Vegas will face Anaheim in the second round. The Ducks advanced Thursday night with a 5-2 home victory over Edmonton in Game 6.

The Golden Knights have surged since John Tortorella took over as coach from the fired Bruce Cassidy, closing the regular season 7-0-1 after the change. They ripped off three straight wins after Utah took a 2-1 series lead.

“This is what I hoped for,” Marner said. “There’s a lot more work to keep going.”

Marner had two goals and five assists in the series. Friday was the first multi-goal playoff game for the Vegas forward since April 20, 2023, against Tampa Bay.

“It was his best game of the series. He just looked comfortable,” Tortorella said.

Brett Howden opened the scoring with his fourth goal of the series, all coming over the last three games. Colton Sissons added a third-period goal for Vegas soon after Utah’s Kailer Yamamoto cut it to 2-1. Cole Smith capped the scoring with an empty-netter on the heels of Marner converting a power play for his second goal.

“We’ve been here before,” Vegas captain Mark Stone said. “We don’t have the panic. Maybe some teams do. We can calm ourselves pretty quickly.”

Karel Vejmelka made 21 saves for Utah. The Mammoth led in the third period in each of the first five games before trailing the whole way in Game 6.

“I didn’t have that in my bingo card,” Utah coach Andre Tourigny said. “I was really confident we would go to Vegas tomorrow.”

Howden scored with 4:58 left in the first period. Marner’s shot went to the right of the goal and rebounded out front for Howden to put a wrist shot home.

On Wednesday night in Game 5, Howden scored the winner in the Golden Knights’ 5-4 double-overtime victory. Vegas also won 5-4 in overtime in Game 4 after getting two goals from him in regulation.

Marner made it 2-0 with 45 seconds left in the second after Vegas had the puck in Utah’s end for more than two minutes. He blasted a slap shot from the top of the right circle off Ian Cole’s knee and into the net.

“I’ve had a couple opportunities in that same area that I had just missed on,” Marner said. “That’s why I just decided to quickly wind one up and see if I could get a clapper through.”

___

AP NHL playoffs: https://apnews.com/hub/stanley-cup and https://apnews.com/hub/nhl

Instead, a top Justice Department official insisted the ruling wasn't binding, and the administration continued denying detainees around the country a chance for release.

By February, the district court judge, Sunshine Sykes, was fed up. Sykes, a nominee of President Joe Biden, accused Trump officials in a ruling that month of seeking “to erode any semblance of separation of powers,” adding that they could “only do so in a world where the Constitution does not exist.”

Hardly isolated, the case illustrates a broader pattern of defiance of lower court decisions in President Donald Trump's second term.

The failure of Trump officials to follow court orders has been highlighted most notably in individual immigration cases. But a review of hundreds of pages of court records by The Associated Press also shows an extraordinary record of violations in lawsuits over policy changes and other moves.

The Republican administration's power struggle with federal courts — which is testing basic tenets of U.S. democracy — reflects an expansive view of executive authority that has also challenged the independence of federal agencies, a president’s ethical obligations, and the U.S.’s role in the international order.

Judges find widespread noncompliance

In the second Trump administration’s first 15 months in office, district court judges ruled it was violating an order in at least 31 lawsuits over a wide range of issues, including mass layoffs, deportations, spending cuts and immigration practices, the AP’s review of court records found. That’s about one out of every eight lawsuits in which courts have at least temporarily blocked the administration’s actions.

The White House's aggressive policy moves have prompted a barrage of lawsuits — more than 700 and counting.

The violations in the 31 lawsuits are in addition to more than 250 instances of noncompliance judges have recently highlighted in individual immigration petitions — from failing to return property to keeping immigrants locked up past court-ordered release dates.

Legal scholars and former federal judges said they could recall at most a few violations of court rulings over the full four-year terms of other recent presidential administrations, including Trump's first time in office. They also noted previous administrations were generally apologetic when confronted by judges; the Trump administration's Justice Department has been outright combative in some cases.

