American forces disabled the M/T Lavine in the Gulf of Oman on Friday after the ship attempted to run the blockade at least four times, Capt. Tim Hawkins, U.S. Central Command spokesman, told The Associated Press.

Hawkins stressed that the ship’s crew was warned and didn’t comply with commands. The military then fired into its engine room.

It’s the second commercial ship to be disabled since the military reimposed its blockade. U.S. Central Command said it also has redirected 12 vessels.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.

IRBIL, Iraq (AP) — Iran targeted American strongholds around the Persian Gulf on Friday, while the U.S. bombarded Iranian military sites as the rivals showed no sign of backing away from their conflict after a 13th straight night of strikes.

With fighting flaring again and diplomacy uncertain, both sides made moves suggesting an escalation was possible. U.S. embassies in the Middle East began alerting Americans in the region that options to leave could become more limited, while Iran’s Revolutionary Guard advised residents of neighboring countries to stay away from bases with U.S. troops.

Vowing that Iran “will not bow to U.S.” bullying, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi noted ongoing discussions with two global powers often at odds with Americans — China and Russia — and warned in an interview with the semiofficial news outlet Tasnim that the Islamic Republic is “neither intimidated by threats nor will we yield to pressure.”

U.S. President Donald Trump described current negotiations with Iran as “by far the most serious that we’ve seen,” even as the U.S. has launched daily strikes.

“We're locked and loaded and ready to go, but we're talking to them,” Trump told reporters Friday, adding that he's “not in a hurry” to end the war.

At the center of the fight is the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial passage for world energy supplies that has been effectively shut down by Iranian attacks, sending fuel prices soaring and causing widespread economic turmoil.

US strikes sites across Iran and countries in the region are targeted

In the northern Iraqi city of Irbil, which is home to a contingent of American military advisers, security officials said Friday that U.S.-led forces had shot down five explosive-laden drones. Repeated blasts echoed in Irbil, the capital of Iraq’s semiautonomous Kurdish region, and plumes of black smoke were seen near its airport, where U.S. forces are based. U.S. military officials did not respond to a request for comment on the apparent attacks.

Meanwhile, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said it had targeted the U.S. base in Udairi, Kuwait, setting ablaze and destroying three ammunition and storage sheds. It also claimed to have struck a watchtower for the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet, based in Bahrain, which it said was damaged.

U.S. Central Command did not respond to inquiries about the claims.

Both Bahrain and Jordan said they had intercepted aerial attacks by Iran on Friday.

As a barrage of assaults was aimed at bases of the United States and its allies, the U.S. hit a Revolutionary Guard naval base in northern Iran, according to the semiofficial news outlets Fars and ISNA. Blasts from U.S. bombardment were also reported on Iran’s Qeshm Island, a base for naval assets including drone boats that Iran can use to attack vessels in the strait, as well as in Isfahan province, home to a major Iranian air base and one of Iran’s nuclear sites.

Additional strikes reportedly hit Iran’s southwest Khuzestan province and southern Fars province.

Central Command said the latest barrage was designed to “further degrade Iran’s ability to threaten civilian mariners and commercial vessels transiting regional waters” as the Americans push to reopen the strait, through which one-fifth of the world’s oil and gas transited in peacetime.

Houthi attacks give Iran more leverage in potential negotiations

A diplomatic delegation from Oman, which has been involved in mediation efforts between the U.S. and Iran, was in Tehran on Friday to discuss managing shipping traffic in the strait, according to Iran’s state news agency.

Iran’s ability to effectively close the strait — and cause economic chaos far beyond the Middle East — gives it tremendous leverage in negotiations. Its Houthi allies increased that leverage when they targeted two Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea on Thursday — increasing the risks of shipping through another vital route for Middle Eastern oil.

The attacks made good on the Houthis’ threat to close the Bab el-Mandeb Strait to Saudi-linked shipping. The strait at the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula connects the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden, and around 12% of the world’s trade, including one-fourth of global container traffic, passes through there.

The passage has become more crucial for Saudi Arabia, which has been forced to divert millions of barrels of oil a day to bypass the strait.

Trump has threatened “major military punishment” against the Houthis if their attacks on ships continue.

The price of Brent crude oil, the international standard, dipped slightly Friday to about $96, but it is still up substantially from before the start of the war, when it was trading around $72 a barrel. Motorists in the U.S. saw gas prices tick up to an average of $4.11 a gallon, AAA said.

No signs of diplomatic breakthrough as war's human toll expands

Beyond the economic impact, the human toll was also apparent, with the Iranian Health Ministry reporting that 3,434 people have been killed since the war began.

In other developments, the International Maritime Organization said at least 6,000 mariners were stranded on about 400 vessels around the Strait of Hormuz. U.N. human rights chief Volker Türk called for “urgent action” to help them. His office said the seafarers are exposed to the fighting and some have been abandoned by their ships’ owners, leaving them to “fend for themselves without food, water, fuel, medical care, electricity or means to communicate with their families.”

There have been no public signs of progress in any negotiation efforts.

Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar of Pakistan, which has played a significant role in previous negotiations, met his Iranian counterpart, Araghchi, on Friday. But before the meeting, Araghchi appeared to brush off any attempts at mediation, saying he did not think the conflict needed more mediators, instead insisting the U.S. must change its position.

The U.S. and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28 and have offered shifting goals for the war, including toppling Tehran’s government and eliminating its nuclear program.

Israel signaled its willingness to rejoin the conflict in recent days. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said he would travel to the U.S. next week and meet with Trump.

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Frankel reported from Jerusalem. Associated Press writers Bassem Mroue in Beirut, Erin Cunningham in Jerusalem, Matthew Lee in Washington, Munir Ahmed in Islamabad, Jamey Keaten in Geneva and Hannah Schoenbaum in Salt Lake City contributed.

“ @KingJames hey bro hope you’re having a good day...... Want to join us in philly?? Peace," Embiid wrote.

His recruitment skills were on point and James — the four-time NBA champion and career scoring leader — will join Embiid in a startling turn of events on the Philadelphia 76ers.

Ok, fine, just a short 12 years after the July 1, 2014, post.

The 76ers expect James to be worth the wait and hope he can win an NBA championship in Philadelphia much as he did in his previous three stops in Cleveland, Miami and with the Los Angeles Lakers.

The 76ers are used to playing the long game. The franchise hasn't won an NBA championship since 1983, when Julius Erving still soared and a year before James was born.

Certainly not as dominant as he was in his MVP heyday, LeBron James is still, well LeBron James and his addition should lift any team mired in the NBA mucky middle such as the Sixers into contention.

Throw him into in a lineup that includes a league MVP in Embiid, All-Stars Tyrese Maxey and Jaylen Brown, and promising second-year standout VJ Edgecombe, and it's no shock the Sixers moved up few a few pegs Friday on the betting board and into the short list of favorites for an NBA title.

Just not the favorite.

James is again chasing a ring and his arrival on a two-year deal for the veterans' minimum of about $3.9 million per season shook up the Sixers and put the Eastern Conference on notice — yes, even the NBA champion Knicks — that a real championship contender might finally emerge in Philly.

The 76ers won the offseason

Here they come, team of the year?

The Sixers earned straight A's on their summer school report card even before James said he would sign with team.

The Sixers fired team president Daryl Morey and replaced him with longtime Cleveland executive Mike Gansey, who came out swinging for the fences in his first month on the job. He pulled off the shocker of a trade with Boston that landed them Brown — the 2024 NBA Finals MVP, a five-time All-Star and the league’s fourth-leading scorer this past season.

It's difficult to fathom that an oft-injured Embiid — who won Olympic gold with James — and Maxey alone would have been enough to coax James to Philadelphia.

But adding a stud like Brown?

Brown surely played a key deciding factor in James' decision — his “last” one, he says — and now the Sixers boast perhaps the top starting five in the NBA.

And boy, what a bargain.

There are some caveats, of course.

James turns 42 in December and there are a lot of miles on those legs. James battled injuries last season and played in only 60 games. Embiid has never been reliable with only 57 combined games played the last two seasons, and the Sixers have churned through a slew of imported stars over the last decade — James Harden, Jimmy Butler, Paul George — and still haven't advanced out of the second round since 2001.

There's only one ball and a lot of talent that has the resume to command it.

But with apologies to Wilt Chamberlain, many, many apologies, James becomes the most accomplished player to ever wear a 76ers uniform.

He won't be alone in that No. 23 uniform — Fanatics sold out almost instantly of his jerseys on Friday.

It’s also a big win for front office boss Bob Myers, who openly pitched for James to sign in Philadelphia on his agent’s podcast and won four championships as a Golden State Warriors executive.

The balance of power shifts in the East. Not by much

The Sixers ended their season with a second-round sweep to Jalen Brunson, Josh Hart and the NBA champion Knicks.

The Knicks are still the team to beat. By talent, by virtue of winning it all and, at least out of the East, the betting favorite to again reach the NBA Finals.

The Knicks have largely stayed pat while other hopeful contenders went for major moves.

The Heat — hey, when exactly is that presser? — like their chances after they traded with Milwaukee for Giannis Antetokounmpo. The two-time MVP was the latest on a long list of superstar acquisitions made since Pat Riley arrived to take over as team president in 1995.

Much like the Sixers before they acquired Brown, the Heat are a two-star team with Antetokounmpo and Bam Adebayo. Antetokounmpo, Adebayo and James would have made them a new Big 3, much like when James won titles in Miami with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh.

Toronto is hopeful for a resolution to their held-up trade with the Los Angeles Clippers that should land them Kawhi Leonard. The trade is on hold pending the outcome of the NBA’s investigation into whether the Clippers circumvented salary cap rules.

It's a bad day for Cleveland

The Cavaliers would have loved a sentimental third tour with James and have the franchise's greatest player eventually retire in Cleveland.

James instead left the Cavaliers in a lurch, and they have to hope they can re-sign 36-year-old James Harden as part of a lineup that includes Jarrett Allen, Evan Mobley and Donovan Mitchell.

They will be projected to finish behind the Knicks and 76ers in the East.

Don't forget, Detroit won 60 games last season and would like to prove its early playoff exit was a part of the growing pains of a contender.

LeBron's legacy

Look, James' legacy is set and not even a flameout in Philly is going to change his indelible stamp on the game from the court to the cash register.

There is one major mark he could hit should he send the Sixers on a parade route down Broad Street. He would become the first player to win NBA titles with four teams.

Sixers coach Nick Nurse turned 59 on Friday and there's no better professional gift he could have received than LeBron James.

Purchased on a discount rack.

Look for LeBron on opening night in New York. Look for LeBron on a Christmas game in Philadelphia. Look for LeBron to keep Sixers' tickets sky high on the secondary market even on nights when Embiid sits.

Look for the ride of a lifetime in Philadelphia where the franchise wants to reach the sky again just like it did with Dr. J.

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

Located at 4461 Beverly Avenue, Unit 5, The Roosevelt (Ortega) center is CareSpot’s 46th location and expands access to walk-in and scheduled urgent care across the greater Jacksonville market, the release said.

“We open today with a clear mission: to provide swift, compassionate medical care precisely when our community needs it,” Shaun Ginter, CEO of CareSpot Urgent Care, said in the release.

Eric Fletcher, executive vice president and chief strategy officer at Baptist Health, said the partnership strengthens the health system’s ability to provide “the right care, in the right place, at the right time,” and helps ensure more people have timely access to care close to home.

The center offers a full range of urgent care and occupational health services, including treatment for minor injuries and illnesses; flu, COVID-19 and other respiratory care; immunizations and vaccinations; on-site X-rays and lab testing; and school, sports, employment and pre-op physicals. Employers can access occupational health services. Patients may walk in or schedule online; the center will have extended hours seven days a week, including evenings and holidays.

The opening is part of a longer-term strategy by CareSpot and Baptist Health to expand urgent care access across high-demand communities in Northeast Florida, the release said.

For more information or to schedule an appointment, visit carespot.com.

The ouster of Karim Khan comes at a time when the court is already facing daunting challenges, including a campaign by the United States to “dismantle” the ICC, which was established to prosecute people responsible for humanity’s worst crimes.

By a large majority, the ICC’s 125-member states voted to remove Khan, a British barrister, for “serious misconduct and serious breach of duty,” the court’s oversight body, the Assembly of States Parties, said in a statement.

“The ICC should hold itself to the highest standards. This includes ensuring a safe workplace with effective and credible mechanisms available to staff or others who experience abuse, including sexual violence or harassment,” Liz Evenson, international justice director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement to The Associated Press.

The 56-year-old Khan was accused of sexual misconduct with a female aide, as outlined by the AP in a series of stories, allegations he has steadfastly denied. According to documents seen by the AP, Khan engaged in a sexual relationship with the woman and tried to prevent her from pursuing her allegations.

The oversight body will now need to hold elections for a new prosecutor, someone who is likely to face sanctions by the Trump administration, which has already brought the force of financial penalties and travel bans on 13 members of staff, including Khan.

Khan's lawyers criticized the process leading to his ouster, complaining that he was blocked from addressing the session Friday and arguing the regulations had been rewritten to disadvantage him.

Khan's “removal was determined by a process in which he was never given a fair opportunity to be heard, and in defiance of the conclusions of the independent judges who examined the full evidential record,” attorney Tayab Ali said in a statement. He said Khan's legal team would challenge the decision “through all available legal mechanisms."

The decision comes at a time when the global tribunal is under enormous pressure.

In a statement last week, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the U.S. was launching a “sweeping campaign to dismantle the threat posed by the International Criminal Court to U.S. sovereignty.”

Rubio said he will pressure member states to withdraw from the institution, sanction organizations that work with the court and ban staff from traveling to the United States. Countries that “enjoy the benefits of the U.S. security umbrella” will be called upon to reject the court’s jurisdiction over U.S. citizens.

Hours after the vote, Venezuela announced it would withdraw from the court. “Venezuela considers that the Court’s actions reflect a demonstrated geographical bias, which has disproportionately concentrated its work on African and Latin American countries, to the detriment of the Global South,” Félix Plasencia, the country’s foreign affairs minister announced in a statement.

Earlier this year, prosecutors at the court announced they were dropping an investigation into whether U.S. sanctions against Venezuela qualified as crimes against humanity, citing a lack of evidence. A separate investigation into possible crimes committed by Venezuelan security forces under former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro will continue.

Trump’s administration already has brought sanctions against Khan and a dozen other ICC staff in retaliation for warrants the court has issued for top Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, over the war in Gaza and investigations into U.S. personnel in Afghanistan.

The allegations against Khan have become entwined with the court’s investigation into the war in Gaza, experts said.

“Political considerations have been folded into this, especially as it is the first time a prosecutor has pursued warrants against a Western ally,” Iva Vukusic, a researcher at Utrecht University who has been following the process, told the AP.

Khan's removal will have no immediate impact on the arrest warrants in 2024 for Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for crimes against humanity, which can only be withdrawn by ICC judges.

Before ending the closed session, Kaukoranta called for the international community to respect “the dignity and privacy of all those involved” in the case regarding Khan.

“I expressed my deep appreciation to the assembly of states parties for the diligent consideration of this difficult matter, and for the spirit of unity shown in upholding the integrity of the court,” she said.

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Quell reported from The Hague, Netherlands,. Amiri reported from New York.

According to the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office’s arrest report, Romo performed poorly on field sobriety tests after getting stopped while driving south on Interstate 43 on Thursday. Sheriff’s officials said Romo was taken into custody, booked and released.

He has a court appearance set for Sept. 21.

Romo went to high school about 35 miles from Milwaukee in Burlington, Wisconsin.

The 46-year-old Romo has been the lead game analyst for CBS’ NFL coverage since 2017 after making four Pro Bowl appearances during an NFL career that ran from 2004-16 and was spent entirely with Dallas.

CBS had no comment regarding the arrest.

Romo remains the Cowboys’ franchise leader in career touchdown passes with 248. He held the franchise record for career passing yards (34,183) until Dak Prescott overtook him last season.

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AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl

Firefighters and authorities in both European countries were caught off guard by the virulence of the fires, which were fueled by high temperatures and the long-term effects of climate change. Firefighters in Spain admitted the fires were so fast and violent that they could not be tackled head on. Some people even fled by boat when flames swept through the touristic area on France’s Atlantic coast.

Some 141,000 fled homes in the Gironde and Landes departments in France, the French interior ministry said. In central Spain, 60,000 were forced from their homes, according to the Spanish interior ministry.

Dozens of French firefighters were injured, authorities said, but no deaths were reported in either country despite the scenes of panic as townsfolk fled by car and police went door to door to tell people to leave as large plumes of smoke rose from the neighboring woodlands.

Wildfire headed toward Bordeaux

France’s Interior minister Laurent Nunez said that the large wildfire that ravaged large swaths of land in southwestern France in now heading toward the city of Bordeaux.

Speaking to French TV channel Tf1, Nunez said the wildfire that earlier in the day forced the evacuation of the Cap Ferret peninsula has swept across 140 square kilometers, with 110,000 people fleeing their homes in the Gironde region.

“We learned in the middle of the afternoon that, following the wind shift, it had become a large, self-sustaining fire that is extremely difficult to bring under control,” Nunez said. “It is now moving east, toward the Bordeaux metropolitan area. We are going to reorganize our response so we can fight it from the ground and prevent it from advancing toward Bordeaux.”

Meanwhile, French President Emmanuel Macron has asked the Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu to activate the government’s crisis response unit, and has instructed the armed forces to mobilize in order to provide the maximum possible reinforcement to the civilian emergency services.

“This fire that we have been living with and fighting against here in Gironde for three days has reached an unprecedented magnitude," Sophie Brocas, the Nouvelle Aquitaine Prefect, said. “To combat it, we will receive extremely significant national reinforcements.”

The blaze started on Wednesday near Cap Ferret peninsula on France’s Atlantic coast, located 60 kilometers (37 miles) from Bordeaux. Local authorities in the Gironde department said 53 homes and a campsite were destroyed, adding that 42 firefighters were injured. Around 1,500 people who fled the peninsula arrived by sea in the city of Arcachon, some aboard small water taxis and others on larger boats.

“It’s quite impressive and even frightening," said Laurent Moretti, a resident in the town of Arès. “An evacuation on this scale has never happened before. All we really hope is that the firefighters can quickly get it under control.”

A separate wildfire broke out in Landes, causing 31,000 evacuations. Authorities believe the cause of both of fires in France were accidental.

More than 20,000 people had already been evacuated from towns and vacation resorts on Thursday, but that number exploded on Friday as both France and Spain asked fellow European Union members for help.

Macron said France will receive EU reinforcements including two Croatian Canadair firefighting aircraft, two Portuguese Air Tractor aircraft, and two heavy-lift Black Hawk helicopters from the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Spanish Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska said that Italy and Greece are each sending two Canadair water-dumping airplanes, while a thousand Spanish soldiers helped firefighting efforts.

Spain struggles to tackle multiple fires amid a heatwave

In Spain, the government declared a national emergency for wildfires for the first time as the blazes in Madrid and the nearby province of Ávila prompted the evacuation of some 60,000 people from towns west of the capital.

“I want to send a message of support to the thousands of families who face a difficult night ahead,” Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, who will visit the fire-ravaged area on Saturday, wrote on X.

The fires are being fanned by a heat wave with temperatures expected to top 39 degrees Celsius (102 Fahrenheit).

Two major fires near Madrid merged into one single blaze that had quickly charred 30 square kilometers (11.5 square miles) by Friday afternoon. Regional President Isabel Díaz-Ayuso called it the worst in Madrid's history.

Francisco Martín, the central government representative for the region of Madrid, said that another 20,000 people had been ordered to shelter at home. Martín said more evacuations could be coming and that the priority now was to protect the town of San Lorenzo, the home of the Escorial, Philip II's 16th-century royal palace and monastery.

Meanwhile, a blaze in Ávila, less than two hours northwest of Madrid, consumed 90 square kilometers (34 square miles). Spain's Civil Guard arrested one man and is investigating another for allegedly having used heavy machinery in an area where it was prohibited for fire risk. Police believe a spark ignited the fire on Thursday.

“All around the town was smoke and fire, I was scared. Everything was fire and smoke, people were nervous,” 33-year-old Joaquin Espinosa said before he and his neighbors were evacuated from the village of Chapinería.

Devastating summer for fires in Spain

In one week, Spain has had the worst fires on record for both the regions of Castilla La Mancha and Madrid.

Firefighters were still trying to extinguish Spain’s second-largest ever fire in the Guadalajara province of Castilla La Mancha after it had destroyed some 320 square kilometers (120 square miles) over the last week. Thirteen people were also killed in a fire in southern Spain earlier this month, the deadliest fire in recent memory for Spain.

Spanish Minister for the Ecological Transition Sara Aagesen said that Spain has seen 1,140 square kilometers (440 square miles) already burned this year, more than five times the burned terrain it had through the first half of 2025.

Spain has experienced record temperatures in recent summers and forest fires of increasing violence.

Wildfire analyst Raúl Quílez said that besides the impact of climate change, Spain’s rural areas have become more exposed to fires with the abandonment of farmlands that traditionally provided buffer zones around villages. Now, he said, trees and undergrowth often reach right to homes, putting them in harm’s way.

"That makes a perfect cocktail for this type of fires,” Quílez told The Associated Press by phone from Valencia, where he works as an analyst for regional firefighters.

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Alicia León in Chapinería, Spain, contributed to this story. Petrequin reported from Paris. Wilson reported from Barcelona, Spain.

The San Juan County Sheriff’s Office said patients suffered head injuries, broken bones and cuts. At least five of the passengers had been discharged from hospitals, and one who was previously described as critical was in satisfactory condition Friday at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, hospital spokesperson Susan Gregg said.

The cause of the crash Thursday evening was not immediately known. It came less than three weeks after a seaplane carrying eight people made a rough landing in New York City’s East River, causing minor injuries.

Videos posted on social media show the aircraft turning to one side as it flies low over the water near several boats and the shore. The plane makes a hard landing, at first touching down on just one float, then briefly skips into the air before hitting land. The person recording the video gasps when a crunching sound is heard from the plane's impact just out of sight.

The plane was carrying a pilot and 10 passengers. It crashed at about 5:20 p.m. Thursday on Sucia Island, an uninhabited state park. Sucia is north of the main San Juan Islands, a rugged archipelago between Washington and Vancouver, British Columbia, that is a popular summer vacation spot known for its ferries, whale watching and hiking.

First responders and witnesses race to the scene

Dave Eastman was in a dinghy on the water when he saw the plane coming in. At first he was worried it was going to hit his boat, he said, but then he saw it flying low toward the island. He said there were six or seven boats in the area, including a couple of aluminum fishing boats, and everyone raced to help.

In the videos, passengers can be seen exiting the plane as black smoke rises and bright orange flames engulf the fuselage, which came to rest partially submerged against a large rock. Eastman took photos of the burning plane after those on board had been evacuated.

“It kind of just shook us up a little bit,” he said. “Knowing everyone’s OK, at least that everyone is alive at this point, that kind of helps ease the concern.”

Eastman, of Lynnwood, Washington, said Thursday started off with nice weather, but a storm with lightning hit the area around the time of the crash. It wasn’t clear if the storm played a role. Heavy rain began falling as the plane was burning, he said.

“An Urgent Marine Information Broadcast was issued to mariners in the area, and numerous good Samaritan vessels responded to assist,” the U.S. Coast Guard said in a statement Friday.

Several agencies scrambled to respond. The Coast Guard sent a helicopter while their Canadian counterparts mobilized a hovercraft, according to a recording of San Juan County dispatch audio posted by Broadcastify.

Sucia Island features a maze of coves, beaches and rocky points. The plane went down near Shallow Bay, which cuts a wide crescent into the island near a campground. Videos show several sailboats and other large pleasure boats were anchored there Thursday.

The same type of seaplane crashed near Seattle in 2022

The plane's operator said it was a DHC-3 Otter made by de Havilland Aircraft of Canada. That is the same model of floatplane as one that plunged into the waters of Puget Sound northwest of Seattle in 2022, killing 10 people.

Federal regulators ordered seaplanes to be inspected afterward, and investigators found a single component of a critical flight control system had failed.

The plane that crashed Thursday was operated by Kenmore Air, a tourism airline based near Seattle, which is a different company than the one involved in the 2022 crash. Founded in 1946, Kenmore Air bills itself as the largest seaplane operator in the U.S.

The Otter is a workhorse seaplane model that has been used widely for decades, aviation safety expert John Cox said.

The cause of the crash will be investigated

The NTSB may be able to quickly get an idea of what happened because investigators will be able to interview the pilot and witnesses and watch videos of the crash, Cox said.

The National Transportation Safety Board said the wreckage of the seaplane was expected to be recovered Friday and moved to a secure location where investigators can examine it. The agency will publish a preliminary report in about a month, but the final report identifying the cause likely won’t be done for a year or more.

In a statement, the airline said it would not speculate about why the plane went down. According to the flight tracking website Flightradar24, the seaplane made an abrupt 180-degree turn about three minutes before the crash, heading back toward Sucia Island, which it had just passed on its path west.

“We are grateful that everyone aboard has been accounted for,” Kenmore CEO David Gudgel said. He said the company canceled all scheduled flights for Friday and was cooperating with investigators.

The aircraft took off from Lake Union in Seattle, which is about 80 miles (130 kilometers) south of Sucia Island, and was headed to Roche Harbor, the site of a historic hotel, marina and resort on San Juan Island.

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McCormack reported from Concord, New Hampshire, and Collins reported from Hartford, Connecticut. Associated Press transportation reporter Josh Funk in Omaha, Nebraska, contributed to this report.

The decision by the Democratic National Committee’s Rules and Bylaws Committee will need to be approved by the full organization, which is scheduled to meet in August.

Nevada is expected to follow South Carolina, with New Hampshire, New Mexico, Michigan and Virginia rounding out the early-state calendar. Those states will wield outsized influence in the nominating contest before Super Tuesday, when voters across a large group of states cast presidential primary ballots.

“This calendar will battle test our candidates, ensure our nominee can appeal to broad swaths of the electorate and this calendar will allow voters, not money, but voters to be the ultimate decider,” DNC Chair Ken Martin said after the vote.

The overhaul reflects Democrats’ effort to give greater influence to states that better mirror the party’s diverse coalition, particularly Black and Latino voters, after years of a calendar led by Iowa and New Hampshire, two states with overwhelmingly white electorates.

But hopes of emerging from Friday’s meeting with a party unified around one map were dashed by anger from states that had previously led the process. Rita Hart, chair of the Iowa Democratic Party, said she was disappointed but not surprised by Friday’s calendar vote, which she called “very messy” and a sign that the national party is “out of touch with voters.”

There was more angst in New Hampshire, where the secretary of state is required by law to schedule its presidential primary at least seven days before any other state holds a similar contest, setting up a potential conflict with the DNC calendar.

“The Democratic National Committee’s decision today is wrong for Democrats, wrong for New Hampshire, and wrong for the country,” said a group of congressional leaders in New Hampshire, including Sens. Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan.

Democrats elevate more diverse states

Democrats opted to lead with South Carolina after President Joe Biden successfully pushed to move the state to the front of Democrats’ 2024 calendar after the state revived his struggling 2020 presidential campaign. South Carolina has long been the first Southern contest and has served as a key test of candidates’ support among Black voters.

Jaime Harrison, a former DNC chair in attendance Friday, told The Associated Press after the vote that keeping his home state first on Democrats’ nominating calendar signaled to Black voters the value they bring to the party, especially after a Supreme Court decision aimed at weakening their voting power.

“I think we needed a strong statement to say to the most loyal members of our party, which are Black voters, that we’re going to stand up with you,” said Harrison, who also chaired South Carolina's Democratic Party. “It was just really important for us to stand up and say, ’We see you, we hear you, but most importantly, we’re gonna fight like hell for you. And your voices are important.'”

Much of Friday's debate stood as a contrast on several fronts. South Carolina proponents argued they had the experience to stand up a lead-off primary, and served as a showcase for the Black voters whose support has become vital for Democrats.

“Black voters didn't just show up for this party in 2020. They saved us,” Nebraska Democratic Party Chair Jane Kleeb said, in making her argument for South Carolina. "They saved our entire country from Donald Trump.”

Nevada's supporters, meanwhile, portrayed their state as the party's future, in which they argued Latino voters play a larger and larger role.

“We are the battleground state," said Artie Blanco of Nevada, a DNC vice chair. "We win elections because we leave no voter untouched.”

Republicans still need to do their calendar. They’re expected to stick with their traditional early-state lineup led off by Iowa and New Hampshire.

Anger emerges from states that are not selected

Iowa has long led both parties' calendars with caucuses. Hart declined to say whether Iowa Democrats will defy the national party in 2028. She said they will wait until after the state’s midterm races when Democrats hope to make recently unattainable gains in the increasingly conservative state.

“We’re going to win elections here, and then we’re going to tell them what we’re going to do,” said Scott Brennan, who formerly represented Iowa on the DNC’s Rules and Bylaws Committee.

New Hampshire Democrats similarly would not commit Friday to following the new calendar.

“This committee’s vote does not change the realities governing New Hampshire’s primary, which are beyond the control of both this committee and our state party,” said New Hampshire Democratic Party Chair Ray Buckley.

Asked about some states not committing to the new calendar, Martin said the party will “have to cross that bridge when we get there.”

“We got some time, and the calendar was just set here,” said Martin.

The new map will shape the opening stage of what is expected to be a crowded Democratic presidential primary. Without an incumbent or clear front-runner, the states that vote first could once again play an outsized role in determining which candidates gain momentum, attract donors and emerge as viable contenders.

The calendar decision is one of the first milestones in what's expected to be a tumultuous two-year sprint to the Democratic nomination.

There has not been a truly open Democratic presidential primary — without an incumbent president or a dominant front-runner — in almost two decades.

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Holly Ramer in Concord, N.H., and Hannah Fingerhut in Des Moines, Iowa, contributed reporting.

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Kinnard reported from Columbia, S.C., and can be reached at http://x.com/MegKinnardAP

Whitmer remains popular in the battleground state, where she has twice won by substantial margins, and her endorsement gives Stevens a significant boost a day before early in-person voting begins. Whitmer also has history with El-Sayed, whom she defeated in the 2018 Democratic primary for governor.

“As governor, I have one strategy: Get things done,” Whitmer said in a video posted on X. “Just like me, Haley will do whatever it takes to get things done for the people of Michigan.”

Later Friday, Whitmer was also expected to attend a campaign event in Detroit with Stevens and South Carolina Rep. Jim Clyburn.

Stevens has pitched herself as a Democrat who has won tough elections, including flipping a Republican-held House seat. She has been backed by Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer and Michigan Sen. Gary Peters, a two-term Democrat who is retiring from the seat.

She's in a tight race for the Democratic nomination against El-Sayed, a progressive whose supporters include Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen.

“The corporate establishment has closed ranks and made their pick – now, Michigan voters will get to make theirs,” said Roxie Richner, a spokesperson for El-Sayed.

The winner of the Aug. 4 primary will face Republican former Rep. Mike Rogers in November for a critical, battleground Senate seat. Democrats are hoping to flip the Senate in November, and Michigan remains a key part of their plan.

Stevens is a four-term congresswoman from the Detroit area. Her candidacy has benefited from tens of millions in spending by outside political groups, including nearly $30 million from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which supports pro-Israel candidates.

El-Sayed, who accuses Israel of committing genocide in Gaza, has criticized Stevens for taking money from AIPAC.

Whitmer is a two-term governor who isn’t on the ballot this fall, though she has been mentioned as a possible 2028 presidential candidate. She is the best-known politician in Michigan.

Whitmer had long weighed the decision. Stevens’ success winning in a competitive district, including converting the GOP-held seat for Democrats in 2018, was among the factors in the endorsement, according to a person who was familiar with the governor’s deliberations but was not authorized to discuss private conversations and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Miles, 17, of Knoxville, Tennessee, is one of more than 500 incoming first-year students at Howard who learned this week that they have been unenrolled from the prestigious, historically Black Washington, D.C., university and no longer have spots for the upcoming fall semester that begins Aug. 17.

Many have taken to social media — some in tears — to share their stories. Some posts have gone viral.

After Miles learned she had been unenrolled, her mother, Kendra Miles, said the school's automated system would not allow the family to enroll in a payment plan because the amount that was owed made them ineligible to sign up.

“I’ve reached out since we got the email (Wednesday). I've emailed, literally, everybody," Kendra Miles said. “I emailed her adviser. He responded and said it wasn't a mistake and there was nothing they could do.”

On Friday, Howard confirmed in an email that the school sent notifications to “502 first-time-in-college students whose accounts did not reflect the required enrollment and financial obligations by the previously communicated deadlines."

Starting in March, the unenrolled students began receiving specific communications about enrollment requirements, payment expectations and deadlines via email and orientation sessions, the school said.

“The university recognizes that timing differences may have occurred between when financial aid was reflected and when charges were finalized,” Howard said in the email. “Students who believe their account did not accurately reflect their financial standing at the deadline should contact the Bursar’s Office. Each case will be reviewed individually to determine whether adjustments or reinstatement are appropriate.”

Howard, one of about 100 historically Black colleges and universities in the United States, had an undergraduate enrollment last fall of about 11,000. The average annual tuition for undergraduate students living on campus is about $38,000. Housing costs are about $13,600.

Laverne Mickens coaches students and their families on how to apply for college scholarships. Mickens said that she answered more than 400 emails Wednesday and Thursday from students and families impacted by the enrollment situation at Howard. She said most of them were strangers and they were “frantic and crying.”

“People are devastated,” said Mickens who runs The Scholarship College Mama LLC, which is not affiliated with Howard. “Parents are saying: ‘Can you help us? Howard unenrolled us.’ ”

A'Zariah Miles, who plans to major in biology, chose Howard over other schools that accepted her. Now, she is worried that it is too deep into the summer to enroll elsewhere.

“Everybody’s housing is booked, or I can’t enroll because it’s too late or I missed orientation,” she said. “I've been trying to continue to have hope with Howard, but I don't really have that much time before school starts and I don't really want to have a gap year.”

Like Miles and others, Saniah Collins learned Wednesday that she no longer was enrolled at Howard.

“My mom is part of a parent group chat,” said Collins, 17, of Atlanta. “That day we learned that a lot of students were getting unenrolled."

Collins received an email from the school Wednesday afternoon that said a July 10 deadline to pay her tuition balance or make payment arrangements had passed and the school no longer could hold her place.

But Collins said she was also told by an adviser that most of her balance for the fall semester was paid. She's not giving up.

“I worked like crazy to get into this school,” Collins said. “Howard has been my everything. My whole senior year, my whole summer I worked consistently on scholarships. We tried to make ourselves 10 steps ahead to make sure we were on the right page.”

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Williams is as member of AP’s Race & Ethnicity team. He reported from Detroit.

Clark called her conversation with Obama “a moment I’ll probably remember for the rest of my life.”

“It was obviously super cool. He just complimented me for the way that I handle everything, obviously with everything that’s been going on,” the Indiana Fever star said Friday after meeting Obama. “He’s somebody that has been in front of the media quite a bit and he reminded me, ‘When I got famous in my 40s, I didn’t have to do it in my 20s.’"

Obama spoke to the players for a few minutes on the basketball court at the center which opened last month.

“Some of you I’m meeting for the first time. All of you are extraordinary and I could not be bigger fans,” Obama said. “The way the game has been growing lately, the way it’s been picking up and people paying attention to your excellence, I think it’s been something for basketball fans, generally, a sight to see. It’s been making me happy.”

He spoke to the players for a few minutes before taking a group photo. Obama then spent about 10 minutes shaking hands with the players and taking photos with them, including Clark.

“I know many of you are involved in some wonderful ventures off the court, looking out for other young people and inspiring them. I just wanted to say thanks,” Obama said.

The former president gave a shout out to A’ja Wilson in his talk to the players and then went over and chatted with her as well.

After the photo-ops were done, Obama stepped on the court and talked with New York Liberty star Jonquel Jones, getting down in a defensive stance for a few seconds on her.

“I feel like as a hooper, you know when someone’s challenging you. So I was just like, let me go over there with the basketball, you know, do a little cross, bump him a little bit," Jones said. “And I knew that I would get him activated a little because he’s a hooper, too.”

Jones said she had met Obama once before.

“He’s a role model for me and it was nice to be able to have that moment,” Jones said. “Someone that I look up to, someone that has paved the way for a lot of people to be here and see him continuing, his family continuing to give back to the community when they’ve already done so much is just so inspirational.”

That was the extent of his time on the court. He told the players that he didn’t play 5-on-5 anymore to protect his Achilles. He did say that he broke in the court with a game of “horse.”

Obama was the first sitting U.S. President to attend a WNBA game when he and his daughter, Sasha, sat courtside in 2010 for a Washington Mystics game. He also has hosted many of them at the White House after they either won WNBA championships or NCAA titles.

Obama was gifted with a No. 44 WNBA All-Star jersey that the players were going to autograph later.

This was the first professional sport to use the basketball court at the center, which opened in June. Obama went to the NBA All-Star Game in Los Angeles in February. Obama said he unfortunately wasn’t going to be able to make the All-Star Game on Saturday because of a previous engagement with his wife, Michelle.

“It’s fitting for our 30th anniversary that we’re here as the first sports league to play in the Obama Presidential Center,” WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert said. “Someone who has inspired hundreds of millions of people to dream big and accomplish things like President Obama has and his tie to basketball is amazing, too. I think there’s no more fitting person to be meeting with the players.”

After talking to the players, Obama went across the center to talk to a group of investors in the league and nearly 100 high school girls to talk.

___

AP WNBA: https://apnews.com/hub/wnba-basketball

Produced by environmental scientists, the report — which the state for more than six months had refused to release — said regulators should have more authority to reject industrial water withdrawal permits, force entities to examine alternative sources of water and clamp down on users who might be using more water than they should be.

The report noted limits around publicly available information on data center water use but did not lay blame with the industry for the concerns raised about the aquifer.

The groundwater supply in Virginia’s populous eastern coastal plain region “is constrained, and current projections indicate declining availability in the near future,” said the report, which Democratic Gov. Abigail Spanberger’s office provided to The Associated Press Thursday.

