBA title, according to BetMGM Sportsbook, followed by Boston (+550), San Antonio (+550), Denver (+1100), Cleveland (+1200) and New York (+1600). Detroit, on its way to the No. 1 seed in the East, is +2500.

Key dates

— April 10: All 30 teams play their 81st games of the season.

— April 12: All 30 teams play their regular season finales.

— April 14, 15 and 17: NBA play-in tournament dates.

— April 18 and 19: NBA playoff series openers.

— May 2, 3 or 4: Conference semifinals begin.

— May 10: NBA draft lottery.

— May 10-17: NBA draft combine.

— May 17 or 19: Eastern Conference finals begin on ESPN and ABC.

— May 18 or 20: Western Conference finals begin on NBC and Peacock.

— June 3: Game 1, NBA Finals on ABC. (Other finals dates: June 5, June 8, June 10, June 13, June 16 and June 19).

Numbers watch

The Thunder had 14 different players score in their win over the Lakers on Thursday night. There have been only seven games in NBA history, including playoffs, where a team saw more players score at least one point in the same game.

Stat of the day

The Spurs are 27-2 since Feb. 1 — and have picked up only 3 1/2 games on Oklahoma City (23-5) in that span. (By the way, the best record in the East since that date belongs to Atlanta at 20-6.)

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AP NBA: https://apnews.com/nba

Jason Goodrich started an online petition calling for expanded trade programs in Duval County schools.

District leaders have since invited News4JX to tour their career and technology campuses for a firsthand look at what is already available to students.

District opens doors

Goodrich, who first reached out to News4JAX about the issue weeks earlier, was not able to attend the tour in person. However, district leaders and students walked the News4JAX team through several programs at A. Philip Randolph Career Academies, with a special focus on welding and carpentry — the areas Goodrich is most passionate about.

Charles Lyles, of A. Philip Randolph Career Academies, described how the district is working to ensure Career and Technical Education, or CTE, is accessible at every high school.

“No matter which school you go to, they all have at least a few CTE offerings there. And if the CTE offering that the student is interested in is not necessarily at their neighborhood high school, they can then decide that they want to become a magnet student and come either here to A. Philip Randolph Career Academies,” Lyles said. “We take students from all over the district, or to our sister school, Frank H. Peterson.”

Lyles says there are currently 21,000 students enrolled in CTE programs across Duval County.

Students put skills to work

Inside the carpentry program, students are already doing hands-on construction work. CTE carpentry student Joseph Bernier showed off the progress his class has made.

CTE programs available countywide include cosmetology, aviation and fire rescue, among others. For CTE firefighting student Rashad Brewster, the program has already given him a head start.

CTE cosmetology instructor Toya Alston says the program gives students a direct path to a career — and a license to go with their diploma.

“My favorite part is the fact that we can impart the information that we know as professionals into the students, and then they can go out into society and become a productive citizen,” Alston said. “They don’t have to leave here and just wander. They can leave here with not only their diploma, but they can also apply their licensure.”

Finding common ground

Duval County CTE Director Jill Fierle says the conversation with Goodrich helped illustrate both the progress that has been made and the work still ahead.

Goodrich joined the tour via video call and said he felt encouraged — and ready to help spread the word.

“Well, I’m going to do my part to help get it out there to people that don’t understand,” Goodrich said.

Fierle made clear the partnership is just getting started.

“We will be in touch. This isn’t over,” she said.

District leaders say they will continue to adjust programs based on community feedback and workforce needs.

The Italian soccer federation announced the news in a statement thanking Gattuso “for the dedication and passion” during his nine months in charge.

Italy’s chances of reaching this year’s tournament in North America ended on Tuesday after a penalty shootout loss to Bosnia and Herzegovina in a qualifying playoff.

“With pain in my heart, not having achieved the goal we had set ourselves, I consider my experience on the national team bench to be over,” Gattuso said.

Gattuso’s departure comes a day after Italy’s soccer federation president Gabriele Gravina resigned along with Gianluigi Buffon, who was the national team’s delegation chief.

The defeat to Bosnia added more misery for four-time champion Italy after being eliminated by Sweden and North Macedonia, respectively, in the qualifying playoffs for the last two World Cups.

Gattuso took over from the fired Luciano Spalletti in June with the squad already in crisis mode following a defeat at Norway in its opening qualifier.

Spalletti had also overseen a disappointing European Championship campaign in 2024, when titleholder Italy was knocked out in the round of 16 by Switzerland.

“I would like to thank Gattuso once again," Gravina said. "Because, in addition to being a special person, as a coach he has offered a valuable contribution, managing to bring enthusiasm back to the national team in just a few months.

“He has conveyed great pride in the national team jersey to the players and to the whole country.”

Under Gattuso, Italy went on a six-match winning streak before another loss to Norway in November to finish second in their group and end up in the playoffs again.

Gattuso had been given a contract until the end of this summer’s World Cup, with an automatic renewal until 2028 if Italy returned to soccer's biggest stage.

“The Azzurri shirt is the most precious asset that exists in soccer, which is why it is right to immediately facilitate future coaching staff decisions,” Gattuso said.

“It was an honor to be able to lead the national team and do so also with a group of boys who have shown commitment and attachment to the shirt. The biggest thanks go to the fans, to all the Italians who have never failed to show their love and support for the national team in recent months.”

Among those being mentioned to replace Gattuso are Roberto Mancini, Simone Inzaghi, Antonio Conte and Massimiliano Allegri.

Mancini coached Italy to the European Championship title in 2021 then failed to get the Azzurri to the next year’s World Cup before bolting to take over Saudi Arabia’s national team. He left that role in October 2024 and is currently coach at Al-Sadd in Qatar.

Inzaghi steered Inter Milan to the Serie A title in 2024 and now manages Saudi club Al-Hilal.

Conte coached Italy at the 2016 European Championship and is currently at Napoli.

Allegri is coach at AC Milan.

Italy will play two friendly matches in June but is unlikely to have a new coach by then, given that the election for a new FIGC president won't take place until June 22.

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

Equities markets are closed for Good Friday, but futures markets were trading into Friday morning, albeit quietly.

Futures for S&P 500 dipped 0.3%, futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.2% and Nasdaq futures were down 0.4%.

American employers added a surprisingly strong 178,000 new jobs last month, rebounding from a dismal February that saw 133,000 job losses. The unemployment rate dipped to 4.3% from 4.4%.

Energy markets were closed Friday following big price surges the day before on fears that the Iran war will drag on longer than expected. U.S. benchmark crude rose 11.4% to $111.54 a barrel on Thursday. The price of Brent crude, the international standard, jumped 7.8% to $109.03 per barrel.

U.S. President Donald Trump late Wednesday vowed the U.S. will continue to attack Iran and failed to offer a clear timetable for ending the conflict in the Middle East.

“A more extended conflict raises the threat to physical infrastructure, extends disruptions through the Strait of Hormuz, and will entail a longer postwar recovery period, with price impacts spilling over later into the year,” according to a report from BMI, a unit of Fitch Solutions.

The U.S. relies on the Persian Gulf for only a fraction of the oil it imports, but oil is a commodity and prices are set in a global market.

The situation is very different in Asia. Japan, for example, needs access to the Strait of Hormuz for much of the nation’s oil imports or would need alternative routes. But some analysts say Japan and other nations are counting on an agreement with Iran to allow fuel to be transported through the strait.

Trading was closed in France, Germany and Britain for the Good Friday holiday.

In Asia, Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 gained 1.3% to finish at 53,123.49. South Korea’s Kospi jumped 2.7% to 5,377.30. The Shanghai Composite sank 1.0% to 3,880.10. Trading was closed in Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Indonesia and India for the Good Friday holiday.

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Yuri Kageyama is on Threads: https://www.threads.com/@yurikageyama

The written ruling by Judge Lewis J. Liman in Manhattan came after Lively, who starred in and produced the film, sued her co-star and director in December 2024. A trial is scheduled for May 18.

Baldoni and his production company Wayfarer Studios had countersued Lively and her husband, “Deadpool” actor Ryan Reynolds, accusing them of defamation and extortion. The judge dismissed Baldoni’s claims last June.

In his ruling, Liman determined that Lively was an independent contractor rather than an employee. On that basis, he said she was not entitled to bring sexual harassment claims under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. That law prohibits employment discrimination on various grounds, including gender.

As to retaliation, the judge said some evidence might enable a jury to conclude that Baldoni's production company planned not only to damage Lively's reputation but to destroy her career amid fear she'd file a discrimination claim. Lively alleges a smear campaign has been “devastating for her reputation and career,” the judge noted.

In an analysis of the sexual harassment claims, the judge said Lively's claims had to be viewed in the context of the movie they were working on.

“Lively claims that during filming, Baldoni leaned in and gestured as if he was intending to kiss her, and that he kissed her forehead, rubbed his face and mouth against her neck, put his thumb to her mouth and flicked her lower lip, caressed her, and leaned into her neck, saying ‘it smells good,’” the judge wrote.

He said there was no question that the conduct would support a hostile work environment claim if it happened on a factory floor or in an executive suite.

However, the judge noted, Baldoni was “acting in the scene” and his "conduct was not so far beyond what might reasonably be expected to take place between two characters during a slow dancing scene such that an inference of hostile treatment on the basis of sex would arise. At least in isolation, the conduct was directed to Lively’s character rather than to Lively herself.”

Liman added: “Creative artists, no less than comedy room writers, must have some amount of space to experiment within the bounds of an agreed script without fear of being held liable for sexual harassment.”

Despite those findings, the judge said some sexual harassment claims may be put to a jury to support two retaliation claims that survived the ruling, including one against It Ends With Us Movie LLC and Wayfarer Studios, and a third claim that was left intact alleging breach of a contract rider agreement against It Ends With Us Movie LLC.

The judge noted that Baldoni once said “pretty hot” after asking Lively to remove her jacket, exposing a lace bra underneath, and that when he was warned that it was inappropriate and distracting to make such comment, he allegedly rolled his eyes and responded: “Sorry, I missed the sexual harassment training.”

Liman also cited a scene in which Baldoni pushed for Lively to perform a birth scene naked and then the scene was filmed over several hours without the set being closed to nonessential personnel.

In a statement, Lively attorney Sigrid McCawley wrote that Lively “looks forward to testifying at trial and continuing to shine a light on this vicious form of online retaliation so that it become easier to detect and fight.”

She added: “This case has always been and will remain focused on the devasting retaliation and the extraordinary steps the defendants took to destroy Blake Lively’s reputation because she stood up for safety on the set and that is the case that is going to trial.”

Bryan Freedman, a lawyer for Baldoni, said the defendants in the case were “very good people who have not engaged in this sexual harassment as alleged.”

“It is gratifying to see that the courts ruling confirms what the legal team believed from day one,” Freedman said in an email to The Associated Press.

“It Ends With Us,” an adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s bestselling 2016 novel that begins as a romance but takes a dark turn into domestic violence, was released in August 2024, exceeding box office expectations with a $50 million debut. But the movie’s release was shrouded by speculation over discord between Lively and Baldoni.

Lively appeared in the 2005 film “The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants” and the TV series “Gossip Girl” from 2007 to 2012 before starring in films including “The Town” and “The Shallows.”

Baldoni starred in the TV comedy “Jane the Virgin,” directed the 2019 film “Five Feet Apart” and wrote “Man Enough,” a book challenging traditional notions of masculinity.

Dasaun Williams, 24, of Middleburg was arrested by JSO last November during an undercover drug and gang investigation, but body camera video of the takedown only recently came to light after the family obtained it and posted it to social media.

The video of his arrest, which was sent to News4JAX by Williams’ girlfriend, prompted dozens of requests for News4JAX to look into the takedown and whether officers used excessive force.

Williams, whose mugshot after the November arrest shows him with a swollen face, is facing 27 felony counts related to drug trafficking, selling fentanyl, selling meth and firearms offenses. His attorneys attempted a plea deal, but prosecutors rejected the terms that were offered.

The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office says Williams is linked to the “Out East 1200″ gang.

The video of his arrest, posted on social media and viewed thousands of times, appears to show JSO officers striking Williams in the face, placing multiple knees to his head, and holding a stun gun against his back.

A separate clip shows what appears to be multiple slaps to his face while he is pinned down by officers. Williams also appears to vomit in the video.

Before the takedown, the video shows Williams slowly walking away from officers near a car parked at a Middleburg gas station as one officer tells him to get down before firing a stun gun.

Crump and Williams said they will join Williams’ family in calling for a “full, transparent investigation into the conduct of the deputies involved and a broader pattern of brutal and violent misconduct within the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office.”

Crump and Williams have previously visited Jacksonville after two other recent cases that raised concerns — the families of Erika McGriff and William McNeil Jr. also retained Crump and Daniels after videos surfaced alleging excessive force by JSO officers.

JSO announced the operation, called Operation Red Light, saying it led to the arrests of alleged gang members and seizures of drugs.

The agency has not released the full body-worn camera footage that has circulated online; News4JAX has asked JSO for the complete video, but has so far been able to review only what was posted publicly.

Williams’ arrest report describes a months-long undercover investigation and lists 27 charges, saying Williams sold meth and fentanyl to confidential informants on multiple occasions.

The report’s description of the arrest says, “The Gang Investigations Unit conducted a buy/bust on Dasaun Williams, taking him into custody,” but it does not mention the use of force seen in the video.

JSO said the video is under administrative review, and it can not comment at this time.

The night after he finally won the green jacket last April, McIlroy climbed the 13 spiral stairs to the second floor of the clubhouse and walked through a door that says, “Masters Club Room. Private.”

Champions only.

He couldn't wait to see the most exclusive locker room in golf, intimate and understated, only 27 lockers. Missing that April night was his nameplate, and so his return in December to work on a Prime Video documentary made him eager to find out whose names would be on his locker.

It felt like Christmas morning the way he talked about finding out.

Ben Hogan 1953. Raymond Floyd 1976. Rory McIlroy 2025.

“I was wondering who they were going to put me with,” McIlroy said. “Were they going to put me with another European? I didn't really know. But having Hogan's locker? That's pretty cool, another guy who did the (Grand) Slam. And then Raymond, who I've known for a long time and has been a good friend to me in golf over the years.

“Incredible,” he said. “It never gets old.”

The champions' exclusive room was created in 1978 and since renovated, but not expanded, which is why lockers are shared (not by active players).

The locker room in the new Players Services Building is more spacious and grander. Masters champions will have a locker there, too, for convenience when they use the fitness and recovery area on the basement level.

But they'll still be upstairs in their own room, mainly because they can.

“It's hard to put into words,” Hideki Matsuyama said through his interpreter about returning as Masters champion after his 2021 win. “When I went back for the first time, I knew I could go in, but it just didn't feel right. It was like, ‘Really? I can go in?’ It's not that I was nervous or my English. It was just, ‘Wow.’”

Tiger Woods shares a locker with Jack Burke Jr., who died in 2024. Jack Nicklaus shares with Horton Smith, the first winner of the Masters. Trevor Immelman has Nick Faldo.

Imagine how it felt for Jordan Spieth when he saw his name next to Arnold Palmer on a locker.

“It never crossed my mind until I got there,” Spieth said. “They said, ‘Here’s who you're sharing your locker with. I didn't know they shared lockers.”

Spieth was the defending champion at the Masters Club dinner in 2016, the last one Palmer attended. His mission now is to get an old pair of shoes belonging to Palmer to put in the locker, just to give the King a presence. “That would be cool,” Spieth said.

Scottie Scheffler had seen the room when his Texas team took trips to Augusta National, so his curiosity was running high when he returned as champion for the first time. It was a Texas theme, his name next to Charles Coody and Byron Nelson.

“Charles for sure, because I see him in there using it,” Scheffler said. “I mean, we truly share a locker. He changes his shoes. He has his green jacket. When he shows up he puts his jacket on, and when he leaves he puts his jacket up.”

Adam Scott shares a locker with Gary Player, whom he referred to as “probably the greatest international player ever.” The 5-foot-6 “Black Knight” is 90 and still hits the ceremonial tee shot.

“I was curious and pleasantly surprised to be sharing with Gary, although I didn't know he'd use all my stuff,” Scott said with a laugh.

One time Scott needed to put on his green jacket for a function during the Masters, and the sleeves came halfway up his forearm. “Looks like Gary took the wrong jacket again,” Scott said.

Few others had a more memorable discovery of sharing a locker than Mark O'Meara.

He had seen the room before because he stayed upstairs in the Crow's Nest when he played as the U.S. Amateur champion and snuck down one night to see it. He walked in the front door as a Masters champion with two sets of shoes, knowing his name would be on another's locker, not sure whom it would be.

“There's three small tables, four chairs at each one, and one person sitting there,” O'Meara said. “The locker room attendant says, ‘Let me show you where you are.’ I knew who was sitting in the chair. It was Gene Sarazen, sitting with his back to where we came in.”

Two lockers down he saw the nameplates — Gene Sarazen 1935, Mark O'Meara 1998.

“So I'm sharing a locker with Gene Sarazen, who is actually sitting with his back turned to the locker,” O'Meara said. “I put my hands on the back of his shoulders and said, ‘Mr. Sarazen, I hate to inform you, I'm your locker mate.'”

They had met before because O'Meara used to play in the Sarazen World Open.

“He said, ‘Mark do me a favor. At this stage in my life, I don't get a lot of free (stuff). Can you leave a couple of extra dozen golf balls when you leave?'” O'Meara said.

O'Meara said he would mail as many as the Squire wanted. Sarazen died a month later.

The centerpiece of the intimate room is a glass case that honors the current champion, including a mannequin with the green jacket draped on the shirt the champion wore in the final round, along with a club used for a meaningful shot in the win. There's also the original letter Hogan wrote in 1952 suggesting a “stag dinner” for Masters champions.

Twenty-six of the lockers were empty when McIlroy returned in December — green jackets are kept in a separate room. His contained a surprise.

“There was a note in there from Jack,” McIlroy said. "He'd been there one or two weeks previous and it just said, ‘Welcome to the club.’

“It's a wonderful perk.”

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

Now, it is not so clear-cut, and that confusion now gets wrapped into virtually any conversation about the state of college sports. Not surprisingly, it's bubbling up at the Final Four, where Illinois has five players on the roster who boast pro experience in Europe, and Arizona has a couple of starters who came out of the European pro leagues.

An NCAA playing field founded on the idea that amateurs play college sports has become much more of a business in which players get paid — forever considered the best way to define a pro — while their eligibility hinges on where that money comes from.

All the Illinois players with European roots are allowed to play because their pro teams were more like club teams; they didn't enter a draft or actually get drafted, the way a player might if he was looking to go to the NBA.

The topic is still so fresh that the NCAA announced just this week it was considering changing rules to bar athletes who enter and stay in a pro sports draft from coming back and competing in college, as happened in two instances earlier this season.