“What the court system is experiencing in the last year and a half is just qualitatively completely different from anything that’s preceded it,” said Ryan Goodman, a law professor at New York University who studies federal courts and is tracking litigation against the Trump administration.

Though Trump officials eventually backed down in about a third of the 31 lawsuits, legal experts say their treatment of court orders poses serious dangers.

“The federal government should be the institution most devoted to the rule of law in this country,” said David Super, a constitutional law scholar at Georgetown University. “When it ceases to feel itself bound, respect for the rule of law is likely to break down across the country.”

The administration has gotten a boost from higher courts

The AP’s review also found that higher courts, including the Supreme Court, overruled the district courts and sided with the White House in nearly half of the 31 cases. Critics say those decisions are emboldening the administration to ignore judges' orders.

White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said the higher courts had overturned “unlawful district court rulings.” The administration will “continue to comply with lawful court rulings,” she added in a written statement.

“President Trump’s entire Administration is lawfully implementing the America First agenda he was elected to enact,” the statement said.

Among other instances of noncompliance, judges found the White House defied rulings when it deported scores of accused gang members to a notorious prison in El Salvador, withheld billions of dollars in foreign aid and failed to restore programming at the Voice of America. The three cases date to the first few months of the new administration, but judges have continued to find violations since then, including in two cases in April.

“The danger is that this gets normalized,” said JoAnna Suriani, counsel at the nonpartisan group Protect Democracy, which is tracking noncompliance cases. The group is also involved in litigation against the administration.

‘Ham-handed.’ ‘Hallucinating.’ Judges have also been scathing

In October, U.S. District Judge William Smith took little time to conclude Homeland Security officials were flouting one of his orders. Smith, a nominee of George W. Bush, had blocked them from making billions of dollars in disaster relief funding to states contingent on cooperation with the president's immigration priorities.

DHS responded by keeping the immigration requirement on some grants, but making it contingent on a higher court overriding Smith’s injunction. The judge called the move “ham-handed” and said DHS was trying to “bully the states.”

In a case over the suspension of refugee admissions, U.S. District Judge Jamal Whitehead, a Biden nominee, accused the Justice Department last May of “hallucinating new text” in an appellate court order and “rewriting” it to achieve the government's preferred outcome.

In four additional cases the AP reviewed, judges stopped short of a clear written finding of noncompliance but still criticized the administration’s response to their orders.

Of the judges who have confirmed violations, 22 were appointed by Democratic presidents and 7 by Republican presidents.

Former federal judges Jeremy Fogel and Liam O’Grady said judges are losing trust in the integrity of the Department of Justice.

That’s making them “more aggressive in accusing the government of bad faith,” said O’Grady, who along with Fogel is now part of the nonpartisan democracy group, Keep Our Republic.

Fogel said judges are also getting frustrated.

“They make orders and the orders don’t get complied with and then they have to inquire why the orders are not being complied with, and that’s where it gets very mushy and very political,” he said.

Plaintiffs in an education case raise alarms

In Eureka, California, school administrator Lisa Claussen is worried about the impact on her students’ mental health if a judge does not find the Education Department in violation of a court order on federal grants.

Grant money allowed the school district in the poor coastal community in Northern California to hire more than a dozen psychologists and social workers to help students struggling with drug use and suicidal thoughts.

Education officials in the Trump administration told schools in California and other states last year that it was discontinuing the grants; the administration opposed diversity considerations in the grant process.

U.S. District Judge Kymberly Evanson blocked the move permanently in December, but California and 15 other states now say the administration is making an end run around her injunction by imposing new rules, including an initial limit of six months of funding.

Attorneys for the Education Department said they wanted to see whether schools were making progress on performance goals before releasing additional funds. The judge's order did not block the six-month limit, they added in a court filing.

Evanson, a Biden nominee, has yet to rule.

In the absence of a one-year funding guarantee, Eureka City Schools and other districts say they have already issued layoff notices to mental health providers or eliminated positions.

“We have many kids who don’t trust adults for very good reason and to be able to just swipe this grant like they’re doing ...” Claussen said in a phone interview, her voice trailing off. “We didn’t do anything wrong.”