Data centers use water, sometimes in large amounts, to cool their servers. Worries about data centers' impact on the quality and supply of both ground and surface water — and about tech companies’ failures to be as transparent as the public would like — have dogged projects around the country. The issues have become politically explosive heading into the midterm elections.

Perhaps nowhere are those topics more resonant than in Virginia, home to hundreds of data centers with more under development and where the sustainability of groundwater, the supply stored naturally under the earth's surface, in the coastal eastern region has been a long-running concern.

A wide range of interest groups had begun to publicly admonish the governor's administration for withholding the report; those reviewing it Friday said its findings were sobering.

“We’re standing on the ledge,” said Jay Ford, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s Virginia policy manager.

Report says lawmakers should tighten regulations

Virginia enacted its first groundwater law in 1973, but legislators acknowledged it was “too permissive” and tightened it in 1992, the report said. The law remains in effect, but the report warns it should be strengthened again.

State Sen. Richard Stuart, a conservative Republican who represents Virginia’s coastal Northern Neck region and has made conservation a cornerstone of his legislative work, said he's been making noise about the issue for at least 15 years. Increasingly, local governments in his district are being told by regulators that they will have to shift to new surface water sources because of the strain on groundwater.

He said the water crunch is happening at the same time as many new data centers are coming online across his district. He wanted more specifics, so he passed a bill requiring the study.

The report found that groundwater withdrawals in the region fell sharply roughly 15 years ago after a paper mill closed, which, along with regulatory efforts, helped water levels rise in the area’s biggest aquifer. Recently, those trends stalled, and levels throughout the aquifer are projected to resume declining, it said.

There likely isn’t enough groundwater to sustainably add any big, new industrial user, according to the study.

The report suggests the Legislature strengthen regulators' permitting authority; require applicants who want to tap large volumes of groundwater first examine surface water or water reuse; require better planning for local water use; and beef up funding for water management staffing and equipment.

Lawmakers should also weigh in on how they want regulators to prioritize drinking water for the public with current law, which directs them to consider protecting current uses.

Stuart said Friday that while he was still processing the more than 100-page report, its summary findings were worrisome, though they will help lawmakers make tough decisions moving forward.

“Folks worry about the lack of the ability for growth. A lot of them are talking about industrial and commercial. I’m worried about our citizens having drinking water, and I’m worried about our seafood industry because they need clean water,” he said.

Data centers would struggle to get a groundwater permit, study finds

The report said most existing and planned data center capacity is located in public water supply service areas that mostly draw from surface water. But it went on to note that no comprehensive public data exists about groundwater-sourced water withdrawals from the facilities.

While it’s also not clear exactly how many data centers are under development in the state’s eastern region, 371 are in operation across the state and another 438 are planned, according to Cleanview, a company that tracks data centers and other power infrastructure development.

The report’s authors performed an analysis to evaluate what hypothetical water withdrawals from a data center would look like and whether they could be permitted.

“Under current conditions, it appears unlikely that a data center with evaporative cooling technology (or any comparable water user) would find a reliable, sufficient groundwater supply anywhere” in the region, the report said.

Groundwater management and quality as more data centers come online has also been a concern in states including Texas, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Georgia and South Carolina.

Administration initially blocked the report's release, but Spanberger says she will act on it

The state’s delay in issuing the report had raised transparency concerns and questions about its contents, partly because of its connection to data centers.

A wide range of advocacy organizations and a committee that advises state regulators on eastern Virginia groundwater issues had begun to raise concerns in June and July about why the report due in January had not yet been made public. Stuart said he had not been able to obtain a copy of it.

The AP sought the report under an open records request, and the Department of Environmental Quality withheld it. After AP requested comment for a story about the refusal to release the report, the governor’s office provided a copy late Thursday night.

Jack Bledsoe, a spokesperson for Spanberger, who took office in January, attributed delays in the report's release to a backlog of outstanding items from the previous governor's administration.

“This report represents the most comprehensive analysis of groundwater resources conducted in Virginia history. Governor Spanberger is committed to working with the General Assembly to carefully evaluate its findings, strengthen the Commonwealth’s groundwater management policies, and protect Virginia’s water supply for future generations,” Bledsoe said.

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Associated Press reporters Michael Phillis in Washington and Marc Levy in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, contributed to this report.

Mahomes said Friday he visited earlier this week with Dr. Dan Cooper, the Dallas-based orthopedic surgeon who performed the operation, and that he met all the benchmarks necessary to report to Missouri Western State University on time.

The Chiefs begin practice Saturday for rookies, quarterbacks and players coming off injuries. Full-squad work begins next week.

None of those players is more important than Mahomes, who hurt his knee late in a loss to the Chargers in December. He underwent surgery immediately afterward, and rather than spend the offseason at his Texas home like usual, Mahomes toiled away at the Chiefs' practice facility, pushing forward with his rehab so he would be ready to go by the late-July start of camp.

“It was always the goal to be able to practice when I got to training camp. We kind of hit that step," Mahomes said. “Now, it's about building and keep getting better and better, so when the regular season comes around, I can be available.”

Chiefs coach Andy Reid said Mahomes was fully cleared — no limitations at all — but that he would evaluate the cornerstone of the franchise on a daily basis. Whether he participates in any of the Chiefs' preseason games remains to be seen.

The preseason opener against the Rams is Aug. 15. But the far more important date is Sept. 14, when the Chiefs welcome the AFC West-champion Broncos to Arrowhead Stadium for a marquee Monday night showdown in Week 1.

“We'll see about games and all that once we get there,” Reid said, “but right now, we're just taking it day by day.”

Mahomes, who signed a lucrative restructured contract in June that will tie him to the Chiefs through the 2033 season, plans to wear a brace on his left knee, much like he did while recovering from an injury in college, in part because it doesn't really bother him.

But other than that, he plans to participate in camp just like he has for the past decade.

“Like, I'm a competitor,” Mahomes said, “so gameday, I'm going to want to be out there. But I understand the process of getting myself ready to play in the regular season is more important (than the preseason). But we'll see. I mean, the coaches and doctors will kind of make that decision for me, but I'll prepare myself like I'm going to play. And then if I'm just doing a very hard warmup, I'll take that as serious as playing in the preseason game. It's just a couple of weeks away, but it feels like a long ways away.”

Not nearly as long as it probably felt in December, when Mahomes was rehabbing largely by himself. He got some advice from Tom Brady and former teammate Tyrann Mathieu, who overcame similar injuries in their careers, about how to proceed, and then he found an unexpected virtual workout buddy in Eagles tight end Zach Ertz.

Ertz also tore his ACL last December, and the two would send each other videos of themselves doing deadlifts, sprints and agility, each trying to upstage the other as they progressed through the long, difficult days of the rehab process.

“They all said, ‘Stay on top of it,’” Mahomes said. “I mean, it's a long process. I remember sitting on the table and watching us play those last few games, how much it hurt me. But I knew that if I continue to work, I can be at this spot where I get cleared for practice, and now I'm trying to get to that spot where I'm cleared to play for the regular season.”

Notes: DT Omarr Norman-Lott is likely to begin camp on the physically unable-to-perform list after tearing his right ACL in October, Reid said. “Big guys with ACLs, it takes a little time to come back," he said. ... WR Rashee Rice was cleared to practice after surgery in May to clean up debris in his right knee. ... CB Mansoor Delane, the Chiefs' first-round pick, was undergoing physicals Friday and Reid is hopeful that he will be on the practice field soon. He hurt his shoulder during offseason workouts.

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AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl

Akers now faces three misdemeanor charges that include simple assault, battery, and making verbal threats, following his arrest Thursday. He bonded out of custody shortly after his arrest.

The video, recorded Monday in Jacksonville’s San Jose neighborhood, has been seen more than one million times across social media platforms.

Tynika Munn, known to many as Ty, is the woman behind the camera in that video. She spoke to News4JAX Reporter Ashley French on Thursday and says the charges against Akers feel insufficient.

“I just don’t think it’s right. I don’t think it is fair,” Munn said.

Munn says the incident began when she pulled into Akers’ driveway to pick up a friend, invited by the woman she was there to get. She says Akers never approached her to ask her to move. Instead, she says he escalated immediately.

“The man actually got into his car, revved it up, and forced me to back out of the driveway. Then he parks to the side and approaches me,” Munn said.

Munn says she called 911 during the encounter and waited nearly 40 minutes for officers to arrive. She says no one ever showed up.

“I reached out at about seven o’clock, and they said they were going to send an officer to my address,” Munn said. “I sat at home and waited for them to come. They never came.”

In an email response to News4JAX, a JSO spokesperson wrote:

“An officer did respond to the call, contacted Ms. Munn, and Ms. Munn advised she had left the home to run an errand and would call back when she returned to the home to report the incident. I do not see that a return call was made later in the day.”

Munn disputes that account. After the video went viral, JSO says it became aware of the incident and launched an investigation. Officers interviewed Munn on Thursday morning, three days after the incident — and Akers was arrested later that Thursday, July 23rd.

JSO also confirmed it had prior contact with Akers on several separate occasions, none of which resulted in an arrest.

Akers bonded out of custody on a $1,300 bond. His next court date has not yet been set.

Munn says the three misdemeanor charges don’t go far enough, and believes the incident should be considered a hate crime.

“He got three charges that mean nothing — just for him to go back and do the same, repeat the same character,” Munn said. “That’s a combination where it should have been taken into higher consideration for an enhancement of a hate crime.”

News4JAX reached out to Gene Nichols, an attorney with Nichols and Pina law firm — who is not associated with this case but gave his perspective on the charges and what the State Attorney’s Office could do next.

“What I see here is a crime that was committed — figuring out from a defense standpoint why,” Nichols said. “And that will dictate a little bit about whether or not they try and enhance under the hate crime statute.”

Nichols offered this advice to Munn directly.

“If I was speaking to her, I would tell her — be patient. Give them the chance to do their job. But it’s going to take some time.”

JSO says its investigation has concluded with Akers’ arrest. The case now moves to the State Attorney’s Office, which will determine whether any charges are enhanced or additional charges are filed.

Akers’ next court date has not yet been scheduled. News4JAX will continue to follow this case.

Every major index lost ground overall for the week amid increasing pressure from a sharp escalation in the U.S. war with Iran. Investors are also contending with new tariffs from the Trump administration and worries about the economy suffering under the weight of stubborn inflation.

The S&P 500 barely budged in a day of uneventful trading. It rose 3.68 points, or less than 0.1%, to 7,411.98. The index notched its second consecutive losing week, which hasn't happened since March.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 235.60 points, or 0.5%, to 51,947.25.

The Nasdaq fell 161.87 points, or 0.6%, to 24,975.82. It was weighed down by sharp losses from several big tech stocks.

Micron Technology fell 7% and Broadcom fell 2.7%. Both companies have large market values that tend to weigh more heavily on the market. They were big reasons for the technology-heavy Nasdaq lagging the market, and also why the market's gains were kept in check despite more stocks rising than falling within the S&P 500.

Heavy fighting in the Middle East throughout the week again threatened to slow the global flow of oil and gas. It has been an ongoing concern for Wall Street, and now many of the buffers in the energy market from earlier in the year, including strategic reserves in the U.S., have been weakened.

“If escalation continues and the Strait of Hormuz remains closed, the impact will land on an energy market with far less resilience than in the spring,” wrote Theodore Bunzel, head of geopolitical advisory at Lazard Asset Management, in a report.

Brent crude, the international standard, fell 3.9% to $96.78. It rose the first four days of the week and moved back above $100 on Thursday. Before the Iran war began in late February it was trading around $72 per barrel.

Bond yields also eased and relieved some of the pressure on stocks. The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.68% from 4.71% late Thursday.

Markets in Europe gained ground, while Asian markets closed lower.

The U.S. is also ramping up its global trade war with a fresh round of tariffs on dozens of nations. The new round of tariffs impacts nearly all U.S. imports and they are paid by companies importing those goods, who then typically pass the added costs along to consumers. That move came just as the clock was running out Friday on stopgap levies the president imposed after a stinging defeat for other tariffs at the Supreme Court.

Rising energy prices and fresh tariffs could result in hotter inflation, which has been squeezing consumers and looming over the Federal Reserve’s interest rate policy.

The Fed meets next week and has been closely monitoring prices and their impact. Rising inflation dashed hopes earlier this year for an interest rate cut. Wall Street has since leaned more toward a potential rate increase, which the central bank can use to help cool inflation.

Wall Street is anticipating at least one rate hike by the end of the year, with a nearly 38% chance that could happen at the upcoming meeting next week, according to CME FedWatch.

Higher energy costs threaten to take a bigger chunk out of household budgets, which means a shift in spending toward more basic needs, like gasoline. Nationally, a gallon of gasoline costs $4.10 per gallon, according to AAA. That’s still lower than this spring as the conflict in Iran expanded, but it’s almost a dollar higher than last year at this time.

Investors are worried about the impact to companies profits. Those profits and expectations for more growth are what typically justifies a stock's value. The latest round of corporate earnings showed that companies are still notching growth, but concerns are growing.

American Express fell 4.3% despite reporting a jump in profit during its most recent quarter. AmEx maintained its profit forecast for the year and has been spending more heavily to keep wealthy individuals amid more competition.

Worries about the sustainability of broader profits are on top of lingering concerns about AI-focused tech companies. Companies like Alphabet and Nvidia have been spending heavily on AI technology. Investors are increasingly questioning whether those investments will produce profits to justify the large stock values that have been steering the broader market higher throughout the year.

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AP Business Writers Elaine Kurtenbach and Matt Ott contributed to this report.

Thomas Goldstein, who also published a popular blog about the nation's highest court, had asked U.S. District Judge Lydia Kay Griggsby to spare him from a prison sentence. Instead, the judge sentenced Goldstein to five years of supervised release after his prison term and ordered him to pay over $3.1 million in restitution, according to a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Maryland.

Goldstein, 56, of Chevy Chase, Maryland, co-founded SCOTUSblog and argued over 40 cases before the Supreme Court before retiring in 2023 at age 52. He was a member of Democrat Al Gore's legal team in the Supreme Court litigation over the 2000 election ultimately won by Republican President George W. Bush.

Many friends and colleagues didn’t know the extent of Goldstein’s gambling until his January 2025 indictment, which sent shock waves through the legal community in Washington, D.C.

A jury found Goldstein guilty of 12 of 16 counts, including eight felonies, after a six-week trial that ended in February. Jurors convicted him of one count of tax evasion, four counts of aiding and assisting in the preparation of false tax returns, four counts of willfully failing to pay taxes and three counts of mortgage fraud.

The trial in Greenbelt, Maryland, included testimony by “Spider-Man” star Tobey Maguire, an avid poker player who enlisted Goldstein’s help in recovering a gambling debt from a billionaire.

Prosecutors recommended a prison sentence of just over eight years for Goldstein. They say he concealed more than $25 million in income between 2016 and 2023, depriving the federal government of over $9.5 million in unpaid taxes.

“His motivation was singular: pure, unrelenting greed,” prosecutors wrote. “Whether funneling gambling income through offshore bank accounts, shaving millions off his true law firm income, or lying to his lenders, Goldstein’s crimes always sought to advance and maintain his exorbitant lifestyle, replete with Bentleys, globe-trotting vacations, and a $200,000 watch.”

Goldstein's attorneys argued that sparing him from prison would allow him to repay debts and address his severe addiction to gambling. He maintains that his conduct, while self-destructive, wasn't illegal.

“He should be retiring with significant life savings or, if he wanted to, continuing to practice law at the highest levels," defense lawyers wrote. "Instead, he has spent many years gambling with money he didn’t have, and gambling away money that he won, to the detriment of himself and his loved ones.”

Prosecutors say Goldstein diverted money from his law firm to pay gambling debts and falsely deducting gambling debts as business expenses. Goldstein also was accused of lying to IRS agents and hiding his gambling debts from his accountants, employees and mortgage lenders. He omitted a $15 million gambling debt from mortgage loan applications while looking for a new home in Washington, D.C., with his wife in 2021, his indictment alleges.

Goldstein, who testified at his trial, said he repeatedly instructed his law firm’s staff and accountants to correctly characterize his personal expenses. In a 2014 email, he told a firm employee that “we always play completely by the rules.”

Goldstein spent years gambling money he didn’t have, his lawyers say.

“He is not wealthy enough to sustain the losses of the billionaires he has played against, and he is not good enough at poker to win at the rate of professionals,” they wrote.

Prosecutors say Goldstein's crimes were motivated by “pure, uninhibited greed” and his “obvious disdain for the tax system.”

“We can and should expect more from every attorney and officer of the court — let alone one of Goldstein’s status,” they wrote.

The update comes after the News4JAX I-TEAM began asking questions about the case, which gained widespread attention after Jacksonville resident Rhiannon Alvarez shared her experience in a TikTok video viewed tens of thousands of times.

Alvarez told News4JAX she was shopping for home decor when she noticed a man following her through the store. She said she later realized he was sexually gratifying himself while watching her.

After alerting store employees, Alvarez recorded the man’s license plate and called the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office.

She said officers arrived about three hours later and told her there was nothing they could do. Although she said the responding officer reviewed the store’s surveillance video, she was told no charged could be filed.

When the I-TEAM initially requested a copy of the incident report, JSO responded that no records existed but confirmed the agency had received a call about the incident.

After News4JAX contacted the sheriff’s office with additional questions, the agency said detectives are now reviewing the case.

“I can tell you that our detectives are actively looking into this case, so they’re currently unable to provide any updates at this time,” a JSO spokesperson said in a statement.

It is unclear what prompted the detective review or whether the investigation could result in arrest or criminal charges.

In the original interview with News4JAX, Alvarez questioned why the alleged conduct did not violate Florida law.

“I feel like that’s just as much a crime as anything else,” she said. “I don’t understand how it doesn’t fall under public indecency or lewd and lascivious conduct.”

The I-TEAM found that under Florida law, simply touching oneself in public is not automatically a crime. Florida’s exposure statute generally requires a person to expose their sexual organs in a vulgar or indecent manner. Depending on the facts of a case, prosecutors may have limited charging options if no exposure occurred.

Alvarez’s TikTok video has since generated hundreds of comments from women describing similar encounters, prompting calls for lawmakers to examine whether Florida law adequately addresses incidents like the one she described.

HomeGoods previously provided the following statement to News4JAX:

“At HomeGoods, we take the security of our customers and Associates very seriously. We are aware of this matter and have cooperated with the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office. We will continue to assist law enforcement as appropriate and respectfully defer further comment to the authorities.”

The I-TEAM will continue to follow the investigation and update this story as more information becomes available.

“They not only tackled him, not only tased him, not only kicked him, but you saw they shot him three times in his head and other parts of his body,” Crump said.

He spoke at an emotional news conference that took place in the state Capitol, less than 2 miles (3.2 km) from where Ruiz was killed.

“He was my love. He loved his daughter, he loved his family. He did not deserve to be taken out like that. They took my baby from me,” his mother Elsa Ruiz said, breaking down in tears. She said she never imagined she would be burying her son, who was 38.

Police say Ruiz pulled a knife during a struggle with four officers, injuring one of them. That officer then fired the shots, according to police. The officer has not yet been identified.

All four officers have been placed on administrative leave pending a state investigation. A separate investigation by the city’s independent police monitor is also underway.

Ruiz died just a couple of blocks from his 13-year-old daughter’s home, and she will have to walk past that spot every time she goes to school, her mother Marjorie Ann Aliomar said.

Kah’liyah Ruiz cried as she described learning of her father’s death.

“My heart was broken and hurt so much knowing I can’t see my father any more,” she said.

“People are saying he’s a criminal. So what? He had a family, he had me,” his daughter said, breaking down into tears.

The family promised to seek justice for Ruiz’s death and were accompanied by Crump, who called the shooting an unjustified “execution.”

“Anytime there is excessive use of force, there should be accountability,” Crump said. He said it was “shocking on every level.”

The shooting was captured on cellphone video that was widely shared online, though Madison Police Chief John Patterson cautioned Thursday that the video did not show the altercation from the police officers’ perspective.

But unlike nearly every other similarly sized city, Madison doesn’t require its police to use body-worn cameras, so there is no footage from the officers’ perspective.

“Thank God there was video,” Crump said. “If there wasn’t video, imagine what the narrative would have been.”

The 98 people had illnesses that started between Nov. 21 and June 30, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. No deaths have been reported, but 26 people have been hospitalized.

Investigators have determined that shell eggs recalled by Midwest Poultry Services are a likely source of the germ, but the Indiana-based company doesn’t account for all the illnesses.

Midwest Poultry previously recalled eggs produced and distributed from farms in Texas between June 6 and July 3. The eggs were sold under several brand names and have sell-by or best-by dates between July 20 and Aug. 17.

Among the stores that received the recalled eggs were Kroger stores in Texas and Louisiana and Brookshire Grocery stores in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico and Mississippi.

Samples collected by Midwest Poultry at farms in Texas tested positive for salmonella, and genetic testing showed that some samples match the bacteria strain that sickened people, federal officials said.

Consumers should check their refrigerators for recalled eggs and throw them away or return them to stores for a refund.

Symptoms of salmonella poisoning include diarrhea, fever, severe vomiting, dehydration and stomach cramps. Most people who get sick recover within a week. Infections can be severe in young children, older adults and people with weakened immune systems, who may require hospitalization.

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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.

U.N. member nations rejected a U.S. proposal to delay the vote until the end of next week as well as a Russian proposal to extend Türk’s term just until the end of the year. The vote in the 193-member General Assembly to reappoint Türk was 144-10, with 13 abstentions.

While he got strong support, the votes and speeches also reflected concern that Secretary-General António Guterres quietly nominated the Austrian lawyer this month after private consultations, with no public discussion, as the U.N. chief nears the end of his own 10-year tenure.

Türk's job as the U.N. rights chief, by its nature, is tricky: It requires speaking out against rights violations by the governments of the countries that make up the membership of the world body. For instance, Türk has sharply criticized Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Türk got wide support but loud pushback from the U.S. and Israel

Türk, whose term was supposed to expire on Oct. 11, has faced opposition from critics and some countries for his criticism of Israel’s attacks in Gaza and his approach to China’s crackdown on its Uyghur minority.

Russia called Guterres’ effort to give Türk four more years as U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights “unprecedented.” None of his predecessors have served two full terms since the job was created in 1993.

Russia's extension proposal would have left the choice of a new human rights chief to the next secretary-general, with Guterres’ second five-year term ending Dec. 31. Six candidates are vying to be the new U.N. chief.

Guterres sent letters to regional groups at the United Nations earlier this month informing them of his intention to reappoint Türk. The African group had no objection, but the Latin American countries had several, including Nicaragua, Argentina and Paraguay.

The U.S. State Department called the rushed vote “another example of the U.N.’s inherent corruption and incompetence.”

“Volker Turk has turned a blind eye to real atrocities and instead pursued a radical ideological agenda,” the department said. “We will not allow the UN Secretary-General (SYG) to reward his crony with a cushy job extension he has done nothing to earn.”

Israel's Foreign Ministry called Guterres' action to get a second term for Türk the U.N. secretary-general's “latest moral failure,” saying on social media that the choice should be left to his successor.

“After years of bias against Israel, the answer is accountability — not rewriting the rules,” the ministry said.

Guterres is ‘following the rules’ on the reappointment, UN says

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric says Guterres was following the 1993 resolution that established a U.N. high commissioner for human rights and allows for a second term.

“The secretary-general is doing things in a very transparent manner, following the rules and his authority,” Dujarric told reporters earlier Friday. “Consultations were had with member states prior to this and with regional groups.”

Türk “is ready to serve” a new term, rights office spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani said. She noted the job calls for the “promotion and protection of human rights everywhere, and as a part of this, he sees it as his role to engage with all states.”

As human rights chief, the longtime U.N. functionary who worked for Guterres at United Nations headquarters in New York, Türk has expressed concerns on issues in China as diverse as the fate of detained individuals — like artist Gao Zhen, lawyer Yu Wensheng and media mogul Jimmy Lai — and counterterrorism and assimilation practices that affect ethnic minorities including the Uyghurs in the regions of Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia and Tibet.

Critics insist he could have done more to publicly follow up on a report issued by his predecessor, former Chilean President Michelle Bachelet, that said China’s discriminatory detention of Uyghurs and other mostly Muslim ethnic groups in Xinjiang may amount to crimes against humanity.

Türk also has stopped short of joining independent U.N. rights experts who have accused Israel of genocide against Palestinians during its war against Hamas in Gaza. Israel vehemently denies those claims.

Critic focuses on approach to China's treatment of Uyghurs

Former head of Human Rights Watch Ken Roth called Türk “a disaster” and said, “the biggest stain on Türk’s reputation is his utter abandonment of the Uyghurs.” He called them victims of the most severe state persecution that Türk has ignored.

The Chinese government denies the Uyghurs have been or are being persecuted. It maintains its policies in Xinjiang rooted out terrorism and religious extremism after sporadic bouts of violence rocked the region in previous decades.

Türk has used both private engagement with Beijing and public advocacy to support human rights in China, his office said. Roth called that “an admission that he is doing nothing, that he’s putting the plight of the Uyghurs on the deep back burner, and is just pretending to care.”

Roth said Türk has a major problem because the job of U.N. human rights commissioner “should be about stirring up public pressure, and you do that by being tough, provocative, timely.”

He “has succeeded in making a powerful position largely innocuous,” talking about issues in a way “that makes people’s eyes glaze over,” Roth said.

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Associated Press writers Jamey Keaten in Geneva, Farnoush Amiri in New York and Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.

The department said it was dispatched at about 2:13 p.m. and crews arrived at 2:17 p.m. Firefighters worked to bring the blaze under control, and the fire was extinguished at about 2:55 p.m.

No injuries were reported, the department said. The boat owner lost their home as a result of the fire.

The department praised the training, teamwork and coordination demonstrated during the response and thanked assisting agencies, including the U.S. Coast Guard, the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, Glynn County Fire Rescue, the Brunswick Police Department and Brunswick Landing Marina.

Micah Hatcher, 41, of Palatka, was arrested July 21, by the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office following an investigation by the agency’s Special Victims Unit. He faces three felony counts: lewd or lascivious battery on a disabled person, sexual battery on a person under 18 by a person 18 or older, and sexual misconduct by an employee with a client who has a disability.

Investigation begins

The investigation began June 22, when the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office Special Victims Unit opened a sexual battery case involving a vulnerable adult.

According to the arrest warrant’s probable cause affidavit, Hatcher was employed as a caregiver by Out and About People Incorporated, a home health service provider serving disabled and vulnerable adults in St. Johns County and the Jacksonville area. He was responsible for the care of up to six vulnerable adult residents at a licensed group home located on Ervin Street in St. Augustine.

Alleged grooming

The victim — a resident at the group home who moved in during April 2026 — told detectives the relationship began shortly after his arrival, while Hatcher was already employed at the facility, according to court documents.

Investigators say Hatcher engaged in a series of behaviors consistent with grooming. The affidavit describes promises of gifts, including a PlayStation 5, an iPhone and a debit card bearing Hatcher’s name — which the victim displayed to detectives during the initial interview. The victim reported never receiving the gaming system or phone and believed the promises were used to manipulate him.

Detectives say Hatcher also instructed the victim to stay behind during scheduled group outings — referred to in the affidavit as “life skills days” — to ensure no other staff or residents were present.

Digital evidence

Investigators say they obtained text message communications between Hatcher.

The affidavit details that Hatcher allegedly used two phone numbers — including one he posed as his own niece — to communicate with the victim. Detectives say the fictitious persona was traced back to Hatcher through a TextNow account linked to his personal iCloud email address.

Victim’s legal inability to consent

The affidavit states the victim is diagnosed with multiple conditions that significantly impair his ability to understand, evaluate or consent to sexual activity. Under Florida law, he is legally incapable of providing informed consent.

Charges, bond

Hatcher was booked into the St. Johns County jail on July 21. A judge set his total bond at $1 million.

News4JAX tried calling the phone number listed for Out and About People Incorporated. An automated message said the number had been disconnected.

In Duval County, election officials say they are working to build confidence well before voters cast ballots.

The Duval County Supervisor of Elections Office on Thursday invited the public inside for a live demonstration of its voting equipment tests, allowing residents to watch as officials verified the machines that will be used in the upcoming primary.

“What we’re doing is a logic and accuracy test, where we publicly test the equipment prior to its use in the upcoming elections,” Duval County Supervisor of Elections Jerry Holland said.

The test involves running prepared “test decks” of ballots through the county’s tabulators and comparing the results with known totals, Holland said.

“We have prepared test decks of ballots with all the different candidates and races and variations of what the tabulation could be. We know what the results should be,” Holland said. “Now we’re going to run them in the machine in front of the public, tabulate them in front of the public, and make sure those results match.”

Among those attending was Victoria Bryant-Riggins of the League of Women Voters, who said public access is key to encouraging participation.

“I am here as a part of the League of Women Voters and our mission is to make sure that voting is available to everyone and that it is fair,” Bryant-Riggins said. “As more individuals participate in the process and they see for themselves that it is really open, free, and there are nothing to stand in the way of free voting, more people will vote.”

The logic-and-accuracy test uses a random sampling of one precinct tabulator from each of Jacksonville’s 14 City Council districts, one tabulator from an early voting site and all four high-speed tabulators.

Holland said the county also must account for hundreds of variations in ballots.

“We have a lot of different ballot styles. You have one for each of the major parties and those with no party affiliation,” he said. “We have over 500 ballot styles that we have to test today.”

Asked about Trump’s fraud allegations, Holland said the scrutiny gives election officials a chance to explain their procedures and pointed to Florida’s existing safeguards.

“What helps is it gives us an opportunity to share what we do because Florida is really the platinum standard when it comes to doing elections,” Holland said. “There wasn’t anything the president mentioned that we’re not already doing as part of our election systems here in the state of Florida.”

Election officials said the system worked without issues during Thursday’s test and that all votes were tabulated accurately. They said they hope the public testing will reassure voters that the process is secure and that their ballots will be counted.

In a court filing, Paramount said it wouldn’t close the merger until either a court ruling is made on the merits of the states’ lawsuit or June 1, 2027. The move arrives just days after U.S. District Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín granted a temporary restraining order to freeze the transaction for several weeks, ruling that the states had raised some “serious questions” and a strong case about the merger's potential to “substantially lessen competition.”

Paramount called Friday's agreement a “significant win because the result is exactly what we have sought from the outset: a direct path to a trial based on the evidence.”

The company, which was bought by Skydance just last year, added that this was the “fastest and clearest way” to prove its merger was good for competition and the wider industry.

Twelve states, led by California, sued to block Paramount’s pending buyout of Warner last month — alleging that such a combination would instead “extinguish competition” in Hollywood and lead to fewer choices for consumers, particularly moviegoers and cable customers.

“From the workers and artists who bring stories to life to the families who buy tickets at the box office, Paramount’s illegal takeover of Warner Bros. is a bad deal for all those who count on a competitive entertainment industry,” New York Attorney General Letitia James, who is among those suing to block the merger, said Friday.

She called the agreement to halt the deal a “critical victory.”

As the six-lane Gordie Howe International Bridge dominated the skyline behind them, officials lined up in Windsor, Ontario, to hail what one described as “one of the most significant infrastructure achievements in Canada's history.” The bridge opens to traffic on Monday.

“Some days are remembered because they mark the end of a journey. Others are remembered because they mark the beginning of something entirely new. Today is both,” said Chuck Andary, interim CEO of the Windsor-Detroit Bridge Authority, which will operate the bridge.

Missing from the event: U.S. and Michigan representatives. Canada scratched a joint gathering after President Donald Trump this week suddenly announced 50% tariffs on Canadian goods entering the U.S. A soloist sang the national anthem, “O Canada,” but the U.S. anthem was not performed.

“Our relationship has been challenged over the last few years, and President Trump is threatening tariffs just this month. But team Canada has never been more united,” Ontario Premier Doug Ford told the crowd, which applauded at times during his defense of the country.

Bridges are critical to moving goods between countries

More than 70% of Canada’s exports go to the U.S., making America its largest trade partner, and Detroit is the No. 1 port for truck traffic on the U.S.-Canada border, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation.

The Howe bridge will instantly create competition. For nearly a century, the privately owned Ambassador Bridge has been the only route for large commercial trucks moving between the U.S. and Canada at Detroit. Businesses say the new span will be faster and less expensive.

The bridge is named for Howe, a Canadian icon — “Mr. Hockey” — who played on the other side of the Detroit River for the NHL's Detroit Red Wings. He died in 2016. Ford and Mark Wiseman, the Canadian ambassador to the U.S., wore hockey sweaters with Howe's No. 9.

Trump didn't attend, but his role was felt

Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens repeatedly praised Howe and appeared to take a subtle dig at Trump. He said he recently texted Dr. Murray Howe to ask who might be his father's target these days if he had to slam someone into the hockey boards.

“He's a gentleman. He didn't answer,” Dilkens said. “But I think we all know who that person might be if Gordie was going to check one person into the board.”

Surrounded by family, Murray Howe thanked residents of both countries and specifically named Canadian officials and the U.S. president. He recalled how his father grew up in Saskatchewan before moving to Ontario at age 16 for a tryout with the Red Wings.

“This bridge will serve as an unmistakable symbol of the priceless bond and true friendship between the people of Canada and the people of the United States,” Murray Howe said, expressing the same long-term view as other speakers.

Canada paid for the bridge but will share revenue

Construction, which began in 2018, took years, partly because of a global slowdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Canada paid to build the bridge at an estimated cost of $6.4 billion. A recent agreement says Canada will share some toll revenue with the U.S. government for 15 years.

Trump praised his administration for that deal in a social media post while the Ontario event was in progress. “We changed the terms,” he said.

Michigan will also get a share, but not until Canada’s costs are recovered, likely decades from now.

The bridge is 1.5 miles (2.4 kilometers) long and rises 151 feet (46 meters) above the Detroit River at its highest point. Pedestrians and bicyclists carrying proper identification will be able to cross it for free in a few weeks.

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White reported from Detroit.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the outbreak first tied to shredded lettuce served at Taco Bell restaurants now includes Illinois, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Pennsylvania. Previously the agency's investigation included five states: Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and West Virginia.

The CDC, Food and Drug Administration and state health officials have been tracing the supply of the lettuce and interviewing people across the nation about the foods they ate two weeks before getting sick.

The number of cases linked to the lettuce is now 1,947, including at least 98 people who had to be hospitalized. There have been no deaths, the agency reported on its website.

The total number of people sickened by the outbreak is likely higher than the official tally, given that not all cases are reported, the agency noted.

FDA officials earlier this week said they remain focused on lettuce from Taylor Farms as the source of the multistate outbreak. The company last week announced it was recalling iceberg lettuce grown in central Mexico.

Asked when it would be safe to eat lettuce again, Trump said Friday that his government is “going to put a major tariff on tax on Mexico because of the lettuce.”

On Thursday, the FDA announced it was investigating a separate outbreak of cyclospora reported in 72 people. Regulators had not yet identified the products linked to the illnesses.

Overall, cyclospora cases have set a U.S. record. Since May 1, CDC has received reports of more than 4,100 laboratory-confirmed cases and is investigating more than 7,400 other likely cases across 41 states. Federal health officials have said that other “brands, restaurants, retailers, or distribution channels” could be tied to the outbreak as the investigation continues.

Cyclospora is a microscopic parasite that infects food that has come into contact with human feces, most commonly when produce is irrigated or washed with contaminated water. When ingested, the parasite causes intestinal illness marked by “frequent and sometimes explosive bowel movements,” according to the CDC.

Mexican health officials announced Thursday that the parasite was not detected in the lettuce or water at the Taylor Farms plant in the Mexican state of Guanajuato.

The results were announced following a visit by Mexican health authorities to the Taylor Farms plant between July 18 and 20, during which 10 samples of iceberg lettuce were collected. Four water samples also were collected for analysis, authorities stated.

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Fabiola Sanchez contributed to this story from Mexico City. Fatima Hussein contributed from Washington.

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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.

Colt Gray, 16, entered the plea Friday without having reached a deal with prosecutors. The Sept. 4, 2024, shooting also left several others wounded at the school of 1,900 students about 45 miles (73 kilometers) northeast of Atlanta.

Gray, who was 14 at the time, was charged as an adult. His trial had been scheduled to start in mid-October.

A jury in March convicted his father, Colin Gray, on charges including second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter. He is scheduled to be sentenced next week. Prosecutors said he gave his son the assault-style rifle used to open fire at the school.

Teachers Richard “Ricky” Aspinwall, 39, and Cristina Irimie, 53, and students Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, both 14, died in the shooting. Another teacher and eight more students were wounded, seven of them hit by gunfire.

Teen faces life in prison

Barrow County Superior Court Judge Nicholas Primm questioned Gray to ensure he understood the consequences of his plea and was entering it voluntarily. Gray responded, “Yes, your honor,” each time.

Murder carries a minimum sentence of life in prison. The judge must decide whether Gray should be eligible for parole after hearing victim statements, evidence and each side's summary of the case.

Victim: ‘Those decisions were his and his alone’

Family members of those killed and students who were shot gave statements, expressing anger and grief, with most asking the judge to sentence Gray to life without parole.

Breanna Schermerhorn, whose son Mason was killed, said she doesn't forgive Gray. While adults around him missed warning signs, she said, he brought the gun and pulled the trigger.

“Those decisions were his and his alone,” she said.

Shayna Aspinwall, Richard Aspinwall's wife, lamented that the lives of their daughters, who were 2 and 5 when their father died, will be “forever marked by his absence.”

“It is a life sentence of grief and trauma for those left behind,” she said.

A teenage student who was shot told the judge she remembered feeling “really scared and confused because I saw Colt standing in the door with a gun.” The Associated Press is not identifying the girl, who is a minor.

She said she realized she had been shot and asked a friend to hold her hand. She asked other friends to call her brother to let him know she'd been shot and didn't know if she'd make it. She had multiple surgeries and wasn't able to walk for about a year.

