Authorities were first notified just before 5 p.m. in the 2500 block of McCue Road.

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HPD says a bomb squad responded to investigate the package.

They determined there was no threat and the scene has now cleared.

The discovery was made at a home in the 2100 block of Kingston Street.

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Authorities say the four were found dead after a shooting at the location. All four are said to be family members.

Officials say a babysitter and a relative called police concerned after not hearing from the family.

Police were the only people to enter the home and officers were the ones who found the four dead inside.

Police are still at the scene investigating and officials say the investigation is still in its early phases.

Sterling had a heart attack and bypass surgery this winter and had returned to his home in Edgewater, New Jersey, where he was cared for by health aides. He died of complications Monday at Englewood Hospital, according to his former wife, Jennifer.

“John Sterling breathed life and excitement into Yankees games for 36 years while wearing his passion for baseball and the Yankees on his sleeve,” the team said in a statement. “He informed and entertained generations of fans with a theatrical and unapologetic style that was uniquely his own. John treasured his role as the voice of the New York Yankees, and his enthusiasm for the art of broadcasting perfectly complemented our city and our fans. The symmetry between John and his audience was both undeniable and magical, and his signature calls will resonate for as long as we put on pinstripes — especially after every Yankees win.”

Starting during down years with Dallas Green and Bucky Dent in the dugout and Don Mattingly trying vainly to push the Yankees back to glory, Sterling entertained fans through the dynasty days of Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera and into the Aaron Judge era.

During a game against Boston on June 10, 2023, Sterling was hit by a foul ball off the bat of Boston's Justin Turner, said “Ow! Ow! Ow! It really hit me. I didn't know if it was coming back that far," and without pause continued his game commentary.

“He brought that New York theater to the ballpark,” Judge said. “He was almost a kid up there in the broadcast talking about the game.”

Sterling called 5,651 games — 5,426 in the regular season plus 225 postseason — including 5,060 in a row from September 1989 through July 2019. He retired in April 2024 just after the season's start, citing fatigue, then returned to broadcast Yankees games during the 2024 postseason.

“One of a kind,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “The soundtrack for so many New Yorkers and Yankee fans over the years.”

Boone pays tribute to Sterling's mellifluous baritone at the start of each postgame celebration.

“My coaches look at me like I’m nuts,” he said. “I don’t even know if they know what I’m doing, but as soon as that final out is made and I go I get up to shake players’ hands I go: “Ballgame over! Yankees win! Theee Yankees win!”

Sterling's call for a player’s home run became as treasured a part of a Yankees identity as an initial set of pinstripes or a championship ring. As rookies prepared for debuts and former opponents arrived in trades, fans speculated how he would label the newcomer's first longball.

From “Bernie goes boom! Bern, baby, Bern!” for Bernie Williams, to “It’s a Jeter jolt!” for Derek to “It’s an A-bomb from A-Rod!” for Alex Rodriguez, “The Giambino!” for Jason Giambi and ”A thrilla from Godzilla!” for Hideki Matsui, Sterling created personal stamps resonating from the clubhouse to the bleachers.

“It wasn’t meant that way. I just happened to do something for Bernie Williams. He hit a home run and I said, `Bern, baby, Bern!′ And it kind of mushroomed from there," Sterling said at the time of his retirement. "But it never was intended for every player, because, frankly, I’m not smart enough to do something for every player. But I did the best I could, and it’s amazing what started out as — became so big.”

“I did say ‘A-bomb from A-Rod!′ when he hit a home run and I did say: ’Robbie Canó, don’t you know,′ and I think those were pretty good,” Sterling said of calls for Rodriguez and Robinson Canó.

Suzyn Waldman, his broadcast partner for his final two decades, had no advance word of the home run calls.

“Sometimes I’d have to turn the sound off because I’d be laughing so hard," she said Monday. “Players started to come to him and said: 'I want one.' Remember Nick Swisher? He called him once Jolly Old Saint Nick. And up comes Swisher to the back of the plane and said, `I don’t like that. I’m not Jolly old Saint Nick.' That’s where Swishalicious came from."

He also was known some viral bloopers: home run calls on balls that were caught, catches that weren't, fair balls that were foul and other foibles. Waldman said criticism stung.

“John had no guile,” she said. “He didn’t understand it when people were mean to him because he could never be mean to anybody.”

Waldman and current Yankees television broadcaster Michael Kay placed flowers on home plate during a tribute before Monday night's game against Baltimore, and stadium organist Ed Alstrom played Broadway show tunes — Sterling's favorite — throughout the game. New York players had “JS” stitched on the backs of their caps and the Bleacher Creatures included Sterling in their start-of-game Roll Call.

When Judge homered in the first inning, Kay called the action on the YES Network using Sterling's exclamation: “A Judgian blast! Here comes the Judge!”

Born Josh Sloss on July 4, 1938, Sterling grew up in Manhattan and left college to work for radio stations. He had wanted to be a broadcaster since hearing “The Eddie Bracken Show” in the 1940s.

“I didn’t want to be Eddie Bracken. I wanted to be the guy who says: 'Live from Hollywood!’” Sterling said. “And I knew that maybe a year or two later, but before puberty I knew I was going to be on the air. And it really helped me because I didn’t worry about school, because I knew what I was going to do. And it was a good thing because I was a terrible student — terrible."

He started his radio career in 1960 at a station in Wellsville, New York.

“I was preparing this all my life. It was easy,” he said. “I could always open my mouth and talk."

Sterling cited Mel Allen, Russ Hodges and Jim Karvellas as influences. He wound up joining Allen in the history of memorable Yankees broadcasters along with Red Barber, Phil Rizzuto, Bill White and Frank Messer.

Sterling announced the NBA’s Washington Bullets and Morgan State football in his early years and gained notoriety for shrieking “Islanders goal! Islanders goal!” during the hockey team’s games from 1975-78. He broadcast for the NBA’s Nets from 1975-80.

Sterling’s first connection with the Yankees was during WMCA pregame radio talk shows from 1971-78. He moved to Atlanta and worked for the Braves from 1982-87 and Hawks from 1981-89 before switching to the Yankees, where he replaced Hank Greenwald.

“I was his update person on WFAN in 1987 and he was doing a talk show,” Waldman said. “He stood up and he cupped his hand over his ear and he talked standing up for four hours and I said this must be a really interesting person and he could talk about anything. ... He also was a pretty nasty talk show host. People think it was nasty then —- John would really yell at people and call them stupid.”

Sterling was seldom in the clubhouse and dressed in Brooks Brothers suits even though he was on the radio. A voracious reader, he would peruse a few pages during between-innings breaks.

He partnered with Jay Johnstone (1989-90), Joe Angel (1991), Michael Kay (1992-2001), Charley Steiner (2002-04) and Waldman (2005-24). Sterling and Waldman were inducted into the New York State Broadcasters Hall of Fame in 2016.

He was married to the former Jennifer Contreras from 1993 to 2004. In addition to her, he is survived by triplets Bradford, Derek and Veronica, and daughter Abigail.

Sterling was proud of his unique style.

“Harry Caray told me some years ago," he recalled in 2024 of the famous Chicago Cubs and White Sox broadcaster, “and he says, 'John, all the guys are great. We just have different styles.' And no one has a more different style than I have.”

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

Beyoncé left the cowboy hat at home and dazzled in a custom Olivier Rousteing sculptural skeleton dress with a cream and dust blue feathered train fitted with a diamond crown for “Queen Bey." The award-winning performer and her family, Jay-Z and Blue, stopped to pose as a unit on the carpet together.

Osaka stunned as she left The Mark Hotel for the Gala in a dramatic Robert Wun white sculptural fitted dress with exaggerated shoulders and adorned with red feathers and a matching headpiece. To complete her dramatic look, Osaka’s hands were dipped in dripping red paint. A similar look by Wun sits inside the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute exhibit, “Costume Art.”

On the Met steps, Osaka opened her dress and removed her headpiece for a grand reveal underneath. She wowed in a sleek red beaded gown embellished with the form of a body.

Chamberlain arrived in a breathtaking Mugler by Miguel Castro Freitas hand-painted dress. The star was dipped in a rainbow of colors from her décolletage down to the spiral train of her body-hugging dress with fringe falling down the cuffs of the long-sleeve gown.

With all the fanfare around the “The Devil Wears Prada 2,” Met Gala Co-chair Anna Wintour opted for a cool mint ensemble — not the trendy cerulean blue from the first film. Wintour’s look featured a feathered cape and a beaded dress by Matthieu Blazy for Chanel that she classically paired with her signature bob and oversized sunglasses.

Other co-chairs of the evening Nicole Kidman and Venus Williams chose more subdued looks. Williams wore a sparkling black off-the-shoulder gown with a dazzling bejeweled neckpiece in homage to a painting of herself done by Robert Pruitt for the National Portrait Gallery. Event sponsor Lauren Sánchez Bezos arrived in a form-fitting Schiaparelli gown, which she told Vogue was influenced by John Singer Sargent’s 1884 painting “Madame X.”

Artistic references

When guests were not wearing art, they were making references to it. Head of Editorial Content for US Vogue Chloe Malle wore an apricot orange Colleen Allen dress inspired by Sir Frederic Leighton’s “Flaming June” painting. Actor and author Lena Dunham collaborated with Valentino designer Alessandro Michele for her red feathered dress to depict his interpretation of “Judith Slaying Holofernes.” As a child, Dunham told Vogue, she would visit the Met museum on Sundays and admire the paintings in the renaissance section.

“One of my favorite painters from that era is Artemisia Gentileschi, who was one of the only women painting professionally in that moment,” she told Vogue. “So I sent some of the images to Alessandro, and because he’s a genius instead of dressing me like her, he said, ‘You are actually the blood spatter as ... Judith cuts the neck off a man.’”

Stars also celebrated the dress code with their accessories. Actor and fashion muse Gwendoline Christie playfully covered her face on the carpet with a mask of her own face while pop star Katy Perry opened and closed her fencing-like mask on the carpet to smile at the cameras.

Venus Williams was not the only guest to break the fourth wall with an artistic reference to herself. It was a trend of the night with gala host committee members Amy Sherald in Thom Browne donning a look inspired by her own work of art and pop star Sabrina Carpenter wearing a Dior dress designed with film strips from the 1954 movie “Sabrina.”

Fashion as canvas

Some guests brought out their artistic side as they transformed their dresses into works of art. TikTok followers watched along as Jessica Kayll, who designs colorful silk robes, finished painting her dress in the days leading up to the gala. Kayll painted her own take on the famous Monet water lily scene right on top her dress for the gala.

While her “Devil Wears Prada 2” cast mates kept it classic in black, Anne Hathaway made a statement in her custom Michael Kors Grecian-inspired strapless dress, which was hand painted with a dove of peace.

“She is the goddess of peace,” Kors told Vogue.

Dressed body

Rather than wear art, models showed off their toned bodies as part of "Costume Art" exhibit's theme celebrating artistic representations of the body. Supermodels Gigi Hadid and Irina Shayk both wore revealing looks on the carpet.

Bad Bunny went full costume, carrying a cane and dressing up as an older version of himself with gray hair and costume makeup to give him wrinkles. The artist joked with Vogue that it took 53 years to finish the look. And supermodel Heidi Klum, known for taking her Halloween costume to new heights, brought that same dedication to the Met Gala as she arrived as a draped statue.

Kim Kardashian, known for her body-hugging fashion choices, wore a bright orange metallic body plate from the '60s designed by Allen Jones.

Unlike last year’s blue carpet, this year’s carpet appeared intentionally forgotten by time with grass creeping up the steps. The carpet featured patches of overgrown grass peeking out from the stone steps with manicured shrubs lining the side railing and white wisteria dangling from the roof. Potted purple flowers stood at the entrance of the carpet in large terra-cotta planters.

Past Gala dress codes have honored designers and pulled from literature. Last year, the art of tailoring was center stage with the dress code “Tailored for you.” The high-profile event raises money for the Met's Costume Institute, and each year the dress code for the gala takes cues from the Costume Institute’s spring exhibition.

On display this Spring, the “Costume Art” exhibit will “examine the centrality of the dressed body.”

The relationship between fashion and art has not always been embraced. Art historian and author Nancy Hall-Duncan writes in her book, “Art X Fashion: Fashion Inspired by Art” that in the 19th century, art was perceived as classical and fashion was frivolous.

When Yves Saint Laurent held the Met’s first fashion exhibit in 1983, the exhibit was met with heavy criticism. Since then, the museum has held countless fashion exhibits throughout the years with museums around the world following suit. The Louvre put on its first fashion exhibition “Louvre couture” last year.

The dress code set by Wintour and the Met's Costume Institute curator, Andrew Bolton, is the final seal of approval that fashion is art, Hall-Duncan told The Associated Press.

“Isn’t that a giant step?” she said. “It will indeed change perceptions.”

How to watch the Met Gala carpet and celebrity looks

Didn't snag one of the pricey tickets or a spot on the ultra-exclusive guestlist?

The red carpet spectacle is available for all to watch online with the Vogue livestream. Ashley Graham, La La Anthony and Cara Delevingne will be hosting the livestream starting at 6 p.m. with Emma Chamberlain interviewing guests throughout the night.

The Associated Press will have a livestream of celebrities leaving a pair of New York hotels on their way to the gala beginning at 4:30 p.m. on APNews.com and YouTube. It's the first chance to see what attendees will be wearing before they hit the gala's carpet.

Opening statements began Monday in the three-week bench trial to decide whether the platforms of Meta, which also owns Facebook and WhatsApp, pose a public nuisance.

In the first phase, jurors ordered $375 million in civil penalties against Meta, determining that it knowingly harmed children’s mental health and concealed what it knew about child sexual exploitation on its platforms.

Prosecutors are now asking a judge impose fundamental changes aimed at reining in addictive features, improving age verification and preventing child sexual exploitation through default privacy settings and closer oversight.

Meta has vowed to appeal the jury verdict and warned that it could eliminate service in New Mexico entirely if forced to comply with impractical mandates and multibillion-dollar remedies.

“The fact that we’re having a trial on nuisance is itself a remarkable outcome,” said Eric Goldman, co-director of the High Tech Law Institute at Santa Clara University School of Law in California. “That theory is not well accepted as applied to the internet, and that theory doesn’t really fit the internet.”

As the trial reconvened Monday, state District Court Judge Bryan Biedscheid addressed concerns that the court might overreach its authority.

“I’m probably not the easiest sell on an idea where I would become a one-person legislature, judge and executive branch enforcer,” he said.

Trial could alter algorithms that define social media

New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez said the jury verdict punctured the aura of invincibility protecting tech companies from liability for material on their platforms under Section 230, a 30-year-old provision of the U.S. Communications Decency Act.

A Los Angeles jury separately found both Meta and YouTube liable for harms to children, validating long-standing concerns about dangers of social media.

New Mexico prosecutors are demanding that Meta help remedy a mental health crisis among children through a series of safeguards and changes, including a redesign of algorithms that make content recommendations so they no longer prioritize constant engagement.

New Mexico prosecution attorney David Ackerman outlined a $3.7 billion proposal for Meta to remedy harm to children that “recognizes the scope of the public nuisance that Meta has caused.”

“Across New Mexico, across the country, children are begging for help," he said in opening statements. “It is thorough and it is necessary. There are items in this abatement plan for public education, to assist schools, to assist law enforcement, to assist mental health providers."

Prosecutors are also targeting other app features linked to compulsive use such as “infinite scroll,” which continuously loads content; push notifications; and default settings that show tallies for “likes” and sharing. Their lawsuit also seeks improvements to age verification and other steps aimed at curbing child sexual exploitation.

And New Mexico wants child accounts on Meta platforms to have an associated parent or guardian, as well as a court-supervised child safety monitor to track safety improvements over time.

Meta asserts free speech protections

Executives have said the company continuously improves child safety and addresses compulsive use and that many demands from prosecutors are redundant.

In opening statements, Meta attorney Alex Parkinson disputed the idea that there is a public right to social media under nuisance laws.

“Are bars a public nuisance because drinking alcohol is undeniably associated with car fatalities?” Parkinson said. “If individual (social media) users have been hurt, they have a remedy -- personal injury cases to cover the mental healthcare or any other care that they need. And that is what is happening in other lawsuits right now.”

The company also argues that its platforms are being singled out among hundreds of apps that teens use with less robust protections, while invoking concerns about restrictions on free speech.

“The state’s proposed mandates infringe on parental rights and stifle free expression,” Meta said last week in a statement.

Parkinson said prosecutors are making unworkable demands to change apps only for New Mexico users — an assertion disputed by the attorney general.

“To geo-fence New Mexico users into that version of the apps, new apps for New Mexico, that is not feasible, technologically,” Parkinson told the judge.

Influence could be far-reaching

The case is the first to reach trial among lawsuits filed by more than 40 state attorneys general on allegations that Meta contributes to a youth mental health crisis. Most are pursuing remedies in U.S. federal court.

Torrez said he envisions a broad public education campaign to help parents and children navigate social media safely, with new public service warnings on Meta apps.

“All of those kids need help, they need counseling, they need therapy," Torrez said at a news conference Monday, accompanied by parent advocates for social media reforms.

Parkinson said the state’s $3.7 billion plan goes too far and would reshape the way all mental and behavioral healthcare is delivered to New Mexico teens.

“The state is asking you to develop from scratch a completely new regulatory regime that far exceeds anything in Europe, in Australia, anywhere,” Parkinson said in reference to a bevy of recent and planned restrictions on children’s online activities beyond the U.S.

Goldman said prosecutors may be venturing into uncertain legal waters just in seeking age verification mandates.

“In practice a court order saying that Facebook had to impose age authentication would have no Supreme Court textual support,” he said. “The Supreme Court might bless it. We don’t know.”

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This story has been updated to correct the wording in the quote from Judge Bryan Biedscheid.

Winners announced Monday include two books rooted in the country's founding. Jill Lepore's “We the People: A History of the U.S. Constitution” won for history, and Amanda Vaill's “Pride and Pleasure: The Schuyler Sisters in an Age of Revolution” was the winner for biography. Yiyun Li’s “Things in Nature Merely Grow,” her blunt account of the suicides of her two sons, was cited for memoir-autobiography. “There is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America,” by Brian Goldstone, won for general nonfiction.

The poetry prize went to Juliana Spahr's “Ars Poeticas,” and the music award was given to Gabriela Lena Frank for “Picaflor: A Future Myth,” a symphonic work inspired by Andean legend and California wildfires.

The 50-year-old Kraus has had a diverse and prolific career quite unlike the average Pulitzer fiction winner. He has written horror, science fiction, graphic novels and books for kids. He has collaborated with filmmakers George Romero and Guillermo del Toro, whose Oscar-winning “The Shape of Water” was conceived with Kraus' help. He has received numerous prizes over the years, including the Bram Stoker Award for horror, but had never imagined he'd win a Pulitzer. When he began receiving texts Monday — that included such messages as “Wow!” — he worried that he had somehow gotten himself in trouble.

Pulitzer officials praised “Angel Down” as “a stylistic tour-de-force that blends such genres as allegory, magical realism, and science fiction into a cohesive whole, told in a single sentence.” Kraus said that he at first used a conventional narrative but found that abandoning traditional punctuation better suited a story of war that seemingly had no end.

“It's like you have the feeling of being locked into the book forever,” he told The Associated Press during a telephone interview.

Wohl’s memory play collects second-wave feminists from all walks of life as they tackle misogyny, internalized homophobia, domestic abuse and gender roles. The play navigates between past and present, and six of the actors disrobe for the Act 2 opening scene. The win comes a day before the Tony Award nominations, when “Liberation” is expected to be named in the best new play category.

Lepore is a New Yorker staff writer and Harvard University professor whose Pulitzer helps confirm her as one of the country's most prominent historians. Her previous honors include the Bancroft Prize for “The Name of War” and the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for “New York Burning.” In 2023, she contributed an introduction to Paul McCartney's book of Beatles photos, “1964: Eyes of the Storm.”

Goldstone is a journalist whose work has appeared in The New York Times, The New Republic and other publications. Spahr is a poet, critic and editor whose prize-winning collection is a statement of poetry's vitality during the darkest times, and Frank is a Grammy-nominated artist known for combining influences ranging from Latin American folklore to Western classical music.

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Associated Press Entertainment Writer Mark Kennedy contributed.

The Election Commission of India released partial results Monday showing the Bharatiya Janata Party won at least 124 seats in the 294-member West Bengal assembly and was leading in 83 others.

Modi’s party has never governed West Bengal and had tried for years to dislodge the All India Trinamool Congress government led by state Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. She is one of Modi’s most prominent critics and has held power in the politically influential state since 2011.

Opposition parties have sharply criticized the polls in West Bengal after the Election Commission removed millions of voters from electoral rolls.

Governments were ousted in two other states and Modi's party retained power in another that held elections in April.

India has more than 1.4 billion people in 28 states and eight federal territories, and elections are staggered with several states and territories voting each year.

India’s opposition faces a setback

The outcome in West Bengal was expected to boost Modi’s standing and strengthen his position midway through his third term in office. The 2024 national election forced his ruling party to rely on regional allies to form a government. He is expected to run for a record fourth term ​in 2029.

Addressing supporters at BJP headquarters in New Delhi, Modi said the results pointed to the party’s widening appeal in a state where it had historically struggled.

“A new chapter has been added to Bengal’s destiny," Modi told a cheering crowd.

India’s opposition has struggled to mount a unified and sustained challenge to the BJP’s dominance nationwide.

Banerjee had emerged as one of Modi's most prominent national rivals, particularly after positioning herself as a key leader to unite regional parties against the BJP. Her defeat was likely to weaken her leverage within an opposition bloc already divided by regional power struggles.

Film star-turned-politician scores breakthrough win

In the southern state of Tamil Nadu, popular movie star Joseph Vijay, who launched the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam party only two years ago, ousted the ruling DMK party. Tamil Nadu, one of India’s most developed states, has a history of electing movie stars to the top office.

In Kerala, another southern state, the Indian National Congress-led opposition defeated the ruling communist government, ending leftist rule in one of its last remaining strongholds.

Modi’s party also returned to power in the northeastern state of Assam for a ​third consecutive term.

“A major catastrophe was avoided by feet,” said safety expert Steve Arroyo, who landed on that same short runway many times during his career at United. “Had it been another five feet lower, eight feet, I mean, no more than 10 feet, that plane would have been all over the New Jersey Turnpike.”

The driver of the bakery delivery truck was treated at a hospital for minor injuries, and the Boeing 767 flying in from Venice, Italy, with 231 people aboard was able to land safely. No one on the plane was hurt. Air traffic control audio suggests the incident may have created a hole in the side of the plane, but the airline and the National Transportation Safety Board haven't confirmed that.

The NTSB said Monday afternoon that it has reclassified the incident as an accident because of the extent of the damage to the plane, but it didn't provide any details.

Planes fly low when landing

Anyone who drives that section of Interstate 95 near the airport is likely used to seeing planes coming in low and crossing over all the lanes of traffic as the planes get ready to land, but never this low.

Dashboard camera video from inside the truck showed the driver singing happily to himself, then glancing out his window with a slight look of concern as the sound of the jet's whining engines begins on the recording.

A moment later, part of the plane zooms into view out the driver's side window. The video also shows the moment of impact. Typically, semitrucks are 13.5 feet (4.1 meters) tall, so the plane was quite low.

Chuck Paterakis, the vice president of the bakery company H&S Family of Bakeries, said the company is “relieved that everyone is safe, as that is our top priority.” The bakery is cooperating with investigators.

The pilots’ damage report wasn’t recorded because the crew opted to call the tower on the phone after landing instead of broadcasting the details over the radio.

But air traffic control audio posted by ATC.com revealed a discussion between an air traffic controller and a ground vehicle more than half an hour after the incident. “They felt something over the threshold and there's a hole in the side of the airplane,” the controller said.

Witnesses were alarmed by the sight

Patrick Oyulu, of Edison, New Jersey, was among those on the turnpike when the plane struck the truck. He posted a short video showing the aftermath of the collision as the huge plane barely cleared the road and landed on the runway.

“The plane seemed to come in almost directly over the highway,” Oyulu recounted in a message to The Associated Press. He said the truck appeared to swerve sharply and smoke could be seen coming from it after the aircraft apparently made contact.

“I never expected a plane that low, and never expected I would see the undercarriage of a plane of that magnitude bearing overhead, with such noise and gust of wind,” Oyulu said.

Investigation will look at variety of factors

NTSB investigators arrived on scene on Monday to interview the flight crew and begin working to figure out how and why this happened. But the NTSB may not offer many details about what happened until it publishes its preliminary report roughly a month from now. The agency does not plan any news conferences on this accident.

Runway 29, where the plane landed, is the shortest runway at the airport at 6,726 feet (2,050 meters), and it is generally only used when there are strong winds like there were on Sunday afternoon. The other two Newark runways are 11,000 feet (3,353 meters) long. An air traffic controller told pilots at the time that the winds were gusting up to 31 mph (50 kph).

Arroyo said that investigators will definitely look at how well the United crew planned for the contingency that they would have to land on Runway 29 and exactly what data they had entered into their flight control system and navigational aids in the cockpit. He said those systems can help keep pilots on track in the glidepath before they have to take the controls and complete the landing visually.

“It’s one of the most challenging approaches in the world,” Arroyo said. “The margin of error is extremely low.”

Jeff Guzzetti, a former crash investigator for the NTSB and the Federal Aviation Administration, said investigators will likely also look at whether fatigue could have been a factor after the long flight from Italy.

The NTSB directed United to preserve the cockpit voice and flight data recorders for investigators to examine. The airline said the pilots have been put on leave while the accident is investigated.

In 1985, Delta Flight 191 was coming in to land at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport when a microburst of wind during a thunderstorm sent the plane down into the ground, striking a vehicle. The plane then plowed into airport water tanks. A total of 137 people died in that crash, including the vehicle's driver.

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Associated Press reporter Philip Marcelo contributed to this report from New York.

Authorities were continuing to search for suspects Monday in the shooting that critically injured at least three of those hurt. No arrests have been made.

It wasn’t clear how many of the injured had been shot, police said Monday in a statement. It provided few answers about what had happened.

The shooting broke out Sunday night at a public park near a campground at Arcadia Lake, a popular swimming and boating spot in Edmond, just north of Oklahoma City, said Edmond police spokesperson Emily Ward.

Jeremiah Smith estimated 250 people showed up at the party. He said the trouble began when a group of girls started arguing over boyfriends. “It just started a whole bunch of chaos,” he said.

“Everybody got scared, dudes was panicking, women was panicking, people seeing their friends fight,” Smith said.

The 18-year-old said he heard shots ring out in different directions for several minutes as he ran toward the lake. Those hit included two of his friends, he added.

At least 18 people were treated at hospitals in the Oklahoma City area. One healthcare system said the victims it treated ranged in age from 16 to 30. It said three people were in critical condition and four were listed as serious.

Police in Edmond said Monday that the party had been promoted across social media, drawing a large crowd of mostly young adults from across the Oklahoma City area.

Edmond Mayor Mark Nash said the shooting took place at a public park where spaces can be reserved for large gatherings. “To our knowledge, there was no reservation through the parks department,” he said.

Nash declined to answer questions about the shooting, saying police were handling the investigation.

“We’re already taking steps to review and strengthen park operations, permitting processes and security measures,” the mayor said.

Some of those injured were transported for medical attention while others sought treatment on their own, authorities said.

Integris Health said it treated 13 people at its hospitals in Edmond and Oklahoma City. Seven remained in Baptist Medical Center in Oklahoma City, including three in critical condition.

OU Health said it received five people at its trauma center but didn't elaborate.

While police did not provide more details about the party, a flyer circulated on social media after the shooting suggested that an event called Sunday Funday was scheduled at a pavilion near the lake until midnight.

It advertised food, drinks, music and “good vibes, good people.”

Arcadia Lake is dotted with picnic pavilions, campgrounds, a fishing pier, and swimming beaches. Built in the 1980s for outdoor recreation and flood control, the lake also provides water to the city of Edmond, a suburb of about 100,000 residents.

Forty years ago, Edmond was the site of one of the deadliest workplace shootings in U.S. history. On Aug. 20, 1986, postal worker Patrick Sherrill shot 20 co-workers, killing 14 of them. He then killed himself.

Over the weekend, another shooting at a party in the Texas Panhandle left two teens dead and 10 other people wounded. Police in Amarillo said two persons opened fire at an apartment complex early Saturday.

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Associated Press reporters Jamie Stengle in Dallas, Corey Williams in Detroit, Kathy McCormack in Concord, New Hampshire, and John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio, contributed.

Edwards was expected to miss at least the first two games of the series in San Antonio, but the 6-foot-4 guard expedited his rehabilitation to play in the opener.

“He's in,” Minnesota coach Chris Finch said 90 minutes before scheduled tipoff.

Finch said Edwards will be on a minutes restriction, but said he was unsure if the 24-year-old will start or come off the bench.

‘Obviously, the way he’s moving and just what percentage of himself does he look like," Finch said in regards to the player's minutes. “Of course, obviously, but he’s looked really pretty good and I’m sure he’ll be a little winded at times, but I know he’s excited and we’re proud to have him back.”

Edwards was cleared to participate in team activities Saturday and upgraded to questionable on Sunday's injury report. He was a full participant in the morning shootaround and was cleared to play following pre-game workouts Monday.

“It will be fun to compete against him,” San Antonio coach Mitch Johnson said. “I’m glad he’s playing.”

Edwards suffered a bone bruise, in addition to hyperextending his left knee, on April 25 during Game 4 of Minnesota’s opening-round series against Denver.

The Timberwolves also lost Donte DiVincenzo in Game 4 to a torn right Achilles tendon, but won the next two games against the Nuggets to advance.

Edwards was not in attendance during Game 6 while receiving treatment for his injury.

“He loves to play the game,” Finch said. “We dodged a bullet when it happened. He’s done an incredible job. Our medical staff has done an unbelievable job of getting him to this point. And he was super motivated by the fact that we were able to get that first series. I think that was kind of a little bit of an inspiration for him too, just gave him something to work towards.”

Edwards averaged 28.8 points, 5.0 rebounds and 3.7 assists in 61 games during the regular season. He averaged 36.7 points, 4.0 assists, 3.0 rebounds in three games against San Antonio this season.

The Spurs were preparing to play against Edwards leading up to the series opener, even though his status was in doubt.

“A player that level in a way takes a lot of the thinking out because you know there is only a handful of players in this league to that level, so you know their game,” Johnson said.

The Timberwolves were 2-1 against the Spurs during the regular season.

San Antonio's Victor Wembanyama, named the Defensive Player of the Year on April 20, missed the opening game against Minnesota during the regular season with a left calf strain. Wembanyama averaged 34 points and 8.0 rebounds in two games against the Timberwolves, including 39 points in a 126-123 victory on Jan. 17 in the regular-season finale between the clubs.

San Antonio will be without rookie forward Carter Bryant, who sprained his right ankle during practice leading up to the series.

Minnesota will be without Ayo Dosunmu, who is out with right calf soreness.

___

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

A leaner physique is the byproduct of the Texans quarterback spending months hoisting heavy metal and doing cardio and plyometric workouts along with a healthy diet.

And the work of the former NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year on the heels of a rocky performance in the playoffs that included a career-high four interceptions in an AFC divisional round loss to the New England Patriots hasn’t gone unnoticed. Whether it’s his exercise routine, extra throwing work or conversations with offensive coordinator Nick Caley and new quarterbacks coach Jerry Schuplinski, the replacement for Jerrod Johnson, Stroud has impressed the Texans with his dedication to his craft.

“C.J.’s done a really good job all offseason just continuing to be locked in, continuing to prepare the right way,” coach DeMeco Ryans said Monday during the Texans’ annual charity golf tournament. “He’s been dialed in to our strength sessions, our coaching sessions and our meetings. He’s been dialed in and very into it. That’s all you can ask for from all our guys at this time.

“Everybody’s looking to grow and C.J.’s doing a great job of growing and learning, spending time with Caley, with Jerry. He’s doing extra things with his body as well, body maintenance. Proud of the work that he’s putting in right now. It’s only going to help you when it comes time for the season. So, he’s laying that groundwork right now to have a really good season.”

When Stroud walked into the Texans’ training facility for the launch of the offseason program, he appeared locked in in terms of his demeanor. He was also wearing an Astros baseball cap and sporting a shorter haircut this year.

#Texans coach DeMeco Ryans on quarterback C.J. Stroud 'C.J. is doing a really great job of preparing the right way. Proud of the work he's putting in'
Ryans added that Stroud is spending a lot of time talking with offensive coordinator Nick Caley and quarterbacks coach Jerry… https://t.co/L8SykXstVO pic.twitter.com/YRyn5DZ9Bn

— Aaron Wilson (@AaronWilson_NFL) May 4, 2026

The team has released footage of Stroud running sprints with the same steadfast look. Stroud looks lean and is moving fast.

Throughout the past few months, the Texans have repeatedly emphasized that the former Pro Bowl selection is locked in and focused on the task at hand.

“I can say that for all of our guys, this is what this time of year is about,” Ryans said. “It’s about, first off, getting the rest that you need from such a long season and then you come back, you assess your body and see where can you grow, where can you improve as a professional.”

After a difficult postseason that included five interceptions and five fumbles with seven total turnovers against the Pittsburgh Steelers and Patriots, Stroud is determined to deliver a season and postseason filled with winning performances.

'We're fully committed to C.J.' #Texans chair and CEO Cal McNair on $25.9 million fifth-year option for quarterback C.J. Stroud 'We'll see how it works out' @KPRC2 pic.twitter.com/FFepSotzxe

— Aaron Wilson (@AaronWilson_NFL) May 4, 2026

The Texans exercised a $25.9 million fifth-year club option to secure Stroud through the 2027 season.

Although the Texans are not planning to engage with Stroud in long-term contract negotiations this year necessarily, they are expected to try to extend Stroud next offseason depending on how he does this season, per league sources.

“The contract things, I always tell guys, they take care of themselves, so there’s never a need to panic or do anything different, you just keep improving as a player,” Ryans said. “You keep working on your craft, you keep doing all those things behind the scenes that you know improves your game, the contracts and those things will take care of themselves.”

Texans principal owner Cal McNair emphasized that he’ll leave contract talks to general manager Nick Caserio and wants to keep those communications behind the scenes.

“We’re fully committed to C.J.,” McNair said. “We exercised his fifth-year option, and so we’ll see how it all works out.”

Caserio, for his part, downplayed the significance of doing the fifth-year option instead of a long-term extension at this time.

“I don’t really think that affects his future,” Caserio said. “He’s our quarterback. We’ve said that from the beginning. I think that was really more of a procedural thing. I don’t want to say it was a no-brainer, but it was kind of a no-brainer, so we’re glad he’s here.

“Again, it’s more of a part of the process. So, we’re excited about his offseason. I think he’s had a good approach, had a good attitude here. I think he’s put a lot of work in from March and April. I’m so excited to have him around here in the spring and I’m excited to keep moving forward.”

Previously at the NFL scouting combine in February, Caserio threw cold water on unfounded trade speculation surrounding Stroud.

Stroud was named in trade rumors previously dismissed by KPRC 2 as completely unfounded. Stroud will remain the Texans’ QB1 going forward.

While the Texans aren’t engaging in contract negotiations at this time, they can shift that approach anytime. Ideally, they would be happy to reward Stroud provided he proves himself again this season.

“It’s moronic,” Caserio said in response to a question from KPRC 2. “We’re not trading him. He’s our quarterback. He’s going to be playing quarterback for the Houston Texans in 2026. Anything beyond that, you guys can speculate on that, but we’re not trading C.J. Stroud.”

Stroud has been the subject of heavy criticism since that game. However, the organization has had his back. It was an uncharacteristically sloppy performance from Stroud, who completed 64.5 percent of his throws as he passed for 3,041 yards, 18 touchdowns and eight interceptions while missing three games due to a concussion.

A former Pro Bowl selection who declined an alternate invitation to the Pro Bowl, Stroud has passed for 10,876 yards, 62 touchdowns and 25 interceptions in three NFL seasons.

Stroud led the NFL in touchdown to interception ratio with a 23:5 clip as a rookie, passing for 4,108 yards.

“He’s been a good player, and won a lot of football games,” Caserio said. “Quarterback is the hardest position to play in sports. He had some ups and downs. That’s natural for a position, but, overall, he’s had a pretty significant impact on what we are as a program. He’s not going anywhere.

Since the playoffs, the Texans and Stroud have taken several steps to move on from the New England game.

The steps include adjusting his offseason approach, improving the supporting cast on offense, and making a coaching change to Schuplinski.

“C.J. is a young quarterback,” Ryans said during the NFL meetings at the Arizona Biltmore. “Being early in his career, he’s gained a ton of valuable experience, including in the playoffs. It hasn’t gone as we would like it to there. You always want to win it all.

“But when you go through those difficult moments, those tough times, you learn from them. I know C.J. has learned from those moments. Now, we’ve got to go out and improve and show it on the field. The way he’s attacked the offseason, working hard, throwing every day, staying dialed in. I’m excited to see how that translates into a really great year for us.”

Without getting into specifics about future plans, the McNair family made it clear how highly they value All-Pro defensive end Will Anderson Jr. in advance of his record-setting $150 million contract extension and Stroud.

“We’ll let DeMeco and Nick make the football decisions there, but they’re exciting, really good young players,” Cal McNair said. “We hope to have them around for a long, long time.”

PHOENIX -- #Texans Cal McNair and Hannah McNair on potential long-term deals for Will Anderson Jr., C.J. Stroud: 'Exciting, really good players, we'll hope to have them around a long, long time. .. It's a good problem to have when you have so many guys you want to keep under… pic.twitter.com/WunQinzX0g

— Aaron Wilson (@AaronWilson_NFL) April 1, 2026

A year from now, cornerback Kamari Lassiter and safety Calen Bullock will be eligible for extensions. Both were named Pro Bowl alternates after the 2025 season.

“It’s a good problem to have when you have so many guys you want to keep under contract,” Texasn chief community officer Hannah McNair said. “If we keep drafting the way we do, this is going to be something we talk about every year.”

Aaron Wilson is a Texans and NFL reporter for KPRC 2 and click2houston.com

Phase 1️⃣ Day 1️⃣ pic.twitter.com/MedOsjl7qs

— Houston Texans (@HoustonTexans) April 20, 2026

Aaron Wilson is a Texans and NFL reporter for KPRC 2 and click2houston.com

Gilley was scheduled to be in court this week and begin his murder trial later this month, according to court records.

Gilley’s defense attorney Dick DeGuerin on Monday night told KPRC 2 News his client has been captured in Italy, based on information DeGuerin has received from prosecutors.

“It’s very concerning and I’m concerned that the prosecution will try to say that it’s evidence of consciousness of guilt that he’s running from it, but I think he’s just scared,” DeGuerin said.

Officials at the airport in Milan, Italy, didn’t believe Gilley’s identification information, DeGuerin said, which is when Gilley self-identified, said he was being wrongfully prosecuted in Texas, was subject to the death penalty, and wanted asylum.

DeGuerin said Texas has to certify to Italy that he’s not subject to the death penalty, adding that the prosecution has never said they are seeking death for Gilley.

It’ll now be a process to get him back to the U.S. that will take an undetermined amount of time, DeGuerin said.

Gilley has been out of jail on a $1 million bond since Oct. 21, 2024, according to records. On Friday evening, records show his GPS monitor started generating a “strap tamper” alert, Pretrial Services attempted to reach him by phone, and as of Monday, the alert was still going off.

Records show a judge has revoked his bail and a warrant has been issued for his arrest.

• RELATED: Trial date set for Houston man accused of killing pregnant wife in The Heights

Initially, police said Gilley told them his wife Christa overdosed, he found her unresponsive, and tried to perform CPR. He was arrested days later though, because the medical examiner found evidence of strangulation.

Christa was 9 weeks pregnant, and Gilley eventually admitted his wife was not suicidal or a drug user, according to court records. They had been arguing before she died, records show.

Just a couple weeks ago, Harris County prosecutors filed paperwork in preparation for trial, indicating they planned to bring up a 2023 affair Gilley had with a woman in California.

In 2025, while on bond for Christa’s murder, prosecutors wrote that he communicated with the same woman on numerous apps and on the phone, discussing plans to flee to Mexico and other countries. He also “provided a detailed plan” for removing his GPS monitor, discussed the possibility of marriage in order to obtain a new identity, records show.

• RELATED: Houston man accused of killing pregnant wife released on $1 million bond

“The Defendant also inquired as to whether she knew of a Mexican identity he could acquire to facilitate his departure from the country,” records show.

Gilley was scheduled to be in court on Tuesday morning for a motion hearing, according to records, and the hearing is scheduled to continue as planned, according to the DA’s office and DeGuerin.

The incident happened Friday at Ross Sterling Middle School.

According to the district, administrators received information at the end of the school day that there may have been a weapon on campus and immediately launched an investigation with Humble ISD Police.