Justice Department pushes back

In court filings, Justice Department attorneys have generally disputed accusations the government was not complying. They have argued over the meaning of words, cited favorable appellate court rulings and said they were acting outside the scope of the court’s order, among other legal maneuvering.

Outside of court, Trump and White House officials have railed against federal judges. Vice President JD Vance has even suggested the president could ignore court orders.

Will Chamberlain, senior counsel with the conservative legal advocacy group The Article III Project, said many of the judges who have found violations are ignoring laws that clearly prohibit their rulings.

Trump officials are “generally complying, appealing and winning,” he said. “If they were defying orders left and right, they’d be losing them.”

Critics say the higher courts are excusing noncompliance

In March, a federal appeals court ruled Sykes, the judge in California, had likely exceeded her authority in requiring bond hearings nationwide and blocked her February decision.

The outcome was not unusual.

In 15 of the 31 lawsuits the AP reviewed, an appellate court or the Supreme Court either allowed the administration's underlying policy, limited the district court's efforts to correct or punish the noncompliance, or both.

Supreme Court Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor criticized her fellow justices after one such ruling.

“This is not the first time the Court closes its eyes to noncompliance, nor, I fear, will it be the last,” she wrote in June in a dissent joined by the court's two other liberal justices. “Yet each time this Court rewards noncompliance with discretionary relief, it further erodes respect for courts and for the rule of law.”

___

Associated Press writer Michael Casey in Boston contributed.

With their season on the line, the Rockets fell flat, scoring a season-low 78 points in a 98–78 blowout loss.

“Everyone’s disappointed,” head coach Ime Udoka said in the postgame press conference. “That was not what we expected coming into the game tonight — or the series in general.”

Lakers star LeBron James led all scorers with 28 points, while Rui Hachimura added 21. Amen Thompson paced the Rockets with 18.

“I really wanted to win,” Thompson said after the loss. “I didn’t even have thoughts about after... I’ll be thinking about this all summer.”

The Rockets’ previous season low in scoring was 91 points, making Friday’s performance a new low in their final game of the year. Their 78-point total also tied for the fifth-lowest single-game output in the NBA this season.

“We didn’t make shots,” Rockets guard Reed Sheppard said after the game.

It was hard to ignore the gaps in the Rockets’ offensive firepower, with Kevin Durant sidelined by an ankle injury sustained in Game 2, and both Fred VanVleet and Steven Adams out for the season.

“We cannot think about that stuff,” center Alperen Şengün said. “You’ve got to fight with whoever is on the court. Obviously, I was upset losing Fred and Steven… but you’ve got to learn.”

After the final buzzer, Rockets players were emotional as their season came to an end sooner than anyone in the building had hoped.

Players described a somber locker room, with hugs, words of encouragement, and jersey exchanges.

“Nobody was ready for [the season] to be finished,” Şengün said. “We win together, we lose together, and we stay together… We have a big summer ahead of us.”

That summer could include roster changes, as the Rockets face difficult questions about their future.

Tari Eason, who is entering free agency, expressed uncertainty about his future in Houston, saying, “God knows.”

When asked about preparing for next season, Udoka said, “I’ll get to it ASAP.”

President Donald Trump said Friday that his administration had given the budget carrier a “final proposal” for a taxpayer-funded takeover to keep it from going under, but the absence of a deal put the airline's future in doubt.

A person familiar with the matter said preparations were being made for a Saturday shutdown. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to disclose confidential information. There was no immediate word from Spirit Airlines or the Trump administration.

The airline continued to assure travelers on X late Friday that flights were “operating as scheduled.” But it canceled 52 flights on Friday, compared to only three the previous day.

Trump floated the idea of a bailout last week after the airline found itself in bankruptcy proceedings for the second time in less than two years with jet fuel prices soaring because of the Iran war. About 17,000 jobs could be impacted by a shutdown, Spirit lawyer Marshall Huebner said.