“After the shooting, I struggled with so much anxiety, and I felt like my life was over,” she said.

Apalachee High School Principal Jessica Rehberg said Colt Gray’s “cruel actions” deserve “the harshest consequences.”

The hearing is set to resume Monday, and Gray's defense attorney wrote in a court filing that he plans testimony from a psychologist, a juvenile detention center counselor and Gray's grandmother.

Investigator says Colt Gray carefully plotted the shooting

Barrow County Sheriff’s Office Investigator Jason Smith testified about the timeline. Gray told his second period teacher just before 10 a.m. that he needed to see a crisis counselor but instead went to a bathroom to prepare for the shooting, Smith said.

He emerged from the bathroom at 10:21 a.m., and when he was unable to reenter his classroom, he went down the hall to another classroom, where he opened fire and then shot other people in the hallway. He ultimately surrendered to law enforcement officers.

Smith said he interviewed Gray at the school and again at the sheriff’s office.

Prosecutors played a recording of the interview at the school. Gray sobbed hysterically during questioning. He repeatedly apologized, said he wasn't trying to justify his actions and said what happened was “horrible" and “the worst nightmare for everyone involved.”

He talked about having uncontrollable urges and hearing people tell him to do things and said he was supposed to see a doctor soon: “I was so close to getting the help I need and the medication I need.”

Gray told Smith that right before the shooting he felt things were getting really bad and he feared he was going to be attacked. He repeatedly mentioned believing teachers, and possibly students, were plotting against him.

The teenager was much calmer several hours later during the second interview. He said he didn’t target anyone specifically and didn't know how many people he'd killed.

“Colt indicated that it was spontaneous, that it was a last minute thing,” that he heard voices and on the way to the crisis counselor and “decided to do the shooting,” Smith testified. But the investigation showed that the shooting had been planned in detail for some time, he said.

The investigator described a notebook Gray had that included a detailed step-by-step plan to get himself ready in the bathroom that included notations like, “Don’t shoot anyone in the bathroom. You will alert people.”

On one page he wrote, “I’m not a killer,” and “I’m scared.” On multiple pages, he wrote “why” dozens of times. He also estimated the number of people he would kill and injure. On one page, he wrote, “Surprised if I make it.”

Sheriff’s deputies had previously interviewed Colt and Colin Gray in May 2023 about an online threat linked to the son. Colt Gray denied making the threat.

Investigators found a shrine in Colt Gray's bedroom to Nikolas Cruz, the shooter in the 2018 massacre at Florida’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, prosecutors have said. Gray told Smith he “became obsessed with him on an emotional level,” referring to Cruz.

An investigator testified during Colin Gray's trial that he had sought help for his son from a counseling service weeks before the shooting but then failed to follow through.

Colt Gray's mother, Marcee Gray, who was separated from Colin Gray, told investigators she had urged him weeks before the shooting to secure his guns and restrict their son’s access to them. Instead, over time, Colin Gray bought the teenager ammunition, a gun sight and other shooting accessories, records show.

Also, a series of explosions sounded near a military base hosting U.S. forces in northern Iraq and sirens rang out in Bahrain on Friday, hours after the American military said it finished its 13th night of strikes against Iran. The conflict has flared again over the past week, as the U.S. has pounded Iran while Tehran has attacked ships in the Strait of Hormuz and targeted U.S. assets and allies in the region.

Here's the latest:

Hegseth names replacement for Army chief in Europe

The Pentagon has nominated a replacement for Gen. Christopher Donahue, who suddenly departed last month as commanding general of U.S. Army Europe and Africa and commander of NATO’s Allied Land Command.

Hegseth announced Friday that he’s selected Lt. Gen. Kevin D. Admiral for the post.

Admiral will not be promoted to general, confirming earlier reports that the Pentagon plans to downgrade the post from a four-star to a three-star position as part of a broader effort by Hegseth to reduce the number of generals in the ranks.

Admiral now is serving as commanding general, III Corps and Fort Hood in Fort Hood, Texas. An Army official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss personnel matters, said Donahue is now on transitional leave pending approval of his retirement.

Trump says he thinks Michael Jordan is the best ever but ducks suggestions he’s a sports ‘fixer’

Asked if Jordan or LeBron James were the best basketball player ever, the president said he golfed with Jordan and “he’s a really good guy.”

“I think LeBron is, maybe he’s a racist,” Trump said. “Maybe he doesn’t like Trump.”

He added, “I like people that like me, so I would say Michael Jordan all the way.”

Trump was also asked about golfer Bryson DeChambeau who reportedly threatened to call the president after being given a controversial two-stroke penalty during the recent British Open.

The president didn’t say if he sees himself as a sports “fixer” after intervening to help get a U.S. red card overturned during the World Cup.

Trump suggested it was more like “me being a judge.” He said of DeChambeau, “I thought it was a tough call against him.”

Trump says Xi and Putin vowed to stay out of Iran war — and he trusts them

Asked about a recent comment from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth saying China and Russian are “enabling” Iran, Trump suggested otherwise.

“President Xi said he will not partake, and President Putin said the same thing,” Trump said in the Oval Office on Friday. “I trust them.”

He added that there “could be some things they do” — without elaborating — but emphasized it “has not been major.”

Earlier on Friday, Trump said that both Xi and Putin had personally promised not to sell weapons to Iran.

“If they did, it would be very bad for them,” Trump said on social media. “Certainly not in their best interests.”

Trump defends new tariffs announced this week

Trump called the latest tariffs his administration announced on 60 economies late Thursday “very standard tariffs” that “follow the line” when asked whether he believes the latest tranche announced this week could overcome legal challenges.

The administration’s tariffs announced this week are based in the argument that the countries targeted have failed to adequately enforce a ban on goods made with forced labor.

Citing the Supreme Court’s decision this summer that struck down the president’s Liberation Day tariffs, Trump said: “I thought the decision by the Supreme Court was not a good one, but we have many forms of tariffs.”

Trump said he’d be ‘willing’ to call senators to help move stalled elections bill

“I’d certainly be willing,” Trump said when asked if he could be doing more to help the Republican-controlled Senate pass a stalled elections bill he wants to sign into law.

Trump said he helped move the bill through the Republican-controlled House by calling a few representatives and getting them on board to send the bill to the Senate.

He said Senate Majority Leader John Thune has “got four or five people that are very difficult,” including some “I put out of office.”

“So I understand how it feels. I mean, they’re doing the wrong thing,” Trump said, asking who wouldn’t be for showing ID and proof of citizenship to vote.

“No Republicans should put us in a position where they don’t approve of something like that,” he said.

Trump says he’s not feeling pressure to settle the Iran war ahead of the midterm elections

The president said, as far as the elections are concerned, “I’m not in a hurry.”

He said he won’t let rising gas prices and inflation continuing to run hot sway his decision on the war in Iran.

“We have to do it right,” Trump said, adding “elections take care of themselves.”

Trump was reelected in 2024 promising to bring down the cost of living but has seen prices rise dramatically in the months since the war with Iran began.

That has complicated things for Republicans hoping to maintain control of Congress.

Trump celebrates new nuclear reactors in his push to speed up power production

The president hosted executives from nuclear power companies in the Oval Office to celebrate a new milestone in the White House’s push to accelerate the growth of nuclear power in the U.S.

Last year, Trump signed four actions creating a pilot program aimed at having four new nuclear reactors go critical by July 4. Four companies ended up meeting that deadline, Trump said on Friday.

“America is building again, America is dreaming again, and we’re leading the world in pioneering the next generation of nuclear power,” he said.

Trump says U.S. will place ‘a major tariff’ on Mexico for diarrhea-causing parasite

Asked when it would be safe to eat lettuce again, after a diarrhea-inducing parasite found in lettuce produced in Mexico has affected patients in nine U.S. states, Trump said his government is “going to put a major tariff on tax on Mexico because of the lettuce.”

He added that his administration would also “put a big tariff on Canada because of the smoke” caused by hundreds of wildfires raging across Canada, which has carried smoke by winds into the U.S.

Trump defends subpoenas targeting New York Times journalists, says case isn’t over

A day after his administration withdrew subpoenas that would have required three New York Times journalists to testify about their sources, Trump said he isn’t retreating.

“We have a long way to go with that case,” Trump said in the Oval Office on Friday.

Trump said he supports the subpoenas, which were issued in response to a story about Trump’s Qatari-gifted Air Force One jet.

“We’re not after journalists, we’re after leakers,” Trump said. “And the way you find them is through the journalists.”

Trump says US and Iran are talking, he thinks they’re being ‘serious’

“Sort of everybody” is involved in the talks with Iran to end the war, Trump said.

He said Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio and “a lot of people” are talking to Iran.

“We’ll see what comes of it,” the president said.

“We’re talking to them right now,” Trump said. “I think they’re getting more and more serious as the days go by, for maybe the obvious reason. But we are talking to them right now.”

Trump says Venezuela is ‘not really ready’ for election yet

Asked when that the country will hold elections after U.S. forces toppled President Nicolás Maduro, Trump responded, “They’re not really ready for them yet.”

He said the U.S. has brought economic benefits to Venezuela without elaborating, or mentioning the devastation of recent, major earthquakes there.

“They’re not ready yet for the elections, but at some point they will be,” the president added before mentioning the country’s prowess in the Miss Universe pageants once he owned.

Trump declines to answer question about possible war crimes in Iran

Answering questions from reporters, Trump was asked if he considers it a war crime to blow up civilian power plants and bridges, as he has repeatedly threatened to do in Iran.

Trump replied, “I wont respond to that question.”

The president has repeatedly threatened to blow up civilian infrastructure in Iran before backing down.

Democrats demand answers on Iran war casualties from Pentagon

Democrats on the Senate Armed Services Committee are demanding answers on how the Pentagon is handling the reporting of Iran war casualties.

In a letter Friday, the 12 lawmakers note that the Pentagon’s Defense Casualty Analysis System, or DCAS, “has reported inconsistent casualty figures, raising additional questions about the transparency and reliability of the Department’s public reporting and statements.”

Chief Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell argued this week that the system is “regularly updated online” following news reports that information about injuries was being withheld.

However, the system now shows only 14 troops killed, though that total stands at 18. The system also shows only 420 troops have been wounded in the conflict. A U.S. official has told The Associated Press that the total is well over 500.

Parnell blamed “temporary data disruptions” in a social media post Thursday.

The lawmakers are seeking detailed information about the Iran war casualties as well as details about the reporting process of that data to DCAS

Trump’s newest tariffs face immediate court challenge

The Liberty Justice Center, a libertarian advocacy group that successfully challenged earlier Trump tariffs, filed a lawsuit in the U.S. Court of International Trade in New York, challenging the double-digit import taxes that Trump imposed Friday.

The Trump administration, invoking the Trade Act of 1974, targeted 16 U.S. trading partners with tariffs of 10% to 12.5%, charging that they had failed to crack down on imports produced by forced labor.

But the Liberty Justice Center calls the new tariffs a pretext to allow Trump to maintain a wall of tariffs around the U.S. economy after the Supreme Court struck down big global taxes he’d imposed last year.

The new levies took effect at 12:01 a.m. Friday as time ran out on temporary tariffs Trump had turned to after the Supreme Court defeat.

“The administration allowed one global tariff to expire and immediately replaced it with another under a different statute,” said Sara Albrecht, chair of the Liberty Justice Center. “Changing the statute doesn’t change the law. Every tariff authority has limits, and every administration must respect them.”

Her group represented businesses that successfully challenged Trump’s 2025 global tariffs.

Trump says he’s ‘fine’ with Canada disinviting US from opening ceremony for new shared bridge

On social media, Trump says he’s OK with Canada’s decision “considering they are paying substantial TARIFFS to the United States.”

Canada alone is celebrating the completion of a new bridge to the U.S. over the Detroit River. The multibillion-dollar Gordie Howe International Bridge will serve as a critical path for trade and casual travel between the U.S. and Canada.

Canada scratched a joint gathering after Trump this week suddenly announced 50% tariffs on Canadian goods entering the U.S.

Trump says US will investigate EU trade practices, claiming the bloc unfairly fined tech giants

The president says he’s opening the formal investigation because the bloc has unfairly levied billions of dollars of fines against Google, Apple and other U.S. companies.

Trump made the announcement a day after the EU hit Google with a fine of 890 million euros ($1 billion) after it said the technology behemoth broke digital antitrust regulations by setting up Google Play and its ubiquitous search engine to corral consumers toward its own services and apps to the detriment of competitors.

In a lengthy post on social media, Trump said he has warned the EU about its practice of fining U.S. tech companies. He named Google, Apple, Meta, Amazon and others.

Democrats select South Carolina for their first presidential nominating contest in 2028

The decision most likely cements a dramatic break from decades of tradition by keeping Iowa and New Hampshire off the top of the calendar and elevating more racially diverse states.

The Democratic National Committee’s Rules and Bylaws Committee weighed competing bids led by South Carolina and Nevada for the first spot. The choice will need to be approved by the full Democratic National Committee, which is scheduled to meet in August.

South Carolina or Nevada had been expected to go first, with each state aggressively campaigning for the coveted spot.

US embassies across the Mideast begin sending country-specific travel warnings for Americans

U.S. embassies across the Middle East sent out country-specific travel alerts to Americans, advising them that already limited options to leave the region may become more limited due to escalating tensions between the United States and Iran.

At least 11 embassies in the Mideast released advisories that echo broader “worldwide caution” and regional warnings that the State Department has put out since last weekend. The department was criticized for its messaging to Americans in the Middle East before and during the war that began in late February.

Neither the worldwide alerts nor the country-specific ones being released on Friday say that intensified hostilities are imminent but they note that some airlines have already canceled flights into the region and that others may follow suit.

The 11 embassies to issue the alerts are Bahrain, the virtual embassy in Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

Netanyahu to visit Washington next week for meeting with Trump

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu plans to travel to the United States for an official visit next week, his office said in a statement Friday. He’ll meet with President Trump in Washington on Tuesday, according to the statement, and also attend the funeral of Sen. Lindsey Graham.

The last time the two leaders met in Washington was in February, just weeks before they launched a joint war against Iran. Since then, tensions have grown between the longtime allies, including over how to prosecute the war.

Israel had opposed Trump’s recent negotiations with Iran, while Trump was upset over Israeli military action in Lebanon, which he saw as a threat to his diplomatic efforts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

But with Iran and the United State fighting once again, Israel has also signaled its willingness to rejoin the conflict. In recent days, Israeli officials have said they’re preparing to respond if Iran launches an attack on Israeli soil.

Second lady Usha Vance shares family photo after son’s birth

Vance added a message with her social media post thanking the public “for all the good wishes as we settle into life as a family of six.”

She included photos of her larger family seated on a couch, as well as a close-up of the baby.

Vance gave birth Sunday to Alec Neel Vance, her fourth child with Vice President JD Vance. Alec is also the first child born to a sitting vice president in more than 150 years.

He joins older siblings Ewan, Vivek and Mirabel.

White House correspondents’ dinner, redux: What will Trump have to say?

When guests arrive for the rescheduled White House Correspondents’ Association dinner Friday at Washington’s Waldorf Astoria hotel, security will be much tighter, the guest list smaller, the partying pared down.

That much, the correspondents’ association can control.

What remains out of its control — and perhaps the biggest question — is what the dinner’s most prominent guest, President Donald Trump, will bring to the table.

Call it White House Dinner 2.0, or Take Two, or, in Trump’s own words, a “HOT ticket.”

The big unknown is whether Trump will bring the fighting words (“rather nasty,” he said) against the press he’d planned to deliver in April — before the event descended into chaos when a gunman stormed a security checkpoint, forcing an evacuation of the room.

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The latest import duties might stick

Wendy Cutler, a former senior U.S. trade official, said the latest round of tariffs involved “few surprises” since they range just between 10% and 12.5%.

The U.S. Trade Representative’s office spent four months investigating the basis for those tariffs to meet legal requirements under Section 301 of the U.S. Trade Act of 1974.

“Time will tell whether the third attempt to impose tariffs is the charm and this action stands up to legal challenges,” said Cutler, senior vice president of the Asia Society Policy Institute.

These duties are less likely than earlier ones to be overruled by U.S. courts, she said.

Further tariffs may be coming in the fall related to alleged structural excess capacity of trading partners, she noted.

China opposes unilateral tariffs in ‘all forms’

China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it “opposes all forms of unilateral tariffs” in response to the new 12.5% tariffs, reiterating a longstanding statement by Beijing.

“Tariff wars and trade wars do not serve any parties’ interests,” ministry spokesperson Lin Jian told a regular news conference.

Trade tensions have clouded relations between China and the U.S., two of the world’s biggest economies, as Trump’s hefty “Liberation Day” tariffs resulted in a sharp drop in Chinese exports to the U.S.

Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping, who agreed to set up new boards of trade and investment at their mid-May meeting in Beijing, are expected to meet again in September.

US tariff hikes linked to claims of foreign forced labor dismay and anger trading partners

Trump’s latest set of tariff hikes drew objections Friday from America’s trading partners including China and Japan, with Australia’s trade minister slamming them as “completely unjustified.”

The administration announced extra tariffs of 10% to 12.5% on 60 economies late Thursday, saying the countries had failed to adequately enforce a ban on goods made with forced labor.

Australian Trade Minister Don Farrell rejected claims linking Australia, a major exporter of beef, gold and copper, to modern slavery.

“We believe that amongst all of the countries in the world Australia does take the issue of slavery, modern slavery, seriously, and will continue to do that,” Farrell told reporters in Adelaide.

Japan also protested the 12.5% tariff imposed on its exports, noting Tokyo had been reassured by the Trump administration that there would be no more tariffs on top of an earlier agreement on a 10% U.S. import duty.

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Journalists urge correspondents’ association to stand up to Trump at rescheduled press dinner

Hundreds of former or retired journalists and eight press freedom groups are asking the White House Correspondents’ Association to stand up to the Trump administration’s recent attacks on the media at its rescheduled dinner this week — a dinner President Donald Trump says he’ll attend.

The first dinner was cut short in April when a gunman, who prosecutors say was trying to assassinate Trump, opened fire at the Washington Hilton. The much smaller rescheduled dinner will take place Friday, with enhanced security precautions, at the capital’s Waldorf Astoria Hotel, formerly the Trump International Hotel.

The letter expands on a similar one issued in April, before the first dinner. It notes that since then, “the administration’s attacks on journalists and press freedom have become even more egregious.”

The letter, organized by former ABC News correspondent Lisa Stark and producer Ian Cameron, cites in particular the recent subpoenas by the Justice Department to New York Times journalists who reported on security concerns over the president’s Qatari-gifted Air Force One jet. Additional subpoenas of the journalists’ phone records have included even the mother of one reporter and two spouses.

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Explosions are heard near a US base in northern Iraq as US-Iran fighting escalates

A series of explosions sounded near a military base hosting U.S. forces in northern Iraq and sirens rang out in Bahrain on Friday, hours after the American military said it finished its 13th night of strikes against Iran.

The conflict has flared again over the past week, as the U.S. has pounded Iran while Tehran has attacked ships in the Strait of Hormuz and targeted U.S. assets and allies in the region.

The strait, which is a crucial passage for the world’s energy supplies, is at the center of the latest fighting since Iranian attacks can effectively shut the waterway, sending fuel prices soaring worldwide and causing widespread economic turmoil. The Iranian-allied Houthi rebels added further pressure this week by targeting two Saudi tankers in the Red Sea, making good on a threat to cut off an alternative route for the region’s oil.

Despite the unpopularity of the war in the U.S. and the widespread damage it has caused in Iran and to the global economy, the latest round of fighting has no clear off-ramp.

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Trump imposes double-digit tariffs on dozens of countries as his 10% levies are set to expire Friday

President Donald Trump is going ahead with new double-digit tariffs on dozens of U.S. trading partners just as the clock runs out Friday on stopgap levies he imposed after a stinging defeat at the Supreme Court.

The United States will slap taxes of 10% to 12.5% on imports from 60 trading partners accounting for 99% of U.S. imports, charging that they have inadequately enforced bans on goods produced by forced labor.

“The United States has had a forced labor import ban for nearly a century, and rigorously enforces it; it’s well past time for our trading partners to do the same,” said U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer.

The new tariffs will take effect just as temporary 10% worldwide tariffs expire at 12:01 a.m. Friday. Trump had turned to those temporary levies after the Supreme Court struck down his biggest and boldest tariffs in February.

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The Staged Accident Fraud Prevention Act would establish criminal penalties for individuals who organize or participate in staged crashes and would hold attorneys, physicians and other co-conspirators accountable if they knowingly take part in the fraud.

“Anyone who stages or helps stage an accident with a commercial motor vehicle endangers people’s lives and livelihoods,” Moody said. “On top of that, these stunts run up insurance premiums for everyone. Unacceptable. This legislation sends a clear message: if you do this, you will be prosecuted.”

A growing threat to highways, supply chains

Despite a rise in staged truck accidents, Moody says few states have taken action to combat the fraud. A notable example unfolded in Louisiana, where she says scammers caused dozens of intentional crashes with 18-wheelers over five years. Following an FBI investigation, a personal injury attorney pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, admitting he paid a cooperating government witness to stage 31 accidents and represented 77 plaintiffs in subsequent lawsuits.

Industry groups say the ripple effects go far beyond the crashes themselves.

“Staged accidents are not victimless crimes,” said Lewie Pugh, executive vice president of the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association. “These are calculated, premeditated assaults that endanger lives, destroy livelihoods, and compromise highway safety. To add insult to injury, criminals abuse the legal system for profit through false accusations and lawsuits, which contribute to skyrocketing insurance premiums for small trucking businesses.”

Supporters of the bill

The legislation has drawn support from the American Trucking Associations, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, National Tank Truck Carriers, American Bus Association and others. Florida, one of the nation’s largest freight hubs with more than 460,000 trucking jobs and 130,000 trucking companies, has a particular stake in the outcome.

The bill was introduced in the House by Reps. Mike Collins of Georgia and Brandon Gill of Texas.

He's hoping to put Roger Penske back in victory lane at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and he'd like to add a second crown jewel win to his resume. At the same time, he's chasing a $1 million pay day — if he finishes ahead of surprise finalist Todd Gilliland in NASCAR's second In-Season Challenge.

Blaney's solution is to simplify matters by sweeping both titles Sunday with one amazing Brickyard 400.

“We obviously understand what we're going for with the In-Season Challenge,” Blaney said before Friday's short practice. “But at the same time, you're trying to win the race. That's the big one here — and trying to win for Roger at this place is incredibly important in our race shop and to everyone on this team. So I've looked at it as like, just go try to run the best race you can and focus on that.”

Blaney heads into race weekend as the favorite in the final round of the challenge. The 2023 Cup champion has strung together 11 consecutive finishes of 11th or better, a feat he's achieved in 17 of 21 races this season. Two weeks ago in Atlanta he captured his second win of the year.

Now the Ohio-born Blaney returns to the Midwest ranked third in points, 19 behind Tyler Reddick, the 2022 Brickyard 200 champ who is trying to become the first Cup driver to win on the track's road course and the historic 2.5-mile oval that will be used Sunday.

Reddick said he wasn't sure if team owner Michael Jordan would attend the race.

Gilliland, meanwhile, has struggled lately. His eighth-place finish at North Wilkesboro, North Carolina, was his first top 10 in 13 races, and the 26-year-old enters the weekend 23rd in points, though he's continued to do just enough to keep advancing through the challenge rounds.

But facing his toughest test yet, Gilliland seems to be adopting a “Hoosiers”-like attitude.

“We've caught a lot of lucky breaks. We've barely been skating by all these rounds,” the Front Row Motorsports driver said. “But now that we're here, yeah, it feels a bit more real and you never know, right? Four hundred miles, anything can happen. So we're just going to go give our best effort and try not to think about what it would be like if we won.”

Neither finalist was near the top of Friday's leaderboard, though.

Christopher Bell of Joe Gibbs Racing posted the fastest lap of the day at 183.512 mph, leading Toyota to a top-five sweep. John Hunter Nemechek of Legacy Motor Club was second at 183.180, followed by Ty Gibbs, Bell's teammate; Erik Jones, Nemechek's teammate; and Denny Hamlin of JGR, who still needs a Brickyard win to capture the fourth and final crown jewel title with time running shot on the 45-year-old's career.

“I've got a couple shots in this left, so I think more desperate," Hamlin said when asked about his level of desire to win at Indy. “I'm certainly willing to take a small risk here on a restart, whatever it might be, on strategy, something to give us a real shot to win because this is like the Daytona 500.”

Gilliland and Blaney, who sat side by side at microphones Friday, view the Brickyard similarly even though they know fans will be watching the race inside the race just as closely as the final charge across the Yard of Bricks.

In practice, Blaney also had the advantage. He was ninth on the speed chart at 182.526, the top speed of the Ford drivers. Gilliland, who also drives a Ford, was 28th at 180.712.

Will that make a difference Sunday?

“We beat them here last year so I don't know why we can't do it again,” said Gilliland, who finished sixth — one spot ahead of Blaney in 2025 at Indy. “But, yeah, overall, I think it's fair to say we're big underdogs. At the same time, anything can happen.”

Even, perhaps, Blaney's highly coveted sweep.

“I got knocked out in the first round last year in Atlanta so it was nice to kind of go be part of it, see you racing every single week and go through the gauntlet,” he said. “So nice to end it here at Indy. I think it's a great place to end it, an amazing race track. It will be exciting.”

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AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing

That much, the correspondents’ association can control.

What remains out of its control — and perhaps the biggest question — is what the dinner’s most prominent guest, President Donald Trump, will bring to the table.

Call it White House Dinner 2.0, or Take Two, or, in Trump’s own words, a “HOT ticket.” The big unknown is whether Trump will bring the fighting words (“rather nasty,” he said) against the press that he’d planned to deliver in April — before the event descended into chaos when a gunman stormed a security checkpoint, forcing an evacuation of the room.

“The president looks forward to finishing what he started,” press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Thursday, confirming Trump's attendance. “I encourage everyone watching tomorrow night to tune in for what promises to be a very entertaining and memorable evening."

Trump has been coy about what he might say

As for Trump himself, he indicated last month he wasn’t sure. “I don’t know whether or not I will give the same rather nasty statements, at least as it concerns certain people, but we will soon find out," the Republican president wrote on his Truth Social platform. “In any event, it will be a ‘HOT’ ticket!”

Besides the pared-down approach, there is another change at Friday’s dinner: two additional awards. One will be presented to Victor Gonzales, the Secret Service agent who was staffing a security checkpoint in April and was struck in his protective vest.

“Officer Gonzales … ran toward danger so that thousands of others could make it home safely," Weijia Jiang, WHCA president, said in a statement. “His courage stemmed from a dedication to service, which we are looking forward to honoring this week.”

A second award will be presented to the staff of the Washington Hilton hotel, site of the first dinner.

Other changes: With security in mind, there will be only one entrance at the much smaller venue, with airport-style metal detectors. Guests received individual QR entry codes in advance, and nobody can get in unless recognized. “There is NO red carpet at this dinner,” said a memo Jiang sent to some guests last month, seen by The Associated Press. “There are NO onsite pre-dinner receptions."

The dress code this time is a looser “black tie optional," and dinner includes grilled peach and burrata salad, lobster, and beef Wellington. The evening, as at the last dinner, has entertainment by mentalist Oz Pearlman, along with the awards presentations and Trump's remarks.

Jiang and her fellow board members worked hard to bring about this WHCA dinner 2.0, not wanting to let a violent act — or the image of colleagues hiding under tables — remain the final thought. Announcing the rescheduling, she emphasized the dinner’s stated purpose: “a celebration of a free press and the vital role of journalism in our democracy for over a century.”

“We will not allow an act of violence to have the last word, especially during a year when we are reflecting on the 250th anniversary of America and everything we stand for,” Jiang said.

There's still lots of criticism of the event

But it’s also clear that some people felt the dinner should not be rescheduled at all.

Many never thought it was much of a good look in the first place, with the sight of journalists in formal wear cozying up to their sources, or the objects of their reporting.

“It undermines the public faith in how the press does its work, and it makes it look like we are pals with the people we cover,” Kelly McBride, an ethics expert at the Poynter Institute, a journalism think tank, said when the deliberations were taking place.

The new dinner comes during a time of fast-increasing tension between the media and a president who, in his second term, has tried to exert pressure on media outlets he is unhappy with in a variety of ways. That pressure has ranged from sanctions against members of the White House press corps to regulatory actions through the Federal Communications Commission to outright lawsuits.

Those tensions have only escalated since April, with the latest example reaching a New York courtroom on Thursday. There, criticized by a federal judge for sloppy legal work, the government withdrew subpoenas that would have compelled three New York Times reporters to testify about their sources for articles about Trump’s Qatari-gifted Air Force One jet.

That escalation was the impetus behind a letter from a coalition of press freedom groups and hundreds of former journalists, urging the WHCA to stand up to Trump forcefully at the dinner.

“We believe it is hypocritical to celebrate the First Amendment in front of the man who relentlessly attacks it,” the letter says. “We urge the WHCA to condemn the administration’s actions from the podium and pledge to fight all attempts by his administration to undermine this core pillar of a functioning democracy.”

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Jocelyn Noveck covers the intersection of media and entertainment for The Associated Press.

Lorenzo Salgado Araujo was killed July 7, when Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers chased his white work van through the streets, then shot him through the window in front of his work crew, including his brother.

Salgado Araujo’s sons read from prepared remarks at a Houston hearing with Democratic members of Congress. The sons' voices often choked with emotion as they described their father as a humble and hardworking family man. He had lived without legal status in the U.S. for 35 years, ran a homebuilding business and had never been in trouble with the law.

“He didn’t need anybody to know his name,” Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, Jr. told the hearing, held by the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. “He worked hard to protect and provide for our family, to put me and my siblings through college. He taught us that good things come to those that work hard.”

The Department of Homeland Security said shortly after the shooting that Salgado Araujo had rammed his van into the immigration vehicles chasing him, then “weaponized his vehicle in an attempt to run over an ICE law enforcement officer,” and that the officer fired in self-defense. The officers were not wearing body cameras.

Passengers in Salgado Araujo’s van describe a different version of events

At least two of the passengers in the van have disputed the government's account, saying the officers crashed into the van and were safely on the sides of the vehicle, never in danger of being struck, when the officer fired. All three passengers in the van were arrested and remain in immigration detention. One of them is Salgado Araujo’s brother, Victor, whose account of the killing is not public because his petition for release is sealed.

Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare told the hearing that DHS, which oversees ICE, has ignored his requests for information and evidence, including the name of the officer who fired the fatal shot.

Nevertheless, he said, his office was making “significant progress.” He declined to discuss specific evidence or speculate on when his office’s investigation would end.

Salgado Araujo’s sons said their father would have never run from officers, who were driving unmarked vehicles, if he’d known who they were. They had talked as a family about what they would do if he encountered ICE, and they said he believed he would find a way to get back home to them.

Salgado Araujo’s sons describe an excruciating wait for information

They said he was a man of routine. The day he was killed started as most did: He woke up before dawn, his wife cooked him a hearty breakfast, then he said goodbye to her and their dog. He got into his white van, said a prayer and left before 6 a.m. to pick up his crew.

Ronaldo Salgado said his mother called him around 7 a.m. to say something bad had happened. He saw a Facebook post about an encounter with immigration officers and rushed to the scene. He was there for hours, he said, begging officers and neighbors for information, even asking one homeowner to climb onto her roof to survey the scene.

Then a Facebook video appeared.

“I learned again from a Facebook post that our dad had been shot,” he told the hearing. “Not because I could see him, but because I could hear his voice on videos posted online crying for help.”

He rushed to the hospital. More hours passed before Democratic U.S. Rep. Sylvia Garcia demanded answers, and they learned he was dead.

Garcia said the Democratic delegation has sent multiple letters to DHS and ICE about the shooting and has received no response. The delegation also invited representatives of the department and the administration to attend the hearing, and they declined.

An email sent to DHS by The Associated Press seeking comment Friday was not immediately returned.

Lorenzo Jr. called what happened to them “a kafkaesque nightmare.” They said they mourned not only for their father, but also for the families of others killed by immigration officers, including Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, a 26-year-old who was shot in Maine days after their dad.

The sons say they want justice

The sons called on Congress to make sure justice is served.

Lorenzo asked people to imagine what the brothers were experiencing by picturing a loved one “pinned to the ground in pain and yelling out in desperate need of help.”

“Picture the anger and helplessness of watching that person bleed out through a video on your phone. What would you do after?” he asked. “How would you cope with the feeling of losing your protector, your role model, your mother’s loving partner, your grandmother’s little boy?”

He added, “That feeling you feel right now is only a fraction of what my family and I have felt these past 17 days.”

As of July 23, 2026, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 2,318 confirmed measles cases nationwide, surpassing the 2,289 confirmed cases recorded for all of 2025. Florida is one of 45 jurisdictions reporting cases this year.

Florida’s numbers

Florida has reported 141 confirmed measles cases in 2026, making it the fifth-highest state in the nation for cases this year, according to CDC data. That is a dramatic increase from just eight cases in all of 2025 and 11 cases in 2024.

Only South Carolina (670), Utah (522), Texas (188) and Virginia (176) have reported more cases in 2026. Pennsylvania (134) and Arizona (108) round out the top seven.

Outbreak-driven spread

The vast majority of this year’s cases are tied to outbreaks. According to the CDC, 93% of confirmed 2026 cases — 2,153 of 2,318 — are outbreak-associated. Of those, 782 are linked to outbreaks that began in 2026, while 1,371 stem from outbreaks that started in 2025.

Thirty-five new outbreaks have been reported so far in 2026. An outbreak is defined by the CDC as three or more related cases. That compares with 48 outbreaks reported during all of 2025 and 16 outbreaks in 2024.

Health officials stress that measles is among the most contagious diseases known. The CDC and public health experts consistently point to vaccination as the most effective tool for prevention. The measles, mumps and rubella — or MMR — vaccine is widely available and recommended for children and unvaccinated adults.

Nope — to all of those teams.

The blaring headline in bold letters still seemed like a feverish dream to the bulk of a fan base that wasn't even alive the last time the franchise won a title, but it's true:

LeBron James is heading to the Philadelphia 76ers.

The NBA’s all-time leading scorer made the announcement on social media Friday, saying it will be his “last decision” and that it comes after he strongly considered retirement.

“I believe I can help make the Philadelphia 76ers a championship team and I am so excited to energize a new fan base and start this incredible journey one last time,” James said.

A four-time NBA champion, James wrote he was “done” when his 23rd NBA season ended and that it was his last with the Los Angeles Lakers.

“I was pretty sure I played my last game. I was honest at that last press conference when I said I needed to look at myself and deicide if I still love this game," James wrote. “I still truly love this game, and I have more to give.”

The 41-year-old James is set to sign a modest $8 million, two-year contract on the veterans' minimum with the Sixers, according to ESPN. He made nearly $53 million last season.

“I’m not going for money. I’m not going for family,” James wrote. “What am I really playing for at this point? I still want to sacrifice. I still want to work. I still want to grind. I still want to compete, to win and to have a chance at the feeling of winning.”

James celebrated his decision on Instagram with a career highlight reel set to Philadelphia rapper Meek Mill's “Dreams and Nightmares,” the adopted sports anthem of city teams.

The video ends with the lyric, “hold up, wait a minute. Y'all thought I was finished?” and cuts to a 76ers' logo.

Fanatics already had his No. 23 jersey on sale for $125 with delivery not expected until the end of August. The company sold out within hours of the announcement.

Much as James did for Cleveland when he ended a 56-year championship drought for the city by leading the Cavaliers to the title in 2016, he can snap a lengthy title drought for the Sixers.

The Sixers went 45-37 last season and were swept in the second round by the NBA champion New York Knicks.

Most betting sites had the Sixers as 9-1 favorites to win the championship behind the Oklahoma City Thunder, the San Antonio Spurs and the New York Knicks, as of Friday afternoon.

James joins a 76ers team that has not won an NBA championship since 1983 and has not advanced out of the second round of the Eastern Conference playoffs since 2001.

The 76ers should boast one of the top starting fives in the NBA with second-year standout VJ Edgecombe, fellow All-Stars Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey and Jaylen Brown — the 2024 NBA Finals MVP, a five-time All-Star and the league’s fourth-leading scorer this past season acquired in a stunning offseason deal with the Celtics.

Maxey posted an Instagram story of him celebrating in a gym and yelling “what!? what?!” over the news while Brown wrote on X “#throwtheballup.” Brown wrote the same phrase in his introductory note to Philadelphia, and it has already been branded on billboards throughout the city.

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro even proclaimed Friday as LeBron James Day in the state.

Turned out with the Brown deal, new 76ers team president Mike Gansey — an Ohio prep basketball star with James — was just getting started with his summer of surprises.

No move, of course, hits like James' arrival.

Playing with his home team in Cleveland to the bright lights of Los Angeles and with the talent he took to Miami, James won an NBA championship everywhere he played. James left the Lakers after an eight-season run highlighted by the 2020 NBA title.

James is the NBA’s oldest active player at 41 and the only player in league history to have a career spanning 23 seasons; this coming season will be his 24th. Speculation has been rampant for more than two months about his future, officially starting in May when the Lakers were eliminated from the NBA playoffs.

James’ resume is beyond compare in NBA history. He’s a 22-time All-Star, a 21-time All-NBA selection, a four-time Most Valuable Player, a four-time NBA Finals MVP, a three-time All-Star Game MVP, and was a member of the NBA’s 75th anniversary team.

He’s also coming off a season where he averaged 20.9 points, 6.1 rebounds and 7.2 assists per game. For his career, he’s averaged 26.8 points, 7.5 rebounds and 7.4 assists in more than 1,600 games.

James started his career in Cleveland in 2003 and spent seven seasons with the Cavaliers before heading to Miami for four seasons — where he won his first two NBA titles. He then returned to Cleveland for four more seasons, including that title run in 2016, and left in 2018 for the Lakers.

Cleveland and Miami were believed to be on James’ radar again as he weighed this decision.