• Student allegedly flashed gun during fight outside Heights High School

A search warrant was later executed at the student’s home, where investigators say a gun was recovered. The student was taken into custody and is now facing a felony charge of “places weapons prohibited.”

Under Texas law, bringing a firearm to school requires mandatory expulsion to a Juvenile Justice Alternative Education Program.

Parent says daughter traumatized, questions delay in notification

Princess Jefferson, a Humble ISD parent, says her sixth-grade daughter was among the students who saw the weapon during 8th period band class.

“I thought she was joking honestly,” Jefferson said. “Like there’s no way there was a gun on campus and no one let me know.”

Jefferson says her daughter and other students ran to report the incident to a teacher, but she didn’t learn about it until her daughter got home from school.

• Elsik High School student arrested again, accused of bringing loaded gun to school

She and other parents say they were not officially notified until Sunday evening, nearly 48 hours after the incident.

“The buses had not left yet,” Jefferson said. “I feel like everything should have been locked down at that point.”

Jefferson says her daughter is still shaken and afraid to return to school, and has asked about therapy.

Principal: ‘The system worked’

In a letter sent to families, Ross Sterling Middle School Principal Joshua Dawson said the situation was handled appropriately and without incident.

“Safety is our highest priority,” Dawson wrote. “We immediately launched an investigation, involving Humble ISD Police.”

Dawson said through that investigation, a student was identified, and law enforcement obtained a warrant to search the student’s home, where a firearm was found.

“Evidence was presented to the Harris County District Attorney’s Office,” the letter states. “The student now faces a charge of ‘places weapons prohibited,’ which is a felony. The student was taken into police custody.”

The principal also emphasized that the district investigates every tip and encouraged students and parents to report concerns to school officials or Humble ISD Police.

Coalition calls response a ‘catastrophic failure’

However, the Culture Commission Coalition is sharply criticizing the district’s response, calling it a breakdown in safety protocols.

In a statement, the group said a seventh-grade student brought a loaded handgun to campus and displayed it to younger students, making what they described as a threatening comment.

The coalition claims:

• No lockdown was initiated
• Students were sent back to class
• Parents were not immediately notified
• And the armed student remained on campus

“The school failed catastrophically at every turn,” the statement reads.

The group also said it took nearly 48 hours for the school to issue a statement to families and questioned why students who reported the incident were not immediately supported.

They are demanding answers, including why proper safety protocols were not followed and why parents were not notified right away.

District outlines safety measures moving forward

The district says it is continuing to prioritize safety and is expanding its use of weapon detection systems.

According to the district:

• Evolv weapon detection systems are already in use at all high schools
• Ross Sterling Middle School is scheduled to receive the system in the 2026–2027 school year
• All middle schools are expected to have the systems in place by the 2027–2028 school year

The student who allegedly brought the gun to school

Jefferson says she plans to meet with school leaders and is calling for more transparency and mental health support for students affected.

She and members of the Culture Commission Coalition are also planning a press conference to address their concerns and push for accountability.

That pending expiration date, though, might prove to be a moot point.

Texans principal owner Cal McNair reiterated a commitment to finding a workable solution at Reliant Park in Harris County. That doesn’t necessarily mean that renovations, the Texans’ stated current plan, is set in stone. The Texans could potentially work with partners to construct a new stadium at Reliant Park.

For now, though, the Texans’ focus and the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, as the primary tenants at a stadium that is owned by Harris County, is hammering out a deal. Negotiations are ongoing and active.

“We’re working on it,” Cal McNair said during the Texans’ annual charity golf event to raise more than $565,000 for their charitable foundation. “We’re working with the county now. We have a great partner with the rodeo. It’s something we’ll be thoughtful of and make great decisions and see where it goes.

“The talks are ongoing. Great partnership. We’ve talked to the rodeo, and we’re going to make it work and we’ll figure out a way to make it work and have everybody a winner in this thing.”

Yes, the stadium is in need of major upkeep, which is an expensive endeavor, and continued modernization. Nonetheless, the Texans see Reliant Park as the current and future home for their football team even as they embark on plans to shift their training facility and build a state-of-the-art practice site and surrounding entertainment and retail complex in Bridgeland called Toro District with a completion date set for 2029.

The AFC South franchise shares NRG Stadium, the site of their games, with the rodeo along with concerts and other events held there throughout the year. And that has created frequent spacing and scheduling conflicts as they conducted practices during the season along with training camp and offseason activities. Texans team president Mike Tomon emphasized previously to KPRC 2 that the focus remains on finding workable, financially viable solutions to upgrade NRG Stadium.

The priority for the Texans regarding the multi-use, 72,220 capacity stadium built in 2002 at a cost of $352 million is to renovate the facility, which is in need of extensive and expensive repairs and general improvements, in partnership with Harris County, the Harris County Sports & Convention Corporation and the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo.

Contractually, the Texans are not responsible for the repair and upkeep of the stadium. That task lies with Harris County under the terms of the lease arrangement. The Texans have contributed millions of dollars, though, toward multiple repairs and maintenance of the stadium since the launch of the franchise in 2002 by the late founder Bob McNair, Cal McNair’s father.

Why stay at Reliant Park? Geography, tradition and more.

“The reason we feel that way is if you take a step back and you look at Reliant Park, the attributes of it, you have 350 continuous acres on major arteries with 610, and soon to be the third largest city in the United States,” Texans team president Mike Tomon said. “That’s pretty special. So, when we think about our partnership with the rodeo, we’re both aligned on we’ll do everything we can to make it work on that specific site because we really think that can be transformative for the city of Houston.”

The Texans are attempting to be proactive about the stadium situation. And Tomon struck an upbeat stance on those discussions.

“We have a ton of momentum,” Tomon said during the NFL meetings. “Our partners at the county have been fantastic. We’ve had some really productive conversations, and our partnership with the rodeo couldn’t be stronger. We couldn’t feel more fortunate to be going down this journey with great partners like the rodeo, and we’re so aligned on what we want to have happen, certainly for our respective businesses, as well as the city of Houston. So, really, really positive, and we continue to work on it right now.”

Tomon expressed an urgency to execute a new lease agreement, but he also emphasized a need for patience and planning.

“Yesterday,” Tomon said when asked how quickly the AFC South franchise wants a new lease agreement to be finalized. “But we have six years before the lease experies when we need to have a solution.”

After the Texans announced plans for Toro District, Tomon reinforced how the organization sees Reliant Park as a long-term solution.

“Absolutely, our focus is to be here,” Tomon said. “Our focus is to be at NRG Park. As we like to say, ‘You want to see us on our biggest moments? Come to NRG. You want to see us on our day-to-day, the other 350 days a year?

“Come to Bridgeland. And so that’s kind of how we look at the Toro District. And our focus remains making this our competitive advantage here at NRG.”

For the Texans, there’s a lot going on.

That includes charitable endeavors like their annual golf tournament.

“It’s grown,” Cal McNair said. “It’s a win-win for me because a lot of people are enjoying the day, but also doing good things for the community.”

#Texans annual charity golf event raised more than $565,000 for team's charitable foundation @KPRC2 pic.twitter.com/mT4EPkYS0T

— Aaron Wilson (@AaronWilson_NFL) May 4, 2026

Between the next steps for their planned state-of-the-art ‘world-class’ Toro District sports and entertainment complex and team headquarters in Bridgeland, ongoing stadium negotiations, the gameday experience for fans, a ticket price increase and more, this is an extremely busy time.

There’s no shortage of work to do for the AFC South franchise one year into the tenure of team president Mike Tomon, a central figure with the Toro District project along with ownership, team executives and key partners like Howard Hughes Communities, Gensler and Harris County commissioners.

How the Texans and Howard Hughes, their real estate partner, created a vision for ‘Toro District,’ an 83-acre development in Northwest Harris County involved a significant amount of market research.

They are planning a cutting-edge team training facility built across 22 acres as the centerpiece for the project.

The Texans, in a collaboration with Harris County and Howard Hughes , the developers of Bridgeland, The Woodlands and Summerlin in the Las Vegas area, plan to break ground this year and move into their new digs during the summer of 2029. Having football and business under the same roof was a major motivator in leaving NRG Stadium, for training.

“I think what guides us through this is principles,” Tomon said during an interview at the Arizona Biltmore. “The main thing is football. What we want to have is the most optimal situation for our team to compete. And so that’s a driver on how we think about the players’ journey, the coaches’ journey and, candidly, all of our teammates throughout the organization. For us to be together as an entire organization, for us to be focused in on the goals and the purpose of the overall training facility, those are the drivers.

“We have principles that we kind of go through. We sat and we talked with the architects and went through, ‘Here are our principles. here’s what we’re trying to do.’ So, there’s a strategic nature to it, and there’s a tactical nature to it, but it all comes back to our principles. That’s why we’re so confident and excited to kind of jump into this.”

Over the past year, the Texans and Howard Hughes visited multiple sports facilities and multi-purpose developments. That included The Star, the Dallas Cowboys’ practice hub in Frisco and adjacent retail and entertainment center Legacy West, The Battery, which the training center for the Atlanta Braves, the New England Patriots’ team facility and stadium, in Foxborough, Mass and other venues. Cal McNair, Hannah McNair and the Texans envision an ultra-modern destination for the team and staff to work under the same roof all year long along with a fun destination for fans.

There are no shortage of businesses that want to get involved with Toro District.

“That’s one of the real benefits of being able to announce it is that everybody is now aware of it,” Tomon said. “And because of that, we’ve had a lot of incoming interest. We have had early discussions with some of our key partners on what a relationship would look like there which are important things to give time to because we want to make sure it is the right fit for them, and that presence is creative, it’s thoughtful, it’s innovative, and it enhances the overall experience. So, there’s a lot of pieces that kinda come into that.

“The idea that we can make a truly unique destination, a 365-day-a-year destination that doesn’t currently exist from a sports and entertainment perspective, as well as a live, work, and play perspective here in Harris County, those are the things you can expect from us, That you could come to an event, you could come to, call it training camp, you could come to a youth sports event, and you could feel comfortable that you could fill not only your full day with your family, but a couple days. Between the hotels, the restaurants, the retail, and the other entertainment opportunities, a really unique destination is what we’re driving to and that’s what we’re in the process of right now.”

Gensler, a global architecture and design firm, is leading the master planning design for Toro District, while Howard Hughes Communities manages leasing for the development. The Texans will participate in the development of Toro District through an affiliate.

‘There’s the good, the bad and the ugly of all the other mixed-use developments around sports-anchored catalysts," Howard Hughes CEO David O’Reilly told KPRC 2. “Both the Howard Hughes team and the Houston Texans team have spent a lot of time over the past several months on airplanes touring all of the above. The way we’ve thought about the Toro District is that we’re going to do our own best-of collection, and we’re going to take the best of each one of those mixed-use entertainment districts that are around sports catalysts and create one that is authentic to us, authentic to Bridgeland, authentic to Harris County, and pure Texans all the way.

“From that perspective, we’re going to be able to create probably the best sports and entertainment district in terms of places to live, work, play, shop, dine, and experience that’s ever been built. I think that the McNairs and the Texans had a choice of any location in Houston where they would want to do this. And I am humbled and honored that they chose to partner with Howard Hughes. It’s unique when you’re able to align public leadership with a long-term community builder like Howard Hughes and a world-class NFL franchise. You can really build something that’s both economically powerful and community-centered. That’s exactly what we’ve done here.”

The Texans plan to have several events and things to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the inaugural season. There will be a special patch on the uniforms. There will also be Nike rivalry uniforms for a home game against an AFC South opponent.

Making the gameday experience as fun and smooth as possible is crucial to the Texans.

‘That’s a driver," Tomon said. “That’s something that we think about every single day. We’re really excited to have fun with our 25th season coming up here. We think there’ll be a lot of unique experiences that will showcase our fans. That’s gonna be a big part of this.

“We also really try to dive into being relevant to our market. We have a really special market, a diverse market. So, how are we relevant with our experiences? Even, just how people use their experience, (5:38) their tickets, when they come here. We’re trying to introduce corporate-friendly opportunities that don’t exist. We’ll have a new premium product that we’ll roll out here in the next month or two.”

The Texans are increasing ticket prices this year after three consecutive playoff appearances.

Tomon said the price increase will be nearly 10 percent.

“We spend a lot of time on trying to make sure we’re as thoughtful as we can be, to our fan-base, to the business, to the market,” Tomon said. “For this year, the overall increase is just under 10 percent. We are below the average ticket price in the NFL even though we have one of the largest markets and we’ve been in the playoffs for the last number of years. We’re balancing those pieces. We’re trying to be really sensitive on the price side.”

The Texans’ average single-game ticket price last year was $252, per StubHub analytics. The Texans were the 17th most expensive ticket in the NFL.

“When we think about the pricing, we’re tenure-based,” Tomon said. “And, so, there are tenure incentives, so our fans who can be there with us from Day 1 are behind on the price increases as opposed to someone who is buying new.”

The Texans recently named Hannah McNair as chief community officer. She is also the vice president of the Texans’ foundation.

The title addition was intended to reflect her overall impact and leadership for the organization, including philanthropy, the growth of flag football, the volleyball franchise, Toro District and more.

“If you ever have a chance to be around Hannah, you’ll feel the leadership,” Tomon said. “She has been really a bedrock for us on kind of the community conscience. I think she is a great leader who, as we’re growing and we think about our purposes, she’s always making sure that’s coming to life in our efforts.

“When we think about our purpose of inspiring hope in Houston, what that means from making football and sports overall accessible and understand that she’s already been on the forefront of those efforts, it made all the sense in the world to put her in that official capacity. Especially when you think about where we’re growing and the need to stay true to our purposes.”

Circling back to Toro District, Howard Hughes has significant experience in this type of mixed-used project.

They built the headquarters for the Las Vegas Knights at City National Arena in Summerlin, which operates as the NHL’s practice facility and community ice rink that opened in 2017 as a 145,000 square-foot facility with two NHL-regulation rinks, a team store and other features.

The partnership includes the Las Vegas Ballpark, home of the Las Vegas Aviators, a Triple A baseball franchise that’s the affiliate of the Oakland A’s. Howard Hughes are the owners of the Aviators.

Summerlin is a master-planned community in the Las Vegas Valley adjacent to Red Rock Canyon built by Howard Hughes, which also developed The Woodlands, Woodland Hills, Bridgeland in Texas, West Valley in Phoenix, Arizona, Merriweather District in Columbia, Maryland and Ward Village in Honolulu, Hawaii.

O’Reilly said several retailers are already looking to engage with a construction project projected to create $34 billion in economic growth over 30 years as well as 17,000 in jobs.

“Retailers as well as people that are looking for opportunities to find their next home nearby this incredible activation,” O’Reilly said. “Las Vegas, one of our master planned communities, where we built a practice facility for the Golden Knights as well as the full-time stadium for the Las Vegas Aviators, those two are anchored about a mixed-use entertainment district that’s consistently ranked as one of the best places to be in the Las Vegas Valley.

“This is tremendous. It brings the best of both together in terms of economic output, growth to the region, infrastructure, restaurant shopping, workforce opportunities, youth programming, an incredible civic gathering place, and a community activation that makes the lives of the residents in that area even more fulfilled and better. I’m as excited as I can be in my career here of building communities. At the end of the day, this is about building Houston’s future, not just the headquarters.”

#Texans team president Mike Tomln on projected long-term financial impact $34 billion of planned state-of-the-art training facility and sports and entertainment destination in Bridgeland @KPRC2 https://t.co/7cZla4xxQa pic.twitter.com/w4vTKpoUjP

— Aaron Wilson (@AaronWilson_NFL) February 12, 2026

#Texans lease at NRG Stadium, site of their home games, runs through 2032. Team president Mike Tomon said focus unchanged: to work with stadium partners to refurbish, improve, maintain as team plans Bridgeland facility 'Absolutely' @KPRC2 https://t.co/UNaEuTOErH pic.twitter.com/LV9sb1qWkO

— Aaron Wilson (@AaronWilson_NFL) February 12, 2026

The Texans, under the leadership of coach DeMeco Ryans and general manager Nick Caserio, have qualified for the postseason each of the past three seasons and won one playoff game annually. They lost in the AFC divisional round each of the past three seasons, falling to the New England Patriots, Kansas City Chiefs and the Baltimore Ravens.

The Texans, including the top-ranked defense in the NFL, are bringing back the core of their roster for next season with several key additions, including running back David Montgomery, safety Reed Blankenship and new starting offensive linemen Braden Smith and Wyatt Teller.

“We feel really fortunate,” Tomon said. ”We have such great leadership, from ownership to coach to Nick. We have a really special locker room. This is a special time in Houston right now, so we’re excited for the future."

Aaron Wilson is a Texans and NFL reporter for KPRC 2 and click2houston.com

• Houston’s proposed trash fee wouldn’t be a new line. Here’s where you’d see it

KPRC 2 News reporter Rilwan Balogun took that question directly to Mayor John Whitmire and city officials at City Hall.

What is the proposed fee?

The proposal is part of the mayor’s broader budget plan and would introduce what officials call a $5 monthly “administrative fee” for solid waste services, if approved by council.

• Houston mayor proposes new $5 monthly ‘administrative fee’ tied to trash service starting next year

City leaders emphasize this is not a traditional garbage fee. Instead, they describe it as a first step toward restructuring how Houston funds trash collection.

Under the plan:

• Residents would pay $5 per month in 2027 and 2028
• The fee would increase by $5 each year starting in 2029
• By 2032, households would pay $25 per month closer to the actual cost of service

Officials say the gradual increase is meant to avoid sudden costs for residents, who have historically not paid a direct fee for trash pickup.

Mayor John Whitmire’s Deputy Chief of Staff Steven David says this doesn’t account for households that might receive discounts.

“Maybe it’s a senior discount. Maybe it’s a low to moderate income discount,” David said.

Where would the money go?

When asked directly, Mayor John Whitmire said the goal is to improve service and stabilize the system.

“There’s a lot of misinformation going around,” Whitmire said. “This is to improve the service, cover the overhead, and have the kind of quality service that people expect.”

• Why Houston trash pickup is falling behind

According to Public Works Director Randy Macchi, the $5 fee would generate about $25 million annually, far short of the roughly $110 million it costs the city each year to operate solid waste services. Under the plan, solid waste would move to the purview of public works.

That money, Macchi says, would primarily go toward:

• Staffing and workforce needs
• Upgrading aging infrastructure
• Improving facilities like transfer stations
• Modernizing the city’s fleet of garbage trucks

“There’s so much need within the Solid Wasted Division that that $5 is going to do,” he said.

Will residents see improvements?

Some city leaders believe the changes will make a noticeable difference.

Willie Davis, an at-large council member, said his office frequently hears complaints about trash service.

“I think absolutely they will,” Davis said when asked if residents would see improvements. “It’s going to be a work in progress.”

A system under strain

A major issue the city is trying to address involves its transfer stations, facilities where trash is temporarily held before being taken to landfills.

Out of five city transfer stations:

• Southeast Transfer Station 1502 Central Street
• • Functioning, per city
• Southwest Transfer Station 5904 Westpark Drive
• • Functioning, per city
• Northeast Transfer Station 5711 Neches Street
• • Under construction, per city
• Northwest Transfer Station 14421 Sommermeyer St
• • Closed-in design/RCA 5/13 - demo scheduled 6/26, per city

City officials say those limitations slow down trash collection and increase costs.

“They’re like giant holes in the roof,” said Steven David, describing the condition of some facilities.

Because trucks must travel farther when stations are down, routes take longer, leading to overtime costs and service delays.

Why move solid waste under public works?

The proposal would also shift solid waste from the city’s general fund, where it competes with police, fire, and parks, into Houston Public Works as a revenue-generating utility.

City officials say that change could allow Houston to:

• Invest more consistently in infrastructure
• Potentially generate revenue through fully functioning transfer stations
• Address long-term budget challenges

According to David, if all five transfer stations were operational and managed by the city, Houston could generate $20–25 million annually by charging third-party haulers.

Budget pressures behind the proposal

The fee is part of a larger effort to address Houston’s growing budget deficit.

City projections show:

• A potential $209 million shortfall in fiscal year 2027
• Increasing to $446 million in the following years if no action is taken

Officials warn that without new revenue, the city could face significant cuts to services like libraries and parks.

What happens next?

The proposal is still in its early stages and must be approved as part of the city’s budget process.

For now, city leaders say the fee is intended to create a more sustainable system. But questions remain about how quickly residents would see improvements — and exactly how the money will be spent.

As those discussions continue, reporters say they plan to keep pressing city leaders for answers.

While project leaders say the timeline is critical, some residents are raising concerns about the impact on drivers, businesses and tourism.

The Avenida South Parking Garage, which served thousands of drivers in the heart of downtown, is being torn down to make way for the convention center’s expansion footprint.

Project leaders say the work had to start now to keep construction on schedule.

“We have to start demo-ing this week to maintain a schedule and deliver the building in time for May 2028,” said Frem Reggie, the expansion project manager.

The project will add hundreds of thousands of square feet to the convention center.

A replacement garage is expected to open sometime in September, though it will offer about 400 fewer spots than the structure being demolished. That gap has some residents worried, particularly heading into a busy summer.

Lisa Hunt, a representative with People for Polk Street, one of the streets being closed during the project, says the timing could be damaging.

“It’s going to be cold turkey having this closure. For a lot of people who live and work downtown, it’s going to be a real challenge,” Hunt said.

Hunt expressed concern about the effect on tourism, especially with the FIFA World Cup approaching.

“I think it’s a real black eye to Houston. We want to build our reputation as a tourist destination, and I don’t think this will show well,” she said.

She also warned of potential consequences for nearby businesses.

“I think we’re going to see some bankruptcies in the midst of this, unfortunately,” Hunt said.

City officials say more than 50,000 parking spaces remain available across downtown, and drivers are being encouraged to use other garages and surface lots in the meantime.

“It’s just a matter of a few months gap before it’s open,” Reggie said.

Hunt questioned whether the garage could have been preserved during construction.

“We definitely could have designed around this problem,” she said.

But project leaders say that was not a viable option given the site’s location.

“It was considered, but it’s difficult because it is in the heart of where the expansion has to go, given the land constraints,” Reggie said.

Demolition is expected to last through the end of July. The replacement garage is slated to open in the fall. Officials are urging anyone heading downtown to plan ahead and utilize apps like ParkMobile to help them find parking.

A special legislative session responding to the court ruling began Monday in Alabama and is to start Tuesday in Tennessee. Louisiana lawmakers, who already are in session, also are looking at how to redraw their congressional districts. The Supreme Court on Monday essentially gave them a green light to proceed by approving a request to expedite the court's formal judgment.

Civil rights activists have countered with rallies, protests and lawsuits challenging the new redistricting efforts. Several hundred protesters gathered outside the Alabama Statehouse on Monday, carrying signs declaring “No new map” and “We fight back! Black Voters Matter.”

Last week’s Supreme Court decision striking down a majority-Black congressional district in Louisiana has unleashed “a wave of nefarious actions” across states that threatens to disenfranchise Black voters, Alanah Odoms, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana, said Monday.

Trump on Sunday encouraged more states to join in redistricting, saying in a social media post that Republicans could gain 20 House seats. But South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster’s office on Monday said the Republican would not call a special session to redraw the state’s only Democratic-occupied House seat.

The high court's ruling said Louisiana relied too heavily on race when creating a second Black majority House district as it attempted to comply with the Voting Rights Act. The ruling significantly altered a decades-old understanding of the law and provided grounds for Republicans in various states to try to eliminate majority-Black districts that have elected Democrats to Congress.

As Republicans forge ahead, U.S. House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries touted a redistricting effort in his home state of New York. But that isn’t expected to result in a new map until 2028. To adopt new districts, New York lawmakers must pass a constitutional amendment twice in two years, and voters would also have to approve it.

A national redistricting battle is expanding

Legislative voting districts typically are redrawn only once a decade, after a census, to account for population changes. But Trump urged Texas Republicans last year to redraw U.S. House districts to give the party an advantage. Democrats in California responded by doing the same, and then other states joined in.

On Monday, Florida became the eighth state to enact new House districts ahead of midterm elections, as Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis announced he had signed a redrawn map passed by lawmakers last week that could help Republicans win as many as four additional House seats. The new map was immediately challenged in court as a partisan gerrymander that violates a state constitutional provision against drawing districts that favor one political party over another.

All told, Republicans think they could gain as many as 13 seats from new congressional districts in five states, while Democrats think they could pick up as many as 10 seats from new districts adopted in three states. The newly proposed redistricting in southern states could add to the Republicans' tally.

After last week's Supreme Court decision, Louisiana moved quickly to delay its May 16 congressional primary to allow time for lawmakers to approve new U.S. House districts. But Republicans have yet to unveil their planned revisions to district lines.

Democrats and civil rights groups have filed several lawsuits challenging the election suspension, including another suit filed Monday in federal court. They are encouraging people in Louisiana — where early voting already is underway — to go ahead and cast votes in the congressional primaries in case courts later allow them to be counted.

Alabama plans for a potential primary change

Rather than canceling the state's May 19 primaries, Republican Gov. Kay Ivey called legislators into a special session to consider contingency plans for special primary elections in hopes the U.S. Supreme Court will let Alabama switch congressional maps ahead of the November midterms.

Federal judges previously ordered Alabama to use a court-selected map — with a second district that has a substantial number of Black voters — until a new map is drafted after the 2030 Census. Alabama appealed that decision and has asked the court, in light of the Louisiana ruling, to let it revert to a 2023 map drawn by Republican state lawmakers. That map would substantially alter the district now represented by Rep. Shomari Figures, a Black Democrat.

Redistricting opponents rallied Monday across the street from the historic Alabama Capitol, where the Confederacy was formed in 1861 and where the Rev. Martin Luther King addressed a crowd of thousands after the 1965 Selma-to-Montgomery voting rights march.

“Much blood, sweat and tears was shed in an effort for us to gain the right to vote,” said Sheyann Webb-Christburg, who as a child participated in the 1965 Bloody Sunday voting rights march in Selma. “In 2026, there are still people who are still not exercising that right to vote, and we are still fighting today, even in an effort to keep our right to vote.”

Tennessee pushes for a new House map

In Tennessee, Republican Gov. Bill Lee announced a special session starting Tuesday for the GOP-controlled Legislature to break up the state’s one Democratic-held House district, centered on the majority-Black city of Memphis.

The move comes after a pressure campaign by Trump and other Republicans to reconfigure the state’s 9th Congressional District. Previous precedent in Voting Rights Act cases had prevented Republicans from spreading the district’s Democratic voters among neighboring conservative districts and making it winnable. But the law may no longer be an impediment.

“We owe it to Tennesseans to ensure our congressional districts accurately reflect the will of Tennessee voters,” Lee said.

Clergy members concerned about plans to split Memphis’ congressional district came together Monday to denounce the move.

“This latest attempt at redistricting is not just about lines on a map, it is about misrepresentation,” said the Rev. Earle Fisher, a pastor at the Abyssinian Missionary Baptist Church and the founder of Up the Vote 901, referring to the Memphis area code. “It’s about whether the voices of Black people in this state will be heard or hidden.”

The candidate qualifying period in Tennessee ended in March, and the primary election is scheduled for Aug. 6.

___

Loller reported from Nashville and Lieb from Jefferson City, Missouri. Associated Press writers Jack Brook in New Orleans, Anthony Izaguirre in New York and Nicholas Riccardi in Denver contributed to this report.

“When I walked into the locker room afterward with the coaches, you are just shaking your head, thinking five more seconds, you couldn’t keep it in for five more seconds,” Auriemma said in his first news conference since then.

“You just feel dumb for the way that it played out,” he added. “We are all human and we all do dumb (stuff).”

Auriemma sparked a firestorm of criticism after he went over to Staley in the final seconds of South Carolina’s 62-48 victory at the Final Four in Phoenix and appeared to chastise her.

Coaches from both teams had to separate them. When the game finally ended, Auriemma walked off the court to the locker room without going back to shake hands with anyone from South Carolina.

Auriemma said the exchange was about the lack of a traditional pregame handshake between the coaches. He later apologized with a written statement.

“I didn’t see a lot of it, but that is to be expected,” Auriemma said of the backlash. “I think maybe some of it was warranted and some of it was people have been lying in the weeds waiting for that moment. It doesn’t matter what you’ve done for the game; it is what you just did.

"Unfortunately, that is the world that we live in today and it usually is one-sided. The people who understood what it was all about in a different light, they are not going to go on the air and say it. They are not going to write about it because now they are going against a major internet or media frenzy; they are not going to do that. I brought the criticism on myself. I didn’t bring the (stuff) that came after it on myself.”

Auriemma compared the backlash to what might have happened if social media had been around in 1998, when he arranged for an injured Nykesha Sales to make a basket so she could set the program’s career scoring record.

“Immediately, it was the worst thing to ever happen to the game of basketball and to sports in general,” Auriemma said.

“These things that happen, you take them all with a grain of salt, understand them. I did what I did, I apologized for it and I moved on.”

His focus now is on the 2026-27 season. Despite the loss of two starters, including WNBA No. 1 overall pick Azzi Fudd, the Huskies figure to be one of the top title contenders again.

Transfers Serah Williams and Kayleigh Heckel played pivotal roles for the 38-1 UConn team in the 2025-26 season. He opted not to add any transfers and rely on the returning players, led by national player of the year Sarah Strong and two incoming freshmen.

“People have to get better,” Auriemma said. “You want your players to get better and improve from one year to the next. Blanca (Quinonez) going from playing 17 minutes a night to playing 27-30 minutes a night, I think changes the dynamic of the team. Sarah (Strong) probably getting more touches, probably playing 30 minutes per game.

Auriemma said that Strong has declined opportunities to play for USA Basketball this offseason to recover from inflammation in her leg that kept her out of most practices during the postseason.

“The new kids that are coming in are going to give us a little bit of a different look than we had. We have really good guards on our team but none of them are exactly what Jovana (Popovic) is; our big kids are going to get better. Olivia (Vukosa) is a little different than what we have right now. We will look a little different, but the core of the team is back.”

UConn also brings back Morgan Cheli, who played at least 15 minutes nine times as a freshman before missing all of last season with an ankle injury.

___

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Secret Service Deputy Director Matt Quinn said plainclothes agents spotted the man around 3:30 p.m. in the area near the White House complex and saw the imprint of the weapon on him. The agents followed him briefly and contacted the uniformed officers.

The unidentified man attempted to flee when uniformed officers with the Secret Service approached him. Quinn said the man fired at the officers, who returned fire.

The alleged gunman was transported to a local hospital. Quinn said he had no information on the suspect's condition.

Quinn said emergency personnel also transported a minor who was shot but not seriously injured. Quinn said he could not say definitively that the bystander, who also was taken to a hospital, was struck by shots from the suspect's gun. “We’ll let the doctors figure that out,” he said, though he noted that “investigators believe he was struck by the suspect.”

Quinn said the Washington, D.C., police would investigate the officer-involved shooting.

The Secret Service encouraged people to avoid the area as emergency crews responded to the shooting not far from the White House, where President Donald Trump was holding a small business event.

The White House was briefly locked down as authorities investigated the incident. The Secret Service ushered journalists who were outside into the briefing room, and Trump continued his event without interruption.

The incident drew a large police presence, coming just over a week after a gunman tried to storm the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner with guns and knives. Cole Tomas Allen has been charged in that incident, in which a Secret Service officer was shot, although he was wearing body armor and was not seriously injured.

Quinn said it was not known yet whether the Monday incident was related to Trump. “I’m not going to guess on that,” Quinn said. “Whether or not it was directed to the president or not, I don’t know, but we will find out.”

Lifestyle and Home Improvement expert Kathryn Emery attends trade shows all over the U.S. to scope out the latest and greatest products and gadgets that can save you time and make life more enjoyable.

Kathryn stopped by Houston Life with some of her favorite summer products for grillin’ and chillin’.

Fisher died on Saturday surrounded by her family, a Gap spokesperson confirmed on Monday. The San Francisco-based company did not specify a cause of death.

The couple co-founded The Gap after a frustrating shopping experience when Don Fisher couldn’t find a pair of jeans that fit, according to the retailer. The Fishers opened one small store on Ocean Avenue in San Francisco. Initially men’s Levi’s jeans and record tapes were the only items for sale. But the brand became the foundation for a global retail empire and reshaped American fashion with a focus on simple casual looks from khakis and jeans to T-shirts and sweater sets.

The chain eventually expanded to other nameplates — Banana Republic and Old Navy — and now generates more than $15 billion in sales globally.

Fisher was the company’s fashion merchandiser for nearly four decades, while her husband focused on the business side. The company said that she came up with the company’s name, specifically to bridge the “generation gap” between parents and children. Don Fisher died in 2009.

“There is simply no equal to Doris Fisher,” Gap's CEO and President Richard Dickson said in a statement issued Monday. “In Gap-speak, she was a true original. Doris was a full partner in Gap Inc.’s founding and a path-breaking entrepreneur at a time when that was highly unusual for women. She understood firsthand the value of self-expression, diversity, and inclusion.”

Dickson, who has been spearheading a turnaround after several years of a sales malaise, also said that Doris Fisher “worked tirelessly to ensure that Gap Inc. always did more than sell clothes.” Gap hired Dickson in July 2023.

Gap noted that Doris Fisher’s influence extended beyond merchandising and store design. She helped shape the cultural tone of Gap advertising and product development, while maintaining a “steadfast” presence in the company’s expansion and pushing the company to focus on the customer's needs. Gap went public in 1976.

The Fishers also were involved in philanthropic endeavors. The couple amassed one of the largest private collections of modern and contemporary art in the country, Gap said. In 2009, the family pledged more than 1,100 works to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, one of the largest gifts of its kind.

Doris Fisher was also an advocate of educational opportunities for disadvantaged students. She served on the board of Knowledge Is Power Program, known as KIPP, a network of high-performing charter schools aimed at creating opportunity for underserved students.

Born in San Francisco in 1931, Doris Feigenbaum grew up in a family “steeped in values of enterprise, culture, and community service,” according to Gap. She graduated from Stanford University in 1953, where she studied economics.

She is survived by her three sons — Robert, William, and John — all of whom have carried forward the family’s business and philanthropic commitments with San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, KIPP, Stanford University, The Boys & Girls Club of San Francisco, the San Francisco Symphony, and The Gap Foundation.

She is also survived by 10 grandchildren and 13 great grandchildren, the company said.

In a year when several prize-winning projects zoomed in on the Trump presidency, the Post's coverage illuminated the administration's fast-moving, sometimes opaque drive to reshape the national government and what the cuts and changes meant for individual Americans.

The Miami Herald’s Julie K. Brown was given a special citation for her reporting, nearly a decade ago, that drew attention to Jeffrey Epstein ’s abuses. The New York Times won three of the coveted prizes, the Post and Reuters each won two, and less widely known outlets ranging from The Connecticut Mirror to the podcast “Pablo Torre Finds Out” also were recognized in a challenging year for American journalism.

“This is always a day of celebration in our communities, but perhaps never more so than today as we face tremendous political and economic pressures,” prize administrator Marjorie Miller said in a livestream announcement.

In the last few months, the Post cut a third of its staff, CBS News announced it would shutter its nearly century-old radio service, The AP offered buyouts to over 120 journalists and some regional newspapers also publicly struggled. CBS parent Paramount’s acquisition of CNN has raised questions about what’s next for those networks. Meanwhile, President Donald Trump continued to bash, and sometimes sue, outlets whose coverage he finds objectionable.

‘Sweeping and deeply impactful reporting’

Spanning three years, thousands of pages of documents and numerous interviews, the AP project found that American companies help lay the foundations of the Chinese government’s system for monitoring and policing its citizens.

“This was sweeping and deeply impactful reporting, the kind of work that highlights the unique strengths of AP’s global, multiformat newsroom,” executive editor Julie Pace said in an email to staffers. She is among the Pulitzer Board's new members.

Some of The Washington Post's winning work was by reporter Hannah Natanson, whose home was searched and devices were seized in what federal authorities say was an investigation into a Pentagon contractor’s handling of classified documents. The Post says the seizure violated the First Amendment.

Two winning entries focused on Trump's pulverizing approach to norms and constraints. Reuters, which won for national reporting, looked at how Trump has used the federal government and his supporters’ influence to expand presidential authority and target foes, the award judges noted. The Times took the investigative reporting prize for exploring the Republican president’s boundary-pushing approach to the notion of conflicts of interest.

Joseph Kahn, executive editor of the Times, said its reporters have been threatened over their work. “We have not, and will not” bow to the pressure, he said in a statement.

Reuters' reporting on scam ads, AI chatbots and the social media giant Meta — which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp — won the beat reporting prize, last given two decades ago.

Reuters' wins spotlighted "fearless, deeply reported, original work that holds powerful institutions to account,” editor-in-chief Alessandra Galloni said in a statement.

Visual journalism honors included a graphic novel

The prize for breaking news went to The Minnesota Star Tribune’s coverage of last year’s deadly mass shooting during Mass at a Minneapolis Catholic school. Judges praised the thoroughness and compassion of the newspaper’s reporting on a scene of carnage in its hometown.

“To me, it’s really a moment to appreciate the power of local journalism,” Kathleen Hennessey, the Star Tribune's editor and senior vice president, said in an interview. One Tribune reporter who lives in the neighborhood heard the gunshots and called 911 before running to the scene, she noted; an editor at the paper has children who attend the school.

“It feels really gratifying to be recognized, but for this newsroom, this is also just still a really painful event,” Hennessey said.

The San Francisco Chronicle received the award for explanatory reporting, which means work that makes a complex topic comprehensible to everyday readers and viewers. The Chronicle's series laid out how insurers, aided by algorithmic tools, undervalued and denied rebuilding claims for fire-destroyed homes, the judges said.

In visual journalism, The Times got a breaking news photography award for depicting devastation and starvation in Gaza resulting from Israel's war in the territory. The Post won the feature photography prize, for a visual essay on a family welcoming a firstborn as the child’s father grappled with terminal cancer. The award for illustrated reporting and commentary — a category that includes editorial cartoons and more — went to Bloomberg for a graphic novel about online scams that threaten “digital arrest.”

In a statement, Bloomberg Editor-in-Chief John Micklethwait called it "deeply reported public service journalism, published in an inventive format.”

While several prizes reflected the year’s biggest news stories, others highlighted work that wasn’t pushed to everyone’s phones.

One of two local reporting awards went to The Connecticut Mirror and ProPublica for a series on how towing companies profited off Connecticut laws, at the expense of poor car owners; the state soon changed the laws. The Chicago Tribune also was honored for its coverage of the Trump administration’s intense immigration crackdown in the Windy City.

A 'pioneering' live podcast investigation

Texas Monthly won the feature writing award for an editor's first-person story of flooding that killed his toddler nephew and swept his home away. Also in Texas, The Dallas Morning News' architecture critic won the criticism award; judges praised Mark Lamster's wit and expertise. The New York Times' M. Gessen won the opinion writing award for essays on authoritarianism.

The audio award went to “Pablo Torre Finds Out” for probing financial arrangements between Los Angeles Clippers superstar Kawhi Leonard and an environmental startup in which the team owner invested. The judges called the project a “pioneering and entertaining form of live podcast journalism.” It's produced by Meadowlark Media and licensed by the New York Times Co.-owned sports site The Athletic.

The Pulitzer announcement — usually followed by a dinner later in the year — came little more than a week after an armed man rushed a security checkpoint and exchanged gunfire with Secret Service agents outside another big event for U.S. journalists, the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner in Washington. The man is now charged with trying to assassinate Trump, who was attending the event for his first time as president.

Separately, Monday’s awards also honored books, music and theater.

The prizes were established in newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer’s will and were first awarded in 1917. Winners receive $15,000, and the public service award carries a gold medal. Decisions are made by the Pulitzer Board, based at Columbia University in New York.

___

Associated Press writer Sarah Raza contributed from Canton, Michigan.

The U.S. military said two American-flagged merchant ships had successfully transited the strait on Monday as part of a new initiative.

The UAE Defense Ministry said its air defenses had engaged 15 missiles and four drones fired by Iran. Authorities in the eastern emirate of Fujairah said one drone sparked a fire at a key oil facility, wounding three Indian nationals. The British military reported two cargo vessels ablaze off the UAE.

Tehran did not outright confirm or deny the attacks but early on Tuesday, Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on X that both the U.S. and the UAE “should be wary of being dragged back into quagmire.”

In similarly vague terms, Iranian state television earlier quoted an anonymous military official as saying Tehran had had “no plan” to target the UAE or one of its oil fields.

"The incident resulted from U.S. military adventurism to create an illegal passage,” the official said about the oil facility attack, apparently referring to U.S. President Donald Trump 's latest efforts to reopen the the Strait of Hormuz, a critical waterway for global energy.

Breaking Iran’s chokehold on the strait would ease global economic concerns and deny Iran a major source of leverage. But such efforts also risk reigniting the full-scale fighting that erupted when the U.S. and Israel first attacked Iran on Feb. 28, prompting it to close the strait.