All of that is further jumbled by the fact that many of these players will probably make more in college than they would at their “pro” jobs — whether it be basketball, finance or coaching — thanks to the influx of name, image and likeness payments that now permeate college sports.

“The way I would describe it is it's a middle ground, between what college athletics used to be about, which was not paying, to now, where you're paying student-athletes,” Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel said. “But in a way, we've always paid student-athletes. We've given them a scholarship. We've given them something of value. Now, the only difference is, we’re adding cash to that for their name, image, likeness.”

That cash has widened the recruiting pipeline to Europe and other points overseas. Nobody has exploited it better this season than the Illini, whose “Balkan Bloc” — including twins Tomislav and Zvonimir Ivisic and David Mirkovic — accounts for 36% of both their scoring and their minutes.

Illinois' key recruiter in Europe, Geoff Alexander, explained that a European “pro” who comes to the U.S. for college is something much different than, say, a player with experience in the NBA.

“In Europe and around the world, they don't have high school basketball," Alexander said. "They go to these clubs as youths and find their path. That's like their high school. So anyone who wants to pigeonhole these guys into all this discussion about college eligibility, it's apples and oranges.”

The eligibility discussion concerns an NCAA proposal that came out this week to tweak the rules about who can play and who can't. It was partly a reaction to two players, Alabama's Charles Bediako and Baylor’s James Nnaji, who each played in college this season after entering the 2023 NBA draft.

Bediako's case drew headlines because he actually played three years in the NBA's developmental G League. He sued the NCAA after it denied Alabama's request to allow him to return to college this season, arguing he remined within his five-year eligibility window. One judge issued a temporary-restraining order that allowed Bediako to play. That lasted five games until new rulings barred him again.

Looming next could be the case of 22-year-old Amari Bailey, a former UCLA star who played 10 games in the NBA with the Charlotte Hornets. He has hired a lawyer and is seeking a return, telling ESPN, "right now, I’d be a senior in college. I'm not trying to be 27 years old playing college athletics."

Neither are the European transplants, though many certainly do play against players 27 and older in the overseas leagues before they arrive in the U.S. college system.

“If you've played in the EuroLeague, you are not a freshman,” Michigan coach Dusty May said, in reference to Arizona freshman Ivan Kharchenkov, who has played at different levels for a club team in Munich since he was 12 and could end up in the NBA soon.

Another Arizona starter, Motiejus Krivas, is from Lithuania.

Wildcats coach Tommy Lloyd spent decades at Gonzaga, a school that took a lead in international recruiting (Domantas Sabonis, Rui Hachimura) long before the onset of NIL made coming to America a more lucrative proposition for the up-and-coming European club players.

“To be honest with you, I think it’s maybe opened a few more doors,” Lloyd said. “One of the detriments to international recruiting back in the day was if a kid wanted to get paid, the European clubs could pay them legally, and obviously we couldn’t.”

Lloyd predicts that soon, “the convoluted notion of who's eligible” will get sorted out and it will become more clear that college sports is for players in their late teens and early 20s.

Illinois coach Brad Underwood acknowledges that no matter where the players come from, the business model of college sports has changed.

“I’d argue that in today’s world, all these kids are finding opportunities that allow them to receive compensation,” he said.

___

AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-mens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness

But another unofficial face of the male-led church has emerged in American pop culture: digitally savvy, female influencers, often seen sporting athleisure, a giant soda in hand — and varying degrees of adherence to church teachings.

These influencers have found an enthusiastic audience across the country, curious about their faith and families. Some explain the tenets of what's widely known as the Mormon church, but others bring attention to the rules they often break — drinking alcohol, having premarital sex and in one high-profile instance, a “soft-swinging” scandal that birthed the hugely popular Hulu reality series, “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives.”

ABC sought to capitalize on that interest by casting “Mormon Wives” star Taylor Frankie Paul in “The Bachelorette,” but recently had to scuttle the already filmed season after a video of a domestic violence incident surfaced.

These viral moments and “Mormon Wives” project a version of the faith that appears more progressive and lenient than church leadership and other Latter-day Saint influencers might like. “The internet really challenged the church’s ability to maintain its own narratives about itself,” said Nancy Ross, an associate professor at Utah Tech University who studies Mormon feminism.

Church says misrepresentation can have ‘real-life consequences’

The church has worked to distance itself from “Mormon Wives,” issuing a statement ahead of the first season’s premiere in 2024 without naming the show specifically. It said that some media portrayals of Latter-day Saint women resort to “stereotypes or gross misrepresentations that are in poor taste and have real-life consequences for people of faith.”

Camille N. Johnson, the president of the church’s Relief Society organization for women, said in an emailed statement that it’s important to seek out trusted sources of information about the church and its members in light of recent media attention.

“Millions of Latter-day Saint women around the world strive to live faith-filled lives grounded in a love for God and all of His children,” she said.

It would be impossible for the “Mormon Wives” cast to fully represent millions of women in the church. But they are not the only Latter-day Saint influencers online — nor are they the only ones with large followings.

Many are women in their early twenties who are married with young children. They post about young motherhood and experiences like buying a house before they turn 25. Lauren Yarro, a Latter-day Saint content creator and podcast host, said she can see this being a foreign image to some.

“Our culture is fascinating to an outsider, and I can understand why it would pull people in,” she said. “That Mormon timeline is intriguing to the rest of the world. I think most people innately have a desire for a happy marriage and a happy family life and we tend to create those in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.”

Cultural fascination with the church endures

The beliefs and practices of church members have often been the subject of intense interest and scrutiny because of how they differ from other religions. Some of these include the belief that church leadership can receive revelations from God, or the practice of wearing garments under clothing that have deep religious significance.

Latter-day Saint influencers are not a new phenomenon, but they have found staying power by driving pop culture discourse and documenting their lifestyles. Many of them use content creation as a way to be stay-at-home parents while also generating income for their families. Several prominent creators live in Utah, the home of the church’s administrative and cultural hub, but there is a broad spectrum in terms of how much they bring their faith into their content.

While “Mormon Wives” and its controversial star, Paul, have been the recent high-profile drivers of public interest, the cast talks about the church only sparingly. Rosemary Avance, an assistant professor at Oklahoma State University whose research includes religious identity and digital media, said “there’s so little reference” to the cast's faith once people are hooked on the show from its title. Many cast members have left the church or are no longer active in it.

“It was clearly a marketing strategy on behalf of the people putting these shows together. They think that’ll draw people in, and it does,” she said. “It’s not like you have these women sitting down talking about their secret temple practices that they’re not supposed to speak about, or challenging the authority of the church in some way. They’re just not talking about it.”

Avance sees parallels between now and about 15 years ago, when Republican Mitt Romney was running for president and “The Book of Mormon” debuted on Broadway. At the time, people wanted to know “what’s going on behind the scenes in Mormonism,” she said.

“People think they know a lot about it (Mormonism), and they’ve heard a lot about it because there’s prominent stories and prominent people who are well-known and those narratives are circulated, but it’s almost always second-, third-hand,” she said. “A lot of people don’t know any Mormons and may never meet a Mormon, or if they have, they don’t know it, and so it’s what you’ve heard and the preconceptions you think you have about Mormonism.”

‘Secret Lives’ draws mixed reaction from influencers

Creators like Yarro, who speak about their faith openly online and closely follow the church's teachings, said “Mormon Wives” does not feel representative of their experiences in the church or their lives in Utah. The Latter-day Saint content creators who spoke with The Associated Press emphasized they don't place fault on the individual cast members, but rather the production of the show and the way it Hollywoodizes their faith. Representatives for Hulu did not respond to a request for comment.

“The only thing I don’t like about what they do is sometimes they will play on things, twist things, use what is sacred to us as members of the church, and they’ll put it out and it feels like mockery to us,” said Shayla Egan, another Latter-day Saint content creator.

Some of the more devout members use their online platforms to respond to and course-correct more salacious social media content or “Mormon Wives” storylines they believe don't align with their understanding of church teachings or experiences.

Mimi Bascom, a Latter-day Saint content creator who says the mission behind her social media presence is to “show that members of the church are real people,” often makes videos responding to “Mormon Wives” clips. She finds the show to be a “net positive for our church” since it gives everyday members the opportunity to “share what we actually believe and get that more out there into the world,” she said.

Bascom, for one, had always prepared to serve on a mission but no longer could after getting married. Making content about the church has felt like a way she's “able to still live that out,” she said.

“We want to be missionaries and spread the good word of the Gospel,” she continued, “and so this is just another way we can do it.”

___

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

The occasion was the third in a series of “rental rip-off hearings,” a new forum launched by New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani for disgruntled renters to air their complaints directly to housing officials — and in some cases, the mayor himself.

As she waited in line, Gulhayo Yuldosheva said she worried that noxious mold in her apartment had worsened her child’s asthma. Nearby, her downstairs neighbor, Marina Quiroz, was showing a video of rats scurrying through her kitchen to a representative of the city’s tenant protection office.

Ann Maitin, a longtime resident of the same building, had just met with the mayor.

“He let me go over my three minutes,” she said, holding up a spiral notebook’s worth of grievances.

Mamdani, a democratic socialist swept into office on a promise of zealous tenant advocacy, framed the event as a struggle session for renters, assuring the standing room only crowd that their stories would guide the city's efforts “to actually hold landlords accountable when they don’t follow the law."

To the residents of 705 Gerard Avenue, this raised a practical problem: No one seemed to know who actually owned their building.

“It feels like such a basic question,” said Maitin, a retired Verizon technician who recently organized the building’s tenant association. “You’d think we’d have the right to that information.”

Their situation is hardly unique. As corporate owners and investor groups have grown their share of the rental market in New York City, they are increasingly shielding their identities behind limited liability companies, or LLCs.

The practice, which has also been spreading nationally, is legal. But experts warn it could complicate Mamdani’s promised crackdown, making it harder for the city and tenants to track the chronically negligent owners whose buildings the mayor has vowed to target and even seize.

“There are these big slumlords that everyone knows are doing predatory investment, but pinning them down is going to be difficult, for the LLC reason,” said Oksana Mironova, a housing policy analyst at the Community Service Society. “That’s a problem for the administration, and it’s even worse for tenants.”

‘They treat us the same as the rats’

For Yuldosheva and her neighbors, finding their landlord is one of many problems afflicting their six-story building near Yankee Stadium.

Heat and hot water outages are regular enough that some tenants keep a thermometer on their fridge and the city’s complaint hotline on speed dial. Common areas are often filthy, and increasingly populated by drug users. Getting help with an urgent maintenance issue “feels like waiting for Christmas in July,” said Maitin.

During a monthslong elevator outage, a tenant who uses a wheelchair, Tommy Rodriguez, said he was forced to “slide down the steps, like a kid.” Calls to the building management about a repair timeline went unanswered, he said.

Growing up in the building in the 1980s, Rodriguez recalled the previous landlord as a friendly and responsive neighborhood presence.

“This felt like a home before,” Rodriguez said. “Now they treat us the same as the rats.”

A large rodent had recently chewed a hole through his couch cushion. He handled the extermination himself, with a two-by-four.

A distressing breakthrough

Recently, tenants received a clue about their landlord, following the partial collapse of another Bronx building. The man identified in news stories as the owner of that building, David Kleiner, shared a Brooklyn office with their building manager, Binyomin Herzl.

A handful of tenants visited each of the building’s 72 units, logging an array of decrepit conditions and unusual alterations.

“We didn’t want to become the next news story,” said Yuldosheva, pointing to a crack in the wall of a bedroom shared by her three children — a result, she feared, of the subway that rumbles just below her windows.

Lawsuits show that Herzl has been ordered to pay more than $100,000 for violations across at least six Bronx buildings, several of which were found by a judge to pose an imminent hazard.

Reached by phone, Herzl said he didn't own any of those properties, but simply acted as a middleman between tenants and the true owners, whom he declined to list. “There’s no one landlord,” he said. “It’s a group of investors.”

Kleiner, who was previously featured on the city’s “worst landlord” list, confirmed his partial ownership of 705 Gerard in a brief phone call, but declined further comment.

Herzl, meanwhile, attributed the tenants’ complaints to “normal wear and tear” of a nearly century old building. He said Mamdani should focus on improving the city’s public housing, rather than going after private landlords.

“Our buildings look like five star hotels against his,” he added.

From fines to seizures

When landlords refuse to address a serious violation, like heat or hot water outages, the city can step in and order repairs, then bill the owner directly.

In the last three years, inspectors have ordered emergency repairs at 38 buildings that list either Herzl or Kleiner as an owner, according to records provided by the city’s housing department. The men have been billed $446,521 for those repairs.

Mamdani has proposed using such fines as a vehicle to bring distressed rental properties under city stewardship, by aggressively pursuing liens on delinquent landlords and buying up their portfolios through foreclosure auctions.

Just as the city can shut down unsanitary restaurants, Mamdani has said, landlords that “repeatedly put New Yorkers at risk will not be allowed to operate in New York City — with no exceptions."

In reality, the process is resource-intensive and legally fraught. It is made more complex by the nest of LLCs often used by landlords to obfuscate the full scope of their portfolios, according to Cea Weaver, director of the Mayor’s Office to Protect Tenants.

“It’d be great to have a better sense of who owns the buildings that we are regulating and overseeing,” she said.

State legislation that would have made it easier to identify LLC owners was recently vetoed by New York Gov. Kathy Hochul amid pressure from landlords.

New Yorkers vs. Bad Landlords

Kenny Burgos, the CEO of the New York Apartment Association, a landlord lobbying group, said Mamdani’s tenant proposals — including freezing the rent for regulated tenants — would force landlords to cut back on maintenance and services.

“That’s going to take away from the elevator budget, the boiler budget, the heating budget,” he said. “It’s a question of math: These buildings are crumbling because of policy, not because of bad landlords.”

He characterized the rental rip-off hearings as “show trials” that took a “tribal approach” to the city’s affordable housing crisis.

Despite the combative branding — “New Yorkers vs. Bad Landlords,” blares one promotion — the Bronx event mostly resembled a standard constituent service night: City officials fielded questions about local laws, helped residents with paperwork and connected them to service providers.

Maitin left feeling “glad to be heard by someone who can actually do something about the problem,” but felt it was too early to tell “if it’s all talk."

The next morning, she was surprised to find the building’s superintendent applying a fresh coat of paint to a staircase. Outside, workers were removing scaffolding that had been in front of the building for years.

“I think they caught wind of the rental rip-off,” Maitin said. “They’re scared.”

On Saturday, you can practically count on mostly sunny skies and very hot conditions. We’ll be running well above average temperature-wise, so if you’re headed out, grab the sunscreen and stay hydrated. No major rainmakers are on the horizon, making for a great fair day.

Sunday showers possible, mostly afternoon

I’m tracking a shift Sunday. While most early-morning plans—including sunrise or Easter services—are expected to be dry, there’s a 30 percent chance for showers to roll through the area between 1 and 4 p.m.

These scattered showers are most likely in the western parts of our viewing area, which covers spots like Lake City and up toward Waycross.

If you’re going to the fair, keep an eye on the conditions, especially in the afternoon. Jacksonville proper, especially closer to the coast, is less likely to see much rain.

Early outdoor events should have friendly weather, but anyone heading out for the afternoon should be ready for a quick shower.

Rain needed for drought and smoke

The Exact Track 4D radar and Drought Monitor are showing that western areas are dealing with the worst dry conditions and even some thick smoke near Waycross.

I spotted several fire hot spots on our graphics, and while the overall threat of strong winds is low, any rain we get is much needed to help out those smoky, dry patches.

Monday and Tuesday look to bring better chances for steadier showers across the area, which could go a long way toward easing both the drought and fire risk.

Hot now, but a cool down is coming

If you’re feeling like summer has arrived early, you’re not alone! We’re forecast to see upper 80s—almost hitting 90—by Sunday afternoon. That’s unseasonably warm, and even the overnight lows are holding in the 60s, well above our typical 54-degree average.

Don’t get used to the heat, though. Another weather system moving in next week brings us back down to the 70s and even some 60s by midweek, with higher rain chances Monday and Tuesday.

If you capture any great fair moments—or wild weather—remember you can share them with us and your neighbors at SnapJAX.

The couple has a child with nonverbal autism and epilepsy who requires up to three hospital visits a week. And Creighton's critical access hospital has been a lifeline for Jane: not only is she employed there, but three years ago, doctors saved her life when she contracted bacterial pneumonia. If she had waited another day for care, doctors said, her organs would have begun to shut down.

“And if we had had to drive the hour to the Yankton (South Dakota) hospital," Rick Saint John said, his voice breaking with emotion, "it could have cost her her life.”

So the Saint Johns were shocked to hear that Avera Creighton Hospital faces financial peril. A $50 billion government fund meant to transform rural health care will do little to help. It's a problem that millions of Americans in rural areas are awakening to as they realize there's no windfall coming for the vulnerable hospitals near their homes.

Hundreds of rural hospitals across the country are facing closures after years of funding problems. The issue was compounded last summer by the Trump administration's massive cuts to Medicaid, the government's safety net for low-income Americans, whose reimbursements have long helped hospitals meet their bottom lines.

Outcry over the funding cuts prompted Republican lawmakers to create $50 billion in new rural health grants, but critics say that funding is intended for innovative health care delivery solutions — not propping up hospitals buckling under current pressures.

“It won’t pay to keep the lights on. And it won’t turn the lights back on once they’ve been turned off,” said Dr. Ben Young, an infectious disease specialist and policy expert with public health advocacy group Wellness Equity Alliance.

Rural Americans’ health care worries reflect broader national concerns about access and rising prices of care as the cost of living spikes — anxieties that could prove pivotal in this year’s midterm elections.

Rural health fund billed as a cure falls short

The $50 billion Rural Health Transformation Program included in President Donald Trump's tax-and-spending law last year was billed by Republicans as a way to help hospitals in rural areas. Last summer, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. touted it as the “biggest infusion in history” for rural hospitals and pledged it will “restore and revitalize these communities.”

Hospitals and health industry experts have warned that while the fund — $10 billion per year allocated across all states for five years — offers some support to struggling rural hospitals, it won’t save them. One reason is that the sum doesn't come close to offsetting the $137 billion that rural hospitals expect to lose over the next decade, according to health research nonprofit KFF. Millions of people are expected to lose Medicaid benefits as a result of new Medicaid work requirements going into effect in 2027 — changes the Trump administration has maintained will crack down on fraudsters rather than cut off eligible enrollees.

Administrators say the new $50 billion fund is not meant to shore up ailing rural hospitals or maintain the status quo, but to transform rural health care through tech, workforce and other innovations. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz in a December video said it “gives states the tools to design solutions that last, not Band-Aids that fail.”

The White House echoed that Wednesday, saying the fund is intended to fund “big ideas” to improve rural health care access long-term.

“Decades of mismanagement by career politicians in Washington have left rural communities with limited care options," White House spokesman Kush Desai said.