“Thank you LA. Miami I’ll forever love and Northeast Ohio will always home!” James wrote.

He eighty-sixed them all for a shot to win a title with the 76ers, a franchise with a career lineup that includes Wilt Chamberlain, Allen Iverson, Julius Erving, Charles Barkley and, for the next two seasons, LeBron James.

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

Much of what Dr. Grant Ho of the Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner said on the stand was already known: She had been killed by two sharp force wounds to her upper body and her dismembered, decomposing body was found in the trunk of a Tesla.

But the details he shared of what the autopsy showed — and tellingly, what it was unable to determine because of how degraded her body was when it was found — made Friday's proceedings perhaps the most difficult so far. Photos shown from the autopsy brought uncomfortable shifting in seats and murmurs in the courtroom.

The defense seized on the uncertainties to suggest there might have been other causes of death, including an overdose or self-inflicted injuries.

The preliminary hearing began on Tuesday, and will be used by a judge to decide if the case should go to trial.

Rivas Hernandez's parents were in the building but stayed outside the courtroom for the autopsy testimony. D4vd, whose legal name is David Burke, sat next to his lawyers in orange jail clothes and glasses, and did not show any emotion during the testimony.

Rivas Hernandez's body was discovered in a Tesla towed from the Hollywood Hills in September, nearly five months after authorities said Rivas Hernandez was killed.

Autopsy conclusions were hard to reach

Ho testified that he could not say when the death occurred — one of many challenges brought on by the body's degradation.

“It’s extremely difficult to tell,” Ho said.

He said she had been dead for “at least weeks.” Asked by Deputy District Attorney Beth Silverman whether it could have been four to five months, he said “potentially.” Authorities believe she was killed in April 2025; her body was discovered last September.

Rivas Hernandez was found the day after she would have turned 15.

“She didn’t make it to her 15th birthday, correct?” Silverman asked. “Correct,” Ho replied.

Ho said there were many “skin defects” that could have been postmortem, but the two he identified as potential stab wounds had related internal trauma. One wound on the abdomen penetrated her liver. Another, on the left chest, damaged her ribs.

Ho said, “it would take minutes, at least,” for someone to lose enough blood to die from the injuries. The prosecution has asserted in a court filing that Burke “stood by while she bled out.” When pressed, he said it could have potentially taken an hour, but wouldn't commit to that.

Defense seizes on inconclusive drug test

He testified that toxicology tests, done only on her liver because no blood was available, showed a low level of alcohol that may have been caused postmortem by bacteria. He said the tests initially showed positives for benzodiazepines — medications typically used for anxiety — and methamphetamine. He said with further testing the benzodiazepine was negative. The methamphetamine was inconclusive, and as a result Ho said "I cannot say that it played any role in the death.”

Burke's attorney, Marilyn Bednarski, asked if decomposition could affect the accuracy of drug test results, and Ho agreed it could.

"In the toxicology report there is not enough information to support an overdose death, correct?" Bednarski asked. Ho said she was correct.

Bednarski asked if it helps in an autopsy examination to talk to the friends and family of the deceased about their life — if they had a mental health issue, were suicidal, were a frequent drug user or were violent.

Ho answered “potentially” to each of those but said there were no such conversations in this case.

Ho said he could not tell if there had been a struggle before death, or where the wounds came from.

“You can’t rule out that she was holding an instrument that caused either of those wounds?” Bednarski asked.

Ho said self-inflicted injuries usually include surrounding superficial “hesitation marks” — and those were not found — but otherwise he could not say.

Burke could stand trial for murder, mutilation and sexual abuse

Prosecutors are seeking to prove Burke began sexually abusing Rivas Hernandez when she was 13 and he was 18, then stabbed her to death when she threatened to reveal their long sexual history and crater his career. They allege he dismembered the body in his garage, and a police analyst testified in the preliminary hearing that samples pulled from apparent blood stains there matched the DNA of Rivas Hernandez.

Burke has pleaded not guilty to murder, sexual abuse of a child and mutilation of a body, and his lawyers have said he is innocent.

An indie-pop singer whose music and online presence brought him a huge following, D4vd's songs and videos often have dark and violent imagery often delivered through an alter-ego character he calls Itami. His breakthrough single in 2022 was called “Romantic Homicide,” one of several of his songs with more than a billion plays on Spotify.

The adoption event runs from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at 2020 Forest Street.

All adoption fees will be waived for the event. Each pet adopted will leave spayed or neutered, microchipped and up to date on vaccinations. Cats and dogs will also be available for foster.

“It has been a really busy summer, and we’re operating over capacity for both dogs and cats,” said ACPS Chief Michael Bricker.

“We’re all hands on deck for this event, and hope to find loving homes for the hundreds of amazing animals we have at the shelter. The more animals we find homes for, the more new animals we can bring into the shelter, meaning more animals are saved from dangerous and urgent situations. Everyone who adopts from us is part of saving lives,” Bricker said.

Staff and volunteers will be on hand to provide information and facilitate meet-and-greets with available animals.

Community members interested in adopting or fostering a pet are encouraged to attend.

The horse that died, an 8-year-old bay mare named Alex, was living in what the sheriff’s office described as “less than ideal conditions.” A neighbor first raised concerns in late June after contacting the owner about whether she had horses for sale.

The owner, Cheyenne Baldwin, 29, told the neighbor she was selling a horse, Alex, for $1,800 and sent a photo. The neighbor said the horse looked in poor condition and offered to take Alex for treatment free of charge; Baldwin declined and the neighbor then notified the sheriff’s office.

Agriculture Deputy Mullins contacted Baldwin, who said Alex was a “hard keeper” and was having difficulty eating. Mullins took photos and submitted a search-warrant affidavit to the state attorney’s office.

On July 8, a search warrant was approved and deputies removed three horses, including Alex, from the property. The sheriff’s office said all three animals showed emaciation ranging from moderate to severe. They were taken to a horse rescue for veterinary care and rehabilitation.

A veterinarian evaluated the horses on July 10. On July 13, the veterinarian was called back after Alex fell into distress; the vet, caretakers and Deputy Mullins decided to humanely euthanize the mare, the sheriff’s office said.

The veterinarian’s findings noted that all three horses needed hoof care from a qualified farrier and dental work from an equine dentist. Two of the horses also had rain rot, a preventable skin condition that can be avoided with regular grooming, keeping horses dry, using fly spray and maintaining overall health, the sheriff’s office said.

A warrant was issued for Baldwin on Tuesday, and she was arrested that afternoon on three counts of cruelty toward animals. She was booked into the Putnam County Jail and released on $30,000 bond.

The other two horses, Sanji and June Bug, are receiving treatment at the rescue and are expected to make a full recovery, the sheriff’s office said.

Varsity 4 top 25 player countdown

16. Marcus Small

Position/school: OL/First Coast.

Class: Sr.

Height/weight: 6-7, 290.

Recruiting: Committed to Syracuse.

Why here’s here: A consensus three-star recruit, Small is ranked between the 51st (ESPN) and 120th (Rivals/On3) player in Florida this year. He’s not only big but he’s very versatile for the Buccaneers and head coach Jarvis Parker. Small can flip to left or right tackle and earned All-Gateway and first-team All-News4JAX honors last year. As Small goes, so will the First Coast offense.

17. Omari Lawson

Position/school: Zarephath Academy.

Class: Jr.

Height/weight: 6-6, 260.

Recruiting: Committed to Syracuse.

Why he’s here: Zarephath is a younger program, so seeing a player listed may be a bit of a shock. But Lawson is a talent who can’t be looked over just because of school size. Power Four programs across the country have zeroed in on Lawson. He’s a four-star prospect at tackle and may wind up being the area’s fifth-best recruit in a blockbuster 2028 class. Come next year, this ranking could seem laughably low.

18. Camden Tietze

Position/school: WR/Bolles.

Class: Sr.

Height/weight: 6-1, 180.

Recruiting: Committed to Marshall.

Why he’s here: A Rivals/On3 three-star prospect who came on strong during his first season with the Bulldogs. Had 35 catches for 689 yards and 11 TDs playing alongside electric playmaker Naeem Burroughs. Will open this season as the No. 1 target for QB Luke Toland. As a sophomore at Ponte Vedra, had 599 yards receiving and seven TDs.

19. Aiden Phifer

Position/school: QB/Nease.

Class: Jr.

Height/weight: 6-0, 190.

Recruiting: Committed to Northwestern.

Why here’s here: Phifer burst on the scene last year by passing for 2,003 yards and 20 TDs. He was a threat to break off a run, too. Phifer scored nine rushing TDs. He did it by going 9-3 against a tough schedule that included powerhouse Buchholz (twice), St. Augustine and Oakleaf. A Rivals/On3 three-star recruit, Phifer should continue to ascend as a dual-threat QB.

19. Julius LaRosa III

Position/school: DL/ University Christian.

Class: Sr.

Height/weight: 6-2, 260.

Recruiting: Committed to NC State.

Why here’s here: A multiyear force on the defensive line for the Christians, he’s got 24 career sacks and 43.5 tackles for loss. Recovered two fumbles and blocked a punt last year. Had 59 tackles last season and is up to 171 for his career. A consensus three-star recruit by the four major recruiting services and a top 140 player in Florida by those outlets.

21. Kindrid Outland

Position/school: DL/Mandarin.

Class: Sr.

Height/weight: 6-2, 270.

Recruiting: Committed to USF.

Why here’s here: He was all over the field last year for the Mustangs, earning a second-team All-News4JAX selection after racking up 62 tackles, 21 for loss, and 5.5 sacks. A three-star recruit by 247 Sports and Rivals/On3, Outland has serious muscle and pocket-busting interior presence.

22. Kyree Wilson

Position/school: ATH/University Christian.

Class: Senior.

Height/weight: 6-0, 190.

Recruiting: Committed to Toledo.

Why he’s here: Wilson has thrived as the No. 1 player at a small school (Christ’s Church) where he racked up 3,019 rushing yards and 32 TDs and added 74 combined tackles during his freshman and sophomore seasons. Wilson, a Rivals three-star prospect, spent his junior year at Mandarin in a two-back system and absolutely scorched teams when given the opportunity (9.1 yards per carry). He’s got 3,807 career rushing yards and 38 rushing TDs, and could join the exclusive 5,000-yard rushing club with a strong season. Factor in his work on defense in the secondary and he’s going to put up numbers all over the field for the Christians.

23. Kash Kolbow

Position/school: S/WR/Nease.

Class: Senior.

Height/weight: 6-1, 180.

Recruiting: Committed to UCF.

Why he’s here: He was a little bit of a do-it-all player on Nease’s defense in 2025. Kolbow had 68 total tackles and a couple of interceptions. He was sticky in coverage (23 passes defensed) and forced two fumbles. With as big graduation losses as the Panthers had on defense, Kolbow’s production is no doubt bound to keep ticking up.

24. King Boylston

Position/school: QB/Ed White.

Class: Sr.

Height/weight: 6-1, 195.

Recruiting: Uncommitted.

Why he’s here: Boylston isn’t rated by any of the major recruiting services, but he’s a player who should see his stock rise over the course of the year. He accounted for 38 TDs last season, passing for 25 and scampering for 13 more. Boylston passed for 2,091 yards and rushed for 712 more to help lead the Commanders to the mantle as the highest-scoring regular season team in state history.

25. Noah Ash

Position/school: Kicker, Ponte Vedra.

Class: Senior.

Height/weight: 5-11, 190.

Recruiting: Committed to Auburn.

Why he’s here: A placekicker among the area’s top players? You got that right. Ash is the area’s best player at his position, and one of the top recruits in the nation. He booted 11 field goals for the state semifinalist Sharks last year and had 74 touchbacks in 85 chances. Depending on the recruiting outlet, Ash ranks between fourth (247 Sports Composite) to sixth (Rivals/On3).

Corey Durell Ruiz, 38, was shot and killed on a city street Wednesday, the moments of his death captured in bystander videos that were later posted online. The race of the officer who fired his gun has not been released by police. Ruiz is identified as Black or Latino in Wisconsin court records.

“It does not matter who you are or what your past is, you should not lose your life as a result of an encounter with law enforcement,” Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway said during a news conference Thursday afternoon.

Wisconsin court records show Ruiz had been in and out of jail over the past decade for mostly misdemeanor offenses including disorderly conduct, drug possession, auto theft, battery and invasion of privacy. He was also convicted of felonies including possession of cocaine and marijuana, robbery, strangulation, resisting an officer and causing bodily harm.

“He’s a human being. He had a family. He has parents who loved him, who brought him home, who cared for him,” Common Council President Sabrina Madison said, adding that she’s struggling to understand what she’s seen in videos of the shooting that have circulated on social media.

“My first thought is, when the officer’s walking away, why isn’t he walking away in cuffs?” Madison said. “I’m angry, there’s no way around it.”

Ruiz's family has retained Ben Crump, a prominent civil rights attorney, who said the case must be examined for excessive force.

Shooting sparks turmoil in a fed-up community

Frustrated residents marched, and a memorial of flowers and signs grew near the place where Ruiz died. It was just blocks from where two other police killings happened in 2015 and 2012.

A group of about 20 protesters burst into Thursday's news conference, taking the microphone from police Chief John Patterson and arguing with some attendees who said they wanted to hear more about the investigation.

One protester held a sign saying “Corrupt cops deserve to die too!!!”

Moments earlier, the mayor said the shooting would be “rigorously investigated.”

Once the protesters quieted down, the chief resumed his presentation, promising his department's full cooperation with the state investigation.

Police have released few details

None of the four officers who were detaining Ruiz wore body cameras, but passersby recorded the confrontation on video, and accused the officers of overreacting.

“I thought, ‘Holy cow — what could have warranted that?’ It looked to me like they had him under control,” David Ortiz-Whittingham, who saw officers swarming and heard the gunshots, said Thursday. “Even now, knowing about the knife, did he have to die for it? Could this have been de-escalated?”

The police chief released few details Thursday, saying a Wisconsin Division of Criminal Investigation probe of the officer-involved shooting must run its course.

Earlier Thursday, Madison's independent police monitor, Aeiramique Glass, said police had not yet shared evidence or the officer's identity with her office, which will review the case and can recommend to the district attorney that charges be filed if warranted. She said the department and city are “obstructing what the community and the public” want.

“Let me do my job,” she said.

Patterson said the police were committed to cooperating with Glass.

The chief urges people not to draw conclusions

Patterson has urged caution in reading too much from the cellphone videos. He said none show the perspective of the officers, and additional unreleased video was being reviewed.

The officer who fired his weapon is an 11-year veteran of the force, the chief said. He and the three other responding officers will be placed on administrative leave.

Patterson said police were responding to calls that someone was attempting to enter parked vehicles, and the suspect fled on a bike before the officers surrounded him. One deployed a taser, but Patterson said the effort failed to control the man.

In the videos circulating online, the man can be seen standing before he's brought to his knees as the officers struggle to force him into a prone position. Then he falls quickly to the pavement after what sounds like three gunshots, and seems motionless as the officers handcuff him behind his back. Arriving officers then escort one of the officers a short distance away.

Patterson said he did not know the extent of the knife injuries sustained by the officer.

“This situation was clearly dangerous,” Patterson said before adding he was saddened by the loss of life.

A neighborhood now accustomed to police shootings

The shooting happened in the middle of an intersection in the popular Marquette neighborhood, less than 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) from the state Capitol. Bystander videos show numerous cars at the scene, with people watching as it unfolds.

“I saw everything! I saw everything! You did not need to kill him! ... We watched it all!” a woman yells in the video recorded by Ortiz-Whittingham.

Residents who dealt with two other police killings expressed frustration Thursday.

In 2015, a white police officer shot and killed Tony Robinson, who was biracial, on the same street. Large protests followed, but the district attorney filed no charges, determining the officer was justified. In 2012, Paul Heenan, a white musician, was fatally shot after he had been drinking and mistakenly entered his neighbor's house. That officer was exonerated as well.

The chief acknowledged that the neighborhood “has experienced a lot of trauma” and urged people to support one another.

“I want transparency. I want accountability,” Patterson said.

Questions about race and technology emerge

Black advocacy groups, protesters and politicians are speaking out against the shooting, which has also focused attention on the Madison Police Department’s lack of body-worn cameras. The force of around 500 is among the largest in the Midwest that doesn’t use the devices.

Madison, the Common Council president, said Thursday that she expects a police request for $400,000 to be approved, enabling the cameras to be phased in over the next three years. Others lamented that cameras weren't already being used.

The mayor said her budget, which has not yet been released, will include funding for body-worn cameras. Rhodes-Conway said the city needs to put together a policy for their use before the budget takes effect in January.

And now it's a talking point in the governor's race

The shooting has quickly infused itself into the race to succeed Gov. Tony Evers, who is not seeking a third term. Voting is already underway in the Aug. 11 primary.

Democratic socialist candidate Francesca Hong called the shooting “state sanctioned violence.” Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, a Democrat, said the reports are “painfully reminiscent of the tragedies we have witnessed in Kenosha, Minneapolis, and far too many communities.”

Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany called on his rivals to let the state investigation “establish the facts without politicians rushing to judgment.”

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This story was first published on July 23, 2026. It was corrected on July 24, 2026, to remove inaccurate information about the killings of George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery. The story previously corrected the name of a state agency to the Division of Criminal Investigation, not the Department of Criminal Investigation.

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Associated Press writers Ed White in Detroit and Jake Offenhartz in New York contributed to this report.

The administration announced tariffs of 10% to 12.5% on 60 economies late Thursday, saying the countries had failed to adequately enforce a ban on goods made with forced labor.

The new tariffs took effect just as stopgap levies Trump imposed after a stinging defeat at the Supreme Court expired at 12:01 a.m. Friday.

Countries object to what they call unfounded labor claims

Australian Trade Minister Don Farrell rejected claims linking Australia, a major exporter of beef, gold and copper, to modern slavery and raising the tariff on its exports to the U.S. to 12.5% from the 10% level imposed after Trump’s “Liberation Day” hikes last year.

“We believe that amongst all of the countries in the world Australia does take the issue of slavery, modern slavery, seriously, and will continue to do that,” Farrell told reporters in Adelaide.

Australia believes the higher tariffs are “completely unjustified and we will continue to lobby the United States Trade Representative to remove all tariffs on Australian goods,” Farrell said.

New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said the tariffs on his country, also subject to a 12.5% import duty, were “extremely disappointing,” unjustified and harmful to trade.

A U.S. investigation serving as the basis for the tariffs did not provide meaningful evidence to support allegations of forced labor.

“Tariffs are not the way — they drive up costs and uncertainty for businesses,” he wrote on X.

European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas questioned the U.S. stance in comments on Channel News Asia.

“If you compare our labor laws to the ones of the United States, I mean we have, people have paid vacations, we have very good conditions, labor conditions for our employees, so it's not really grounded,” Kallas said.

Also facing a 12.5% tariff, Singapore’s Ministry of Trade and Industry said it would “continue to engage the USTR (United States Trade Representative) to explore options.”

Some hope to forestall the new tariffs

Japan likewise protested the 12.5% tariff imposed on its exports, noting Tokyo had been reassured by the Trump administration that there would be no more tariffs on top of an earlier agreement on a 10% U.S. import duty.

“Our understanding is both sides are still committed to that,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara said.

“It is regrettable that the measure imposes tariffs on the grounds of non-existence of measures banning imports of goods made by forced labor, even though Japan’s industry and trade are in line with international rules,” Kihara said.

South Korea’s trade ministry said the announcement eased some uncertainty over U.S. trade policy, but noted that a Section 301 investigation into alleged Korean excess production continues.

The combined duties on South Korean exports should not exceed 15%, the ministry said in a statement.

Thailand noted it is subject to the new 12.5% tariff by the U.S. under the forced labor provision, but the measure exempts around 2,120 items, representing more than half the value of Thai goods exported to the U.S.

China opposes unilateral tariffs in ‘all forms’

China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it “opposes all forms of unilateral tariffs” in response to the new 12.5% tariffs.

“Tariff wars and trade wars do not serve any parties' interests,” ministry spokesman Lin Jian said at a press conference.

Trade tensions have clouded relations between China and the U.S., two of the world’s biggest economies, as Trump’s hefty “Liberation Day” tariffs resulted in a sharp drop in Chinese exports to the U.S.

Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping, who agreed to set up new boards of trade and investment at their mid-May meeting in Beijing, are expected to meet again in September.

Some Chinese exporters say, however, the impacts are limited as the latest U.S. tariffs on China remain at lower levels than last year's rates, which were initially 34%.

“Of course it’d be best if they (the tariffs) are not there,” said Richard Chan, manager of Golden Arts Gifts & Decor, which manufactures Christmas trees and decorations in the southern Chinese city of Dongguan and supplies globally to those including Walmart.

Golden Arts' share of sales to the U.S., however, already have fallen as U.S. tariffs added more uncertainty. They have pivoted more to Europe, which now accounts for roughly 70% of their sales, Chan said.

The latest import duties might stick

Wendy Cutler, a former senior U.S. trade official, said the latest round of tariffs involved “few surprises” since they range just between 10% and 12.5%.

The U.S. Trade Representative's office spent four months investigating the basis for those tariffs to meet legal requirements under Section 301 of the U.S. Trade Act of 1974.

“Time will tell whether the third attempt to impose tariffs is the charm and this action stands up to legal challenges,” said Cutler, senior vice president of the Asia Society Policy Institute.

These duties are less likely than earlier ones to be overruled by U.S. courts, she said.

Further tariffs may be coming in the fall related to alleged structural excess capacity of trading partners, she noted.

Experts say these tariffs may be less disruptive

Washington has generally tended to engage in increased trade friction, William Bratton of BNP Paribas said in a research note Friday.

“On the positive side, however, these tariffs are lower than the earlier (Emergency Powers Act) ‘reciprocal’ tariffs and appear to exempt a substantial proportion of Asia’s current trade flows with the U.S.,” he said.

The Trump administration has made tariff exceptions, however, including imported goods that the U.S. does not produce, Cutler noted.

“This should reduce the impact of these duties. Nevertheless, they will contribute to higher prices both for end consumers and businesses importing inputs and machinery,” she said.

Immediate pushback, legal and political

There was immediate pushback, both legally, and politically.

The Liberty Justice Center, a libertarian advocacy group that successfully challenged earlier Trump tariffs, filed a lawsuit in the U.S. Court of International Trade in New York, challenging the double-digit import taxes that Trump imposed Friday.

The group called the new tariffs a pretext to allow Trump to maintain a wall of tariffs around the U.S. economy after the Supreme Court struck down big global taxes he’d imposed last year.

“The administration allowed one global tariff to expire and immediately replaced it with another under a different statute,” said Sara Albrecht, chair of the center. “Changing the statute doesn’t change the law. Every tariff authority has limits, and every administration must respect them.”

Her group represented businesses that successfully challenged Trump’s 2025 global tariffs.

Rep. Linda Sanchez, a California Democrat questioned the reasons for the latest slew of tariffs.

“If he was serious, he would not be applying the same tariff rate to China, one of the worst forced labor abusers in the world, as he does to countries like Australia,” she said. “Then again, unlike China, Australia doesn’t manufacture any Trump corporation products.”

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., said Americans will be the ones paying for the new tariffs.

“Instead of continuing his disastrous tariff scheme, the president must put the American people first and revoke these harmful policies that are making everyday Americans’ lives flat-out unaffordable," Gillibrand said. "At home in New York and across the country, people are struggling, and they need relief.”

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Chan reported from Hong Kong. Associated Press writers Tong-hyung Kim in Seoul, South Korea, Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo and Eileen Ng in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Grant Peck in Bangkok and Ken Moritsugu in Beijing, as well as AP Economics Writer in Washington, and AP Business Writer Michelle Chapman in New York, contributed to this report.

California has become notorious for its ponderously slow vote counts that can drag on for weeks and sometimes longer, largely the result of multiple changes over the years that were intended to increase turnout but have done little to achieve that. Among the changes: Every voter receives a mail-in ballot that can arrive at an election office seven days late and still be counted, provided the envelope is postmarked by Election Day.

Yet even with that generous weeklong window, the primary driver of the higher rejection numbers is late-arriving ballots, according to data compiled by the secretary of state's office. Voting experts suspect the main problem is postmarks on ballots that came after Election Day, making them ineligible to be counted. The culprit could be U.S. Postal Service changes that might affect the timing of when postmarks are applied.

Late-arriving ballots drove the rejections

According to state data, 148,241 mail ballots were rejected in the June election, or a rate of 1.73% of all mail ballots.

In raw numbers, that's up from the 2024 primary, when 108,982 mail ballots were rejected, or a 1.56% rate. In 2022, 105,818 mail ballots were voided during the primary, or a rate similar to 2024.

Lateness accounted for 93,479 rejected ballots in June, by far the largest category for disqualifying a ballot. That was up from about 70,000 in the 2022 primary and about 76,000 in the 2024 primary, though turnout in those elections was smaller compared to last June.

Kim Alexander, president of the nonpartisan California Voter Foundation, said the jump in rejected ballots because of lateness is a major concern that — along with postal procedures — might also be connected to a late surge in ballots in June. Many voters waited until the final days to make a decision in a wide-open and chaotic race for governor.

“Ballots rejected due to lateness are caused primarily to being postmarked too late to count, not because they arrived too late to count,” Alexander wrote in an email.

Rejection rates have fluctuated over time, but the growing number of those set aside for lateness compared to recent elections “does really demand the question why this is happening,” said Mindy Romero, director of the Center for Inclusive Democracy, a nonpartisan research group.

Lawmakers concerned about USPS postmark changes

In January, a group of mostly Democratic U.S. senators sent a letter to the U.S. Postal Service, alarmed that mail-processing changes might affect postmark dates for mail-in ballots during an election year that will determine control of Congress.

Updated agency policy says postmarks might not indicate the first day the Postal Service received the mail, but rather the day it was handled in one of its processing centers. Those centers are increasingly likely to be further away from certain communities because of recent consolidations within the Postal Service, which could further delay postmarks.

On Thursday, two Wisconsin Democrats, U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin and Gov. Tony Evers, called on the Postal Service to address delays that caused hundreds of ballots to arrive after Election Day in the state in April. In June, a federal judge halted President Donald Trump’s executive order that sought to create a federal voter list and limit who can receive a mail ballot.

Earlier this year, California election officials urged voters to send their mail ballots early, warning that Postal Service changes could lead to slower mail service.

In California, the highest mail ballot rejection rate in June — 3.52% — was in Tulare County, in the agriculture-heavy Central Valley. It was followed by Alpine County, south of Lake Tahoe, and Merced County, also in the Central Valley, which both notched a 3.36% rejection rate.

Mismatched signatures and multiple ballots in an envelope

Nearly 44,000 ballots were set aside because the voter’s signature didn't match the one on record with county officials. Over 8,300 ballots were rejected because there was no signature on the returned ballot envelope.

In 743 cases, the voter had already cast a ballot, so the mail ballot was voided. Other reasons for rejection included a ballot being missing from the return envelope, or multiple ballots were sent back in a single envelope.

The data didn’t break down the uncounted ballots by party registration.

Florida, Texas and other large population states quickly wrap up vote counting, while California is a national laggard.

After the June primary, President Donald Trump seized on California’s reputation as the national slowpoke in vote counting to renew his long-standing criticism of the state’s elections, while the Republican’s Department of Justice launched an investigation into Los Angeles County’s elections.

There is no indication of any widespread problems with mail voting, which has gained in popularity among Democrats and Republicans alike. A report by the Brookings Institution published in 2025 found that the number of cases of mail voting fraud was minuscule — about four cases per 10 million mail ballots.

The Republican president made the announcement a day after the EU hit Google with a fine of 890 million euros, or $1 billion, after it said the technology behemoth broke digital antitrust regulations by setting up Google Play and its ubiquitous search engine to corral consumers toward its own services and apps to the detriment of competitors.

In a lengthy post on social media, Trump said he has warned the EU about its practice of fining U.S. tech companies. He named Google, Apple, Meta, Amazon and others.

“The United States of America is not a ‘PIGGYBANK’ for Europe, nor will we allow it to be!” Trump said, adding that his post should serve as notice of an immediate trade investigation “into the practice of ‘ROBBING’ American Companies and, in turn, the American Taxpayer.”

“The European Union will pay a very big price for this illegal and highly unethical conduct, which I have consistently warned them about,” he said.

In the post, Trump asserted that the penalties against the companies “will be entirely reversed” and predicted “a substantial TARIFF” would be placed on the EU “at the earliest possible moment.”

“Stay tuned!” he said.

Investigation follows new Trump tariffs

Trump's move comes a day after the White House announced double-digit tariffs on imports from more than 60 countries, accusing them of inadequately enforcing bans on goods produced by forced labor. The new tariffs replace temporary 10% worldwide import taxes that Trump imposed after the Supreme Court struck down his biggest tariffs.

The new tariffs are being implemented using Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, which permits the president to impose import taxes and other sanctions against countries found to engage in “unjustifiable,” “unreasonable” or “discriminatory” trade practices.

José Castañeda, a spokesperson for Google, said the company has worked hard to comply with the EU's Digital Markets Act and has expressed its concerns about the effects of recent decisions by the European Commission.

"We appreciate the engagement by the administration and U.S. government,” he said.

Representatives of Amazon, Apple, Meta, and Microsoft did not immediately respond to requests for comment. There also was no immediate comment from the Brussels-based European Commission.

Trump had threatened retaliation over EU fines

The EU's billion-dollar fine against Google was the latest major crackdown on Big Tech by Brussels, which has led the world in reining in some of the world’s largest companies from Silicon Valley to Beijing.

It has done so despite the risk of incurring the wrath of Trump, who has lashed out at the 27-nation bloc’s digital regulations in a broader campaign against Europe: imposing high tariffs, making threats to seize Greenland from Denmark by force, and rattling trust within the NATO military alliance.

Trump had threatened retaliation if American tech companies are penalized.

Google had recently lost its appeal of a $4.5 billion antitrust fine imposed by the EU for throttling competition and reducing consumer choice through the dominance of its mobile Android operating system.

The European Commission, the bloc’s executive branch and highest antitrust enforcer, said it was acting in the interest of consumers after an investigation of Google.

“The best products should succeed because they’re better, not because they’re owned by the company running the search engine. And European consumers have a right to be told by app developers where to sign up to the best offers, even when the app store owner does not get a cut,” said Teresa Ribera, the commission’s executive vice president for clean, just and competitive transition.

Google’s president of global affairs, Kent Walker, assailed the fine as “product degradation driven by a small group of self-serving complainants” that will hurt European businesses and consumers.

He said the EU’s Digital Markets Act forces Google “to strip away real-time search features Europeans love — like instant pricing and direct availability for hotels, flights, and restaurants — and dismantle safety protections on Google Play.”

The EU describes some of the world’s leading tech giants — Amazon, Apple, Google parent Alphabet, Meta, Microsoft and TikTok owner ByteDance — as “gatekeepers” that control access for consumers.

“In the EU, businesses have the right to compete fairly. Gatekeepers have the obligation to ensure a level playing field and consumers the right to choose for cheaper alternative offers,” European Commission spokesperson Thomas Regnier said. Alphabet reported $403 billion in revenue last year.

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Associated Press writer Kaitlyn Huamani in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

We’ve gone from sizzling to scorched as heat and humidity combine for Feels Like temperatures up to 108 degrees today. The pattern continues Saturday with increasing chances of rain, cooling us off by a couple of degrees on Sunday.

A cold front will slide south, slowing over southeast Georgia on Sunday. Sea breeze showers and storms will be possible on Saturday, as the front will provide better chances of rain area-wide. Strong to isolated severe storms will be possible. Locally heavy rain, damaging winds, and lightning will be the main concerns.

Temperatures will remain above normal this weekend, with highs in the mid to upper 90s on Saturday. A Heat Advisory will be possible across all of NE FL and coastal SE GA, with peak heat indices of 107-110F, while inland SE GA will peak around 103-107F.

Tonight: Isolated inland showers and thunderstorms will be possible through around 10 p.m.

Saturday: Possible Heat Advisory. Hot and dry with scattered showers and thunderstorms, 30-40 percent. A warm start with lows in the 70s to low 80s. Afternoon highs in the low to mid 90s inland, upper 80s to low 90s along the beaches. Wind: S/SW 5-15 mph.

Sunday: Scattered showers with thunderstorms will develop along a slow-moving cold front. Rain chances will average 50-70 percent. Lows in the 70s to low 80s. Highs in the upper 80s to mid 90s. Wind: NW/SW 10-15 mph.

Looking ahead: Possible heat advisories next week with a chance of sea breeze showers and storms.

Tropics: It is quiet once again...

Sunrise: 6:41 p.m.

Sunset: 8:26 p.m.

Click here for more Addressing A4dability coverage.

The proposal includes $6.3 million dedicated to affordable housing programs, with the largest share, $4.9 million, used to launch Jacksonville’s first Affordable Housing Fund. The remaining funding would support homelessness services and housing-related initiatives.

The money would help pay for:

• Down payment assistance for first-time homebuyers.
• Incentives for developers to build affordable housing.
• Utility connection costs for new developments helping keep rents lower.

$1,000,000 is proposed to fund the city’s emergency rental assistance and eviction diversion program. According to the city, the program has helped more than 650 families avoid eviction over the past two and a half years.

Another $400,000 would fund heirs’ property assistance through LISC Jacksonville, helping families preserve inherited homes and prevent properties from being lost or sold outside the family.

City leaders say the investment is intended to increase affordable housing, help more residents become homeowners, prevent evictions and create a long-term funding source to address Jacksonville’s housing shortage.

Affordable Housing Director Joshua Hicks said Thursday that the city faces a shortage of 47,000 affordable housing units.

“This budget about what can we do today to address the problems of tomorrow,” Hicks told News4JAX. “The problems tomorrow is generating the supply that we need to ensure that we’re building enough affordable housing to compliment the workforce and market rate housing that we are building.”

The proposed trust fund would be seeded with $4.9 million this year and is designed to become a permanent source of local housing dollars rather than relying solely on annual budget negotiations.

Filling the workforce housing gap

One of the most anticipated pieces of the proposal is the return of Jacksonville’s locally funded down payment assistance program.

The program was last funded during the 2023-24 budget but was not included after most of the city’s affordable housing funding requests were cut in last year’s budget. In 2025, the City Council ultimately approved just $900,000 for affordable housing initiatives.

Without local funding, the city has relied on its federally funded down payment assistance program, which is limited to households earning 80% of the Area Median Income (AMI) or below. That currently equals $60,880 annually for one person or $86,960 for a family of four.

Eligible buyers can receive up to $25,000 in assistance through the federal program, which serves roughly 100 to 150 households each year. Participants are also required to complete home maintenance and financial education courses.

Because federal rules cap eligibility at 80% AMI, many working residents earn too much to qualify but still cannot afford to buy a home.

The mayor’s proposal would fill that gap by creating a locally funded program for households earning 81% to 120% of the Area Median Income, which is about $61,000 to $91,320 annually for one person or $94,000 to $140,880 for a family of four.

The proposed program would provide up to $15,000 in down payment assistance to eligible first-time homebuyers and is expected to help another 100 to 125 households if the City Council approves the proposed $1.5 million allocation. Participants would also complete homeownership education before purchasing a home.

“Down payment assistance program, rental assistance programs, and other eviction diversion programs allows people to stay housed who are currently in financial need,” Hicks said. “That’s vitally important."

Hicks said the goal is to help teachers, nurses, police officers and other working professionals who make too much for federal assistance but still struggle to afford today’s housing market.

He also said increasing homeownership benefits the broader housing market by helping renters transition into ownership, freeing up rental units while allowing families to build long-term wealth through homeownership.

Looking beyond one budget cycle

The proposed trust fund also represents a different approach than previous affordable housing proposals.

Two years ago, a proposed $10 million affordable housing fund failed to win City Council approval. Last year, most of the administration’s affordable housing request was removed from the budget.

This year, the Deegan administration is proposing both the funding and companion legislation to formally establish the trust fund, with the long-term goal of creating recurring revenue that would continue supporting affordable housing beyond future budget cycles.

If approved, Jacksonville would join several Florida communities, including Miami, Orlando, St. Petersburg and Pinellas County that already operate affordable housing trust funds. Housing advocates say those dedicated funds provide stable, long-term local funding to build and preserve affordable housing rather than depending on annual budget decisions.

The City Council will consider the proposal during this year’s budget hearings.

Kim birdied the final four holes of his bogey-free round at TPC Twin Cities to get to 14-under for the tournament.

This marks the fourth 59 on tour since 2024. Jake Knapp was the last to do so during the first round of the 2025 Cognizant Classic. Jim Furyk holds the tour record with a 58 at the 2016 Travelers Championship.

“Today was an awesome day, but still, I’m only halfway there so still need to kind of get focused up for the weekend,” said Kim, who shot 69 Thursday and holds a three-shot lead over first-round leader Ben Kohles after the Friday morning rounds.

Kohles shot a 2-under 69 to get to 11-under. His post-round interview was interrupted by a roar when Kim made his final putt.

“That’s sick,” he said smiling. “There’s a 59. I guess 62 wasn’t as good.”

Kim’s mindset is to not play “too protective.” That is not easy at the par-3 No. 17 and par-5 No. 18 where water lines each hole.

“I just kind of told myself like, ‘Hey, this is the way, this is the moment to get into the history books and let’s go for it, let’s not try to luck our way into it, let’s try to step up and hit some really good shots,’” he said.

Kim made a 17-foot birdie putt on No. 17, and a wedge from 124 yards landed pin high but rolled to the fringe of the 18th green, leaving an uphill putt with little break.

“I tend to leave those short when it’s that uphill and I just, last thing was just get it there, just don’t leave it short,” said Kim, who raised his hands and did a few fist bumps when the ball sank into the cup.

Kim, whose previous career low round was 62, made five straight birdies beginning on No. 3 and added three in a four-hole stretch beginning on No. 9.

Eight of his birdies were from more than 10 feet.

“When you hit a putt and it does exactly what you kind of envisioned before you hit it, it’s an awesome feeling. Felt like that all day out there,” said Kim, whose lone tour win came at the 2018 John Deere Classic.