Spirit has struggled financially since the COVID-19 pandemic, weighed down by rising operating costs and growing debt. By the time it filed for Chapter 11 protection in November 2024, Spirit had lost more than $2.5 billion since the start of 2020.

The budget carrier sought bankruptcy protection again in August 2025, when it reported having $8.1 billion in debts and $8.6 billion in assets, according to court filings.

Supporters of a rescue including labor unions representing Spirit’s pilots, flight attendants and ramp workers say a collapse would put thousands of Americans out of work and hurt consumers by reducing airline competition and increasing airfares. About 17,000 jobs could be impacted, according to Spirit lawyer Marshall Huebner.

Budget-conscious and leisure travelers would likely feel Spirit’s absence the most, especially in places where the airline has a big footprint such as Las Vegas and the Florida cities of Fort Lauderdale and Orlando.

The carrier flew about 1.7 million domestic passengers in February, roughly half a million fewer than during the same month a year earlier, according to aviation analytics firm Cirium. Spirit also has sharply reduced its capacity, with about half as many seats available this month than in May 2024.

Josh Norris added an empty-netter. Alex Lyon finished with 25 saves.

The 4-2 series victory is the latest milestone for Buffalo, which saw the end of its 14-year playoff drought by capturing its first Atlantic Division title. The 2007 season was also the last time the Sabres advanced to the second round. They lost in the conference finals that year.

“It's one step in the right direction. That's it,” Tuch said.

Buffalo will play the winner of the Montreal-Tampa Bay series in the second round. That series will go to seven games after the Lightning's 1-0 overtime win Friday night in Montreal.

“I think Part A is getting to the playoffs. Part B is trying to have success once you get there,” coach Lindy Ruff said. “We talked about what a challenge it was going to be to try to take out a good team. And Boston's a good team. ... I thought our guys dug in and gave us a heck of a game tonight.”

David Pastrnak scored the lone goal for the Bruins. Jeremy Swayman made 22 stops.

“Buffalo, there's a reason they won the division,” Pastrnak said. "A lot of skill and speed that's over there. Their (defense) is very active. So, yeah, they were better."

Tempers flared with 1:31 to play after Benson tripped Charlie McAvoy. McAvoy responded with a slash at Benson. Both were sent to the penalty box.

It ends a feisty series comeback for the Bruins after earning a playoff berth in their first season under coach Marco Sturm. Boston has lost its last six home playoff games.

Trailing 2-1 in the third, the Bruins picked up their attack and had something working in the Sabres’ zone. But Josh Doan poked the puck away to start a break. He was pursued by Pastrnak and McAvoy toward the corner, when Doan flipped it back to a wide-open Zach Benson, who beat Swayman.

The Sabres’ speed dominated in the early going.

That changed 1:54 into the second period when a Buffalo turnover turned into a 2-on-1 break between Pastrnak and Pavel Zacha. Zacha passed to Pastrnak on the left side, and he fired it in from the faceoff circle to get the Bruins within 2-1. It marked his third goal in the series.

It was part of a second period that saw an increase in physical play that was mostly allowed by the referees. It included a more than nine-minute stretch without a stoppage of play.

The Sabres needed just 3:25 into the first period to open the scoring when Tuch guided in a touch pass in front of the net by Rasmus Dahlin.

___

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

In Alabama, Republican Gov. Kay Ivey announced Friday that she is calling a special legislative session to begin Monday in hopes that the Supreme Court allows the state to change its U.S. House map ahead of the November midterm elections. In Tennessee, Republican Gov. Bill Lee also announced a special session for the GOP-controlled Legislature to break up the state's one Democratic-held House district, centered on the majority-Black city of Memphis.

Louisiana already has suspended its May 16 congressional primary to allow time for lawmakers to approve new U.S. House districts, though that is being challenged in court. Meanwhile, President Donald Trump is pressuring other states such as Tennessee to also redistrict ahead of the midterm elections that will determine whether Republicans maintain control of the closely divided House.

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. Then other states joined the battle. Lawmakers, commissions or courts have adopted new House districts in eight states.