Shipping companies, and their insurers, are unlikely to take such a risk, given that Iran has fired on ships in the waterway and vowed to keep doing so. Iran has said the new U.S. effort is a violation of the fragile ceasefire that has held for more than three weeks.

US says it has reopened a lane through the strait

Iran’s effective closure of the strait, which runs between Iran and Oman, has caused a spike in worldwide fuel prices and rattled the global economy. The U.S.-led Joint Maritime Information Center had advised ships Monday to cross the strait in Oman’s waters, saying it had set up an “enhanced security area.”

Adm. Brad Cooper, commander of U.S. Central Command, told reporters that American forces have successfully opened a passage through the strait that is free of Iranian mines. He said Iran launched multiple cruise missiles, drones and small boats at civilian ships under the U.S. military’s protection.

U.S. military helicopters sank six of the small boats, Cooper said, adding that “each and every” threat had been defeated.

“The U.S. commanders who are on the scene have all the authority necessary to defend their unit and to defend commercial shipping -- as we saw and demonstrated earlier today,” Cooper said.

Trump had warned Sunday that Iranian efforts to halt passage through the strait “will, unfortunately, have to be dealt with forcefully.”

He described “Project Freedom” in humanitarian terms, designed to aid stranded seafarers on hundreds of ships that have been stuck in the Persian Gulf since the war began.

Missile alerts in the UAE for the first time since ceasefire

The UAE condemned what it called “renewed treacherous Iranian aggression” and called for an immediate halt to the attacks.

Four missile alerts were issued Monday urging UAE residents to find shelter — the first such alerts since the ceasefire began nearly a month ago. Commercial planes bound for the UAE — home to the global travel hubs of Dubai and Abu Dhabi — turned around midair.

The extent of the attack on Fujairah was unclear, but it is the terminus of a pipeline the UAE has used to avoid shipping some of its oil through the strait. The emirate on the Gulf of Oman is home to extensive oil storage facilities and is the UAE’s main sea access outside the strait.

“These attacks represent a dangerous escalation and an unacceptable violation,” the UAE’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement on X.

In Oman, authorities said a residential building near the strait “was targeted,” resulting in two foreign workers wounded, four vehicles damaged and nearby windows shattered. The report carried by state-run media did not provide further details.

Iran seeks to maintain its grip on the strait

Iran’s military command has warned that ships passing through the strait must coordinate with them.

“We warn that any foreign military force — especially the aggressive U.S. military — that intends to approach or enter the Strait of Hormuz will be targeted,” Maj. Gen. Ali Abdollahi told state broadcaster IRIB.

The South Korean government said an explosion and fire had broken out aboard a South Korean-operated ship anchored in the strait off the UAE. No injuries were reported. It was not immediately known if the vessel was one of the burning ships reported by the British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center.

Trump said in a social media post that Iran had “taken some shot” at a South Korean cargo ship, without elaborating.

The UAE accused Iran of targeting a tanker linked to its main oil company with two drones as it navigated the strait. It did not say when the attack occurred. No injuries were reported.

The disruption of the waterway has squeezed countries in Europe and Asia that depend on Persian Gulf oil and gas, raising prices far beyond the region.

The U.S. has warned shipping companies they could face sanctions for paying Iran for transit of the strait.

The U.S. has meanwhile enforced a naval blockade on Iranian ports since April 13, telling at least 49 commercial ships to turn back, according to Central Command.

The blockade has deprived Tehran of oil revenue it needs to shore up its ailing economy. U.S. officials have expressed hope that the blockade will force Iran to make concessions in talks on its disputed nuclear program and other longstanding issues.

Little progress seen in negotiations

Iran’s latest proposal for ending the war calls for the U.S. lifting sanctions, ending the blockade, withdrawing forces from the region and ceasing all hostilities, including Israel’s operations in Lebanon, according to the semiofficial Nour News and Tasnim agencies, which have close ties to Iran’s security apparatus.

Iranian officials said they were reviewing the U.S. response, though Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei told reporters Monday that changing demands made diplomacy difficult. He did not give details.

Iran has claimed its proposal does not include issues related to its nuclear program and enriched uranium — long a driving force in tensions with the U.S. and Israel.

Iran wants other issues resolved within 30 days and aims to end the war rather than extend the ceasefire. Trump expressed doubt over the weekend that the proposal would lead to a deal.

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Finley reported from Washington and Metz from Ramallah, West Bank. Associated Press journalists Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates; Fatma Khaled in Cairo; Mike Catalini in Morrisville, Pennsylvania; Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv, Israel; Tong-hyung Kim in Seoul, South Korea; Farnoush Amiri at the United Nations and Russ Bynum in Savannah, Georgia, contributed to this report.

Jamila Adams, who goes by Mila, testified that Diggs came into her bedroom at his house and “smacked me with an open hand” before wrapping his arm around her neck and choking her, leaving her struggling to breathe. The alleged attack came hours after the two had exchanged a series of angry texts over Adams being left off a trip to Miami where Diggs was taking his entourage for a week.

“When I went up to block him, he took his arms and came around my neck and he began to choke me,” Adams said, growing emotional as she described what she called an “assault.”

Defense attorneys attempted to chip away at Adams' credibility, challenging her over amounts she wanted to charge Diggs for cooking and alleging she left out details in her police report. They also got Adams to confirm that there were no photos or video of the the assault and presented video of her visiting New York in the hours and day after the attack. They showed her smiling in one video and dancing in another.

Adams countered that she didn't take any video or photos showing the redness she said could be seen on her neck and chest because she was busy trying to figure out her next steps. “I was in shock,” said Adams, noting that the pair had once been in a sexual relationship, so she didn't understand how someone she loved would “put hands on me.”

In his opening statement, Diggs’ attorney, Andrew Kettlewell, insisted his client did nothing wrong and said no one in the house at the time of the alleged attack saw or heard anything out of the ordinary. He also said there were no medical records detailing the assault.

"The assault that the Commonwealth described in their opening statement never happened. It did not happen,” Kettlewell said.

The 33-year-old four-time Pro Bowl player has pleaded not guilty to a felony strangulation charge and a misdemeanor assault and battery charge stemming from the December incident. A jury was selected earlier Monday and received its instructions.

Kettlewell also suggested Adams had a financial motive, telling jurors they would hear evidence that she sought money from Diggs a day after charges were filed in late December. The request, he said, started at $19,000 and increased over time to “quite a bit more.”

“She was furious and she wanted Mr. Diggs to pay in every sense of that word,” he said.

Kettlewell urged the jury not to be influenced by the fact Diggs was a famous football player. “Just like any other person in this country, rich or poor, Mr. Diggs sits here an innocent man,” he said.

Diggs declined to speak to reporters as he arrived at Norfolk County District Court in Dedham, a Boston suburb. He also said nothing as he left court for the day.

Norfolk Assistant District Attorney Drew Virtue told jurors in his opening statement that Adams would testify that Diggs slapped her and put her in a headlock that made it difficult to breathe before throwing her onto a bed.

“It’s your job to determine what happened on Dec. 2,” Virtue said.

Judge Jeanmarie Carroll, at times, instructed jurors to disregard portions of Adams’ testimony that went beyond the scope of the questions.

Diggs signed a three-year, $69 million contract with the New England Patriots last year and was a key target for quarterback Drake Maye during the Patriots’ AFC East title run. Before joining the Patriots, Diggs was drafted by the Minnesota Vikings in 2015 and played for the Buffalo Bills before a brief stint with the Houston Texans in 2024.

Diggs’ 1,000-yard season with the Patriots marked the seventh of his career. It helped complete a successful career revival after a season-ending knee injury derailed what turned out to be a one-year stay with the Houston Texans in 2024.

Diggs, who led the team with 85 receptions and 1,013 yards receiving with four touchdowns in his only season with the Patriots, was released by the team in March. Diggs posted a goodbye on social media, thanking the Patriots for the season and saying: “We family forever.”

Diggs has yet to sign with another team.

__

Willingham reported from Boston.

The first awardees of more than 42,600 children included those with disabilities — and their siblings — whose families make up to 500% of the federal poverty level, which is $165,000 per year or less for a family of four. Those families began receiving notices April 22, with the comptroller recently adding about 2,000 additional families to the group.

This week, the second-priority tier awards for more than 51,000 children include families at or below 200% of the poverty level, which is an annual income of $66,000 or less for a family of four. Most of those students, 68%, previously attended a private school or home-school. Thirty-six percent are white, 28% are Hispanic and 17% are Black.

By comparison, 24% of Texas 5.5 million public school students are white, 53% are Hispanic and 13% are Black.

State leaders previously said they expect Texas to have the largest launch of education savings accounts, or ESAs, in the nation, with about 100,000 children using them. Those applicants not receiving the ESAs, which families can use for private schooling or other educational costs, go on a waitlist.

Of the first batch of students invited to join the program last month, 42% are white, and more than half come from families considered low-income, according to the state’s data. Meanwhile, 53% previously attended a public school.

The numbers released thus far do not reflect who will actually participate in the program.

Students are not accepted into the ESA program until their enrollment in a private school is confirmed, which families must complete by July 15. Families can also use the funds for home schooling. If families do not find their preferred schooling option, the funds will go to students on the waitlist.

Check back for updates as the voucher application process unfolds.

Voucher applications close

Texans’ first chance to apply for school vouchers closed March 31 after a federal judge denied a request from Islamic schools and Muslim families to extend the deadline for a second time.

They sued Texas leaders for excluding the schools over unsubstantiated terrorism allegations while accepting hundreds of other non-Islamic schools.

The lawsuit sought another deadline extension and relief for any Muslim family or Islamic school affected by the comptroller’s decision to exclude them. The Texas comptroller’s office announced on March 31 that it approved all eligible Islamic schools that applied to participate in the voucher program.

The next court hearing in the case is set for May 8.

What is the voucher program?

Gov. Greg Abbott signed Senate Bill 2 into law in 2025, authorizing the creation of a statewide program that allows families to use public funds to pay for their children’s private school or home-school education.

Between Feb. 4 and March 31, virtually any family with school-age children in Texas could have applied to participate. A lottery determined who could receive the funds, pending their acceptance to a private school. Private schools interested in joining the program can apply on a rolling basis, as long as they have existed for at least two years and received accreditation.

More than 274,000 students applied, while more than 2,400 private schools have been accepted.

Fights over Texas’ voucher rollout

Hancock in late 2025requested an opinion from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, asking if the comptroller’s office could exclude schools from the voucher program based on their connections to groups designated as foreign terrorist organizations or foreign adversaries.

Hancock said schools accredited by Cognia had hosted events organized by the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim civil rights group that Abbott designated a terrorist organization. CAIR has sued Abbott over the label, calling it defamatory and false. The U.S. State Department has not designated CAIR as a terrorist group.

Texas Republicans made anti-Muslim rhetoric a focal point during primary election season. Hancock, appointed by the governor on an interim basis, ran to serve a full term as comptroller before losing his race.

Hancock shut hundreds of Cognia-accredited schools out of the voucher program, including those that primarily serve Muslim students, Christian students and children with disabilities, which the Houston Chronicle first reported.

Paxton released an opinion in January stating his belief that Hancock can block certain schools from participating if they are “illegally tied to terrorists or foreign adversaries.”

A group of Islamic schools and Muslim families sued, arguing that state leaders “systematically targeted Islamic schools for exclusion.” The Islamic schools initially blocked from joining met the voucher program’s eligibility requirements and “have no actual connection to terrorism or unlawful activity,” according to the lawsuit.

Before the lawsuit, no Islamic schools were known to have been accepted into the voucher program while the state had approved other faith-based schools. Some Islamic schools had shown up on the approved list before that, but Hancock later removed them.

Two American-flagged merchant ships have “successfully transited” through the critical waterway, the U.S. military said. Separately, the U.S. military denied Iran’s claims that it struck an American Navy vessel southeast of the strait.

Meanwhile, the United Arab Emirates on Monday said an Iranian drone sparked a fire at an oil facility in Fujairah, a key pipeline hub used to bypass the Strait of Hormuz. Shortly after the report, the British military said a cargo ship off the coast of the Emirates was ablaze. The UAE issued its first three missile alerts on Monday since the shaky ceasefire between Iran and the U.S. took hold almost four weeks ago.

Iran handed over its latest proposal for negotiations with the U.S. to mediators in Pakistan, Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency reported Friday. U.S. President Donald Trump subsequently said he’s “not satisfied” with it, but did not elaborate on the proposal’s apparent shortcomings. The shaky ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran has lasted for three weeks.

Here's the latest:

Tehran doesn’t outright confirm or deny the attacks

But early on Tuesday, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on X that both the U.S. and the UAE “should be wary of being dragged back into quagmire.”

In similarly vague terms, Iranian state television earlier quoted an anonymous military official as saying Tehran had had “no plan” to target the UAE or one of its oil fields.

“The incident resulted from U.S. military adventurism to create an illegal passage,” the official was quoted as saying about the oil facility attack, apparently referring to Trump’s latest efforts to reopen the strait, a critical waterway for global energy.

UAE says over a dozen missiles, drones launched from Iran

The United Arab Emirates said it had engaged a number of missiles and drones launched from Iran on Monday.

In an update posted on X, the defense ministry said its air defense systems engaged 12 ballistic missiles, three cruise missiles and four drones. The attacks moderately injured three people.

Oman says a residential building was targeted

A residential building housing employees in Oman was targeted Monday, officials said, though did not provide details of the incident.

The defense ministry said in a statement on X, citing an unidentified security source, that the building housed workers of a company in the Tibat district of the town of Bukha. Two foreigners were moderately injured, four vehicles were damaged and windows in a nearby house were shattered.

Bukha is a town on Oman’s Musandam peninsula, an enclave on the southern edge of the Strait of Hormuz that is separated from the rest of the sultanate.

Authorities did not say whether the incident was the result of an attack or identify its source, adding that an investigation is underway.

US, Gulf states to propose diplomatic measure for safe passage over Strait of Hormuz

U.S. envoy to the U.N. Mike Waltz told reporters Monday that the U.S. will be co-drafting a Security Council resolution with Bahrain and its Gulf allies that would “hold Iran to account” for its monthslong chokehold over the critical waterway.

The unreleased draft would require Iran to stop laying sea mines in the strait and halt all tolling efforts. It would also require the disclosure of the number and locations of the mines it has placed. It’s unclear what enforcement mechanism, if any, the resolution will have to ensure any of these demands.

But it is the latest diplomatic effort by the U.S. and its Gulf allies after a similar resolution was vetoed by China and Russia hours before a temporary ceasefire was announced in early April.

Hegseth and Caine to hold news conference, Trump says

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Dan Caine, will hold a news conference on Tuesday, Trump said in a social media post on Monday.

Trump released no other details. But the news conference will come a day after the U.S. military launched an effort to defend commercial ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz from Iranian attacks.

Trump urges South Korea to send ships to Strait of Hormuz

President Donald Trump has urged South Korea to “come and join the mission” in the Strait of Hormuz, where the U.S. military is defending commercial ships from Iran.

Trump said in a social media post that Iran had “taken some shot” at a South Korean cargo ship, though did not elaborate.

UN reiterates need for freedom of navigation in Strait of Hormuz but opposes military activity

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said the United Nations is “still trying to fully understand” exactly what U.S. statements saying the vital Strait of Hormuz is open.

Reports of an exchange of fire in the strait, which had carried about 20% of the world’s crude oil and the United Arab Emirates intercepting Iranian missiles are “concerning,” he said.

“There’s not much clarity at this point, but what we do not want to see is a return to outright kinetic activity in this area,” Dujarric said.

“We need to see a return of what has been centuries of practice of common law, which is freedom of navigation in these waters,” he told U.N. reporters on Monday.

Israel closely watching developments in Gulf

Israel’s military is closely monitoring the developments in the Gulf and remains on high alert, according to a military official who spoke on the condition of anonymity in line with military guidelines.

The official added that there are currently no changes expected in guidelines for Israel’s civilians, including limitations on the size of gatherings, that are implemented during times of war.

—- Melanie Lidman

Cooper does not offer details about whether US was protecting sites that came under Iranian attack

Asked whether the U.S. was protecting sites in the United Arab Emirates that came under Iranian attack, Cooper said he didn’t want to go into details.

The head of U.S. Central Command told reporters Monday that the “UAE has exceptional capability. They’re well-positioned to defend themselves.”

Authorities in the eastern emirate of Fujairah said an Iranian drone sparked a fire at a key oil facility, wounding three Indian nationals. The British military also reported two cargo vessels ablaze off the UAE.

Cooper says the Fujairah attack was “under their national jurisdiction” and not part of the new American effort to get commercial ships moving through the Strait of Hormuz.

UAE airspace nearly empty as warning sirens blare

The airspace over the UAE was nearly empty Monday night as the country faced multiple sirens warning of incoming drones, according to the flight tracking website FlightRadar24.

Just days ago, the airport, which is among the world’s busiest, had announced it had mostly returned to full operations.

UAE condemns Iranian attacks

The United Arab Emirates condemned what it called “renewed treacherous Iranian aggression” targeting civilian sites that left three people injured, and called for an immediate halt to the attacks.

“These attacks represent a dangerous escalation and an unacceptable violation,” the UAE’s foreign ministry said in a statement on X, adding that the UAE reserves the right to respond in a way that protects its sovereignty and security.

Cooper says Iran ‘initiated aggressive behavior’ in Strait of Hormuz

In his call with reporters, Cooper declined to say whether the ceasefire between Iran and the U.S. was over or not, but noted that it was Iran that “initiated aggressive behavior” in the Strait of Hormuz on Monday.

Cooper said the U.S. military is serving as a defensive force “to give a very clear defense to commercial shipping, to allow them to proceed out of the Arabian Gulf.”

“That’s what we’re focused on,” Cooper said. “What we saw this morning was Iran initiating aggressive behaviors. We are simply going to respond to that.”

US military clears pathway in Strait of Hormuz that is free of Iranian mines

Cooper said the U.S. military has been able to clear a pathway in the Strait of Hormuz that is free of any Iranian mines in an effort to allow commercial vessels to transit the narrow waterway.

Cooper said U.S. military also has set up a “defensive umbrella” that includes American helicopters and fighter planes to protect the freighters leaving the strait.

US military says it sunk 6 Iranian small boats that were targeting civilian vessels

Adm. Brad Cooper, who heads U.S. Central Command, said U.S. military helicopters have sunk six Iranian small boats that were targeting civilian vessels in the Strait of Hormuz.

It is the latest test of the ceasefire between Iran and the U.S.

US military says Iran has launched missiles, drones and small boats at ships the US is protecting in Strait of Hormuz

Iran has launched multiple cruise missiles, drones and small boats at ships the U.S. military is protecting, a top commander said Monday.

Adm. Brad Cooper, the head of U.S. Central Command, said during a news conference that “each and every one” of the threats had been defeated.

Three Indian nationals injured in Fujairah attack, says authorities

Authorities in Fujairah said an Iranian drone that sparked a fire at an oil facility left three Indian nationals injured.

The authorities said in a statement they suffered medium wounds and were transferred to the hospital.

Cargo ship on fire off the coast of the UAE as the nation warned of incoming attacks from Iran

The British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center announced the fire on the ship, saying it was in the vessel’s engine room. It said the ship’s crew was accounted for.

UAE’s eastern emirate of Fujairah says an Iranian drone sparked a fire at an oil facility

Fujairah is the terminus of a pipeline the United Arab Emirates has used to avoid shipping some of its oil through the Strait of Hormuz in the Iran war.

The UAE on Monday issued its first three missile alerts since a ceasefire took hold.

Iran’s military command says ships passing through the strait must coordinate with them

“We warn that any foreign military force — especially the aggressive U.S. military — that intends to approach or enter the Strait of Hormuz will be targeted,” Maj. Gen. Ali Abdollahi told state broadcaster IRIB on Monday.

UAE issues another missile alert as tensions rise over the Strait of Hormuz

The United Arab Emirates issued the alert without saying what prompted it.

It was the second such alert Monday, after there had been none in recent weeks following the Iran ceasefire.

Authorities haven’t provided further details on either alert. An all-clear signal was issued minutes after the first alert. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

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Judge in dispute over Washington golf course tells Trump officials not to cut trees without notice

The federal judge told the U.S. government Monday not to cut down more than 10 trees without first providing notice amid a legal dispute at a historic Washington golf course President Trump plans to renovate.

U.S. District Court Judge Ana Reyes said during a remote hearing that she wasn’t going to issue a temporary restraining order just yet in the case brought by the DC Preservation League. She also told the National Park Service that it should first discuss any plans with government lawyers if it was going to cut down more than 10 trees.

Monday’s hearing came after the plaintiff’s emergency petition seeking to stop work at the course, citing news reports that major renovations were to begin Monday.

Kevin Griess, the superintendent of the National Mall and Memorial Parks for the Park Service, said during the hearing there was no plan to begin such work Monday but added that a safety assessment was underway.

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Supreme Court restores access to the abortion pill mifepristone

The Supreme Court’s order Monday blocks a ruling that had threatened to upend one of the main ways abortion is provided across the nation.

The order signed by Justice Samuel Alito temporarily allows women seeking abortions to obtain the pill at pharmacies or through the mail, without an in-person visit to a doctor.

Those rules had been in effect for several years until a federal appeals court imposed new restrictions last week.

The majority of abortions in the U.S. are obtained through medications, usually a combination of mifepristone and a second drug, misoprostol. Their availability has blunted the impact of abortion bans that most Republican-led states have started enforcing since a 2022 Supreme Court ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade and allowed for state bans.

Louisiana sued to restrict access to mifepristone, asserting that its availability undermined the ban there.

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Sen. Steve Daines travels to China, ahead of planned state visit by Trump

He announced Monday that he’ll lead a bipartisan congressional delegation on a visit to China this week, when the group of five senators will be visiting tech businesses in Shanghai and Beijing and meeting Chinese officials.

The trip will come just about a week before President Trump is scheduled to visit China for the first time since he took office. It also will be the first state visit by a U.S. president since 2017.

Traveling with Daines are fellow Republican Sens. Deb Fischer, Mike Lee and Jerry Moran as well as Democratic Sen. Maria Cantwell.

Trump’s vision: DIY defense in Europe

As part of its National Defense Strategy announced in January — a sweeping document laying out a vision on everything from deterring China to defending against cyberattacks to disrupting Iran’s nuclear ambitions — the Trump administration said Europe must do more for its own defense.

While “we are and will remain engaged in Europe, we must — and will — prioritize defending the U.S. Homeland and deterring China,” it said.

Among other things, the document noted that Europe’s economic power, while shrinking in relative terms globally, remains significant, and said Germany’s economy alone “dwarfs that of Russia.”

“Fortunately, our NATO allies are substantially more powerful than Russia — it is not even close,” it said, noting a recent commitment among NATO allies to raise national defense spending to 5% of GDP in total, a push led by Trump.

What to know about the US defense posture in Europe

The U.S. European Command, created in 1947 and known as EUCOM, is one of 11 combat commands within the Defense Department, and covers some 50 countries and territories.

In addition to more than 36,000 troops in Germany, Italy hosts more than 12,000 and there’s another 10,000 in the United Kingdom, according to Pentagon numbers from December.

The Pentagon has offered few details about which troops or operations would be affected in the drawdown announced Friday.

The U.S. increased its European deployment after Russia launched its full-scale war on Ukraine four years ago. NATO allies like Germany have expected for over a year that these troops would be the first to leave.

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White House to hold a summit for small businesses

The event in the East Room will bring together more than 130 small business owners as the president highlights his administration’s policies benefiting them.

“Our nation’s 36 million small businesses now have the confidence to hire, reinvest and expand, unleashing an historic era of sustained growth,” Small Business Administrator Kelly Loeffler said ahead of the event. “America is open for business again.”

The gathering is meant to mark this year’s National Small Business Week and the owners represent manufacturing, food production, defense, energy and retail businesses, among other areas, according to the White House.

European leaders see Trump’s troop drawdown from Germany as new proof they must go it alone

European leaders on Monday said President Trump’s snap decision to pull thousands of U.S. troops out of Germany came as a surprise but is a fresh sign that Europe must take care of its own security.

The Pentagon announced last week that it would pull some 5,000 troops out of Germany, but Trump told reporters Saturday that “we’re going to cut way down. And we’re cutting a lot further than 5,000.”

He offered no reason for the move, which blindsided NATO, but his decision came amid an escalating dispute with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz over the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, and Trump’s anger over European allies’ reluctance to get involved in the conflict in the Middle East.

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Wall Street hesitates and oil prices climb with uncertainty about the Strait of Hormuz

The U.S. stock market is holding tentatively near its record heights Monday, while oil prices climb with uncertainty about when oil tankers can resume crossing the Strait of Hormuz and restore the world’s flow of crude. Dueling claims about a possible Iranian strike on a U.S. Navy vessel in the strait heightened the tensions.

The S&P 500 slipped 0.1%, coming off its latest all-time high. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 216 points, or 0.4%, as of 9:35 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was up 0.1%.

The action was stronger in the oil market, where the price for a barrel of Brent crude climbed 2% to $110.37 and briefly topped $114 during the morning. Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz due to its war with the United States has kept oil tankers pent up in the Persian Gulf and away from customers worldwide. That in turn has sent the price of Brent soaring from roughly $70 per barrel before the war.

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• Why Houston’s mayor says a new trash fee is key to fixing waste issues

Steven David, Deputy Chief of Staff for Mayor John Whitmire, tells KPRC the existing “Solid Waste Cart Fee” line on your water bill would be renamed “Solid Waste Cart and Administrative Fee.” That total would show $6.29, combining the current $1.29 cart fee with the proposed $5 charge.

The Whitmire administration is introducing the proposal this week. A city council vote would come at a later date.

RELATED: Why Houston trash pickup is falling behind

What would the fee pay for?

David says the city’s Solid Waste Department serves roughly 400,000 customers and costs approximately $107 million per year, funded primarily through property taxes.

The proposed $5 fee would be the first time Houston has charged residents directly for its trash pickup service.

RELATED: Houston mayor proposes new $5 monthly ‘administrative fee’ tied to trash service starting next year

The city tells KPRC 2 News it is proposing to start at $5, not the full cost of service, to avoid sudden financial pressure on households. Under the plan, the fee would increase by $5 each year until it reaches $25 per month by fiscal year 2032.

Under the proposal, solid waste would move from the General Fund, which also supports services like police, fire, and parks, into Public Works.

David adds that shift would come alongside a broader overhaul of how the department operates.

“We’re gonna have a whole bunch of operations and performance and audit folks inside the Public Works Department that constantly go through everything,” he said. “They have a bear hug around Solid Waste right now. We are going to deconstruct that department and rebuild its processes.”

The proposal pairs a financial shift with an operational overhaul, including automated routes, GPS tracking, new standards, and backup contractors to maintain service during the transition.

How Houston compares

RELATED: Houston wants to tap $100M from its own water system to help close a looming budget gap

Houston is currently the only major city in Texas that does not charge a monthly solid waste fee. According to the city budget briefing KPRC attended, surrounding communities already charge for the service. Pasadena charges $34 per month, Sugar Land $24, League City $22, and Dallas charges $40.

Giuliani, 81, remains in critical but stable condition at a Florida hospital and is being monitored as a precautionary measure, spokesperson Ted Goodman said.

Goodman said Giuliani’s condition was exacerbated by restrictive airway disease attributed to his exposure to dust and toxins from the Sept. 11, 2001, attack on the World Trade Center.

Giuliani’s hospitalization, near Palm Beach, Florida, came after he was heard coughing Friday on his nightly online talk show and hoarsely told viewers that his voice was “a little under the weather.”

“This condition adds complications to any respiratory illness, and the virus quickly overwhelmed his body, requiring mechanical ventilation to maintain adequate oxygen and stabilize his condition," Goodman said in a statement.

He described Giuliani as “the ultimate fighter” and said, “he is winning this battle.”

Giuliani’s family and primary medical provider are by his side, Goodman added. He said the former mayor’s family thanked well-wishers for an “outpouring of love and support.”

Among them: President Donald Trump, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and two of Giuliani's successors, former Mayor Eric Adams and current Mayor Zohran Mamdani.

“The mayor believes in the power of prayer, and we are feeling that strength today,” Goodman said.

Giuliani’s eight years as mayor of the nation's largest city was punctuated by the 9/11 attack just months before he left office. He was celebrated as “America’s mayor” for his leadership, knighted by Queen Elizabeth II and named Time magazine’s Person of the Year.

Giuliani, a Republican, later unsuccessfully ran for president and was an adviser to Trump, spearheading his efforts to stay in office after his 2020 election loss.

Last year, Trump said he was awarding Giuliani the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Giuliani coughed as he began his nightly online show "America’s Mayor Live” on Friday. As he spoke, he sounded more raspy than usual. Before launching into a commentary on the Iran war, he remarked: “My voice is a little under the weather, so I won’t be able to speak as loudly as I usually do, but I’ll get closer to the microphone.”

In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump called Giuliani “a True Warrior, and the Best Mayor in the History of New York City, BY FAR.”

“What a tragedy that he was treated so badly by the Radical Left Lunatics, Democrats ALL — AND HE WAS RIGHT ABOUT EVERYTHING!" Trump wrote Sunday. "They cheated on the Elections, fabricated hundreds of stories, did anything possible to destroy our Nation, and now, look at Rudy. So sad!”

As Trump’s personal attorney and adviser, Giuliani became a vocal proponent of the president's allegations of fraud in the 2020 election, which was won by Democrat Joe Biden. Trump and his backers lost dozens of lawsuits claiming fraud, and numerous recounts, reviews and audits of the election results turned up no signs of significant wrongdoing or error.

Two former Georgia election workers later won a $148 million defamation judgment against Giuliani. As they sought to collect the judgment, the former federal prosecutor was found in contempt of court and faced a trial this winter over the ownership of some of his assets.

Giuliani ultimately struck a deal that let him keep his homes and various belongings, including prized World Series rings, in exchange for unspecified compensation and a promise to stop speaking ill of the ex-election workers.

Giuliani was previously hospitalized last September after suffering a fractured vertebra and other injuries in a car crash in New Hampshire.

A native New Yorker, Giuliani was elected mayor in 1993 after serving as one of the nation’s highest-profile federal prosecutors, taking on mobsters and crooked Wall Street traders.

He ran for the U.S. Senate in 2000 but abandoned his race against Hillary Rodham Clinton after being diagnosed with prostate cancer.

In 2007, Giuliani ran for president. Buoyed by his post-9/11 popularity, he started as the front-runner for the Republican nomination. But that was short-lived. He withdrew from the race after struggling in the primaries amid GOP concerns about his past support for abortion rights, gay rights and gun control, and questions about his personal life and business ties to the Middle East.

He toyed with running for other offices before pivoting to political commentary.

In 2016, Trump leaned on Giuliani’s political acumen and loyalty and put him to work as a surrogate leading attacks on Clinton, his Democratic rival. After Trump won, Giuliani continued as his attack dog, even traveling to Ukraine to seek damaging information about Biden’s son Hunter.

The costars turned courtroom adversaries settled the civil case two weeks before they were to go to trial in New York on Lively’s claims that Baldoni conspired with publicists to preemptively destroy her reputation after she privately accused him of sexually harassing her on the movie set.

“Raising awareness, and making a meaningful impact in the lives of domestic violence survivors — and all survivors — is a goal that we stand behind," Lively and Baldoni said in a joint statement issued through their lawyers.

"It is our sincere hope that this brings closure and allows all involved to move forward constructively and in peace, including a respectful environment online."

The terms of the settlement were not disclosed.

Lively, 38, sued Baldoni, 42, and his production company, Wayfarer Studios, at the end of 2024. Weeks later, Baldoni sued Lively, accusing her, her husband — “Deadpool” actor Ryan Reynolds — and their publicist of defamation and extortion.

Baldoni, who directed the dark romantic drama and starred in it with Lively, had denied harassing her or orchestrating a smear campaign. He’d claimed the complaints about his behavior were made up by Lively as part of an effort to seize creative control of the movie.

Monday's settlement came after a federal judge in Manhattan tossed some of each actors' claims.

Last June, Judge Lewis J. Liman dismissed Baldoni’s defamation and extortion lawsuit. In April, he threw out Lively’s sexual harassment claims, ruling that she couldn’t pursue them under federal law because she was an independent contractor rather than an employee on the movie set.

In their joint statement, the parties said they recognize that Lively’s concerns “deserved to be heard” and that they ”remain firmly committed to workplaces free of improprieties and unproductive environments."

The trial, now no longer necessary, had been scheduled to begin with jury selection on May 18.

“It Ends With Us,” an adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s bestselling 2016 novel about a relationship devolving into domestic violence, was released in August 2024 and exceeded box office expectations despite criticism that it glorified abuse. Lively and Baldoni's fractious falling out took attention away from the film, overshadowing its message and success.

“The end product — the movie ‘It Ends With Us’ — is a source of pride to all of us who worked to bring it to life,” Lively and Baldoni said in their statement.

Lively said in her lawsuit that during filming, Baldoni made inappropriate comments about her appearance, violated physical boundaries while filming a love scene, and pushed for nudity — against Lively’s wishes — during a scene in which her character was giving birth.

Baldoni denied doing anything outside the realm of the normal creative process of making a movie.

The judge, in the decision tossing out the sexual harassment claims, acknowledged the complexity of the matter, noting that creative artists “must have some amount of space to experiment within the bounds of an agreed script without fear of being held liable for sexual harassment.”

The trial was to focus on Lively’s claim that Baldoni and the studio retaliated against her sexual harassment complaints by hiring publicists to turn the public against her. Her lawyers said that campaign including hiring a “digital army” to post bogus negative content about Lively on social media platforms, and feeding “manufactured content to unwitting reporters.”

The lawsuit said the purpose was to “retaliate against Ms. Lively by battering her image, harming her businesses, and causing her family severe emotional harm.”

Baldoni’s lawyers have claimed it was Lively who was strategically manipulating Baldoni’s public image, partly by leveraging help from her famous friends.

Lively appeared in the 2005 film “The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants” and the TV series “Gossip Girl” from 2007 to 2012 before starring in films including “The Town” and “The Shallows.”

Baldoni starred in the TV comedy “Jane the Virgin,” directed the 2019 film “Five Feet Apart” and wrote “Man Enough,” a book challenging traditional notions of masculinity.

Bobby Charles Taylor Sr. is in the Montgomery County Jail, charged with capital murder in the September 1986 killing of 16-year-old Deanna Ogg, officials said.

The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office, Texas Rangers, and FBI are expected to share more information on what led to his arrest and how he was taken into custody on Wednesday.

According to the sheriff’s office, the charges against Taylor come after investigators were able to use advanced DNA technology.

As of late Monday, charging documents for Taylor were not yet available through the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office.

Ogg had attended the newly constructed New Caney High School, according to MCSO documents. She left her home around 5 p.m. on Sept. 27, 1986, to get transportation to a family gathering.

She was later seen at a convenience store on FM 1314, and by 7 p.m. that day, her body was found off a logging road in the 17000 block of Old Houston Road, about seven miles from where she was last seen.

She had been sexually assaulted, beaten, and stabbed to death and suffered from blunt trauma to the head, according to investigators.

A different man — Roy Criner — had previously been arrested and charged in Ogg’s case, according to The Innocence Project.

Criner initially got charged with murder about a month later, a charge that later got replaced with aggravated sexual assault, The Innocent Project reported. In 2000, he was exonerated by DNA evidence.

The MV Hondius, a Dutch ship on a weekslong polar cruise from Argentina to Antarctica and several isolated islands in the South Atlantic, had requested help from local health authorities after making its way to the island of Cape Verde, off the West Africa coast. But no one has been allowed to disembark, Netherlands-based operator Oceanwide Expeditions said.

Cape Verde's Health Ministry said Monday that for now, it will not allow the ship to dock because of public health concerns and that it would stay in open waters close to shore.

Hantavirus is a rodent-borne illness spread by contact with rodents or their urine, saliva or droppings. WHO says that while it is rare, hantavirus may spread between people.

It was unclear how an outbreak could have started, and WHO said it was investigating while working to coordinate the evacuation of two sick crew members. Another sick person — a British man evacuated to South Africa on April 27 — tested positive for the virus, authorities said. He is in critical condition and isolated in intensive care, health officials said.

The body of one of the passengers who died — a German — remains on the ship, according to an Oceanwide Expeditions statement. A 70-year-old Dutch man died onboard April 11, and his 69-year-old wife died later in South Africa after leaving the ship, officials said. Her blood later tested positive for the virus, making two confirmed cases, South Africa's health minister said.

Among the 87 remaining passengers, 17 are Americans, 19 are from the U.K. and 13 from Spain, according to Oceanwide Expeditions. Sixty-one crew members also are onboard.

Cruise operator says 2 ill crew members urgently need care

Two sick crew members — one British, one Dutch — have respiratory symptoms and need urgent medical care, Oceanwide said in its statement.

Cape Verde has sent a medical team of two doctors, a nurse and a laboratory specialist to the ship over three trips, said Dr. Ann Lindstrand, a WHO official in Cape Verde.

She told The Associated Press in an interview that they were planning for medical evacuations, in which passengers would be taken from the ship via ambulance to an airport.

“It’s been very tricky for Cape Verdean authorities,” Lindstrand said. “What they have to deal with is a public health event. And of course, they have been thinking about the protection of the population here.”

Oceanwide said it would consider moving to one of the Spanish islands — Tenerife or the port of Las Palmas — if it can't evacuate passengers in Cape Verde.

WHO said it was working with local authorities and Oceanwide on a “full public health risk assessment.”

“Detailed investigations are ongoing, including further laboratory testing, and epidemiological investigations,” WHO said. “Medical care and support are being provided to passengers and crew.”

Lindstrand told AP there was a possible new case on the ship, in a person showing mild fever symptoms, but health workers were still assessing.

The cruise started in Argentina

The ship left Ushuaia in southern Argentina on April 1, according to Argentine provincial authorities. Health officials there said they confirmed no passengers had hantavirus symptoms when the Hondius departed.

But because symptoms can appear up to eight weeks after exposure, “the passengers could have been incubating the disease if they acquired it within the country or elsewhere in the world,” Juan Facundo Petrina, director of epidemiology for Tierra del Fuego province, told AP in an interview from Ushuaia.

He noted that the province hasn't historically seen hantavirus cases, but infections have broken out in other Argentine provinces, leading to 28 deaths nationwide last year, according to the health ministry.

For the rest of the Hondius' trip, Oceanwide Expeditions didn’t specify an itinerary. The company advertises 33-night or 43-night “Atlantic Odyssey” cruises on the vessel.

It has 80 cabins and a capacity of 170 passengers, and it typically travels with about 70 crew members, including a doctor, the company said.

The Dutch man was the first victim, and he presented with fever, headache, abdominal pain and diarrhea, officials said. His body was taken off the vessel nearly two weeks later on the British territory of Saint Helena, some 1,200 miles (1,900 kilometers) off the African coast and was awaiting repatriation.

His wife was transferred to South Africa; she collapsed at a Johannesburg airport and died at a hospital, the South African Department of Health said. On Monday, South African Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi told national broadcaster SABC that her blood was tested posthumously, with a positive hantavirus result.

The ship sailed on to Ascension Island, an isolated Atlantic outpost about 800 miles (1,300 kilometers) to the north, where the sick British man was taken off the ship and evacuated April 27 to South Africa.

South African officials have started contact tracing but say there's no need to panic

There was no information from authorities on a possible source of the suspected outbreak. A previous hantavirus outbreak in southern Argentina in 2019 killed at least nine people. It prompted a judge to order dozens of residents of a remote town to stay in their homes for 30 days to halt the spread.

South Africa’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases was conducting contact tracing to identify whether people were exposed to infected cruise passengers. The 69-year-old woman who died was trying to catch a flight home to the Netherlands at Johannesburg’s main international airport, one of Africa's busiest, when she collapsed.

But the health department urged people not to panic, saying WHO was “coordinating a multicountry response with all affected islands and countries to contain further spread of the disease.”

Hantavirus has no specific treatment or cure, but early medical attention can increase chances of survival.

“While severe in some cases, it is not easily transmitted between people,” Dr. Hans Henri P. Kluge, WHO regional director for Europe, said in a statement Monday. “The risk to the wider public remains low. There is no need for panic or travel restrictions.”

———

AP journalists Mike Corder in The Hague, Netherlands; Michelle Gumede and Mogomotsi Magome in Johannesburg; Isabel DeBre in Buenos Aires, Argentina; and Annie Risemberg and Mark Banchereau in Dakar, Senegal contributed.

“This is a classic, classic unfunded mandate,” said John Craft, superintendent for Northside Independent School District. “If there is such a thing, this is textbook definition.”

Passed last year, Senate Bill 546 builds on school bus safety requirements by requiring that all buses have three-point seat belts, regardless of the year they were made. Before that, only buses made after 2018 were required to have the safety belts.

Currently, districts have bus fleets with a patchwork of seat belt types, operating buses with three-point belts, two-point belts and some with no seat belts.