Second in the Valero Texas Open in April, Kim's best finish in 12 tournaments since was 17th, and he missed four cuts, including the past three weeks at the British Open, Scottish Open and John Deere Classic.

Playing the previous five weeks, Kim thought about skipping this week’s tour stop.

“I felt decent energy-wise," Kim said, "so I went home after I missed the cut at the Open, just spent a couple days relaxing and came up here and really happy I did.”

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

Sheriff T.K. Waters made clear the enforcement isn’t aimed at car culture — it’s aimed at keeping people safe.

Recent operations lead to dozens of arrests

Several recent car meetups in Jacksonville ended with deputies making arrests after events turned dangerous. During a meetup in Tinseltown, people were seen on video speeding and doing burnouts in a parking lot. JSO officers swarmed the scene during “Operation Braking News,” resulting in more than 20 arrests.

A second operation the following Friday brought more enforcement action. JSO’s “Operation Friday Night Lights” resulted in eight arrests for street racing, including two DUI arrests.

During a news conference Monday, Waters warned of an expected car meetup scheduled for this Saturday, though he declined to release further details.

“As long as these gatherings happen in Duval County, JSO will carefully monitor them and arrest anyone engaging in criminal behavior,” Waters said. “I hear you’re planning on doing it again this Saturday. We’ll see you there.”

When asked how JSO received information about the potential meetup, the agency declined to answer, saying only that intel teams closely monitor these kinds of activities. Multiple Facebook pages have been used to organize these events.

Traffic fatalities outpace homicides in Jacksonville

According to JSO, there have been 105 traffic fatalities in Jacksonville so far this year — a number that far exceeds the city’s homicide total.

Drivers attending legal car meetups say safety is a priority for the community.

“Safety’s the main concern, right? We wanna make sure that, you know, everybody goes to these events to have fun and not have to worry about somebody bringing in guns or kids trying to destroy the property or gangs, uh, in the area,” said Levan Sims, a driver.

David Jennings, another driver, said the danger extends to everyone in the area.

“It’s not safe. It causes kids to be in places that they shouldn’t be and get in trouble that they shouldn’t have to get in, you know. So if we do our jobs and stop these extra little meetups, because we have those in Atlanta too, and it’s not safe for the kids, it’s not safe for adults, it’s not safe for the elderly. It’s just a bad situation altogether,” Jennings said.

Sheriff: ‘Street racing is illegal and dangerous’

What starts as a car meetup can quickly turn to illegal street racing. Waters has been direct about where JSO stands.

“We will never interfere with car enthusiasts who gather for safe and legal fun. I like cars myself. But street racing is illegal and dangerous,” Waters said.

Under Florida law, spectators shouldn’t assume they’re safe, either. Simply attending an illegal street racing event can result in costly citations.

JSO says it will continue closely monitoring social media and flyers promoting car meetups going forward. Anyone who witnesses street racing or reckless driving is urged to call 911.

Anthony Jones, 37, and Erica Bryant, 33, both of Jacksonville, were each charged with five counts of child neglect without great bodily harm, a third-degree felony. Both were booked into jail in the early morning hours of July 19.

What officers say they found

Officers were dispatched to the couple’s apartment on the evening of July 18, 2026, to assist the Department of Children and Family Services (DCF) with a well-being check. A DCF investigator had been called to the home after one of the children had been admitted to Wolfson Children’s Hospital at the recommendation of her primary care physician.

Upon entering the apartment, the arresting officer observed four juveniles who were described as “extremely thin in stature”, according to arrest reports. One child in particular showed visible signs of malnourishment, with the officer noting “boney prominence.” JSO says Jones was detained after repeatedly interrupting DCF’s attempt to independently interview the children.

Children evaluated at Wolfson Children’s Hospital

All five children were transported to Wolfson Children’s Hospital for full medical evaluations. An ER doctor examined each child and found all to be underweight for their age, according to the reports.

Police say one child weighed just 44 pounds and showed bruising on the left ankle, unexplained marks on the back, a right abdominal scar, and a bruise on the right side and back. The child told hospital staff that something tight had previously been around the ankle. A second child, weighing 75 pounds, had bruising to the right rib cage and a bruise and scrape to the left pinky finger. A third child weighed 61 pounds and had open wounds on both earlobes that the child could not explain. A fourth child weighed 63 pounds and had a scrape around one of his wrists and a forearm scar.

A registered nurse, who was providing care to two of the children, told officers that one child said he and a sibling had not eaten that day — and that they had been instructed by an adult in the home to lie to the DCF investigator. The child also told the nurse that a scar on his right forearm was the result of Bryant attempting to cut his arm, with Jones pulling him away, according to court documents.

Suspects questioned

According to JSO, Jones told police the children had not eaten that day — despite the children waking up at 1 p.m. and officers arriving nearly nine hours later at approximately 10 p.m. Jones said he had been waiting for the DCF investigator to arrive before feeding the children because he “did not want someone in the house while the children were eating.” When asked about groceries, he said the last purchase had been made during the first week of July.

Officers noted the kitchen was stocked with food, including deli meat, bread, and frozen items.

Bryant told officers she had been at the hospital with one of the children during the initial welfare check. She said Jones had been responsible for cooking in the household over the past three years. She also said she would not force the children to eat and that children could only get snacks after dinner.

The Bulldogs received 88 of 164 votes to reach the title game at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta in early December. Texas was the second choice, with 57 votes, and Mississippi a distant third with six. Texas A&M, Alabama, Oklahoma, LSU and Kentucky also received votes.

Only 10 times since 1992 has the media’s preseason predicted champion proceeded to win the SEC title game.

Media also voted on preseason All-SEC teams, with Ole Miss’ Trinidad Chambliss edging Texas’ Arch Manning for first-team quarterback.

Predicted order of finish

1. Georgia, 2,510 points

2. Texas, 2,449

3. Mississippi, 2,004

4. Texas A&M, 1,967

5. LSU, 1,961

6. Alabama, 1,930

7. Oklahoma, 1,914

8. Tennessee, 1,320

9. Florida, 1,217

10. Missouri, 1,105

11. South Carolina, 956

12. Auburn, 936

13. Vanderbilt, 751

14. Kentucky, 546

15. Mississippi State, 467

16. Arkansas, 262

First-team offense

QB: Trinidad Chambliss, Mississippi

RB: Kewan Lacy, Mississippi; Ahmad Hardy, Missouri

WR: Cam Coleman, Texas; Ryan Coleman-Williams, Alabama

TE: Trey’Dez Green, LSU

OG/OT: Trevor Goosby, Texas; Cayden Green, Missouri; Jordan Seaton, LSU; Earnest Greene III, Georgia

C: Drew Bobo, Georgia

All-purpose: Mario Craver, Texas A&M

First-team defense

DL: Colin Simmons, Texas; Will Echoles, Mississippi; Dylan Stewart, South Carolina; Princewill Umanmielen, LSU

LB: Whit Weeks, LSU; Xavier Atkins, Auburn; Rasheem Biles, Texas

DB: KJ Bolden, Georgia; Zabien Brown, Alabama; Bray Hubbard, Alabama; Ellis Robinson IV, Georgia

First-team specialists

PK: Tate Sandell, Oklahoma

P: Grant Chadwick, LSU

Return specialist: Ryan Niblett, Texas

Kickoff specialist: Tate Sandell, Oklahoma

Long snapper: Ben Anderson, Oklahoma

Second-team offense

QB: Arch Manning, Texas

RB: Jadan Baugh, Florida; Nate Frazier, Georgia

WR: Mario Craver, Texas A&M; Isaiah Sategna III, Oklahoma

TE: Lawson Luckie, Georgia

OG/OT: Dontrell Glover, Georgia; Michael Fasusi, Oklahoma; Michael Carroll, Alabama; Lance Heard, Kentucky

C: Mark Nabou Jr., Texas A&M

All-purpose: Ryan Niblett, Texas

Second-team defense

DL: David Stone, Oklahoma; Elijah Griffin, Georgia; Taylor Wein, Oklahoma; Quincy Rhodes Jr., Arkansas

LB: Raylen Wilson, Georgia; Suntarine Perkins, Mississippi; Kip Lewis, Oklahoma

DB: Kelley Jones, Mississippi State; DJ Pickett, LSU; Ty Benefield, LSU; Eli Bowen, Oklahoma; Peyton Bowen, Oklahoma

Second-team specialists

PK: Lucas Carneiro, Mississippi

P: Grayson Miller, Oklahoma

Return specialist: Isaiah Sategna III, Oklahoma

Kickoff specialist: Lucas Carneiro, Mississippi

Long snapper: Trey Dubuc, Texas

Third-team offense

QB: Gunner Stockton, Georgia

RB: DeSean Bishiop, Tennessee; Hollywood Smothers, Texas

WR: Ryan Wingo, Texas; Nyck Harbor, South Carolina

TE: Willie Rodriguez, Kentucky

OG/OT: David Sanders Jr., Tennessee; Patrick Kutas, Mississippi; Brandon Baker, Texas; Wendell Moe Jr., Tennessee

C: Braelin Moore, LSU

All-purpose: Jaden Baugh, Florida

Third-team defense

DL: Kam Franklin, Mississippi; DJ Hicks, Texas A&M; Gabe Harris, Georgia; Jayden Woods, Florida

LB: Arion Carter, Tennessee; TJ Dottery, LSU; Yhonzae Pierre, Alabama

DB: Keon Sabb, Alabama; Champ Anthony, Auburn; Khalil Barnes, Georgia; Jelani McDonald, Texas

Third-team specialists

PK: Alex McPherson, Auburn

P: Ethan Pulliam, Mississippi State

Return specialist: Vernell Brown III, Florida

Kickoff specialist: Terry Bussey, Texas A&M

Long snapper: Brett Le Blanc, Missouri

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Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here and here (AP News mobile app). AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-football

The Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department told News4JAX it transported two adults with critical injuries.

CSX sent a statement to News4JAX about the accident.

At approximately 10:55 a.m. on Friday, July 24, two contractors were injured in an industrial incident at CSX’s Jacksonville Intermodal Yard. The contractors were dismantling cranes when one of the cranes collapsed. Both were transported to a local hospital with unknown injuries.

CSX appreciates the swift response of the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office and Jacksonville Fire Department and is supporting their response on scene. The cause of the incident is under investigation.

CSX Spokesperson

CSX sent a follow-up statement saying that the two injured were subcontractors working for the scrapping company performing the crane dismantling work.

The train yard is located at 5902 Sportsman Club Road.

This story is developing and it will be updated as we learn more.

Yusniel Lara, 40, was arrested after detectives say a weeks-long investigation tied him to a string of fuel thefts at Circle K locations in Deltona and DeLand.

Circle K stations in both cities reported multiple thefts on July 6 and July 12, with a combined loss of about 300 gallons of diesel fuel. Surveillance video from each location captured the same suspect vehicle — a white Ram 2500 pickup. Detectives used license plate reader data to identify the truck and trace it back to Lara.

Similar thefts were also reported in Sanford and Ocala during the same period.

Investigators say they entered Lara’s truck into the system as a felony vehicle. On Wednesday, a license plate reader in DeLand flagged the tag, prompting DeLand Police Department officers to locate the truck at the same Circle K where fuel had previously been stolen.

DeLand PD detained Lara, and VSO detectives responded to the scene. They say what they found painted a clear picture.

“On the driver’s seat, detectives found a large magnet commonly used to steal diesel fuel from pumps,” according to the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office. “In the pickup bed was a large auxiliary fuel tank with the cap open, but not yet filled.”

Detectives also discovered that an access panel on the gas pump itself had been pried open. A pry tool was found in the driver’s door compartment of Lara’s truck, according to deputies.

Lara now faces multiple counts of larceny. The Sheriff’s Office says additional charges are possible as investigators continue to look into similar cases in the region.

The reigning Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks and the New England Patriots opened camp on Friday, joining the Arizona Cardinals and Carolina Panthers. The Los Angeles Rams and San Francisco 49ers report on Saturday, and the remaining 26 teams start on Tuesday.

Ten teams have new head coaches, 21 have new offensive coordinators and 14 brought in new defensive coordinators.

Here are the top stories to watch:

Will Aaron Donald come out of retirement?

The three-time AP NFL Defensive Player of the Year is contemplating a comeback to team with star edge rusher Myles Garrett and increase the Rams’ chances of winning another Super Bowl in their home stadium.

Donald is 35 and hasn’t played since retiring after the 2023 season. He played a key role for Los Angeles when the Rams won the Super Bowl five years ago.

Will Patrick Mahomes be ready for Week 1?

The three-time Super Bowl MVP tore two ligaments in his left knee last Dec. 14 as the Chiefs were on their way to a 6-11 finish. Mahomes had surgery to repair his ACL and LCL a day later, and participated in Kansas City’s offseason practices. He is on track to play against Denver on Sept. 14, barring any setbacks. If Mahomes starts the opener, it’ll be eight months post-injury.

Will Baker Mayfield get a contract extension?

Mayfield is in the final season of a three-year, $100 million deal with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He tailed off after an outstanding start last season when he played through several injuries. Mayfield wants to stay with Tampa Bay and the Bucs want him. He’s expected to get around $55 million per season and it’s just a matter of when the two sides reach an agreement.

Which quarterbacks will win the competition for starting jobs?

There’s a battle between two lefties in Atlanta where Tua Tagovailoa and Michael Penix Jr. will compete. A change of scenery could help Tagovailoa regain his Pro Bowl form.

Kyler Murray and J.J. McCarthy fight for the starting job in Minnesota. Murray, a two-time Pro Bowl QB in Arizona, is the favorite to start Week 1. McCarthy was the Vikings’ first-round pick in 2024 and could even end up No. 3 behind veteran Carson Wentz.

Deshaun Watson has a shot to start in Cleveland after tearing his right Achilles tendon twice in a span of three months and sitting out the 2025 season. Watson is in the final year of a five-year, fully guaranteed $230 million contract. Sheduer Sanders, who was 3-4 as a starter as a rookie, showed glimpses of his potential and will get an opportunity to win the job.

How many first-team reps will Fernando Mendoza get in camp and preseason?

Kirk Cousins is expected to start in Las Vegas but Mendoza could end up starting sooner than later. It’ll be interesting to see how many first-team snaps rookie coach Klint Kubiak gives Mendoza, the Heisman Trophy winner, national champion and No. 1 overall pick.

How does Sean Mannion change the Eagles’ offense?

The 2024 Super Bowl champs won 11 games last season despite an inconsistent offense that cost Kevin Patullo his job as offensive coordinator. Sean Mannion took over after coaching Green Bay’s QBs last season. He was a journeyman quarterback in the NFL between 2015-23 and brings a new system that’s rooted in Sean McVay and Kyle Shanahan’s philosophies of pre-snap motion, under-center plays and use of play-action.

He’ll be the sixth OC in seven seasons for Jalen Hurts, who won’t have A.J. Brown as his primary receiver this season.

Can the Seahawks transition from Kubiak to Brian Fleury seamlessly?

The Super Bowl champs replaced Kubiak with another one of Shanahan’s disciples. Kubiak and Fleury worked together previously in San Francisco. Fleury served in various roles with the 49ers and coaches tight ends and was the run game coordinator in 2025. He plans to keep much of Kubiak’s system, which allowed Sam Darnold to thrive.

How are players returning from injuries progressing?

QBs Bo Nix (ankle) and Daniel Jones (Achilles) are expected to be ready for Week 1. Nix was injured in Denver’s playoff win against Buffalo and missed the AFC title game. Jones got hurt in Week 14 last season as the Colts were in the middle of a 7-game losing streak to end a season they began 8-2.

Tight end George Kittle (Achilles) could return to San Francisco’s lineup in the first month. Giants running back Cam Skattebo (tibia/ankle), Dolphins RB De’Von Achane (shoulder), 49ers edges Nick Bosa (ACL), Mykell Williams (ACL), Jaguars cornerback Travis Hunter (LCL) and Giants wide receiver Malik Nabers (ACL) are also coming back from significant injuries.

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AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl

The ballistic missile strike came a day after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met in Kyiv with senior representatives of Raytheon, the U.S. company that makes the Patriot air defense systems that Ukraine desperately needs to counter the devastating ballistic missiles Russia uses to advance its invasion. Raytheon didn't immediately respond to an email inquiring whether any of its workers were at the event.

“Missiles for Patriot systems are the number one priority,” Zelenskyy said on social media, where he reported the attack.

The attack hit the grounds of a privately operated military training site that was hosting an event, acting regional military administration head Ruslan Oliinyk wrote on Facebook, citing preliminary information. The site is about 20-30 kilometers (12-19 miles) from central Kyiv, in the Bucha district.

Emergency crews responded to the area, where 27 homes and 44 vehicles also were damaged, Oliinyk said.

The Ukrainian Defense Industry Council, which describes itself as the country’s largest association of private defense manufacturers, said industry representatives were at the site when it was hit, although it did not immediately provide further details.

Ruslan Kravchenko, the country’s prosecutor general, opened a war crimes investigation into the attack and a separate criminal case over possible negligence in organizing the event.

Investigators will examine who approved its location, timing and format, and whether adequate precautions were taken, Kravchenko said.

The Ukrainian government imposed reporting restrictions on the attack.

Meanwhile, a Ukrainian attack on a military plant in Russia killed six people and wounded 26 others, the regional governor said.

Zelenskyy meets with delegation from US company Raytheon

The Raytheon meeting came less than three weeks after U.S. President Donald Trump vowed to give Ukraine a license to produce Patriots. The pledge marked an important shift, as Trump recently adopted a more positive tone toward Zelenskyy.

In another sign that Ukraine is changing minds in Washington, ardent Trump ally Laura Loomer met with Zelenskyy in Kyiv on Thursday. After years of minimizing the invasion, she rebuked Russian President Vladimir Putin for missile attacks on Ukraine.

The Ukrainian leader said late Thursday that he held talks with a Raytheon delegation, adding that the company was ready to jointly produce Patriot interceptors with Ukraine. The system is comprised of radars, command-and-control systems, and different types of interceptor missiles.

The company made no immediate comment about the meeting on its website or social media accounts.

“Our teams — both at the government level and from the private sector — will stay in close touch to work (it) out,” Zelenskyy said on social media.

Zelenskyy is keen to move quickly on a coproduction agreement as Russia relentlessly fires ballistic missiles that are hard to stop and cause civilian casualties as well as inflicting huge damage on civilian areas.

Zelenskyy has for several years been pleading for more and quicker Patriot deliveries from Western partners. Ukraine has developed its own innovative air defenses, but large-scale production is vital.

Even so, experts and Kyiv officials have cautioned that setting up production in Ukraine would likely take years.

Ukraine hits another hub of Russia's biggest online retailer

When the Trump administration engaged in a diplomatic effort to end the war last year, Putin portrayed Russia as negotiating from a position of strength. The peace efforts have produced no results so far.

But since first attacking its neighbor in 2014, Russia has captured only around 20% of the country.

Now, the Russian army’s advance is stalling due to Ukraine’s successful front-line and mid- and long-range attacks using cutting-edge drone technology it has developed at home and that is now coveted by other countries, Western officials and analysts say.

Ukraine has expanded its campaign of disruption with bigger and increasingly frequent drone attacks inside Russia that are hitting high-profile targets, causing fuel shortages and piling pressure on Putin.

Ukrainian forces again targeted the logistical hubs of Wildberries, Russia’s biggest online retailer that is often compared to Amazon, the company’s founder said Friday.

Founder Tatyana Kim said Wildberries logistical facilities came under attack in St. Petersburg, the adjacent Leningrad region and in Simferopol — a city in illegally annexed Crimea.

Photos and videos published by Russian media showed massive plumes of smoke rising over St. Petersburg.

Ukraine struck four other Wildberries warehouses across Russia in recent days, sparking massive fires.

Kyiv officials want ordinary Russians to feel the consequences of the war and question whether Putin can keep them safe. The almost daily attacks have caused consternation in Russia.

Ukraine keeps targeting Russian oil facilities, weapons plants

Ukrainian long-range weapons hit an oil facility nearly 1,350 kilometers (840 miles) from the Ukrainian border, as well as a military plant, Zelenskyy said Friday.

The plant in Russia's Kirov region makes components for aircraft and missiles used in attacks on Ukrainian cities, he said.

The Ukrainian attack on the military plant killed six people and wounded 26 others, regional governor Alexander Sokolov said. He didn’t identify the plant, but Astra online news outlet said it was the Avitec plant, which makes air defense missiles and aircraft components.

The Russian Defense Ministry reported Friday that its air defenses shot down 571 Ukrainian drones overnight.

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This story was corrected to show that the Ukrainian attack that killed six people in Russia was on the military plant, not the oil facility.

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

The IOC said on Friday it has no jurisdiction to investigate Infantino’s alleged lack of political neutrality.

A London-based NGO formally complained this month to the International Olympic Committee ethics commission about Infantino, including his part in ensuring United States forward Folarin Balogun did not serve a mandatory one-game ban despite being sent off in the previous game.

The IOC’s Olympic Charter cites neutrality among “fundamental principles of Olympism” for sports bodies like FIFA and its 100-plus members, which has included Infantino since 2020.

No formal investigation will be opened, the IOC said, because the complaint by rights group FairSquare did not relate to FIFA’s or Infantino’s specific relations with the Olympic body.

The complaint “refers only to (FIFA’s) decisions on its governance and its management, including its relations with government, and to (FIFA’s) implementation of the rules of its sport,” the IOC said in a statement.

“Consequently, the complaint falls outside the IOC ethics commission’s jurisdiction,” the statement said.

The ethics body does not have independent powers to start investigations and sanction officials, but can make recommendations to the IOC executive board chaired by President Kirsty Coventry. She attended the World Cup final last Sunday at East Rutherford, New Jersey.

Action has been taken against just one IOC member in the past eight years for unethical conduct: Sheikh Ahmad al-Fahad al-Sabah, a key power broker who built a reputation as the “kingmaker” of Olympic elections.

___

AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games

The OIG conducted a procurement and safety compliance review evaluating more than $30 million in public food services funds managed by DCPS.

Investigators found the district consistently authorized commercial kitchen renovations, heavy mechanical utility upgrades and electrical installations districtwide — without obtaining required construction permits under the State Requirements for Educational Facilities, known as SREF, of the Florida Building Code.

Under Florida law, Section 453 of the SREF establishes mandatory statewide standards that apply to all public educational facilities and supersede all conflicting local building codes.

Those protocols require mandatory plan reviews, separate trade permitting for building, mechanical, electrical, plumbing and gas work, and formal safety inspections before any facility is used by students and staff.

How the investigation unfolded

The OIG launched its formal review Sept. 17, 2025, focusing on SREF construction permits within DCPS Food Services projects. Analysts requested all food service permits issued by Code Enforcement since Jan. 1, 2021, and cross-referenced kitchen labor contracts and purchase orders against historical permit logs.

The analysis flagged multiple high-value projects that should have triggered SREF permits but lacked any corresponding documentation.

Investigators then sought formal interviews with key DCPS leadership — including the Executive Director for Facilities, the Director of Code Enforcement, a Building Code Inspector and an Electrical Code Inspector. DCPS legal counsel later informed the OIG that the Executive Director for Facilities had resigned from the district.

In October 2024, before the formal review began, the OIG and the Jacksonville Fire Marshal had already conducted an onsite inspection at Westside Middle School following significant renovations.

That inspection revealed numerous potential SREF violations, helping lay the groundwork for the broader review.

What investigators found in the schools

On Dec. 17, 2025, OIG personnel conducted joint site visits with DCPS Code Enforcement at San Pablo Elementary and Neptune Beach Elementary. At both campuses, investigators found custom, unpermitted serving lines.

At San Pablo Elementary, the team uncovered a brand-new commercial range hood — an asset that Code Enforcement personnel had no record, memory or documentation of ever inspecting.

Between Jan. 23 and Jan. 27, 2026, investigators visited the Young Men’s Leadership Academy (YMLA) at Eugene J. Butler and North Shore Elementary, where they discovered severe unpermitted electrical and structural deficiencies.

Inspectors found exposed, raw utility wiring, open electrical junctions and completely uninsulated floor connections running beneath newly installed cafeteria serving lines.

At Eugene J. Butler, flexible utility hoses and power cables were found resting directly on kitchen floor tiles — creating both a tripping hazard and a risk of being crushed or disconnected if the equipment is moved.

On Feb. 2, 2026, Code Enforcement personnel made a key admission to the OIG: the contractor responsible for the North Shore Elementary serving lines was “absolutely required” to obtain permits.

Management conceded that the vendor’s work should have undergone a full inspection under Section 453 protocols.

Despite that admission, the OIG sent follow-up inquiries to Code Enforcement on March 17, 2026, regarding the outstanding hazardous defects at San Pablo and North Shore. No response was received.

A follow-up on March 30, 2026, confirmed that staff had still not returned to North Shore Elementary, leaving the unpermitted defects active and uncorrected.

Nearly $1 million spent at one school — twice

The investigation also raised procurement red flags at North Shore Elementary, where DCPS paid nearly $1 million to a single contractor for cafeteria serving line installations over two consecutive years — neither of which was permitted or inspected.

In September 2021, Aptitude Associates Inc. of Riverview, Florida, was contracted to install custom serving lines at North Shore for approximately $499,272.

Less than a year later, in September 2022, Aptitude Associates was contracted again at the same school for approximately $372,480 — bringing the combined total to more than $871,000.

Both projects were flagged for being completed without required SREF permits. Field inspections later confirmed the serving lines installed under Purchase Order No. 4523001598 — the 2022 contract — contained the severe electrical deficiencies described above. Notably, the serving lines at North Shore were also reported to be too tall for elementary school students.

DCPS did not respond to the OIG’s report within the required 10-business-day window.

What the OIG recommends

The OIG is calling for immediate action on several fronts. Among its key recommendations:

• Safety sweeps of all food service facilities modified since 2021
• Financial controls requiring proof of a verified SREF permit before procurement can release project funds or close out purchase orders
• Contractor performance evaluations to assess whether Aptitude Associates and other involved vendors violated SREF statutory mandates — and whether debarment from future district contracts is warranted
• Formal disciplinary reviews for administrative personnel who authorized renovations outside statutory requirements

View the full report below:

DCPS shared the following statement on the newly released report:

After receiving media inquiries yesterday, Duval County Public Schools conducted an internal review and confirmed that the Office of Inspector General’s July 1, 2026, communication was inadvertently missed and, as a result, the district did not submit a response within the requested timeframe.

“We sincerely apologize for our unintentional failure to respond to the Office of Inspector General’s report within the requested timeframe,” said Superintendent Dr. Christopher Bernier. “I have personally reached out to the OIG, and our team is preparing a comprehensive response to the audit findings for the OIG. We take these findings seriously, are committed to addressing the issues identified, and will review our internal processes to ensure this oversight does not happen again.”

The district appreciates the work of the Office of Inspector General and remains committed to transparency, accountability, and maintaining safe learning environments for all students and staff.

A new campaign launched Friday will promote programs that let veterans who recently drove large military vehicles skip the required skills test for a commercial driver’s license. Other soldiers can attend a commercial driving school during their last six months of active duty. The GI Bill will also pay for 100% of commercial driver's license training and for some people even pay a housing allowance while they are in school.

The campaign will be part of a broader interagency effort to help veterans find good civilian jobs that the White House plans to announce on Monday.

The Transportation Department began enforcing existing English language requirements for truckers last summer. Concerns about truck driver qualifications then took on more urgency after an August crash in Florida, when a truck driver performed an illegal U-turn that killed three people. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said that driver, who is from India, should never have been licensed in the first place.

Audits conducted in every state uncovered numerous non-domiciled commercial driver's licenses that remained valid long after an immigrant's work permits had expired or were issued without properly verifying their citizenship status.

Since then, about 26,000 drivers have been pulled off the road for failing to demonstrate English proficiency, and the Transportation Department said 30,000 commercial licenses were canceled because they were issued illegally. The federal government has tried to withhold millions of dollars of highway funds from California and New York for failing to comply and revoke thousands more licenses, but that has wound up in court. Several other states — including Pennsylvania, Minnesota and North Carolina — have been warned they are at risk of losing funding.

“We are removing more and more dangerous foreign drivers off our roads every day and restoring the integrity of America’s trucking industry,” Duffy said. “Our new Freedom Haulers campaign will help build on these successes and get the word out that there’s never been a better time for America’s former service members to get behind the wheel of a big rig.”

The federal government has been actively enforcing CDL rules

The trucking industry has applauded the administration's effort to get unqualified drivers off the road and close down sham CDL schools, and companies praised this new effort to get more veterans behind the wheel.

“Veterans make up 15% of our workforce and bring the highest levels of leadership, discipline and technical skills that are essential to our success. We are dedicated to providing them with meaningful careers and a supportive environment where they can thrive," said Derek Leathers, who is chairman and CEO of Werner Enterprises.

Cole Stevens, who is chief strategy officer at the trucking company that bears his last name, said veterans' backgrounds make them great drivers.

“Some of the best drivers and industry leaders I’ve had the privilege of working with are military veterans," Stevens said. “Their integrity, accountability, and mission-first mindset make them an incredible asset.”

In addition to enforcing existing restrictions, the government announced plans to restrict which immigrants can qualify for a non-domiciled commercial driver's license and require them to take the test in English, but those rules are being challenged in court.

The only immigrant drivers who can get a license under the new rules are holders of an H-2A, H-2A or E-2 visa. H-2A is for temporary agricultural workers while H-2B is for temporary nonagricultural workers, and E-2 is for people who make substantial investments in a U.S. business.

Immigrants account for about 20% of all truck drivers, but all of these non-domiciled licenses for immigrants represent only about 5% of all commercial driver’s licenses, or about 200,000 drivers.

Some immigrant groups have said they believe that many drivers are being unfairly targeted. The spotlight has been on Sikh truckers because the driver in the Florida crash and the driver in another fatal crash in California in October are both Sikh.

Truck driving may appeal to veterans

The Transportation Department plans to work with the Pentagon and Departments of Veterans Affairs and Labor to promote the career field as a good job that offers independence to veterans who don't want a desk job in civilian life.

Veterans still have to study the rules and pass the written test for a commercial driver's license, but soldiers who recently drove big military vehicles over 2.5 tons (2.25 metric tons) can skip the skills test. The government said more than 40,000 veterans have already used that program, which can enable them to get on the road within a few weeks.

The Transportation Department said that truck drivers currently make an average of $70,000 a year, as the truck market has tightened up and rates have increased.

Veterans who served for at least three years can also use the money from the GI Bill program to pay for CDL training, and they might even qualify for a housing stipend.

Combs, 55, is currently serving his sentence at FCI Fort Dix, a low-security federal facility situated on a military base outside Philadelphia. According to TMZ, the fight began after an inmate insulted Combs and was quickly stopped by staff.

Conviction, sentencing

Combs was sentenced to 50 months in prison in October 2025, following his federal trial that summer. He was convicted on two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution. Combs was acquitted on more serious sex trafficking and racketeering charges. He has already received credit for time served while held in New York City ahead of his trial.

What’s next for Combs

His release date is currently slated for February 2028 — moved up from April of that year. It remains unclear whether the reported fight will push that date back.

Donna Westrich, Terence Myers, and Donovan Bradley are all vying for the District 2 seat, which opens after current board member and Vice Chair April Carney announced in April that she would not seek a second term. Districts 2, 4, and 6 will appear on the August primary ballot.

News4JAX spoke with all three candidates about why they are running and where they stand on key issues.

Why they’re running

Each candidate pointed to a different priority that brought them to the race.

Westrich, a career educator, said two decades in the classroom are what pushed her toward the board.

“I’ve spent 20 years trying to fix education from inside the classroom and I’m ready to take my experience and passion for education to the next level and affect change at the district level,” she said.

Myers has 18 years of experience in education working in every level of education from elementary education to adult education. He said teachers and students are not getting the resources they need.

“There are different areas in the district that students need more support than others, and teachers need more support in the classroom and outside the classroom,” he said.

Bradley says education is very important to him as a Jacksonville native who went to Duval County Schools. He pointed to workforce preparation and testing practices as top concerns.

“One of the things that I’d like to see an increase on is better, stronger classroom-to-career pipelines for students,” Bradley said. He also called for expanding career and technical education, moving away from computer-based testing in favor of paper-and-pencil assessments, and increasing support for teachers and school resource officers.

Goals if elected

The candidates also outlined what they hope to accomplish on the board.

Westrich said community representation is her top priority.

“I want my community to feel like they have a voice at the table, and I want my community to feel represented,” she said.

Myers said he wants to direct more resources toward students with disabilities.

“I would want to put more emphasis on our disabled students, our ESE students. Those students are not getting the support that they need,” he said. Myers added that he also wants to highlight schools that are performing well across the district.

Bradley said his background in educational policy positions him to work with the state legislature.

“Working with our fellow board members and our state lawmakers to move things like smaller class sizes and anything else that’s a priority for our parents,” he said.

School consolidations and closures

The district has faced budget challenges for several years, and the candidates were asked how they would handle potential school consolidations and closures.

Bradley said transparency and community involvement are essential.

“Having parents know what opportunities are at each school and what they offer is going to help driving that enrollment up. But when it pertains to school closures, we do need to make sure that the community is involved with that,” he said.

Myers said consolidation should be a last resort.

“We want to make sure that we’ve done everything that we can to make sure that consolidation is not the first or best thing to do,” he said.

Westrich echoed the call for transparency.

“I want our community to know what we’re trying to do when something is happening and what possible solutions are. I don’t want anybody to be surprised,” she said.

Keeping politics out of the classroom

Florida school board races are officially non-partisan, but the candidates acknowledged that political influence has grown in recent years.

Bradley said the focus needs to return to fundamentals.

“I don’t believe that politics have any place in schools,” he said. “We need to stick back to the basics — ensuring that achievement is up, ensuring that our parents have the support that they need, that our teachers have the resources and the support that they need, that our facilities are secure.”

Myers agreed that schools should remain neutral ground.

“School should be a neutral ground. I do know that politics is playing a part in what’s happening in Tallahassee when it’s trickling down to all the cities in the state of Florida,” he said.

Westrich said she has deliberately run a non-partisan campaign.

“People over politics. Students need to come first,” she said.

The August primary for Duval County Schools also includes contested races for Districts 4 and 6. Voters will also decide on a 1-mill renewal in November.

Watch each candidate’s full interview below:

Donna Westrich

Terence Myers

Donovan Bradley

Learn more about the Florida Elections Reporting Partnership at floridaelections.org.

The League of Women Voters hosted the standing-room-only candidate forum ahead of the August primary, where school board elections for Districts 1, 4, and 5 will all appear on the ballot. Those races could be decided in August without advancing to a general election.

District 1 Board Chair Erin Skipper and District 4 Board Member Michele Hanson each face one challenger. District 5 Board Member Ashley Gilhousen faces two challengers. The League of Women Voters said all candidates were invited.

Hanson told News4Jax she had a scheduling conflict. Skipper and Gilhousen did not respond to requests for comment.

Why they’re running

District 1 challenger Lara Libretto, a former school leader and teacher, said her background gives her the experience the board needs.

“I feel like we need to support our teachers, continue our student achievement and make sure our parents are engaged,” Libretto said. “As a former school leader and teacher, I felt like we need an experienced educator to be on the board to make these decisions that affect thousands of students every day.”

District 4 challenger Michael Rathjen, a parent of three daughters and a business professional, said he entered the race over concerns about school funding.

“Coming from the business world, all the budgetary shortfalls and the new change in the funding — I went, I need to put my hat in the ring and give the voters a choice,” Rathjen said. He added that his family homeschooled their daughters at various points before enrolling them in Clay County schools.

Two of the three District 5 challengers attended the forum — Veronica Powell-Faison and Gerald Beasley. Powell-Faison said she is running to advocate for students, families, and educators.

“I see that there is a clear need for someone who has the children’s best interests in mind — the community, the parents, and the teachers,” she said.

Beasley, who works on the operations side of the school district and said he visits schools and offices regularly, argued the district needs change from within.

“I talk to people and I feel there needs to be change,” Beasley said.

Candidates offer competing plans to boost teacher pay

Libretto pointed to administrative spending as a place to find savings.

“We need to look at the top administrative level — we’ve got bloat,” she said. “We need to ask ourselves with our money: is it essential? Is it tied to student success? Is it a redundant position? Because we’re always asked at a school level to do more with less.”

Rathjen proposed a longer-term financial strategy and made a personal pledge to voters.

“Once our education foundation becomes the direct support organization for our district, we start an endowment — that could help offset some of the costs in the future for teacher pay,” he said. Rathjen also committed to not accepting a pay raise if elected to the school board.

Powell-Faison said she would focus on newer educators.

“I would try to find common ground where the new teachers — anybody under, I guess, 10 years — would be able to see some type of pay increase,” she said.

Beasley echoed concerns about spending priorities, saying he has witnessed double standards in how raises are distributed.

“I think if we can stop the waste and change some other things that are going on, I think that there could be funds for raises,” Beasley said. “They turned around and created more upper-level positions and promoted people — they got raises. I see a lot of double standards in the school district.”

Watch the full interviews below:

Lara Libretto/District 1 Candidate for Clay County School Board

Michael Rathjen/District 4 Candidate for Clay County School Board

Veronica Powell-Faison/District 5 Candidate for Clay County School Board

Gerald Beasley/District 5 Candidate for Clay County School Board

Learn more about the Florida Elections Reporting Partnership at floridaelections.org.

The seat is currently held by Darryl Willie, who previously served as board chair. Willie is in his second term and has reached his term limit, making the seat an open race.

Rhodesia Butler, Alfreda Denson Butler, and Coach James Jacobs will appear on the August primary ballot. Dr. Gracie Bell Kearse-McCastler is running as a write-in candidate, meaning her name will not appear on the primary ballot, but voters can write her in if the race goes to a November runoff.

News4JAX spoke with all four candidates about how they would address some of the district’s biggest challenges, including school closures and consolidations.