That total could grow following the Supreme Court’s decision that significantly weakened a provision in the federal Voting Rights Act.

Here’s a look at how some states are responding to the Supreme Court ruling:

Louisiana

Current House map: two Democrats, four Republicans

Early in-person voting was to begin Saturday for Louisiana’s primaries. But Republican Gov. Jeff Landry moved quickly Thursday to postpone the congressional primary while allowing elections for other offices to go forward.

A federal lawsuit filed later Thursday, on behalf of a Democratic congressional candidate and voter, asked a court to block Landry’s order and allow the House primary to occur as originally scheduled. Two more lawsuits asserting that the congressional primary should go forward were filed Friday in state court on behalf of voters who already had cast absentee ballots and several civil rights organizations.

Among other things, the lawsuits contend that Landry lacked authority to suspend the primary and that thousands of absentee ballots already have been mailed to people, with a substantial number filled out and returned.

District court judges in Baton Rouge late Friday denied requests in two of those cases to temporarily block Landry’s executive order.

Separately, a three-judge federal court panel that heard the case that was appealed to the Supreme Court also issued an order Thursday suspending Louisiana’s congressional primary.

Republican state House and Senate leaders said they are prepared to pass new U.S. House districts — and set a new primary election date — before their legislative session ends in a month.

Alabama

Current House map: two Democrats, five Republicans

The state’s primaries are set for May 19. But Alabama officials on Thursday filed an emergency motion with the Supreme Court seeking an expedited review of a pending appeal in a redistricting case that could affect the election.

A federal court in 2023 ordered the creation of a new near majority-Black district in Alabama, resulting in the election of a second Black representative to the U.S. House. Alabama is under a court order to use the new map until after the next census in 2030.

An appeal pending before the Supreme Court argues that the map is an illegal racial gerrymander, a claim similar to that made in Louisiana.

The state is seeking to lift an injunction blocking the use of a 2023 map drawn by the Republican-controlled Legislature that did not include the new district. The state is making a similar request for two state Senate districts impacted by a separate redistricting case.

Ivey said the special legislative session will focus on a contingency plan to have special primary elections in case the Supreme Court acts quickly enough to allow Alabama’s previously drawn districts to be used this year.

Florida

Current House map: eight Democrats, 20 Republicans

Hours after the Supreme Court’s decision, Florida’s Republican-led Legislature approved new U.S. House districts that could help the GOP win up to four additional seats in November.

Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis called a special legislative session without knowing when the Supreme Court would issue its opinion in the Louisiana case. But DeSantis expressed confidence that the court would rule as it did. Among other things, the new map reshapes a southeastern Florida district that DeSantis said was created to help elect a Black representative in an attempt to comply with the federal Voting Rights Act.

A Florida constitutional amendment approved by voters in 2010 prohibits districts from being drawn to deny or diminish the ability of racial or language minorities to elect the representatives of their choice. DeSantis said he considers that amendment a violation of the U.S. Constitution. That question is expected to be decided by the courts.

Tennessee

Lee announced the special session in a statement late Friday afternoon, saying, “We owe it to Tennesseans to ensure our congressional districts accurately reflect the will of Tennessee voters.”

That came after a pressure campaign by Trump and other Republicans to reconfigure the state's 9th Congressional District. Republicans have always been checkmated by the Voting Rights Act in their desire to spread the district's Democratic voters around neighboring conservative districts and make it winnable, but the law may no longer be an impediment.

The candidate qualifying period ended in March, and the primary election is scheduled for Aug. 6. Democrats noted that in 2022 the state supreme court checked additional redistricting because it was too close to an election. They argued that the court is their best hope this time around too.

“We cannot keep doing things like this and calling ourselves a democracy, Democratic State Sen. Ramesh Akbari said at a news conference outside the Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, which includes the structure of the motel where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in 1968.

Mississippi

Current House map: one Democrat, three Republicans

Mississippi held its U.S. House primaries in March. But the Supreme Court’s decision could affect elections for other offices.