Seat belts drew lawmakers’ attention again after a 2024 collision between a concrete truck and a school bus from the Hays Consolidated Independent School District resulted in the death of a 5-year-old student. The school bus didn’t have seat belts.

SB 546 doesn’t provide any state funding, requiring school districts to report what kind of seat belts buses currently have, how much it would cost them to be in compliance and whether they can actually afford it. Districts are expected to turn in those reports to the Texas Education Agency by the end of May, and officials are hoping lawmakers either create a funding source or change the law.

“We hope, which isn’t a really good strategy, we hope that the data reveals that the Legislature needs to invest,” said Don Jurek, director of transportation at East Central ISD, when presenting the district’s seat belt report at a board meeting in February.

Most San Antonio-area districts have already presented seat belt reports to the public, and none have said it’s feasible to be compliant with SB 546 by 2029 with their current budgets. They are proposing longer phased plans to replace or retrofit buses.

Retrofitting carries a heavy price tag, ranging from hundreds of thousands of dollars in smaller districts to several million dollars in larger districts.

Most school districts say they will have to replace schools buses, since some manufacturers don’t make the necessary seat belt parts, bringing in outside vendors to retrofit buses would likely cancel warranties, and some vehicles are just too outdated.

The shelf life of a school bus is typically between 12 and 15 years, though several stay functional up to 20 years with the right maintenance.

Quotes from school bus manufacturers to retrofit buses vary from around $30,000 to over $70,000 per bus. For comparison, a new school bus generally costs between $100,000 to $150,000.

“It doesn’t make sense to throw good money at a bad bus,” said Bill Harrison, who oversees transportation at North East Independent School District.

Larger districts, larger price tags

Northside ISD operates the second-largest bus fleet in Texas and was the latest to publish its seat belt report. Out of 967 buses, 654 aren’t in compliance, but only 290 of those are eligible for retrofitting for $8.8 million. The rest would have to be completely replaced, which means a larger price tag of $43.7 million.

The district purchased around 90 buses in the past year, using 2022 bond money, which allocated $15 million for transportation. NISD officials are currently weighing going out for another bond election in November, which could help pay for new buses.

NEISD has a bus fleet of 399 and 224 of those buses were built in 2009 or earlier. Nearly 300 buses have no seat belts at all.

While the district could retrofit 351 of its buses to have three-point seat belts, costing about $19.9 million, NEISD is likely to spend closer to $13.5 million since it has the funds to replace several of its older buses.

Last year, NEISD voters approved a $483 million bond, giving the district the green light to make huge infrastructure upgrades and purchases, including buying over 90 new school buses. Purchasing new buses would allow the district to retire older vehicles in batches over the next few years.

Harrison also expects his fleet to downsize by about 20 buses in the next few years as enrollment continues to decrease at NEISD.

NEISD could save money by having its own staff do some of the retrofitting work, though that would still cost NEISD in terms of labor and training. Meanwhile, the district’s transportation team is shorthanded in mechanics and dealing with doubled fuel costs related to the war in Iran, Harrison said.

San Antonio ISD, the third-largest district in the area, may be the only district that has seat belts on all buses, though not all are in compliance. The district has 79 new grant-funded propane buses already equipped with the mandated three-point seat belts, but its remaining 139 buses are equipped with two-point seat belts.

Of the buses with two-point seat belts, only 69 are eligible for retrofitting, which would cost about $2 million. SAISD plans to retrofit about eight buses per year up to 43 buses followed by the phased procurement of 26 new buses.

Like other school districts, SAISD’s enrollment has been dropping in recent years, which could lead to using fewer buses in the future.

“We are currently evaluating future transportation needs to determine the optimal fleet size,” said a district spokesperson. “Any buses that are not immediately retrofitted will be removed from active service and remain out of operation until they are retrofitted or replaced.”

Smaller school district approach

Southwest ISD and Harlandale ISD have also made some progress by purchasing new school buses this year, but being in compliance by 2029 won’t be feasible on their own as most districts are undergoing financial strain.

Southwest ISD recently purchased 19 school buses to get ahead on SB 546, but it would still need to retrofit another 40 buses. Harlandale ISD bought two buses this year though it would still need to retrofit or replace many other buses since the district has several buses built before 2017, including 11 buses from 2007.

Other districts plan to use unspent bond funds and grants to buy new buses that can’t be retrofitted.

Judson ISD is getting close to purchasing 10 new buses using unspent bond funds from 2016, though it would still need to retrofit and purchase several other buses to be in compliance.

At Alamo Heights ISD, which has the smallest bus fleet, 25 out of 32 buses don’t have three-point seat belts and eight buses will have to be replaced. A district spokeswoman said AHISD plans to use a Texas Emissions Reduction Plan grant augmented by district bond funds to pay for the new vehicles.

Retrofitting the remaining buses will likely cost around $350,000.

Edgewood ISD has not released its report but plans to discuss it during a May 19 meeting.

What could enforcement look like?

Authored by state Sen. Jose Menéndez (D-San Antonio), SB 546 is meant to keep students safer in the case of collisions. While Menéndez acknowledges that school buses are already some of the safest vehicles, built to protect passengers from crash force, he said buses have high centers of gravity, predisposing them to roll over.

“In an age of discussing school safety and preventable deaths, it is clear that when school buses are equipped with seat belts, they could save the lives of children, bus drivers, and other passengers on board,” he wrote on the bill’s statement of intent.

While school officials agree, most take issue with a lack of funding attached to the bill, and transportation directors are unsure what kind of support they’ll receive after TEA reviews their reports.

Texas Policy Research, a nonpartisan think tank that analyzes bills, said SB 546 was well-intentioned but represents “a case of legislative overreach without clear evidence of a widespread or urgent problem… School buses remain statistically one of the safest forms of transportation for children, and the bill appears to be a reactive response to an isolated tragedy rather than a systemic policy gap.”

School districts are supposed to report bus collisions to the state, but several don’t. Of the state’s 1,200 districts, 978 reported about 1,600 bus accidents and 282 related injuries during the 2022-23 school year, the most recent available data.

TEA will stop collecting seat belt reports by the end of May and plans to create “grant opportunities” for eligible school districts but the agency hasn’t said when.

“The good news is I'm responding really well to meds and treatments and I'm improving every day,” the 80-year-old country superstar said in a short video posted to her official Instagram account. “Now the bad news is, it's going to take me a little while before I'm up to stage-performance level because some of the meds and treatments make me a lit bit swimmy headed, as my grandma used to say.”

“And of course, I can’t be dizzy carrying around banjos, guitars, and such on five-inch heels — and you know that I’m going to be wearing them,” she joked. “Not to mention, all those heavy rhinestone outfits, the big hair, my big … uh, personality. Lord, those — that would make anybody swimmy headed!”

She didn’t share too many details about her health but clarified that she’s always “had problems with my kidney stones,” and that her immune system and digestive system “got all out of whack over the past couple three years and they’re working real hard on rebuilding and strengthening those.”

She also clarified that her doctors have assured her “that everything I have is treatable, so I'm going with that.”

She said that she is still working on opening her museum and hotel in Nashville as well as her forthcoming Broadway musical, “Dolly: A True Original Musical,” opening in New York later this year.

Parton's previous health challenges

In September, Parton announced her first Las Vegas residency in 32 years was going to be postponed due to “health challenges.” She was scheduled to perform six shows at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace for “Dolly: Live in Las Vegas” in December, overlapping with the National Finals Rodeo. Her dates were moved to this September, before being canceled on Monday.

“Don’t worry about me quittin’ the business because God hasn’t said anything about stopping yet,” she said at the time of the postponement. “But I believe he is telling me to slow down right now so I can be ready for more big adventures with all of you.”

Last September, Parton also was unable to attend the announcement of a new ride at her Tennessee theme park Dollywood due to health issues. “I had a kidney stone that was causing me a lot of problems, turned out it’d given me an infection, and the doctor said, ‘You don’t need to be traveling right this minute, so you need a few days to get better,’” Parton said in a video announcement at the time.

The following month, Parton posted a video to social media joking that she “ain’t dead yet,” following public speculation about her health.

“There are just a lot of rumors flying around. But I figured if you heard it from me, you’d know that I was OK,” she said in a two-minute video posted on Instagram. “I’m not ready to die yet. I don’t think God is through with me. And I ain’t done working.”

Parton performs on occasion but hasn’t toured since her “Pure & Simple Tour” ended in 2016.

A representative directed The Associated Press' back to Parton's video message when asked for comment.

Detroit Tigers manager A.J. Hinch told reporters that the left-hander felt discomfort in his elbow on Sunday, less than a week after an injury scare against the Atlanta Braves. The 29-year-old — set to become a free agent next offseason — underwent tests that showed the loose bodies. The surgery hadn't yet been scheduled.

There is no immediate timetable for his return, though similar injuries usually require a two-to-three month recovery period. The phrase “loose bodies” often refers to pieces of bone or cartilage that break off and float in the joint space, though the specifics of Skubal's case are unclear.

“From my understanding, you just go take it out,” Skubal told MLB.com. “I think length of the rehab is probably just getting your spring training buildup up again, getting your volume up. But the procedure itself I think is pretty simple as far as what I’ve been explained.”

Skubal pitched for the U.S. in the World Baseball Classic this spring but was careful with his workload, throwing in just one game before returning to spring training with the Tigers. He won a record salary arbitration case in February and is being paid $32 million this season, far exceeding the team's $19 million offer.

Skubal has a 3-2 record with a 2.70 ERA over seven starts this season, striking out 45 over 43 1/3 innings. The Tigers are currently tied for first place in the AL Central with an 18-17 record.

Skubal initially felt pain in his elbow last week against the Braves but stayed in the game. He rubbed his left arm after a 2-2 pitch to Matt Olson, drawing a visit from the trainer and Hinch. Skubal threw one warmup pitch, decided he was OK and struck out the side to end his night.

He allowed five hits, fanned seven and didn’t walk anyone.

The two-time All-Star won the AL Cy Young award in each of the last two seasons. He had an 18-4 record with a 2.39 ERA and 228 strikeouts in 2024 and was 13-6 with a 2.21 ERA and 241 strikeouts last year.

He's also been effective in the postseason with a 2-1 record, 2.04 ERA and 56 strikeouts over six starts.

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

The draw ended a run of three consecutive wins for City and left it five points behind the London club.

City has a game in hand but the loss at Everton’s Hill Dickinson Stadium meant the title was now Arsenal’s to lose. The Gunners have three games to play.

“It’s painful now," Doku said. “There’s a lot of games to go, everything can happen. We lost two points today but we will keep on fighting.

“We know that one point can still be important in the end.”

City has four games left and knew it needed a win to keep the pressure on Mikel Arteta’s side. But although it dominated possession in the first half it struggled to create real chances and it wasn’t until the 42nd minute that Doku found space in a crowded penalty box to curl in a peach of a strike and break the deadlock.

Everton, though, came out a different side in the second half and struck three times in 13 minutes.

City defender Marc Guéhi’s short back pass was intercepted by substitute Thierno Barry, who slipped it past an incredulous Gianluigi Donnarumma.

Five minutes later, the City defense was all at sea again as Jake O’Brien rose at the near post to glance home a corner from James Garner.

Barry made it 3-1 in the 81st when a shot deflected into his path, giving him the simplest of finishes.

But just as City fans were beginning to stream out of the stadium, many returned when Erling Haaland stormed forward and clipped his 25th goal of the season over Jordan Pickford.

City threw everything forward and in the seventh minute of stoppage time Doku curled in a sublime strike with almost the last kick of the match.

It was a killer blow to Everton, which is still hopeful of securing a European place. A win would have lifted it within two points of seventh but instead it was 10th, tied on points with Fulham and Chelsea.

“We let ourselves down, we defended the second goal so poorly and that was the main reason (for the draw)," Everton coach David Moyes said.

“But at halftime we’d have taken this result because we were hugely outplayed in the first half. Getting a point against Manchester City’s not a bad result but when you’re 3-1 up, you’re thinking you’re in with a great chance of winning.”

Forest beats Chelsea

Earlier, Chelsea slumped to a sixth straight Premier League defeat and saw its Champions League qualification hopes virtually disappear after losing to Nottingham Forest 3-1.

Taiwo Awoniyi scored two either side of earning a penalty converted by fellow striker Igor Jesus, inspiring a heavily rotated Forest to the brink of safety. Forest was six points above the relegation zone with three rounds left.

Joao Pedro's overhead kick in second-half stoppage time ended Chelsea's scoreless run in the league stretching back almost two months but proved to be only a consolation.

On a humiliating day for the London club and interim coach Calum McFarlane, Cole Palmer had a penalty saved in a 14-minute period of first-half stoppage time — required after 18-year-old Chelsea winger Jesse Derry, making his first Premier League start, needed lengthy treatment following a clash of heads with Forest’s Zach Abbott at a corner.

Both had to leave the field, Derry on a stretcher as Stamford Bridge fell quiet and his teammates looked concerned.

Reaching the FA Cup final last week has failed to rouse Chelsea's players, who were booed by their own fans at halftime and fulltime, amid their dreadful run of form in the league that has plunged the team to ninth place and out of contention for a top-five finish.

Sixth place could yet earn qualification for the Champions League, but only in the specific scenario of Aston Villa — currently in fifth place — finishing in that position and also winning the Europa League. Chelsea is four points behind sixth-placed Bournemouth.

Villa is 1-0 down to Forest after the first leg of Europa League semifinals. The second leg is at Villa Park on Thursday, prompting Forest manager Vitor Pereira to field virtually a second-choice lineup that still had too much for Chelsea.

In-form playmaker Morgan Gibbs-White was one of Forest's top players starting on the bench. He came on, set up Awoniyi for the third goal in the 52nd minute, and then was forced off with a bandage around his head after a clash of heads with Chelsea goalkeeper Robert Sanchez, who also had to be substituted.

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

The Pulitzer board recognized AP journalists Dake Kang, Garance Burke, Byron Tau and Aniruddha Ghosal, along with contributor and independent journalist Yael Grauer, for what it called “an astonishing global investigation into state-of-the-art tools of mass surveillance” that also included a story about the expansion of license plate surveillance of drivers in United States by the U.S. Border Patrol.

AP Senior Vice President and Executive Editor Julie Pace said “this complex and difficult reporting, done by journalists across several continents, embodies the true spirit of the AP: leveraging our global footprint and deep expertise to tell important, impactful stories. It comes at a critical time when the immense and growing power of U.S. tech companies — and their increasingly complex relationship with governments — is in the spotlight and of immense public interest.”

The AP's investigation spanned three years, thousands of pages of documents and numerous interviews. It found that the foundations of the system used by the Chinese government to monitor and police its citizens over recent decades was laid down with the help of American companies. Some of the companies went so far as to use their tech's surveillance capabilities as a selling point.

“This was sweeping and deeply impactful reporting, the kind of work that highlights the unique strengths of AP’s global, multiformat newsroom,” Pace said in an email to staffers. She is among the Pulitzer Board’s new members.

Other stories included a look at how across presidential administrations, the U.S. government allowed tech companies and China to skirt regulations intended to bar that country from access to certain materials like advanced computer chips.

A piece looking at surveillance in the United States found that the Border Patrol was secretively using an intelligence program that used license plate information to track drivers' travel patterns, and not just for border crossings. Drivers whose patterns were deemed suspicious by an algorithm could then find themselves stopped and even arrested.

The AP highlighted the difficulty of undertaking the project, and said in its statement that journalists dealt with harassment and off-the-record pushes to keep the project from publishing.

The visually compelling project included multiple photographic and video elements, with notable contributions from AP photographer David Goldman and visual journalists Marshall Ritzel and Serginho Roosblad.

Other contributors included Michael Biesecker and Sam Mednick on a story that focused on how U.S. tech giants quietly empowered Israel to track and kill many more alleged militants more quickly in Gaza and Lebanon through a sharp spike in artificial intelligence and computing services. And it fueled fears that these tools contributed to the deaths of innocent people.

The center, which was once a juvenile residential correctional facility, has been transformed into a community-based space focused on education, job training, and personal development. Today, it offers a range of programs designed to help participants build a path forward, including one that’s turning heads for its unique approach: comedy.

Comedy Unlocked, led by comedian and educator Susanna Spies, uses stand-up comedy as a tool for confidence, healing, and real-life change. Through the program, participants learn how to turn their personal experiences into material, developing both communication skills and a stronger sense of self along the way.

Spies said her goal was to bring something meaningful to Houston that could support young people as they prepare to reenter the world.

The program is part of a broader vision at The Opportunity Center, led by executive director Henry Gonzales, to rethink how support is delivered to young people involved in the juvenile justice system. Instead of requiring them to live in a facility, the center allows participants to access education and services during the day while remaining connected to their communities.

That shift has helped change not only the structure of support but also the atmosphere. Programs like Comedy Unlocked give participants a chance to express themselves in new ways, often transforming hesitation into confidence.

For Chucky, a participant in the program, comedy became another creative outlet alongside music.

Like many first-time performers, stepping on stage came with nerves. But the experience of sharing his story in front of an audience helped him push past that fear and grow more comfortable in his own voice.

The six-week program guides participants through writing, refining and ultimately performing their own stand-up routines in a live showcase.

To support the documentary, organizers are hosting a live comedy fundraiser, “Laugh for a Cause,” on Wednesday at The Secret Group in Houston. The event will feature local comedians and raise funds to continue production of the film.

But here’s what might surprise you—her journey to the kitchen didn’t start in a restaurant at all. Casares actually began her career in food science, giving her a unique understanding of ingredients, flavor profiles, and the “why” behind what makes food taste so good. It’s a background that’s helped shape not just her menu, but the consistency and creativity that keep customers coming back.

Of course, at the heart of it all are her Mexican-American roots and the family traditions that inspired everything she does. From recipes passed down through generations to the importance of gathering around the table, Casares has turned those personal touches into a dining experience that feels both authentic and welcoming.

Sylvia currently has two Sylvia’s Enchilada Kitchen restaurant locations in Houston, one in the Woodway / Galleria area and the other in the Energy Corridor on Eldridge Parkway

Watch as Derrick Shore and Lauren Kelly catch up with Sylvia all about her journey, her heritage, and the flavors that continue to define her restaurants.

In a statement that ran as the newspaper’s front page on Sunday, the board of directors said that the affected members first learned they had been stripped of their visas to enter the U.S. from reports in pro-government media.

La Nación has long been a thorn in the side of outgoing Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves, a close ally of U.S. President Donald Trump who has agreed to accept up to 100 third-country deportees a month as part of the Trump administration's efforts to ramp up deportations.

The newspaper, which Chaves has berated since it published allegations of sexual harassment during his 2022 presidential campaign, said that the U.S. gave no reason for the visa revocations.

The U.S. State Department did not respond to a request for comment.

“We fully recognize that the United States, like any sovereign state, has the power to determine the terms of entry into its territory,” La Nación said. “However, it is unprecedented in Costa Rica’s recent history for visas to be revoked from members of the board of a general-interest and independent newspaper.”

The move appeared to mark the latest instance of the Trump administration deploying immigration restrictions to punish its political foes, and prompted sharp criticism from political opposition and press freedom organizations in Costa Rica, which demanded that Costa Rican and U.S. authorities provide an explanation for what happened.

“If this decision is based on their critical stance toward this government, it would be yet another troubling signal for our democratic system," the organizations said in a statement, adding that failing to provide transparent information would “constitute an unacceptable form of complicity.”

Mauricio Herrera, journalist and former Costa Rican communications minister from 2015 to 2018, went a step further, saying “there is no doubt that the cancellation of visas for its board of directors is in response to a request from the Costa Rican government.”

"The sanction seeks to intimidate those who dare to dissent and exercise their freedom of expression,” Herrera told The Associated Press.

A string of high-profile individuals have had their visas canceled in Costa Rica, where the aggressive governing style of conservative President Chaves has drawn criticism for eroding democratic norms.

Last year, the U.S. revoked the visa of Nobel laureate and former Costa Rican President Óscar Arias, an outspoken critic of President Trump, as well as that of his brother, then-legislative president Rodrigo Arias, who said he believed the U.S. decision was made at the request of Chaves.

Opposition lawmakers — like Francisco Nicolás from the centrist National Liberation Party and independent Cynthia Córdoba, both known for their vocal criticism of Chaves — also had their U.S. visas canceled in recent months, as did Constitutional Court Judge Fernando Cruz, an advocate for migrant rights who last month found himself unable to travel to the U.S. to receive an award from Northwestern Law School.

Chaves, who has cooperated extensively with the Trump administration to receive deportees from other countries and extradite suspected drug traffickers to the U.S., will leave office on Friday and hand over power to his successor, President-elect Laura Fernández.

___

Associated Press writer Isabel Debre in Buenos Aires, Argentina contributed.

___

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

Brockman, who also said he did not personally invest any money in OpenAI, was testifying Monday in the trial that centers on the company's 2015 founding as a nonprofit startup primarily funded by Elon Musk before evolving into a capitalistic venture now valued at $852 billion.

Brockman's disclosure would put him on the Forbes list of the world's richest people, with wealth comparable to Melinda French Gates.

The civil lawsuit accuses Altman and Brockman of double-crossing Musk by straying from the San Francisco company’s founding mission to be an altruistic steward of a revolutionary technology. The lawsuit alleges they shifted into a moneymaking mode behind Musk's back.

Late Sunday, OpenAI lawyers tried to admit as evidence a text message Musk sent to Brockman two days before the trial began. According to a court filing — which did not include the actual text exchange — Musk sent a message to Brockman to gauge interest in settlement.

When Brockman replied that both sides should drop their respective claims, Musk shot back, according to the filing, “By the end of this week, you and Sam will be the most hated men in America. If you insist, so it will be."

Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, who is overseeing the trial, did not admit the text exchange as evidence.

Watching 14-year-old Adrian Peterson Jr., excel as a versatile football player and record-setting track and field sprinter, is reminiscent of his father: retired NFL Most Valuable player and Hall of Fame candidate Adrian Peterson, one of the greatest running backs in pro football history.

Peterson Jr. is already paving his own unique pathway as a precocious and humble Billy Baines Middle School student-athlete with rare speed and emerging moves.

His next stop: Ridge Point High School as a freshman next fall. He is already earning football scholarship offers from Baylor and Missouri State and shapes up as a future blue-chip recruit with the fast track that he’s establishing.

“I train hard, I’ve always worked hard, I got that from my dad,” Peterson Jr. told KPRC 2. “The work ethic I’ve put in, everything that I’ve done overall my whole life, I’ve always known what to do, just pushing through. I feel like that’s mindset towards a sport I love. That’s really helped me a lot throughout this journey.

“I’ve just stayed and strong and believed in God. The best advice my dad has ever gave me is just to stay focused. Don’t let any distraction throw you off track and just stay focused on the goal, work hard every day to get better. Just work super hard.”

Adrian Peterson Jr. @adrianpetersonj a 14-year-old 6-1, 170-pound star athlete at Billy Baines Middle School, is the son of retired #Vikings All-Pro and #NFL Offensive Player of the Year runner Adrian Peterson @AdrianPeterson@KPRC2
#texashsfootball https://t.co/jHdHhcijs9 pic.twitter.com/7x1ch03CbG

— Aaron Wilson (@AaronWilson_NFL) May 4, 2026

A 6-foot-1, 170-pound wide receiver, running back and defensive back, Peterson Jr. is impressive in all facets of football. His routes are pinpoint and explosive. His acceleration is unique. His ability to track the football is uncommon. He’s an elusive touchdown machine with great vision for the end zone.

Of course, it helps to have incredible bloodlines.

Adrian Peterson ranks fifth all-time in NFL history with 14,918 rushing yards. Only Emmitt Smith, Walter Payton, Frank Gore and Barry Sanders rushed for more yards than Peterson.

Yes, Peterson Jr. studies old videos of his famous dad’s football exploits.

“I definitely like to see how he moves,” Peterson Jr. said. “He just ran so aggressive and just ran over defenders all the time. I really look at it and just try to make it into my own game and just play like how he plays.

Up next, and right now: Adrian Peterson Jr. @adrianpetersonj a record-smashing middle school phenom in football, track and field and baseball, a 4.0 grade point average scholar-athlete and incoming Ridge Point player who excels at receiver, running back and in the secondary and… pic.twitter.com/VAvrFqqCiT

— Aaron Wilson (@AaronWilson_NFL) May 4, 2026

“I definitely just take away like the way he plays, his mindset towards the game. I really just want to be able to use everything that I’ve learned from him and learned by myself and just put it all together to be the best possible player I can be.”

Now, Adrian Peterson Jr. is up next and making his own way as an young athlete with vast potential.

“He’s really good when it comes to running his routes,” Peterson said. “I was full-speed, so I always tell him and I’m not the receiver, but the people he works with in training to come to that position and be fast and be aggressive.”

The extremely proud parents of @adrianpetersonj Adrian Peterson @AdrianPeterson and Ashley Peterson @KPRC2 @RPHS_FB @Vikings @NFL https://t.co/g7jJEDpYDl pic.twitter.com/As01pbL6NE

— Aaron Wilson (@AaronWilson_NFL) May 4, 2026

Oklahoma, his father’s alma mater, Texas, Texas A&M, LSU and several other top programs are all expected to pursue Peterson Jr. Of course, there’s plenty of time for these pivotal decisions. After all, Peterson Jr is in the Class of 2030.

“I told him, ‘Man, I wasn’t getting scholarship offers in eighth grade and I didn’t get my first one until my sophomore year,’” said Peterson, who played at Palestine High School where he was the U.S. Army National Player of the Year and rushed for 2,960 yards and and 32 touchdowns as a senior and chose Oklahoma over Texas, Texas A&M, UCLA, Arkansas and Miami. “I told him, ‘You’ve got a lot of time ahead, so just enjoy the process and embrace it. God has blessed you, but just continue to remember you’ve got a lot of work ahead of you. So, continue to improve and enjoy it all.’”

Former #Vikings RB Adrian Peterson’s son, Adrian Jr, is going to be a PROBLEM in the future. Class of 2030 👀

🎥: shotsbytaileevia IG, @adrianpetersonj pic.twitter.com/QUtrS3zYom

— VikingzFanPage (@vikingzfanpage) March 23, 2026

When it comes to recruiting, the family will have a process for handling the attention and processing all of the information and suitors.

Yes, the Sooners will have a great shot at landing Peterson Jr.

“Yes sir, Oklahoma is definitely one of my favorite colleges,” Peterson Jr. said. “For sure.”

Is his father pushing for the Sooners?

“Not really,” Peterson Jr. said. “He doesn’t really care. It’s mostly about where I want to go and where I feel like the coaching staff is the best and who I have a relationship with the most. Things can change from now until then anyway.”

First, Peterson had to choose a high school football program.

He isn’t going far. He’ll be in Missouri City.

“I’ll be going to Ridge Point for high school,” Peterson Jr. said. “Just all the good coaches, I know they really make me a better player. I know they really care about academics over there, so it’s gonna really help me overall. I know a lot of the coaches, we’ve talked about it, and just the way they developed the players was really big in my decision.

“I’m really just super happy that my work is all paying off. I work super hard. Just to know that the colleges believe in me, all the coaches, I’m just super happy that they believe in me and think I can make it to the next level.”

In track and field, Peterson Jr. broke the Baines school record with a 10.7 time in the 100 meters and the school record in the 200 meters with 22.07 clocking. And he was part of a 100-meter relay team that broke the district record with a cumulative time of 43.82 seconds for gold medals in all three events.

“I take track really serious,” Peterson Jr. said. “That’s why I’ve been running with it. It just really helps you with everything and it translates to football, so I’m definitely going to be doing track in high school. That’s definitely the route I’m going to take.

“I definitely like football more, but I also like track because of the benefits that come with it. Even though I like football, I still take track just as serious because of what comes with it. And I’m good at it, so that’s why I take it so serious.”

Adrian Peterson Jr. can now beat his famous father in a race.

“It’s actually really cool knowing because I remember when I was younger I used to think about beating my dad in a race and I can now, so it’s actually really cool,” Peterson Jr. said. “I’ve trained super hard to get to where I am. I just believe in the journey and I believe in God.”

Peterson Jr. also has a perfect report card with a 4.0 grade point average.

Academics are constantly stressed as taking precedence over sports by his parents: Adrian and Ashley Peterson.

“I’m really happy that he’s been watching us and looking at the work ethic of myself and his father and taking that and running with it,” said Ashley Peterson, a successful realtor. “I know he’s learned so much and I just feel like he’ll be 10 times better than either one of us ever were.

“I appreciate that he’s paying attention and really picking up on the nuggets along the way. I’m just so happy to see who he’s grown into and I’m happy to see that everything that we’re trying to put into him is paying off and it’s sticking.”

Studying and homework comes first in the Peterson household.

“I really take grades serious now that I understand the importance of grades and sports and how that really contributes to the colleges looking at you,” Peterson Jr. said. “The coaches want to know they have a student-athlete, so I take it serious.”

In finals today I was able to break the School record in the 100 with a 10.7 and also break the school record in the 200 with a 22.07 . Me and my 4x1 team also broke the district record with a 43.82 came home with all gold ! @RPHS_FB @CoachSethHarris @Coach_LaFavers pic.twitter.com/KtXdCpVieO

— Adrian peterson jr (@adrianpetersonj) March 13, 2026

Peterson was an NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year, an NFL Offensive Player of the Year, a four-time first-team All-Pro and three-time second-team All-Pro, a seven-time Pro Bowl selection and three-time NFL rushing champion. He is eligible for a first-ballot induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame next year.

Peterson Jr. has been playing a lot of wide receiver, though, in addition to running the football out of the backfield.

“I like wide receiver a lot because I like to run routes, get open and I like catching the ball,” Peterson Jr. said. “I also like running back because you don’t really have to so much depend on a quarterback. You can really just make your own plays. You don’t have to worry about getting the route, getting the ball. You just get the ball and you just go.

“Defensive-wise, I like defensive back. I work on it a lot. I feel like if you are a wide receiver and you also play defensive back, it really helps a lot with both positions. Playing both, you get an understanding of both positions so you know what to do.”

Peterson Jr. loves watching Vikings wide receiver Justin Jefferson and Los Angeles Rams wide receiver Davante Adams and Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase.

“I watch them and I see what they do and then I come out here and practice as well,” Peterson Jr. said. “A lot of what I do is look at film from different NFL players. I look at Justin Jefferson’s routes, Davante Adams’ releases are really good.”

Peterson has several hobbies he enjoys when he’s not playing sports or doing his homework.

There are game nights with the family. He loves to go fishing and ride his scooter.

He has a green thumb in the family garden, growing everything from tomatoes, lettuce, cucumbers and watermelons. And the seeds that he’s planting and their growth runs akin to the way he’s sprouting into an accomplished young athlete, and the deep football roots of his father.

“I know how to do it,” Peterson Jr. said. “I get it from my mom.”

Aaron Wilson is a Texans and NFL reporter for KPRC 2 and click2houston.com

State Farm violated the law hundreds of times in a sampling of 220 cases, Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara said. The maximum penalty amount allowed by law would be around $4 million if State Farm is found to be “willful” in violating state law. Regulators may also temporarily suspend the company's license, effectively prohibiting the state's largest home insurer from writing new policies for a year in California.

The two fires were devastating — they led to the deaths of 31 people and destroyed more than 16,000 structures.

State Farm said in a statement it rejected any suggestions it “engaged in a general practice of mishandling or intentionally underpaying wildfire claims" and called the state's insurance market “dysfunctional.” The company said it has paid out more than $5.7 billion on 13,700 auto and home insurance claims related to the fires.

“The threat to suspend State Farm General’s ability to serve customers over primarily administrative and procedural errors is a reckless, politically motivated attack that could ultimately cripple California’s homeowners insurance market," the statement said.

The legal action comes as California struggles with an ongoing insurance crisis, where companies are boosting rates, limiting coverage or pulling out completely from regions susceptible to wildfires and other natural disasters. In 2023, several major insurance companies, including State Farm, either paused or restricted new coverage in the state. They said they can’t truly price the risk on properties as wildfires become more common and destructive due to climate change.

The state now gives insurers more latitude to raise premiums in exchange for issuing more policies in high-risk areas. That includes regulations allowing insurers to consider climate change when setting their prices and allowing them to pass on the costs of reinsurance to California consumers.

Lara last year also approved State Farm's request to raise premiums by 17% for homeowners to help the company avoid a financial crisis after the LA fires. State Farm also agreed to not cancel any new polices this year in an agreement with the department and a consumer group in March.

Lara launched the investigation last June after survivors of the Palisades and Eaton fires said that State Farm was delaying and mishandling claims regarding damage to their homes and possible contamination from smoke.

“Our investigation found that State Farm delayed, underpaid, and buried policyholders in red tape at the worst moment of their lives. That is unacceptable, and we are taking decisive action to hold them accountable,” Lara said in a statement.

The department looked at 220 random claims filed to State Farm and found roughly 400 violations. They included underpayment and slow or inadequate claim processing. State Farm handled about one third of all residential claims filed after the fires, state officials said. The department said thousands of people might be affected by the unlawful behaviors.

In one case, State Farm waited nearly three months before starting to investigate a claim, according to the state. In another, the company delayed paying a customer for months while internally acknowledging the payment should have been approved. The company also caused confusion for a customer after assigning a dozen claim adjusters to the case within four months.

State Farm also illegally denied payments for hygienic testing for toxins in smoke damage claims, the legal filings said.

State Farm is the second insurer to face legal actions from the state over its handling of LA fire claims. The department is also seeking remedies against the FAIR Plan for denying smoke damage claims. The plan is an insurance pool that all the major private insurers pay into, and the plan then issues policies to people who can’t get private insurance because their properties are deemed too risky to insure.

The capital club moved into fifth place, just one point behind Juventus.

Gianluca Mancini headed home the opener from a corner kick after 13 minutes and Wesley added a second five minutes later to put Gian Piero Gasperini’s side in the driving seat.

Mario Hermoso added the third after great set up work by Manu Kone, and Niccolò Pisilli completed the scoring early in the second half.

It was the first league defeat for Fiorentina in eight games. La Viola still need a point to guarantee their Serie A survival and remain in 16th, nine points clear of the relegation zone.

Lazio beats Cremonese

Cremonese relinquished a first-half lead in losing at home to Lazio 2-1, missing a chance to grab crucial points in its fight to avoid relegation.

Cremonese has won only one of its last 21 league matches. It remained third from bottom, four points adrift of safe and 17th-placed Lecce with three games to play.

The home side took the lead in the first half when Federico Bonazzoli’s left-foot shot squirmed under the body of Lazio goalkeeper Edoardo Motta.

Gustav Isaksen brought Lazio level in the second half, and Tijjani Noslin curled in the winner two minutes into stoppage time.

Jamies Vardy made a substitute appearance for Cremonese after missing four games with a muscle strain but he made no difference.

Lazio moved into eighth, two points above Bologna and Sassuolo.

___

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

The S&P 500 sank 0.4%, coming off its latest all-time high. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 557 points, or 1.1%, and the Nasdaq composite slipped 0.2%.

The action was stronger in the oil market, where the price for a barrel of Brent crude leaped 5.8% to settle at $114.44. It jolted higher after the United Arab Emirates, a U.S. ally, said it came under attack by Iran for the first time since the ceasefire took hold in early April. The attacks appeared to be in response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s latest efforts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran’s closure of the strait has kept oil tankers pent up in the Persian Gulf and away from customers worldwide. That in turn has sent the price of Brent soaring from roughly $70 per barrel before the war.

Trump said Sunday that the United States would guide ships through the strait, which could get oil flowing again and bring down its price. But prices instead climbed with uncertainty about what would happen next.

The U.S. military said Monday that two American-flagged merchant ships had successfully transited the Strait of Hormuz. It also said that it sank six small boats as it set up an “enhanced security area” for ships crossing the strait.

Even with all the uncertainty about how long the war with Iran will last, the U.S. stock market has remained remarkably resilient and has powered to record after record. Hope is still high on Wall Street that the global economy can avoid a worst-case scenario because of the war. And in the meantime, companies continue to deliver big growth in profits. That’s key because stock prices tend to follow the path of corporate profits over the long term.

The strength so far this reporting season has been broad-based and not confined to just the Big Tech superstars that dominate the market. The median stock in the S&P 500 is tracking for the best growth since 2021, according to Savita Subramanian, a strategist at Bank of America.

Tyson Foods joined the list Monday of those topping analysts’ expectations for both profit and revenue during the latest quarter.

It sold less beef than it did a year ago, but it did so at prices that were 11.5% higher, so its total beef revenue edged up. It also sold more chicken and pork than a year earlier, at slightly higher prices. Its stock rose 8% and helped limit Wall Street’s losses.

Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings likewise delivered a better profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. But it’s feeling the effects of the war, which has not only raised pressure on fuel prices but also pushed customers to think twice about travel plans, particularly to Europe.

The cruise operator said some “execution missteps” also have bookings below where it would like, and its stock fell 8.6%.

UPS and FedEx dropped even more for some of the market’s sharpest losses after Amazon announced a move that could cut into their businesses. The online giant said it’s begun allowing Procter & Gamble, 3M and other big companies to use its logistics services to move inventory, fulfill orders and deliver packages directly to shoppers.

UPS dropped 10.5%, and FedEx fell 9.1%, while Amazon rose 1.4%.

GameStop slumped after it said it wants to buy eBay, a much larger company, for $125 per share in cash and stock. Coming into the day, eBay had a total market value that was nearly quadruple GameStop’s.

GameStop said it has already built a 5% stake in eBay and sees opportunities to cut $2 billion in annual costs quickly. GameStop, whose stock briefly soared to market-shaking heights during the meme stock craze of 2021, fell 10.1%, while eBay rose 5.1%.

All told, the S&P 500 fell 29.37 points to 7,200.75. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 557.37 to 48,941.90, and the Nasdaq composite slipped 46.64 to 25,067.80.

In stock markets abroad, gains for tech stocks helped indexes jump 5.1% in South Korea and 1.2% in Hong Kong, while markets were closed in mainland China and Japan for holidays.

European indexes fared worse, and France’s CAC 40 fell 1.7%.

In the bond market, Treasury yield jumped with the price of oil. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.43% from 4.39% late Friday. It was at just 3.97% before the war began, and the rise has made mortgages and other kinds of loans for U.S. households and businesses more expensive.

___

AP Business Writers Matt Ott, Anne D’Innocenzio and Elaine Kurtenbach contributed.

Mayor John Whitmire announced Monday that country music star Keith Urban will headline this year’s Fourth of July celebration.

He’ll be joined by rock favorites Collective Soul and Texas trio Los Lonely Boys.

The event returns July 4 to Eleanor Tinsley Park along Buffalo Bayou, bringing a full day of live music, family-friendly entertainment, and a major fireworks finale.

“Freedom Over Texas is one of Houston’s most exciting traditions, and this year, we’re making it bigger and better,” Whitmire said. “As we mark America’s 250th anniversary, this event is more than a celebration — it reflects the spirit, unity, and pride of our community.”

In addition to the headline performances, organizers are expanding the festival experience with new attractions.

Among them is Futbol Park, a soccer-themed activation at Sam Houston Park featuring games, watch areas, food vendors, and interactive activities as the city prepares to host major international matches.

Festivalgoers can also expect the return of popular themed areas, including the Bud Zone, Dr Pepper Flavor Zone, All American Kid Zone, and Liberty Park — which will honor members of the military and first responders.

Following the concerts, the night will close with a large-scale fireworks show presented by Thomas J. Henry Law.

Admission is $15, while children 12 and under get in free.

Organizers are encouraging attendees to use public transit, including services from METRO, to help ease congestion during the holiday.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in response said his country would observe a truce beginning at 12 a.m. on Wednesday and respond in kind to Russia's actions from that moment on. He did not put an end date on the truce.

The announcements on Monday come as Russia prepares to celebrate its most important secular holiday with a traditional military parade on Moscow's Red Square pared down due to what officials say are concerns over possible Ukrainian attacks. Ukraine has been launching drone attacks deep inside Russia to counter its more than 4-year-old invasion.

They also follow a familiar pattern of previous attempts to secure ceasefires — most recently around Orthodox Easter — that had little to no impact.

The Defense Ministry said if Ukraine attempts to disrupt Saturday's celebrations, Russia will carry out a “massive missile strike on the center of Kyiv.” It warned the civilian population there and employees of foreign diplomatic missions of "the need to leave the city promptly.”

Zelenskyy responded by saying that while Kyiv has not received any official requests for a truce, in the time left until midnight on Wednesday “it is realistic to ensure” that a ceasefire takes effect. He urged the Kremlin “to take real steps to end their war, especially since Russia’s Defense Ministry believes it cannot hold a parade in Moscow without Ukraine’s goodwill.”

For years, the Kremlin has used the pomp-filled Victory Day parade to showcase its military might and global clout, and it has been a source of patriotic pride.

But this year, the parade in the Russian capital will take place without tanks, missiles and other military equipment for the first time in nearly two decades. Some of the smaller parades that are held elsewhere across the country have also been pared down or even canceled for security reasons.