State applications show a wide range of proposals. Some pitches sought to improve emergency medical services and modernize rural facilities, while others looked to make school lunches healthier, expand physical fitness programs, beef up telehealth and expand AI-driven technologies to help monitor patients.

Nebraska will spend much of its grant on innovation

Avera Creighton Hospital CEO Theresa Guenther argues her hospital is not in danger of closing. but conceded that Medicaid cuts will be painful — a sentiment shared by most rural hospitals, she said.

“Medicaid cuts will have an impact to us, and we — as well as many others — will have to figure out what that looks like moving forward,” she said. Her hospital hopes to get a piece of the $50 billion fund to help manage patients' chronic diseases — like diabetes — and to help cover workforce costs.

Nebraska, which received $218 million for the rural health grants' first installment, plans to spend some $90 million on healthier food options at schools, recruiting more health care workers and mobile sensors to remotely monitor chronically ill patients in rural areas, among other things. But for rural critical access hospitals at risk of closing, it offers $10 million to “right size” them by getting rid of inpatient care, where bed occupancy is typically low.

Republican state Sen. Barry DeKay said hospitals like Creighton's are vital, despite it's low occupancy rate. The hospital is in his district; even his mother received life-extending care there following a hip replacement. He's worried that the Medicaid cuts could hurt all the state's rural hospitals.

“I'll try to be working as hard as I can to get as much money to rural hospitals — whether it's in my district or any other rural district in the state,” he said.

Rick Saint John acknowledged he knows little about how Nebraska will use the federal funds, but he thinks it should go to helping hospitals like Creighton’s remain intact.

“The hospital is very important to this community, and for more than just medical care,” he said, citing job losses if the hospital loses services or closes.

Hospital groups push back on fund

The fund has seen pushback from hospital groups over an issue that's shaping up as important for 2026 voters.

The Colorado Hospital Association sent a letter in December to state lawmakers accusing them of ignoring input from rural hospitals during the application process.

The Nebraska Hospital Association, which endorsed Republican U.S. Sen. Deb Fischer’s 2024 reelection bid based on her advocacy for rural health care, has criticized both the cuts and the $50 billion fund. Fischer voted last summer for the Medicaid cuts.

That and other efforts by the state to limit Medicaid spending sends a message “that access to health care is not a priority," the group said.

Some Republican state lawmakers across the country have expressed unease with parts of the fund and have sought ways to use it to help struggling rural hospitals.

States hard-pressed to help

Under pressure, some rural states are making their own moves to help.

Wyoming enacted a law allowing rural hospitals to file Chapter 9 bankruptcy, normally reserved for financially stressed cities to reorganize debts and repay creditors while protecting them from legal action.

In North Dakota, during a special session to allocate the state’s federal rural health funds, the Republican-led Legislature passed an unrelated bill that aims to rescue a rural hospital with a low-interest loan of up to $5 million administered through the state-owned bank.

It's hoped the plan will keep the hospital open in a vast rural area where it employs 5% of the surrounding county's residents, hospital board member Matt Hager said.

Young, the expert with Wellness Equity Alliance, sees dark days ahead for rural hospitals.

“I am not optimistic in the short term,” he said. “Because these hospitals are facing immediate financial shortfalls, are barely financially operating currently, and they need operating support now.”

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Swenson reported from New York. Associated Press writer Jack Dura contributed to this report from Bismarck, North Dakota.

The crash happened around 10:30 a.m. Thursday on Zoo Parkway near Imeson Park Boulevard.

According to a message from Duval County Public Schools to district families, the bus was from San Pablo Elementary School, and the parents of the four injured students have been contacted.

“Hello San Pablo kindergarten families. This is Duval County Public Schools with important information. One of the buses transporting kindergarten students to the zoo from San Pablo this morning was involved in an accident, and at least three students sustained injuries. We are in direct contact with the families of those students. Again, we are in direct contact with the families of the students who sustained injuries. All other students are safe, and school staff are on site with them. We are continuing to gather more information and will provide updates as soon as possible. Please stand by for additional details regarding a student pick-up plan.”

JFRD later updated the school district and said that four students were injured and required transport.

Parents said they never imagined their child’s school bus would be hit by a semi-truck, and the damage left behind shows just how serious this was.

When News4JAX arrived on the scene, Durham School Services, their safety team, and paramedics checked the children as parents arrived to pick them up.

As families walked past, children could be heard saying, “Mom, my head hurts.”

A parent who was also a chaperone was waiting for her 6-year-old daughter to arrive at the zoo when she learned her daughter was on that bus.

She said a teacher notified her right away, then she saw the images circulating online.

“I was like freaking out,” Axia Booker said. “Luckily, one of the CSOs knows me because we used to work together. So he called me and told me to get here because my daughter told him my mom works at where I work at. The bus, she was on the bus and it hit them. She like went for it, hit her head on the window, but she was fine. Um, she said she was crying for me, but like other than that, she seems to be doing okay.

Another parent said an extra adult should be on board in an emergency situation.

“It can become confusing in an emergency, especially for younger children,” Kristen Goult said.

News4JAX will give updates on the other students who were transported to the hospital as soon as they become available, but Principal Brown sent a new communication to San Pablo Elementary families.

In moments like this, the strength of our community truly matters. Thank you for keeping our kindergarten students in your thoughts and prayers following today’s bus accident.

While the situation could have been far worse, it was understandably a frightening experience for our young students. I know many of you are holding your children a little closer today. I am in direct contact with the families of students who required medical transport. While I’m unable to share specific medical details, I am encouraged by the updates I’ve received regarding their condition and recovery. Please continue to keep these students and families in your thoughts. I will follow up next week with information about rescheduling the kindergarten field trip. In the meantime, I hope you have a safe and restful long weekend, and we look forward to welcoming our students back next week.

Principal Brown, San Pablo Elementary

Durham School Services also shared a statement about the crash.

Thursday morning, while our bus was transporting students and stopped at a railroad crossing, it was struck from behind by a semi-truck.

Local authorities responded to the scene and evaluated all passengers. We understand that four students were transported for further evaluation and treatment. Our concern remains with the safety of our students, and our thoughts are with the students and passengers that were impacted by the incident. We are fully cooperating with local authorities.

Durham School Services

Florida Statute 316.159 says school buses and trucks carrying explosive substances and inflammable liquids have to stop within 50 feet but not less than 15 feet of train tracks and look and listen for oncoming trains.

News4JAX is working to learn more details about the crash, including details about the semi truck driver.

Troopers said that around 7 p.m., two cars and a pick-up truck were stopped in traffic in the left lane of I-95 south at 9B, when another pick-up truck, driven by a 38-year-old man from Lehigh Acres, “failed to slow or stop” and hit the back of the 20-year-old’s car.

The crash report said the impact pushed that car forward into the second car, which had two women, ages 54 and 30, from St. Augustine inside. They both suffered minor injuries.

After hitting the 20-year-old’s car, the 38-year-old’s pick-up truck kept going and also hit the back of the other pick-up that had been stopped in traffic, troopers said. That pick-up was being driven by a 21-year-old man from Elkton, who was not hurt, according to the report.

After those collisions, a fifth vehicle, being driven by a 25-year-old woman from Sanford, was unable to stop and hit the back of the 38-year-old’s pick-up truck, troopers said. She suffered minor injuries, and her male passenger was not hurt, the report said.

According to FHP, the 38-year-old pick-up truck driver suffered minor injuries, and his 21-year-old male passenger, also from Lehigh Acres, was not hurt.

Everyone involved was wearing a seat belt, the report showed.

Instead, when winner Seth Clevenger’s name was announced, the other seven runners stepped off their perches and walked away.

With the NCAA holding its biggest party of the year at this week’s Final Four, the protest over Clevenger’s alleged use of performance enhancers at one of its smaller championships is a telling illustration of what critics see as a glaring weak spot in college sports.

They point to an NCAA anti-doping policy rife with imperfections, all of which undercut the association′s ability to provide a level playing field -- a responsibility that means more than ever with growing name, image and likeness opportunities that raise the stakes for players.

“In the NIL era, failing to have a robust anti-doping program doesn’t just invite doping into college athletics — it undermines fairness, the very heart of the game,” said Travis Tygart, the CEO of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency.

USADA has no authority over the NCAA, though college athletes who also compete on national and Olympic teams are subject to the world anti-doping protocols.

Video of Clevenger being ghosted on the podium has garnered more than 10 million views on social media, part of a mushrooming protest against the former Iowa State distance runner who moved down to Division III Rowan University earlier this year. More than 750 D-III runners have since signed a letter to school and conference officials demanding a “full and public investigation” into Clevenger.

Last month, Clevenger won NCAA indoor titles at 3,000 and 5,000 meters, setting meet records in both. His wins allowed his new school to eke out the team title by one point.

Clevenger did not respond to multiple requests for comment from The Associated Press. In response to a series of questions about its anti-doping measures, the NCAA said it has a “rigorous drug-testing policy.” Shawn Tucker, the athletic director at Rowan, declined to comment on Clevenger specifically.

″In line with Rowan athletics and NCAA policies, we assure you that all rostered student-athletes competing for Rowan have been both academically and athletically eligible to compete this academic year,” Tucker said.

Clevenger is not known to have tested positive for either of the banned drugs he is alleged to have used: a hard-to-detect and widely available peptide called BP-157 that some believe is key to injury recovery; and erythropoietin (EPO), a well-known red blood cell booster detectable through blood tests, the likes of which the NCAA is not known to administer.

Because Clevenger let his membership to Olympic-affiliated USA Track and Field lapse after 2023, he only needs to follow NCAA rules, which are far less demanding than the system that governs international sports and is helmed by USADA in the United States.

With that agency on the sideline, the NCAA’s handling of cases like Clevenger's has largely stayed under the radar, below ever-rotating headlines about the transfer portal, eligibility lawsuits and, more recently, the new college landscape's impact on a March Madness tournament that was built on underdog stories but has tilted recently more toward deeper-pocketed programs.

Those who track doping issues have taken notice. They see the Clevenger case as something with implications far beyond a single D-III school.

“In this case, there was enough conversation, and you had people walking off the podium,” said researcher Oliver Catlin, president of the Anti-Doping Sciences Institute. “If you ignore something like that, that’s going to send a horrendous message through the rest of the ranks. And people pay attention and it’s going to get repeated.”

A supsension at Iowa State and a move to Division III

The seeds of this saga were planted at Iowa State, where Clevenger spent most of his three years low on the depth chart for the highly rated Cyclones.

Given a chance to race at the Nuttycombe Invitational in Wisconsin last October while Iowa State rested its top runners, Clevenger ran the 8-kilometer championship in 23 minutes, 37.9 seconds. That was 4.5 seconds better than a personal best he had topped by 28 seconds only three weeks earlier.

Eight days after that, Iowa State suspended multiple athletes, including Clevenger, “for breaking team rules.” The school did not specify which rules had been broken but Clevenger did not race for Iowa State again and wound up at Rowan, less than 20 miles from his childhood home of Haddonfield, New Jersey. Cyclones coach Jeremy Sudbery did not respond to requests from AP for an interview.

Since then, Clevenger has admitted to using BP-157, a person close to the case told AP, speaking only on condition of anonymity because that detail has not been made public by the runner or his attorney. The track website letsrun.com published a story last month about the allegations; an Instagram page soon after carried a post that purportedly shows a receipt for an order of EPO placed through Clevenger’s email account.

The AP could not confirm the authenticity of the email, nor of a letter to Iowa State administrators that has also shown up on social media and appears to be from Clevenger’s mother, who insists her son never took EPO.

The email and letter are among evidence that Catlin and other anti-doping experts said could be used to investigate a case under world anti-doping rules. The ability to investigate potential evidence other than blood and urine samples led to the ban of cyclist Lance Armstrong and dozens of other athletes even though they did not test positive for drugs.

The NCAA’s lack of tools to open those sort of investigations is viewed as a big hole in its drug-fighting program.

“An effective anti-doping program can’t just test -- it must also investigate,” Tygart said. “Without both, cheaters game the system and clean athletes may be falsely harmed on just suspicion, not evidence.”

The NCAA has a difficult history with anti-doping efforts

Five years ago, the NCAA got great reviews for putting on a successful post-COVID version of March Madness in Indianapolis – the site of this year’s Final Four – filled with constant testing and a solid list of protocols to handle players who fell ill.

It received virtually no blowback when AP reported that not a single test for performance enhancers had been conducted the entire tournament.

Six years before that, the NCAA’s own medical chief at the time, Brian Hainline, said the association’s drug-fighting program “could be improved considerably." That was in response to AP reporting that revealed the Final Four teams were subject to different drug-testing policies based on their on-campus policies.

College sports still operates under essentially the same system, leaving schools in charge of the bulk of their anti-doping efforts and how to sanction those who get caught.

The NCAA said its program “undergoes regular review by the membership, including two reviews in the past five years.”

“Each academic year, 10,000 NCAA student-athletes are tested without notice in year-round testing or at one of the 92 NCAA championships in 24 sports," the association said. Privacy laws typically prevent schools from making public statements about doping cases and the NCAA doesn't disclose test results.

Year-round, out-of-competition testing is considered the gold standard, and while the NCAA does have a program for that in Divisions I and II,, officials in Division III studied a year-round program but never adopted it. The NCAA drug testing handbook says D-I and D-II athletic departments are, under most circumstances, notified at least two days in advance of a visit from testers.

“Giving notice of testing, even a couple of hours before the collection, is mostly theater — just to say you test," Tygart said.

The lack of a true investigatory arm also denies Clevenger the chance to clear his name if, as his school claims, he has done nothing wrong.

“There’s got to be due process,” Catlin said. “You’ve got to protect the athletes to one degree. And, from the NCAA's perspective, you have to protect your sports environment. And based on this case, it certainly doesn’t sound like that’s happening.”

___

AP college sports: https://apnews.com/hub/college-sports

Here are five of the most powerful financial freebies available to investors today.

1) The 0% capital gains rate

Most investors assume that selling a winning stock always triggers a tax bill. However, for those in the lower income brackets (up to $50,400 for individuals or $100,800 for married couples in 2026), the long-term capital gains tax rate is exactly 0%.

The Strategy: If you have a low-income year—perhaps due to early retirement before Social Security or required minimum distributions kick in—you can strategically sell appreciated securities without paying any federal tax. The proceeds can fund living expenses or replace the shares you just sold to capture a free stepped-up basis without having to die first.

2) The ‘Augusta Rule’ (rent your home for free)

Named after the homeowners in Georgia who rent out their houses during the Masters golf tournament, Section 280A(g) of the tax code allows you to rent out your primary residence for up to 14 days per year without having to report a single dollar of that income to the IRS.

The Strategy: Whether you live near a major sporting event, a film set, or a popular festival, you can pocket the rental income entirely tax-free. There are no income limits on this rule, and you don’t even need to report the income on your Form 1040. For high-income earners in high-tax states like California, this is a significant freebie that bypasses both federal and state taxes.

3) The $1,000 ‘Baby Seed’ money

The newly enacted One Big Beautiful Bill Act has introduced a literal cash freebie for the next generation. For every child born between Jan. 1, 2025, and Dec. 31, 2028, the federal government will provide a $1,000 seed deposit into a Trump Savings Account.

The Strategy: While these accounts have  long-term tax flaws, you should never turn down a  government grant. Capture the $1,000 as soon as the portal opens in 2026. Let that government money compound, but pivot your own family contributions to a 529 plan for superior tax treatment.

4) The ‘Gap Year’ Roth conversion

The most valuable freebie for retirees often occurs in the window between the end of a professional salary and the start of required minimum distributions, or RMDs, and Social Security. During these gap years, your taxable income may drop to its lowest level in decades.

The Strategy: Use this low-income window to perform Roth conversions at a 0% or 10% effective tax rate. By filling up these lower tax brackets now, you are effectively prepaying your future tax bill at a massive discount. You eliminate future RMD pressure and ensure that every dollar of future growth in that Roth account is shielded from the IRS forever. It is one of the few times the tax code allows you to move money into a tax-free bucket at little or no cost. In most cases, this is a better deal than recognizing capital gains at 0%.

5) The qualified charitable distribution

Is a  qualified charitable distribution, or QCD, truly free? If you are charitably inclined and over age 70½, the answer is a resounding yes. Normally, taking money out of a traditional IRA is a taxable event. However, a QCD allows you to send up to $111,000 each year directly to a charity (in 2026).

The Strategy: The money goes from your IRA to the charity without ever touching your bank account, meaning it is never counted as taxable income. This is a freebie because a lower adjusted gross income can help you avoid higher Medicare premiums, and it reduces the amount of your Social Security that is subject to tax. You are effectively spending your IRA money on your philanthropic goals while keeping the IRS entirely out of the transaction.

Summary for Investors

The IRS rarely hands out gifts, but these five provisions are as close as it gets. Whether it is capturing $1,000 for a newborn or leveraging your gap years for a low-cost Roth conversion, the key is proactive timing.

______

This article was provided to The Associated Press by Morningstar. For more personal finance content, go to https://www.morningstar.com/personal-finance.

Sheryl Rowling, CPA, is an editorial director, financial advisor for Morningstar.

Related Links

$1,000 Trump Accounts: Focus on the Financial Benefits, Not the Branding

https://www.morningstar.com/personal-finance/1000-trump-accounts-focus-financial-benefits-not-branding

Still Working in Retirement? Watch Out for These Social Security and Medicare Tax Traps

https://www.morningstar.com/personal-finance/still-working-retirement-watch-out-these-social-security-medicare-tax-traps

How Much Should You Allocate to Safer Assets?

https://www.morningstar.com/portfolios/how-much-should-you-allocate-safer-assets

The transfer portal in part contributed to the four teams that reached the Final Four in 2025 returning again this year. That has only happened once before when Georgia, Stanford, Tennessee and UConn did it in 1995-96.

Things have changed in the last 30 years, especially recently.

There was a time schools would mainly get talented players from mid-major programs. Now more than ever Power Four schools are taking from each other. Nearly all the players who transferred to the Final Four teams came from power conferences.

“The portal and the revenue share, I think that was the death of the mid-majors, the death of high school players coming to play college basketball," UConn coach Geno Auriemma said. "It’s never been harder for a high school kid to have the same opportunities that an existing college player already has.

“When your choice is go get a high school senior or go get a college sophomore for your team, a lot of coaches are deciding that getting a college sophomore is way better.”

Lauren Betts arrived at UCLA from Stanford three years ago and is now one of the best players in the country. Ta’Niya Latson went to South Carolina this year after spending the first three years at Florida State, where she led the country in scoring. Kayleigh Heckel (USC) and Serah Williams (Wisconsin) joined UConn this year. Texas added Ashton Judd (Missouri) this season.