Republican Gov. Tate Reeves announced previously that he would call a special legislative session to redraw voting districts for the state Supreme Court that would begin 21 days after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the Louisiana case. That would put the special session's start at around May 20.

A federal judge last year ordered Mississippi to redraw its Supreme Court voting districts after finding that they violated the Voting Rights Act by diluting the power of Black voters. Mississippi lawmakers had been waiting on a decision in the Louisiana case before moving forward, but their legislative session ended in April.

Reeves said in his proclamation that the Supreme Court’s decision would provide guidance to lawmakers on whether “race-conscious redistricting” violates the U.S. Constitution.

Georgia

Current House map: five Democrats, nine Republicans

Early in-person voting began April 27 and continues for the next few weeks ahead of Georgia’s primary elections on May 19.

Republican Gov. Brian Kemp said it’s too late for Georgia officials to try to change congressional districts for this year’s elections, because voting already is underway. But he said the rationale in the Supreme Court’s decision “requires Georgia to adopt new electoral maps before the 2028 election cycle.”

___

Associated Press writers Jeff Amy, Jack Brook, Travis Loller, Nicholas Riccardi and Kim Chandler contributed to this report.

The first call came in from the 9200 block of Chimney Rock Road.

Authorities said witnesses reported seeing a person in the bayou. One of the witnesses reportedly shared a video of what appeared to be a woman in a white shirt struggling in the water.

Authorities say the water was moving at approximately 12 knots, which is enough for the average swimmer to be overcome by.

• Flood Watch continues for Houston as the final round of wave moves in tonight

Our crew at the scene spotted first responders towing a rescue boat to the bayou.

Rescue boats were also seen in the water at Almeda and MacGregor.

A Houston Police Department dive team has responded to assist the Houston Fire Department in the search. Drones are also assisting in the search.

HFD says they are searching the bayou spanning from where the first report came in off Chimney Rock all the way to Almeda Road in the Medical Center area.

The search has been suspended for the night.

Friday's unanimous ruling from a three-judge panel of the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is requiring that the abortion pill be distributed only in person and at clinics, overruling regulations set by the federal Food and Drug Administration.

The ruling, which is likely to be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, is the biggest jolt to abortion policy in the U.S. since the 2022 Supreme Court ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade and allowed states to enforce abortion bans.

In the ruling, Judge Kyle Duncan, who was appointed by President Donald Trump, agreed with the state of Louisiana's contention that allowing the drug to be mailed there makes moot the state's ban on abortion at all stages of pregnancy.

“Every abortion facilitated by FDA’s action cancels Louisiana’s ban on medical abortions and undermines its policy that ‘every unborn child is human being from the moment of conception and is, therefore, a legal person,’” the ruling states.

Mifepristone is involved in most abortions in the US

Mifepristone was approved in 2000 as a safe and effective way to end early pregnancies. It is typically used in combination with a second drug, misoprostol.

Surveys have found that the majority of abortions in the U.S. are provided via pills and that about 1 in 4 abortions nationally are prescribed via telehealth.

One survey of abortion providers last year estimated that more women in states where abortion is banned obtained abortions that way than by traveling to other states.

Some Democratic-led states have laws that seek to protect providers who prescribe via telehealth to patients in places with bans.

That rise in prominence is why abortion opponents have targeted the pills in legislation and litigation.

Ruling goes against how courts usually view FDA decisions

There is little precedent for a federal court overruling the scientific regulations of the FDA, and it wasn’t immediately clear how quickly or completely the decision would impact mailing of the drug throughout the country.

Judges have long deferred to the agency's judgments on the safety and appropriate regulation of drugs.

FDA officials under Trump have repeatedly stated that the agency is conducting a new review of mifepristone’s safety, at the direction of the president.

The judges, all nominated by Republican presidents, noted in their ruling that the FDA “could not say when that review might be complete and admitted it was still collecting data.”

Because of rare cases of excessive bleeding, the FDA initially imposed strict limits on who could prescribe and distribute the pill — only specially certified physicians and only after an in-person appointment where the person would receive the pill.