Alfreda Denson Butler

Alfreda Denson Butler, a Varying Exceptionalities Lead Teacher at Mattie V. Rutherford Alternative Education Center with more than 30 years of experience, said her candidacy is rooted in advocacy.

“I am running to continue advocating for our students and their families and the community,” she said. “I feel that the students need a person of leadership that is going to listen and collaborate with them.”

Butler said her top priorities would be student achievement, teacher recruitment and retention, and school safety.

She said evidence-based programs and data-driven instruction are key to improving reading and math scores.

“Data drives instruction,” she said. “So making sure we ask those questions — what systems are in place and making sure they are being implemented.”

On school closures, Butler said families in District 4 deserve to be informed early.

“As a school board member, it’s my job to advocate and make sure that the people in the community know,” she said. “Having town hall meetings, meeting the families where they are.”

Rhodesia Butler

Rhodesia Butler, a retired DCPS educator and 35-year Jacksonville business owner, said her 21 years in the district — from classroom teacher to principal — and her current work with the Boys and Girls Club have prepared her to serve.

She said her priorities include school safety, teacher retention, expanding career and workforce tracks for students, and improving school climate and culture.

On student achievement, Rhodesia Butler said the environment inside schools matters just as much as the resources available.

“Every building should have a positive climate and culture and one that’s conducive to teachers wanting to be there, students wanting to be there,” she said. “Then teaching and learning can continue to take place.”

On school closures, she acknowledged the fiscal reality while calling for greater transparency.

“From a fiscal stewardship side of it, you have to place teachers and principals where they need to be, but if you only have a certain amount of students, it just makes sense,” she said. “However, we do want to consider the neighborhoods and the communities being told about it — transparent communication — and I think that’s the bigger issue.”

Coach James Jacobs

Coach James Jacobs, a current dean of students at Duval County Charter School at Westside, said his motivation for running is personal.

“I have 13 reasons — 13 former softball students right here at Northwestern,” he said. “I made a promise to get involved in our school system to make a change.”

Jacobs said his background spans multiple roles in education — from paraprofessional and truancy officer to ESE assistant and physical education teacher — across private and charter schools.

He said his top goals if elected would be teacher retention, student retention, and increasing pay for teachers, faculty, staff, and coaches.

On school closures, Jacobs said the priority should be investment before closure.

“The school closures — what we want to do is try to rebuild our schools, upgrade our schools before we close them, especially in District 4,” he said. “Our schools are the heart of District 4 and our community.”

Dr. Gracie Bell Kearse-McCastler

Dr. Gracie Bell Kearse-McCastler won’t be on the August primary ballot, but she’s still in the race. As a write-in candidate, she goes straight to the November general election — where voters who want to support her will need to write her name in themselves.

The 33-year Duval County educator, who served as both a teacher and assistant principal, said teamwork is central to her campaign.

“The school board, the administrators, the teachers, the community collaborating together can save Duval County Public Schools,” she said. “It’s going to take teamwork to get this done.”

Kearse-McCastler said her key concerns include the school-to-prison pipeline, teen takeovers, and what she described as a high rate of disciplinary referrals among minority students. On school closures, she said visibility is key to keeping enrollment up.

“I would make sure they would showcase what’s happening in schools so that the community can be well informed as to what’s going on, and hopefully that would help us to maintain the student enrollment that we have,” she said.

She also expressed full support for the one-mill renewal.

“Teachers are overworked and underpaid,” she said. “I would support that bill 100% and encourage others to do so as well.”

How to vote

Early voting for the Duval County primary begins Aug. 8. Voters can find their polling location and additional election information at the Duval County Supervisor of Elections website.

Learn more about the Florida Elections Reporting Partnership at floridaelections.org.

According to reporting by News4JAX sister station WKMG in Orlando, at the same time as these Flock readers are being installed, privacy advocates are creating online maps that reveal the devices’ locations.

License plate readers, or LPRs, photograph and electronically log the tag numbers of passing vehicles while potentially using artificial intelligence to collect additional data like the vehicles’ model or color.

A sergeant with the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office explained to News4JAX earlier this year that the county’s dispatchers and real-time intelligence center get an alert when the LPR flags a license plate associated with a stolen vehicle, missing person or wanted person.

“Utilizing this technology, we’ve solved hundreds and hundreds of property crimes and more violent crimes,” St. Johns County Sgt. Kyle Cubbedge said.

Data from the last two years showed that LPRs had helped find 151 missing persons, recover 597 stolen vehicles, track down 220 wanted people and charge 782 people in St. Johns County.

One notable case involved a Texas man with five warrants who was found in Durbin Village with a missing teen. Thanks to the license plate reader, the teen was saved, and the man was arrested.

In Central Florida, when 13-year-old Madeline Soto was first reported missing in 2024, Kissimmee Police used LPRs to prove her mother’s boyfriend lied about driving the teen to school that morning.

Instead, the LPR data revealed that Stephan Sterns, who was later convicted of raping and murdering Soto, drove his car in the opposite direction of the school.

Information from LPRs and other traffic cameras helped search teams successfully narrow down the location where Soto’s body was found, court records show.

Where are the cameras?

Typically, LPRs manufactured by Flock Safety and other companies can be seen by drivers, but law enforcement agencies don’t necessarily want to advertise their locations.

Mount Dora police, for example, told WKMG that they believe discussions about the placement, usage or operational aspects of public safety tools like LPRs could compromise law enforcement strategies and effectiveness.

That’s where privacy organizations like DeFlock come in.

INTERACTIVE: Check out the DeFlock map below

“I don’t think anybody likes mass surveillance and being watched all the time,” said Ed Vogel, a researcher who works with DeFlock. “I think we need to pause and slow down because a lot of this is being adopted very quickly.”

The DeFlock map shows hundreds of LPRs in Northeast Florida communities like Jacksonville, Orange Park, St. Augustine, Palatka and Gainesville.

In St. Johns County, there were more than 160 license plate reader cameras in January, according to the Sheriff’s Office, and that number was expected to increase after the county was awarded $1 million by the state to enhance its immigration enforcement efforts.

The DeFlock map also shows hundreds of LPRs in Central Florida areas like Orlando, Titusville, Sanford and Ocala, and WKMG independently verified the locations of dozens of cameras plotted on the DeFlock map, including several located in Lake County.

While most of the devices were purchased by government and law enforcement agencies, private companies like retailers and apartment complexes also own LPRs.

Lowe’s Home Improvement uses the technology for security, fraud prevention and asset-protection purposes but will also share data with law enforcement solely in connection with criminal investigations, according to the company’s website.

Privacy concerns

Mount Dora Police told WKMG that “LPRs are not used to monitor law-abiding citizens or track individuals’ daily activities.”

“The technology captures license plate data visible from public roadways and is used in accordance with Florida law, departmental policy, and established data retention and access controls,” the department said in a statement.

In St. Johns County, Cubbedge told News4JAX in January that consistent audits help protect people’s privacy.

“We do a quarterly audit. Anyone who utilizes this system to search has to have an active case number that they’re currently working on as a reason why they would search the database,” Cubbedge said. “And the cameras don’t pick up anything about you or your name or whatnot. There’s no data collection.”

But critics, including the American Civil Liberties Union, have warned that systems like Flock have the potential for abuse and may invade the privacy rights of citizens not suspected of any crimes.

And Vogel thinks citizens have a right to know where LPRs have been deployed and how governments use them.

“Once you really understand their full capabilities, and how much data they’re collecting, who has access to that data, I think it raises a lot of concerns,” said Vogel. “There’s very little democratic conversation happening regarding their use, their adoption, and why the police even need them.”

A lawsuit filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Oklahoma City on behalf of Rhonda Grayson and Jeffrey Kennedy names Principal Chief David Hill and the Muscogee Nation Citizenship Board as defendants.

It says that Hill and the citizenship board are violating an 1866 treaty between the tribe and the U.S. government by refusing to recognize Black Creek Freedmen as citizens as ordered by the Muscogee Nation Supreme Court in July 2025.

The board denied the applications of Grayson and Kennedy in 2019 after it incorrectly determined they could not identify a lineal descendant of the tribe, but the court said the pair are entitled to tribal citizenship.

However, Hill and the board have not yet issued the citizenship cards, denying Grayson and Kennedy their “right to vote and the ability to participate fully as members of the Nation,” according to the lawsuit.

Last August, Hill blocked the tribe’s citizenship board from issuing citizenship cards until leaders decide how to change the tribe’s constitution. The tribe's headquarters is in Okmulgee, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) northeast of Oklahoma City.

A spokesman for the Muscogee Nation said late Thursday afternoon that it had not yet been served with the complaint.

“We would point out that federal law and precedent is clear that matters of Muscogee Nation law and governance are to be addressed through the Nation’s own governmental institutions,” the Muscogee Nation said in a statement.

“We are committed to ensuring that the Muscogee Nation’s Constitution and laws are followed fairly and consistently,” the statement said. “Getting policies right is always more important than getting them done quickly. Anything less would undermine the integrity of our governmental processes and the rights of our citizens.”

The Muscogee Nation is one of five tribes in Oklahoma that once practiced slavery.

Under the 1866 treaty, the tribe abolished slavery and granted citizenship to the formerly enslaved. The Muscogee Nation adopted in 1979 a constitution that restricted membership to the descendants of people listed as “Muscogee (Creek) Indians by blood” on the Dawes Rolls, a census of members of the five tribes created around 1900.

When the Dawes Rolls were created, people were listed on two separate rolls: those who were Muscogee and those who were identified by the U.S. government as Freedmen.

The court's 2025 ruling also directed the board to apply the treaty of 1866 to future applicants who can trace an ancestor to either roll. The decision could create a path to tribal citizenship for thousands of new members who are not Muscogee by blood.

Attorney Damario Solomon-Simmons, a Black Creek Indian who is one of the lawyers representing Grayson and Kennedy, said Thursday that there are about 100,000 Black Creeks across the United States.

Successful legal cases were brought against two of the five Oklahoma tribes, the Seminole Nation and the Cherokee Nation, which have since granted citizenship to Freedmen descendants.

“Every day of non-compliance is another day that Black Creek Freedman are denied our birthright and our very identity as citizens,” said Grayson, president of the Muscogee Creek Indian Freedmen Band.

“The fight is bigger than every one of us,” she told reporters Thursday. “It belongs to every Black Creek Freedman descendant who has carried this history, protected these stories and refused to let our identity be dismissed or diminished.”

___

This story was first published on July 23, 2026. It was updated on July 24, 2026, to make clear that the Muscogee Nation Citizenship Board’s determination was incorrect when it said the Creek Freedmen citizenship applicants could not identify a lineal descendant of the tribe.

___

Williams is a member of AP's Race & Ethnicities Team. He reported from Detroit.

As we move through the afternoon, expect plenty of sunshine and another hot day across Northeast Florida.

High temperatures will climb into the mid-90s, with heat index values reaching between 105 and 110 degrees.

If you’re spending time outside, be sure to drink plenty of water, wear lightweight clothing, and take frequent breaks in the shade.

By late afternoon and into the evening, a few scattered showers and thunderstorms could develop.

Not everyone will see rain, but any storm that forms could produce heavy downpours, frequent lightning, and gusty winds. Keep an eye on the sky if you have outdoor plans later today.

At the beaches, expect hot conditions with a light onshore breeze. If you’re heading to the coast, be aware of the risk of rip currents and always swim near a lifeguard.

Looking ahead, the weekend brings more of the same summer pattern—hot, humid days with scattered afternoon thunderstorms each day.

That’s your Jacksonville forecast. Have a great Friday, stay cool, and enjoy your morning!

The National Hurricane Center now shows no tropical cyclone activity in the Atlantic.

Bertha first grazed southern Louisiana on Wednesday in a slow crawl westward. The storm weakened as it made its second landfall about 75 miles northeast of Galveston, Texas, on Thursday afternoon, the National Hurricane Center said.

It remained a tropical storm for a few hours before being downgraded to a depression, marked by maximum sustained winds of 38 mph or less.

Thick clouds associated with Bertha prompted SpaceX to call off Thursday evening’s planned Starship launch from the southern tip of Texas. The space-skimming test flight was rescheduled for Friday, when the forecast called for clear skies.

No deaths or significant damage have been reported since Bertha formed Monday in the Gulf of Mexico south of the Florida Panhandle. The storm caused some coastal flooding as its center first struck land Wednesday in Louisiana southwest of New Orleans, but its heaviest rains stayed over the Gulf waters.

That rainfall south of the storm’s center began moving inland along Texas’ southeastern coast Thursday afternoon. Tropical storm force winds on Thursday extended as far as 140 miles (225 kilometers) from the storm’s center, the hurricane center said.

A tropical storm warning was discontinued by evening from Sargent, Texas, to the Vermilion and Cameron Parish line in Louisiana.

In Florida, storm damages a boardwalk and topples a Waffle House sign

Electrical outages across the Gulf Coast were minimal, according to the website poweroutage.us. Still, Bertha’s passage wasn’t harmless.

In Pensacola, Florida, officials closed an area around a storm-damaged beach boardwalk, Mayor D.C. Reeves said Thursday on Facebook. He posted a photo showing part of the boardwalk’s support structure ripped away and a fence damaged nearby.

Strong gales earlier in the week knocked over a Waffle House sign onto a car in Panama City Beach, Florida. Heavy surf and the threat of rip tides had prompted warnings at Gulf Coast beaches for swimmers to stay out of the water.

Bertha is the second tropical storm of the Atlantic hurricane season. Tropical Storm Arthur in June brought heavy rainfall to the southeastern U.S.

In the eastern Pacific Ocean, Hurricane Fausto churned far from land Thursday. The hurricane was more than 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) west-southwest of the southern tip of Baja California with maximum sustained winds of 80 mph (130 kph).

The hurricane center said swells generated by Fausto could cause life-threatening surf and rip tides in parts of southern California.

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The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention logged 2,318 cases of measles as of Thursday, according to an agency update on Friday.

The nation had 2,289 cases in 2025, the worst year for measles in more than three decades. Now, 2026 has easily become the U.S.’s worst year for measles since 1991, as major outbreaks in South Carolina, Utah and Arizona have sickened hundreds and smaller clusters of cases sparked in other states.

In November, international health officials will meet to determine if the U.S. and Mexico have lost their measles-free status. The U.S. eliminated local measles spread in 2000 by maintaining high vaccination rates, which have fallen in recent years to below the 95% coverage needed to prevent outbreaks.

Measles cases are undercounted

While measles cases in the U.S. are climbing, it may be impossible to say exactly how far-reaching the spread is. Public health departments and disease researchers have long acknowledged that official counts are incomplete, because some people get sick and don’t seek out treatment — something not unique to measles.

Furthermore, experts say the spread might be greater than what’s known because the virus is one of the most contagious known to medicine and vaccination rates nationwide have declined. National vaccination rates for measles, mumps and rubella — which dropped to 92.5% among kindergartners in the 2024-25 school year, from 95.2% in 2019-20 — obscure even lower rates in certain communities.

In Utah, where public health officials have fought measles for more than a year, the virus has sickened more than 700 people during that time, according to the state health department. Experts relying on mathematical modeling and genetic analyses indicate that a large outbreak on the Utah-Arizona border could be around three to four times bigger than what’s currently known, state epidemiologist Dr. Leisha Nolen said.

The picture is muddier in South Carolina, which had the nation’s largest outbreak in 35 years. There, the 997 total is likely an undercount, the state health department has said, but it doesn’t know by how much.

Dr. Brannon Traxler, acting director of the state department of health, said the undercount is “impossible to know and may vary during the course of an outbreak.”

Data gaps can make it hard to reliably estimate an outbreak’s true scope. Experts say hospitalization rates can be a good barometer, but measles hospitalizations are not required to be reported in every state.

“If we really had some kind of solid gold standard for the percentage of all cases that have hospitalization or some measure of severity, then that would be another way of estimating the outbreak size that we could see if it’s consistent with these other methods,” said Damon Toth, an applied mathematician at the University of Utah’s medical school who is working on one of the Utah outbreak analyses.

Researchers are still analyzing the 2025 Texas outbreak

In Texas, researchers are still working to estimate the size of the state’s 2025 outbreak and early findings show it might have been nearly twice the size of the 762 known cases.

Rémy Pasco, a mathematical epidemiologist at the University of Colorado Boulder who is working on the analysis, said the undercounts were unsurprising. In the absence of an adequate community vaccination rate — 95% according to health experts — “there’s just not much you can do about measles once you have it,” he said.

The CDC defines an outbreak as three or more linked cases. But by the time three such cases are identified in communities with low vaccination rates and less disease surveillance, “either you missed the previous ones or you’re going to have a lot more,” he added.

Dr. Varun Shetty, Texas’ chief state epidemiologist, said there were instances where people tested positive for measles but health officials couldn’t confirm who else was in the person’s household or if they were sick.

“What we’re able to count and report is almost always an underestimate of what actually occurred, because it relies on people being willing to be able to get tested, to share information with healthcare providers and with public health,” Shetty said. “Sometimes that just doesn’t happen.”

The state health department previously reported that 182 probable measles cases went unconfirmed in March 2025 among minors in Gaines County — the epicenter of the outbreak — due to a lack of information. The confirmed case count for the western Texas county for the whole outbreak is 414.

Shetty expects to keep seeing measles cases and even outbreaks because so many people are unprotected.

“It’s really critical, not only for individual people, but for communities, to have high vaccination coverage,” he said.

Vaccination is about protecting others, physician says

Dr. Mark Roberts, retired director of the Public Health Dynamics Lab at the University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health, worries most for the people he calls “innocent bystanders.”

Research and measles modeling by his team shows those who cannot get vaccinated — young babies, people with weak immune systems and those who rarely don’t get robust immunity from the vaccine — bear the brunt of outbreaks early on.

Some people see skipping vaccination as like deciding not to wear a seat belt in a car, Roberts said.

“Not vaccinating your kid is like saying, ‘I don’t want my car to have brakes,’” he said. “Because it’s other people that you can hit. It’s not just you in your car. It’s other people.”

___

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.

Merz's presentation of an incomplete set of changes, however, raised questions and risked undermining his effort to generate new momentum.

Merz took office less than 15 months ago with pledges to reform and turn around Germany’s economy, Europe’s biggest, after years of stagnation. But that economic turnaround has been slow to start. And the middle-of-the-road coalition of Merz’s center-right Union bloc and the center-left Social Democrats, two traditional rivals, has yet to persuade voters that it can produce results.

That has resulted in Merz’s popularity sinking to rock-bottom levels, while the far-right Alternative for Germany, or AfD, has gained support on the back of widespread discontent.

Merz tries to seize an opportunity

Merz took the opportunity to make a series of changes after a senior ally quit as the leader of his bloc's parliamentary group over personal conduct that undermined his credibility. Merz plans to put his chief of staff, Thorsten Frei, in that job.

The German leader said Health Minister Nina Warken will take Frei’s place at the chancellery, a post that is key to the smooth functioning of the government. She will be the first woman to take that job. Another close ally, Carsten Linnemann, the general secretary of Merz’s Christian Democratic Union party, will become health minister.

Merz said there will be further Cabinet changes, but didn’t offer details. He said those decisions will take “a few days yet, and perhaps more time.”

“The personnel changes follow a clear line,” he said. “We want a government that works with great vigor and pleasure and also represents the personal diversity of our society and politics. We are a reform government and want to continue showing that.”

Difficult regional elections are ahead

The governing parties face three difficult regional elections in September. In the eastern region of Saxony-Anhalt on Sept. 6, AfD is hopeful of winning a majority that would give it control of a state government for the first time.

After months in which voters were turned off by squabbling in the coalition, Merz’s government recently embarked on big plans for potentially painful change — including a proposed reform of the creaking pension system that would include raising the retirement age gradually, income tax cuts for low- and middle-income earners and an effort to slash red tape.

“The government has found its rhythm, despite some criticism,” Merz declared last week. “We have delivered, and we have recognized the dimension of the tasks we face.”

Ally quit over surrogacy

Only days later, though, he faced a new distraction. Jens Spahn quit as leader of the Union’s parliamentary group — one of the most powerful positions in the coalition — after it emerged that he and his husband had used the services of a surrogate mother in the U.S. to have a baby.

Surrogacy isn’t allowed in Germany. Merz’s party opposes allowing it, a position that it reaffirmed at a convention in February, and Spahn himself had spoken out against it in the past. That prompted accusations of double standards.

Frei will now take Spahn’s job, a position he’s widely considered better suited to than coordinating the chancellery. Frei was the Union’s parliamentary chief whip under Merz when the center-right was in opposition.

Warken takes his place at the chancellery after shepherding the first of the government’s reforms, meant to curb rising costs in the German health insurance system, through parliament earlier this month.

Merz said she has showed that “she can push through reforms against resistance," praised her as a tough negotiator and said that “she is also at home with the security policy issues” that are important at the chancellery.

Linnemann, a conservative who lacks government experience, will take her place at the Health Ministry. Merz said that “we must maintain the course of reform” in health policy and that requires a “steadfast” minister.

Merz took no questions and didn't mention multiple German media reports that he also plans to replace Transport Minister Patrick Schnieder. That issue remained open Friday afternoon amid reports that a candidate had first accepted the job, then changed his mind, and the uncertainty drew negative headlines.

Merz’s coalition last year set up a huge fund to underpin an effort to upgrade worn-out transport infrastructure, but frustration remains — for example with the unreliability of the national railway.

AfD co-leader Alice Weidel argued that Merz had caused “yet more chaos” with his reshuffle and said in a post on X that the government being preoccupied with itself doesn't do justice to Germany's “many-faceted” problems.

“Germany needs new elections,” she wrote. The next national election isn't due until early 2029.

Jimmy Paul Garcia Velez, 31, of Palm Coast, was arrested on a felony warrant after investigators say he exploited his role as a financial controller to steal more than $15,000 from his employer.

How the alleged scheme worked

For approximately seven months, investigators say Garcia Velez continued collecting his own paycheck while redirecting the direct deposits of seven former employees into two of his own bank accounts.

On paper, those workers were still on the job. In reality, detectives say their checks were landing in Garcia Velez’s accounts.

The Sheriff’s Office says he also turned off his own health insurance payments, leaving the company covering 100% of his premiums.

Owner spots red flags

Deputies say the alleged scheme began to unravel when the company’s owner noticed discrepancies in the insurance numbers. Investigators with the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office General Assignment Unit say they subpoenaed bank records, and the money trail led back to Garcia Velez.

In total, he allegedly pocketed an additional $15,456.72.

Sheriff weighs in

“A promotion is something you earn through hard work and the trust of the people who sign your checks,” said Sheriff Rick Staly. “This double-dipper was a financial controller with no self-control who decided he’d rather embezzle a raise than earn one.”

Arrest, charges

The Sheriff’s Office Fugitive Unit located Garcia Velez and arrested him on a felony warrant. He faces charges of organized scheme to defraud and grand theft.

Garcia Velez was transported to jail, where he was later released on a $10,000 bond.

Moms for Liberty, a conservative grassroots organization focused on promoting parental rights in the public education system, took Florida school board meetings by storm in 2021, first by opposing mask mandates and required reading assignments, then by staging a political takeover of school boards themselves.

According to a report from our news partner, the Florida Trib, the Florida-born movement benefitted from the influence of Gov. Ron DeSantis, who was eager to politicize the state’s nonpartisan school board elections and shared similar views with the organization on pandemic-era school closures and culture war issues.

Moms for Liberty changed the political makeup of school boards across the state of Florida through a commitment to endorsing school board candidates.

At its height, the organization threw its financial weight behind favored candidates and successfully shifted the political balance sharply rightward on a number of school boards, including Duval County, one of the largest school districts in the state.

Five out of seven school board members received financial support or public endorsements from Moms for Liberty during the 2022 and 2024 elections in Duval County.

Today, Moms for Liberty Florida has not made any contributions to local school board candidates across Florida and is poised to be just a minor player this cycle, according to campaign finance records, interviews with former local members and experts on culture war movements and a survey of public social media pages for local chapters, some of which are now defunct.

Moms for Liberty’s influence has been on a long decline in its home state as the organization faced a wave of resignations, chapter dissolutions and scandals among Moms for Liberty leadership.

The national umbrella organization said it’s not taking its eye off local races, despite the slowdown in political activity.

“School boards are ground zero in the fight for parental rights. That’s why Moms for Liberty endorses candidates who are committed to transparency, academic excellence, and putting parents back in charge of their children’s education,” said CEO and Co-founder of Moms for Liberty Tina Descovich in a statement to The Florida Trib.

In Descovich’s home county, Brevard, Moms for Liberty has only made endorsements without any financial backing for three candidates: District 1 candidate Megan Wright, District 2 candidate Gene Trent and District 5 candidate Tammy Dennis.

Contributions from Moms Liberty falter across Florida

In 2022, at the height of its influence, Moms for Liberty Florida, the committee associated with political activity conducted in the state, made 54 financial endorsements to Florida school board candidates totaling to $13,500, according to state campaign finance records.

Of those candidates, 32 candidates, or roughly 60% of those financially backed by Moms for Liberty won their seats on the school board.

Two years later, that total dwindled down to a little over $2,000 for eight campaigns. Only three candidates won their elections.

And former Moms for Liberty member and cofounder of the now dissolved Indian River County Chapter Jennifer Pippin says that Floridians should not expect any support for school board candidates in this year’s election from the organization.

“For the last election cycle, we endorsed two Moms for Liberty candidates, and we got nothing from the national [organization]. We got zero help. They didn’t even post our endorsements on the national page as they did in prior years. Moms for Liberty did not help us get our candidates across the line,” Pippin said.

Local members saw that the vision for Moms for Liberty inching closer towards the White House and farther from where they got their start in school board elections by 2024. By early 2026, Moms for Liberty disbanded its Florida Legislative Committee, a convening of chapter chairs across the state to discuss policy, school board elections and continued grassroots efforts.

Abandoning local efforts for national backing

Experts say this shift towards national level politics indicates a desire to grasp at any influence that remains.

“Now that it’s clear that they can’t just swing school board votes, I think what they’re doing is becoming another Washington culture war player. Where instead of actually influencing what happens in school board A or B, what [they’re] doing…is trying to shift discourse in some sort of subtle and often unmeasurable way towards [their] point of view,” said Jonathan Zimmerman, a University of Pennsylvania professor who studies the history of culture wars in education.

By these standards, Moms for Liberty partially accomplished what they set out to do. Five years later, Florida school boards are still inundated with requests to ban books.

Yet, as Moms for Liberty took on rhetoric and various culture war issues closely aligned with President Donald Trump and DeSantis, support declined among parents who sought out to make change on a local level through school board leadership.

“Certainly the pandemic and that whole online education that many students in the country experienced has brought more attention to curriculum, and I think that’s not necessarily a bad thing…The focus on the most divisive points makes it harder for parents and community members to have thoughtful and important and generative conversations about what you know education should look like in the community. And, I partially think that’s by design,” said Deana Rohlinger, a Florida State University professor who researches online social movements.

While local backing from Florida moms diminishes, so does the push for culture war issues. The prevalence and effectiveness of Moms for Liberty in relation to school board elections has been short-lived because the nature of culture war issues is cyclical, experts say.

“In general, you have activists that respond to whatever is the hot button education issue of the day, and then you get a burst of activity and interest. Then that quickly fades as people lose interest and focus on other stuff…It’s mostly focused on adult culture war issues, not necessarily at the academic things that probably matter most and what schools are mostly about,” Vladimir Kogan, Ohio State University professor who studies state and local government across the United States.

And with every movement comes backlash.

Many candidates backed by Moms for Liberty in 2022 lost their races or chose not to run again in 2024 and 2026. Liberal groups like Red Wine & Blue gained momentum in opposition to Moms for Liberty.

In 2022, Moms for Liberty supported DeSantis’s HB7 “Stop W.O.K.E.” Act and HB 1557 “Don’t Say Gay” bill. Those bills respectively barred public educators from explaining historical events such as the enslavement period in a way that makes some children feel “shamed because of their race” and prohibited the discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity in public schools.

However, the U.S. Court of Appeals struck down the higher education provision of the Stop W.O.K.E. Act in early July.

Moms for Liberty’s declining influence across the state can be partly attributed to a demographic reality it has struggled to reckon with: 89% of Florida families continue to enroll their children in public schools according to the Florida School Board Association. Attacking those schools — and the school board members, teachers and staff who run them — means alienating institutions that have served as pillars of their local communities for decades.

“On the whole, Americans are satisfied with their schools…The voters will tell you that there are problems with education but when you ask about their own schools, that is the ones they patronize, most people are broadly supportive of them and willing to tax themselves for them,” Zimmerman said.

Trinity Webster-Bass covers education for The Florida Trib. You can reach her at trinity.webster-bass@floridatrib.org.

“It’s been just really rewarding to see the team kind of like, carry a little bit more confidence in their step,” Cantú told The Associated Press. “Maybe I’ve got some new confidence too.”

The feat caps a trajectory that began with Cantú getting his first star right out of the gate when Californios opened in 2015. He got a second one in 2018. At a June ceremony in San Diego, Cantú, with his wife Carolyn by his side, received his third star and a crisp white Michelin chef's jacket.

The accolade feels like validation not just for Californios but for the notion that Mexican food in Mexico and across the diaspora can be an elevated experience. Similar to fine dining Chinese restaurants just a few miles away from Californios, Mexican American restaurants have dealt with criticism for daring to charge more and offering tasting menus. Meanwhile, few bat an eye at French and Japanese restaurants with similar prices.

Shoot for the Michelin stars

The Michelin Guide, started in 1889 by French brothers Andre and Edouard Michelin, created a star-ranking system in the 1920s. Today, the guide has ratings for over 40,000 restaurants. To evaluate a restaurant, Michelin sends undercover inspectors posing as regular diners. The inspectors said Californios ascended the ranks because it has never been “afraid to cross borders” on the plate, according to Michelin’s website.

From the first bite, Californios patrons experience the Texas-born Cantú's blend of Mexican culture with California ingredients. He starts a meal with a sope, a small hand-formed masa cake made with white corn and beans from a farm in nearby Santa Rosa. Then, with a spatula, caviar made in partnership with a Sacramento sturgeon farm is carefully placed on top.

“It’s just really, really delicious and kind of feels like a warm hug,” Cantú said. “It feels comforting.”

Michelin inspectors agreed.

Californios deserved a three-star promotion, one of five inspectors said on Michelin’s website, for dishes consistently “executed with such precision, refinement and clarity without losing the Mexican identity — things like kombu or the matsukasa yaki fish taco.”

Sometimes Cantú and his team would try to guess if a diner could be an inspector. That turned out to be a good reminder that “every guest gets the same quality of presentation and hospitality,” the chef said.

Mexican food's growing recognition comes as immigration enforcement gets harsher

In the past few years, Michelin has starred a number of Mexican restaurants including a 10-by-10 foot (3-by-3 meter) taco stand in Mexico City. The growing recognition comes at a precarious time for immigration enforcement policies and the treatment of immigrants — even those in the U.S. legally.

Not someone who seeks to inject politics into food, Cantú could not ignore constant headlines about federal immigration operations — some of which have resulted in deaths including a Mexican man in Houston and a Colombian man in Maine earlier this month. Immigrants are “the backbone of all these dish pits and kitchens,” Cantú said. He has shown support through gestures. In March, he collaborated on an “anti-ICE” fundraising dinner.

“The culinary world is like a huge supporter of immigrants and the need for immigrants and the need to treat people with respect,” Cantú said. “It’s hard for me to say much more.”

Being in a blue state, Cantú is certain most of Californios’ diners share that sentiment.

Gustavo Arellano, a food writer and journalist who’s also Mexican American, believes the cuisine’s popularity really helps humanize the immigration debate.

“You see this especially like in small Southern towns where the rhetoric is ‘I’m against illegal immigrants. I don’t want too many Mexicans,'” Arellano said. “But, then they look at the Mexican restaurant in town and they’re like ‘Well, not them.’”

Californios shows Mexican food is just as worthy of fine dining

Growing up, Cantú watched his father and uncle in Texas run a Mexican restaurant and tortillería. As a chef working at high-end establishments in Austin and San Francisco, he found himself asking, “Why is no one doing Mexican cuisine and treating it with like extreme care?”

Inspired by the Bay Area, he settled on the name Californios. It's a nod to descendants of Spanish and Mexican settlers who settled in the 1700s and 1800s in what would become California.

Californios started with a $57 four-course tasting menu. The pushback was immediate.

“There was a ton of like, ‘This is not Mexican cuisine,’” Cantú said. “Even from our families, you know, trying to explain a contemporary cuisine to a lot of people is totally foreign because people kind of think that cuisine exists in a cookbook and that it doesn’t change.”

Californios is at the forefront of what some call “alta California” cuisine, where the children of Mexican immigrants or immigrants themselves use classical chef training with Mexican flavors. The term refers to the former Spanish province north of Baja California; Arellano describes it as an “ideology” that originated in California and has spread across the U.S.

Raised flavor profiles and prices ultimately raise skepticism. Arellano argues people think this way partly because they're trying to keep Mexican food in a box.

“There's always going to be a knee-jerk reaction,” Arellano said. “It goes to this myth that Mexican food should be cheap because Mexicans, all of us are supposedly working class that cannot afford higher-end stuff. That's classist.”

Cantú plans to keep bringing attention to his Mexican-California brand of fine dining. A cookbook is in the works.

“Mexican cuisine is one of the most diverse and complex cuisines in the world,” Cantú said, “and there’s countless Mexican immigrants in the United States and Latin immigrants who have their own ideas and concepts of what things can be.”

___

Tang reported from Phoenix.

Palestinians in the West Bank have been facing a wave of violence as Israel’s hard-line government, dominated by settler leaders and supporters, has overseen a surge in settlement construction over the past four years. The international community overwhelmingly considers Israeli settlement construction in these areas to be illegal and an obstacle to peace.

4 Palestinians and 2 Israelis killed as fear of violence escalates

The Palestinian Health Ministry said Israeli soldiers shot and killed four Palestinians in the village of Tell in the northern West Bank while the military reported the deaths of two soldiers, one of whom was a settler in a local defense squad.

Two other Israelis and four more Palestinians were wounded, health officials said, and the Israeli military announced it was preparing for an “extensive” counterterror operation in the West Bank. It said it conducting a manhunt for Palestinians suspected of attacking Israelis and that it had apprehended two during a raid in Nablus.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a joint statement with Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz, called Friday for more troops to the West Bank and the razing of the homes of the accused in Tell, as well as collecting weapons and revoking work permits in the village.

“The security forces must be allowed to act freely and with full force against terrorism,” they said.

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich went farther, saying that the villages of Tell, Iraq Burin and Beit Furik “need to look exactly like the refugee camps in Nablus and Tulkarm,” referring to the mass demolition campaign that displaced tens of thousands in the West Bank towns last year.

“It is necessary to evacuate the population there for their protection and to clear these villages of terrorist infrastructure,” Smotrich said. “A sharp, determined, and unequivocal military action is required here and now.”

Human rights group B’Tselem warned the violence could spin out of control as Israeli settlers and soldiers amass near multiple Palestinian cities.

“Israeli violence is spreading across the West Bank, fueled by Israeli politicians openly calling for revenge,” said Yuli Novak, the group’s executive director. "We know where this leads. Millions of Palestinians are now completely exposed to further attacks, with no one protecting them.”

An unclear confrontation at the center of the tension

The exact circumstances of Friday’s incident remained unclear, but Israeli media reports and interviews with local Palestinian officials suggested a group of settlers entered Tell and were confronted by residents who were fearful of an attack.

The village is off-limits to Israelis as part of Area B under the 1993 Oslo Accords struck after the first Palestinian Intifada.

According to the Israeli military, one of the villagers took one of the settlers’ weapons and fired on the group, killing Benayahu Mellet, 32, a security guard in a settlement nearby.

In a video of the incident, confirmed by the Israeli military and circulated online by the military correspondent for Israel’s Army Radio, two armed men in civilian clothing, as well as at least one Israeli soldier, are shown pointing their weapons at a group of Palestinians who had gathered in a field.

At one point, the two armed men rushed toward several Palestinian residents with their guns drawn. In the footage, the residents try to push them back and appear to disarm one of the men before opening fire.

In a statement, the Israeli military said it killed the man who took the settler’s weapon and that he was armed when soldiers shot him. But a separate video, published by Israeli media outlets and confirmed by the military, showed Israeli forces firing on a group of Palestinians in the same field who were already on the ground.

More than a dozen gunshots can be heard in the footage, which is less than a minute long. The military said the suspect was one of the people killed in the field. It did not respond to questions about why soldiers killed the other men — all of whom were related — or how long after the original altercation the killings took place.

Later, army chief Eyal Zamir said he was sending more troops to the occupied West Bank.

Yossi Dagan, head of the Samaria Regional Council, a settler group in the northern West Bank, posted a video online in the wake of the Tell confrontation demanding the government crack down hard on Palestinians.

“We demand an iron fist and for the government to carry out a wide military operation against the Palestinian Authority and against Hamas,” he said.

Settlers have long targeted villages in the northern West Bank

Five Palestinian villages surrounding Nablus were attacked by Israeli settlers on Friday, according to the Palestinian news agency WAFA.

The towns and villages surrounding Nablus sit in one of the most violent parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank. In addition to newly approved settlements, at least nine farming outposts dot the area and attacks by Israeli settlers, army incursions and confrontations have become frequent.

Palestinians and human rights groups have increasingly documented armed settlers entering villages in the area. Livestock theft, arson and the defacement of mosques are routinely reported.

According to the Palestinian Health Ministry, since the beginning of this year, 87 Palestinians have been killed in the occupied West Bank governorates, including 21 by Israeli settlers.

Israeli deaths have repeatedly been followed by revenge against nearby Palestinian communities called “price tag” attacks.

That pattern followed the March 21 death of 18-year-old Yehuda Sherman, who was killed when a Palestinian vehicle struck his ATV near Beit Imrin. Senior politicians, including Smotrich, attended Sherman’s funeral and called for vengeance.