Of those schools, only USC reached the NCAA Tournament, but the Trojans didn’t get out of the second round. Though USC didn’t have JuJu Watkins, it seems like the rich schools are reloading with talent.

If the conversation doesn't start with name, image and likeness money, it will be high on the list. It's true that players enter the transfer portal for different reasons including playing time, mental health, issues or broken relationships with coaches. But lately, being able to earn more money through revenue sharing or NIL deals are driving that bus.

“That’s a big problem. The amount of money that people are offering kids, so the revenue sharing is 20.5 (million) and going up this year," Auriemma said. "The schools it’s 22, 23, 24 just for the basketball teams. It’s probably another 40 for the football teams. So yeah, salary caps, all that stuff would help.”

The transfer portal opens up Monday, the day after the women's champion is crowned. UCLA's Cori Close will be one Final Four coaches hitting the road trying to close new deals.

UCLA has been active in the transfer portal the last few years. Four of UCLA’s top six players transferred in, including Gianna Kneepkens (Utah) and Charlisse Leger-Walker (Washington State).

“I think really it depends on whether or not — it just happened to be the right fit, whether or not they’re Power Four or really good mid-major players,” Close said. “Across the country in this tournament, you have seen you can be a great contributor from either direction of that. We have been a really good transfer destination. We have been very intentional about how we’ve integrated that into our recruiting.”

Auriemma has added a few transfers the last couple of seasons, but they have been mostly complementary players. He never sees a time when he'll look for a go-to player in the portal to build a team.

“You can buy a team," said Auriemma, who has won a record 12 NCAA national titles, "but you can’t buy a championship,”

Though that hasn't stopped coaches from trying.

___

AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-womens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness

The move marks a nominal return to an elected government but is widely considered as an effort to keep the army in power after an election organized by the military that opponents and independent observers deemed neither free nor fair, and as civil war rages.

Transitioning to an elected government is also seen as a way to improve frosty relations with some Southeast Asian neighbors following the military takeover. China and Russia have supported the military administration, while Western powers imposed sanctions.

Min Aung Hlaing won an expected lopsided victory

Min Aung Hlaing was one of three nominees for the president’s post, but was virtually guaranteed the job as lawmakers from military-backed parties and appointed members from the army hold a commanding majority in parliament.

The vote was held in the newly renovated parliament building in the capital, Naypyitaw, which was damaged in last year’s earthquake.

Aung Lin Dwe, speaker of parliament’s combined upper and lower house, announced that Min Aung Hlaing won 429 out of the 584 votes.

The two runners-up become vice presidents. Nyo Saw, a former general, had served as an adviser to Min Aung Hlaing, and Nan Ni Ni Aye, an ethnic Karen politician from the pro-military Union Solidarity and Development Party, will be the country’s first female vice president. All three are expected to be inaugurated next week.

Min Aung Hlaing, who holds the rank of senior general, earlier this week relinquished his post of commander-in-chief because the constitution prohibits the president from simultaneously holding the top military position. A close aide, Gen. Ye Win Oo, took over the powerful job.

Meanwhile, much of the country remains enmeshed in a bloody civil war.

Opposition group says struggle for real change continues

Nay Phone Latt, a spokesperson for the National Unity Government — Myanmar’s main opposition organization, which views itself as the country’s legitimate government — charged that Min Aung Hlaing is responsible for numerous war crimes, and his easy assumption of the presidency proved that the political change some countries had hoped for will not materialize.

“Myanmar people do not accept it. The revolution will continue with great momentum,” he told The Associated Press..

The 69-year-old Min Aung Hlaing had been the military chief since 2011. Under the military-imposed constitution, he held significant powers even before overthrowing Suu Kyi’s government.

Parliament members were elected in three phases in December and January. Major opposition parties, including Suu Kyi’s former ruling National League for Democracy, were either blocked from running or refused to compete under conditions they deemed unfair. Suu Kyi, 80, is serving a 27-year prison term on charges widely viewed as politically motivated.

Myanmar was under military rule from 1962 to 2016, when Suu Kyi’s party won a landslide election victory. It won an even greater mandate in the 2020 polls, but the army staged a takeover in 2021 before the new parliament could convene.

Peaceful protests against military rule were then put down with deadly force, pushing pro-democracy activists to turn to armed resistance and ally themselves with ethnic minority groups who have been battling for greater autonomy for decades.

Deadly repression birthed ongoing civil war

Security concerns meant voting in the recent election could be held in only 263 of the country’s 330 townships.

Nearly 8,000 activists and civilians have been killed since the 2021 army takeover, and some 22,872 political detainees are imprisoned, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, an independent group that tracks rights violations.

The military’s major reliance on airstrikes — 1,140 strikes in 2025 alone, according to the U.S.-based Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project — accounts for hundreds of civilian casualties.

“If Min Aung Hlaing thinks that an official civilian title will shield him from prosecution for the many grave violations of international law that he is accused of overseeing as head of the military, that is not how international justice works," Amnesty International Myanmar researcher Joe Freeman said in statement.

The International Criminal Court in The Hague in 2024 began an investigation into charges of crimes against humanity after the chief prosecutor applied for an arrest warrant for Min Aung Hlaing over the military’s brutal persecution of the Rohingya minority.

At long-awaited hearings at the International Court of Justice in January this year, Myanmar defended itself against accusations that it was responsible for genocide against the Rohingya. The West African country of Gambia first filed the case in 2019.

Taiwan’s first Olympic boxing champion beat Thananya Somnuek of Thailand 5-0 in the first round in the 60-kilogram lightweight division earlier this week.

She backed that up Friday with another 5-0 win over Ayaka Taguchi of Japan, the top-seeded woman in the division. Lin won every round on all five judges’ scorecards, securing a perfect score of 10 in each round.

The 30-year-old Lin had not competed internationally since winning the women’s 57-kg featherweight title at the Paris Olympics in August 2024.

World Boxing took over as the sport’s Olympic-level governing body last year, and it implemented a sex eligibility policy in August requiring all fighters to take a one-time genetic test designed to identify the presence of a Y chromosome.

World Boxing didn't confirm Lin's eligibility until March 19.

It was not clear whether Lin will have to undergo further gene testing if she wants to compete again at the Olympics. The International Olympic Committee announced last week new rules banning transgender athletes and a mandatory gene test once in an athlete’s career.

Lin and Imane Khelif of Algeria won gold medals at Paris amid international scrutiny and misconceptions over both boxers’ sex. While both met the eligibility rules followed at the time by the IOC, which ran the Paris tournament, the two fighters’ success sparked a politically charged debate over those standards.

Lin is expected to fight in the Asian tournament semifinals on Monday.

___

AP boxing: https://apnews.com/boxing

Only six times in their storied history have the Lakers been defeated by more points. They fell six points short of their worst margin of defeat ever — a 49-point loss to the Dallas Mavericks in 2017.

Gilgeous-Alexander, the reigning league MVP, got the best of his matchup with Doncic — one of Gilgeous-Alexander's top competitors for this season's award. Doncic had scored at least 40 points in five of his previous seven games, but he finished with 12 points on 3-for-10 shooting from the field and 1-for-7 shooting from 3-point range against the Thunder's suffocating defense.

Doncic left the game with a left hamstring injury in the middle of the third quarter. Lakers coach JJ Redick said he will have an MRI on Friday.

Austin Reaves scored 15 points and LeBron James added 13 for the Lakers.

Isaiah Joe added 20 points and made six 3-pointers as Oklahoma City shot 53.9% to turn a matchup between two of the league’s hottest teams into a blowout. The Thunder have now won 16 of 17. The Lakers had won four straight and 13 of 14.

It was a critical game for Oklahoma City. The Thunder entered the night two games ahead of San Antonio in the race for homecourt advantage throughout the playoffs with six games remaining.

In a sign of things to come in the game, it took the Lakers nearly five minutes to make their first field goal. The Thunder led 44-21 at the end of the first behind 14 points from Lu Dort.

The Lakers had another shooting drought to start the second quarter, taking a little more than four minutes to make their field goal. The Thunder reached their season high point total for a first half when they took a 76-41 lead on a layup by Gilgeous-Alexander with 3:25 left in the second quarter.

Oklahoma City led 82-51 at the break, falling a point short of the Thunder regular-season record for points in a half. They scored 83 in the first half of a game against Minnesota in 2021.

Joe hit three 3-pointers in an 85-second flurry to put the Thunder up 99-61 in the third quarter. The teams played reserves throughout the fourth quarter.

The Lakers will host a rematch on April 7.

Up next

Lakers: Visit the Dallas Mavericks on Sunday.

Thunder: Host the Utah Jazz on Sunday.

___

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

Whether you're dying eggs for your table spread or planning to hide them for an egg hunt, it's important to follow food safety guidelines to minimize germs and maximize your egg quality.

You have some time to eat your eggs

Eggs are remarkably long lasting, so there needn't be a giant rush to eat them.

“Stores usually do turn over eggs pretty quickly, so the recommendations is you should consume eggs three to five weeks after you purchase them,” said Kara Lynch, food safety educator with Michigan State University Extension.

There is also a benefit in letting eggs age just a bit, as older eggs can be easier to peel. That's because eggs shrink over time within the shell, creating an air pocket between the egg and the shell.

Hard boil your eggs

Egg processors clean eggs before they reach store shelves, but it also is important to thoroughly cook eggs to reduce the risk of foodborne illness, especially salmonella. That bacteria lives naturally in the gastrointestinal and reproductive tracts of chickens, said Kimberly Baker, associate extension specialist at Clemson University.

To cook your eggs, place them in a saucepan, fill it with water and bring it to a boil. After that, put the lid on, turn the heat off and let it sit for about 12 minutes. Some also favor turning down the heat and simmering eggs.

You can vary the time in the hot water depending on a desire for harder boiled or slightly creamier eggs, but the yolk should be pretty solid to be safe. Boiling them for too long can risk creating green sulfur development on the outside of the yolk.

How to cool the eggs

After that, Don Schaffner, food science department chair at Rutgers University, said there are two options.

You can run your eggs under cold water to reduce the temperature. From there, you can color them right away or place them back in the fridge until you're ready. Or, after you've boiled them, you can let them air dry until they've cooled.

The boiling process sanitizes the eggs, and as long as they are kept out of water, Schaffner said, they will remain safe to eat.

“You’ve boiled the egg, you’ve gotten rid of any bacteria that might be in the egg. And now you’ve air-cooled it, right? So it’s going to cool more slowly, it’s probably going to cook more,” he said. “But most importantly, you don’t have to worry about any bacteria from the water getting internalized into the egg.”

It’s OK to get food dye on your eggs

Either artificial or natural food dye is OK as long as the dye label says it's food grade. For those keeping track, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has been updating its guidance and regulations regarding certain dyes.

And no, it's not a problem if the dye seeps through the shell.

“Eggs kind of naturally have their own abilities to absorb only so much,” Baker said.

As you're decorating the eggs and have the eggs outside, she suggested keeping your eggs in an ice bath, so they can stay at a cooler temperature while you're decorating.

Follow the 2-hour rule

Eggs should generally be kept at or below 40 degrees (4.4 degrees Celsius) to minimize the risk of contaminants.

Cooked eggs that weren't air-cooled should spend no more than two hours at room temperature. And that's cumulative, including the time spent decorating and the time spent hiding during the Easter egg hunt.

But if it's particularly warm, then that two-hour rule may be shortened to one hour, Lynch said.

Hard boiled eggs are generally good for about a week in the fridge.

Give your eggs a rinse before peeling

Be careful with your eggs as you handle them.

One of the biggest concerns is making sure your eggs haven't cracked during an Easter egg hunt, making them vulnerable to contaminants. And once the egg has been hard boiled, there's no way to kill bacteria that get inside, Baker said.

“We don’t want to be putting them in the soil or in lawns where pets have gone to the bathroom,” she said.

Whether the eggs are hidden outdoors or in a corner of your home, you should rinse them in cool water before you peel them. And wash your hands, too, just in case the eggs have picked up something.

Consider using plastic eggs

If the Easter egg hunt means your eggs will be at room temperature for longer than two hours, experts recommended using plastic eggs for the hunt instead of real ones to minimize food safety risk.

“If it’s an outdoor Easter egg hunt at any time, I would say go with the plastic eggs and be safe,” Baker said. “And use your dyed Easter eggs as your centerpiece on your table or your buffet, and enjoy them that way.”

So did Jess Michaels, one of the legions of women who have said they were sexually assaulted by the late financier and convicted sex offender with a roster of powerful friends in business, politics and beyond.

“I thought, ‘Well, maybe a woman stepping into this role will finally, finally get the truth,’” Michaels recalled Thursday, after President Donald Trump announced Bondi was out of the nation's top law enforcement job.

“She had this opportunity to be a hero and to really do right by survivors of sexual violence and trafficking,” Michaels said, "and she chose not to.”

The furor over the “Epstein files,” as the trove of investigative records came to be known, wasn't the only controversy of Bondi's tenure. But the arc — first raising expectations for a big reveal, then declaring there was nothing to see, and ultimately a forced, flawed document dump — was a stubbornly problematic storyline that ran through her time as attorney general.

Bondi rejected criticism of her handling of the matter, and Trump on Thursday praised her as “a Great American Patriot and a loyal friend.”

Michaels and other Epstein victims watched it all with shaken trust that Bondi's departure alone won't likely rebuild.

“This is not about a single person,” accuser Annie Farmer said Thursday. “It is about a government and judicial system that has repeatedly failed Epstein survivors.”

Here's a glance at Bondi's part in the Epstein saga:

February 2025: The binders

Freshly confirmed as attorney general for a president who had suggested on the campaign trail that he'd open more government documents on Epstein, Bondi whetted appetites by declaring on Fox News that “you’re going to see some Epstein information released.” And when a host asked about "releasing “the list of Jeffrey Epstein’s clients” — a long-rumored, never-seen sex trafficking roster — she replied that it was “sitting on my desk right now.”

A day later, conservative commentators and content creators were brought to the White House to get DOJ binders emblazoned with “The Epstein Files: Phase 1” and “Declassified.”

The attempt to showcase transparency soon backfired, once it emerged that the contents largely were already public. Bondi demanded that the FBI give her “the full and complete Epstein files,” and she later said that she'd unearthed a "truckload” of previously withheld material and that “everything is going to come out to the public.”

July 2025: The walkback

After months of anticipation, the Justice Department said it wouldn't release any more Epstein material. A court had sealed much of it to protect victims, and “only a fraction” would have come out if Epstein had gone to trial, the agency said in an unsigned memo. It added that authorities hadn't found evidence that merited new charges or investigations and that “perpetuating unfounded theories about Epstein” wouldn't help victims get justice.

And, it said, there was no “client list.” As for Bondi's prior comment that it was on her desk, officials said she had meant the overall case file.

Conservative influencers, among others, blasted the turnabout and questioned Bondi’s capability. But Trump stood by her, scolding a journalist for attempting to ask her a question about Epstein at a White House Cabinet meeting.

Trump had himself raised questions for some years after Epstein's 2019 death in jail as the financier faced federal sex trafficking charges. After the Justice Department memo, however, the president suggested there was nothing more to say about Epstein and the country, including his own supporters, should simply move on.

November 2025: The legislation

Amid a drumbeat of disclosures that begin to exact consequences for some powerful people — particularly Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, Britain's former Prince Andrew — Congress passed legislation to force the Justice Department to disclose its investigative files on Epstein. Trump signed it into law, casting the quest for Epstein information as a Democratic-led distraction from the Republican agenda.

Meanwhile, at his urging, Bondi announced that the U.S. attorney in Manhattan would investigate Epstein’s ties to some of the Republican president’s political foes, including Democratic former President Bill Clinton. None has been accused of misconduct by Epstein’s accusers; nor has Trump, another former Epstein friend. Both Clinton and Trump have said they knew nothing about Epstein's misconduct and cut ties with him many years ago.

December 2025: The first batch

At the statutory deadline for making the Epstein files public, the Justice Department released only some of them. While the records included some material the public hadn't previously seen, including some candid photos of Clinton, the documents didn't break major ground and included little about Trump.

The department said it was continuing to review other Epstein records to make sure that victims were protected.

But Democrats cried cover-up, bill sponsor Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., accused the Justice Department of breaking the law by missing the deadline and redacting too much, and some Epstein accusers also questioned the extensive redactions.

January 2026: The big release

The Justice Department began releasing a huge cache of additional Epstein documents, videos and photos, though others remained under wraps.

The records pulled back a curtain on favor-trading and frank communications in a chummy elite that looked past Epstein's 2008 guilty plea to solicitating prostitution from an underage girl in Florida. Some high-flying Epstein friends resigned or lost jobs in corporate America, academia, big law firms, the British, Slovakian and Norwegian governments and beyond.

But the documents disclosed highly personal information about some victims while redacting the names of Epstein correspondents in, for example, emails that appeared to refer to the sexual abuse of underage girls.

Gloria Allred, an attorney for numerous Epstein victims, said Thursday that Bondi betrayed them by failing to protect personal information in the files.

“She has destroyed the trust in the DOJ that victims had a right to expect, and her termination may be the only type of justice that survivors will receive from the DOJ,” Allred said by email.

February 2026: The hearing

At a congressional hearing, a combative Bondi tried to quell the Epstein files controversy. She defended how the Justice Department dealt with it, lobbed personal insults at Democrats and lauded Trump over, among other things, the performance of the stock market.

Bondi said she was deeply sorry for what Epstein victims suffered. But she declined a request from Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., to face and apologize to them for the Justice Department's actions, and Bondi dismissed Massie’s critiques of the release of victims’ personal information.

March 2026: The subpoena

The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform subpoenaed Bondi to answer questions on April 14 about the Justice Department’s handling of the Epstein investigation and file release. With five Republicans joining Democrats to support the subpoena, it reflected widespread discontent, including in the GOP base, over Bondi’s management of the matter.

The future

For now, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche will be the acting attorney general.

Michaels, who traveled to the Capitol last year to press for the files’ release, wanted Bondi gone. But will Blanche do better?

"We can only hope. But given that they worked together, I don’t have great expectations,” she said.

The Associated Press generally does not identify people who say they have been sexually assaulted unless they come forward publicly, as Michaels has done.

Robert Glassman, an attorney for a woman who testified as “Jane” in the 2021 criminal trial of Epstein confidante Ghislaine Maxwell, noted that agency leaders come and go.

“For victims of sexual abuse, what matters is whether the institutions meant to protect them actually do their job,” he said.

Iran is firing more missiles at Israel and Gulf Arab states, with a spokesperson for its military insisting Thursday that Tehran maintains hidden stockpiles of arms, munitions and production facilities.

In Lebanon, where Israel has launched a ground invasion against Iran-backed Hezbollah militants, Israeli strikes have killed 27 people in a single day, Lebanon's Health Ministry said.