Speaking at a summit with European leaders in Armenia on Monday, Zelenskyy said that the Russian authorities “fear drones may buzz over Red Square” on May 9. “This is telling. It shows they are not strong now, so we must keep up the pressure through sanctions on them,” he said.

World War II remains a rare point of consensus in Russia's divisive history under Communist rule. The Soviet Union lost 27 million people in what it called the Great Patriotic War in 1941-45, an enormous sacrifice that left a deep scar in the national psyche.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has ruled Russia for over 25 years, has turned Victory Day into a key pillar of his tenure and has tried to use it to justify the war in Ukraine.

Last year’s parade on the 80th anniversary drew the most global leaders to Moscow in a decade, including high-profile guests like Chinese President Xi Jinping, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico.

Fico will attend the parade this year, as well.

Putin had declared a unilateral 72-hour ceasefire starting May 7, 2025, and authorities blocked cellphone internet in Moscow for several days to avert Ukrainian drone attacks.

Last week, Putin floated the idea of a ceasefire for Victory Day this year, too, in a phone conversation with U.S. President Donald Trump.

Russian media reported Monday that the country's cellphone operators have begun to warn their customers of cellphone internet restrictions in Moscow and St. Petersburg in the coming days.

Tonight we are mild, muggy, buggy and cloudy. Temperatures will struggle to drop below the 70s with overnight lows in the upper-60s.

Tuesday’s Forecast:

Tuesday will be warm and humid. Winds are from the south at 10-15mph which will increase the moisture content in the air. Because of this, the mid-80s will feel more like the lower-90s.

Mid-Week Cold Front:

A mid-week cold front will bring another chance for rain Wednesday night through Friday. Depending on how fast or slow the front moves, we determine how much rain Houston can pick up. The highest chance for rainfall will be on Thursday.

There is now a risk of strong to severe thunderstorms developing on Wednesday night as the front moves into southeast Texas. The threat is highest north and east of Houston.

10 Day Forecast:

Even though we are tracking a late week cold front, it will not impact or temperatures dramatically like last weekend. We will still likely see highs in the lower-80s this weekend.

Have you captured a dramatic rain photo or video? Share your weather moments with the KPRC 2 community through Click2Pins at Click2Houston.com/pins.

Colin Angle unveiled a four-legged prototype of that artificial pet, called the Familiar, on Monday. Imagine a creature the size of a bulldog with doe-like eyes and bear cub ears and paws, extending itself into a greeting stretch that invites you to pat its touch-sensitive fake fur.

“We chose a form factor that’s not a human, not a dog, not a cat, because we wanted to steer away from all of those preconceptions,” said Angle, who leads the startup Familiar Machines & Magic and before that was longtime CEO of Roomba maker iRobot.

This kind of lifelike machine — powered by the latest artificial intelligence technology — would not have been possible when Angle co-founded iRobot in 1990 or launched the first Roomba in 2002.

It's hardly the first effort to build a pet-like household robot. Japanese electronics giant Sony, for one, famously introduced a small plastic robotic dog called Aibo in the late 1990s and rebooted the concept in 2018. But Angle believes the Familiar achieves something that “simply hasn’t existed before.”

“The challenge is to make something that’s not a watch-me toy,” Angle said in an interview with The Associated Press. “This is about having something that you want to hug, you want to pet. When it’s happy, that makes you happy. And it is large enough or mobile enough to follow you to the kitchen or drag you off the couch and take a walk.”

Angle said the robot will make emotive, animal-like sounds but won’t talk. But, mimicking a real pet, it has audio input “ears” and an AI system that can understand and learn from what you say to it. It benefits from the advances in generative AI sparked by chatbots like ChatGPT and can gradually adapt its behavior as it learns from the people around it.

“I couldn’t have done this six months ago,” Angle said.

Angle led iRobot for a quarter century as it turned Roomba into the first widely adopted home robot. Intense competition, especially from China, later threatened its success. Angle stepped down as CEO and chairman in 2024 after Amazon dropped its plan to buy the struggling Massachusetts company.

Familiar Machines was born soon after and remained in “stealth” mode in Woburn, Massachusetts until Monday, when Angle brought one of his Familiar prototypes to New York for The Wall Street Journal's Future of Everything conference.

It could take a while before Angle starts selling the machines, but one target demographic is retired people who are past the peak age of pet ownership.

“Not because people suddenly stop enjoying pets, but the fear and obligation of caring for them are such that people are very reluctant to get new pets at older ages,” Angle said.

While most robot engineers take inspiration from science fiction, the idea of a familiar has deep roots in folklore, from a witch's cat and wizard's owl to the animal companions in Philip Pullman's “His Dark Materials” fantasy novels.

“It’s an archaic, ancient word,” Angle said. To his surprise, he could also trademark it.

Angle has pulled together a number of prominent robotics advisers, including Marc Raibert, a pioneer of robot locomotion who founded Boston Dynamics, maker of the four-legged Spot robot; and Cynthia Breazeal, who invented the robot head Kismet and later the tabletop speaker robot Jibo, early attempts at imbuing robots with social expressions.

Many researched together at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and share skepticism for the current fad of sleek humanoid robots that are designed to walk and move around like people but can't yet do much useful physical work.

One of those advisers is Maja Matarić, a computer science professor at the University of Southern California who 25 years ago co-founded the field of socially assistive robotics — with the aim of designing robots that could give people social and emotional support.

When she first saw Angle's prototype, she said she “immediately got down on the ground near it and had to hug it and pet it, then started to play with it to see what it would do.”

That people perceive the robot as adorable and not creepy will be key. Matarić said decades of research into human-robot interactions have shown that a robot that is “cute, personalized and vulnerable is much more appealing and lovable than the alternative.” It could be particularly useful in nursing homes or providing emotional support for mental health, she said.

Matarić said AI advances have also made it easier to broaden the impact to the general population.

“Before generative AI, robots could not readily understand what people were saying,” she said.

The call letters from the fictional radio station featured in a CBS sitcom were adopted by a trio of real “adult hits” stations in time for Monday's morning drive, and co-owner Jeff Ziesmann described listeners as “stoked.”

“Our phones have been mobbed this morning, as I'm sure you can imagine,” Ziesmann said.

Three stations in Cincinnati, northern Kentucky and Dayton, Ohio, simulcast the station's programming and listeners are now hearing them all identified as WKRP. They will continue to follow the format — music from the ‘60s to the ’80s, with an emphasis on the 1970s — they’ve had under “The Oasis” brand.

The owners obtained the call letters by making a donation to a North Carolina nonprofit whose low-power radio station had them since 2014. Ziesmann said a full-power station like his can use the same call letters because WKRP-LP in Raleigh is considered a separate class of station under federal regulations.

He said the nonprofit donation wasn't a direct purchase of the call letters — it was a purchase of the right to apply to the Federal Communications Commission for the call letters with the North Carolina group's cooperation.

The show “WKRP in Cincinnati” ran from 1978 to 1982 and starred Loni Anderson, Howard Hesseman, Tim Reid and Richard Sanders as bumbling newsman Les Nessman.

Sanders provided a very Nessman-like comment by email, with the actor saying: “I have spoken with Les Nessman regarding the resurrection of WKRP in Cincinnati. After the failure of his dream to replace Walter Cronkite on the CBS evening news, he is hopeful that he can resume his duties as the News, Sports, Weather, Traffic, and Farm Report Director at WKRP.”

“I think we can all hope that WKRP will return to the airwaves with more music and Les Nessman," Sanders said, echoing a running joke on the comedy series.

The order signed by Justice Samuel Alito temporarily allows women seeking abortions to obtain the pill at pharmacies or through the mail, without an in-person visit to a doctor.

Those practices had been permitted for several years until a federal appeals court imposed new restrictions last week.

The latest order will remain in effect for another week while both sides respond and the high court considers the issue more fully.

Most abortions use pills rather than procedures

The majority of abortions in the U.S. are obtained through medications. Some Democratic-led states have laws that seek to give legal protection to those who prescribe the drugs via telehealth to patients in states with bans.

Those prescriptions have blunted the impact of abortion bans that most Republican-led states have sought to enforce since the 2022 Supreme Court ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade. One recent report suggested that in the 13 states where abortion is banned at all stages of pregnancy, more women obtained abortions with pills prescribed by telehealth last year than by traveling to other states.

Louisiana sued to roll back the Food and Drug Administration's rules on how mifepristone can be prescribed, asserting that the policy undermines the ban there. The case also questioned the safety of the drug, which was approved 25 years ago and has repeatedly been deemed safe and effective by FDA scientists.

That lawsuit is the furthest along of several efforts by abortion opponents to curtail access to mifepristone.

Restrictions would not end telehealth abortions

Mifepristone is usually taken with a second drug, misoprostol, for abortions. According to the FDA label on mifepristone, the combination completes medical abortion 97.4% of the time.

Misoprostol can also be used alone for terminating pregnancies, with some studies putting its effectiveness at around 80% or higher.

In countries where mifepristone is banned or unavailable, misoprostol is frequently used alone.

Unlike mifepristone, misoprostol has never been formally approved by the FDA for abortion. The drug is most commonly used to treat stomach ulcers, but it has been adapted by doctors for use in medication abortions. Because the FDA never cleared the drug for ending pregnancies, it has faced far less scrutiny from anti-abortion groups.

Several groups that prescribe abortion bills by telehealth made the switch over the weekend to misoprostol only, a regimen that can cause longer-lasting side effects.

Dr. Angel Foster, founder of The Massachusetts Abortion Access Project, said her organization was prepared to send misoprostol only on Monday afternoon but was able to switch back to the two-drug combination.

“Regardless of what happens with this regulatory issue, we and other groups will continue to provide high-quality abortion care to patients in all 50 states,” she said.

Rapid rulings have created confusion

Foster said her organization spent the weekend guiding different groups of patients: those who were sent mifepristone but had not received it yet; those who had been approved for the drugs but had not paid or been sent them; and those who reached out with initial requests.

For now, she said, they are asking patients to approve being sent pills with or without mifepristone — in case of another change.

Monday's ruling offers more time to figure out a course of action in case mifepristone prescriptions are curtailed again.

“We have a little bit more time to navigate this new landscape with the stay,” said Julie Burkhart, the founder of Wellspring Health Access, a Wyoming abortion clinic that provides roughly 100 abortions a year through pills prescribed by telehealth.

Elizabeth Ling, associate director of legal services at If/When/How, which provides legal guidance for people considering abortion, said that wherever the legal battle goes next, there’s one thing women need to understand: “The outcome is not going to make it a crime for people to access care.”

None of the state laws currently include any punishment for women who obtain abortions.

The court fight continues

Anti-abortion groups vowed to continue the legal battle.

Monday's ruling “is a temporary procedural step that leaves unresolved the very real concerns about the safety of these drugs and the decision under the Biden administration’s FDA to recklessly remove longstanding safeguards," Carol Tobias, president of National Right to Life, said in a statement.

Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill, who filed the lawsuit against the FDA along with a woman who says her boyfriend coerced her into taking abortion pills to end a pregnancy, criticized drug companies for their role in the case.

“Big abortion pharma claims they need an emergency stay because they will lose massive amounts of money if they can’t kill more babies quickly and efficiently by mail without medical oversight," Murrill said in a statement. "The administrative stay is temporary, and I am confident life and the law will win in the end.”

___

Mulvihill reported from Haddonfield, New Jersey. Associated Press Writer Matthew Perrone contributed to this article.

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A previous version of this story had a typo in a quote from Dr. Angel Foster.

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

Parag Amin, a business attorney and analyst with the Law Offices of Parag L. Amin, said prices on former Spirit routes are up about 14% on average in the days following the airline’s shutdown.

“Unfortunately, the answer is probably,” Amin said when asked whether travelers should expect higher prices.

• Spirit Airlines shuts down: What passengers can do about refunds — and what workers should know next

Spirit Airlines ceased operations over the weekend after filing for bankruptcy twice in the past two years. The airline built its business model around offering the lowest fares in the market, often undercutting major carriers.

That pricing strategy created what analysts refer to as the “Spirit effect” — downward pressure on ticket prices across competing airlines.

“Spirit was an ultra low-cost carrier, so they always competed on price,” Amin said. “All of the carriers are, to some extent, in competition with each other.”

When Spirit operated on a route, larger airlines often lowered fares to remain competitive and attract price-sensitive travelers, he said.

• Spirit Airlines built a model the industry copied. Then it collapsed

Now, with that low-cost competitor gone, airlines have more flexibility to raise prices.

“They’re looking at it and seeing it as an opportunity to be able to raise their prices,” Amin said.

The increase is already being seen on routes Spirit frequently served, including popular leisure destinations. Families planning summer travel could feel the impact most.

“They’re likely to see higher prices,” Amin said, citing both the loss of low-cost competition and the seasonal demand as summer approaches.

Booking closer to travel dates typically results in higher fares, creating what Amin described as a “double whammy” for consumers.

Federal court filings previously showed Spirit marketed fares roughly 30% lower than competitors on some routes, forcing other airlines to adjust pricing.

• Spirit Airlines shutdown: What to do to get home and get refunds

While airlines cannot legally coordinate prices, Amin said they can independently respond to market conditions and competitors’ pricing.

Industry factors, including fuel costs, could also influence how high fares rise in the coming months. Amin said prices may stabilize once the market adjusts to Spirit’s absence.

Spirit’s shutdown follows a failed merger attempt with JetBlue in 2024 that was blocked by the U.S. Department of Justice and a federal court on antitrust grounds.

“That was part of the demise of Spirit,” Amin said. “It was a lifeline that it lost.”

The long-term impact on airfare remains uncertain, but early trends suggest travelers should expect higher costs, particularly on routes once dominated by budget carriers.

Surrey, one of the most successful teams in England, is encouraging hybrid workers to come and do their jobs at The Kia Oval, the 180-year-old ground just south of the River Thames.

Over the winter, it upgraded the Wi-Fi and set aside work areas with desks, access to power and clear views of the game. “Work From Oval,” it's been dubbed.

It pondered whether it is the “best home office in the country” and crucially assured would-be-workers that “we won’t tell your boss.”

Over the three home four-day County Championship matches it has hosted this season, hundreds have taken up the chance to work at the Oval.

England's premier competition has been mocked for decades for its relatively low attendances — one man and his dog is a regularly voiced description, however unfair.

That certainly wasn't the case at The Kia Oval on Friday when Surrey hosted Sussex on the first day of their match. Over 6,000 attended, the crowd swelled by the glorious weather and the prospect of a full-day — more than seven hours — of cricket ahead.

Though the ground has a capacity of around 27,500, that's really not a bad crowd during a work day. The Oval does sell out for England test matches against other nations and for Surrey's short-format games.

Harry Ashton, director of Elite Finance Solutions, usually works from a coworking space in nearby Wimbledon. He jumped at the chance of working at the Oval for just 15 pounds ($20).

“It’s not quite as good as Lytham Cricket Club,” he quipped, referencing his local club in the northwest of England.

Ashton was joined later by some friends, and after a few hours of work, they enjoyed a beer or two. It was Friday, after all, and the start of a three-day weekend as Monday is a public holiday in the U.K.

In recent years, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic, it's been evident that many people at the Oval have their laptops to hand. Arguably, the shift toward hybrid work has become the main legacy of the pandemic.

Though more and more firms are forcing their staff to come into the office, more than a quarter of working adults in the U.K. work remotely part of the time, according to the Office for National Statistics. Critics argue that hybrid working is negatively impacting productivity, an individual's work ethic and the wider economy as a whole.

All the evidence on this particular Friday was that the dozens or so working at the ground were doing just that. Numbers were crunched and Zoom calls were held.

“I have great belief in life generally, if you treat someone like an adult, they will behave like an adult,” said Neil Munro, owner of Munron Consulting Ltd. “I don’t see any downside provided everyone treats it with respect.”

Matthew Balch, a freelance marketing consultant and a keen club cricketer himself, thinks Surrey's example should be taken up by others.

“I think all of the counties should lean into the remote worker-freelancer market to grow attendances,” he said.

Some workers were a bit more coy.

One 46-year-old woman working for a global company insisted on maintaining her anonymity, voicing concerns about how she would be perceived.

There's still a stigma.

Jonathan Rinderknecht, 29, has pleaded not guilty to starting what became one of the most destructive wildfires in California history. It began Jan. 7, 2025, in hillside neighborhoods of Pacific Palisades and Malibu and killed 12 people. Prosecutors say Rinderknecht started a fire on Jan. 1 that burned undetected deep in root systems before flaring back up a week later.

Rinderknecht’s trial is set to begin June 8. His attorneys say he is being used as a scapegoat for the Los Angeles Fire Department’s failure to fully extinguish the earlier blaze.

An outline of the prosecutors' strategy — with details about the defendant’s alleged state of mind on the night before the first fire began — appears in an April 29 pretrial memo filed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Witnesses reported that Rinderknecht had been driving erratically while on Uber routes around the Palisades on New Year's Eve, said prosecutors. His passengers described him as “angry, intense, driving erratically, and ranting about being ‘pissed off at the world,'” the memo said.

According to court filings, Rinderknecht ranted to passengers about accused UnitedHealthcare CEO shooter Luigi Mangione, capitalism and vigilantism. In an interview with investigators on Jan. 24, when asked why someone might commit arson in the Palisades, Rinderknecht “responded that it would be out of resentment of the rich enjoying their money as ‘we’re basically being enslaved by them,’” and again referenced Mangione’s alleged crime, the documents said.

In addition, prosecutors said Rinderknecht was distraught over a failed relationship and upset about thwarted plans for New Year's Eve.

“My client maintains his innocence as he has from the beginning and we look forward to clearing his name at trial,” Rinderknecht’s attorney Steve Haney said in an email Sunday. “The offered motive that my client started a fire on NYs Eve because he did not have a date speaks for itself.”

Haney held a news conference in March to call for Rinderknecht's release from jail in light of evidence he said shows he is not responsible for the blaze. Haney pointed to a deposition in which a firefighter testified that he noticed the ground was still smoldering from the fire on Jan. 2 and alerted a supervisor that there were hot spots. That testimony was gathered as part of a lawsuit filed by fire victims against the city.

A battalion chief had testified that he walked the perimeter of the burn area four times throughout the day and ensured all hot spots were out.

Fire Department Chief Jaime Moore, who was appointed in October, has said he is concerned about the differences in the firefighters’ testimonies and commissioned an independent report on how the Jan. 1 fire was handled.

Haney has said this evidence was not available to the defense when Rinderknecht was indicted.

Now, Mayor John Whitmire’s administration wants to change that, proposing a new fee that could generate roughly $104 million a year.

“CenterPoint’s a utility and they pay a right-of-way fee. AT&T, Comcast, they pay right-of-way fees” said Steven David, Deputy Chief of Staff for Mayor John Whitmire. “We have never made our wastewater and sewer utility be accountable to the same right-of-way occupancy rental fee into the general fund.”

• Katy mom accused of leaving kids home along for weeks

David says his team found internal memos going back more than two decades recommending the move.

“State law allows it. Other cities do it. And we just never have,” he told KPRC 2 News. “[We] cannot figure out why.”

What the proposal would do

The plan would charge the water and sewer system five percent of its gross revenue, similar to what other utilities already pay to use the city right-of-way.

At five percent, the fee would generate roughly $104 million a year. David said the percentage was chosen carefully. He says, San Antonio’s water system charges four percent. Dallas charges six. What Houston is proposing will land in the middle and it’s before the administration believes the Texas legislature will likely regulate these fees in the next session.

David argues this is not new money coming out of residents’ pockets.

RELATED: Houston mayor proposes new $5 monthly ‘administrative fee’ tied to trash service starting next year

“The transfer to the right of way is money that Houstonians have already paid the city,” he tells us. “We’re not pulling money out of them. We’re not going to increase these fees. It’s pulling our money to ourself.”

But the money would still come from a system funded by ratepayers.

“The water and sewer utility is a different entity. It is technically a part of the City of Houston, but by state law it is a separate entity,” he said. “It is a lockbox, meaning it is a rate-funded fund. We cannot just transfer money out of there. We have to have a legitimate business reason.”

The right-of-way fee, he said, is exactly that.

Why the water system could absorb it

David pointed to the utility’s financial cushion. Right now, the system holds about 550 days of operating revenues, well above its 300-day policy requirement. Its debt coverage ratio sits at 215 percent against the required 120 percent to 135 percent.

“We have unutilized liquidity,” he said. “Basically, it’s just sitting there.”

Why the city wants the money now

Houston is facing a projected $381 million budget gap in Fiscal Year 2029, growing to $446 the next year.

“I can close a $100 million budget gap,” David said. “I cannot find $381 million. And that’s the problem.”

RELATED: Why Houston trash pickup is falling behind

City leaders believe this proposal, combined with a separate effort to add a solid waste administrative fee for trash collection, would significantly reduce those deficits.

“What this does is it basically hits, in a permanent way, a reset button,” said David.

Mayor Whitmire’s team says property taxes would not go up. The tax rate would stay at 51 cents.

“We’re not relying on one-time gimmicks,” he adds. “I was apart of administrations where we had a $24 million budget gap and we sold $23 or $24 million worth of land to close it. We’re not doing that.”

The bottom line

The proposal still needs approval. At its core, the plan shifts money from a ratepayer-funded utility into the city’s general fund to help stabilize long-term finances. The real question is whether tapping that money now avoids tougher decisions later, or simply delays them.

The blaze, which began in an electrical room, caused “substantial damage” to the Eugene O'Neill Theatre, according to New York Fire Department Assistant Chief David Simms. The cause of the fire remains under investigation.

“Everyone has been safely removed from the theater,” the theater’s owner, ATG Entertainment, said in a statement. “We will keep all parties abreast of this developing situation.”

It wasn’t immediately clear how long the 1,108-seat theater would be out of operation. A spokesperson for “The Book of Mormon” did not immediately respond to messages. The show’s next scheduled performance is Tuesday.

Simms said the damage was largely confined to the fourth floor area and a backroom containing lighting equipment and dangling chandeliers. There was some water damage as well, he said.

Firefighters initially struggled to knock down the flames due to catwalks and rigging in the theater, but were eventually able to bring it under control, he said. One firefighter suffered minor injuries.

“The Book of Mormon” is among Broadway’s longest running shows, with more than 5,000 performances since opening at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre in 2011.

The theater, which opened in 1925, has previously hosted productions of “Sweeney Todd,” a revival of Tennessee Williams’ “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” and the rock musical “Spring Awakening,” among many other performances.

It was Orlando’s third consecutive first-round playoff exit, and easily the most disappointing. Not only did the eighth-seeded Magic lose all three chances to upset the top-seeded Pistons, but one of those games saw Orlando have a 24-point second-half lead at home and still lose. Orlando missed 23 consecutive shots in that Game 6 loss on Friday, getting booed by fans when it was over.

That loss probably was the one that sealed Mosley’s fate, even though the loss in Game 7 at Detroit on Sunday was the one that ended the season.

“That’s a gut punch and that’s going to remain with our team this summer,” Magic president of basketball operations Jeff Weltman said. “We know a lot of our season will be filtered through that lens. I think what happened is we were up 3-1 against the No. 1 seed in the East that won 60 games and Franz (Wagner) got hurt and it altered the series. We still had two chances to put them away in Games 5 and 6. There’s a lot to be taken away from that. I don’t want to overreact to the second half of Game 6 the same way I don’t want to overreact to the first half of Game 6 when we were up 22 points. It’s our job to step back and look at the big picture of what works, what doesn’t work.”

Mosley is the third-winningest coach in Magic history, his 189 wins behind only Brian Hill (267) and Stan Van Gundy (259). He inherited a team that was in the early stages of a rebuild, with Wagner and Jalen Suggs entering the league as rookies in his first season and then the Magic winning the lottery to draft Paolo Banchero No. 1 overall before Mosley’s second season.

Orlando won 22 games in Mosley’s first season, improved to 34-48 in Year 2 and has been .500 or better in all three seasons since — 47-35 in 2023-24, 41-41 last season and 45-37 this season.

“That’s an organizational matter,” Weltman said about three straight first-round exits. “That’s not on one person but it just seems like it’s time for a new perspective, a fresh voice and for all of us to get a different vantage point on what’s going on with our team.”

The Magic are one of 10 teams — Boston, Cleveland, Denver, Houston, the Los Angeles Clippers, the Los Angeles Lakers, Minnesota, New York, Oklahoma City are the others — to have not finished below .500 in any of the last three seasons.

It wasn’t enough. And with much of the team’s core — Banchero, Wagner, Suggs, Desmond Bane and more — under contract for the foreseeable future, the Magic clearly felt the best way to shake things up was to bring in a new coach.

“It has been an incredible five-plus years, and this organization and city will always mean so much to me and my family,” Mosley said. “In my heart, I truly hope that during our time here we were able to impact the players, staff, and the Magic organization in a meaningful and lasting way. I want to sincerely thank the DeVos family for the extraordinary opportunity to serve as head coach of the Orlando Magic. To our fans, there is nothing but love in my heart.”

It is a roster in need of upgrading in some ways, shooting perhaps foremost among them after Orlando was only 27th in the 30-team league in 3-point percentage this season. Injuries have also been a major issue for the Magic, including in the playoffs — with Wagner unable to play in the final three games, all losses, against Detroit.

Mosley’s job security was a talking point for much of the season, especially amid reports that he and Banchero were not on the same page. In March, Banchero acknowledged that were some moments of conflict — but thought Orlando was better for going through that.

“We’re both competitors,” Banchero said when asked then about his relationship with Mosley. “There were times where I was frustrated and I wasn’t playing as well as I think I should be. But it never became me pointing the finger at him or being disrespectful. It was all constructive; he’s talking to me, I’m talking to him. And winning, it cures everything.”

Evidently, there wasn’t enough winning.

Mosley had two seasons left on an extension that he and the Magic agreed on in March 2024. The team lauded his “preparation, work ethic, ability to connect with the players and passion he brings to the job every day brings positive results, both on the court and off” when announcing that deal.

Barely two years later, he and the Magic were parting ways.

Only seven coaches have been in their current jobs longer than Mosley was with Orlando — Miami’s Erik Spoelstra (hired in 2008), Golden State’s Steve Kerr (2014), the Clippers’ Tyronn Lue (2020), Oklahoma City’s Mark Daigneault (2020), Minnesota’s Chris Finch (2021), Indiana’s Rick Carlisle (2021) and Dallas’ Jason Kidd (2021).

Mosley spent 15 years as an assistant in Denver, Cleveland and Dallas — and was often mentioned as a candidate for head-coaching jobs around the league over that span — before Orlando hired him. He had a long relationship with Weltman, who first took note of Mosley when they worked together with the Nuggets.

Mosley was the 14th coach in Magic history, the 15th if counting Billy Donovan — who accepted the job in 2007, then had second thoughts and returned to the University of Florida. Donovan just left the Chicago Bulls after six seasons as their coach, which sparked speculation that he could be the front-runner in Orlando if the Magic indeed would be moving on from Mosley.

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

The sleek black whales, which weigh as much as a midsized bulldozer, are critically endangered and their numbers have declined sharply in recent decades. Environmental groups say reducing deaths and injuries caused by people is essential to the species' recovery.

The whales give birth off Florida and Georgia before making a long migration north to feed off New England and Canada. Protected areas of ocean aid them on their journey, but scientists have said they have strayed from those zones in recent years in search of food as the oceans have warmed.

A proposal by U.S. Rep. Jared Golden, a Democrat from Maine, would push back new federal protections for right whales to 2035, and allow time to craft regulations that are less burdensome to the fishing industry. The White House released a memo Friday saying it “strongly supports” the plan and that President Donald Trump’s senior advisors would recommend he sign it into law if it passes Congress.

The proposal comes as the government already paused any new federal rules about right whales until 2028.

According to Golden, Maine's iconic lobster industry would've been crushed by the now-paused regulations, which he said were "based on flawed science and hypothetical scenarios rather than the reality on the water.”

A longer delay would give the government time to “get the science right” about threats to whales, Golden said in a statement Friday.

The U.S. lobster and crab fishing industries are worth hundreds of millions of dollars at the docks.

“This legislation is critical to ensuring the long-term stability of American fisheries for generations to come,” said John Drouin, vice president of the New England Fishermen’s Stewardship Association.

Environmental groups like California-based In Defense of Animals have pushed back against efforts to weaken whale protections. They cite how the whales’ population fell by about a quarter from 2010 to 2020, and recent years of recovery have been slow.

Some signs about the whale’s population have been encouraging. This year’s birthing season produced 23 mother-calf pairs, the most since 2009, the New England Aquarium said in a statement.

The whale, which has been federally protected for more than 50 years, remains critically endangered, the aquarium said. They were once abundant off the East Coast, but they were decimated during the era of commercial whaling.

According to a survey by Regan Zambri Long, the exit from Interstate 610 at Exit 8 to Westheimer Road has been ranked the most stressful off-ramp in Texas.

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The study polled 3,011 drivers, asking them to identify the off-ramps that cause the most frustration behind the wheel.

Researchers say the Houston exit serves a heavily traveled commercial corridor and sees consistent traffic throughout the day. Drivers exiting the freeway often encounter congestion before reaching the end of the ramp, as vehicles slow near closely placed traffic signals.

The report found traffic flow at the exit tends to move in bursts, forcing drivers to quickly adjust from highway speeds to stop-and-go city traffic. That sudden shift, combined with limited spacing and high demand, can create tense driving conditions.

• Navigating Danger: Houston’s top 10 most dangerous intersections

Experts say these types of off-ramps can increase the risk of dangerous driving behavior.

“These exits aren’t just frustrating, they’re where a lot of collisions happen,” said Patrick Regan of the firm. “When traffic compresses and drivers are forced to react quickly, it increases the likelihood of rear-end crashes and sudden lane conflicts.”

Two other Texas exits also made the list.

In North Texas, the exit from Interstate 635 at Exit 19 to Preston Road ranked second. Drivers there often face tight spacing between the highway and nearby intersections, causing traffic to slow quickly during peak travel times.

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In Central Texas, the exit from Interstate 35 at Exit 240 to U.S. Highway 183 ranked third, with congestion worsened by construction zones and merging traffic patterns.

The study highlights how everyday driving situations, especially at busy exits, can quickly become high-stress environments with real safety risks.

The 44-year-old pop star, who recently completed a stint at a rehabilitation facility, didn’t appear in Ventura County court. But her lawyer, Michael A. Goldstein, pleaded guilty on her behalf to what’s commonly called a “wet reckless.” That allowed her to be sentenced to one day in jail that the judge said she served when she was booked, one year of probation, a required DUI class and state-mandated fines.

The plea offer was standard for defendants with no DUI history, no crash or injury on the road, and a low blood-alcohol level, the county district attorney’s office said. And it’s especially common for defendants who have shown motivation to address their problems and seek treatment, as Spears did when she voluntarily checked in to a substance abuse treatment center last month.

“I don’t think anybody’s happy about pleading guilty to anything, but under the circumstances, to get this behind her, I think everybody is pleased with the result,” Goldstein said after the hearing. “We appreciate the district attorney recognizing the positive steps that Britney is taking to help herself.”

Goldstein said Spears returned home after recently completing her rehab stint, and that reports that she left early were “absolutely false.” Asked what’s next for her, he replied, “I don’t know, I’m sure a lot.”

During the brief hearing, Spears received summary probation, which is informal and doesn’t involve mandatory meetings with a probation officer. She temporarily yielded her Fourth Amendment search and seizure rights if she is pulled over, meaning she must automatically yield to searches and sobriety tests. At Goldstein's request, the judge ruled this would not apply to her home.

District Attorney Erik Nasarenko said after the hearing that Spears had taken “full responsibility,” but he emphasized that DUI is a “serious crime” and said it was essential that she follow the requirements agreed to in court, which include continued substance abuse treatment, weekly visits with a therapist and monthly visits with a psychiatrist.

“We do not want Miss Spears to reoffend,” Nasarenko said.

She was charged Thursday with one misdemeanor DUI count, which meant she was not required to appear in court for her arraignment. But her representatives hadn’t said whether she would appear, and the hearing drew an unusually heavy media turnout for Ventura, a seaside city of about 110,000 people roughly 70 miles (113 kilometers) northwest of downtown LA.

After her March 4 arrest, a representative called her actions inexcusable and said that ideally, the arrest would lead to overdue change in her life.

She was pulled over for driving her black BMW quickly and erratically on U.S. 101, the California Highway Patrol said. She appeared to be impaired, took a series of field sobriety tests, was arrested and was taken to jail, the CHP said.

Authorities said in the criminal complaint that Spears had alcohol and drugs in her system, but they didn’t specify which drugs or list her blood alcohol content.

Spears grew to superstardom in the 1990s and 2000s with hits including “Toxic,” “Gimme More” and “I’m a Slave 4 U.” Most of her nine studio albums have been certified platinum, with two diamond titles: 1999’s “… Baby One More Time” and 2000s “Oops! … I Did It Again.”

She became a tabloid obsession in the early 2000s and a source of intense public scrutiny as she battled mental illness and paparazzi fought to document the details of her private life.

In 2008, Spears was placed under a court-ordered conservatorship, run primarily by her father and his lawyers, that would control her personal and financial decisions for well over a decade. It was dissolved in 2021.

Since then, she has married, divorced, and released a bestselling memoir, “The Woman in Me.”

Authorities have identified the victim as Yanira Nafin.

• Six hurt in Pearland bonfire explosion

Investigators say she was shot by her common-law husband, Jose Arquimides Romero, 43, during a dispute inside the home.

Arrest update:

The deceased victim has been identified as Yanira Nafin (39). Yanira was allegedly shot by her common-law husband, Jose Arquimides Romero (1-8-83). Romero was reportedly upset because Yanira was not taking his back pain serious enough. Three children were in the… https://t.co/D82cGlwCnA pic.twitter.com/QRSvtK71i0

— Ed Gonzalez (@SheriffEd_HCSO) May 3, 2026

According to investigators, Romero was reportedly upset because Nafin was not taking his back pain seriously enough.

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The shooting happened shortly after 1 p.m. Saturday on Texarkana Street.

Three children were inside the home at the time. Officials say they were able to hide when the gunfire began and were not injured.

Romero remained at the residence following the shooting and was taken into custody without incident.

Court records show he has been charged with murder. He was booked into the Harris County Jail and will appear in court Tuesday.

The investigation remains ongoing.

Deputies were called a little after 1 p.m. yesterday to a shooting at a home in the 14200 block of Texarkana Street in the Cloverleaf area, the Harris County Sheriff’s Office said.

When they arrived, investigators said they found an adult woman with a gunshot wound. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

In an update posted Sunday, Gonzalez identified the victim as Yanira Nafin, 39, and the suspect as Jose Arquimides Romero, 43, her common-law husband.

• MORE NEWS: Woman killed in hit-and-run crash near Bush Airport, police say

Gonzalez said detectives believe the shooting stemmed from a dispute at the home involving Romero’s complaints of back pain.

Authorities said three children were in the house at the time and were not injured after taking cover.

Authorities said Romero remained at the residence and was taken into custody. Harris County Sheriff’s Office homicide detectives charged him in connection with Nafin’s death, and he was booked into the Harris County Jail.

The investigation remains ongoing.

Carnegie Vanguard High School senior Adam Alsharif is the seventeenth recipient of the KPRC 2-American Furniture Warehouse Senior Scholarship from the Class of 2026. Carnegie Vanguard High School is part of the Houston Independent School District.

Alsharif is already a young entrepreneur with his own social media marketing business, Moment Labs. He completed the selective Atlas Scholars Internship, which helps prepare Houston-area students for careers in business.

With three years as a defensive leader on Carnegie Vanguard’s varsity soccer team, Alsharif shifted his focus to competing in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. He also co-leads his school’s Islamic Student Forum, where he helped coordinate Ramadan food drives, providing more than 200 meals per day.

Alsharif plans to attend the University of Houston to study Supply Chain Management and Logistics. Congratulations, Adam!

You can see the scholarship surprise for Adam Alsharif in the video player at the top of this article.

British author William Golding predicted not good things in his harrowing 1954 classic novel “Lord of the Flies,” and a new powerful, kinetic TV adaptation makes an inspired case that he was probably right.

The Netflix series premiering Monday follows more than two dozen British boys in the mid-1950s stranded on a tropical island after a plane crash as they descend into tyranny and violence, making an indictment about the fragility of democracy and the shallow veneer of civilization.

“We’ve advanced socially or we’ve advanced technologically, but those issues are still there,” says David McKenna, who plays a sensible boy nicknamed Piggy. “I would say put 40 boys on a tropical island today, and the same thing would probably happen, sadly.”

‘It can’t help but be chaos’

The series is adapted by Jack Thorne, the writer behind the stage play “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” and the Emmy-winning TV series “Adolescence,” and directed by his longtime collaborator, Marc Munden.

“A lot of the time it was utter chaos and we tried to film some of that chaos as well,” says Munden. “It can’t help but be chaos when you’ve got 36 boys under the age of 12.”

Thorne’s four-part adaptation brings a different character to the forefront in each episode, starting with the rational Piggy, coming to consciousness after the crash and offering a voting-based system that allows everyone a voice. “What we need to do is get a sense of exactly what we know,” he says.

He meets the cheerful and friendly Ralph (played by Winston Sawyers), and they gather the rest of the castaways, including a group of choirboys led by the volatile Jack (Lox Pratt) and the soulful Simon (Ike Talbut). There's also a whole raft of very young boys, dubbed “littluns.”

“I think all of the boys really represent an aspect of the human condition. Jack obviously represents some of the darker aspects,” says Talbut. “Ralph is the charismatic leader, but I think Simon really represents civility and kindness.”

Envy and paranoia bloom

What begins as a plucky, we’re-all-in-this-together spirit — Piggy sings Groucho Marx’s giddy “Hello, I Must Be Going” as he pushes through thick vegetation, still wearing his schoolboy suspenders and tie — soon gets darker as envy and paranoia bloom, rivalries deepen and one of the boys reveals his murderous instincts.

“Playing it nice — it’s boring,” says Jack who comes off here less as a simple narcissist than as an entitled boy with a fragile ego. “An adventure island, what do we do on it? Nothing but boring things. Toilets. Water. Hut building. Boring.”

Munden calls it in many ways a political fable that mirrors current struggles: “One faction led by the dutiful Democrats versus the entitled bully leading another faction.” Talbut sees it as a message about the dangers of groupthink and populism.

Thorne has made a few changes to the text, including flashbacks to the boys’ pre-island past to give viewers an insight into their home lives, and a scene in which the survivors come across suitcases from the crash.

Unpacking the suitcases — one is Simon’s, which contains his diary — and the other contains women's clothes — allows the filmmakers to explore the complex relationship between Jack and Simon as well as chart the increasing unanchored nature of the boys.

One lad slips on a hoop skirt, another pulls a pair of pantyhose over his face, both playing with drag. As the members of the choir smear mud on their faces to be hunters, the look is tribal and quirky. Munden was inspired by the images of Liberian child soldiers in the early 2000s who held Kalashnikovs and edgy costumes to confuse their enemies.

“The idea was that this drag becomes sort of perverted in some sort of way and becomes like another form of armor,” says the director. “I just thought it was a little bit more freaky. I wanted to sort of challenge the audience a little bit more with that.”

Filming in Malaysia

Munden studs the episodes with stark images of animals — winged raptors, ants, caterpillars, hermit crabs — grounding the series in the muddy, lush, insect-heavy tropical world, which in this case was the Malay Archipelago, the largest group of islands in the world.

Filming — which took place over five months from July to December in 2024 — wasn’t easy, with daily speedboat trips to uninhabited islands, dodging monsoons and extreme heat. The older boys were permitted to work only five or six hours a day, while the littlest boys only three. The crew weren’t allowed to shoot at night, so used cinematic trickery to turn sunshine into moonlight.

For the characters on the island, it was harrowing. For the actors, however, it was a bonding experience and, for many, their first professional acting gig.

“The best five months of my life,” Talbut says, adding everyone was “just the loveliest person ever.”

There was a safety net for the cast — including child psychologists, tutors and chaperones — that freed the actors to go deeper.

“You can delve as far as you like into the drama and the horror of it because you know at the end of the day you’re all just going to get in a van, get back to the hotel and jump in the pool.”

The ending actually has a sweetness — not the adaptation, but the filming: It turns out many of the older boys have stayed friends and share a group chat. Sawyers just met up with Pratt, enemies on the island now remade as pals in real life.

“We’re all still really, really close and we still have that connection because we spent those months together in that place doing that thing,” says Sawyers.

The Broadway Cruise — heading roundtrip from Miami to Cozumel and Great Stirrup Cay from April 15-20, 2027 — will also feature Tony nominees Norm Lewis, Marissa Jaret Winokur, Laura Bell Bundy, Micaela Diamond and Kerry Butler.

In addition to performances, the cruise will offer multiple interactive theatrical events, Q&As, workshops, discussions on how to create a show and dance classes.

There will also be full performances of “Mama I’m a Big Girl Now!,” with Winokur, Bundy and Butler, who met starring as Tracy, Penny and Amber in “Hairspray” and reunite to sing Broadway hits and share behind-the-scenes stories.