At the time, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs documented 32 settler attacks affecting 30 Palestinian villages and communities across the West Bank, about a third near Nablus governorate over the following two days. Settlers torched homes and vehicles, vandalized property and assaulted residents, injuring at least 32 Palestinians, according to OCHA.

More than 700,000 Israelis live in the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem, territories captured by Israel in 1967 and sought by the Palestinians for an independent state along with the Gaza Strip.

——

McNeil reported from Brussels, Bwaitel from Ramallah and Cunningham from Jerusalem. Associated Press writer Sam Metz in Ramallah contributed to this report.

But it can also get expensive fast, especially with one-click buying.

Now, a new trend out of South Korea is trying to give people that “shopping buzz” without the bill.

They’re called “dopamine websites,” and they let you do all the fun parts -- scroll, pick items, read reviews, even “place an order” -- except nothing actually shows up at your door.

One site, FoodNeverComes.com, lets you scroll through menus and “order,” but just like the name implies, no delivery is coming.

Another one, dopamine-shop.com, looks eerily similar to Amazon: you browse items, add them to your cart, and “buy,” but there’s no money spent, and nothing ever arrives.

The goal of these sites is to curb impulse spending.

But there’s a catch: Because they’re so new, there’s not much research proving they work long-term, and some experts warn the novelty may wear off, sending people right back to the real shopping apps when stress or boredom hits.

If you’re trying to spend less, experts recommend adding “speed bumps” that make impulse buying harder, like removing saved card info, deleting shopping apps from your home screen, or unsubscribing from promo emails.

And the bigger key is figuring out what you’re actually looking for in that moment: Comfort? Distraction? Control?

You can probably find a cheaper way to get it.

A software glitch in a Motor Vehicle Commission system allowed about 6,600 people who are not U.S. citizens to register to vote.

Some 400 individuals voted in at least one election. And House Republicans piled on, using the information to drive support to pass the Save America Act.

Rachel Cobb, an elections analyst with Suffolk University, joined us on The Morning Show to discuss the potential fallout and whether it will erode voter confidence.

The New York-based company said Friday it earned $3.11 billion, or $4.53 a share, compared to $2.89 billion, or $4.08 a share, in the same period a year earlier. The results beat analysts' forecasts, who were looking for AmEx to earn a profit of $4.40 a share, according to FactSet.

AmEx continues to benefit from global economic growth that has disproportionately benefited the wealthy and high net worth individuals, as its customer bases skews heavily toward those demographics with the Platinum Card, Gold Card and other high-end credit cards. Its customers often put almost all of their spending on credit cards, and pay those cards off at the end of each month. The average AmEx customers spent $6,759 on their cards in the quarter, up from $6,393 in the same period a year earlier.

But at the same time, the company is spending heavily to keep those customers as it faces increased competition from other high-end credit card products like JPMorgan Chase's Sapphire Reserve Card, Citigroup's Strata card and Capital One's Venture X brand. The company's quarterly expenses rose 12% from a year ago, costs that went into increased marketing as well as refreshes of its credit card products.

While the company upped its guidance on how much revenue it expects to bring in this year, the company did not change its profit outlook for the year, as the company plans to put more resources into marketing and bringing in new customers. The company also expects to put additional investments into technology like artificial intelligence, like many other Fortune 500 companies.

Those efforts seem to be paying off. The company signed up another 3 million customers in the second quarter, of which three-quarters of those new customers signed up for an AmEx card with an annual fee.

Community Hospice & Palliative Care hosted a special open house welcoming Community PēdsCare patients and families to the Dorion Family Pediatric Center for the very first time.

One of only a few such facilities in the United States, the center on Sunbeam Road in Jacksonville was created to expand access to care and deepen support for children living with serious and complex illnesses and the families who care for them.

Families visiting on Thursday had the opportunity to see the Healing Harmonies Music Therapy Room, HeArts and Hope Creative Arts Room, Sensory Therapeutic Playroom, Outdoor Sanctuary, Adventure Playground, and the Tree of Wonder while participating in activities and connecting with the Community PēdsCare care team.

Made possible through the generosity, vision and trust of the community, the dedicated space reflects a shared commitment to serving families in a more meaningful and impactful way, officials said.

Named in honor of Dottie Dorion and the Dorion family, the center is focused on pediatric hospice and palliative care, which is about helping children live fully, honoring each moment and surrounding families with compassionate support throughout their journey.

The lawsuit comes amid growing concerns about how quickly the United States Postal Service will be able to deliver ballots ahead of the November midterms. Control of Congress is at stake, and Wisconsin voters will be electing a new governor as well as determining control of the Legislature.

The bipartisan Wisconsin Elections Commission warned the U.S. postmaster general in May that any delay could deprive citizens of their fundamental right to vote. In January, a group of mostly Democratic U.S. senators also wrote the postal service, raising concerns that a change in how it postmarks mail could invalidate many mail-in ballots.

The lawsuit comes after the mail-in ballots of nearly 150,000 California voters were rejected, the vast majority of them because of late postmarks, despite the state's efforts to count every valid vote in the June primary.

In Wisconsin, at least hundreds of ballots were not counted in the April election because they arrived late, based on an elections commission survey of election clerks. More than 300 ballots in Milwaukee and more than 100 in Fond du Lac were rejected for arriving too late.

The lawsuit was filed in Dane County circuit court by the liberal Madison-based Law Forward firm and Washington, D.C.-based Fair Elections Center on behalf of a voter and the League of Women Voters of Wisconsin.

A spokesperson for the elections commission had no immediate comment.

“Every voter in Wisconsin that puts an accurately requested absentee ballot in the mail on time expects their vote will be counted,” said Debra Cronmiller, executive director of League of Women Voters of Wisconsin, in a statement. “Delays in mail delivery prevent that. It is time to have a remedy for these eligible voters.”

Currently in Wisconsin, voters are prohibited from casting a provisional ballot in person on Election Day. The lawsuit is asking a judge to rule that if a voter's absentee ballot has not arrived, they can then cast a provisional ballot. Absentee voters in the state can track the status of their ballots, so they would know on Election Day whether it has been received.

Provisional ballots are set aside by election officials and only counted if a voter's absentee ballot is not delivered on time. If the absentee ballot does arrive on time, the provisional ballot would not be counted.

In Wisconsin, ballots must arrive at the clerk's office by the end of voting on Election Day in order to be counted.

RELATED: ‘I thought I was going 60’: Clay County ‘super-speeder’ said he didn’t know he was going 111 mph in a 45 mph zone

The body camera footage released by the sheriff’s office shows the driver being stopped and the arrest.

“What the hell are we doing?” the deputy asks the driver. “130 miles an hour, seriously?”

The sheriff’s office is reminding drivers of Florida’s Dangerous Excessive Speeding Law and that drivers will be arrested when exceeding the speed limit by over 50 mph or driving over 100 mph in a manner that threatens the safety of other people, properties, or vehicles.

Second or more offenses could lead to up to 90 days in jail, a fine of $1,000 or both.

A person convicted of two or more violations within five years may have their driving privileges revoked for at least 180 days.

“Help keep our roads safe, slow down, and obey speed limits,” the sheriff’s office said on Facebook.

www.loljax.com

Viewers can learn more and connect with her on Instagram @alyse.dione and through her website www.alysedione.com

Bethany Michel has spent nearly three years fighting to remain in the Arbor Mill community in Oakleaf after inheriting the home following her father’s death in 2023. The HOA argues she no longer meets the community’s age restrictions, while Michel says she is honoring her father’s final wish.

RELATED: Can you inherit a home in a 55-plus community? Attorney explains what the law says amid Jacksonville HOA dispute

“We fought to the very end, and the fight is not finished just because my dad is gone,” Michel said. “I still have the fight left in me.”

The dispute has become a flashpoint for residents after the HOA proposed a $155,000 special assessment that would require approximately 155 homeowners to contribute about $1,000 each to help cover legal fees associated with the lawsuit.

Some neighbors back the HOA

While many viewers have expressed support for Michel, not everyone in Arbor Mill believes she should be allowed to stay.

Resident Patty Acree said the issue isn’t personal.

“It’s really not about this young lady,” Acree said. “It’s about enforcing the age requirements across the board.”

Acree, who is under 55 herself, is permitted to live in the community because she resides with her mother, who meets the age requirement.

RELATED: ‘Ain’t going nowhere’: HOA votes to continue legal battle with Jacksonville influencer in push for her removal

She said she understands that if her mother were to die, she would no longer be eligible to live there.

“If something was to happen to my mom and she was to pass away, I would fully be under the understanding that I would not live here,” Acree said.

Acree acknowledged homeowners aren’t happy about the proposed assessment but said enforcing the rules is important.

“No one’s excited about the $1,000,” she said.

She believes making an exception for Michel could undermine the HOA’s ability to enforce other community rules.

“The rules are the rules,” Acree said. “If we don’t enforce the rules for one, we can’t enforce rules for all.”

A community divided

The case has sparked widespread attention online, with Michel’s story spreading across social media and prompting discussion well beyond Northeast Florida.

Michel said the national attention has been overwhelming but hopes it leads to broader conversations about families who inherit homes in age-restricted communities.

“I am not equipped to deal with this,” she said. “But being that I’ve been put in a position to potentially become an advocate for caregivers... maybe even change the laws... it’s bittersweet, but it’s for a good reason.”

She said she hopes the case brings clarity for homeowners and caregivers navigating similar situations.

Acres agrees the lawsuit has had an impact on the neighborhood.

“This is a situation where the neighborhood is absolutely divided,” she said. “And it’s not fun.”

Although she sympathizes with Michel’s circumstances, Acres said she believes the community’s governing documents should be enforced.

“Personally, I think she should move. I think her dad did her the great honor of leaving the house to her,” Acree said. “But this is an over-55 community where they’ve chosen to be over 55. I think it’s really unfair that one homeowner who doesn’t want to follow the rules is saying all of you have to pay to sue me to get me out.”

Attorney disputes HOA’s case

Michel’s attorney William “Billy” Davie disputes the HOA’s legal position.

In an email shared with News4JAX, he said the association has threatened legal action for years and argued the case is far from clear-cut.

“Any attorney worth their salt will tell you that if the HOA was clearly in the right, it would not cost over $150,000 in attorney’s fees to get you removed from the property,” the attorney wrote. “That’s what you have to pay an attorney to represent you on a losing case.”

The Arbor Mill HOA has previously declined to comment on the litigation.

In the span of 24 hours, Jin was 15 time zones away, digging into an In-N-Out hamburger in Los Angeles and watching fireworks with his family on the eve of Independence Day, marking America's 250th anniversary.

“It’s so dramatic. It's unimaginable,” the pastor told The Associated Press outside the nation's capital.

He said he was suddenly released after being held since October, then put on a plane to the U.S. after President Donald Trump raised his case with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in May.

“It's a miracle,” Jin said this week.

Jin has led one of China's most influential underground churches, which defy government restrictions by not being registered with authorities. He is an exceptional case of a high-profile Chinese detainee going free following a U.S. request at a time when Beijing's leadership has only become more unyielding to foreign pressure.

Chinese pastor credits Trump for his release

Jin said Chinese authorities released him without forcing him to make a confession or going through a show trial, dropping the charges instead. He said he did not know if there was any deal or swap for his release and credited Trump's “unique diplomacy.”

“It has results,” the pastor said.

Trump, when leaving Beijing in May, told reporters that he brought up Jin's case and that Xi said he would “strongly consider the pastor.” Trump also has vowed to “save our Great Christian population” worldwide.

When asked about Jin's release, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said the country manages religious affairs in accordance with the law. “We firmly oppose interfering in China's internal affairs with so-called religious issues,” the ministry said.

Jin is handed new Nikes and taken on an unknown journey

Jin said he was called suddenly to gather his few belongings, including a Bible, on July 3. He was handed new clothes and a new pair of Nike shoes. He was told he was being moved from the detention center in the southern city of Beihai, where he had been locked up for 266 days.

“Could it be that these people, now pressured, would put me under home arrest?” Jin said he wondered. He had heard from his lawyers that Trump had brought up his case with Xi less than two months earlier.

But he crossed out that possibility when the police van whisked by his old neighborhood and took him to a high-speed train station.

He was escorted into a train car with no other passengers, just police officers, who were recording video. Jin said he still did not imagine he could be freed because China rarely responds to outside pressure and many other Christian pastors and political activists are still locked up.

“I thought they would move me to a secretive place,” he said. A release was “too good to believe.”

He and the officers traveled some 470 miles to the southern metropolis of Guangzhou and then headed to the international airport, Jin said.

A temporary court was set up in a VIP room at the airport, where prosecutors read out a document, the pastor said.

After declaring “criminal evidence solid and criminal facts established,” the lead prosecutor informed Jin of the decision not to indict him on charges including illegal business activity and fraud stemming from running an unregistered church.

China has cracked down on the pastor's church

Jin founded Zion Church in 2007, and it grew into one of the most influential independent congregations in China. They are different from officially sanctioned places of worship, which accept Communist Party rule.

In 2018, authorities in Beijing shut down the church's physical sanctuary after the congregation refused to install surveillance cameras. Jin sent his family to the U.S. but stayed behind to keep developing the church, which met in small groups and gained a strong online following during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In October 2025, Jin and other church leaders were detained in another crackdown.

Pastor gets back his passport and heads to America

At the airport, Jin said he was handed his passport before stepping on a plane. A U.S. diplomat had been waiting for him for hours.

For the nearly 13-hour flight, Jin was too excited to sleep. When he landed in Los Angeles, the pastor said he was welcomed by U.S. officials and given a fee-free one-year visa.

He reunited with his family after a yearslong separation and got to hold his three grandchildren for the first time — the youngest was barely a month old.

His daughter Grace Jin Drexel, who had lobbied for months for her father’s release, said she didn’t recognize him at first because he lost a lot of weight and had visibly aged.

Now free, Jin is working for the release of other Christians

Jin said he would be working to help free the eight other Zion Church members and other Christians detained in China. That includes Wang Yi, pastor of the Early Rain Covenant Church, who is serving nine years in jail.

To that end, Jin met House Speaker Mike Johnson this week, along with relatives of three detained Christians in China.

“I am free in this country, so warmly welcomed, so I am making a special call not to forget that many more are still detained,” he told AP, choking up. “I hope we will continue to strive for them to be free.”

The Republican speaker said Jin's release had bipartisan support. “This is something we all agree on,” Johnson said. “It’s about religious freedom around the world.”

Jin said another hope is for China to legalize independent churches.

“Probably the most important wish in my lifetime is that Chinese churches can be recognized by their own government,” Jin said.

___

Associated Press writers Ken Moritsugu in Beijing, Lisa Mascaro in Washington and Josh Funk in Omaha, Nebraska, contributed to the report.

In a combative first news conference, the ex-Liverpool manager warned the German media he'll quit if he believes they're intruding on his family's privacy.

He also hinted Germany could be his last job in coaching and admitted he hasn't been an avid follower of international games.

Klopp's targets are Euro 2028 and the 2030 World Cup

Klopp was the German federation's top target and now he's signed a contract through to the 2030 World Cup. At his presentation Friday, he said it was “a big honor” to take the job and signaled it could be his final role as coach.

Klopp said Friday he would be prepared to leave without any severance pay if it doesn’t work out, or if criticism becomes overwhelming, and threatened to resign if the media doesn’t “leave my family in peace.”

“Jürgen Klopp has no career after the national team,” he said. “Ideally, this will be the highlight of my career, my life, my working life. I will put everything into it that I possibly can.”

He replaces Julian Nagelsmann, who resigned amid heavy criticism after Germany’s loss to Paraguay meant it failed to reach the last 16 of a men’s World Cup for the third time in a row.

Klopp indicated he believed Nagelsmann and England's coach Thomas Tuchel had been treated unfairly in the media. “I'm doing the job even though I've heard how you treated Julian, although I've heard how England treats Tuchel,” he said, without specifying what exactly he thought was the problem.

Klopp wants to make German soccer cool again

It is Klopp’s first coaching job since he left Liverpool in 2024 citing fatigue. He said he was “recharged” in comments while in talks over the Germany job.

Klopp signaled he plans to make some surprising squad selections and said his mission isn't just to win games, but to bring back a buzz around the team.

Klopp himself admitted that “it's been a while” since he watched national team games outside of major tournaments.

“I want to create something with the national team that means that people go home after the game and think ‘That was really cool.’ That's what I'd like to see happen,” he said.

Klopp's arrival follows talks during the World Cup

The man known for thrilling “heavy metal football” at Liverpool, Klopp was Germany’s preferred candidate as soon as Nagelsmann quit.

Over weeks of talks, the 59-year-old German — 20 years older than Nagelsmann — stayed in the United States as a World Cup pundit for a German-language broadcaster.

The federation also held talks with the Red Bull group, where Klopp spent the last year and a half as “head of global soccer” advising its worldwide group of soccer clubs.

German federation president Bernd Neuendorf said there wouldn’t be a typical release fee paid to Red Bull for Klopp. Instead, the federation pays one million euros ($1.14 million) to a Red Bull-linked charity and has agreed to hold three national team games in the eastern city of Leipzig, where Red Bull backs the city’s Bundesliga club team.

Klopp faces a tough introduction to his first national team job with four Nations League games in 11 days against the Netherlands, Greece and Serbia in late September and early October. The first major milestone will be the 2028 European Championship.

Mertesacker joins Klopp in Germany setup

Germany hasn't won a knockout game at a World Cup since beating Argentina in the 2014 final. Now a player from that team will be working alongside Klopp.

Former defender Per Mertesacker joins Klopp as the federation's new managing director for sport, with a role overseeing the German men's national teams and an emphasis on bringing players through youth national teams to star for the senior team. He will start the role in January and joins after eight years running Arsenal's academy.

Klopp is reunited with two of his assistants from his Liverpool days, Peter Krawietz and Pep Lijnders, weeks after Lijnders left a role as Pep Guardiola's assistant at Man City. Ex-Germany player Sven Bender also takes an assistant role.

In an unusual arrangement, Klopp's longtime agent Marc Kosicke joins the coaching team in a role focusing on strategy and administration, but won't be a federation employee.

___

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

And analysts warn it could climb even higher.

As we head into the weekend, we are checking on our local averages compared to the national average, which hit $4.11 a gallon on Friday morning.

In Florida, that is slightly lower at $3.98, and where you fill up does matter.

Taking a look at AAA’s Gas Price Index, most of our local counties are in line with the state average.

Duval and St. Johns counties are averaging $3.98 a gallon of regular. In the surrounding counties, it’s a little higher at $4 in Nassau and Flagler counties.

If you have any weekend road trip plans, AAA offers a free gas cost calculator on its website. You can select where you’re going and what kind of vehicle you drive.

We also found some of the lowest prices in the area, county by county, according to Gas Buddy.

In Duval, the Sun Express on Atlantic Boulevard shows $3.58.

Clay and St. Johns counties’ lowest prices are a little higher.

In Nassau, Putnam, and the Macclenny areas, the lowest prices we’re seeing are around $3.79.

The decision at a U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization meeting in South Korea came days after Israel’s Foreign Ministry urged the committee to reject efforts to designate the small West Bank town of Sebastia and the Lebanese castles, calling the nominations a “weaponization of cultural heritage.”

At their meeting in Busan, members of the UNESCO committee decided to place Sebastia and five castles in Lebanon’s Mount Amel area on both the World Heritage List and the List of World Heritage in Danger after reviewing the nominations on an emergency basis, citing ongoing conflicts in the Middle East.

Sebastia, a hilltop town about 10 kilometers (6 miles) northwest of Nablus in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, is identified by scholars as ancient Samaria, capital of the biblical Kingdom of Israel. The area’s archaeological remains span the Iron Age, Roman, Byzantine and Islamic periods. Christian and Islamic tradition holds that John the Baptist was buried there, according to a UNESCO website.

Sebastia’s nomination, first submitted by the Palestinian delegation to UNESCO in 2012, argued that World Heritage status was needed to help preserve the site, saying it remains largely undeveloped under Israeli control and requires additional conservation despite attracting tourists.

The designation comes as Israel, which does not recognize a Palestinian state, moves to expropriate large swaths of land around the site, even as it faces pressure to crack down on violence by Israeli settlers in the Palestinian territory.

The five castles in the Mount Amel region are recognized for their layered architectural heritage, combining Crusader, Ayyubid, Mamluk and local influences, reflecting the evolution of fortified architecture over nearly nine centuries, according to a UNESCO description.

Adel Naim Daoud Atieh, a member of the Palestinian delegation to UNESCO, said the World Heritage designation rewards the perseverance of Sebastia’s residents, “who have protected this extraordinary site through generations, despite occupation, restrictions, and repeated attempts to separate them from their own heritage.”

Israel withdrew from UNESCO in 2019, accusing the organization of being biased against it and of downplaying its historical ties to the Holy Land. A member of the Israeli delegation, which is attending the Busan meetings as observers, said it was a “shame politicization has ruined UNESCO and led to mockery of history.”

In Tuesday’s statement, Israel’s Foreign Ministry accused the Palestinian delegation of waging a “hostile, one-sided campaign” at UNESCO by falsely portraying Sebastia as an area facing an emergency, calling the effort a political attempt to “erase the site’s profound, well-documented Jewish and Christian history.”

The ministry also objected to efforts to list Beaufort Castle in southern Lebanon as a World Heritage site. The castle was part of the nomination covering five castles in the Mount Amel area.

The ministry said Hezbollah, an Iran-backed militant group, has turned Beaufort Castle into a military stronghold by building tunnels beneath the site and launching rockets from the area, and accused UNESCO of ignoring those developments.

UNESCO and the Lebanese embassy in South Korea declined to comment on the Israeli claims about Hezbollah. At Friday’s meeting, a Lebanese delegate said the castles have been used “only for cultural and tourism purposes” since Israel’s withdrawal from southern Lebanon in 2000 and accused Israeli media of circulating images of tourist facilities as military tunnels.

The UNESCO committee on Wednesday placed another Lebanese site, Tyre, an ancient Phoenician city in the southern part of the country, on the list of world heritage sites in danger.

The work takes place at the National Institute of Criminalistics in Brasilia, the country's capital, where federal police have set up a “gold lab” that collects and analyses samples from across the country.

The objective is to determine if a newly acquired sample — gold seized in a police raid, for example — comes from a protected area, meaning it has been illegally mined. It's called “gold fingerprinting” — tracing the origin of gold samples with high precision.

Tracing gold is like looking at a person's DNA, experts say

At the lab, sparkling gold flakes are kept in tiny, coin-shaped vessels, but the most valuable thing about them is the data they hold. Each speck is unique because while it forms in nature, inside a rock or a riverbed, the gold deposits absorb particles from the area, such as traces of silver and copper.

And that's the fingerprint. It allows the investigators to determine if gold seized during a police raid was actually mined in the area its purported owner claims it came from, or if it was illegally sourced from a national forest or Indigenous land — in which case its analysis would match stored data from the protected area.

Gustavo Geiser, a federal police forensics expert, says the method has been developed since 2019 in collaboration with Brazilian universities. The investigators use tools such as X‑ray fluorescence spectrometry, scanning electron microscopy and laser ablation mass spectrometry.

“As we advanced, the forensic examinations became increasingly complex,” Geiser said, but the question before them was always the same: “Where did this gold come from?”

If the forensics prove a gold sample was illegally mined, the information then helps police build a case and move forward with further investigations and possibly charges.

Criminals insert illegally mined gold into legal markets

Those involved in environmental crimes in the Amazon frequently resort to fraud to introduce their goods into legal markets, not just when it comes to gold but also for cattle and timber. Lately, a worldwide surge in gold prices has only spurred on the mining rush in the Amazon rainforest.

Amazon Mining Watch, a platform that uses satellite imagery to track mining, estimates that about 496,000 hectares (1.2 million acres) of rainforest have been cut down for mining since 2023, including some 223,000 hectares (551,000 acres) in the Brazilian Amazon.

Brazil's Federal Court of Accounts, its top audit institution, said last year there was evidence indicating that mining permits granted by the National Mining Agency to small-scale miners were being used to pawn off gold extracted from protected areas in the Amazon.

Greenpeace, in its own independent report in May, based on publicly available records, satellite imagery and aerial surveillance, detailed how the scheme works.

On paper, an owner of a legally authorized mine in the Amazon would declare that tons of gold had been extracted at that mine.

However, satellite and aerial imagery would show that there had not been any activity at the site of the legal mine. Meanwhile, images of bordering Indigenous lands, where mining is banned, would reveal large-scale mining operations — a “ghost mine” scam as Greenpeace calls it.

A federal court in Para, a northern state severely impacted by illegal mining, issued an order this month for institutions like the Central Bank and the National Mining Agency to enact effective control and traceability of all gold, from the mines to the markets. Brazil’s federal prosecutors also filed a lawsuit against the National Mining Agency, seeking better oversight of mining permits.

Prosecutor André Porreca, who is leading the case, said the permits have become a front used "to launder gold extracted by criminal organizations from Indigenous territories and protected areas.”

Geiser, the forensic expert, says the Brasilia gold lab is an important piece of the puzzle that helps battle crime and strengthen global gold supply chains.

“Being able to state that it (gold) has a legitimate origin and therefore is valid for inclusion in a country’s or a bank’s financial reserves, I believe provides solidity not only to the market but also to the countries’ financial bonds,” he said.

There is no data on how many criminals the lab has helped put behind bars, but Geiser says crime networks have recently begun exploiting neighboring countries such as Venezuela, French Guiana and Suriname, to launder illegally mined gold. Samples from abroad have made it to his lab, where they have joined the constantly growing database, he said.

The growing crime has also forced regional countries to strengthen collaboration through the Amazon International Police Cooperation Center, headquartered in the Brazilian city of Manaus.

Illegal gold mining leads to devastating mercury contamination

The Amazon is the world’s largest rainforest and a key regulator of global climate, so anything that degrades it could accelerate global warming, researchers say.

A 2023 analysis by MapBiomas, a nonprofit that monitors land-use, said that over 90% of Brazil’s mining is taking place in the Amazon region, with nearly 40% of it illegal, in protected areas.

Though illegal gold mining is a relatively small driver of deforestation, compared to agriculture, the harm it inflicts on the environment is nearly impossible to reverse — especially because of the use of mercury to extract gold. Once the gold is separated, the mercury is released into the rivers, contaminating water sources and fish essential to Indigenous life.

A 2023 study by Fiocruz, a Brazilian science institute, said 21.3% of fish in Amazonian markets exceeded the World Health Organization's safety limits for mercury levels — with children between 2 and 4 years old consuming mercury at levels up to 31 times the recommended maximum.

Brazil signed the U.N. agreement known as the Minamata Convention on Mercury, which commits it to eliminate mercury use in gold mining.

The Ministry of Mines and Energy published a draft this month on easing out mercury that's up for debate, meant to take place until Aug. 7. Federal prosecutors have urged that Indigenous groups — the ones most affected by the contamination — be consulted, but that has not yet happened.

A total ban on mercury would both curb environmental contamination and also bolster forensics investigations, according to Geiser of the federal police, whose lab can detect any traces of mercury in its samples.

“It will make it even clearer that any mining using mercury ... is illegal,” he added.

___

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.

The video, recorded Monday in the San Jose neighborhood, has been viewed more than 1 million times across social media platforms. It shows a woman — identified as Tynika Munn, who is Black — being verbally and physically harassed while sitting in her car after pulling into a driveway to pick up a friend.

Munn, known to many as Ty, told News4JAX she called 911 immediately after the incident — and waited.

“I sat on the 9-1-1 call. I asked, ‘Are you sending someone out ASAP?’ Because you want me to sit in front of somebody’s house that can potentially go in and get a gun and just start shooting?” Munn said.

JSO told News4JAX it became aware of the video earlier this week and added that officers tried to contact Munn on the day of the confrontation.

JSO confirmed to News4JAX that Munn made a call to dispatch on the afternoon of July 20. JSO said based on its call notes that an officer did respond to the call, contacted Munn and Munn said she had left the home to run an errand and would call back when she returned to the home to report the incident. JSO said it has no record that a return call was made later in the day.

Officers then showed up at Munn’s door Thursday morning — three days after the incident, and after the video began circulating. News4JAX Reporter Ashley French was there. A few hours later, the man was taken into custody by JSO.

Munn says the confrontation began when she pulled into the man’s driveway at the direction of the friend she was picking up. She says what happened next was unprovoked.

“The video doesn’t start where the aggression started,” Munn told News4JAX. “The man actually got into his car, revved it up, and forced me to back out of the driveway. Then he parks to the side — and approaches me.”

She says she questioned why he was driving toward her car.

“And then I’m like, why are you trying to hit my car? That’s all I said,” Munn said. “He didn’t move the car anywhere but to the side — so it shows he was intentionally trying to antagonize me.”

The video gained widespread attention after popular content creator Michael McWhorter — who has more than 2 million followers — shared it online. Commenters expressed outrage and called for the man’s arrest.

When JSO officers met with Munn on Thursday morning, she says they revealed the man in the video had a prior history with law enforcement.

“They said they have had contact with him before because he’s already got a history of bad behavior,” she said.

JSO confirmed that it had made contact with him several times in the past, but he was not previously arrested.

Munn says the encounter shook her deeply.

“When it first happened, yes, I was in tears,” she said. “To be treated despicably like that man treated me on Monday — that kind of touched me with everything else that I was going through.”

News4JAX is choosing not to publish the man’s name and has blurred his face in the video because he had not yet been formally charged at the time this story was first reported.

The JSO confirmed that the man has been taken into custody, but it is unclear what charges he may face. News4JAX has requested that information from JSO.

News4JAX also attempted to reach the man’s family for comment. They have not responded.

In the meantime, Florida is holding its annual back-to-school sales tax “holiday” from now through Aug. 20.

RELATED: Florida’s back-to-school tax ‘holiday’ begins Monday: Here’s how you can save

And community groups and local governments across the area are hosting back-to-school bashes, giveaways and more.

We’ve compiled a county-by-county list of events around Northeast Florida and Southeast Georgia.

NOTE: Want to see your event added? Email the name, a brief description, and the time, date and location to ffrazier@wjxt.com.

Alachua County

• Alachua Police Department Back 2 School Giveaway: backpacks/supplies giveaway, 9 a.m.–noon, Sat. Aug. 1, 2026 — Legacy Park Multipurpose Center, 15400 Peggy Rd., Alachua, FL 32615.
• Alachua Back to School Event (Better Together + SWAG Family Resource Center): supplies/resources, 10 a.m.–2 p.m., Sat. Aug. 1, 2026 — SWAG Family Resource Center, 807 SW 64th Terrace, Gainesville, FL 32607.

Clay County

• Bless the Backpacks: Toos for Tomorrow (Clay County Salvation Army): Ticket required for backpacks/school supplies. Call 904-276-6677 to register. 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Friday, July 24. The Salvation Army, 2795 CR 220, Middleburg, FL, 32068.
• Clay County Back to School Bash (Thrasher-Horne Center): supplies/resources bash, 9–11 a.m., Sat. July 25, 2026 — Thrasher-Horne Center, 283 College Dr., Orange Park, FL 32065.

• American Legion Post 250 Back to School Supply Giveaway: supply giveaway, 11 a.m.–noon, Sat. Aug. 1, 2026 — 2608 Black Creek Dr., Middleburg, FL 32068.
• Back to School Health and Wellness Event (Clay County Health Dept.): back-to-school health/wellness, 8 a.m.–2 p.m., Mon. Aug. 3–Fri. Aug. 7, 2026 — 1845 Town Center Blvd., Building 600, Fleming Island, FL 32003.
• American Academy of Cosmetology Back to School Bash: bash w/ free haircuts (per listing), 10 a.m.–2 p.m., Fri. Aug. 7, 2026 — 1330 Blanding Blvd., Orange Park, FL.

Duval County

• Ready, Set, Learn: Back-to-School Supplies Giveaway (Wealth Empowerment initiative): supplies giveaway, 11 a.m.–4 p.m., Fri. July 24, 2026 — Jacksonville Public Library (Main), 303 N. Laura St., Jacksonville, FL 32202.

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• SERTOMA Free Hearing Screenings (Back-to-School Health): hearing screenings, 9 a.m.–1 p.m., Sat. July 25, 2026 — 7535 Fort Caroline Hills Dr., Jacksonville, FL 32277.
• Ascension St. Vincent’s Emergency Care – Arlington Back-to-School Community Event: community back-to-school event, 10 a.m.–noon, Sat. July 25, 2026 — 9820 Hutchinson Park Dr., Jacksonville, FL 32225.
• Military Back-to-School Bash (First Coast YMCA): Children of active-duty service members, veterans and their families will receive free backpacks filled with school supplies and enjoy family-friendly activities. 10 a.m.-noon, Saturday, July 25.
• • Brooks Family YMCA
  • Dye Clay Family YMCA
  • Williams Family YMCA
  • Winston Family YMCA
  • YMCA at Baptist North
  • YMCA at Flagler Health+ Village
  • YMCA at Wildlight
  • VyStar Credit Union – Neptune Beach

• Back-to-School Giveaway and Registration (Creating Executive Opportunities Foundation): free backpacks/supplies, 10:30 a.m.–1 p.m., Sat. July 25, 2026 — Sk8City Jacksonville, 9244 Arlington Expy, Jacksonville, FL 32225.
• Back to School Bash (Sulzbacher Village): 500 free backpacks filled with school supplies, family activities, and access to pediatric health services for local students. 11 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 1, at Sulzbacher Village, 5455 Springfield Blvd. (44^th & Pearl), Jacksonville, FL 32208.

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• Free Backpack Giveaway (YR Tax Guy LLC): Call or text 904-888-3159 to reserve a spot for a free backpack and $25 gift card for school supplies. 3 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 1, at 811 Edgewood Ave. South, Jacksonville, FL, 32205
• Back 2 School give-a-way (Motorcycle Clubs Community): Music, food, face painting, fun and raffles. 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., Sunday, Aug. 2, A. Philip Randolph Heritage Park, 1096 A Philip Randolph Blvd., Jacksonville, FL, 32206
• Back 2 School Community Day (New Life International): 500 backpacks filled with supplies, vendors, resources, Haircuts, quick braids and more; free vaccination, physicals and an EKG for sports clearance (Pre-registration for health services required). 11 a.m.-3 p.m., Sunday, Aug. 2, 6429 Atlantic Blvd., Jacksonville, FL, 32211

• Back to School Free School Supplies (The Rashaud Fields Foundation & Extraordinary Men): All are welcome at this event from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., Saturday, Aug. 8, at 6912 Buffalo Ave. in Panama Park, Jacksonville.
• Back to School Bash (Abyssinia Missionary Baptist Church): All are welcome as this free community event with supplies for students and teachers. 11 a.m. until supplies are gone, Saturday, Aug. 8, at 10325 Interstate Center Dr., Jacksonville.

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• Back to School Giveaway Festival (DJ Squally & Rai): Vendors, games, prizes, food trucks, music, supplies. 1 p.m. until supplies are gone, Saturday, Aug. 8, 555 West 25th St., Jacksonville, FL 32206

Flagler County

• Boots & Backpacks Community Roundup (Remembering Heroes): school supply giveaway, Noon–5 p.m., Sat. Aug. 8, 2026 — 2K Ranch, 6067 Tangerine Ave., Bunnell, FL 32110.

Nassau County

• Bounce Back to School Event: supplies + health screenings/resources, 9 a.m.–noon, Sat. July 25, 2026 — Peck Center Gymnasium, Fernandina Beach, FL.
• Back to School Giveaway: backpacks/clothing/haircuts + screenings/physicals (while supplies last), 9 a.m.–1 p.m., Sat. Aug. 1, 2026 — Hilliard First Assembly, Hilliard, FL.

Putnam County

• Palatka Police Athletic League (PAL) – Back to School Bash: free distribution (shoes + backpacks + school supplies + clothing mentioned), 11 a.m.–2 p.m., Sat. July 25, 2026 — Calvary Family Life Center, 1414 Bronson St., Palatka, FL.
• Interlachen Back to School Bash: community back-to-school bash (supplies + family activities), 10 a.m.–1 p.m., Sat. Aug. 1, 2026 — 155 CR 315 N, Interlachen, FL 32148.

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St. Johns County

• SEA Community Help Resource Center, Inc – Back 2 School Bash: backpacks/supplies + food/music (per flyer), 10 a.m.–(end time not listed), Fri. July 24, 2026 — 6284 Armstrong Rd., Elkton, FL 32033.

• OFFSITE: Community Focus Back to School Event (10th Annual Back to School Festival): resource fair + back-to-school physicals (UF Health St. Johns) + immunizations (FL Dept. of Health) + supplies giveaway (per listing), 9–11 a.m., Sat. Aug. 1, 2026 — W.E. Harris Community Center (Gym), 400 E Harris St., Hastings, FL 32145.

Union County

• Community Back to School Bash (Union County Impact Initiative): community back-to-school bash, 9 a.m.–11:30 a.m., Sat. July 25, 2026 — Lake Butler Middle School, 150 SW 6th St., Lake Butler, FL 32054.

GEORGIA

Brantley County

• Brantley County Health Department – Back-to-School Clinic: immunizations + screenings (hearing/vision/dental), 8 a.m.–5 p.m., Thu. July 30, 2026 — Brantley County Health Department, 173 Florida Ave., Nahunta, GA 31553.

Camden County

• Park Praise & Back-to-School Drive 2026 (Divine Overflow Ministries International): giveaways/supplies drive, Noon–5 p.m., Sat. July 25, 2026 — 656 Gross Rd., Kingsland, GA 31548.

Charlton County

• Charlton County Health Department – Back-to-School Services (walk-in): immunizations + screenings (hearing/vision/dental) during normal hours, now through Aug. 10, 2026 — Charlton County Health Department, 2587 Third St., Folkston, GA 31537.

Glynn County

• Glynn County Health Department – Back-to-School Vaccination & Screening Services (walk-in): walk-in back-to-school vaccinations and screenings, now through Aug 10, 2026 — Glynn County Health Department, 2747 Fourth St., Brunswick, GA.