Stocks recovered most of their losses from earlier in the day, though oil prices remained elevated after Trump failed to offer a clear timetable for ending the conflict in his address. U.S. crude oil was up 8.4% at $108.82 per barrel, pulling back from over $110.

In his address Wednesday night, U.S. President Donald Trump said U.S. forces will keep hitting Iran “very hard” in the next two or three weeks and bring the country “back to the Stone Ages,” even as he touted the success of U.S. operations and argued that all of Washington’s objectives have so far been met or exceeded.

Here is the latest:

Bangladesh implements austerity measures

Bangladesh is curtailing office hours and enforcing early closure of malls and shops beginning Friday to handle its energy crisis related to the war.

The country’s cabinet ordered 30% spending cuts for fuel and power at government offices, suspended some staff training and stopped purchases of new vehicles, ships and aircraft. Decorative lighting will not be allowed for celebrations.

Bangladesh, a nation of more than 170 million people, is seeking alternative fuel sources and $2.5 billion in external financing for imports, which account for 95% of its fuel.

Australia urges weekend motorists to refuel in cities

Australian Energy Minister Chris Bowen on Friday urged motorists getting away for a long weekend during the Easter holiday to fill up in cities because most of the nation’s fuel shortages are in rural areas.

Among 2,400 gas stations in New South Wales, Australia’s most populous state, 182 had run out of diesel by Friday.

In Australia’s second-most populous state, Victoria, 76 gas stations were out of diesel. In the remaining states ranked by the most populous first, Queensland had 75 stations without diesel, Western Australia had 37, South Australia had 28 and in Tasmania there were seven.

“For those Australians planning a road trip this weekend, given our shortages are predominantly in rural and regional Australia, it makes sense to fill up in the city to help the country if you can,” Bowen said in Sydney.

The government, which blamed regional shortages on panic buying and distribution problems, is concentrating on delivering fuel to farmers for planting crops.

Iran claims to be drafting proposal to ‘monitor’ Strait of Hormuz with Oman

Thursday’s comments by Kazem Gharibabadi, an Iranian diplomat, quoted by the state-run IRNA news agency, described the proposal as “intended to facilitate and ensure safe passage and provide better services to ships passing through this route.”

Iran’s attacks on shipping in the region, as well as reportedly demanding as much as $2 million for passage through the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf, have created a stranglehold on the route.

It is unclear what the proposal would mean. Oman did not immediately acknowledge it. The strait runs through Iranian and Omani territorial waters but is considered an international waterway that should freely allow ships to pass.

“Naturally, when we face an act of aggression, navigation encounters serious problems, and this is the result of the aggressive act,” Gharibabadi said. “We are currently at war and cannot expect pre-war rules to govern wartime conditions.”

USS Gerald R. Ford leaves Croatia

The largest American aircraft carrier in service sailed out of Split and “remains poised for full mission tasking in support of national objectives in any area of operation,” the Navy’s 6th Fleet announced.

It was unclear where it was going. It went to Croatia after a stop in Souda Bay, Greece, for repairs after a fire in its laundry room. It underwent further repairs in Croatia and saw its sailors take liberty while at port.

The Ford left Norfolk, Virginia, on June 24, 2025, making its deployment one of the longest in Navy history.

If it heads to the Middle East, it would have to pass through the Suez Canal and the Red Sea. Yemen’s Houthi rebels, backed by Iran, have entered the war and begun firing on Israel, meaning the Ford could face fire from them.

The USS Abraham Lincoln remains in the Arabian Sea. The U.S. military’s Central Command said Friday that it “continues to conduct flight operations, both day and night.”

The USS George H. W. Bush aircraft carrier departed Norfolk on Wednesday to head to the Mideast.

Russian state-run nuclear power company prepares for more evacuations from Iran’s Bushehr plant

The state-run news agency Tass quoted Rosatom CEO Alexey Likhachev as saying Moscow was preparing for “the final wave of evacuations” from Bushehr, which would include more than 200 people. The company plans to leave a small number of “volunteers” behind to run the reactor.

Likhachev said Russia would request a ceasefire from the Americans and the Israelis to allow the evacuation. Russia and Iran say there have been multiple incidents of fire on the plant, but the International Atomic Energy Agency say there has been no damage to the reactor or radiological release from the site.

Bushehr took decades to build and finally open, with its power plant connecting to the Iranian grid in 2011 with Russian assistance. It runs a pressurized-water reactor that generates up to 1,000 megawatts of electricity. That can power hundreds of thousands of homes and other businesses and industries. But it contributes only 1% to 2% of Iran’s power.

Iranian soccer makes World Cup progress in talks with FIFA chief as war darkens June trip to US

A first face-to-face meeting with FIFA President Gianni Infantino since the U.S. and Israel started a war against Iran on Feb. 28 made genuine progress in soccer diplomacy at the end of a fraught month.

The Iranian soccer federation’s upbeat readout of the meeting in Turkey made no mention of moving World Cup games to Mexico — a subject Infantino has repeatedly shut down for the past two weeks.

Infantino also offered tangible help for the squad to prepare for the World Cup in the next two months. Most Iran players are with clubs in the national league that has shut down during the war.

Iran’s World Cup hosts in Arizona said this week that they were pressing on with training camp upgrades plus local and federal security plans — echoing the “stick to the schedule” mantra FIFA has used.

The Iranian delegation is due in Tucson no later than June 10.

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Pentagon not offering a reason for Army chief’s departure amid Iran war

Sean Parnell, the Pentagon’s top spokesperson, said Gen. Randy George “will be retiring from his position as the 41st Chief of Staff of the Army effective immediately.”

The ouster is the latest of more than a dozen firings of top generals and admirals by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. As with many of those, Pentagon officials are not offering a reason for George’s departure, which comes nearly five weeks into U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran and with no clear timeline from the president on when the war may end.

George has held the post of Army chief of staff, which typically runs for four years, since August 2023, under the Biden administration.

He is a graduate of West Point Military Academy and an infantry officer who served in the first Gulf War as well as Iraq and Afghanistan. He was former Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s top military aide from 2021 to 2022.

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Iran war disrupts US small businesses with shipping complications and higher costs

The war is making life more difficult for small business owners across the country, who are grappling with shipping complications, higher costs and consumers tightening their grip on their wallets.

A shoe designer is struggling to import its shoes from Vietnam; a pistachio grower has millions of dollars worth of pistachio exports sitting in the water; a home landscaper in Kansas City is stockpiling fertilizer as prices skyrocket; and a Chicago electronics store owner is facing pain at the pump.

Small business owners say the severe supply chain disruptions during the pandemic were worse — but they fear that if the war stretches on for months, it might start to come close.

“The costs are rising, the routes are changing, and capacity is tightening. It’s all happening at the same time, and that’s a perfect storm for small businesses,” said Brandon Fried, executive director of the Airforwarders Association, a trade group for U.S companies that move cargo through the supply chain on all modes of transport.

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Strikes on an Iranian bridge killed 8, local authorities say

The strikes also wounded 95 people who had gathering under the bridge and along the riverbank to celebrate “Nature Day,” Iran’s state media said, citing authorities in Alborz province.

Trump referenced the strike on the B1 bridge, which he called Iran’s biggest, in a social media post saying “much more to follow.” Iranian officials condemned the destruction of civilian infrastructure. The bridge was still under construction.

Hegseth asks the Army’s top uniformed officer to step down while US wages war against Iran

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has asked the Army’s top uniformed officer, Gen. Randy George, to step down, the Pentagon said Thursday, as the United States wages a war against Iran.

A Pentagon official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive matter, confirmed that George has been asked to take early retirement from the post of Army chief of staff, which he has held since August 2023.

The ouster of George is just the latest of more than a dozen firings of top generals and admirals by Hegseth since he first took office last year.

CBS News was first to report the ouster.

— Konstantin Toropin.

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UN to vote on using ‘all defensive means’ to secure navigation in Strait of Hormuz

The U.N. Security Council has scheduled a vote at 11 a.m. EDT Friday on a Bahrain-sponsored resolution authorizing use of defensive means — but not offensive — to secure international navigation in the Strait of Hormuz which has been mostly blocked by Iran.

The final draft to be voted on, obtained Thursday by The Associated Press, makes significantly waters down earlier proposals.

Previous drafts would have authorized countries “to use all necessary means” — U.N. language including possible military action — to secure passage and deter attempts to interfere with international navigation.

The final draft authorizes countries “to use all defensive means necessary and commensurate with the circumstances in the Strait of Hormuz and adjacent waters” to secure passage and deter attempts to interfere with international navigation “for a period of at least six months.”

Russia and China had strongly opposed the previous drafts authorizing possible offensive action.

US oil tops $110 a barrel and stocks recover

Stocks overcame early losses to finish Thursday’s trading with slim gains and close out their first winning week since the start of the Iran war.

Oil prices remained elevated, however, at $111.54 for a barrel of U.S. crude, having soared following Trump’s national address late Wednesday, where he vowed the U.S. will continue to attack Iran and failed to offer a clear timetable for ending the conflict.

“For markets, a prolonged conflict increases the risk of sustained pressures on inflation, global growth, interest rates, and equity valuations,” wrote Adam Turnquist, chief technical strategist for LPL Financial, in a note to investors.

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Blowing up bridges ‘will not compel Iranians to surrender,’ top diplomat says

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Thursday evening that striking civilian infrastructure “only conveys the defeat and moral collapse of an enemy in disarray.”

Araghci’s comments came after Trump shared footage on social media of a section of a bridge collapsing in Iran, threatening more attacks. Araghci’s post on X contained a photo of what appeared to be the same bridge.

“Every bridge and building will be built back stronger. What will never recover: damage to America’s standing,” he wrote.

A leading Iranian rights lawyer was detained after giving an interview

The daughter of a leading Iranian human rights lawyer is confirming her mother was detained by Iranian intelligence agents in Tehran overnight.

Attorney Nasrin Sotoudeh is renowned for defending activists, opposition politicians and women prosecuted for removing their headscarves. She has been imprisoned multiple times. Her activist husband, Reza Khandan, is behind bars in Tehran’s infamous Evin prison.

Their daughter Mehraveh Khandan spoke with The Associated Press from Amsterdam. She said her mother has a heart condition, and she’s worried both because U.S.-Israeli attacks may hit detention facilities and because “our regime became even more brutal after this war started.”

Iranian authorities have intensified their crackdown on dissent. Hundreds of people have reportedly been arrested, often for communicating with foreign media. Days before her arrest, Sotoudeh told an interviewer with a Persian media outlet that the Islamic Republic’s policies “have exposed us to death.”

Yemen’s Houthis claim missile attack against Israel

The Iran-backed Houthi rebels said this was a joint operation with Iran and the Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon.

Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree, a Houthi military spokesman, said in a prerecorded statement that the group’s intervention in the war is “a gradual one,” and they will “deal with future developments according to the enemy’s escalation or de-escalation.”

Earlier Thursday, the Israeli military said it intercepted a missile launched from Yemen.

The Houthis had remained on the war’s sidelines until Saturday, when they claimed a missile attack against Israel.

There are growing concerns that the Houthis could start attacking shipping in the Red Sea, as they did during the war in Gaza, or oil facilities in the Persian Gulf, as they did previously during Yemen’s civil war.

Trump sons’ drone venture denies conflicts of interest

This latest Trump venture, Powerus, has its sights on $1.1 billion set aside by the Pentagon to build up a U.S. manufacturing base for armed drones to fill a hole left when the Trump administration banned such imports from China.

The Florida-based company denied any conflicts when it announced the Trump brothers’ deal. Asked about potential Powerus conflicts of interest specifically, Eric Trump sent the AP a statement last month saying, “I am incredibly proud to invest in companies I believe in. Drones are clearly the wave of the future.”

The company recently raised $60 million from investors and hopes to tap additional financing by doing a “reverse merger” with a Trump company listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange that owns a few golf courses. Such a merger allows a private business to quickly go public, shortening the process of filing paperwork and meeting various requirements of a regular initial public offering.

Company backed by Trump sons is pitching drone interceptors to Gulf states being attacked by Iran

A drone maker backed by Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. is trying to sell to countries that now depend on the U.S. military led by their father, positioning them to benefit from the war he began.

Powerus co-founder Brett Velicovich told The Associated Press that the company is making sales pitches that include drone demonstrations in several Gulf countries to show how its defensive drone interceptors could help them ward off Iranian attacks.

“These countries are under enormous pressure to buy from the sons of the president so he will do what they want,” said Richard Painter, a former chief White House ethics lawyer under President George W. Bush. “This is going to be the first family of a president to make a lot of money off war — a war he didn’t get the consent of Congress for.”

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Pakistan hikes fuel prices by 42% amid global oil price surge linked to Iran war

The Pakistani government called Thursday’s increase unavoidable as global oil costs climb because of the Iran war. The government raised prices by 137 rupees (49 cents) per liter, after already increasing prices by roughly 20% last month.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said the conflict has hit Pakistan’s economy hard and that he is trying to bring Washington and Tehran to the negotiating table.

War crimes investigation of Israel is sought in France

The complaint filed Thursday with France’s war crimes unit in Paris involves an Israeli strike on a Beirut apartment building in November 2024, well before the current war. The International Federation for Human Rights says it killed seven civilians, including the parents of a French-Lebanese artist, Ali Cherri.

The human rights group said the strike hit just hours before a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah took effect, and that bombing a civilian building could constitute a war crime under French criminal law and international humanitarian law. Amnesty International said its own investigation found no evidence of a military objective in or near the building, and that civilians received no effective advance warning.

Israel ’s Foreign Ministry referred questions to Israel’s military, which did not immediately respond Thursday, but has said it follows international legal norms and strikes only legitimate military targets.

War deals a heavy blow to Iraq’s oil-dependent economy

Iraq relies on oil revenues for roughly 90% of its budget, and most of it is exported through the Strait of Hormuz, which has been effectively closed since the Iran war began with U.S. and Israeli airstrikes on Tehran. The war also has led to a sharp reduction in the volume of imported goods reaching southern Iraq’s ports, and halted traffic at Iraq’s border with Iran.

Unlike other countries in the Middle East touched by the war, Iraq hosts both entrenched Iran-aligned forces and significant U.S. interests, exposing it to attacks from both sides.

Iran has offered assurances that Iraqi crude can safely transit the Strait of Hormuz, said Bassem Abdul Karim, the head of Iraq’s Basra Oil Company.

However, because Iraq lacks its own tanker fleet and depends on chartered vessels, shipments ultimately hinge on whether tanker owners are willing to accept the heightened risks. Most are not.

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US-Israeli strikes on civilian infrastructure threaten to set back Iran ‘generations’

An Iranian human rights activist has described attacks on her area of eastern Tehran.

“For two or three nights the sky was full of drones. I constantly saw them,” she said, speaking with The Associated Press on condition of anonymity for her safety.

A dissident and former political prisoner, she said U.S.-Israeli strikes are doing growing harm. Trump’s threat to send Iran back to the Stone Age was “offensive” and recalled the brutal 13th century Mongol invasion of Iran, she added.

“The truth is: their problem isn’t with the Islamic Republic, it’s with Iran,” she added, pointing to what she said were recent strikes on steel plants, a pharmaceutical company and a landmark Tehran health institute.

She described seeing “completely” destroyed homes scattered across the capital, especially in a low-income neighborhood, Resalat. Iran’s Red Crescent has reported extensive damage to homes and civilian sites.

— Amir-Hussein Radjy in Cairo

Gulf nations back UN resolution authorizing ‘all necessary measures’ to guarantee shipping through Strait of Hormuz

“All necessary measures” is language used by the United Nations that includes military action.

At a U.N. Security Council meeting Thursday, the secretary general of the Gulf Cooperation Council said Iran’s retaliatory attacks on its neighbors had exceeded “all red lines.”

Jassim Albudaiwi also stressed that the six GCC nations must be included in any discussions or agreements with Iran on ensuring regional security.

Bahrain, the current U.N. Security Council president and a GCC member, has said it wants a vote Friday on a resolution calling on countries “to use all necessary means” to ensure international transit “in the Strait of Hormuz, the Gulf and the Gulf of Oman.”

It faces opposition from veto-wielding Russia and China.

Dizzying US fuel prices mostly benefit companies that extract and refine crude

The near-daily changes in U.S. gas prices have been dizzying for drivers. Experts say differences in price aren’t typically decided by any individual gas retailer, and most of them aren’t pocketing the extra pennies when prices rise.

U.S. gas prices are climbing fast, and drivers are paying the highest pump prices since 2022 as the Iran war shakes oil markets.

The national average jumped past $4 a gallon this week. The Energy Information Administration says about half the price covers crude oil, and about 20% goes to refiners.

The near-daily changes in U.S. gas prices are dizzying for drivers, who are left feeling frustrated and cash-strapped as the Iran war pushes up prices worldwide. In his speech on the Iran war, Trump asked Americans for patience.

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Gulf nations back UN resolution authorizing ‘all necessary measures’ to guarantee shipping

“All necessary measures” is language used by the United Nations that includes military action.

At a U.N. Security Council meeting Thursday, the secretary general of the Gulf Cooperation Council said Iran’s retaliatory attacks on its neighbors had exceeded “all red lines.” Jassim Albudaiwi also stressed that the six GCC nations must be included in any discussions or agreements with Iran on ensuring regional security.

Bahrain, the current U.N. Security Council president and a GCC member, has said it wants a vote Friday on a resolution calling on countries “to use all necessary means” to ensure international transit through the Strait of Hormuz, the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman.

It faces opposition from veto-wielding Russia and China.

Democrats say Trump is losing the war

Sen. Chris Murphy, a Democrat from Connecticut, said the president’s speech Wednesday night was “grounded in a reality that only exists in Donald Trump’s mind.”

“We are losing this war,” Murphy said. “We cannot destroy all their missiles or drones, nor their nuclear program. Iran projects more power in the region than they did before the war, especially if they now permanently control the Strait of Hormuz. We are spending billions we don’t have and losing American lives in a war that is destabilizing the world and making us look feckless.”

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Iran's oldest medical research institution is hit

Hossein Kermanpour, a spokesperson for Iran’s Health Ministry, said on X that the strikes on the Pasteur Institute of Iran were “a direct assault on international health security” and called on the World Health Organization and the International Committee of the Red Cross to respond.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei on X called it “heartbreaking, cruel, despicable, and utterly outrageous.” Both shared photos of destruction and rubble.

Israel’s military said it was not aware of the strikes, and U.S. Central Command did not respond to questions.

The institute is a large laboratory complex that opened more than a century ago and has a staff of more than 1,300 working on the development and manufacture of vaccines and biopharmaceuticals. The Paris-based Pasteur Network, a global health alliance spanning 32 centers worldwide, did not immediately respond to questions when contacted after business hours.

The Institute would not be the first medical facility hit during the war. Tehran's Gandhi Hospital was damaged by shrapnel and debris. Israel has previously claimed Iran struck the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot. And Lebanon's health ministry said Thursday that nine hospitals have been targeted by Israeli airstrikes so far.