Tony-winning composer Marc Shaiman — fresh off publishing his memoir “Never Mind the Happy: Showbiz Stories from a Sore Winner” — will be onboard, as well as three-time Tony-winning director and choreographer Jerry Mitchell, behind such shows as “Kinky Boots” and “La Cage aux Folles.”

“This isn’t just a fan experience, it’s Broadway without walls, an all-access experience at sea where fans and legends collide. For five extraordinary nights, the ship becomes the stage, the backstage, and everything in between. Nothing else comes close,” said Jeff Cuellar, CEO at Sixthman, in a statement.

This will be the fourth Broadway Cruise, which borrows the Norwegian Jewel for its themed trips.

According to court documents, Rayshawna Deanna Dowdell is charged with a felony count of abandoning a child.

The charge stems from allegations that between February 17 and March 30, Dowdell left her two daughters — ages 11 and 6 — alone in their home without an adult present.

Authorities were first alerted to the situation on March 30, when a woman contacted law enforcement after speaking with the children at a neighborhood park.

The children told her they had been left alone to fend for themselves for weeks, prompting her to contact the Harris County Sheriff’s Office.

During Dowdell’s absence, the older child reportedly took on the role of caregiver — looking after her younger sibling, preparing for school, and trying to find food.

Authorities say digital evidence shows Dowdell was out of state during that time, communicating with the children remotely and giving her older daughter instructions instead of being physically present.

Recovered text messages revealed the older daughter was distressed and afraid, expressing concerns about caring for her younger sibling and not having enough food.

Officials also said there was no evidence that any other adult supervised the children during this period.

Deputies who responded to the home described it as unkempt, unsecured, and lacking sufficient resources to feed two children. The house’s rear door was reportedly unlocked when they arrived.

Dowdell later admitted to investigators that she had traveled out of state for a funeral. However, investigators said they found no text messages indicating she had made plans or provided a timeline for returning to her daughters.

Child Protective Services initially placed the children with a relative, but that arrangement later broke down following an alleged physical altercation between Dowdell and the family member.

Investigators allege Dowdell then removed the children and provided inconsistent information about their whereabouts, at times evading welfare checks and attempting to take them out of state.

The children were eventually located in Ohio during a welfare check.

As of May 4, 2026, Dowdell is not in custody.

Most journalists said that they could enter the Casa Rosada — or the Pink House, Argentina’s equivalent of the White House — for the first time since April 23. But authorities denied entry to two credentialed TV channels without explanation and introduced new restrictions on reporters' physical movement within the Casa Rosada on Monday, shuttering corridors and installing frosted glass on windows.

Last month's closure of the press room used for decades by reporters with credentials to cover the president added to a list of attacks and reprisals against news organizations by Milei, whose hostility toward the press mirrors the aggressive approach of his ally and powerful backer, U.S. President Donald Trump.

Journalists and their advocates rebuked the move as an attack on press freedom in Argentina. Condemnation poured in from business chambers, the Catholic Church and politicians across the spectrum.

Milei's government defends itself

Milei’s Cabinet chief Manuel Adorni fired back at critics in a rare news conference on Monday in which he said he aimed “not to welcome anyone, but to restore the (press) room’s operations.”

“We are fully in favor of press freedom ... but we will not in any way allow acts endangering national security to be committed behind its back,” he told reporters.

Authorities justified the restrictions for the roughly 60 members of the Casa Rosada press corps as a necessary security measure after they accused a local TV channel of espionage for using smart glasses to film parts of the headquarters without authorization.

The channel, Todo Noticias, insists it received official permission to capture the footage and that the images of corridors and meeting spaces aired in the TV segment have long been accessible to the public.

When asked why colleagues from Todo Noticias and Channel 13, another leading network, were still blocked from the Casa Rosada on Monday, Adorni said that he wasn't aware of the issue and that, “in principle, there shouldn't be any limitations."

On the new restrictions, which included extensive security checks at the entrance, hastily erected barriers blocking stairwells and hallways, frosted glass obscuring views of the balcony and the insistence that journalists hand over their press passes with authorities upon leaving the building, Adorni said the government was “simply enforcing the regulations.”

“This is not censoring freedom of expression,” he said.

Journalists in Argentina face government hostility

Over the past two years, Argentina’s ranking has plummeted on a press freedom index maintained by Reporters Without Borders, the group reported last week. It fell from 66 to 98 — among the biggest drops of any country in South America.

In a report released last week, the group said it had recorded a “rise in government hostility toward and pressure on the press” from Trump’s most vocal Latin American supporters, Argentina's Milei and El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele.

“Insults, defamation, and threats from Javier Milei’s administration toward journalists and media critical of his government have become commonplace since he took office,” it added.

At odds with the press to a degree unseen since the 1983 restoration of Argentine democracy, Milei has escalated his media-bashing in recent weeks as his flagship campaigns against corruption and inflation falter.

Nearly every day, he posts the slogan “We don’t hate journalists enough" on social media. As he entered Congress last Tuesday to support Adorni in his defense against allegations of illicit enrichment, Milei hurled insults at the journalists peppering him with questions about the scandal.

“You're the corrupt ones,” he shouted.

___

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

The law can go into effect next week after a federal appeals court lifted a lower court ruling that had kept it paused for years.

Senate Bill 4, as the law is known, created a state-level crime for entering the country without authorization and created pathways for state authorities to remove such people from the country if convicted.

Courts have long held that immigration enforcement is the sole responsibility of the federal government, but with the state law, Texas Republicans sought to challenge that precedent.

The Texas Civil Rights Project, American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, and ACLU argue in Monday’s lawsuit the law is unconstitutional because immigration law is exclusively the federal government’s domain and should preempt the state law.

They are trying to stop four provisions of SB 4: the creation of a crime for re-entering the country without authorization, even if a person has since obtained legal status; granting state magistrates authority to order a person’s deportation; the creation of a crime for failing to comply with a magistrate’s order; and requiring that magistrates continue a prosecution even if a person has a pending immigration case such as an asylum claim.

“Our fight against SB 4 isn’t over until justice wins,” Kate Gibson Kumar, of the Texas Civil Rights Project, said in a statement. “SB 4 is not only unconstitutional, but a vile law that uses our Texas resources to harm communities across our state.”

Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The lawsuit is the latest effort to stop the 2023 law, passed by the Legislature in response to record border crossings that GOP state leaders argued amounted to an invasion.

The Biden administration was among the plaintiffs to initially challenge the law in 2024, but the Trump administration last year terminated the Department of Justice’s participation in the lawsuit amid his immigration crackdown.

That lawsuit continued until two weeks ago, when a federal appeals court lifted an injunction that had stopped the law when it ruled that the plaintiffs did not have standing to sue.

The law can go into effect May 15 unless it’s halted by another court.

A small group of opponents has been demonstrating at the drilling location and at the mining company's headquarters in what they call a land defense effort since they learned ground was broken on the drilling project in late April.

The tribes filed their federal lawsuit Thursday in South Dakota against the U.S. Forest Service and U.S. Department of Agriculture, alleging the agencies violated federal law by greenlighting a project near a site called Pe’Sla, a meadow in the central Black Hills used for tribal ceremonies, prayer and youth camps year-round. Buffalo regularly graze at the site, the suit said, adding the project poses a threat to wildlife.

Graphite has many industrial uses, including in batteries, lubricants, certain auto parts and in blast furnaces, according to website of the European Carbon and Graphite Association.

Land rights in the Black Hills

The project is the latest point of tension between tribes and mining interests in the lush pine and spruce-covered Black Hills, which encompass over 1.2 million acres (485,000 hectares), rising from the Great Plains in southwest South Dakota and extending into Wyoming.

The region is a yearly destination for millions of tourists boasting such attractions as Mount Rushmore and wildlife-filled state parks. Yet for even longer, it has been sacred to Sioux tribes who call the area He Sapa and consider it “the heart of everything that is,” according to the complaint.

Some of the landscape was altered by an 1870s gold rush that displaced Native Americans. And more recently, a new crop of miners driven by rising gold prices have sought to return to the landscape.

The 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie granted the Sioux Nations rights to the Black Hills, but the U.S. broke the treaty after gold was discovered. Though the Supreme Court ruled the Sioux were owed compensation, they have not accepted it and consider it unceded territory.

Impacts on Pe'Sla

The complaint said the project by Rapid City-based mining company Pete Lien & Sons would impact the use of Pe’Sla for traditional, cultural and religious purposes by the tribes, and that the Forest Service did not consult with the tribes before approving the project.

Tribes bought parts of Pe'Sla in 2012, 2015 and 2018, and an agreement between the tribes and the Forest Service established a two-mile (three kilometer) buffer zone on public lands around the site, according to the complaint.

Because Pe'Sla was not included as an affected area and no environmental review was conducted, the approval violates the National Historic Preservation Act and National Environmental Policy Act, the lawsuit alleges.

Pete Lien & Sons, which supplies materials like limestone, sand and gravel, did not return phone or email requests for comment Thursday, Sunday and Monday.

Oglala Sioux Tribe President Frank Star Comes Out said in a statement that the lawsuit is “a historic demonstration of unity" between the nine tribes. The tribes are separate, distinct federally recognized tribes sharing cultural and linguistic roots, but each with its own government and land base.

“We as Lakota people have been coming and praying and holding ceremony at these places for over 2,000 years,” said Wizipan Garriott, president of Indigenous advocacy group NDN Collective and a member of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe. “And so us being here is a continuation of countless generations before us. And it’s important that these sacred places be protected for future generations to come.”

Groups sue over the project

The Forest Service granted a permit to the project in February without an environmental review because the agency said it qualified for a categorical exclusion by having a duration of less than a year and not posing impacts to environmental and cultural sites.

But tribal opponents disagree that those requirements were met and said drilling projects are often a first step leading to future mines.

Besides the lawsuit from the tribes, NDN Collective and other environmental groups have also sued to stop the project.

Some of the drilling pads are in the buffer zone around the site, according to NDN Collective. The project calls for the company to drill up to 18 holes down some 1,000 feet (300 meters) to collect samples.

On Thursday, opponents demonstrated with signs reading “Protect Pe'Sla” and “Sacred ground not mining bound” near two drilling pads to block access. NDN Collective said the Forest Service told them drilling was paused for the rest of the day and the contractors were sent home.

The Forest Service said it had no comment on the project because it is the subject of active litigation.

The NDN Collective said it will continue actions at the sites as needed to protect Pe'Sla.

“As Lakota, we pray as long as we need to,” Garriott said.

But if you’ve been snagged in their now-defunct flight schedule, here are some things to know on how to get home, and get whole.

“Rescue fares,” reduced prices for new flights

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Many airlines that used to compete with Spirit are now parachuting in with deals to save their travelers. Airlines including American Airlines, United Airlines, Delta Air Lines, JetBlue Airways, Frontier Airlines and Southwest Airlines are capping or reducing ticket prices for people to book new flights.

There is a limited window for this deal, which prioritizes now-stranded travelers who need to find a new way to their next destination.

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For example, Southwest’s offer is only available in person at an airport ticket counter through Wednesday, May 6, according to industry trade group, Airlines for America and the U.S. Department of Transportation. United, meanwhile, is allowing such bookings for up to two weeks, which can be accessed online.

For those who were planning to fly Spirit and now need to find an alternative to the ultra low cost carrier, American, Allegiant, Frontier and Delta advertised reduced fares on the same routes Spirit once flew.

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Many company announcements include maps showing where its routes overlapped with Spirits, which can help narrow the search to find a comparable flight.

“Spirit Airlines played an important role in expanding access to affordable travel and bringing more low fares to more people,” said Bobby Schroeter, Frontier’s chief commercial officer. “We recognize this is a difficult time for their customers and team members.

Get your money back in refunds

Spirit Airlines said they were prepared for an “orderly wind-down” of its operations, and that it will automatically process refunds for any flights booked on a credit or debit card.

Travelers who booked through third-party travel agencies should direct refund requests to those agents.

Anyone else who got their reservation through vouchers, credit or points will have to wait and see though Spirit’s bankruptcy process.

If there are questions about whether your money will make a safe landing back to your wallet, there are other ways to try to claw back your cash for the Spirit flight not taken.

The DOT suggests contacting your credit card company and exercising your rights under the Fair Credit Billing Act, by requesting a “chargeback” for services not rendered.

If you purchased travel insurance or it is included in your credit card’s policy and perks, call them to see if they cover “insolvency” or “service cessation.”

The last resort would be filing a bankruptcy claim but officials warn this route eats up time and money, and ultimately may only result in a partial refund.

The National Consumers League warned travelers to keep all documentation to prove they were booked for Spirit flights, including receipts, booking confirmations, cancellation notices, and any correspondence with the airline. The nonprofit watchdog organization also urged those affected to act immediately as credit card and insurance companies may have strict deadlines that can be time-sensitive.

“Not all Spirit customers should assume a refund will automatically appear,” said John Breyault, the league’s vice president of public policy, telecommunications, and fraud. “When an airline shuts down this suddenly, it’s up to travelers to take proactive steps to have the best chance of getting their money back.”

Expanding capacity and perks

American and United both said it is trying to adjust its fleet so it can help more stranded passengers. American said it is looking into tapping larger planes and United said it is potentially adding additional flights on routes where they overlapped with Spirit.

“We are reviewing opportunities to add additional capacity, including utilizing larger aircraft on critical routes — to support as many affected passengers as possible,” American said via an Airlines for America statement.

Southwest also said it will offer a status-match, by honoring Spirit’s Silver and Gold status members with its own A-List program.

The car rental company Hertz is also advertising deals for alternative transportation, offering one-way vehicles and up to 25% off for those find “the road might be the fastest way home in scenarios like this one.”

I’m an employee. Get me out of here.

Spirit crew members who are stuck at their destination should be granted airline travel benefits, including spare jump seats where available on most major carriers.

American said: “We will provide transportation for Spirit team members who have been displaced on a work trip,” according to an Airlines for America statement.

The DOT also said the other companies are offering preferential interviews to help expedite the job search for former Spirit pilots, flight attendants and other employees. American said it will be setting up recruiting events for those former employees.

One of the injured is in critical condition. All are expected to survive.

Someone poured high-octane racing fuel onto the bonfire, according to City of Pearland Communications Director Joshua Lee.

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That was shortly after 9 p.m. Sunday near a mobile home on Libby Lane and Wellborne, according to the Pearland Fire Department.

Neighbors say they heard a loud boom before emergency crews rushed to the scene.

First responders found six people suffering burn injuries near a fire pit outside the home. One person was treated at the scene, according to Lee.

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Video from the scene shows the explosion aftermath, including burnt clothing, shoes, a belt, and what appears to be a melted gas can near the fire pit.

The Pearland Fire Department has not said whether any charges or citations are expected.

Ten units and 24 Pearland Fire Department personnel responded to the incident.

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The Pearland Fire Department urges neighbors to exercise extreme caution if handling any type of fuel or accelerant. Improper use can lead to severe injury or death.

One of dozens of AI cameras installed for the utility Arizona Public Service had spotted early signs of what came to be known as the Diamond Fire. Firefighters raced to the scene and contained the blaze before it grew past 7 acres (2.8 hectares).

As record-breaking heat and an abysmal snowpack raise concerns about severe wildfires, states across the fire-prone West are adding AI to their wildfire detection toolbox, banking on the technology to help save lives and property.

Arizona Public Service has nearly 40 active AI smoke-detection cameras and plans to have 71 by summer's end, and the state’s fire agency has deployed seven of its own. Another utility, Xcel Energy in Colorado, has installed 126 and aims to have cameras in seven of the eight states it serves by year's end.

“Earlier detection means we can launch aircraft and personnel to it and keep those fires as small as we can,” said John Truett, fire management officer for the Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management.

Where there are fewer eyes, AI looks for fires

ALERTCalifornia is a network of some 1,240 AI-enabled cameras across the Golden State that work similar to the system in Arizona.

Human intervention keeps the risk of false positives low and trains the technology to become more accurate, said Neal Driscoll, geology and geophysics professor at the University of California, San Diego, and founder of ALERTCalifornia.

“The AI that’s being run on the cameras is actually beating 911 calls,” he said.

In Arizona, California and beyond, the technology is mostly used in high-risk areas that are sparsely populated, rural or remote, where a blaze might not be quickly spotted by human eyes.

“It’s just the ones where we won’t get a 911 call for a long time, it is extremely helpful to have that AI always monitoring that camera,” said Brent Pascua, battalion chief for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or Cal Fire. “In many cases, we’ve started a response before 911 was even called, and in a few cases, we’ve actually started a response, went there, put the fire out, and never received a 911 call.”

A technology driven by worsening blazes

Pano AI, whose technology combines high-definition camera feeds, satellite data and AI monitoring, has seen a growing interest in its cameras since launching in 2020. They've been deployed in Australia, Canada and 17 U.S. states, including Oregon, Washington and Texas. Its customers include forestry operations, government agencies and utilities, including Arizona Public Service.

Last year, its technology detected 725 wildfires in the U.S., the company said.

“In many of these situations, we hear from stakeholders that the visual intelligence, the time, really, really gives them a head start and some of these could have taken off into hundreds if not thousands of acres,” said Arvind Satyam, the company’s co-founder and chief commercial officer.

Cindy Kobold, an Arizona Public Service meteorologist, said the technology notifies them about 45 minutes faster on average than the first 911 call.

Satyam said development of the technology was driven by the lack of hardened solutions to combat worsening wildfires. Climate change — caused by burning oil, gas and coal — is warming the planet and fueling dry conditions that supercharge infernos, making them burn hotter, faster and more frequently. The technology helps firefighters to safely and effectively respond while protecting communities and infrastructure, he said.

Challenges and limitations

One of the biggest obstacles to implementation is the price tag; Pano AI, for instance, charges around $50,000 annually per camera. The cost also includes fire risk analysis and 24/7 intelligence center.

False alarms present a challenge, which can be costly in terms of time and attention, said Patrick Roberts, a senior researcher with the nonprofit research group RAND who recently finished a project on accelerating innovation in wildfire management.

And when the AI accurately detects a fire, it doesn’t tell stakeholders the best course of action.

“Do you send help right away? Do you monitor? Should you worry about it? Where do you send help? Do you think about evacuation? All this still requires people and decision support systems,” said Roberts.

In highly populated areas, people tend to spot and call in fires pretty quickly, and the tech is not so useful when extreme weather events, such as hurricane-force winds, intensify and rapidly shift the flames, as happened in Los Angeles last year.

Pascua says the technology complements Cal Fire’s work.

“As the fire moves and shifts around, that’s where the human factor comes in and decides which tactics are best in fighting the fire. AI can only do so much,” he said. “It just provides that real time information where we can make better decisions on the fire ground.”

AI firefighting assistance is not limited to detection

AI can also be employed to identify the best places to thin vegetation and burn cool fires, and even to monitor air quality for signs of smoke, just like your home's carbon monoxide sensor, said Roberts, but “1,000 times more sensitive.”

At George Mason University in Virginia, professor Chaowei “Phil” Yang is working with researchers from California State University of Los Angeles, the city of LA and NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory to create a system that forecasts where a fire will burn and which communities will be hardest hit by smoke pollution.

The idea is to give agencies real-time maps so they can make quick, life-saving decisions about evacuations, school and road closures, and send out early air quality warnings. Yang said they hope the technology will be operational in three years.

“AI in wildfires, it’s no longer just speculative. It’s really being used,” said Roberts, and it's use will only continue to grow.

“The future is AI everywhere,” he said, “and the lines will blur between AI wildfire detection and just wildfire detection as the lines will blur in other areas of our life.”

___

The Associated Press receives support from the Walton Family Foundation for coverage of water and environmental policy. The AP is solely responsible for all content. For all of AP’s environmental coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment

The garage officially closed, and drivers should expect significant traffic changes as demolition gets underway.

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According to officials, Avenida de las Americas between McKinney and Lamar streets will be restricted to valet access for guests of the Hilton Americas-Houston.

In addition, Polk Street between Chartres and Jackson streets will be completely closed to all traffic.

Visitors staying at the Hilton Americas are encouraged to use valet services, while others heading downtown have several alternative parking options.

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Drivers can park at the nearby Toyota Center via the Tundra Garage or at the Norton Rose Fulbright Tower garage.

For those visiting the convention center or Discovery Green, officials recommend using the Avenida North Garage, which remains open and is accessible from Capitol and Rusk streets.

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Meanwhile, construction is underway on a new parking facility that will replace the demolished structure. The new garage, located at Bell and Chenevert streets, will include about 1,000 parking spaces and is expected to be completed in early fall.

Officials urge drivers to plan ahead, allow extra travel time, and be mindful of detours as work continues in the busy downtown corridor.

Justice Samuel Alito, issued the hold to give the court more time to consider the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision last week to block a 2023 Federal and Drug Administration regulation that allowed mifepristone to be mailed to patients. That rule is commonly used to get around Texas’ abortion ban. Alito is the Republican-appointed justice charged with managing requests involving the 5th Circuit. His temporary hold is in effect until May 11.

The 2023 rule allowed doctors to prescribe mifepristone remotely and the drug to be mailed to patients, including those in Texas from other states where abortion is legal. The 5th Circuit’s ruling Friday, stemming from a lawsuit in Louisiana, means mifepristone can only be picked up in-person from doctors or pharmacies. 

The ruling will halt the estimated thousands of telehealth abortion pills that are provided per month to states that otherwise outlaw abortion, but it will also restrict its availability for other uses. Mifepristone, when used alongside misoprostol, is the most common way Americans end their pregnancies, including to manage miscarriages. Through 2024, 1 in 4 abortions were provided through telemedicine, according to the Society of Family Planning.  

Abortion advocates nationally decried the ruling as a crackdown aimed at restricting remote abortion access nationwide, particularly impacting states like Texas where mifepristone would not be available without telehealth services.

“Anti-abortion politicians know their policies are unpopular, so they are using every lever of government they can,” said Mini Timmaraju, CEO of abortion advocacy group Reproductive Freedom for All. “Louisiana built this case on debunked, junk science. The safety of mifepristone has never actually been in question.”

The FDA approved mifepristone in 2000, a generic version of the drug in 2019 and a second version last October, and studies have shown the drug to be safe and effective. Texas has joined Florida in suing the FDA over its original approval of mifepristone, arguing that the agency did not conduct proper safety evaluations. 

Anti-abortion groups across the country, including the nonprofit Live Action, celebrated the ruling as a “major step toward justice” in permanently ending mail access to mifepristone and similar drugs.

“These drugs are designed to end the life of a preborn child, and they are now responsible for the destruction of millions of preborn lives, often behind closed doors with no doctor present,” Live Action Founder Lila Rose said in a statement.

Under House Bill 7, passed last year, doctors who prescribe or companies that distribute abortion-inducing drugs like mifepristone can be sued for up to $100,000. But 22 states where the medication is often prescribed have “shield laws,” which provide civil and criminal protections for healthcare providers who assist those in states like Texas with restrictive abortion laws. Pregnant people who seek out abortions or take abortion pills are exempt from litigation under the law.

It remains unclear how Friday’s ruling will affect lawsuits underway seeking to collect fines from out-of-state doctors who have provided mifepristone prescriptions, including three cases from Attorney General Ken Paxton against healthcare providers in California and Delaware. While the suit against the California doctor uses the new provisions under HB 7, the Delaware suit does not.

For 15 years, Mohammad Abdullah Al Mamun worked in Saudi Arabia, sending money home to his family in one of the poorest areas of Bangladesh. This year, he had planned to return, build a larger house with his savings and spend time with the child he barely knew.

Then, on March 8, a missile struck his workers’ camp. He suffered severe burns and later died. He was among more than two dozen foreign workers killed across the Middle East after the United States and Israel went to war with Iran in February.

Tens of millions of foreign workers have helped build the Gulf Arab states' modern, oil-fueled economies — with many not fully sharing in their prosperity. Now they face an even sharper dilemma: Keep working in the Mideast, where wages are far higher, hoping that a shaky ceasefire endures; or return to already poor countries where prices have soared because of the conflict.

Mamun's choice was made for him. He arrived home in a coffin earlier this month.

“We don’t know what we will do next,” said his widow, Sadia Islam Sarmin.

Millions work with little protection

Migrant workers make up a majority of the population in many Gulf Arab states. Westerners, Arabs and Indians dominate business and finance, while laborers from poor countries in Asia and Africa toil for long hours in scorching temperatures at oil facilities and construction sites — often with few protections.

The Coalition for Labor Justice for Migrants in the Gulf, an advocacy group, says few had access to bomb shelters and many were stranded by the conflict. It says attacks killed at least 24 foreign workers in the Gulf and four in Israel as Iran and allied armed groups launched waves of missile and drone strikes. Their count includes eight mariners killed at sea.

On Monday, three Indian workers were moderately injured in the United Arab Emirates when an Iranian drone sparked a fire at an oil facility. It was the first time the UAE came under attack since a fragile ceasefire took hold in early April.

“It’s a very precarious situation for migrant workers,” said Udaya Wagle, who studies labor and migration at Northern Arizona University.

Though the ceasefire has mostly held, negotiations to end the war have repeatedly stalled. Iran has effectively blocked the Strait of Hormuz, a key waterway for global oil and gas, and says it will only reopen it if the war ends and the U.S. lifts its blockade.

The resulting spike in the price of gas, fertilizer and other goods has hit Asian countries particularly hard.

Remittances from the Gulf make up about 1% of the gross domestic product of India, 3% to 5% of the GDP in Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka; and nearly 10% in Nepal. Now they are more vital than ever, as household incomes are strained and governments seek foreign currency to buy oil and gas.

The Gulf economies also face a bleak outlook, with exports bottled up and key energy facilities in need of repair after missile strikes. The fighting could resume, as Iran rejects U.S. President Donald Trump's demands.

Low-wage laborers are the most vulnerable

Mamun's family awoke on March 9 to phone calls saying the 35-year-old had been hurt. Video footage shot by another worker showed him sitting in the open, badly burned and bleeding, crying out for help.

“He never imagined he would be hurt. That a missile would fall on him,” said Maruf Hasain, his younger brother.

Workers like Mamun are the most vulnerable since they do the “most dirty, dangerous and difficult” jobs, said Shariful Islam Hasan of the Bangladeshi development organization BRAC.

In Qatar, a 27-year-old Bangladeshi factory worker labored through 12-hour shifts as missiles flew overhead. Shrapnel from one strike fell near his living quarters. When alarms sounded, he said, workers went to a designated room.

He earns less than $400 monthly and sends two-thirds home. “We have no choice but to keep working,” he said on condition of anonymity for fear of angering the authorities.

Qatar enacted several reforms in the run-up to hosting the 2022 World Cup, including the partial dismantling of a system that tied workers to their employers. But activists say abuses are still widespread and that workers have few avenues to pursue justice.

Ahmed al-Aliyli, a taxi driver in Qatar, has not sent money home to his family in Egypt for two months. He once earned as much as $3,000 a month, but his income has plunged to a third of that as the war has disrupted travel. “We are the collateral damage of this war,” he said.

A slowdown in key sectors like real estate and construction will hit migrant workers directly, said Hasan, of BRAC. Workers from Bangladesh and Pakistan are especially vulnerable, as they are often employed informally and without fixed contracts, he said.

Despite reforms in some countries, work permits are also often tied to a single employer and, in some cases, workers are effectively stranded, according to the labor coalition. It warned that some employers may use the conflict to withhold wages, deny leave or carry out arbitrary dismissals.

For many, going home isn't an option

When the war began, Mamun’s mother, Shahida Khatun, urged him to come home.

He had been saving up since November. In his last call home, he promised his younger brother and sisters he would pay for their studies, that he would build a larger house for his parents and return for good this spring.

Now, his family is struggling to recover his wages and piece together a life without him.

“The pain of losing a child. There are no words to describe the agony,” Khatun said.

For many workers, going home would mean giving up a steady income and much higher wages.

Marlene Flores, a Filipina worker in Qatar, said she felt the shudder each time a missile was intercepted. But the tax-free pay and health insurance made it feel safer — in a way — than the Philippines, which has declared a "national energy emergency.”

“It’s not easy for me to say,” she admitted. “But I would really stay here.”

Israel also has a large population of foreign workers. Filipino caregiver Jeremiah Supan continued caring for his two elderly charges despite near-daily missile alerts, sometimes dashing out for food or medicine despite the danger. He questions whether his own family could survive if he returns to the Philippines.

“I know that in the blink of an eye, one can die,” he said. “But what life shall we return to?”

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This story has been updated to correct the spelling of Shahida Khatun's last name on second reference.

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Gomez reported from Manila, Philippines. Associated Press writers Al Emrun Garjon in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Sam Magdy in Cairo and Eileen Ng in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, contributed to this report.

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The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

Our investigates team is looking into three ways you can make sure you don’t buy a stolen vehicle.

More people are buying used vehicles on websites

Inventory is low at traditional dealerships, so people are looking online now more than ever to find used cars at sites like Craigslist, Offer Up, and Facebook marketplace. But Houston Police Department Auto Theft Task Force Investigators say they are seeing a lot of stolen cars shuffled through these sites.

Where old school car thieves might jam a screwdriver in a vehicle’s ignition, today’s thieves are doing less damage to the cars they’re stealing.

#1 Inspect the key fob carefully

“Dealerships are getting ripped off more. Valets are getting ripped off more, so there’s a lot of new ways to get those key fobs,” said Sgt. Tracy Hicks, HPD Auto Theft Task Force.

Sgt. Tracy Hicks says criminals can reprogram random key fobs to start vehicles they don’t belong to. If you’re looking to buy a used vehicle, Hicks said you need to open up the fob and find the key inside.

“See if it fits in the door. If it’s a truck, see if it fits in the tailgate. See if it fits all the doors. Because if it doesn’t fit in that door, I promise you that car’s stolen and just walk away,” said Sgt. Hicks.

The same key that starts the ignition should unlock all of the doors.

#2 Beware of any seller who makes excuses about the title

Watch out for sellers who claim they don’t have a title, no matter the excuse. Often these fraud sellers try to stall the buyer.

“As soon as you pay me, I’m gonna go to the bank. I’m gonna get the title. When I get it, I’m gonna meet you again and sign it over to you,” said Sgt. Hicks. “Which 99% of the time that doesn’t happen. So please stop believing that.”

If you do buy a car without a title, you have to apply for a bonded title in order to get it registered and insured. And this is usually when buyers find out their new car was stolen. That’s when the police confiscate it and you will lose all of the money you paid for it.

RELATED: KPRC 2 Investigates bonded title issues in Harris County.

#3 Check the title before buying

You can and should do a title check before you purchase any used vehicle from an individual. Any legitimate person selling a used vehicle should be okay with you checking the title and history. The title check will cost you about $10.

The Texas DMV has a title check search before you buy.

The consumer must:

1. Complete and sign the Request for Texas Motor Vehicle Information (Form VTR-275).

2. Certify by initialing their intended use of the information on the back of the form.

3. Submit a completed and signed Form VTR-275 with a copy of the customer’s government-issued photo ID, written authorization, and required documentation, if applicable, by mail. Or visit a Texas Department of Motor Vehicles (TxDMV) Regional Service Center for assistance.

4. Include payment ($5.75 for title history or $6.75 for a certified title history) in the form of a personal check, money order, or cashier’s check made payable to TxDMV. Do not mail cash. Fees are not refundable. If the requested information will be used for legal purposes, a “certified title history” is recommended.

To contact the department, you can visit http://www.txdmv.gov/contact-us.

You can also check the car history before buying on car buying websites. This may not be as easy because often these vehicles are in other states. We’ve told you before about the issues some of these online car websites are having.

The Pentagon announced last week it would pull some 5,000 troops out of Germany, but Trump told reporters on Saturday the U.S. plans on “cutting a lot further.”

Trump offered no reason for the move, which blindsided NATO. But his decision came amid an escalating dispute with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who said the U.S. has been humiliated by Iran in talks to end the war it launched with Israel on Feb. 28. Trump has also expressed anger over European allies’ reluctance to get involved in the conflict.

European leaders meeting at a summit in Yerevan, Armenia, sought to both downplay the impact of 5,000 fewer troops in Germany while acknowledging that it provides a useful nudge for the continent to step up its role within NATO.

“I do not see those figures as dramatic, but I think they should be handled in a harmonious way inside the framework of NATO,” said Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said “there needs to be a stronger European element in NATO, I have no doubt about that.”

Tensions within NATO have mounted since the second Trump administration came into office last year warning that European allies would have to defend themselves and Ukraine in the future. Talks on ending the war there, now in its fourth year, have bogged down as the U.S. focuses on Iran.

Taken by surprise

The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, said the timing of Trump's announcement came as a surprise, even though there has been “talk about withdrawal of U.S. troops for a long time from Europe."

Asked whether she believes Trump is trying to punish Merz, Kallas said: “I don’t see into the head of President Trump, so he has to explain it himself.”

Merz did not attend the European Political Community summit in Yerevan, which included about 30 European leaders, plus Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney.

At a military exercise in northern Germany, the country's defense minister, Boris Pistorius, said Berlin has not yet received “official confirmation of when and how this is supposed to happen, on what scale.” The reduction of U.S. troops “would not put into question NATO’s deterrence capability," he added.

European countries and Canada have increased defense spending and military recruitment efforts over the last year in response to Trump’s threats.

NATO seeks clarity

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte also played down the significance of fewer U.S. troops in Germany, while acknowledging U.S. “disappointment" about the level of European support for the Iran war.

France and the U.K. have given U.S. forces limited use of bases on their territories to attack Iran. Spain has outright denied U.S. forces the use of its airspace and bases.

Rutte, who has championed Trump’s leadership at NATO despite the U.S. president’s criticism of a majority of the allies, said: “I would say the Europeans have heard a message.”

European allies and Canada have known since early last year that Trump would pull some troops out of Europe — and some were pulled out of Romania in October — but U.S. officials had pledged to coordinate any moves with NATO allies to avoid creating a security vacuum.

NATO spokesperson Allison Hart said over the weekend that officials at the 32-nation military alliance “are working with the U.S. to understand the details of their decision on force posture in Germany.”

Iran and trade trouble

With the ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran looking shakier, Rutte said European nations “have decided to pre-position assets, key assets, close to the theater for the next phase.” He provided no further details.

European leaders have insisted their countries would not help police the Strait of Hormuz, a key energy trade route, until the war is over.

“If the United States is ready to reopen Hormuz, that’s great. That’s what we’ve been asking for since the beginning,” said French President Emmanuel Macron. But he underlined that Europeans are not ready to get involved in any operation “that does not seem clear.”

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Cook reported from Brussels. Associated Press writer Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed to this report.

The Houston Life primetime special program airs Friday, May 8 at 7 p.m. on KPRC 2.

The 9,500 gallery features five immersive exhibits:

• Tot*Spot - This space has been reimagined with an oversized garden, buzzing beehive, meandering path and lots of soft surfaces and rounded corners that provide a safe place for the youngest children to learn.
• Into the Woods - Climb up into a tree and slide down to a sweet little campsite! This mini forest of imagination is perfect for energetic little ones.
• Under the Waves - Explore tunnels and find sea creatures hiding in nooks in this special area designed with calming, sensory-friendly lights, sounds and water displays.
• Viva Village - Calling all little helpers! Viva Village encourages children to learn through play as they groom toy pets, cook in the the play kitchen and run errands at the market. Kids can imagine themselves running a household and even their own business.
• Treetop Terrace - Opening soon! We can’t wait to see this breezy outdoor space where children can drive little cars and run around with new friends!

Children’s Museum Houston also offers nearly two dozen early learning programs where children learn through music, movement, experiments and more. Check out the museum’s full calendar of events here.

The State Department said Monday that Rubio, a Catholic who with this trip will have visited Italy or the Vatican at least three times as the Republican president's top diplomat, would be in Italy on Thursday and Friday. The Vatican announced that Rubio would meet with Leo, the first American pontiff, on Thursday.

“Secretary Rubio will meet with Holy See leadership to discuss the situation in the Middle East and mutual interests in the Western Hemisphere,” the department said. “Meetings with Italian counterparts will be focused on shared security interests and strategic alignment.”

The trip comes as Trump has criticized Leo for his stances on the Middle East and elsewhere and as the president has drawn pushback for posting a social media image likening himself to Jesus Christ.

Trump lashed out at Leo on social media last month, saying the pope was soft on crime and terrorism for comments about the administration's immigration policies and deportations as well as the Iran war. Leo then said God doesn't listen to the prayers of those who wage war. Then, Trump posted the Christ-like image of himself.

Trump has refused to apologize to Leo and has sought to explain away the now-deleted social media post by saying he thought the image was of him as a doctor.

The tension has spilled over into Italian politics, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, a long-time Trump ally, taking exception to Trump's comments about the pope. Trump in return also criticized her as his ire against NATO allies expands over what he sees as a lack of support for the Iran war — most recently with the Pentagon planning to pull thousands of troops out of Germany in the coming months.

Rubio has often been called on to tone down or explain Trump’s harsh rhetoric as it relates to Europe, NATO and the Middle East, but the dispute with the pope has domestic political implications in the U.S. with midterm congressional elections approaching.

Leo, the first U.S.-born pope, has said he was not making a direct attack against Trump or anyone else with his general appeal for peace and criticisms of the Iran war and other conflicts around the world.

Rubio has already traveled to Italy twice in his official capacity as secretary of state since last year. The first trip in May 2025 included Leo's inaugural mass and a private meeting with the pontiff and Vice President JD Vance. The second, in February, was also with Vance when they both attended the opening of the Milan Winter Olympics and met with American athletes.

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This story has been corrected to show that Rubio will have visited Italy or the Vatican at least three times when this week’s trip is included.

The Texas Motor Vehicle Crime Prevention Authority released new data ranking vehicle thefts from Nov. 1 through Nov. 30, 2025. Houston topped the list, followed by Dallas, San Antonio, Austin and Fort Worth.

Pickup trucks dominated the statewide rankings, representing four of the six most-stolen models.

Kia and Hyundai — two manufacturers that have drawn national attention for theft vulnerabilities — also accounted for three spots in the top 10.

Top 10 Most Stolen Vehicles in Texas (Nov. 2025)

1. Chevy Silverado
2. GMC Sierra
3. Hyundai Elantra
4. Ford F-150
5. Hyundai Sonata
6. Ford F-250
7. Dodge Challenger
8. Kia Optima
9. Ram 1500
10. Chevy Tahoe

Habanero, an adult male, was euthanized Saturday to prevent further suffering at the Central Florida Zoo and Botanical Gardens. He had been taken there for rehabilitation along with a dozen other sloths given up by Sloth World, a tourist attraction planned for Orlando's tourism district that never opened, zoo officials said.

Another sloth, Bandit, died last week after being transferred to the zoo.

“When the sloths arrived, all were underweight and are being treated for gastrointestinal (GI) issues, requiring intensive, specialized care,” the zoo said in a statement. “Habanero initially showed encouraging signs of stabilization, including eating and drinking regularly under the close supervision of the zoo’s veterinary and animal care teams. In recent days, however, his condition worsened.”

A criminal investigation into the sloths' treatment under Sloth World's care is underway by state and local authorities.

Inspection reports by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission revealed 31 deaths between December 2024 and February 2025.

The wildlife agency said 21 sloths imported from Guyana died at an Orlando facility called Sanctuary World Imports at the time in December 2024 when temperatures dropped into the 40-to-55 degree Fahrenheit (4.4 to 12.8 degrees Celsius) range. Sloths are unable to regulate their body temperature as well as other mammals and do best in the 68-to-85 degree Fahrenheit (20 to 30 degrees Celsius) range.

The tourist attraction later ordered 10 sloths from Peru, which arrived in February 2025. Two were dead on arrival. The rest appeared emaciated and died of what the report termed “poor health issues," according to the state agency's report.

There was no answer Monday at a phone number listed for the tourist attraction in the wildlife agency's report.

The newest lawsuit comes from the city’s former administrator, who alleges he was fired in retaliation for speaking out about claims that Mayor Matthew Dantzer assaulted and sexually harassed City Secretary Christian Gable during a work trip.

The filing accuses city leadership of punishing him for raising concerns tied to the same allegations that are now at the center of both criminal charges and multiple civil cases.

RELATED: Magnolia city secretary breaks silence after mayor’s assault, official oppression indictment

With three federal lawsuits now filed, a criminal case underway, and a new mayor preparing to take office, Magnolia faces a complex and uncertain path forward.

A growing list of allegations

This latest case marks the third federal lawsuit connected to Dantzer in just over a month.

Gable and former Human Resources Director Kristy Powell previously filed federal lawsuits alleging sexual harassment, retaliation, and failures by the city to properly investigate claims.

Both women say they faced consequences after reporting alleged misconduct.

MORE INFO: Magnolia mayor arrested, charged with felony assault of pregnant woman following Texas Rangers investigation

Gable has publicly described what she says was a pattern of inappropriate and escalating behavior that began after she started working at City Hall.