Both those requirements were dropped during the COVID-19 years. At the time, FDA officials under President Joe Biden said that after more than 20 years of monitoring mifepristone use, and reviewing dozens of studies involving thousands of women, it was clear that women could safely use the pill without direct supervision.

GenBioPro, which makes generic mifepristone, said in a statement the court’s decision “ignores the FDA’s rigorous science and decades of safe use of mifepristone in a case pursued by extremist abortion opponents.”

The impact isn't just in states with bans

In a court filing, Louisiana’s attorney general and a woman who said she was coerced into taking abortion pills requested that the FDA rules be rolled back to when the pills were allowed to be prescribed and dispensed only in person.

A Louisiana-based federal judge last month ruled that those allowances undermined the state’s abortion ban but stopped short of undoing the regulations immediately.

Friday's ruling is in effect as the case works its way through the courts and extends beyond Louisiana and states with abortion bans.

Telehealth prescriptions have become common even in states where abortion is allowed — and the ruling blocks them there, too.

“This is going to affect patients’ access to abortion and miscarriage care in every state in the nation,” said Julia Kaye, an ACLU lawyer. “When telemedicine is restricted, rural communities, people with low incomes, people with disabilities, survivors of intimate partner violence and communities of color suffer the most.”

The National Right to Life Committee said the ruling “restores a critical layer of oversight" in women’s health.

“Women deserve better than an abortion-by-mail system that prioritizes ideology over safety," said Carol Tobias, the group’s president.

Next step could be an appeal to the nation's top court

Danco Laboratories, another mifepristone manufacturer and a defendant in the lawsuit, asked the appeals court Friday after the ruling to put its order on hold for one week to give the company time to “seek relief” from the Supreme Court. If the court does not grant the request, the company said it will file an emergency appeal with the high court.

The conservative-majority Supreme Court overturned abortion as a nationwide right in 2022 but unanimously preserved access to mifepristone two years later.

That 2024 decision sidestepped the core issues, however, by ruling that the anti-abortion doctors behind the case didn’t have legal standing to sue.

“I look forward to continuing to defend women and babies as this case continues,” Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill, a Republican, said in a statement.

Representatives for the FDA and the U.S. Department of Justice did not immediately respond to requests for comment Friday evening.

In the meantime, anti-abortion groups are celebrating Friday's ruling. Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, applauded the ruling as “a huge victory for victims and survivors of Biden’s reckless mail-order abortion drug regime.” She also criticized the Trump administration for taking time to conduct its own review of mifepristone, saying its slow movement has forced states to take action.

“Women and children suffer and state sovereignty is violated every day the FDA allows abortion drugs to flood the mail,” Dannenfelser said.

___

Associated Press reporters John Hanna, Matthew Perrone and Lindsay Whitehurst contributed.

The separatist fighters, meanwhile, said earlier in the day that they captured a strategic military camp in the northern town of Tessalit after the withdrawal of Mali's army and its Russian allies from there.

The claim by the Azawad Liberation Front separatist group was the latest setback for Mali’s ruling junta, which lost control of the major city of Kidal earlier in the week as part of the attacks that killed Malian Defense Minister Sadio Camara.

Mali has been run by the military since a 2020 coup and has long suffered violence as jihadi groups expand in surrounding territories in the wider Sahel region south of the Sahara Desert, which is known as global hotspot for violent extremism.

The latest assault in the West African nation began Saturday after al-Qaida-backed Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin, or JNIM, and the Azawad Liberation Front, or FLA, partnered to target the main international airport in the capital, Bamako, as well as other Malian towns and cities in near-simultaneous attacks, with the fighters riding on motorcycles and trucks.

A statement from the public prosecutor at the Military Court of Bamako, which was read on state television on Friday, noted that investigations found “solid evidence regarding the complicity of certain military personnel” in the attacks, including serving and recently dismissed officers.

The officers participated in “the planning, coordination, and execution” of the attacks, the prosecutor's statement said, while also alleging the involvement of politicians, including Oumar Mariko, a prominent Malian politician in exile.