The so-called translunar ignition came 25 hours after liftoff, putting the three Americans and a Canadian on course for a lunar fly-around early next week. Their Orion capsule bolted out of orbit around Earth right on cue and chased after the moon nearly 250,000 miles (400,000 kilometers) away.

“Ladies and gentlemen, I am so, so excited to be able to tell you that for the first time since 1972 during Apollo 17, human beings have left Earth orbit,” NASA’s Lori Glaze announced at a news conference.

The engine firing was flawless, she noted.

Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen said he and his crewmates were glued to the capsule's windows as they left Earth in the rearview mirror, taking in the “phenomenal” views. Their faces were pressed so tightly against the windows that they had to wipe them clean.

“Humanity has once again shown what we are capable of, and it’s your hopes for the future that carry us now on this journey around the moon,” Hansen said.

NASA had the Artemis II crew stick close to home for a day to test their capsule’s life-support systems before clearing them for lunar departure.

Now committed to the moon, the Artemis II test flight is the opening act for NASA’s grand plans for a moon base and sustained lunar living.

Commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Hansen will dash past the moon then hang a U-turn and zip straight home without stopping on land. In the process, they will go the farthest humans have ever traveled from Earth, breaking the Apollo 13 distance record set in 1970. They also may become the fastest during their reentry at flight’s end on April 10.

History already made

Glover, Koch and Hansen already have made history as the first Black person, the first woman and the first non-U.S. citizen to launch to the moon. Apollo’s 24 lunar travelers were all white men.

“Trust us, you look amazing. You look beautiful," Glover said in a TV interview after beholding the globe from pole to pole. "And from up here you also look like one thing: homo sapiens as all of us no matter where you’re from or what you look like, we’re all one people.”

To set the mood for the day’s main event, Mission Control woke up the crew with John Legend’s “Green Light” featuring Andre 3000 and a medley of NASA teams cheering them.

“We are ready to go,” Glover said.

Mission Control gave the final go-ahead minutes before the critical engine firing, telling the astronauts that they were embarking on “humanity’s lunar homecoming arc” to bring them back to Earth. The capsule is relying on the gravity of Earth and the moon — termed a free-return lunar trajectory — to complete the round-trip figure-eight loop. The engine accelerated their capsule to more than 24,000 mph (38,000 kph) to shove them out of Earth's orbit.

“I’ve got to tell you, there is nothing normal about this," Wiseman said. "Sending four humans 250,000 miles away is a herculean effort, and we are now just realizing the gravity of that.”

Flight director Judd Frieling said he and his team were all business while on duty but will likely reflect on the momentousness of it all once they go home.

“I suspect everybody understands that this is a once-in-a-lifetime moment," he told reporters.

Savoring views of Earth

The next major milestone will be Monday’s lunar flyby.

Orion will zoom 4,000 miles (6,400 kilometers) beyond the moon before turning back, providing unprecedented and illuminated views of the lunar far side, at least for human eyes. The cosmos will even treat the Artemis II astronauts to a total solar eclipse as the moon temporarily blocks the sun from their perspective.

While awaiting their orbital departure earlier Thursday, the astronauts savored the views of Earth from tens of thousands of miles high. Koch told Mission Control that they can make out the entire coastlines of continents and even the South Pole, her old stomping ground.

NASA is counting on the test flight to kickstart the entire Artemis program and lead to a moon landing by two astronauts in 2028.

The so-called lunar loo may need some design tweaks, however.

Orion's toilet malfunctioned as soon as the Artemis crew reached orbit Wednesday evening. Mission Control guided astronaut Koch through some plumbing tricks and she finally got it going, but not before having to resort to using contingency urine storage bags.

The urine pouches are serving double duty. Mission Control ordered the crew to fill a bunch of the empty bags with water from the capsule’s dispenser on Thursday. A valve issue arose with the dispenser following liftoff, and NASA wanted plenty of drinking water on hand for the crew in case the problem recurred. The astronauts used straws and syringes to fill the pouches with more than 2 gallons (7 liters) worth before pivoting to the moon.

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

And it happened millions of years earlier than researchers thought.

More than 700 fossils found in southwestern China’s Yunnan province offer a window into life from 539 million years ago, during the waning end of the Ediacaran period, a time of simple but strange animals that lived two-dimensionally in the oceans, never going up or down, researchers said.

But a study in Thursday’s journal Science said many of the fossils in this trove are remnants of more complex animals that lived three-dimensional lives, traveling up through the water and eating. Those are traits that had been thought to only spring to life at least 4 million years later in the Cambrian period, during what was called the Cambrian explosion of complex and recognizable animal life.

“This really is the first window we have into how basically the modern animal-dominated biosphere was formed and developed and came through this weird Ediacaran transitional interlude,” said co-author and paleontologist Frankie Dunn of the Museum of Natural History at Oxford University. “We go from a two-dimensional world, and within the geological blink of an eye, animals have diversified. They’re everywhere. They’re doing everything, and they’re changing biogeochemical cycles. They’ve changed the world.”

The new finds were a short distance from a United Nations Chengjiang world natural heritage site for other fossils in an exposure along a roadside that’s not glamorous, but has different layers “where you can literally walk through time, geological time, in a landscape,” Dunn said. And one of those areas provides a “snapshot” where evolution brings forces together.

Complex animals with symmetry developed

In that spot, Dunn said, the group of fossils includes both bizarre examples of life that existed in earlier periods and disappeared, along with early examples of organisms that would evolve into modern animals. What's important in those more modern animals are that their bodies are mostly the same on the left and right.

Nearly all of the animal life on Earth now have similar features on left and right sides, as well as a head and an anus. Before the fossils discovered in China, scientists saw traces of this symmetric body type in fossil tracks, but not the critters themselves.

“Now we know what's making them because we have those fossils for the first time,” said study co-author Ross Anderson, also of Oxford's Museum of Natural History.

Help in settling ‘rocks versus clocks’ debate

Until now, there was a conflict in the field of paleontology. Genetic analysis of how fast traits mutated and evolved suggested that humans and starfish had their earliest common ancestor in the Ediacaran period, but the fossils or rocks weren't there to show it happening, Dunn said. It was called a debate of “rocks versus clocks,” she said.

“What our new fossil site tells us is that actually perhaps the rocks and the clocks are in closer agreement than we thought,” Dunn said.

Emily Mitchell, a paleontologist at the University of Cambridge who wasn't part of the research, said the new study “makes a huge amount of sense because the Ediacaran contains animals, we know there must have been a transitional stage between them and the Cambrian fauna. But until now we didn't really have any evidence of this.”

Some outside scientists, such as Jonathan Antcliffe at the University of Lausanne, questioned whether there's enough evidence to call these fossils of complex animals, but most experts contacted by The Associated Press felt they were.

Trying to figure out how and why

Now that scientists know when this life explosion happened, they’ve got more questions and some theories.

“I’m really interested in understanding, not just when it happened, which is interesting, but how it happened and why it happened the way that it happened,” Dunn said. “So whether there are feedbacks that we can disentangle between Earth and life or between life and life. Once you have Ediacaran on the sea floor, is it inevitable that you’ll end up with something approaching a Cambrian explosion? They’re the kinds of questions that I find really interesting.”

Life on Earth started 3 billion years ago, but it took another 2.4 billion years before complex animals developed. Then they multiplied, diversified and took over rapidly, Dunn said.

That's probably because Earth had to build up oxygen levels high enough and evolution had to kick in with genetic changes, said University of California at Berkeley paleontologist Charles Marshall, who wasn’t part of the research.

Marshall said, "The Cambrian explosion was sudden because of the already rich developmental system that was in place.”

“What fundamentally changed across this period is the way the animals on the planet interacted with each other," said Duncan Murdock, curator of Oxford's museum, where many of the authors work. "Once animals turned up and started eating each other and churning up the sediment, they changed the planet forever. And the planet that we live on is very much built on the foundations from the Ediacaran and Cambrian.”

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Associated Press journalist Siobhan Starrs contributed from London.

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The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

Under the guard of heavily armed, balaclava-clad police, prosecutors unveiled the 2,500-year-old Cotofenesti helmet, one of Romania’s most revered national treasures from the Dacia civilization, during a news conference in the eastern Dutch city of Assen.

“We are incredibly pleased,” Corien Fahner of the prosecution service told reporters. “It has been a roller-coaster. Especially for Romania, but also for employees of the Drents Museum.”

The helmet was on display at the small museum in January 2025, the last weekend of a six-month-long exhibition, when thieves broke in and grabbed it, along with three golden wristbands.

There were fears the helmet may have been melted down because its fame and dramatic studded appearance made it virtually unsellable.

Two of three missing armbands were also recovered as part of a deal prosecutors reached with three men arrested for the heist shortly after it occurred. Their trial will begin later in April.

Fahner said the search for the remaining armband would continue.

The helmet did not return unscathed.

“The helmet is slightly dented, but there will be no permanent damage,” Drents Museum director Robert van Langh said during the news conference. “The armbands are in perfect condition.”

Thieves used a homemade firework bomb and sledgehammer to break into the museum. Grainy security video distributed by police after the raid appeared to show three people opening a museum door with a large crowbar, followed by an explosion.

The theft put a strain on relations between the Netherlands and Romania

Romanian Justice Minister Radu Marinescu last year called the incident a “crime against our state” and said recovering the artifacts “is an absolute priority.”

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Associated Press writers Molly Quell and Mike Corder contributed from The Hague, Netherlands.

The 12-member National Capital Planning Commission, the agency tasked with approving construction on federal property in the Washington region, took the vote because U.S. District Judge Richard Leon’s ruling — which came two days earlier — affects construction activities but not the planning process, said the commission's Trump-appointed chair, Will Scharf.

A vote of 8-1, with two commissioners voting present and one absent, allowed the plan to move forward.

Despite the agency’s approval, the judge’s ruling and a legal fight over the ballroom could stall progress on a legacy project that Trump is racing to see completed before the end of his term in early 2029. It’s among a series of changes the Republican president is planning for the nation’s capital to leave his lasting imprint while he’s still in office.

Before the vote, Scharf, a top White House aide, noted that Leon's order has been stayed for two weeks as the administration seeks an appeal. He said, as he understood the decision, it “really does not impact our action here today.”

Reading from notes, Scharf also delivered an impassioned defense of the project that reviewed the full history of changes and additions to the White House that were criticized when they were made but have become beloved with the passage of time. He spoke about the addition of the north and south porticos and the balcony added by President Harry Truman.

Scharf suggested that Trump’s proposed ballroom will similarly come to be viewed as a wise addition — despite drawing contemporary opposition from some members of the public and government officials.

“I believe that in time this ballroom will be considered every bit as much of a national treasure as the other key components of the White House,” Scharf said.

Scharf also said the project has been viewed negatively because of opposition to Trump, instead of the merits, saying, “I feel that we’ve been unfairly slighted in the press and otherwise for the way we’ve gone about reviewing this particular project.”

The vote by the commission, which includes three members Trump gets to appoint, had initially been scheduled for March but was postponed to Thursday because so many people signed up to comment at the commission’s meeting last month. The comments were overwhelmingly in opposition to the ballroom.

The lone “no” vote was cast by Phil Mendelson, a Democrat who chairs the Council of the District of Columbia. Linda Argo and Arrington Dixon, the two commissioners appointed by Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Democrat, voted present.

Mendelson criticized the design of the ballroom addition and how fast it was approved.

“It’s just too large,” he said.

Criticism also came from Public Citizen, a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization. One of its attorneys, Jon Golinger, said the commission had discounted opposition from city officials and thousands of people who commented against the project, and ignored the judge's ruling. Several commissioners, including Scharf, had said they took the public feedback seriously.

“This approval is illegitimate and this vote is a joke," Golinger said.

Trump, in a statement after the vote, thanked the commissioners and said he was honored.

“When completed, it will be the Greatest and Most Beautiful Ballroom of its kind anywhere in the World, and a fabulous complement to our Beautiful and Storied White House!” the president said on social media.

Trump tweaks the ballroom design

Before voting, the commission considered design changes to the 90,000-square-foot (8,400-square-meter) ballroom addition that the president announced aboard Air Force One on Sunday, as he flew back to Washington from a weekend at his Florida home.

He removed a large staircase on the south side of the building and added an uncovered porch to the southwest side. Architects and other critics of the project had panned the staircase as too large and basically useless since there was no way to enter the ballroom at the top.

A White House official said the president had considered comments from the National Capital Planning Commission and another oversight entity, the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, which approved the project earlier this year, as well as members of the public.

The official, who was not authorized to publicly discuss the ballroom design and spoke on the condition of anonymity, said additional “refinements” had been made to the exterior.

The ballroom, now estimated to cost $400 million, has expanded in scope and price tag since Trump first announced the project last summer, citing a need for space other than a tent on the lawn to host important guests. Trump demolished the East Wing in October with little warning, and site preparation and underground work have been underway since then.

Two other Trump-appointed commissioners, Stuart Levenbach and James Blair, voted for the project.

Levenbach, who serves as vice chairman and is the federal government’s chief statistician, said the White House is currently “not suited” to accommodate large numbers of guests and the addition will improve the “utility” of the compound.

He said tunnels and other structures underground at the White House made it impossible to place many features of the ballroom there, too, as some have suggested might be possible. Levenbach said the addition is a “multipurpose facility,” noting that, in addition to a ballroom, it will also have offices for the first lady, kitchen space and a theater.

“This is not an expansion for its own sake,” Levenbach said.

Blair, a deputy to White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, said visitors and guests of the president deserve a “better experience."

Scharf and Blair also said Trump will get “very limited use” of the ballroom before his term ends.

Judge says Trump isn't the owner of the White House

Trump went ahead with the project before seeking input from the National Capital Planning Commission and the Commission of Fine Arts, which he reconstituted with allies and supporters.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation, a private nonprofit organization, sued after Trump demolished the East Wing last fall to build the ballroom addition — a space nearly twice as big as the mansion itself.

Trump says it will be paid for with donations from wealthy people and corporations, including him, though public dollars are paying for underground bunkers and security upgrades.

The trust sought a temporary halt to construction until Trump presented the project to both commissions and Congress for approval. Leon agreed but said that his order would take effect in two weeks and that construction related to security would be allowed.

Third in the Western Conference and the NHL's stacked Central Division, Minnesota secured the postseason spot in 75 games after getting in last season in the 82nd and final game before falling to Vegas in the first round.

Ryan Hartmman scored twice in the third to reach 20 goals, and Filip Gustavsson made 29 saves to help the Wild rebound from a 6-3 loss at Boston on Saturday.

Former Canucks defenseman Quinn Hughes had his 67th assist. He joined the Wild in a blockbuster trade in December that sent Marco Rossi, Zeev Buium, Liam Ohgren and a first-round pick in 2026 to Vancouver.

Tom Willander and Jake DeBrusk scored for NHL-worst Vancouver, and Nikita Tolopilo stopped 32 shots. The Canucks were coming off an 8-6 victory at NHL-leading Colorado on Wednesday night.

Boldy tied it at 2 on a wrist shot at 23 seconds of the second period, and Kaprizov followed on a snap shot at 06:08 of the period. Hartmman scored on a tip at 6:03 of the third and had an empty-netter.

The Wild are six points behind Dallas and 12 back of Colorado.

Up next

Canucks: Host Utah on Saturday.

Wild: At Ottawa on Saturday.

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

Yet he wasn't the main attraction.

That's because across the room, an even bigger gaggle of reporters waited for freshman guard Braylon Mullins — the Indiana kid who hit an all-timer of a shot to send the Huskies back to the sport's biggest stage — to return for his own round of interviews.

“Guards are the ones that hit the big shots,” Reed said Thursday when asked about big men getting their due, adding with a grin: “We just do our job, we do the dirty work — and we're used to doing it our whole life so we have fun doing it.”

Maybe so, but there's no minimizing the impact of size this week in Indianapolis. Not with the Final Four boasting its biggest quartet of teams going back roughly two decades, starting with guys such as Reed, Michigan's Aday Mara, Arizona's Koa Peat and Illinois' 7-foot Ivisic twins as anchors to lineups with size radiating all the way out to the perimeter.

Length, height and bulk

The average height of the Final Four teams is nearly 79.1 inches, or roughly 6 feet 6, according to KenPom’s analytics site. That edges last year’s average of nearly 78.3 inches for the biggest of any Final Four going back to the start of KenPom’s data in 2007.

Illinois (28-8) is Division I's tallest team with an average roster height of nearly 6-7 (80 inches), while Arizona (36-2) is seventh at nearly 6-6 (79 inches). Michigan (35-3) and UConn (33-5) are in the top 30 nationally with nearly identical averages slightly behind the Wildcats.

Consider it a sign of the premium each team put on building a roster to overwhelm teams inside, on the glass and with game-altering length spanning the gaps between.

That kind of size, strength and wingspan creates trouble cascading through the matchups. ACC Network analyst Luke Hancock said teams are also thriving by finding power forwards and centers capable of stepping outside to stretch defenses further and create space, eliminating the ability for a defense to simply collapse on a lone big man.

“Guards still win in March,” said Hancock, the most outstanding player of the 2013 Final Four in Louisville’s later-vacated title run. "But I think these guys have become almost like a necessary component. If you want to win championships, you need a big 4 and a monster 5.”

And it's manifesting in several ways as March Madness reaches its final act.

Defensive edge

The Illini have had the best defensive tournament efficiency of the Final Four teams while dominating the glass to complete those stops. Their roster includes an influx of European talent, including Tomislav (7-1) and Zvonimir Ivisic (7-2), as well as 6-9 forward David Mirkovic from Montenegro.

The Illini also brings 6-9, 235-pound graduate Ben Humrichous off the bench, while the outlier in the big lineup is 6-2 senior guard Kylan Boswell as a strong backcourt defender.

The South Region champion has allowed .976 points per possession in the NCAA Tournament to lead the remaining four teams. Throw in the fact that Illinois is outrebounding opponents by 16.3 per game, and it's been a perfectly timed boost to an already elite offense with those forwards and centers capable of hitting from behind the arc, too.

"Playing in the summer, you could tell it’s a little bit harder to do some things just because you’ve got Z at the rim, who’s 7-foot-2 and a great shot blocker," 6-6 forward Jake Davis said. “You got Tommy down there. So anybody you’re going up against in practice is super tall. ... We’ve just got a bunch of length everywhere. And you could tell early on that we could cause problems for other teams.”

Reed’s presence

The Illini will be tested against Reed, a 6-foot-11, 265-pound senior whose scoring (21.8) and rebounding (13.5) averages in the tournament are the best of any player still standing.

That included opening the tournament with a video game-type stat line of 31 points and 27 rebounds against Furman, making him the first player with 30-plus points and 25-plus rebounds in an NCAA Tournament game since Houston’s Elvin Hayes did it twice in 1968.