She alleges repeated sexualized comments, including being referred to as the mayor’s “sexitary,” and claims the situation escalated during an October work conference in Fort Worth.

According to Gable, the mayor allegedly attempted to pull down her pants in public and later grabbed her by the throat, pinning her against a structure outside a hotel while she was five months pregnant.

She says surveillance video reviewed later by investigators captured the incident.

The allegations prompted an investigation by the Texas Rangers, which ultimately led to Dantzer’s indictment on charges including aggravated assault of a pregnant person and official oppression.

He was arrested on a Tarrant County warrant and later released on bond.

Dantzer has denied all allegations through his attorney, stating he maintains his innocence and intends to defend himself through the legal process.

Leadership change amid ongoing legal battles

The legal developments come as Magnolia voters have elected a new mayor, signaling a shift in leadership.

However, the transition does not immediately resolve the ongoing cases.

Dantzer remains under criminal indictment and continues to face multiple federal lawsuits, even as his time in office comes to an end.

City officials have previously indicated that removal from office would require either resignation, a court petition, or a criminal conviction.

The overlap between a leadership transition and active legal proceedings leaves several unanswered questions for the city, including how incoming leadership will address the allegations, potential policy failures, and the impact of ongoing litigation.

Just 300 miles (500 kilometers) or so across, this mini Pluto is thought to be the solar system's smallest object yet with a clearly detected global atmosphere bound by gravity, said lead researcher Ko Arimatsu of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan.

“This is an amazing development, but it sorely needs independent verification. The implications are profound if verified,” said Southwest Research Institute's Alan Stern, the lead scientist behind NASA's New Horizons mission to Pluto and beyond. He was not involved in the study.

The finding offers fresh insight into our solar system’s farthest, coldest objects in a region known as the Kuiper Belt. Researchers used three telescopes in Japan to observe the object in 2024 as it passed in front of a background star, briefly dimming the starlight.

“It changes our view of small worlds in the solar system, not only beyond Neptune,” Arimatsu said in an email. Finding an atmosphere around such a small object was “genuinely surprising," he added, and challenges “the conventional view that atmospheres are limited to large planets, dwarf planets and some large moons.”

This so-called minor planet — formally known as (612533) 2002 XV93 — is considered a plutino, circling the sun twice in the time it takes Neptune to complete three solar orbits. At the time of the study, it was more than 3.4 billion miles (5.5 billion kilometers) away, farther than even Pluto, the only other object in the Kuiper Belt with an observed atmosphere.

This cosmic iceball’s atmosphere is believed to be 5 million to 10 million times thinner than Earth’s protective atmosphere, according to the the study appearing Monday in the journal Nature Astronomy.

It’s 50 to 100 times thinner than even Pluto’s tenuous atmosphere. The likeliest atmospheric chemicals are methane, nitrogen or carbon monoxide, any of which could reproduce the observed dimming as the object passed before the star, according to Arimatsu.

Further observations, especially by NASA’s Webb Space Telescope, could verify the makeup of the atmosphere, according to Arimatsu.

“That is why future monitoring is so important," he said. "If the atmosphere fades over the next several years, that would support an impact origin. If it persists, or varies seasonally, that would point more toward ongoing internal gas supply” from ice volcanoes.

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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.

Welcome to Round 2 of the NBA playoffs — which isn't lacking for star power.

Perennial All-Stars, Olympic gold medalists, past, present and likely future MVPs, they're all in the conference semifinal round that starts Monday with two games: Philadelphia at New York and Minnesota at San Antonio.

The other pair of Game 1s will be played on Tuesday: Cleveland at Detroit, and the Los Angeles Lakers at Oklahoma City.

Monday's schedule

— Game 1, Philadelphia at New York, 8 p.m. EDT (NBC/Peacock)

Odds: New York by 7.5 points.

It's the fifth time (including the Syracuse era for the 76ers) that the teams have met in a conference semifinal series. Philadelphia won each of the previous four, going a combined 14-2 in those games.

— Game 1, Minnesota at San Antonio, 9:30 p.m. EDT (Peacock/NBCSN)

Odds: San Antonio by 12.5.

The Spurs beat the Timberwolves 3-1 in the first round of the 1999 and 2001 playoffs. The teams haven't had a playoff series since, until now.

Tuesday's schedule

— Game 1, Cleveland at Detroit, 7 p.m. EDT (Peacock/NBCSN)

Odds: Detroit by 3.5.

Both teams are coming off seven-game grinds in Round 1, and will have to refocus quickly. At least it won't be a long trip for the Cavaliers; by air, their flight to Detroit is just 96 miles.

— Game 1, LA Lakers at Oklahoma City, 8:30 p.m. EDT (NBC/Peacock)

Odds: Oklahoma City by 15.5.

A team with LeBron James, as a 15.5-point underdog, in a playoff game? The only thing that has come close to that in the last 15 years is when James and Cleveland were 12.5-point underdogs to Golden State in an NBA Finals game in 2018.

Sunday recap

— Pistons 116, Magic 94 to win series 4-3. Orlando fired Jamahl Mosley.

— Cavaliers 114, Raptors 102 to win series 4-3. A tough end for Toronto,

Awards watch

A breakdown of this season's NBA awards:

— Twyman-Stokes Teammate of the Year: DeAndre Jordan, New Orleans.

— Hustle Award: Moussa Diabaté, Charlotte.

— Defensive Player of the Year: Victor Wembanyama, San Antonio.

— Clutch Player of the Year: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Oklahoma City.

— Sixth Man of the Year: Keldon Johnson, San Antonio.

— Sportsmanship Award: Derrick White, Boston.

— Most Improved Player: Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Atlanta.

— Rookie of the Year: Cooper Flagg, Dallas.

— Executive of the Year: Brad Stevens, Boston.

Among the announcements still to come:

— Most Valuable Player: Gilgeous-Alexander, Wembanyama or Denver's Nikola Jokic.

— Coach of the Year: Detroit's J.B. Bickerstaff, San Antonio's Mitch Johnson or Boston's Joe Mazzulla.

Betting odds

Defending champion Oklahoma City (-140) is favored to win the NBA title, according to oddsmakers.

The Thunder were followed by San Antonio (+350), New York (+900), Detroit (+1700), Cleveland (+2000) and the Los Angeles Lakers (+2500). Philadelphia (+3500) is next, followed by Minnesota (+10000).

Some neighborly rivalries await

Expect plenty of fans of visiting teams in the stands around the NBA during Round 2, especially in the Eastern Conference.

By car, it's only 100 miles between the arenas in Philadelphia and New York and only 168 miles between the arenas in Detroit and Cleveland. That means it'll be relatively easy for fans who want to hit the road to do some cheering.

The West series, they're not exactly drive-able. It's 1,248 miles between arenas in San Antonio and Minneapolis, and 1,330 miles between the ones in Los Angeles and Oklahoma City — but Lakers fans are everywhere, so it surely won't be all Thunder fans in OKC.

Key dates

— Monday and Tuesday: Conference semifinals begin.

— May 10: NBA draft lottery.

— May 10-17: NBA draft combine.

— May 17 or 19: Eastern Conference finals begin on ESPN and ABC.

— May 18 or 20: Western Conference finals begin on NBC and Peacock.

— June 3: Game 1, NBA Finals on ABC. (Other finals dates: June 5, June 8, June 10, June 13, June 16 and June 19).

— June 23: Round 1, NBA draft

— June 24: Round 2, NBA draft

Quote of the day

“It's frustrating, being in the same spot three years in a row and getting the same result.” — Orlando's Paolo Banchero, after the Magic were ousted in Round 1 for the third consecutive season.

Stats of the day

— It took 48 games to complete Round 1 of the playoffs, third-most in league history. The first round in 2014 lasted for 50 games and the opening round in 2003 lasted for 49 games.

— The league has had seven different champions in the last seven seasons, and of those franchises, only two are in Round 2 this year — the Lakers and Thunder, who will meet in a West semifinal.

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

U.S. District Court Judge Ana Reyes said during a remote hearing that she wasn't going to issue a temporary restraining order just yet in the case brought by the DC Preservation League. She also told the National Park Service that it should first discuss any plans with government lawyers if it was going to cut down more than 10 trees.

Monday's hearing came after the plaintiff's emergency petition seeking to stop work at the course, citing news reports that major renovations were to begin Monday.

Kevin Griess, the superintendent of the National Mall and Memorial Parks for the Park Service, said during the hearing there was no plan to begin such work Monday but added that a safety assessment was underway.

Reyes told the parties she didn't want to play the role of the “Parks and Rec” department, an allusion to the sitcom, but said she also didn't want trees being bulldozed.

“I'm no Amy Poehler," she said referring to the show's star.

At one point during Monday's hearing, the judge said she was made aware that closure signs had been put up at the site, which led to Griess asking someone to check. He later reported that there were no such signs. Reyes asked that if any such signs were found that the government's attorney be told.

The complaint filed against the Department of the Interior argues that the Trump administration’s reconstruction of East Potomac Park, including the East Potomac Golf Course, would violate the congressional act that created the park in 1897. The roughly 130-year-old act established the park for the “recreation and the pleasure of the people.” The course itself opened in 1919.

Trump, an avid golfer, also plans on renovating a military golf course just outside of Washington that has been used by past presidents going back decades.

It’s been getting worse. Over the past 12 months, missed garbage complaints climbed from 35,675 to 39,146. Missed heavy trash pickup nearly doubled the past 12 weeks alone, jumping from 2,916 to 5,440 complaints.

Steven David, Deputy Chief of Staff for Mayor John Whitmire, says the reasons go back years, and they start with a piece of infrastructure most Houstonians have never heard of.

Transfer Stations

Most people assume a garbage truck drives straight from their curb to a landfill. It doesn’t.

“Trucks, goes to the transfer station, which is close,” David explained to KPRC 2 News. “We have geographically dispersed ones. Dumps the trash haul, goes back into the neighborhood. Transfer station people bundle it up, put it on an 18-Wheeler, 18-Wheeler [takes it] to the landfill.”

The transfer station is the hub. It keeps neighborhood trucks on short routes and lets larger vehicles make the long haul to the landfill efficiently. Houston has five of them, positioned across the city to serve different areas.

Two are currently functioning, one in southeast Houston, and one in the southwest. The three others tell a more complicated story. The northeast station on Neches Street is under construction. The northwest station on Sommermeyer has been closed and has a demolition scheduled for June. The fifth, on Central Street, is among those David describes as effectively abandoned.

“The three that are not functioning [have] like giant holes in the roof, flocks of birds have moved in. There was a story about a couple of wild hogs that like ran off a couple folks in one of the other non-functioning ones,” David said.

Compounded decisions

David traced the deterioration to a policy decision made by a previous administration. The Solid Waste Department was allowed to stop contributing to what the city calls the Maintenance and Renewal Fund. It’s a general fund mechanism that pays for facility upkeep across departments.

He says the department took over its own maintenance.

RELATED: Houston mayor proposes new $5 monthly ‘administrative fee’ tied to trash service starting next year

“And the previous administration said, okay, that’s fine,” David adds. “What do you think the first thing was that they cut whenever they said you got to reduce your budget? Maintenance of the facilities.”

With three stations offline, trucks that would normally drop off nearby are rerouting to the two remaining facilities. Routes get longer. Shifts run over. Drivers collect overtime. Fewer pickups happen per day.

“We can’t improve these transfer stations, which creates longer route times, which creates longer work hours, which creates overtime for the department,” David said. “We can’t fix those because we can’t afford the capex, because it’s a general fund department. And it’s not fee-supported.”

The revenue sitting in rubble

The broken stations aren’t just costing the city money but they’re also preventing potential revenue.

“Transfer stations are really interesting,” said David. “They are like cash cow opportunities for a municipality.”

Right now, Houston contracts with a third-party vendor to operate its transfer stations who consolidates Houston’s trash and takes it out to the landfill at no charge to the city.

Because of the cuts to the department, David says all the city can do is support its drivers.

“They get to charge all the third-party companies, so the Texas Pride Disposals, BFIs, Waste Management’s, and they charge them $75 a ton,” he said. “We’ve done financial modeling. If we had all five transfer stations in our portfolio and we were running them, we’d make anywhere between $20 and $25 million dollars.”

The proposed fix

The Whitmire administration’s Fiscal Year 2027 (FY27) budget proposes converting Solid Waste into a municipal utility. The same model Houston uses for water and wastewater. That designation would come with a monthly fee charged to households, starting at $5 per month in FY27, and rising by $5 every year until it reaches $25 per month in Fiscal Year 2032.

The fee would allow the city to borrow against projected revenue.

“Whenever we bring in new revenue, we can issue debt against it,” David said. “So, we can immediately start to purchase more vehicles and fix those facilities and begin making money on those facilities.”

Houston would essentially charge less than cities around it. Documents he showed KPRC 2 News state Pasadena charges roughly $34 per month. Pearland charges $23. League City charges around $22. San Antonio, Dallas, Austin, Fort Worth, El Paso, and Arlington all fund solid waste through dedicated monthly fees. Houston according to the proposed budget we saw shows it’s the outlier among major Texas cities.

What’s at stake

The city’s five-year general fund outlook, shown to KPRC 2 News, shows a fund balance turning negative by FY27 without structural changes. The solid waste fee is one of two major reforms proposed. The other is a right-of-way rental fee charged to utilities that occupy public streets. That together are projected to bring roughly $200 million in new revenue, allowing the city to stay in positive until Fiscal Year 2030.

Without the fee, David believes the city has no path to fixing the transfer stations. Without fixed transfer stations, the routes stay long, overtime remains high, and the 311 queue keeps growing.

The construction activity at the northwest station and the pending demolition of the northwest facility suggests the city has already begun moving on some of its infrastructure. If the budget is approved, it would determine how quickly the three transfer stations come online.

Michigan Democrats won a state government trifecta in 2022 — control of the governorship and both chambers of the state Legislature — but lost the state House in 2024 and cling to a 19-18 state Senate majority. A Republican victory on Tuesday would deadlock the body at 19 senators each.

While the state constitution allows Democratic Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist II to break ties, Republicans could still block measures by withholding votes and preventing Democrats from reaching the 20-vote threshold required to pass legislation.

The nominees for the seat are Democrat Chedrick Greene, Republican Jason Tunney and Libertarian Ali Sledz.

Greene, a firefighter and former state Senate aide to McDonald Rivet, received 60% of the vote in the Feb. 3 Democratic special primary against five others. Tunney, an attorney and former executive at his family’s roofing company, won the GOP special primary with 51% of the vote against three opponents. Sledz, a graduate student and Army spouse, received the Libertarian Party nomination at a local party convention in January.

State Senate District 35 includes parts of Bay, Midland and Saginaw counties and borders Lake Huron. Although Republican Donald Trump carried all three counties in the 2024 presidential race, the portions of the counties that fall within District 35 are more competitive. McDonald Rivet won the seat in 2022 with 53% of the vote. Democrat Kamala Harris barely edged Trump in the district in 2024, 49.7% to 48.9%, on the strength of her 17-percentage-point lead in the Saginaw portion of the district. Trump posted smaller leads in the parts of the district in Bay and Midland counties. District voters also preferred Democrat Joe Biden over Trump in the 2020 presidential race by a slightly larger margin.

McDonald Rivet vacated the seat in January 2025 following her election to Congress. Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced in August 2025 that the special primary would be held Feb. 3 and the special election on Tuesday.

The winner will complete the remaining eight months of the term. Both Greene and Tunney have filed to run in the Aug. 4 primaries for nomination to a full term.

The Associated Press does not make projections and will declare a winner only when it’s determined there is no scenario that would allow a trailing candidate to close the gap. If a race has not been called, the AP will continue to cover any newsworthy developments, such as candidate concessions or declarations of victory. In doing so, the AP will make clear that it has not yet declared a winner and explain why.

Michigan’s mandatory recount law does not apply to state Senate races. Instead, candidates may request and pay for a recount, with the payment refunded if the recount changes the outcome. The AP may declare a winner in a race that is subject to a recount if it can determine the lead is too large for a recount or legal challenge to change the outcome.

Here are some of the key facts about the election and data points the AP Decision Team will monitor as the votes are tallied:

When do polls close?

Polls in Senate District 35 close at 8 p.m. ET.

What’s on the ballot?

The AP will provide vote results and declare a winner in the state Senate special election. Three candidates are on the ballot. Write-in votes are not permitted for this election, since no write-in candidates filed the necessary paperwork with election officials.

Who gets to vote?

Any voter registered in state Senate District 35 may participate in the special election. Voters may register on Election Day.

How many people actually vote?

Nearly 46,000 voters cast ballots in the Feb. 3 special primary in District 35. There were slightly more than 17,000 votes from Saginaw County, just shy of 17,000 from Bay County and about 11,000 from Midland County.

In the regularly scheduled 2022 general election, about 116,000 ballots were cast in the district, with the share of votes from each county about the same as in the special primary.

How much of the vote is cast early or by absentee ballot?

In the Feb. 3 special primaries, early and absentee votes made up about 43% of the total Democratic primary vote and about 29% of the Republican vote.

By comparison, about 60% of the vote in the 2024 presidential general election was cast before Election Day.

As of Friday, about 32,000 ballots had already been cast in the special election.

When are early and absentee votes released?

Bay, Midland and Saginaw counties tend to release a relatively small amount of the vote in their first vote update, both in terms of advance votes and in-person Election Day votes. Bay County tends to release results from pre-Election Day voting at the end of the vote tabulation process, while Midland and Saginaw counties release them throughout the night along with results from in-person Election Day voting.

How long does vote-counting usually take?

The last time this seat was up, in 2022, the AP first reported results in state Senate District 35 at 8:53 p.m. ET, or 53 minutes after polls closed. About 89% of the vote had been tallied by 2:23 a.m. ET, with the last vote update of the night at 5:33 a.m. ET, with about 99.9% of total votes counted.

Are we there yet?

As of Tuesday, there will be 91 days until the Aug. 4 state primary and 182 days until the 2026 midterm elections.

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Follow the AP’s coverage of the 2026 election at https://apnews.com/projects/elections-2026/.

Munetaka Murakami has certainly provided that.

The 26-year-old infielder from Japan is tied with Aaron Judge for the major league lead with 13 home runs. That accounts for nearly half of Murakami's hits so far this season. He has 14 singles and no doubles or triples.

This type of all-or-nothing production would be quite rare if it continues for an entire season. So far, 48.1% of Murakami's hits have been homers. The single-season record — among players who qualified for the batting title — is 46.8% by Barry Bonds. He did it during his famous 2001 season, when he slugged a record 73 home runs and had 156 hits.

Next in line are two of Mark McGwire's best years. He had 70 homers on 152 hits (46.1%) in 1998, and 65 homers on 145 hits (44.8%) in 1999. Only nine players have homered on at least 40% of their hits, but not all of them needed stratospheric home run totals to do it. Joey Gallo hit 41 home runs on 94 hits (43.6%) in 2017, finishing with a .209 average. That might be a more reasonable comp for Murakami, who is batting .223.

Following Murakami's lead, the White Sox rank 28th in the major leagues in batting average and ninth in home runs. Colson Montgomery is hitting .227 with nine homers. It was an encouraging week for Chicago, which had a chance to reach .500 on Sunday but lost to San Diego — the end of a five-game winning streak.

Murakami signed a two-year, $34 million contract in the offseason to come over from Japan and join the White Sox. Montgomery, meanwhile, is 24 and under team control for a while. On the pitching side, left-hander Noah Schultz has made his debut this season and is 2-1 with a 2.53 ERA.

And the White Sox also have the No. 1 pick in the upcoming draft.

Trivia time

Who holds the single-season record for the White Sox in percentage of hits for a home run?

ABS impact

So far there doesn't seem to be a huge correlation between success with the automated ball-strike system and winning. The teams with the most successful ABS challenges are the Twins (52), Rockies (50), Marlins (46), Athletics (45) and Royals (44). Only the A's are above .500 from that group.

On a percentage basis, the teams with the best success rate have been the Diamondbacks (64.3%), Padres (62.3%), Royals (62%), Tigers (60.7%) and Reds (59.6%). San Diego, Detroit and Cincinnati have winning records.

Performance of the week

Ranger Suarez struck out 10 in eight one-hit innings for the Boston Red Sox in a 5-0 win over Toronto on Monday night. That was a third straight victory for the struggling Red Sox, but they've dropped four of five since. Suarez left Sunday's start after four innings because of hamstring issues.

Comeback of the week

The Atlanta Braves scored seven runs in the last three innings to beat Colorado 8-6 on Friday night. The Braves were down 6-1 in the seventh. They scored a run that inning and then four more in the eighth, with Mauricio Dubón's bases-loaded triple the highlight. Michael Harris II's two-run homer in the top of the ninth put Atlanta ahead.

The Rockies' win probability peaked at 97.7% according to Baseball Savant.

After sweeping three straight at Colorado, the Braves have an 8 1/2-game lead in the NL East. Atlanta also has the best run differential in baseball at plus-81.

Trivia answer

Adam Dunn hit 41 homers on 110 hits (37.3%) in 2012, finishing with a .204 average. That also was the year he set the American League record by striking out 222 times.

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

Dozens of dancers in vivid oranges, greens and blues stomped, leaped and collapsed into the sand of the sun-baked village of Toubab Dialao, an hour from the capital Dakar.

Founded in 1997, the African Dance Biennial has spent nearly three decades rotating across African cities — most recently Maputo, Mozambique, in 2023 — with the aim of raising the visibility of choreographic work on the continent.

The three-day event, which closed late Sunday, was held at the École des Sables, or School of Sands, in Toubab Dialao.

The school has become the continent’s most prominent professional dance training institution in recent years. It was founded in 1998 by Germaine Acogny, who is widely regarded as the mother of African contemporary dance.

Its open-air sand studio, a hallmark of Acogny’s nature-rooted teaching philosophy, has drawn dancers from dozens of countries for intensive courses blending her original contemporary technique with traditional West African and Black modern dance styles.

The École des Sables gained international attention in recent years as the home of the first African production of Pina Bausch’s “The Rite of Spring,” which toured globally from 2021 to 2025.

The biennial comes as the school faces an uncertain future. A billion-dollar deep water port project overseen by Dubai Ports World, under construction just south of the fishing village, threatens to expropriate surrounding land, including property the school acquired to protect its natural ecosystem.

Arts institutions in the area have formed an association to resist the development.

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This version corrects the company name to Dubai Ports World.

The national gaming retailer said that its approximately 1,600 U.S. stores could become drop-off and shipping locations. One proposal includes live sales broadcasts from GameStop locations featuring eBay products.

“EBay has the second largest commerce franchise and there’s a big opportunity to do something much larger,” Cohen said in a CNBC interview Monday.

GameStop's bid is $125 per share in cash and stock. The equity value of the proposed deal is $55 billion on paper.

EBay confirmed the huge bid on Monday and said that it has had no talks with GameStop or received any outreach from the company before it received the proposal.

The company's board, along with financial and legal advisors, will review the offer and determine what course of action to take, eBay said.

GameStop said that it started accumulating shares in eBay beginning in February and currently has a 5% stake.

The company is looking to lower costs at eBay, saying that the online seller spent $2.4 billion on sales and marketing in fiscal 2025 while only adding 1 million net active buyers. GameStop says it will achieve $2 billion in annualized cost cuts within a year of the proposed transaction's closing.

Cohen, who owns about 9% of GameStop, would serve as CEO of the combined company. He would only be compensated based on the combined company's performance.

Cohen became CEO of GameStop in 2023. At the time the position had become a rotating door with the company trying to survive as streaming upended the gaming industry. GameStop became one of the most well-known meme stocks to create a frenzy among retail traders on Wall Street. The company’s shares took off in 2021 after a band of smaller-pocketed investors helped boost its stock by 1,000% in two weeks.

GameStop shares have fallen since then, but are still up more than 30% this year.

Shares of eBay jumped more than 7% in premarket trading, while GameStop's stock declined nearly 3%.

Ohio is expected to play a high-profile role in the midterm elections, with a prominent ally of President Donald Trump vying for an open seat for governor and competitive races for the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House that could decide control of both chambers for the final two years of the Republican's presidency.

In the race to replace outgoing GOP Gov. Mike DeWine, tech entrepreneur and 2024 presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy faces auto racing engineer and internet personality Casey Putsch for the Republican nomination.

Ramaswamy has endorsements from Trump and the Ohio Republican Party and entered the final stretch of the primary campaign with a $31 million war chest, including $25 million from his personal funds. Putsch raised about $123,000 and had about $8,700 in his campaign account as of the most recent filing in April.

A third candidate, Heather Hill, was disqualified from the race after her running mate withdrew from the ticket in an acrimonious split. Their names will still appear on the ballot, but votes cast for them will not be counted.

The winner will face Dr. Amy Acton, who is unopposed for the Democratic nomination. Acton was director of the Ohio Department of Health during the early days of the state’s COVID-19 pandemic response until her resignation in June 2020.

In the U.S. Senate race, Democratic former Sen. Sherrod Brown is running to reclaim his old job in Washington. A Brown victory in November is again pivotal to Democratic hopes of winning control of the Senate, as was the case in 2024, when his loss to Republican Bernie Moreno helped secure a GOP majority.

Brown faces Ron Kincaid for the Democratic nomination. Brown had an enormous fundraising advantage over Kincaid as of mid-April.

The Republican nominee will be Sen. Jon Husted, who faces no primary challengers. Husted was lieutenant governor when he was appointed to fill the Senate seat JD Vance vacated to become vice president. The seat will be up again for a full term in 2028.

Among the notable U.S. House races, a crowded Republican field is competing to take on Democratic U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur in the 9th Congressional District. The 22-term incumbent narrowly won reelection in 2024 over Republican Derek Merrin in one of the final races to be called that cycle.

Merrin is again running for the GOP nomination against a field that includes former Immigration and Customs Enforcement Deputy Director Madison Sheahan, state Rep. Josh Williams and two others.

Lucas County, home to Toledo, is by far the most influential in the 9th Congressional District primaries. It contributed more than one-third of the total vote in the 2024 Republican U.S. House primary. Merrin and Williams are from Lucas County, while Sheahan’s home base is Ottawa County.

Franklin and Cuyahoga counties, home to Columbus and Cleveland, respectively, are the state’s most populous and play big roles in both Democratic and Republican statewide primaries, as do Hamilton, Montgomery and Summit counties.

Trump’s endorsement should be a boost to Ramaswamy. Trump carried every county in the 2024 Republican presidential primary.

The Associated Press does not make projections and will declare a winner only when it’s determined there is no scenario that would allow a trailing candidate to close the gap. If a race has not been called, the AP will continue to cover any newsworthy developments, such as candidate concessions or declarations of victory. In doing so, the AP will make clear that it has not yet declared a winner and explain why.

Recounts in Ohio are automatic if the margin is less than 0.25% of the total vote in statewide races or 0.5% in congressional district races. The AP may declare a winner in a race that is eligible for a recount if it can determine the lead is too large for a recount or legal challenge to change the outcome.

Here are some of the key facts about the election and data points the AP Decision Team will monitor as the votes are tallied:

When do polls close?

Polls close at 7:30 p.m. ET.

What’s on the ballot?

The AP will provide vote results and declare winners in contested primaries for the U.S. Senate, the U.S. House, governor, attorney general, secretary of state, treasurer, the state Supreme Court, the state Senate and the state House.

Who gets to vote?

Any registered voter in Ohio may participate in any party’s primary. Ohio does not register voters by party, but voters who participate in a party’s primary will be considered affiliated with that party.

How many voters are there?

As of Friday, there were about 7.9 million registered voters in Ohio.

How many people actually vote?

The 2022 Republican primaries for the U.S. Senate and governor each had about 1.1 million total votes cast, which was roughly 14% of registered voters at the time. The Democratic U.S. Senate primary had about 518,000 total votes cast, and the Democratic gubernatorial primary had about 509,000 votes cast.

How much of the vote is cast early or by absentee ballot?

About 17% of the vote in the 2022 primaries was cast before primary day. About 25% of the vote was cast before primary day in the 2024 presidential primary.

As of Friday, more than 153,000 Democratic primary ballots and about 122,000 Republican primary ballots had already been cast in Tuesday’s election.

When are early and absentee votes released?

All 88 counties in Ohio tend to release all or almost all of their early and absentee voting results in the first vote update of the night, in most cases before any in-person Election Day results are released.

How long does vote-counting usually take?

In the 2024 Ohio presidential primary, the AP first reported results at 7:36 p.m. ET, or six minutes after polls closed. About 90% of the vote had been counted by 10:19 p.m. ET, and the last vote update of the night was at 1:28 a.m. ET, with more than 99% of total votes counted.

Are we there yet?

As of Tuesday, there will be 182 days until the 2026 midterm elections.

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Follow the AP’s coverage of the 2026 election at https://apnews.com/projects/elections-2026/.

Fifteen people were killed when two gunmen opened fire at the celebration on Bondi Beach in December. Father and son Sajid and Naveed Akram are accused of carrying out the massacre with guns they owned legally, in a country with tight controls on firearms. The attack, which followed a wave of separate antisemitic crimes in Australia, was inspired by the Islamic State group, authorities said.

The mass shooting prompted a Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion, the highest form of inquiry in Australia, that began public hearings in Sydney on Monday. The two-week sitting is due to scrutinize the nature and prevalence of antisemitism in Australia’s institutions and society.

Further hearings this year will examine other topics before the commission publishes its final report in December.

“The sharp spike in antisemitism that we’ve witnessed in Australia has been mirrored in other Western countries and seems clearly linked to events in the Middle East,” said Commissioner Virginia Bell. “It’s important that people understand how quickly those events can prompt ugly displays of hostility toward Jewish Australians simply because they’re Jews.”

Bondi attack followed a surge in hate crimes

All witnesses called to give evidence Monday were Jewish Australians who recounted their experiences of hatred, some speaking under pseudonyms out of fear for their safety. The daughter of one of those killed in the Bondi attacks said that a year earlier she was verbally abused while carrying her baby in a Sydney shopping mall by a man who spotted her Star of David necklace.

“I felt shocked, exposed and unsafe,” said Sheina Gutnick. “There were many people around me but no one intervened.”

Her father Reuven Morrison, 62, hurled a brick at one of the gunmen who attacked the gathering at the popular Sydney beach in December, before Morrison was shot and killed. Gutnick said she was cautious of attending events with her family in public places or traveling to certain parts of Sydney.

Australian Jews told the hearing Monday that the Bondi attacks followed a surge in antisemitic incidents since the war between Israel and Hamas began on Oct. 7, 2023. In the following year, more than 2,000 episodes were reported to the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, which tracks such figures, compared to a previous record of just under 500 the year before.

Jewish Australians recount assaults and abuse

Such escalation has also been reported in Britain and elsewhere. But Australia's small Jewish population was particularly shocked because its members had not registered such a volume of serious threats before, witnesses said Monday.

“Now everyone is scared all the time,” said Toby Raphael, vice president of Sydney’s Newtown Synagogue, which was daubed with swastikas during a wave of antisemitic crimes in the city in 2025.

Raphael said he had once told congregants there was no need for security at the synagogue, but the ramp-up in hate-fueled attacks had changed that. He added that he was part of a parent security group at his son’s Jewish school, which is also protected by professional guards carrying guns.

“Why do kids have to go to school like that?” Raphael said. “This is the world that the Jews of Australia live in now and it needs to change.”

Antisemitism in Australia was growing in profile before the Bondi shooting because of a spate of attacks on Jewish schools, businesses and places of worship. Australia’s government in August said Iran had orchestrated at least two of the crimes and cut diplomatic ties with Tehran.

Some of those giving evidence to the inquiry on Monday cited these episodes when they said they were considering leaving Australia or already planned to move abroad.

Others spoke of being verbally or physically attacked or having crowds of pro-Palestinian protesters arrive at their synagogues. Alex Ryvchin, a Jewish group leader whose house was targeted by arson in 2025, said he believed Australia was “on a path to catastrophe,” after the crime at his home and he warned reporters that someone would die.

“This was January, and by December there was a horrific massacre which has transformed us permanently,” he told Monday’s hearing.

The hearings follow a report urging gun reform

The massacre roiled Australia, where serious gun crime has been rare since controls were tightened after a mass shooting in Tasmania 30 years ago. Australia’s federal and state governments are now considering further reforms.

An interim report from the Royal Commission released in April, which examined the capacity of Australian law enforcement and the security services to respond to antisemitic crimes, recommended that Australia’s leaders prioritize enacting nationally consistent gun laws and a weapons buyback.

Sajid Akram was shot dead by police at the crime scene. He was a licensed shooter who legally owned the guns used.

His son was wounded but survived. Naveed Akram has been charged with committing a terrorist act, 15 counts of murder and 40 counts of attempted murder. He has entered no pleas.

Republican Donald Trump may have won the state by double digits in the last presidential election, but growing dissatisfaction with his leadership and rising costs from the Iran war could help set the stage for Democrats to make previously unattainable gains.

Iowa Democrats plan to have 60 field organizers on the ground by June, nearly double from eight years ago during the midterm elections of Trump's first term. Another two dozen people will staff a coordinated campaign that's intended to support candidates for governor, U.S. House and U.S. Senate, among others.

“Iowa is still, in my view, a purple state," state party chair Rita Hart said in an interview. "We just haven’t given them an opportunity to show that lately.”

Republicans insist that Iowa will remain red, but White House travel plans suggest there may be some concern. Vice President JD Vance is visiting on Tuesday to support Rep. Zach Nunn, who represents Des Moines, its suburbs and the state's rural center. Trump also chose Iowa as his first stop when he began his midterm campaigning earlier this year.

Iowa has an unusual number of competitive races for open seats this year, with Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds and Republican Sen. Joni Ernst both opting out of reelection bids.

Leading what Hart called “the best statewide ticket we’ve had for a generation" is Rob Sand, the state auditor running for governor. He ended last year with $13 million in his campaign account, and he often highlights his rural roots, Christian faith and bowhunting prowess, as well as a disdain for partisan politics, to try to appeal to Iowans of all backgrounds.

Josh Turek and Zach Wahls, both state lawmakers, are seeking the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate in the June 2 primary. The party is also targeting three of the four Republican-held U.S. House seats.

Democrats focus on cost of living

Democrats believe a populist economic message could resonate in Iowa when farmers are squeezed by tariffs and face higher prices for fertilizer and diesel fuel. In addition, hundreds of people have lost jobs as factories and meat processors shut down, and rural residents are driving further to see doctors as healthcare clinics close.

This year's candidates are also willing to take swings at their own party, even though they will likely benefit from campaign spending by national organizations.

Turek and Wahls say Democrats have abandoned the rural and small-town voters who placed hope in Trump to change the status quo. Turek, who calls himself a “prairie populist,” says there are too many millionaires in Congress who don’t know what it is to live paycheck to paycheck. Wahls, endorsed by several labor unions, says corruption in politics benefits corporate interests over working people.

Christina Bohannan, who is running for a third time to unseat Republican U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks in a southeast Iowa district, said both major political parties “have failed to really fight for working people.”

“Everybody’s talking about affordability,” she said. “I don’t want it just to become a catchphrase that people can kind of just brush aside as political rhetoric. This is real.”

Sand targets the entire political system, which he said "helps incumbents get reelected, rather than actually forcing them to solve our problems.” He recently introduced policy proposals, including term limits, bans on stock trading while in office, and open primaries.

Republicans say Democrats remain out of touch

Before Trump’s dominance in the region, it wasn’t uncommon to find Democrats representing the Midwest and Plains states in governors’ mansions or in Congress. Trump’s promises to resurrect American manufacturing jobs and “drain the swamp” won over voters who traditionally supported populist Democrats, said Iowa Democratic strategist Jeff Link.

“Because the knee-jerk reaction to Trump is to be the opposite of Trump, we went away from economic populism to our detriment,” Link said. “By just being anti-Trump, it is being condescending towards people that chose him three times.”

Tom Harkin, a former Democratic senator from Iowa, said Trump’s stumbles have created an opportunity for change.

“I think a lot of people wanted to get things shaken up a little bit," he said. "But I don’t think they wanted them shaken up like this."

Harkin said his party has an opportunity to rebrand itself.

“I think Democrats in the Midwest especially got painted with this broad brush, and we didn’t fight back well enough," he said. "We became more defensive.”

Republicans argue that Democrats' left-wing positions remain out of touch with Iowans' values.

“You can’t have political born-again experiences,” said Jeff Kaufmann, chairman of the Republican Party of Iowa. He said tweaking the message and running away from the national party is not going to “erase your history in one election cycle."

Kaufmann acknowledged that the cycle wouldn’t be easy but said Iowans trust Trump’s long game, knowing that he intends for tariffs to protect Iowa farmers and war with Iran to eliminate the country’s nuclear threat. But, he said, it took years for Democrats to lose the Iowa communities that flipped from supporting Barack Obama to backing Trump.

“It’s going to take a long time for them to build it back up again,” Kaufmann said.

Democrats try to rebuild

The political environment for Democrats has been bleak since Obama won the state in 2008 and 2012. Republicans have had total control in the Iowa state government for nearly a decade. All six members of the federal delegation are Republicans.

Democrats also lag Republicans by roughly 200,000 registered voters statewide and run at a deficit in each of the four congressional districts.

Iowa Democrats said 7,000 people have signed up over the past year to volunteer for Democratic candidates, and the state party will hold volunteer training sessions. The party has signed leases on eight field offices with plans to open at least seven more, including in blue-collar areas in eastern Iowa along the Mississippi River that supported Obama before pivoting to Trump.

“We’re investing so much in these organizers and in our county parties and supporting and training our volunteers,” Hart said. “It’s through these kinds of conversations where we build trust with voters.”

Senior leaders expect their spending this cycle to be on par with presidential years, reaching the high seven figures. They’re also pivoting from text messages and digital advertising to face-to-face conversations.

“Since the pandemic, we’ve really struggled with getting back to the basics with person-to-person communication," Hart said, adding, “We’ve got to get back to that.”

Follow the AP’s coverage of the 2026 election at https://apnews.com/projects/elections-2026/.

“If you scripted that one," Colorado coach Jared Bednar said, “I don’t know how you do. I can't explain it."

Cale Makar scored twice in the third period after returning from an earlier injury and the Avalanche overcame blowing a three-goal lead to beat the Minnesota Wild 9-6 on Sunday night in a wacky Game 1 of their second-round playoff series.

Makar, who left in the first period with an undisclosed ailment, scored his second goal of the game with 2:54 remaining to make it 8-6. Nathan MacKinnon added an empty-net goal with 2:08 remaining to seal it.

This was the 10th playoff game ever with at least 15 combined goals and just the second since 1994. There were five goals in each period.

“Just a weird game,” Makar said. “I don’t think we’re going to see that again. It’s probably a one-off, but glad we were able to stick with it and find a way to win.”

Who figured this? A high-scoring affair between two of the stingiest teams in the league with two elite goaltenders. There were 14 different players who notched a goal in a game that turned into a track meet. It's tied for the second-most in a playoff game.

“It’s nice to be able to win games like this,” captain Gabriel Landeskog said. “Not necessarily a coach’s dream or a player’s dream — we don’t want to give up six goals. It’s good to win this one but we’ve got lots of things to clean up.”

The Avalanche improved to 72-1 since moving to Colorado in 1995-96 when leading a playoff game by three or more goals. The lone loss was Game 5 against St. Louis in a season they went on to win the Stanley Cup.

A well-rested Colorado team led 3-0 with 6:47 left in the first period. But the Wild steadily climbed back and took a 5-4 lead on a short-handed goal from Marcus Foligno late in the second.

Devon Toews tied at 5-apiece in the second period. It was just the fourth Game 1 in playoff history with both teams scoring five or more goals through two periods.

“Listen, the game was helter-skelter,” Wild coach John Hynes said. “We lost the game. There are certain areas we've got to clean up and be ready to clean up. If you lose a game, you’ve got to take the lessons out of it, move on.”

Both goalies struggled, but made some timely saves, too. Scott Wedgewood, who had the league's best goals-against average this season, allowed one more goal than he did in the entire sweep of the Los Angeles Kings in Round 1.

He made 30 saves while Jesper Wallstedt stopped 34 shots.

“He’s great. He’s going to bounce back,” Marcus Foligno said of Wallstedt. “He’ll be fine next game. He’s a beast. This wasn’t on him. I mean, there’s a lot of things, (but) we got to play a little bit faster for him.”

Game 2 is Tuesday night in Denver.

The Wild were without forward Joel Eriksson Ek and defenseman Jonas Brodin. They've been ruled out of Tuesday's game as well.

Makar took a scary hit along the boards from Foligno early in the first period. The Avalanche defenseman's right leg flew into the air before falling to the ice. Makar tested out his skating with some twirls at the end of the first and returned for the second. He had an assist on Nick Blankenburg's goal.

“I was just trying to get back and feel good,” Makar said. "It’s not fun when you kind of tweak something, but it happens. Got to be ready for it. Had to check a couple things out, make sure it was good to go.”

___

AP Sports Writer Josh Dubow contributed.