Pierce County

• Pierce County Health Department – Back-to-School Clinic: immunizations + screenings (hearing/vision/dental), 7:30 a.m.–5 p.m., Mon. Aug. 3, 2026 — Pierce County Health Department, 715 Ware St., Blackshear, GA 31516.
• Pierce County Health Department – Back-to-School Clinic: immunizations + screenings (hearing/vision/dental), 7:30 a.m.–5 p.m., Tue. Aug. 4, 2026 — Pierce County Health Department, 715 Ware St., Blackshear, GA 31516.

Ware County

• B-stro on the Bypass – Annual Back to School Giveaway: school supply giveaway + food, 11 a.m.–1 p.m., Sat. Aug. 8, 2026 — 502 Reynolds St., Waycross, GA 31501.

Two outside lanes of I-295 North will close Friday night as part of ongoing bridge improvement work.

The northbound double lane closures are scheduled to begin at 10 p.m. Friday, July 24, and are expected to reopen by 4 a.m. Monday, July 27.

The ramp from San Jose Boulevard (State Road 13) to I-295 North will also be closed during that time.

Drivers will need to take a detour at Old St. Augustine Road to access I-295 North.

If you can find another route this weekend, you should, or plan for extra travel time.

The closures are part of a larger project to replace finger joints on the Buckman Bridge over the St. Johns River. Work also includes partial coatings and structural steel improvements.

The $5.4 million contract was awarded to Cekra, Inc. Project completion is expected in fall 2026, weather and unforeseen circumstances permitting.

His daughter says he passed on Thursday after complications from a stroke.

Reagan, who spent 23 years at Channel 4 from the late 60s to the early 90s, wrote and voiced editorials that took on major issues from civil rights to government accountability.

In a post on Facebook, Reagan’s daughter, Denise, wrote about his time as a “beloved television journalist” at WJXT.

It reads in part:

“Throughout those 23 years, he covered nearly every issue important to Northeast Florida, such as civil rights, education, government in the sunshine, and many others. Reagan knew the station’s watchdog role was paramount.”

A celebration of life will take place form 1-4 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 16, at the Jacksonville History Center, 314 Palmetto St., Jacksonville, Florida 32202. Please email denisereagan@mac.com if you plan to attend.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to The 5 & Dime Theatre Co. (the5anddime.org), where Reagan attended numerous performances with his family, or to the Jacksonville History Center (jaxhistory.org).

The concerns are part of an I-TEAM investigation into the K-8 private school on West 13th Street, which receives state scholarship dollars through Florida’s school voucher programs.

Former teachers also described problems they say they saw while working at the school, including alleged mold in classrooms and ongoing bathroom issues.

“Not what they were delivering,” former teacher says

Charis Sims, who said she started as a language arts teacher at Icon Preparatory School in 2024, told the I-TEAM she initially believed the school’s mission — which she described as modeled after high standards of historically Black colleges and universities.

But Sims said she soon felt the school was not meeting those expectations.

“For it to be a school that prides themselves on college preparatory values, I honestly do not feel like, at the end of the day, that it’s what they were delivering,” Sims said.

Former kindergarten teacher says she reported mold concerns

Tabri Chaplin, a former kindergarten teacher who said she started at the school in 2022, told News4JAX she was drawn in by what she saw online.

“If you look up the videos, it looks like something really cool to be a part of,” Chaplin said.

Over time, Chaplin said, she noticed issues she believed were not being properly managed.

Chaplin said there was mold in her classroom and that she repeatedly reported it to a supervisor. After she said she did not see action taken, Chaplin said she contacted the health department herself.

“I had kids in the class with asthma. They’re little kids; they’re five-year-olds,” she said.

Photos show bathroom conditions; former staff describe portable toilets

A former Icon employee, who did not want to be identified, provided News4JAX photos showing what appears to be excrement on the floor and walls of a bathroom.

Chaplin said the school brought in portable toilets for students to use.

She also described an incident in which she said a student fell into a portable toilet.

“There was actually an incident where a student fell into the porta potty and had human waste all over them,” Chaplin said. “And they got sent back to class in those clothes.”

W-2 problems: “Grossly inaccurate,” former employee says

Several former employees told the I-TEAM they have not been able to file taxes because of problems with their W-2 forms.

Under federal rules, employers are generally required to provide W-2 forms to employees by Jan. 31.

Chaplin said the W-2 she received was inaccurate.

According to documents shown to the I-Team, Chaplin said her W-2 reported $1,768 in wages — while she said she earned more than $47,000 at the school — a difference of more than $45,000.

The IRS warns that filing late or failing to file can lead to interest or penalties, depending on the situation.

School founder cites “unforeseen delays” during payroll transition

News4JAX went to Icon Preparatory School in Jacksonville. The school also has a sister campus in Tampa.

The founder, Dr. Dwayne Raiford, is based in Tampa and responded to the I-TEAM’s questions by email.

Regarding the W-2 delays, Raiford wrote that the school transitioned to “an external payroll provider,” which he said, “resulted in unforeseen delays.” He added, “We apologize to our team members.”

On facility concerns, Raiford said the school “prioritizes responsiveness” and that issues are “typically resolved within 24 hours.”

Millions in vouchers, but little state oversight

Icon Preparatory School is a tax-exempt organization.

The I-TEAM obtained the most recent tax records available and found that, for the 2023-2024 tax year, Icon Prep reported receiving $2.7 million from Step Up For Students, the organization that administers state scholarship programs. Those scholarships allow families to use state dollars to help pay for private education.

Even though public funds are used for some private school scholarships, Florida’s Department of Education notes on its website that private schools are not regulated the same way public schools are.

The state website states: “Private elementary and secondary schools in Florida are not licensed, approved, accredited, or regulated by the Florida Department of Education.”

Dr. Diana Greene, who served as superintendent of Duval County Public Schools for five years and has worked in education for decades, told News4Jax that private schools do not have the same accountability measures as public schools.

“Private schools do not have any of the accountability measures that are in place for public schools,” Greene said.

Greene said she supports families choosing the best school for their children but said any school must be managed with strong financial oversight.

“It was very important that you have a strong chief financial officer… a strong bookkeeper,” Greene said. “And if those positions aren’t filled with people who have the expertise… that’s when you start to have problems.”

Former teachers say they’re still waiting; worry about students

Chaplin and Sims told the I-Team they are still waiting for corrected tax documents and accountability.

“There’s nobody to call. Our entire foundation is… self-governed, so it’s not like we can call the Board of Education, DCPS, nothing,” she said.

Sims said she hopes the focus stays on students.

“At the end of the day, it’s about our children,” Sims said.

Editor’s note: This story is based on former employee interviews, documents shown to News4JAX, and emailed responses from the school’s founder.

We have requested additional records and will update this story as more information becomes available.

Services like Klarna, Afterpay and Affirm allow shoppers to split purchases into smaller installments, often with no interest if payments are made on time.

While the services were once mostly associated with clothing and electronics purchases, more consumers are now using them to cover everyday necessities such as groceries, utility bills and car repairs.

“Groceries are high. What used to be $100 is $400 at the grocery store, so it truly makes a difference,” said Lindsay Emerson, who uses buy now, pay later services out of necessity.

Emerson said she has used the payment plans for practical expenses, including internet bills, light bills and new tires.

“It helps you stay within your budget because these days money is tight,” Emerson said. “You don’t have a big lump sum you can just drop on your tires or an internet bill or your light bill.”

Convenience is key

According to a 2026 report from LendingTree, 29% of buy now, pay later users said they used the loans to buy groceries, which is more than double the percentage reported two years ago.

The report also found that nearly half of users, 47%, made a late payment in the past year, while more than half said they would not be able to make ends meet without the loans.

Matt Schulz, chief consumer finance analyst with LendingTree, said convenience is a major factor driving the growth of the services.

“Far and away, the biggest reason why people said that they like buy now, pay later loans was that they’re easy to use and easy to get,” Schulz said. “That convenience is a really big deal, and it’s actually a bigger factor than the fact that it’s interest-free.”

At first glance, buy now, pay later plans may appear safer than traditional credit cards because many advertise zero interest. But financial experts say the biggest risk is overspending, particularly when consumers are juggling multiple payment plans across several apps.

“It’s really easy to overspend and kind of go beyond what you can afford,” Schulz said.

Schulz said many consumers manage several buy now, pay later loans at once, making it harder to keep track of upcoming payments.

“Our survey showed that an awful lot of people who get buy now, pay later loans sometimes have three, four, five of them at a time,” he said. “That can be a real challenge to manage.”

Dangers of ‘stacking’

Experts say that “stacking” multiple buy now, pay later loans can make them riskier than credit cards because borrowers may not fully realize how much they owe until payments begin being withdrawn from their accounts week after week.

Still, supporters argue the loans can be a safer alternative to high-interest credit cards when used responsibly.

“If you use it wisely, it can be a really good thing because having a little bit of extra interest-free time on those big purchases can really make a difference when you’re on a tight budget or you’re living paycheck to paycheck,” Schulz said. “The issue comes when you use these things too often and spend too much.”

Financial experts recommend consumers treat buy now, pay later loans like any other form of debt by keeping track of payments, avoiding multiple simultaneous loans and ensuring purchases fit within their monthly budgets.

Some buy now, pay later lenders are also beginning to report loan activity more directly to credit bureaus, meaning missed payments could increasingly affect consumers’ credit scores in the future.

New data compiled through the Nonprofit Center of Northeast Florida’s “Catalyst” data hub shows Duval County’s population age 65 and older has grown dramatically over the last decade, increasing from 104,968 residents in 2014 to 156,682 in 2024 — a 49% jump.

At the same time, affordable housing options for older adults are shrinking.

“There’s been some alarming data points,” Callan Brown, senior vice president of development for the Nonprofit Center, said. “We know that more than half of our older adult renters are now spending 30% of their income on rent.”

The Catalyst data found 53% of older renter households in Duval County now spend at least 30% of their income on housing, while 26% spend more than half of their income on rent.

For many seniors, the financial strain has become overwhelming.

“They raised it by $300 and there was just no way I could afford it,” one senior connected with ElderSource said. “I’m on a fixed income. I have no other means of support.”

Organizations serving older adults say those stories have become increasingly common as rents rise and incomes fail to keep pace.

Since 2014, median gross rent in Duval County has increased 57%, rising from $941 to $1,475 a month, according to Catalyst data. During that same period, median income for older adults increased by 43%, from $37,680 to $54,085.

“It helped validate what we see every day through our helpline,” said Tameka Gaines Holly, chief operations officer for ElderSource. “To see the increase in calls for housing-related needs, we were able to see that demonstrated in the data that the Catalyst program put together.”

ElderSource operates a helpline for seniors and caregivers across Northeast Florida, helping connect residents with housing assistance, food, prescriptions and utility support.

“They’re calling about rent, rent increases,” Gaines Holly said. “A lot of times their rent is increasing and so they are at risk of being evicted and displaced.”

She said many seniors are also struggling to cover essentials because so much of their income is going toward housing.

“They are needing monies for prescriptions, for food, for utilities,” Gaines Holly said. “You’re dealing with a population that has fixed incomes. So as the prices go up, their income is staying the same.”

The data also shows that renting among older adults is becoming increasingly common in Northeast Florida.

In 2024, more than 23,000 households led by adults 65 and older were renters in Duval County, a 71% increase from 2014. By comparison, older homeowner households increased 42% during the same period.

Brown said that the shift creates new challenges for seniors competing in an already expensive rental market.

“Older adults are moving towards renting instead of owning their own homes,” Brown said. “And we know also that access to rent in this area, Northeast Florida, is very competitive.”

Advocates also point to a troubling increase in homelessness among older adults. Between 2023 and 2024, the number of people age 64 and older experiencing homelessness in the Jacksonville area rose from 71 to 94, according to the report.

“It’s someone’s grandmother, someone’s mom,” Gaines Holly said. “You have people that are at work in the business community that have to think about what’s going to happen with my mom if she loses where she lives.”

Nonprofits, including the Nonprofit Center, ElderSource, Habitat for Humanity, the Center for Independent Living and Sulzbacher are now working together to identify solutions to address the growing crisis.

Advocates say solving the issue will require more investment from local and state governments in affordable housing designed for seniors living on fixed incomes.

“We need the government behind us to understand where the priorities are for investing city dollars, state dollars, to help us build communities that are available for older adults who are income-constrained,” Gaines Holly said.

Click here for more information about ElderSource. ElderSource’s helpline can be reached at 1-888-242-4464.

Now, a TikTok video detailing her experience has been viewed tens of thousands of times and prompted hundreds of comments from women who say they have experienced similar incidents.

Rhiannon Alvarez told News4JAX she was shopping for artwork inside HomeGoods when she noticed a man following her through several aisles.

“At first, I thought I was imagining it,” Alvarez said. “When I finally realized this is actually happening to me, I dropped my cart and grabbed my purse and went to the front.”

Alvarez said she alerted store employees after realizing the man seemed to be sexually gratifying himself while watching her.

“The employees also stated when they rewatched the video, it was blatant; he was pleasuring himself while following me,” she said.

According to Alvarez, the man left the store after realizing he had been noticed. She recorded his license plate before calling the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office.

She said officers arrived about three hours later.

“Within two minutes of talking to me, before seeing video or anything, the officer had decided there was nothing they could do,” Alvarez said.

Alvarez said the responding officer later reviewed the store’s surveillance video but still told her no criminal charges could be filed.

When News4JAX requested a copy of the incident report from JSO, the agency responded that no records existed. However, the sheriff’s office confirmed it received a call about the incident.

The I-TEAM has asked JSO why no arrest was made and why no report was generated. JSO told us they had a record of going out to the store, but in the call notes, the officer noted “no crime committed.”

HomeGoods’ parent company, TJX Companies, said it cooperated with investigators.

“At HomeGoods, we take the security of our customers and Associates very seriously. We are aware of this matter and have cooperated with the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office. We will continue to assist law enforcement as appropriate and respectfully defer further comment to the authorities,” the company said in a statement.

Why wasn’t it a crime?

Alvarez said she struggles to understand why the alleged behavior did not result in criminal charges.

“I feel like that’s just as much a crime as anything else,” she said. “I don’t understand how it doesn’t fall under public indecency or lewd and lascivious conduct.”

The I-TEAM reviewed Florida law and consulted legal experts about the case.

Under Florida law, simply touching oneself in public is not automatically a crime. Florida’s exposure statute generally requires a person to expose their sexual organs in a vulgar or indecent manner. If there is no exposure, prosecutors may have limited criminal charging options depending on the facts of the case.

Whether another criminal statute could apply depends on the specific circumstances and evidence.

Viral video prompts broader conversation

Frustrated by the outcome, Alvarez shared her experience on TikTok.

The video quickly gained traction online, with hundreds of commenters, many identifying themselves as women in Jacksonville, sharing stories of stalking, harassment and encounters they say were not taken seriously by law enforcement.

“I’m not the only one it’s going to happen to, and I’m probably not the only one that’s happened to,” Alvarez said. “On my TikTok, there’s 700 comments and half of those comments are other women in Duval County expressing their need for help.”

She hopes her experience will lead to changes in state law.

“If this is legal, make it illegal,” Alvarez said. “We amend laws all the time about things that are much less important than women’s safety.”

The action exposed children to cyberbullying, unwanted contact and predatory behavior, commission spokesperson Thomas Regnier said.

“Children’s content must never be visible to strangers,” he said. If TikTok does not take steps called for by the European Union's landmark Digital Services Act, “minors are exposed to predators, to grooming and to cyberbullying,” Regnier said, adding that children aged 13 to 15 can “easily” change their accounts from private to public and the private accounts of minors aged 16 to 17 can be seen by anyone on the internet. “We do not accept this,” Regnier said. “Putting default settings for minors is not a beauty contest under the DSA. It must be effective.”

The investigation comes on the heels of back-to-back crackdowns on Big Tech by Brussels, which has led the world in regulating tech behemoths including Meta and Apple.

TikTok can now defend itself and reply to the findings. If unsatisfied with the Chinese firm’s response, the European Commission could issue a so-called non-compliance decision and possible fine worth up to 6% of the company’s total annual revenue.

The Chinese social media firm, whose parent company ByteDance is based in Beijing, said in a statement it would review Brussels' findings and “continue to engage constructively with the Commission.”

“Protecting minors online is a goal we share, and we are committed to building on our strong track record of continuous improvement,” TikTok said in a statement.

If unsatisfied with the firm’s response, the commission could issue a so-called non-compliance decision and possible fine worth up to 6% of the company’s total annual revenue.

The commission estimates most of TikTok's 170 million users in the EU are children, with 7% of children aged 12 to 15 spending four to five hours daily on the app.

The 27-nation European Union found in February that TikTok had breached another aspect of its digital rule book with an “addictive design” of features such as autoplay and infinite scrolling that could harm the physical and mental health of users and minors especially.

The International Medieval Combat Federation's annual world championship roared into gear in northern Denmark this week. First staged in Spain in 2014, it features armor-clad competitors fighting with 14th-century medieval weapons. But it’s also a modern combat sport with safety rules and sporting conventions.

A mixture of historical and modern techniques

“It’s historically inspired,” combat federation spokesperson Kamila Studencka said. “It’s a mix of modern techniques with historical ones. We have something between full combat sports and fencing.”

And while the swords and axes are blunted, the battles are anything but harmless reenactments. Studencka said some competitors are attracted by “the violence,” while others prefer the technical aspects of face-to-face duels.

“Some people like the friendship and being a team member … to be a part of something bigger,” she added.

This year’s championship is being held in the shadow of Spøttrup Castle, a formidable Danish fortress that was completed around 1520.

The event has drawn fighters from 30 countries, including the United States, Canada, China, and Brazil.

Brazilian competitor Rodrigo Sinckevicius, who traveled with a team of eight from São Paulo, said he previously competed in jiu-jitsu and other mixed martial arts, but when he first saw this kind of medieval combat, he “couldn’t believe it.”

“People falling and grabbing and the sound of the steel cracking, it’s like something that you cannot fake,” added the 33-year-old, who works in sales back home.

Duels and team events

The four-day championships, which opened Thursday, see competitors battle in one-on-one “duels” made up of two one-minute rounds each. Opponents are eliminated after hitting the ground three times or when they submit. If neither happens, marshals declare a winner based on points scored.

There are also chaotic mass-team events, known as “Buhurt,” in which up to 10 competitors on either side participate.

Martin Gill, from Milton Keynes, England, said he first got involved “to hit someone in the face with an ax.”

“This had that kind of niche appeal to it, that people were willing to consensually come up and say, ‘You can hit me in the face with the ax, as hard as you can,’” the 37-year-old geotechnical engineer said.

The IMCF says fighters wear thick, shock-absorbing padded garments beneath the armor to distribute the force of impact, and that fights are strictly controlled by trained marshals who enforce the rules of engagement. It says that overall injury rates are comparable to those in mainstream full-contact martial arts.

Gill said almost everything the competitors wear, including his 30-kilogram (66-pound) suit of armor, is historically accurate. Some outfits and fighting techniques are informed by the writings of 14th-century Italian knight Fiore Dei Liberi and German fencing master Johannes Liechtenauer.

“We follow manuscripts as best we can,” said Gill. “Everything is legitimate techniques from all of their writings throughout the 14th century.”

A growing sport

Nearly 600 fighters are taking part in this week's championship. The sport, an unflinching blend of mixed martial arts, fencing, and historical reenactment, has been growing in popularity.

Competitor Alex King, a 37-year-old financial crime specialist from Shoreview, Minnesota, said that when he first started three years ago, there were just 10 or so members in his local team. Now there are over 50.

“In America, it’s definitely growing, with the short videos you see now highlighting the sport,” King said. “A lot of people have become interested.”

The last big event in the U.S. featured over 40 teams, he added.

Men and women compete in separate events. Miisa Kaivos, a 27-year-old bartender from Helsinki, Finland, said the women’s side of the sport is also “drastically growing all around the world.”

“It’s amazing to see,” said Kaivos. “It’s always nice to come to these events and fight each other, and have that awesome girl power.”

Now those scattered acts of giving have a name and a public face: the Brighter Days Ahead Foundation. Launched in May, it will focus on causes Grande has advocated for in the past, including LGBTQ+ rights, reproductive health, immigrant rights, and mental health. Grande is doing this at a moment when philanthropic support for these causes is eroding, said Shauna Nep, Grande’s philanthropic adviser.

“We’re seeing the support for the kinds of issues she cares about going down drastically and the attacks going up aggressively,” Nep said.

This summer, Grande is using her Eternal Sunshine Tour to fund and promote the foundation, highlighting national and local nonprofits at each tour stop. Names of her grantee organizations are shown on screens in the center of the arena during the pre-show countdown. And fans who donate to the nonprofit can enter a sweepstake for a chance to win a trip to see her final tour date in London.

“The fan experience is still completely intact,” Nep said. “We’re meeting them where they are instead of taking them away from anything.”

Tour funds will be split among the featured local organizations, though none have been distributed yet. The grants announced so far have come entirely from Grande’s personal giving, a foundation spokesperson said.

In many ways, Grande, who also starred in the “Wicked” movies, is following in the footsteps of earlier generations of entertainers who lent their names to once controversial causes like HIV/AIDS and created their own foundations to help move large sums of money.

But today, celebrities’ platforms are larger than ever, giving them even more sway, noted Genevieve Shaker, who teaches courses on celebrity philanthropy and fundraising leadership at Indiana University’s Lilly School of Philanthropy.

“In the past, prior to social media, celebrities might be more dependent on traditional media to share stories about what they’re doing,” she said. “Now they have their own kind of media empire where they can leverage lots of channels to communicate, including about philanthropy and causes and nonprofits.”

Nonprofit Trans Lifeline is grateful for celebrity support

Trans Lifeline, which runs a crisis hotline for transgender people, is one of the nonprofits Grande has supported. The group has received $125,000 total — $75,000 in emergency funding last June and $50,000 when the foundation formally launched in May.

The money helped Trans Lifeline relaunch a microgrants program that distributed $100,000 directly to trans people across the country in partnership with five grassroots organizations, said Dante Alviar Horton, its executive director. Some of the funding also went toward improving benefits for the organization’s direct service crisis workers.

Trans Lifeline relies almost entirely on individual donors. Visibility gained from celebrity supporters has helped sustain the group, Alviar Horton said. He pointed to Trans Lifeline’s recent collaboration with designer Conner Ives on the “Protect the Dolls” T-shirt campaign, which raised more than $500,000 after celebrities like Pedro Pascal began wearing the shirts publicly.

“I was grateful that there were people in the celebrity sphere that cared enough to be like, ‘This matters,’” Alviar Horton said.

Celebrity philanthropy has often been dismissed as image management, allowing entertainers to have red carpet moments without putting much money or thought behind their advocacy efforts. Grande resisted creating a formal foundation for years for exactly that reason, Nep said.

“She does not want anyone to think that she thinks of herself as a philanthropist,” Nep said. “She knows she’s an artist.”

However, Nep, who has worked with the singer since 2018, encouraged Grande to formalize her giving so she could strategically move money to nonprofit groups and more easily collaborate with funding partners.

Grande's Brighter Days Ahead Foundation is a fiscally sponsored project of the Entertainment Industry Foundation, a public charity established in 1942 to support Hollywood’s philanthropic efforts. It allows celebrities, including Charlize Theron and Olivia Rodrigo, to easily create nonprofits to raise and distribute funds.

The largest of her foundation’s four funds is “Protect and Defend,” which supports organizations doing legal and legislative work for transgender youths, immigrants, and reproductive rights. The foundation is the largest funder for several of the grassroots organizations it supports and typically provides unrestricted grants. These groups typically get little support from institutional and government funders. Transgender-focused organizations, specifically, have seen funding dwindle as needs increase, Nep noted.

Grande's advocacy looks to meet the moment

Grande has been a longtime advocate for causes at the center of her philanthropy. In 2019, she donated roughly $250,000 in concert proceeds to Planned Parenthood after several states passed abortion restrictions. She has publicly discussed her struggles with post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, and depression, expressed appreciation for her gay and transgender fans, and has spoken out against the Trump administration’s immigration policies.

Grande’s activism and personal connection to these issues echo an earlier era when celebrities led the charge on funding for AIDS and HIV, Shaker said. Elizabeth Taylor co-founded the American Foundation for AIDS Research, or amfAR, in 1985 after watching friends suffer from HIV/AIDS and its stigma. For similar reasons, singer Elton John founded the Elton John AIDS Foundation in 1992, the same year he first publicly identified himself as gay.

The political climate facing transgender people today rivals what HIV/AIDS advocates confronted decades ago, said Anne Aslett, CEO of the Elton John AIDS Foundation.

Back in the 1980s and ’90s, John was watching close friends like singer Freddie Mercury succumb to AIDS-related illnesses, she said.

It was “really, really tough” to raise money for HIV/AIDS work among the broader public, including within the entertainment industry, she said. Because of his global stardom, John was able to humanize the cause for people, even those who didn’t share his views on politics or sexuality, Aslett said.

From the outset, the foundation was shaped by his authentic interest in supporting AIDS research and his insistence on listening to people with lived experience of the epidemic, Aslett said. That is what has helped sustain the organization for more than three decades, she said. But that personal interest and connection aren’t enough to really drive philanthropic success.

“Artists are hard-wired to pay attention to human emotion,” Aslett said. “They’re very empathetic. But that alone isn’t enough. They have to have a good structure underneath to make it work.”

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Stephanie Beasley is fellowship director and a senior writer at the Chronicle of Philanthropy, where you can read the full article. This article was provided to The Associated Press by the Chronicle of Philanthropy as part of a partnership to cover philanthropy and nonprofits supported by the Lilly Endowment. The Chronicle is solely responsible for the content. For all of AP’s philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy.

This includes several proposals for amendments to the state constitution.

Many of these proposals involved property tax reform — a major focus of Gov. Ron DeSantis.

One such amendment from a special session managed to garner approval from lawmakers, sending it to the ballot in November. It will need at least 60% support from voters during the general election to take effect.

But around 30 other proposals died in the Legislature this year, meaning that voters won’t get the chance to consider them.

See the full list, compiled by our sister station WKMG, of these failed amendments below:

HJR 11F — Homestead Exemptions

House Joint Resolution 11F would have increased the state’s homestead exemption from non-school property taxes, though not from certain local add-on taxes.

The amendment would also mandate the creation of a trust fund to replace funding lost as a result of this increased homestead exemption.

In addition, the amendment would prohibit local governments from reducing their public safety funding.

HJR 23D — State Reapportionment

House Joint Resolution 23D came about during the redistricting special session this year, and it would have changed how redistricting is performed.

For example, the bill would create three independent redistricting commissions and increase the number of legislative districts in the state.

HJR 27 — Local Term Limits

House Joint Resolution 27 would have set up term limits of 12 consecutive years for county commissioners and school board members.

After that 12-year limit, prospective candidates would have to wait four more years before running again.

HJR 201 — Eliminating Property Taxes

House Joint Resolution 201 would have established a homestead exemption for all non-school property taxes.

In addition, the amendment would prohibit local governments from reducing their law enforcement funding.

HJR 203 — Phased-Out Property Taxes

House Joint Resolution 203 would have increased the homestead exemption for non-school property taxes by $100,000 per year for 10 years.

Afterward, the amendment would make all homestead properties exempt from non-school property taxes beginning on Jan. 1, 2037.

In addition, the amendment would prohibit local governments from reducing their law enforcement funding.

HJR 205 — Property Tax Exemptions (Seniors)

House Joint Resolution 205 would exempt residents ages 65 and over from paying non-school taxes on their homes.

In addition, the amendment would prohibit local governments from reducing their law enforcement funding.

HJR 207 — Property Tax Exemptions (25%)

House Joint Resolution 207 would have applied a homestead exemption for non-school property taxes equal to 25% of the remaining assessed value after applying existing exemptions.

In addition, the amendment would prohibit local governments from reducing their law enforcement funding.

HJR 209 — Insured Home Exemptions

House Joint Resolution 209 would have increased homestead exemptions for non-school property taxes.

Under current law, the property tax exemptions are imposed as follows:

Instead of the $50,000 - $75,000 exemption range, though, HJR 209 would extend it to $25,000 - $200,000.

However, this only applies if the property is subject to a comprehensive homeowners insurance policy.

In addition, the amendment would prohibit local governments from reducing their funding for law enforcement, firefighters and first responders.

HJR 211 — Accrued Tax Benefits

House Joint Resolution 211 would have allowed the full value of the accrued benefit from special limitations on homestead property tax assessments to be transferred to a new homestead for non-school levies.

In addition, the amendment would prohibit local governments from reducing their law enforcement funding.

HJR 213 — Assessment Limits

House Joint Resolution 213 would have limited homestead assessment increases for non-school property taxes to once every three years.

The proposal also limits assessment increases for non-homestead properties to 15% once every three years.

In addition, the amendment would prohibit local governments from reducing their law enforcement funding.

SJR 270 — Property Tax Exemptions (Seniors)

Senate Joint Resolution 270 would have exempted residents ages 65 and over from paying non-school taxes on their homes.

This exemption applies to homes owned and maintained as a permanent residence for at least five years, with a household income of $350,000 or less (adjusted annually for inflation).

SJR 274 — Property Tax Exemptions (Long-Term)

Senate Joint Resolution 274 would have prevented the assessed value of properties from going up.

This prohibition would apply to properties that have been owned and lived in for at least 20 years.

The proposal would also grant properties an extra homestead tax exemption equal to 50% of their assessed values (not including school district levies) if they’ve been owned and lived in as a primary residence for at least 30 years.

SJR 278 — Assessed Value Limits (Homes)

Senate Joint Resolution 278 would have limited the assessed values of certain homes in the state.

More specifically, the proposal would apply to new homestead properties established after a change of ownership that had an assessed value of under $500,000 in the preceding year.

Under this amendment, the assessed value of such a property could not be raised by over 150% in a given year for property taxes.

SJR 282 — Assessed Value Limits (Businesses)

Senate Joint Resolution 282 would have limited the assessed value of real property used for commercial purposes by small businesses.

More specifically, the proposal would prevent the assessed value from rising by over 3% or the CPI percentage change — whichever is lower.

SJR 550 — Tangible Personal Property

Senate Joint Resolution 550 would have prohibited counties, school districts and municipalities from levying property taxes on tangible personal property.

An identical bill was filed in the House, though that one also died.

HJR 583 — Religious Expression

House Joint Resolution 583 sought to protect students’ and staff’s religious expression in Florida schools.

This includes the expression of religious beliefs in schoolwork, attire, prayer, activities, moments of silence and opening remarks at high school championship contests.

One of the main provisions in the amendment says that all first-period teachers must set aside 1-2 minutes daily for a moment of silence.

An identical bill was filed in the Senate, though that one also died.

HJR 619 — State Reapportionment

House Joint Resolution 619 would have revised the Florida reapportionment process by creating three independent redistricting commissions: one each for the House, Senate and congressional districts.

Each of these three commissions would be responsible for coming up with a reapportionment map, which the state Legislature must choose between.

A similar bill was filed in the Senate, though that one also died.

HJR 787 — Local Taxing Ban

House Joint Resolution 787 would have taken away the ability of counties and school districts to levy property taxes.

If approved, another bill associated with this proposal — HB 791 — would take effect at the same time as HJR 787.

HB 791 would impose a 5% transaction fee for all real estate sales, aimed at helping counties make up for any funding lost due to property tax cuts.

HJR 793 — Housing Inheritance

House Joint Resolution 793 provides that a transfer of homestead property by inheritance is not considered a change of ownership when it comes to homestead property assessment.

If approved, another bill associated with this proposal — HB 795 — would take effect at the same time as HJR 787.

HB 795 would clarify that upon the death of a homeowner, this transfer is considered between the owner and another who makes the property his/her homestead within one year.

An identical bill was filed in the Senate, though that one also died.

HJR 903 — Non-Homestead Valuations

House Joint Resolution 903 would have reduced the maximum percentage that the assessed value of non-homestead properties may be increased annually, from 10% to 3%.

HJR 947 — Reorganizing Government

House Joint Resolution 947 would have moved the seat of government from Tallahassee to within 100 miles of the population center of the state by 2043.

It also makes several other changes regarding the Legislature, including:

• Setting lawmaker salaries to the state’s median household income
• Establishes independent redistricting commissions to generate maps
• Expands the Legislature by tying the number of Senate and House districts to population, rather than fixed chamber sizes
• Authorizes recall elections for statewide officers and members of the Legislature

SJR 1364 — Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission

Senate Joint Resolution 1364 would have revised the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s composition.

Under this proposal, the new standards for the FWC would be as follows:

• There must be nine qualified members, instead of just seven
• At least one commissioner must be a full-time resident of one of the five regional administrative divisions established by the FWC
• At least three commissioners must also have:
• • A postgraduate degree in the field of conservation, biology or wildlife management
  • Direct experience in fish/wildlife conservation or management

The amendment also set up a new schedule for implementing the revised membership of the FWC.

SJR 1406 — Constitutional Amendments

Senate Joint Resolution 1406 would have changed the number of voters needed to approve a constitutional amendment.

While Florida law currently requires 60% of voter approval for an amendment to pass, SJR 1406 would lower that threshold to a simple majority.

HJR 1411 — Lowered Property Values

House Joint Resolution 1411 would have prohibited any additional increases in the assessed value of properties in the state if the just valuation of such a property has gone down since the previous assessment.

This refers to homestead and non-homestead properties that are subject to the current 3% and 10% assessment limitations, respectively.

A similar bill was filed in the Senate, though that one also died.

HJR 1527 — Emergency Powers

House Joint Resolution 1527 refers to situations where the governor declares a state of emergency.

Under this amendment, if a state of emergency is required to be extended beyond 60 days, the governor may do so only if the Legislature authorizes it.

An identical bill was filed in the Senate, though that one also died.

China claims virtually the entire sea passage, a key global trade route, despite a 2016 arbitration ruling based on the 1982 U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea that invalidated Beijing’s expansive claims.

Clash happens in the same area for second day

The latest high-seas faceoff happened near Scarborough Shoal for the second day in a row. The Philippine coast guard said a Chinese coast guard ship approached a Philippine government fisheries vessel at a distance of seven meters (23 feet) in what it called a “reckless” maneuver that created a serious risk of collision.

The Philippine coast guard strongly condemned “the dangerous and unprofessional actions of the China coast guard,” saying the shoal “is an integral part of the Philippine territory and its surrounding waters form part of the country’s territorial sea and exclusive economic zone.”

The Chinese coast guard said multiple Philippine ships, including three coast guard vessels, gathered in the waters on Friday and that it issued verbal warnings, deployed interception measures, and used water cannon to expel them.

“We sternly warn the Philippines to immediately cease its infringing and provocative actions or bear all consequences that may arise,” it said in a statement.

A clash on Monday at the Second Thomas Shoal left two injured.

Violence in South China Sea high on ASEAN agenda

The decades-long territorial standoffs were high on the agenda of the foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and their Asian and Western counterparts in three days of closed-door talks that started Tuesday in the Philippine capital.

The ASEAN ministers discussed the South China Sea disputes Tuesday and issued a joint statement in which they said that “concerns were expressed by some ministers on the land reclamations, activities, serious incidents in the area, including actions that put the safety of all persons at risk, and damage to the marine environment.”

The 11-nation regional bloc’s top diplomats welcomed “significant progress” in negotiations with China on a code of conduct that aims to prevent a major armed confrontation in the disputed waters. They said they aim to conclude the negotiations this year.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, met Wednesday on the sidelines of the ASEAN talks and discussed Monday's clash at the Second Thomas Shoal, calling the incident “escalatory.”

Two Philippine sailors aboard a boat were injured after being hit by wooden poles by Chinese coast guard personnel in a separate boat, the Philippines said. China accused Philippine sailors of attacking the Chinese with oars and long sticks.

Nearly a week of ministerial meetings in Manila was capped Friday with the commemoration of ASEAN’s 1976 Treaty of Amity and Cooperation, a nonaggression pact, where Philippine Foreign Sec. Theresa Lazaro said that in a time of global uncertainty, peace needs to be always defended.

“Peace is a daily choice,” Lazaro said. “It requires continuous labor, deliberate restraint, inclusive dialogue and an unyielding adherence to the rule of law.”

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Associated Press video journalist Joeal Calupitan in Manila, Philippines and writer Ken Moritsugu in Beijing contributed to this report.

FIFA asked one of its disciplinary prosecutors Monday to report back on testy on-field confrontations after Spain’s 1-0 win in extra time Sunday to dethrone the defending champion.

Argentina midfielder Leandro Paredes physically tangled with Spain players Eric Garcia and Gavi, and Spain captain Rodri was hit in the stomach as he ran past Argentina defender Nahuel Molina.

“It cannot be allowed,” De la Fuente told Spanish public broadcaster TVE on Thursday, adding he did not see the incidents at the time while “celebrating with other people.”

“In any case, I find it intolerable and unacceptable from players of that caliber, whom I had been praising in the days before and who have a magnificent coach,” the Spain coach said.

FIFA has given no details of the remit for its investigator, or if witness statements could be sought from Spain players and staff.

Argentina assistant coach Roberto Ayala apologized Wednesday for his confrontation with Dani Olmo, which he described as a shove and not a punch.

Coach praises Spain's restraint

De la Fuente praised his players in the TVE interview for how they handled the situation at MetLife Stadium.

“I want to highlight our behavior in the face of that kind of aggression and provocation,” the coach said. “Our players always kept their composure and behaved like true professionals.”

The Spain squad stood in a guard of honor for Argentina players walking to the podium to get their medals from U.S. President Donald Trump. Minutes later, when Rodri lifted the trophy, most of the Argentina squad turned their backs on the ceremonial moment.

Unclear timetable for FIFA action

FIFA disciplinary rules allow a special prosecutor to “request the opening of disciplinary proceedings and propose that disciplinary measures be imposed on member associations, clubs and individuals.”

FIFA gave no timetable for any cases, and it is unclear when any potential bans for Argentina players would apply as the team does not have competitive games scheduled in the coming months.

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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer and AP World Cup coverage