He’s coming off a 26-point showing in the comeback from 19 down to stun Duke in the Elite Eight.

“He’s a monster,” said UConn senior Alex Karaban, who was part of the Huskies’ 2023 and 2024 title winners. “He’s been so dominant. He’s really playing like the most dominant player in college basketball right now.”

Wearing them down

When it comes to the No. 1 seeds, the Wolverines have hummed with 90-plus points in four tournament wins. The Wildcats have been right behind in offensive efficiency despite being shooting fewer 3-pointers than just about every other Division I team all season.

Their meeting Saturday matches strengths.

Michigan has used the 7-3, 255-pound Mara to protect the paint, flanked by a pair of versatile 6-9 forwards in Associated Press first-team All-American Yaxel Lendeborg (240 pounds) and Morez Johnson Jr. (250).

“Our size definitely makes it tougher for smaller guards,” Lendeborg said. “Because we’re so versatile ... we can switch and guard point guards, make their life a little harder. And you know, we’re all strong bodies too. So we try to wear down teams.

“And then, toward the end of the game, that’s when we usually make our runs when we need it.”

Michigan will be tested against the Wildcats with 7-2 center Motiejus Krivas (10.4 points, 8.2 rebounds) and Peat, a 6-8, 235-pound freshman considered a strong NBA prospect.

“If you don't have the big to defend other bigs, you can't compete at this level in my opinion,” Hancock said.

“How do you make it so you're really tough to guard and you have an advantage? It’s the 4-men in this Final Four who are just so talented and the diversity of their skill sets — they can do so many things. That is the ultimate to me.”

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AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-mens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness

Thousands of people filed in to witness the bright lights, live music and the screams from the attractions.

One of the first stops: the duckling exhibit, where visitors watched baby ducks swim and tumble into the water.

“They’re really just getting accustomed to swimming in the water,” one worker said. “They’re only about ten days old. And, yeah, they’re pretty easy to work with.”

Across the fairgrounds, the place was filled with families and groups of friends making memories. For some, the fair is about the rides — and the small wins that come with getting someone to try something new.

“I got her, my little sister, to go on a ride I’ve been trying to get her to go on for three years,” 14-year-old Samuel Smith said. “I’m really happy about that.”

Others said it’s the atmosphere that keeps them coming back year after year.

“The people, the nice workers and all the great rides,” Hunter Cox said, “It’s amazing. It’s just a good experience.”

And fair food was on the list — turkey legs, corn dogs, pizza and of course fried Oreos.

Wade Meadows said events like the Clay County Fair give people a chance to take a break from everyday stress.

“It’s great because it just adds some place to get away from the drama, get away from the stress and just go somewhere and have some fun,” Meadows said.

Anyone planning a visit can find what they need to know before heading out on News4JAX.com.

This story originally published at GatorsBreakdown.com

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The announcement said the pardons were a “humanitarian gesture” in connection with Holy Week and didn’t mention mounting pressures with the U.S.

The government said the prisoners affected are foreigners and Cubans, including women, the elderly and young people. It didn't say when they were being released or under what conditions, nor did it mention the crimes they were accused of committing.

Authorities also provided no details on whether any of those pardoned were protesters convicted and sentenced for terrorism, contempt or public disorder.

Cuba’s government denies holding political prisoners, but the activist group Prisoners Defended registered 1,214 people imprisoned for political reasons in Cuba as of February.

Cuban authorities said the decision “was based on a careful analysis of the characteristics of the crimes committed by those sanctioned, their good behavior in prison, having served a significant portion of their sentence, and their health status,” according to a statement published in state media.

The release comes as the Trump administration has placed extreme pressure on Cuba’s government, imposing an oil blockade for months that has fueled blackouts and left many civilians suffering.

Cuba periodically frees prisoners at key moments.

In January last year, Cuba’s government released 553 prisoners as part of talks with the Vatican, a day after the Biden administration announced its intent to lift the U.S. designation of the island nation as a state sponsor of terrorism.

Last month, Cuba released 51 people from the island’s prisons in an unexpected move that officials said stems from a spirit of goodwill and close relations with the Vatican.

The government said Thursday's announcement was the fifth prisoner release since 2011, and that it has freed more than 11,000 people.

The announcement come just months after the U.S. deposed ex-Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and pressured that nation's government to make radical changes, including releasing prisoners detained for political reasons and passing an amnesty law.

He has played in 59 games, but just 58 count toward the league's record of games and Minnesota has six games left in the regular season.

Edwards did not play in Detroit, one game after he scored 17 points in 23 minutes in a win over Dallas in his first game in two weeks. He returned against the Mavericks after missing six games due to his right knee ailment.

Following Detroit's 113-108 win, Timberwolves coach Chris Finch said Edwards' illness is what kept him out of the game.

The four-time All-Star, and two-time all-league guard finished seventh in NBA MVP voting in each of the last two seasons.

Edwards is averaging a career high with 29.3 points per game, but won't play 70-plus games as he did in each of his first five seasons in the league.

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AP NBA: https://www.apnews.com/hub/NBA

Tehran continued to demonstrate its ability to strike its neighbors even as U.S. President Donald Trump claimed the threat from the country was nearly eliminated and cheered the collapse of the bridge on Thursday, reportedly the tallest in the Middle East.

Iran decried the strike on the bridge, which also injured 95 people celebrating Nature Day, when Iranians gather for picnics and other celebrations outdoors on the last day of Nowruz, the Persian new year.

“Striking civilian infrastructure only conveys the defeat and moral collapse of an enemy in disarray,” Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi wrote Thursday in a post on X.

Iran’s attacks on Gulf states along with its chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz have disrupted the world’s energy supplies with effects far beyond the Middle East. That has proved to be Iran’s greatest strategic advantage in the war. Britain held a call with nearly three dozen countries about how to reopen the strait once the fighting is over.

Trump has insisted the strait can be taken by force — but said it is not up to the U.S. to do that. In an address to the American people Wednesday night, he encouraged countries that depend on oil from Hormuz to “build some delayed courage” and go “take it.”

Before the U.S. and Israel started the war on Feb. 28 with strikes on Iran, the waterway was open to traffic and 20% of all traded oil passed through it.

Iran continues to strike Israel and Gulf countries

Iran responded defiantly to Trump’s speech, in which the American president claimed U.S. military action had been so decisive that “one of the most powerful countries” is “really no longer a threat.”

A spokesman for Iran’s military, Lt. Col. Ebrahim Zolfaghari, insisted Thursday that Tehran maintains hidden stockpiles of arms, munitions and production facilities. He said facilities targeted so far by U.S. strikes are “insignificant.”

Trump, in his address, said U.S. “core strategic objectives are nearing completion.”

Iran state media reported the attack on the B1 bridge, which was still under construction, citing authorities in Alborz province.

Trump posted footage on social media showing what he said was the collapse of Iran's biggest bridge and threatening, “Much more to follow.” It was not immediately clear if the footage Trump shared was the B1 bridge.

In Lebanon — where Israel has launched a ground invasion against Iran-backed Hezbollah militants — Israeli strikes killed 27 people over 24 hours, the Health Ministry said.

More than 1,900 people have been killed in Iran during the war, while 19 have been reported dead in Israel. More than two dozen people have died in Gulf states and the occupied West Bank, while 13 U.S. service members have been killed.

More than 1,300 people have been killed and more than 1 million displaced in Lebanon. Ten Israeli soldiers have also died there.

Nearly three dozen nations talk about securing the Strait of Hormuz

Iranian attacks on about two dozen commercial ships, and the threat of more, have halted nearly all traffic in the waterway that connects the Persian Gulf to the open ocean.

Since March 1, traffic through the strait has dropped 94% over the same period last year, according to the Lloyds List Intelligence shipping data firm. Two ships are confirmed to have paid a fee, the firm said, while others were allowed through based on agreements with their home governments.

Saudi Arabia piped about 1 billion barrels of oil away from the Strait of Hormuz in March, according to maritime data firm Kpler, while Iraq said Thursday that it had started to truck oil across Syria to avoid the strait.

The 35 countries that spoke Thursday, including all G7 industrialized democracies except the U.S., as well as the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, signed a declaration last month demanding Iran stop blocking the strait.

Thursday’s talks were focused on political and diplomatic measures, but British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said military planners from an unspecified number of countries will also plot ways to ensure security once fighting ends, including potential mine-clearing work and “reassurance” for commercial shipping.

No country appears willing to try to open the strait by force while the war is raging. French President Emmanuel Macron, while on a visit to South Korea, called a military operation to secure the waterway “unrealistic.”

But there is a concern that Iran might limit traffic through the waterway even after U.S. and Israeli attacks cease.

Oil prices rise again even as Trump suggests the war could end soon

The conflict is driving up prices for oil and natural gas, roiling stock markets, pushing up the cost of gasoline and threatening to make a range of goods, including food, more expensive.

Oil prices remained elevated, however, at $111.54 for a barrel of U.S. crude, having soared following Trump’s address. That's up about 50% from Feb. 28.

Though the oil and gas that typically transits the strait is primarily sold to Asian nations, Japan and South Korea were the only two countries from the region joining Thursday's call about the strait. The supply of jet fuel has also been interrupted, with consequences for travel worldwide.

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Rising from Bangkok and Corder reported from The Hague, Netherlands. Associated Press writers Will Weissert in Washington and David McHugh in Frankfurt, Germany, and Toqa Ezzidin in Cairo contributed to this story.

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said they are responding to Americans who have worried about plastics and pharmaceuticals in their drinking water. The gesture also aims to hand a win to Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s MAHA movement, which for months has pressured Zeldin to further crack down on environmental contaminants.

The EPA’s Contaminant Candidate List identifies contaminants in drinking water not regulated under the Safe Drinking Water Act. The agency is publishing the draft of the sixth version of the list, which opens a 60-day public comment period. It expects to finalize the list by mid-November.

“I can’t think of an issue that hits closer to home for American families than the safety of their drinking water,” Zeldin said at EPA Headquarters.

Studies have looked at the prevalence of microplastics in drinking water and in people’s hearts, brains and testicles. Doctors and scientists are still assessing what it means in terms of human health threats, but say there's cause for concern. There is also growing worry about pharmaceutical drugs that get into the water supply because humans excrete them and conventional wastewater treatment plants fail to remove them.

The EPA uses the list to prioritize research, funding and regulatory decision making, but rarely moves pollutants off the list to set limits for how much is allowed in public drinking water. The EPA said in March that it will not develop regulations for any of the nine pollutants from the list it most recently examined.

“It’s the beginning of a very long process that routinely ends in nothing,” said Erik Olson, a senior attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council who works on drinking water protection.

Still, some who are urging the government to do more to stop plastic pollution say the announcement is a good start.

“Including it in the list would be the first step toward eventually regulating microplastics in public water supplies and hopefully this is not the last step,” said Judith Enck, a former EPA regional administrator who now heads up Beyond Plastics.

Dr. Philip Landrigan, director of the Global Observatory on Planetary Health at Boston College, said that while the EPA is moving in the right direction, if the United States does not rein in the accelerating growth in plastic production, which leads to plastic pollution, it will make little difference. The U.S. is participating in talks on a treaty to address the global crisis of plastic pollution, but strongly opposes limits on plastic production.

Food & Water Watch says the listing is important but it ultimately falls short of their call for monitoring. EPA uses the Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule to collect data for contaminants that are suspected to be present in drinking water.

The American Chemistry Council, an industry group, said it supports monitoring of microplastics in drinking water and research to better understand potential impacts, as long as the monitoring is standardized and consistent nationwide.

Plastic pollution is part of the MAHA agenda

The joint move from Kennedy and Zeldin comes as activists from Kennedy’s MAHA movement have forged fragile political ties with the EPA but expressed frustration with lack of action on their priorities, including pesticide regulation.

The movement erupted earlier this year over an executive order from President Donald Trump that is aimed in part at boosting the production of a controversial herbicide ingredient known as glyphosate. Kennedy has said he was disappointed by the executive order but sees it as necessary for agricultural stability and national security.

The EPA has teased a forthcoming MAHA agenda that it says will address issues such as forever chemicals, plastic pollution, food quality, Superfund cleanups and lead pipes. In February, EPA press secretary Brigit Hirsch told The Associated Press that the agenda was in its “final stages.”

Kennedy, whose 2024 independent presidential campaign focused in part on tackling plastic pollution, also announced a $144 million effort to better measure, understand and remove microplastics that have made their way into human bodies.

Called STOMP, or Systematic Targeting of Microplastics, it will involve building tools to detect and quantify microplastics, mapping how they move through the body, and ultimately removing microplastics from the human body, he said.

“We can’t treat what we cannot measure, we cannot regulate what we don’t understand,” Kennedy said at the EPA on Thursday. “Together, we’re going to define the risk, build the tools and act on the evidence regarding microplastics.”

MAHA leaders, farmers and organizations told Zeldin in a letter Tuesday to tackle the health impacts of pesticides, plastics and PFAS chemicals. On plastics, they said the agenda must include monitoring for microplastics, establishing new limits on microplastics exposure and placing a moratorium on permitting for new or expanding plastic production facilities.

David Murphy, a former fundraiser for Kennedy’s presidential campaign, now works with the MAHA movement on its priorities as the founder of United We Eat. Murphy said it’s encouraging to see progress on microplastics, but criticized Zeldin for approving new pesticides during his tenure.

“It’s one step forward, two steps back at the EPA,” he said Thursday.

EPA publishes the list every five years

The Safe Drinking Water Act, as amended in 1996, directed the EPA to publish the Contaminant Candidate List every five years. Afterward, the agency must determine whether to regulate at least five contaminants from the list. In five cycles of the process, the EPA has determined that no regulatory action is appropriate or necessary for most of the contaminants it considered.

Trump has sought fewer environmental rules. In May, the EPA announced plans to rescind limits on some less common “forever chemicals” in drinking water, roughly a year after the Biden administration finalized the first-ever national standards. The NRDC and other environmental advocates are fighting to keep the entire Biden-era rule in place.

The new draft list includes four contaminant groups — microplastics, pharmaceuticals,  PFAS and disinfection byproducts — as well as 75 chemicals and nine microbes that may be found in drinking water, the EPA said.

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Associated Press writers Michael Phillis and Matthew Daly in Washington contributed to this report.

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The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

Blanche, whom Trump elevated Thursday from deputy attorney general to acting U.S. attorney general, rose to prominence representing the president in criminal cases that consumed the four years between his first and second terms.

Blanche, a former federal prosecutor and law firm partner, led Trump's criminal defense team, representing the Republican in matters including his New York hush money case, which ended in his conviction on 34 felony counts, and a pair of federal cases brought by special counsel Jack Smith, both of which have been abandoned.

In a social media post, Trump called Blanche “a very talented and respected Legal Mind.”

As deputy attorney general, Blanche was the Justice Department’s second-in-command.

Working under Attorney General Pam Bondi, he managed the department’s day-to-day operations and became one of its most vocal defenders and visible public faces. He oversaw the release of government files on Jeffrey Epstein and appeared frequently on TV news programs.

Here's a look at Blanche's career and his rise to running the Justice Department:

Paralegal by day, law school student by night

Blanche, 51, attended Brooklyn Law School at night while working as a paralegal at the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan, and graduated cum laude. Originally from the Denver suburbs, he completed his undergraduate studies at American University in Washington, D.C.

Blanche served as a law clerk for federal judges Denny Chin and Joseph Bianco, both now members of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, and was a federal prosecutor for eight years in the same U.S. attorney’s office where he had started as a paralegal.

He spent two years as co-chief of the office’s violent crimes unit, overseeing about two dozen prosecutors and cases involving killings, kidnappings, and other violent crimes.

Entering private practice and Trump's inner circle

Blanche left the U.S. attorney's office in 2014, taking a job in the Manhattan office of the law firm WilmerHale. In September 2017, he moved to Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP, where he was a partner in the White Collar Defense and Investigations practice.

In a prelude to his work defending Trump, Blanche represented the president's former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, and in 2019 succeeded in getting a mortgage fraud case against him dismissed in the same New York court where Trump was convicted.

Blanche argued that the case, brought by the Manhattan district attorney’s office that later prosecuted Trump, was too similar to one that landed Manafort in federal prison and therefore amounted to double jeopardy.

‘An opportunity I should not pass up’

Blanche left Cadwalader in 2023, telling colleagues he was resigning to represent Trump. He joined the president's defense team just prior to his arraignment in the hush money case.

In an email announcing his departure, he wrote: “I have been asked to represent Trump in the recently charged DA case, and after much thought/consideration, I have decided it is the best thing for me to do and an opportunity I should not pass up.”

Despite his conviction, Trump came away from the hush money case impressed with Blanche’s tenacity, his willingness to spar with witnesses and judges, and the poise he showed in speaking in front of TV cameras.

Trump rewarded Blanche and another of his defense lawyers, Emil Bove, with prominent roles in his new administration's Justice Department, and last summer nominated Bove to be a judge on the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Defending Trump in a slew of criminal cases

In addition to the hush money matter, Blanche represented Trump in the two cases brought by the special counsel, his 2020 election interference case in Washington and the Florida case accusing the former president of hoarding classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate.

In both cases, Trump's Blanche-led defense team successfully mounted a legal strategy focused heavily on delaying the cases until after the 2024 presidential election. When Trump won, Smith moved to abandon the cases, acknowledging a longstanding Justice Department policy that says sitting presidents cannot be indicted or prosecuted while in office.

Ten days before Trump returned to office, Blanche sat alongside him at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, appearing by video together as a Manhattan judge sentenced the president-elect to no punishment in the hush-money case.

“The majority of the American people also agree that this case should not have been brought,” Blanche told the judge, citing the election results as a verdict of its own.

“The American voters got a chance to see and decide for themselves whether this was the kind of case that should’ve been brought," Blanche said. "And they decided.”

Morris had filed a lawsuit in Charlottesville (Virginia) Circuit Court last month seeking the injunction after the NCAA denied his medical redshirt waiver and appeal. A circuit court judge ruled against Morris on Thursday.

“The NCAA is pleased by the court’s decision today, which protects the integrity of collegiate competition," the NCAA said in a statement. "As additional lawsuits challenging common-sense, academically-tied eligibility rules are filed, the NCAA will continue to defend against attempts to rob high school students across the nation of the opportunity to compete in college and experience the life-changing opportunities only college sports can create.

"The NCAA and its member schools are making changes to deliver more benefits to student-athletes, but the patchwork of state laws and inconsistent, conflicting court decisions make partnering with Congress essential to provide stability for all college athletes.”

Morris' case is one of 71 eligibility lawsuits that have been filed. Of those cases, 33 preliminary injunctions have been denied and 13 have been granted. Twelve eligibility lawsuits are still pending in lower courts and 13 have been voluntarily dismissed prior to a decision on a preliminary injunction.