___

AP NHL playoffs: https://apnews.com/hub/stanley-cup and https://apnews.com/hub/nhl

The Miami Grand Prix was the first under changes which slightly limited the role of the electrical power which has redefined racing this year. The president of the governing body, the FIA, said in Miami he wants traditional V8 engines back in a few years' time.

F1 started the year with some of the biggest changes in its 76-year history, headlined by a 50-50 split in power between a traditional engine and the onboard battery pack.

There were only three Grand Prix races under those new rules before a package of tweaks was introduced which curbed the influence of the electrical power. They answered driver criticism by promoting pure driving skill over electrical recharging, especially in qualifying. Discussions on further changes for 2027 could continue that trend.

Sunday's race in Miami was one of the most wide-open in recent F1 history with drivers from four different teams leading before Kimi Antonelli took his third win of 2026 for Mercedes.

V8 engines would take F1 back to the future

When FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem first proposed a return to big, noisy traditional engines last year, some F1 figures thought it was an election tactic, and it fizzled out in a meeting with manufacturers.

Now with Ben Sulayem in office for another term, and following a backlash to electrical power from some key drivers and fans, his push for V8 engines by 2030 or 2031 seems much more serious. The F1 world typically plans out new regulations years ahead of time.

“You get the sound, you get less complexity and then you’ve got the lighter weight, you hit all the boxes,” Ben Sulayem said Saturday in Miami. “You will hear about it very soon and it will be with a very, very minor electrification, but the main one will be the engine.”

F1 has used V6 engines with electrical hybrid power since 2014 and a big step up in the amount of electrical power for this year has made it central to how drivers go racing. Timing the electrical boost and recharging is the key to tactical racing. Four-time champion Max Verstappen loathes it so much he's questioned his future in F1.

A return to bigger V8 engines would be a nostalgia trip for older drivers and fans, with a distinctive screaming engine noise. They're relatively rare in modern vehicles outside of expensive sportscars.

Using sustainably-sourced fuel, as F1 does already from this season, would be one concession to environmental goals.

FIA says automakers can't take sport ‘hostage’

There's a lot of politics behind the decisions on F1's future, from the White House to the racing paddock.

Electrical vehicles no longer seem as certain to dominate the roads in key F1 markets as they did when the FIA and teams began drawing up the regulations in the early 2020s.

The Trump administration has put tighter rules on the charger network that electric vehicles depend on, and the European Union is rethinking a planned ban on new internal combustion-powered cars from 2035.

“The political landscape has changed,” the FIA's top F1 regulations official Nikolas Tombazis told reporters last week. “Back when we discussed the current regulations, the automotive companies, who were very involved, told us that they’re never going to make another internal combustion engine again, a new one, that they were going to phase out and by whatever year they were going to be fully electrical. Obviously, this hasn’t happened.”

Ben Sulayem said the FIA would need engine manufacturers' agreement to push for V8 engines for 2030, ahead of the agreed five-year schedule for the current cars, but would be more free to act without their agreement for 2031.

The F1 world has long appealed to automakers by promising innovation relevant to their road cars but now the FIA seems less keen for F1 cars to resemble daily drivers. The boom in F1's popularity around the world over the last decade could give it more leverage.

“We do need to protect the sport from the world macroeconomic situation, meaning we cannot be hostage to automotive companies deciding to be part of our sport or not,” Tombazis said.

“We want them to be a part of our sport, absolutely. That’s why we’ve worked so hard to secure new ones to participate. But we can also not be in this position where if they decide they don’t want to be, we’re simply left vulnerable.”

___

Alanis Thames in Miami Gardens, Fla., contributed to this report.

___

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

The runoff pits the Texas delegation’s newest member, Menefee, 38, against one of its longest-tenured — the 78-year-old Green. With the two candidates largely aligned on policy, the race has turned on each of their fighting styles and whether voters prefer Green’s congressional experience and protests against Donald Trump or Menefee’s millennial energy and history of waging legal battles with Texas Republicans.

The two do have differing stances on cryptocurrency, with Green a skeptic and Menefee more willing to embrace the industry as it spends lavishly in support of his candidacy.

Texas’ 18th Congressional District has a majority Black voter population and is one of the deepest blue seats in Texas. Long a bastion of Black political power — past representatives include Barbara Jordan, Craig Washington and Sheila Jackson Lee — it was left without representation for nearly a year after Rep. Sylvester Turner died in office in March 2025. Menefee led the November special election and won the January runoff to finish out Turner’s term.

The new district encompasses the majority of Green’s old 9th Congressional District, as well as key areas of Menefee’s.

• Population race/ethnicity: 44.8% Black, 35.5% Hispanic, 12.8% white, 7.5% Asian

• 2024 presidential results in district: Harris +55 (Harris 76.7%, Trump 21.8%)

• Counties in district: Harris, Fort Bend

• Cities in district: Houston, Missouri City, Fresno

Campaign site

Al Green

Democrat, incumbent in 9th District

💰 Campaign finance:

• Total raised: $1.2 million
• Total spent: $1.1 million
• Cash on hand: $265,000
• Outside spending: $0

💰 Notable donors and outside spending support this cycle:

• Former Houston Metro chair Carrin Patman
• HillCo lobbying firm cofounder Bill Miller
• Healthcare executive Tahir Javed
• Houston trial attorney Benjamin Hall III
• Former Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Waco
• PAC to the Future, Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s leadership PAC

Experience:

• U.S. representative for Texas’ 9th Congressional District since 2005
• Senior member of the House Financial Services Committee and ranking member of its Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations
• Served as Harris County justice of the peace for over 25 years
• Former Houston NAACP president

Endorsements: 

• U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-San Antonio
• Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo
• Harris County Commissioner Rodney Ellis
• State Reps. Ron Reynolds, D-Missouri City, and Senfronia Thompson, D-Houston
• Houston City Council member Carolyn Evans-Shabazz
• Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Texas
• Communications Workers of America (CWA) District 6

Policy stances:

• Opposes cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security; has vowed to vote against such reductions and interrupted Trump’s address to Congress last year, shouting that the president “had no mandate to cut Medicaid.”
• Supports immigration reforms to speed up processing backlogs and “protect those who come to this great nation for a better life.”
• Opposes efforts to undermine civil liberties of the LGBTQ+ community, saying “the protection of their rights and existence is of the utmost importance.”

In the news:

• After two Houston congressmembers died in office, Al Green defends his seniority to voters
• Al Green switches congressional districts in reelection bid
• House censures Rep. Al Green for disrupting speech

How to contact or learn more:

info@algreen.org
Keep Al Green in Congress
P.O. Box 56761
Houston, TX 77256
Link to campaign site

Campaign site

Christian Menefee

Democrat, incumbent

💰 Campaign finance:

• Total raised: $3.2 million
• Total spent: $3 million
• Cash on hand: $256,000
• Outside spending: $2.05 million

💰 Notable donors and outside spending support this cycle:

• Protect Progress, a super PAC affiliated with the crypto industry : $1.66 million
• Leaders We Deserve : $287,000
• Congressional Progressive Caucus PAC: $100,000
• Texas trial lawyer and megadonor Amber Mostyn
• Houston billionaire philanthropist John Arnold

Experience:

• U.S. representative for Texas’ 18th Congressional District since 2026
• Served as Harris County attorney from 2021 to 2026, becoming the youngest person and first African American to hold the office
• In the county attorney’s office, brought numerous lawsuits against Republican state officials and corporations over voting rights, public health and the environment

Endorsements: 

• Former U.S. Rep. Erica Lee Carter
• State Reps. Ana Hernandez and Lauren Ashley Simmons
• Houston City Council members Sallie Alcorn, Mario Castillo, Joaquin Martinez, Ed Pollard and Tiffany Thomas
• Houston Black American Democrats
• Houston Federation of Teachers

Policy stances:

• Supports Medicare for All, the framework for a single-payer healthcare system
• Supports raising the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour
• Wants to harness blockchain and AI to both strengthen the economy and protect workers and consumers, through legislation that promotes practical blockchain uses like combating deed fraud

In the news:

• Green, Menefee are headed for runoff in Houston clash of Democratic incumbents
• How the politics of age are playing out in Houston
• Menefee defeats Edwards in special election for Congress

How to contact or learn more:

Menefee for Congress
P.O. Box 667204
Houston, TX 77266
team@christianmenefee.com

Link to campaign site

Josh, 25, saw officers in South Padre Island drag Ruben out of his car that night in March 2025. They dumped Ruben’s body onto the roadway where they handcuffed him while he appeared unconscious, according to body camera footage. Law enforcement forced Josh into a police car, where he remained for more than four hours before officers moved him to a windowless interrogation room at around 5 a.m. 

Ruben, police told Josh, was dead. 

Three hours later and about 300 miles away, a state trooper pounded on the door of Ruben’s San Antonio home. His mother, Rachel Reyes, a 48-year-old nurse and health insurance administrator, heard the officer’s words: “On behalf of the State of Texas, we regret to inform you that your son, Ruben Martinez, passed away last night.” 

There had been an accident in the Rio Grande Valley. Ruben, who had never left San Antonio on his own before, wasn’t involved in the crash. He came upon it by chance then went down a lane that he “wasn’t supposed to” and “tapped” an officer with his car, the trooper told Reyes. Another officer shot Ruben. 

“Oh my God, I’m so sorry,” exclaimed the mother, who in her shock defaulted to an apology. “Is the officer hurt?” she recalled asking. No, the trooper said, the cop was fine. 

It would be almost a year later when Reyes and Josh would finally learn that the man who shot Ruben was a federal immigration officer — a revelation that stoked their grief and ignited fresh anger at the government after months of unanswered questions. 

That finding, exposed by a national watchdog group’s unrelated lawsuit in February, so shocked and enraged Josh that his family believes it may have contributed to his death hours later in an alcohol-fueled car crash. For Ruben’s mother, a former Trump voter, the government’s obfuscation regarding the details of the night destroyed her trust in institutions she previously respected. 

They didn’t realize it, but Ruben’s death would be the first known killing by immigration agents of an American under Trump’s second administration. By comparison, the Minneapolis slayings in January by immigration agents of Renée Good, a mother of three, and Alex Pretti, an armed nurse with a gun permit, roiled the nation. Both were white, middle-class and protesting immigration enforcement, and their killings were broadcast in almost real time to the world. Ruben, a Hispanic man born and raised in San Antonio, had never protested and few civilians have come forward about their footage of his death. 

Whereas local prosecutors in Minneapolis charged at least one immigration agent there with assault for their alleged actions during that crackdown, a Cameron County grand jury declined this spring to indict officers in Ruben’s slaying.

Reyes said that the apparent reluctance of authorities to provide details and accountability for what happened has her believing that the government is trying to “cover up” its mistakes in her son’s death. She now views that as a “pattern” by the Trump administration in attempting to evade responsibility for suspected failures.

“This is a young, sweet, funny, silly boy who spent his first night outside of his home,” Reyes said in her first public interview from her home. “He did not deserve this.”

Spokespeople for the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not respond to detailed questions. Neither did the South Padre Police Department, Cameron County District Attorney, nor the Texas Department of Public Safety overseeing the Texas Rangers investigating the shooting.

Acting ICE director Todd Lyons responded in an email that his agency stands by the grand jury’s finding that the federal agent should not be criminally charged.

“This incident was investigated from every possible angle by an independent body, and it cleared our officer,” said Lyons, declining to answer other questions, including about the involved officers’ training, history or experience.

Josh’s mother Virginia Mandujano, who has never before spoken publicly, also called for accountability, saying she believes her son perhaps wouldn’t have died in that manner if he had not been so tormented by witnessing the death of his friend. Immigration agents are there for “one purpose only and that’s to deport. Not to play cop,” said the 46-year-old home health aid in an interview.

When Josh finally made it home to San Antonio from South Padre, he was exhausted. As the eldest boy, he was not one to cry, but he was sobbing, alarming his family who had never seen him in such a state. 

“They shot my best friend Ruben, like they just shot him,” his brother recalled Josh telling him. “I legit watched my friend die right in front of me.”

Later that evening, Josh posted a story of him and Ruben on Instagram: “Lost my bf last night my head fuked up but we gone meet again.”

Conflicting accounts

Josh and Ruben met in kindergarten, their families said, and instantly became friends. Neither were close to their biological fathers, who had separated from their mothers when the boys were young. As Catholics growing up in San Antonio’s largely Hispanic South Side, both knew to respect law enforcement. Their mothers had instilled that in them, a belief in part bolstered by their proximity to Lackland’s U.S. Air Force Base. 

The boys shared a passion for basketball, both playing it and rooting for the city’s beloved Spurs. The two spent hours every week shooting hoops at their neighborhood Catholic church’s court. Otherwise, they were typically at Josh’s house playing video games or battling over beer pong and pool. 

When Ruben suggested that they go to South Padre to belatedly celebrate his 23rd birthday, Josh agreed. They arrived late Friday afternoon and spent the evening drinking with friends, Josh later told police. Shortly before midnight, they stopped at a Whataburger. On their way back to the apartment where they were staying, they encountered a car accident that blocked the busy spring break destination’s main thoroughfare, drawing law enforcement from across the region who were attempting to redirect traffic. Footage shows several drivers confused about where to go or what to do.

Ruben slowed his blue Ford Fusion to a crawl as he tried to navigate away. He was unfamiliar with the island’s streets. At first, officers waved Ruben forward, footage shows. But then one officer spotted a bottle of Crown Royal whiskey, according to the footage. 

“Pull over right there,” the officer shouted. “Open container!” 

Josh, who was in the passenger seat, told investigators that he heard the commands and believed Ruben continued because he feared being arrested for driving drunk. 

Compounding the chaos, at least one officer yelled instead at Ruben to “keep going,” according to the footage.

Ruben stopped at a pedestrian crosswalk to allow people to walk past, then slowly turned onto a side street. Footage shows his brake light on. 

What happened next isn’t clear from the available video because neither of the federal officers had on body cameras and those by local law enforcement, who were further away from the shooting, did not entirely capture the seconds in question. 

The ICE agents, Jack C. Stevens and Hector Sosa, told the Texas Rangers that Ruben didn’t heed instructions, so a few officers surrounded his car. Ruben “accelerated forward” and “drove so close” to Sosa that he “bumped his legs with the front bumper after telling him to stop.” Ruben swerved, causing Sosa to “fall onto the hood” of the car, the agents maintained. 

Sosa’s colleague Stevens, assigned to the maritime unit with Homeland Security Investigations, claimed that he could smell marijuana from the car. Ruben’s eyes, the agent wrote, were “open widely, fist clenched to the steering wheel.” 

“This is a behavior I have observed in my training and experience as a pre attack indicator and sign of noncompliance as the suspect is looking in the path of their intended movement and is not indicative of compliance,” Stevens wrote. “This path of movement, if left unmitigated, would, using the vehicle as a weapon, have resulted in numerous casualties.”

Stevens alleged Ruben’s car hit him slightly, causing the youth’s car mirror to break off. He wrote in a statement that he “feared for the safety and life” of himself, Sosa, other officers and pedestrians. Recent attacks in which drivers used their vehicles, including one in New Orleans three months before when a man rammed a truck into a crowd on Bourbon Street, remained “fresh on my mind,” Stevens wrote. 

Ruben’s attorneys, however, said updated footage later released by the state police shows that at the time gunshots were fired, the car was stopped. That, attorney Alex Stamm argued, shows Ruben “didn’t place anyone in danger of death or serious injury, and that it wasn’t legally or morally justifiable to kill Ruben in these circumstances.”

Josh in his videotaped interview with officers also questioned law enforcement’s account. Ruben “panicked,” Josh acknowledged. As Ruben slowly turned, Josh saw an officer “on the hood” of the car. But Ruben didn’t hit the officer, Josh told police, rather he “caught his feet.”

Months later, in a statement to Ruben’s lawyers, Josh told them that the officer “seemed to be trying to get in front of the car, like he wasn’t moving out of the way when we tried to turn around and leave like the police officer told us to do.” 

Ruben, Josh said then, “never hit the gas. The troopers were never in danger from Ruben and could have easily stepped aside while we tried to turn around and leave.”

A DHS spokesperson said that its agents are trained to use “the minimum amount of force necessary to resolve dangerous situations to prioritize the safety of the public and our officers.”

Officers, the spokesperson added, are “highly trained in de-escalation tactics and regularly receive ongoing use of force training.” 

The local medical examiner found that Ruben, who according to his lawyers had no previous criminal record, had a blood alcohol content of 0.12 – above the state’s limit of 0.08 – and traces of marijuana and Xanax, a painkiller.

An ambulance transported Ruben to the local hospital where he was pronounced dead. Sosa, the federal agent, also was rushed there for a knee injury. After a few hours, hospital staff discharged him. 

Reyes grows restless

Days later, Ruben’s mother and sister, Cassandra, drove to South Padre to pick up his car. Local police had impounded it so the mother had to pay more than $600 for its release. His sister drove the Fusion back to San Antonio,the bullet casings that had killed her only biological brother still strewn about the car. 

At Ruben’s funeral, his uncle read from Corinthians, “to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.” Ruben’s last communication with his beloved nephew and niece were “I love y’all, I’ll see y’all later.”

“Those words are still true,” the uncle, John Trevino, told the nearly 200 people gathered in Ruben’s honor at Mission Park Funerals, a mainstay of the city’s Catholic South Side. “It’s just going to take a little longer than expected.”

As the weeks drew on, Reyes replayed in her mind the few details officers had so far shared. It didn’t make sense. She scoured the news, finding only a brief mention days after Ruben’s death that an “officer-involved shooting” including a federal agency had occurred in South Padre. 

At times, Reyes asked her husband if she should go to the media. Given the lack of documentation provided to her, she was having a hard time convincing lawyers to take on Ruben’s case. Her husband urged her to trust the process, have faith. Surely the Texas Rangers, one of the most highly regarded institutions in the land, would deliver justice. 

Five months after Ruben’s death, his mother in late July received a startling letter from Amazon, where her son had worked for five years. Reyes had requested his life insurance payout, but an agent with Amazon’s insurance company wrote that the entity understood that had Ruben survived, he would have been charged with a felony, limiting her claim. 

Reyes was stunned. While police had told her that her son “tapped” an officer, this was the most expansive information she had so far received alleging that Ruben was posthumously accused of a serious crime. 

In her grief and confusion, she increasingly relied on Josh. He maintained that Ruben had done nothing wrong, a conviction that strengthened as time passed.

In August, Ruben’s mother found a Texas law firm willing to take on the case. Josh agreed to provide her lawyers a sworn declaration denying the government’s version of events. They wanted answers. But they hoped for justice. 

“These claims are not true. I was there,” Josh wrote of the federal agents’ account. “Ruben was driving cautiously in traffic in his proper lane and certainly did not strike anyone with his vehicle.”

Josh added that Ruben’s family, particularly his mother, had been “left with no answers and no accountability. They have been denied transparency, and the official narrative conflicts sharply with the facts as I experienced them firsthand. Ruben did not deserve to die.”  

“Survivor’s guilt” 

Josh, like Ruben’s mother, struggled with the death. His family would often catch him lost in thought and knew that was when he was reliving his friend’s final moments.

“He couldn’t understand what happened,” said Josh’s mother. “He carried that weight with him.” He had “survivor’s guilt.” 

Josh became more religious and began getting tattoos — Catholic imagery and “Ace,” a nickname for Ruben. Josh started drinking more, not every day, but more compared to before, his friends and family said. Josh abandoned his once obsessive weekly ritual of cleaning his prized Infiniti.

Josh’s family worried. His stepsister, Starleen Arriaga, who was close to him because they were the same age and had grown up together, urged, “suicide is not the way,” adding, “you will never see Ruben again if you go that route.”

He assured her, “don’t gotta worry.”

But his recurring nightmares often bolted him awake in a sweat. He told his girlfriend, 22-year-old Michaela Benavides, that he had the growing sense that he would die young. 

“I could be, you know, gone too,” he reflected to his siblings. “Life is not promised.” 

Last fall, Josh moved into a two bedroom rental house with Benavides, who he told family was “the one.” Meeting her lightened some of Josh’s darkness. He adored her, she said, sometimes bordering on excess, like when he offered her $1,000 to spend at the mall for her birthday present. 

“Let’s pay the car note first,” she joked. 

Often she awoke to his sobs. 

“I just don’t understand,” he would tell Benavides, she said. “Why did they have to shoot him? Why not me? Like, he was a good person.”

“Goodbye, one last time”

In late February, a friend texted Josh a news story declaring that ICE was responsible for Ruben’s death. The information was not revealed by the government but obtained in an unrelated public records lawsuit by American Oversight, a national watchdog nonprofit.  

Josh, his friends and family said, was infuriated.

It had been weeks since ICE officials had killed Pretti and Good in Minnesota, spurring nationwide protests. But Ruben’s death had made no such stir. 

“ICE is crazy,” Josh responded.

Hours later, he tried to conceal his anger during the birthday celebration for his 25-year-old step sister and his 19-year-old sister. It was in the family’s backyard and they decorated it with red balloons. Josh wanted the night to be memorable so as the gathering wound down, he suggested some go to a bar.

While he waited for Arriaga to change, he sat outside with his girlfriend. As they gazed at the stars, Josh told her “life is unfair. I wish Ace was here,”Josh said, referring to Ruben by his nickname.

Josh had been drinking — “he kept doing shots, and he was like, ‘here’s to life,’” Arriaga, his stepsister, said. 

“I really feel like that party wasn’t even meant for us,” she added. “I feel like it was meant for him to say goodbye, one last time.” 

At about 12:40 a.m. that Saturday, roughly the same time that Ruben was killed nearly a year before, Josh barrelled down Interstate 35 near downtown San Antonio with his girlfriend in the front and his stepsister and friend in the back of Josh’s Infiniti. Another car suddenly swerved in front, they said, forcing Josh into the exit lane. His stepsister and friends said Josh wasn’t able to slow down quickly enough, hitting a utility pole that forced the car to spin before ramming into a concrete barrier.

Josh’s stepsister, Arriaga, regained consciousness as one explosion hit. She and 22-year-old Gerardo Lopez scrambled out of the back as the car partially burst into flames. They tried to break the windows to help Josh and his girlfriend, but the pressure inside prevented them. 

Benavides bolted awake. Turning to Josh, she saw blood trickling out of his mouth. He was slumped over and unconscious. Arriaga and Lopez knew there were at best a few minutes before another explosion would cause the car to ignite. They tried to wake Josh, but he didn’t respond. Get out, the friends yelled at Benavides. 

She tugged at Josh. “Please baby,” she recalled. “I don’t want to leave you here. Wake up.” But he didn’t move. 

Finally she crawled over Josh to climb out of the driver’s window. As soon as she exited, the car exploded, the force throwing back her and Josh’s friend. They begged the arriving emergency responders to save Josh. It was too late, they said.

ICE’s first victim

For the second time in less than a year, Ruben and Josh’s mothers convened for a funeral. Despite knowing each other’s boys for years, they had first met at Ruben’s service. Now they were at the burial for Josh before the first anniversary of Ruben’s death.

That Ruben and by extension Josh, in their view, were victims of ICE didn’t immediately register for either family. When their relatives heard about Pretti and Good, they had no idea that their sons, brothers, and loved ones could also be part of such an incendiary political narrative. They were not protesters. In fact, both families largely described themselves as apolitical. 

Josh had been so badly burned that officials with the local medical examiner’s office requested his dental records to confirm his identity. His mother begged to see him but an official told her, “I really don’t think that’s a good idea.”

At Josh’s funeral this March, his brother played a 30-minute slideshow he had meticulously worked on, adding Josh’s favorite rap artists to the soundtrack and featuring dozens of photos of Josh and Ruben throughout the years. Here they are playing beer pong. There, laughing and shooting hoops. Here being silly at a bar.

In his prepared remarks to the congregation, Paul Mandujano said Josh “wasn’t just my big brother. He was my best friend.” He recalled how generous Josh was, offering advice and helping to pay the family’s bills when his relatives fell short. Before Josh died, he promised his brother that for his 21st birthday this April he would help him to buy a car.

“There have been moments where this pain feels so heavy it’s hard to even keep going,” Mandujano told the crowd. “What put me at peace is when Josh lost his best friend Ruben he was heartbroken and in pain and came to my room and leaned on me so I know my bro is finally up there with him.”

About a month later, Josh’s family attended a vigil for Ruben outside of San Antonio’s city hall. Josh’s brother spoke on behalf of the family, saying, “We refuse to let them use my brother’s death in vain to justify their actions. Justice will be served for Ruben and my brother.”

Everyone now knew that an immigration agent was responsible for Ruben’s death. His mother started giving a few national media interviews. The statement Josh had provided her lawyers, which he wasn’t able to sign before his death, also made headlines. So did Ruben’s mother’s revelation that she had voted for Trump in 2024, mostly worrying about the economy, she later explained. This is what you deserve for being part of a cult, some commentators declared. You are an awful mother, they told her. 

Josh’s mother said that although she hasn’t voted in any recent elections since choosing Barack Obama in 2008, she now feels that immigration agents should be “reined in” and focus on Trump’s deportation mandate rather than “killing Americans.” In this case, the mother argued, two U. S. citizens are dead because of the federal government’s mistakes.

Butch Hayes, one of Ruben’s family’s attorneys, said that when history revisits this moment in which he accused ICE of playing “gangster in our streets instead of protecting our communities,” Ruben will be remembered as the agency’s “first victim.” 

“ICE ended Ruben’s life for no good reason, and Joshua’s death eleven months later is a further manifestation of the injustice wrought by ICE,” the lawyer said. “No amount of spin from DHS will change the reality that two decent American families have been shattered by their lawlessness.”

Ruben and Josh’s mothers often find themselves speaking aloud to their sons. Josh’s mother, at his gravesite at a South Side Catholic cemetery. Ruben’s mother, in his room, which looks mostly how he left it, except for a blanket emblazoned with his image Reyes tossed over his unmade bed.

For a while, she kept Ruben’s ashes there, too, but then it dawned on her that it might make him feel lonely so she moved the urn to a prominent living room mantle “so he could be close.”

Latino advocacy groups sued under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, the cornerstone provision of the law that prevents government bodies from diluting the voting power of specific groups. The Supreme Court found Texas lawmakers had taken away Latino voting power “because they were about to exercise it.”

“Latino voters were poised to elect their candidate of choice,” Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote for the majority. “The State not only made fruitless the Latinos’ mobilization efforts but also acted against those Latinos who were becoming most politically active.”

Bonilla’s 23rd Congressional District was redrawn, and he lost to a Democrat. Just five years later, Latino voters flipped it back to Republican control; the seat was held most recently by GOP Rep. Tony Gonzales, who resigned last month.

Nina Perales, who argued that case at the Supreme Court, sees that district as an enduring testament to the power of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.

“A lot of the districts that we see in the map today were created to make sure that minority communities were not accidentally chopped up, and that minority communities could have a voice in some parts of the state,” Perales said. “In CD-23, when a majority of Latino voters support Gonzales, they get to elect Gonzales, and it’s irrelevant what Gonzales’ political party is.”

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court gutted Section 2, raising the bar for voter dilution claims so high as to make the statute a “dead letter,” as Justice Elena Kagan wrote in her dissent. Partisan gerrymandering, like the type used to try to keep Bonilla in power, is a defense against allegations of vote dilution, the conservative majority ruled. Under the new standard, plaintiffs will have to prove mapmakers intentionally set out to discriminate against voters on the basis of their race.

Even as it diminishes in power, the legacy of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act is deeply woven into Texas’ political maps, reflected in districts carefully drawn to ensure voters of color could have a say. The landmark 1965 law also gave rise to a new generation of leaders, elected from Black, Hispanic and Asian communities. From that point on, both parties would have to look out for voters of color when drawing their maps — and if they didn’t, voters would have legal recourse.

Rep. Marc Veasey, D-Fort Worth, said his career has been “defined” by the Voting Rights Act. As a young Black state representative, he was elected in 2012 to a congressional district drawn to right what a court found to be a legislative wrong: Texas had divided communities of color in North Texas across multiple majority-white seats designed to elect Republicans. Fourteen years later, Veasey is now departing Congress after GOP lawmakers redrew the district out from under him last summer.

With Section 2 of the VRA now significantly weakened, it will be harder to make the legal case that this redraw had an improper racial, rather than partisan, intent.

The recent hollowing out of the Voting Rights Act created a disconcerting full circle moment for Veasey, who recalled that his district was originally drawn for Willow Park GOP Rep. Roger Williams. Under the new lines, Veasey noted, Williams “will end up representing my neighborhood after all.”

How Section 2 remade Texas’ maps

In 1965, when Texas’ favorite son, President Lyndon B. Johnson, signed the Voting Rights Act into law, he said the vote “is the most powerful instrument ever devised by man for breaking down injustice.”

The law included two pillars with significant implications for Texas — Section 2, which prohibits voter discrimination based on race, and Section 5, which requires jurisdictions with histories of racial discrimination to get preapproval from the Department of Justice for any voting changes, including new electoral maps.

Before the law went into effect, Texas had just two people of color in its congressional delegation — Reps. Henry Gonzalez of San Antonio and Kika De La Garza from the Rio Grande Valley, both of whom were Mexican-American. They each voted for the Voting Rights Act that would enable the ranks of Hispanic lawmakers to swell significantly.

In the 1970s, Barbara Jordan became the first Black member of Congress from Texas. As a state senator, Jordan helped draw the district she would soon be elected to, a seat that provides Black Houstonians the opportunity to elect their candidate of choice to this day. Three new representatives of color joined Texas’ congressional delegation in the 1980s. By the 1990s, there were 13 members of color who served at any point during the decade.

With two more election cycles to go, the 2020s have already reached a peak of 22 members of color, some of whom have represented white-majority districts.

During her sophomore term, in 1975, Jordan got Texas added to the list of states that needed preclearance for its maps. In 1982, Congress reinforced the law with an amendment that said maps ran afoul of the law if they had the effect of diluting racial or ethnic groups’ vote, even if that wasn’t the intent. These new provisions, the second of which overruled a Supreme Court decision to the contrary, opened the floodgates to litigation against Texas’ maps, at every level of government.

In each decade since the law’s passage, at least one of Texas’ maps has been found to have violated the law, and courts have ordered at least one new district to be drawn. The maps drawn in 2021 and 2025 are still under active litigation.

In the 1980s, plaintiffs successfully sued over the state Senate and state House maps under the Voting Rights Act, compelling redraws of legislative seats that were found to have diluted Black and Hispanic voting strength by packing them into just a few districts in the state’s urban counties. Through preclearance, the Department of Justice also got the courts to redraw districts that diluted Black and Hispanic voters’ strength, including two congressional seats in South Texas.

The effects of those redraws can still be seen in today’s maps.

“You had charges and claims against the South Texas district[s], because they were packed down against the border,” said Matt Angle, a Democratic strategist and founder of the Lone Star Project who has been involved in Texas redistricting cases for decades. “That’s why now, you see South Texas districts running north and south instead of along the bottom. It’s because [of] the court rulings under the Voting Rights Act, that you couldn’t pack those districts down against the border.”

More subtle, but just as important, was the way the Voting Rights Act pushed Texas lawmakers to proactively consider voters of color when drawing their electoral maps, Perales said. In the 1990s, for example, the majority-Hispanic 28th and 29th Congressional Districts “were born out of an understanding that the state needed to comply with Section 2,” she said.

Having grasped that it would be better to comply on the front end than be hauled into court later, the Legislature used to bring MALDEF and other groups in around the decennial census to train legislators on how to draw maps that met the law’s requirements.

“Part of that legal training was always on the obligation to avoid discriminating against minority voters under Section 2 the Voting Rights Act,” she said. “The guidance was, don’t inadvertently chop up minority communities when you’re drawing lines, because even if it’s inadvertent, it could be a legal problem.”

In 2013, the Supreme Court eliminated preclearance for most jurisdictions, including Texas. The state immediately reinstated a voter ID law that had been caught up under Section 5. The decision also freed Texas’ 2011 electoral maps from preclearance, though some parts of the map were later redrawn over Section 2 violations.

“A pre-1965 posture”

When the courts redrew the 2011 map, their centerpiece was the new 33rd Congressional District, crafted to allow voters of color to elect their preferred candidate in fast-growing Dallas and Tarrant counties. The court’s new lines were later upheld after a trial, in which the judges concluded that lawmakers had “acted at least in part with a racially discriminatory motive … with regard to the districts in DFW in particular.”

Veasey was a state representative planning to run for reelection — and on his way to see a pre-Thanksgiving movie with his family — when he got a call that changed his career.

“I heard, hey, they’re gonna draw a new map, and there’s probably going to be an opportunity for you to run,” Veasey said. “You’ve got to make up your mind quick over whether you’re going to do it.”

He ran, and won, giving him a chance to represent a district that was as diverse as the state of Texas — one that would last about a decade and a half before falling victim to the GOP’s mid-decade redistricting.

Several other congressional districts that were shaped by the Voting Rights Act were subsequently dismantled by Republicans last summer. Among them are Hispanic-opportunity districts in South Texas, such as the 28th District represented by Cuellar, who rebounded from his loss to Bonilla to become one of Texas’ longest-tenured members of Congress.

The VRA also helped create Houston’s 9th Congressional District, where more than four in five residents are Black or Hispanic. Last summer, lawmakers redrew it to a “bare majority” — 50.3% Hispanic — as they did several other districts.

Early last week, the Supreme Court allowed that map to go into effect while a trial proceeds. Just two days later, the court ruled in Louisiana v. Callais that the results-based test that had been used for decades should be replaced with a new, higher bar that allows for an easier partisan defense.

Justice Samuel Alito, writing for the majority, said lower courts had applied Section 2 “in a way that forces States to engage in the very race-based discrimination that the Constitution forbids.” Under the new framework Alito laid out in the decision, a Section 2 claim must prove that the state “intentionally drew its districts to afford minority voters less opportunity because of their race.”

Angle said Texas’ most recent rounds of redistricting demonstrate what a post-Section 2 future may look like.

“You’ve got a situation in which a state that’s over 60% people of color is only going to have somewhere between 20% and 30% of the districts where voters of color’s vote matters at all,” Angle said.

State Rep. Matt Shaheen, a Republican from Plano, said the U.S. had a long history of vote suppression that made the Voting Rights Act necessary.

“But we’ve moved on from that, clearly, and I think people recognize minority voters are entitled to equal representation but not certain election outcomes,” Shaheen said. “It really is more of a colorblind society, and elections are very much driven now by principles and policies, and not so much on skin color.”

Shaheen is among several GOP lawmakers who say they hope Texas takes up redistricting anew during the 2027 legislative session, this time with a focus on the state House and Senate lines.

Perales agrees that the Voting Rights Act is not about specific electoral outcomes. But she disagrees that the country is ready to move on from ensuring racial and ethnic voters have the opportunity to elect a candidate of their choice, regardless of political party or the ethnicity of the candidate.

“As much as Justice Alito wanted to make it seem like a case about partisanship, it isn’t,” she said. “It’s about dismantling something much more historic and much more deeply needed in our country, which is equal opportunity for everybody.”

For Veasey, the ruling was not a surprise. But now that his district has been chopped up and the VRA’s core provision has been kneecapped, the retiring congressman sees a bleak future for the representation of Black and brown voters.

“It’s going to go back to a pre-1965 posture,” he said. “We just won’t have nearly as many voices pushing. It’ll just be [like] when we had one or two voices that were pushing back before the VRA was passed — that’s what it’s going to be like now.

Disclosure: Cine El Rey has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune’s journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

Two teams which produced a 5-4 instant classic last week will take center stage on Wednesday for the second act of their Champions League semifinal.

The return game in Munich surely cannot reach the same height of drama as the waves of finessed attacks — and overwhelmed defenses — reached in Paris.

Still, coaches Luis Enrique and Vincent Kompany will aim for the stars.

“More, even more,” Kompany said in Paris, when asked about his main message to Bayern's players for the decisive second leg.

Arsenal hosts Atletico Madrid on Tuesday with the score 1-1.

The rewards for a semifinal victory are a place in the final on May 30 at the Puskas Arena in Budapest.

Stellar semifinals

Champions League semifinals are often more memorable than the title matches.

One year ago, an exciting Inter Milan-Barcelona contest was widely praised like the PSG-Bayern opener has been. A 3-3 first leg in Barcelona was just an appetizer for Inter’s roller coaster 4-3 win in extra time at San Siro.

In 2022, Real Madrid somehow rallied in stoppage time of the second leg to deny Manchester City victory. Two Rodrygo goals forced extra time that was settled by Karim Benzema’s penalty for a 3-1 win. The wild first leg had finished 4-3 to City in Manchester.

A vintage knockout phase in 2019 was capped by astonishing comebacks on back-to-back nights in the semifinal second legs by Liverpool against Barcelona and Tottenham at Ajax.

It is perhaps eight years since a truly compelling back-and-forth final, when substitute Gareth Bale’s goals — the first an iconic bicycle kick — lifted Madrid to a 3-1 win over Liverpool in Kyiv.

While PSG excelled in the final last year, the 5-0 rout of Inter was never competitive.

Arena of entertainers

Munich was the scene of PSG's finest game last season against Inter to fulfill its Qatari owners' quest to become European champion for the first time.

The Allianz Arena is also where six-time champion Bayern won all six home games in the Champions League this season, scoring 20 goals including four past Real Madrid in a quarterfinals, second-leg thriller three weeks ago.

Munich is the only candidate to host the Champions League final again in 2028. UEFA should confirm that decision in September.

Atletico in England

Coach Diego Simeone takes his Atletico team to north London for a third game this season. Third time lucky?

Atletico lost 4-0 at Arsenal in a league-phase game in October and survived a 3-2 loss at Tottenham in the second leg of the round of 16 that easily could have been a bigger margin. Atletico also started this Champions League campaign in England in September — and lost, 3-2 at Liverpool.

It all adds up to five games lost by Atletico in its 15-game Champions League campaign so far, while Arsenal has the last remaining unbeaten record.

Neither team has been European champion. It's 10 years since Atletico played in the last of its three finals, losing to Real Madrid, and 20 years since Arsenal lost its only final, against Barcelona.

Penalty debates

All four semifinalists were awarded, and scored, a penalty kick last week. A fifth was awarded to Arsenal but then overturned after the referee was sent to his pitchside monitor to review replays.

Since the Video Assistant Referee system made its World Cup debut in 2018, the trend in top-tier games has been to award ever more spot-kicks.

None of the five decisions last week was universally praised, and the two handball incidents showed how UEFA’s view differs to many coaches, players and fans.

UEFA’s director of refereeing Roberto Rosetti has previously said “we don’t like soft penalties” and cautioned against “microscopic VAR interventions” — which seemed to be happening last week.

For each handball, the ball first deflected from the body of, respectively, Bayern’s Alphonso Davies and Arsenal’s Ben White before contacting an arm which was not held tight to the side of their bodies. That is typically not a penalty in the English Premier League but almost certainly is in UEFA competitions.

Rosetti plans to meet soon with refereeing officials from Europe’s main leagues to seek more clarity and consistency next season.

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

The South’s Unification Ministry, which handles inter-Korean affairs, said in a statement Monday that the Pyongyang-based Naegohyang Women’s FC is expected to face Suwon FC Women on May 20 in the semifinals of the Asian Football Confederation Women’s Champions League in Suwon, south of Seoul.

The Korea Football Association, South Korea’s soccer body, said the AFC notified it that the North Korean team submitted a list of players and staff set to come to Suwon. The KFA said North Korea would be fined by the AFC if the team failed to compete in the semifinals.

North Korea’s state media has not reported on the soccer club’s expected trip.

North Korea last sent athletes to South Korea in December 2018 for a table tennis event, continuing a period of diplomatic engagement highlighted by the participation of North Korean athletes alongside a high-level delegation at the Winter Olympics in the South earlier that year. North Korea also sent its national women’s soccer team to the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon, which was the last time its female soccer players competed in the South.

North Korea's women's teams have had recent success in international youth competitions, and are the defending Under-17 and Under-20 World Cup champions.

In the continental club tournament, Naegohyang Women’s FC defeated Suwon FC Women 3-0 in the group stage in Myanmar last November, before beating a Vietnamese club in the quarterfinals in March. The winners of the May 20 semifinals will meet in the final three days later in Suwon, with Melbourne City FC and Tokyo Verdy Beleza facing off in the other semifinal.

While athletes from North and South Korea have previously competed on combined teams and marched together in Olympic ceremonies during periods of warmer relations, sports exchanges have since faded as relations deteriorated, with no inter-Korean activities for years.

North Korea has shunned talks with South Korea and the U.S. since North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's broader nuclear diplomacy with U.S. President Donald Trump collapsed in 2019 over disagreements on U.S.-led sanctions on the North.

Tensions have been rising lately as Kim ramps up his nuclear and missile program targeting Asian U.S. allies and the U.S. mainland and hardens his stance toward South Korea. Kim has labeled South Korea as his most hostile adversary and has shown sensitivity to South Korean soft power, pushing aggressively to block the influence of South Korean culture and language among his population.