The dispute surrounding the 25-year-old Morris involves his 2022 season with TCU and whether it should count against his eligibility. Morris suffered a knee injury that season and applied for a medical redshirt, but the NCAA denied that request after Morris made limited appearances in three games later that season.

Morris, the son of Clemson offensive coordinator Chad Morris, has thrown for 9,185 career yards while playing at Oklahoma (2020), TCU (2021-23), North Texas (2024) and Virginia (2025).

He passed for 3,000 yards and 16 touchdowns with nine interceptions, while also rushing for 245 yards and five touchdowns at Virginia last season.

Virginia ended last season 16th in the AP Top 25 after posting an 11-3 record that included a 27-20 overtime loss to Duke in the Atlantic Coast Conference championship game and a 13-7 victory over Missouri in the Gator Bowl.

The Cavaliers’ 11 wins set a school single-season record. The Gator Bowl marked Virginia’s first bowl appearance since 2019.

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Hubbard broke out of six-way tie for the lead that included Tony Finau, among dozens of players hopeful of a win to get into the Masters next week.

He was in the middle of the pack when Hubbard began his remarkable finishing kick on the Oaks course at the TPC San Antonio. He made a 25-foot birdie putt sandwiched between a pair of birdies from the 6-foot range. He got up-and-down on the par-5 14th for a fourth straight birdie.

He also hit it tight to 6 feet for birdie on the par-3 16th. And moments before the horn sounded to stop play, Hubbard drilled a fairway metal from the rough over the winding creek in front of the green about 30 yards short of the flag. He pitched to 3 feet for his last birdie.

The round was delayed about 90 minutes at the start because of dangerous weather in the area, with 24 players having to complete the round Friday morning. That shouldn't affect the timing of the second round.

Finau is trying to pull his game together, falling to No. 107 in the world. He is not eligible for the Masters for the first time since 2017, and this is his last chance. There have been stretches of good golf, and Finau is hopeful of a few more days of this.

It didn't start off great. He had to make a 7-foot par putt on No. 10, his opening hole. He had to chip to tap-in range on the 11th.

“And then I was kind of on my way after that,” said Finau, who holed a 40-foot eagle putt on the par-5 14th hole that sent him on his way to a 66.

He was joined by Andrew Putnam, Steven Fisk, Davis Thompson and Robert MacIntyre, who birdied his last two holes. MacIntyre is the only one in that group who already is in the Masters.

The large group at 67 included some players tuning up for Augusta National, some just hopeful of a tee time. Tommy Fleetwood, Ludvig Aberg and Maverick McNealy are in the Masters. Among those on the outside is Will Zalatoris, who already has gone through three back surgeries as he tries to play his way back into form.

All of them caught the TPC San Antonio in benign conditions with very little wind, and morning rain that not only softened the course but led officials to allow for preferred lies.

It was still a big deal to Zalatoris, despite two late bogeys in his round of eight birdies.

“The reality is that I’m 10 months removed from basically having my back reconstructed,” Zalatoris said. “If I’m complaining about just a little thing here and there, I’ll still take it. The patience game is obviously brutal because it’s even like a day like today, where I make eight birdies, and we’re still talking about it, but that’s been my last three years.”

Jordan Spieth is trying to clean up the way he finishes rounds — a pair of closing double bogeys at The Players Championship, more dropped shots at the end of Valspar Championship. And then on Thursday, he was on the verge of a birdie-birdie finish until missing a 7-foot birdie attempt on the 18th hole and then missing the 30-inch par putt.

The bogey gave him a 71.

Austin Smotherman is having a week he won't forget after his 68. It started with news that his wife gave birth to their third daughter, even though he had to watch it remotely.

Smotherman had a plan to catch a short flight home to Dallas is his wife went into labor. What he didn’t plan on was the timing. His wife went into labor about 9:30 p.m. on Monday. Grace Elizabeth was born two hours later.

“I was stuck here in the hotel watching on FaceTime,” Smotherman said. “It happened so fast we couldn’t get back in time, driving or flying.”

There were no flights, and to make the four-hour drive to Dallas would have put somewhere around Waco when the baby was born. But daughter and wife are doing well, and she has family to help.

And then his week took another happy turn. Smotherman hit 6-iron on the 220-yard 13th hole for a hole-in-one, leading to a solid round that left him two shots off the lead.

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

Gen. Randy George “will be retiring from his position as the 41st Chief of Staff of the Army effective immediately,” said Sean Parnell, the Pentagon’s top spokesman. George has held the post of Army chief of staff, which typically runs for four years, since August 2023 under the Biden administration.

The ouster, reported earlier by CBS News, is just the latest of more than a dozen firings of top generals and admirals by Hegseth since he took office last year. Like many of those other firings, Pentagon officials are not offering a reason for George's departure, which comes nearly five weeks into U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran and with no clear timeline from President Donald Trump on when the war may end.

Hegseth also has ousted Army Gen. David Hodne and Army Maj. Gen. William Green, according to a Pentagon official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive leadership changes. A reason for their departures also was not given.

General who rose rapidly under Hegseth will fill in

Gen. Christopher LaNeve will be stepping in as acting Army chief of staff, the Pentagon official said. LaNeve was serving as Hegseth’s top military aide when Trump suddenly nominated him to be the Army's vice chief of staff last October. It is a meteoric rise for an officer who was only a two-star general two years ago.

He would take over for George, who is a graduate of West Point Military Academy and an infantry officer who served in the first Gulf War as well as Iraq and Afghanistan. He also served as Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s top military aide from 2021 to 2022 during the Biden administration before taking on top leadership roles in the Army.

George made it through the initial round of firings under the Trump administration in February 2025, when Hegseth removed top military leaders, including Adm. Lisa Franchetti, the Navy’s top uniformed officer, and Gen. Jim Slife, the No. 2 leader at the Air Force. Trump also fired Gen. Charles “CQ” Brown Jr. as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Since then, more than a dozen other top military generals and admirals have either retired early or been removed from their posts.

Among those departures was George’s deputy, Gen. James Mingus, who was vice chief of staff of the Army for less than two years. LaNeve was nominated to that post after earlier being plucked from commanding the Eighth Army in South Korea after less than a year in the job to be Hegseth’s top military aide.

A spokesman for George could not be reached for comment.

Two other Army generals are fired

Of the other generals who were fired, Hodne had been head of the Army Transformation and Training Command, a unit that was only stood up in December as part of George’s effort to modernize the Army and amid Hegseth’s push to reduce the number of general officers in the military.

Green had been the Army’s chief of chaplains. Hegseth announced two major reforms to the military’s chaplain corps a little over a week ago.

In a video message last week, Hegseth said he wanted chaplains to focus more on God and less on therapeutic “self-help and self-care.” In recent years, the military has become increasingly dependent on chaplains to help address the growing numbers of troops in mental health distress. Hegseth also said chaplains would no longer wear their rank on their uniform but instead would be identified by religious insignia.

The changes come as Iran war grinds on

The leadership shakeup comes as Army paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne division are heading to the Middle East along with thousands of Marines and other assets. The Trump administration has avoided questions about whether or not the U.S. military will deploy ground troops against Iran.

In a prime-time address Wednesday about the war, Trump offered no end date for the conflict and few details on his strategy going forward but did forecast more military action.

“We are going to hit them extremely hard over the next two to three weeks,” Trump said of Iran, before adding that “we’re going to bring them back to the Stone Ages where they belong.”

Hegseth echoed that sentiment after the speech, with a post on social media that simply read, “Back to the Stone Age.”

Iran’s mission to the United Nations said on X that Trump’s comment “reflects ignorance, not strength,” noting that Iran’s civilization spans over 7,000 years.

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This story has been corrected to show that Gen. Jim Slife’s name was misspelled Silfe.

“I didn’t wake up to my alarm. Slept through it," Jensen told The Kansas City Star and other outlets. "Don’t really have an excuse — nor should I. It sucks. It happens. I feel like I let teammates down, coaches down. Just learn from it and just know it won’t happen again.”

Jensen eventually arrived, but not early enough to prepare adequately to start the game. He did end up coming in as Kansas City’s catcher in the ninth inning of the Royals' 5-1 loss.

Salvador Perez, who was expecting to be Kansas City’s designated hitter Thursday, ended up catching the first eight innings.

“First and foremost, I’m glad Carter’s OK,” Royals first baseman Vinnie Pasquantino told reporters. “I mean, that was kind of the initial thought when you’re trying to get a hold of his parents and everything like that — just make sure he’s OK.”

Pasquantino said Jensen, a 22-year-old rookie, needs to learn from this experience.

“There are some things that cannot happen, and that’s one of them,” Pasquantino said. “So he’s going to have to wear it on the chin — same way anybody would have to. It can’t happen, and hopefully it doesn’t happen again. But it’s one of those things that you just can’t afford mistakes like that in this game. Just got to move forward the best that he can. I know he feels really bad.

“I know it was not his favorite drive to the field this morning, but it wasn’t our favorite morning either, trying to figure out what was going on. He’ll learn from it, grow a little bit. We’re here for him, though. It’s not like anybody’s mad at him. Things happen. But you’ve got to learn from mistakes like that — and maybe get another alarm clock or something.”

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

Ralph led a team that returned just one starter to the most successful season in school history. The team went 29-5, with 13 of those wins coming in the regular season against a rugged Southeastern Conference schedule. The Commodores finished tied for second in the conference, which matched the best finish in program history. They earned a 2-seed in the NCAA Tournament and reached the Sweet 16.

“It's wild. It’s hard to wrap my mind around it. This whole year we haven’t slowed down,” Ralph told the AP. “I love basketball, I love the group that I coach.I love they stayed with me. It’s been hard and it’s been challenging, but in a good way.”

Ralph received the award with her entire Vanderbilt coaching staff, as well as her mom, husband and daughter in attendance. It was also special for Ralph with her UConn family there as well as they were also there to celebrate AP Player of the Year Sarah Strong.

Ralph received 23 votes from the 31-member national media panel that votes on the AP Top 25 each week. UCLA’s Cori Close, who was the AP Coach of the Year last season, was next with four. Ralph’s mentor at UConn, Geno Auriemma, received two votes while Mark Kellogg of West Virginia and Kara Lawson of Duke each received one.

”The thing I love the most of where I'm at is the vision never changed," Ralph said. “That's really important to me. Do it at a high level at Vanderbilt is really important to me. They've shown what that looks like to invest in women. Really invest in women. The resources and money, but also the development and academics.”

Ralph is the first Vanderbilt coach to win the award, which was launched in 1994-95. Her team, which won seven more games than the year before and was ranked as high as No. 5 in the AP poll, was led by All-America guard Mikayla Blakes.

“She’s someone you would want to run through a brick wall for,” Blakes said. “She has bought so much into us that it’s only right that we continue to fight in this game for her, and she’s someone who in tough moments you want to lean on. And that’s the reason why I came here.”

Vanderbilt started out 20-0 and had seven wins over ranked teams this season.

“I think truly we never talked about it,” Ralph said of the undefeated start. “I chuckled to some of my staff members this is what I’m used to. I feel comfortable here. Keep kicking their butts in practice and challenging them and keep preparing the same way no matter what our record is.”

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AP Sports Writer Teresa M. Walker contributed to this report.

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AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-womens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness

Strong became just the fifth player to win the award in her sophomore year, joining Oklahoma’s Courtney Paris (2007), UConn stars Maya Moore (2009) and Breanna Stewart (2014), and USC's JuJu Watkins, who won it last year. The AP started giving out the award in 1995.

It's the 13th time that a Huskies player has won the award with Paige Bueckers being the last to do it before Strong in 2021.

Vanderbilt's Shea Ralph, who was a former UConn player and assistant coach, won the AP Coach of the Year award. They both accepted the awards in front of a full room that included the entire UConn team, which gave a standing ovation when both winners were announced.

“I’m so blessed because I totally got to this point in my life because of my teammates,” Strong said.

Strong received 25 votes from a national media panel that votes for the Top 25 each week. Vanderbilt's Mikayla Blakes garnered four votes and UCLA's Lauren Betts got the other two. Voting was completed before the NCAA Tournament began.

“Anybody that has watched us play would probably tell you that she's the heart and soul of our team,” UConn coach Geno Auriemma said. “She elevates the play of everyone on our team."

He called Strong “the most low-key superstar you ever saw.”

“You don’t see that look in her eyes, you know, like, oh, my God, there’s always just, a calmness,” he said. “That’s the best way I can describe it. That allows her to just be free and fluid and play without worry. ”

Auriemma has coached some of the greatest in the game including Breanna Stewart, Sue Bird, Maya Moore and Diana Taurasi. Strong fits in with them.

“The great ones, the great ones all had it. I never saw (Taurasi) nervous,” he said. ‘You know that they came in as freshmen and you can tell by the look in their eyes, ’I can handle this. This is what I think. This is why I came here.' You know some may pretend, but you know deep down you’re not ready for that moment. She’s ready for that one."

Strong is averaging 18.6 points, 7.6 rebounds, 3.4 steals and 1.6 blocks a game while helping UConn go 38-0. She's shooting 59.4% from the field, 40.4% from 3 and 84.8% from the the foul line while playing just 27 minutes a game.

The sensational sophomore raised her game when the Huskies faced Top 25 opponents, averaging over 20 points and 10 rebounds per game. She reached 1,000 career points in her 59th career game, the third-fastest player in school history to reach the milestone.

Strong was the Big East Player of the Year as well as the Most Outstanding Player of the Fort Worth Regional.

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AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-womens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness

The temporary charge is effective April 17 for many of the sellers who use Amazon’s fulfillment services, the online behemoth confirmed to The Associated Press in an email Thursday.

“Elevated costs in fuel and logistics have increased the cost of operating across the industry,” Amazon said in the emailed statement.

The Seattle-based company said it has absorbed these increases so far but similar to other major carriers, when costs remain elevated, it implements temporary surcharges to partially recover these costs. It noted the charge is “meaningfully” lower than surcharges applied by other major carriers.

“We remain committed to our selling partners’ success and to maintaining broad selection and low prices for customers,” Amazon added.

Amazon’s fuel and logistics-related surcharge will apply to U.S. and Canadian sellers using its Fulfillment by Amazon option. Starting May 2, the surcharge will take effect with sellers using the Buy with Prime and Multi-Channel Fulfillment options.

Amazon joins a growing list of carriers imposing surcharges to recoup rising energy costs as the Iran war drags on.

United Parcel Service and FedEx have increased their fuel surcharges. The United States Postal Service announced last week it was imposing an 8% fuel surcharge that would apply to packages to be shipped starting April 26. The surcharge would remain in place until Jan. 17 2027, it said.

Patchy fog will develop overnight away from the coast, especially for those locations that see any shower or storm.

An area of high pressure will remain offshore for the rest of the week. This will bring an easterly wind to our area. With more sunshine, temperatures will climb into the low 80s through Saturday, mid to upper 80s on Sunday.

Isolated showers and storms will be possible each day thanks to the sea breeze. Areas along and west of the St. Johns River will have the best chance of seeing a shower or storm.

A front will approach our area from the north early next week. It will turn breezy and much cooler with a northeasterly wind. Highs will only be in the 60s to near 70 degrees on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

The front will be slow-moving, which will keep the rain coverage widespread each day. The most widespread rain will likely be on Tuesday. This will bring beneficial rainfall to our area, which is good news since we are in a drought. Several areas could potentially see over an inch or more of rain.

Regarding the drought, the latest drought monitor reflects the overall pattern over the past few months. Most of our area remains in an extreme drought. An exceptional drought classification has been expanded to include more of our area. As mentioned above, slight improvement can be expected with the rain in the forecast early next week.

TONIGHT: Partly Cloudy. Patchy Fog Possible. Low 64.

FRIDAY: Sun & Clouds. Isolated Rain & Storms. High 84, Low 63.

SATURDAY: Sun & Clouds. Isolated Rain & Storms. High 85, Low 62.

SUNDAY: Partly Cloudy. Mainly Dry. High 88, Low 61.

MONDAY: Mostly Cloudy & Breezy. Isolated Rain & Storms. High 74, Low 55.

TUESDAY: Cloudy & Breezy. Scattered Rain. High 67, Low 57.

In a video posted to X, Hegseth said he is signing a memo that will direct base commanders to allow requests for troops to carry privately owned firearms “with the presumption that it is necessary for personal protection.”

He said any denial of a service member's request must be explained in detail and in writing.

“Effectively, our bases across the country were gun-free zones,” Hegseth said. “Unless you're training or unless you are a military policeman, you couldn't carry, you couldn't bring your own firearm for your own personal protection onto post.”

Questions about why service members lacked access to weapons have often emerged following shootings on the nation's military bases. Such shootings have ranged from isolated events between service members to mass casualty events, such as the shootings by an Army psychiatrist at Texas’ Ford Hood in 2009 that left 13 people dead.

Hegseth cited some of the events in his video, including a shooting that injured five soldiers at Fort Stewart in Georgia last year. Officials said the shooter, an Army sergeant who worked at the base, used his personal handgun before he was tackled by fellow soldiers and arrested.

“In these instances, minutes are a lifetime,” Hegseth said. “And our service members have the courage and training to make those precious, short minutes count.”

Defense Department policy has prohibited military personnel from carrying personal weapons on base without permission from a senior commander, with strict protocol for how the firearms must be stored.

Typically, military personnel must officially check their guns out of secure storage to go to on-base hunting areas or shooting ranges, then check all firearms back in promptly after their sanctioned use. Military police are often the only armed personnel on base, outside of shooting ranges, hunting areas or in training, where soldiers can wield their service weapons without ammunition.

Tanya Schardt, senior counsel at the Brady gun violence prevention organization, said in a statement that Defense Department leaders and the military’s top brass have opposed relaxing the current policy, which was originally enacted under President George H.W. Bush.

Schardt noted that most active duty service members who die by suicide do so with a weapon they own personally, not one military-issued, and argued that there will “undoubtedly be an increase in gun suicide and other gun violence.”

While fewer American service members died by suicide in 2024, the suicide rates among active duty troops overall still have gradually increased between 2011 and 2024, according to a Pentagon report released Tuesday.

“Our military installations are among the most guarded, protected properties in the world, and they’ve never been ‘gun-free zones,’” Schardt said. “If there is a problem with violent crime on these installations, then the Secretary of Defense has an obligation to alert the American people and describe how he’s working to prevent that crime.”

A mama duck has made the hospital’s Labor & Delivery courtyard her go-to nesting spot, returning year after year to welcome her newest brood into the world. This year, she arrived with about a dozen ducklings in tow, once again charming the staff who have come to look forward to her annual appearance.

The hospital team didn’t let the occasion pass without celebration. Staff rolled out the red carpet — literally — giving the mama duck and her ducklings a VIP sendoff fit for any new mother leaving Labor & Delivery.