Malian army withdraws from a key town

Before the arrival of the FLA fighters Friday, the Malian army and members of Russia’s Africa Corp reportedly pulled out of the Tessalit military camp, which is strategically located near an airport and the border with Algeria.

Achafghi Ag Bouhanda, a top FLA commander, announced the capture of Tessalit in an online video verified by The Associated Press.

The AP could not independently confirm the situation at the camp. Malian authorities did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

At least 10 locations have been attacked by the militants since the latest assault began, forcing Malian and Russian forces to withdraw from the key northern city of Kidal, which was once a stronghold of the separatists.

The junta has vowed to continue its aerial and ground offensive against the militants.

“Military operations will continue until the armed groups involved have been completely neutralized and security has been sustainably restored throughout the country,” Assimi Goita, Malian military leader, said on Tuesday.

Roads to Bamako are blocked

The jihadis have at various times in recent days blocked roads leading to Mali’s capital Bamako, further squeezing the city that already was facing a fuel blockade imposed by the militants late last year.

JNIM earlier this week announced it would enforce a total blockade of Bamako's four major routes, which had previously been partially blocked by the militants. Traffic leading to the city was disrupted Friday and there were reports of roadblocks. The partial blockade has forced some travel agencies to stop operating, travelers said.

“These days, traveling by road is a dangerous undertaking,” said Aminata Traoré, who travels between Bamako and the Sikasso region in the south of the country.

The president did not provide details but said an announcement could come later Friday or Saturday.

“We’re looking at it. If we could do it, we’ll do it. But only if it’s a good deal,” he said earlier Friday, speaking to reporters before departing the White House for Florida.

The possibility of a bailout first emerged publicly last week, when Trump floated the idea of the U.S. government offering Spirit a financial lifeline to help keep it from going out of business. Separately, a lawyer for the airline told a U.S. Bankruptcy Court that Spirit was in advanced talks with the government about a financing package.

The president suggested the government would be able to resell the airline known for its bright yellow planes and “no frills” service for a profit once oil prices driven up by the Iran war come down.

Lawmakers from both parties and some Trump administration officials have criticized using taxpayer funds to keep the ultra-low cost airline afloat. Speculation around Spirit's future has grown with every day that passes without a resolution and its operating expenses and debts mount.

A spokesperson for Spirit, headquartered in Dania Beach, Florida, declined to comment on ongoing discussions Friday and said “Spirit is operating as usual.”

Although travelers still could book flights on the airline's website Friday evening, customers flooded Spirit's X account with questions about upcoming flights and demands for refunds. Some U.S. airlines say they would step in to support Spirit customers if the airline goes under.

American Airlines said in a statement that it was capping main cabin fares for flights on Spirit routes where American also offers nonstop service. Budget carrier Frontier said in an X post that it was “ready to support customers who may be impacted if Spirit Airlines ceases operations."

Trump framed the possible federal intervention as an effort to preserve jobs but stressed that any deal must benefit the government.

“If we can help them, we will," he said. “But we have to come first.”

The size and terms of the deal have not been shared publicly. The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg, citing unnamed sources, both reported an amount of $500 million that would give the government an option to acquire a sizable stake in the airline.

Supporters of a rescue — including labor unions representing Spirit's pilots, flight attendants and ramp workers — say a collapse would put thousands of Americans out of work and hurt consumers by reducing airline competition and increasing airfares. About 17,000 jobs could be impacted, according to Spirit lawyer Marshall Huebner.

Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants, said Friday in a post on X that if Trump wanted to help the airline, “it's in his hands.”

“Everyday Americans will hurt,” Nelson wrote, including consumers and the employees who stand to lose their jobs if Spirit shuts down.

Miami resident Caleb Euzebe, 27, who works at an insurance company, said he flies Spirit “all the time" and compared the carrier to “that reliable car that you have. It always gets you from point A to point B safely.”

Euzebe, who was at Fort Lauderdale–Hollywood International Airport after his Spirit flight to Houston was canceled Friday, said he supported the government stepping in if it meant saving jobs.

Spirit's employees have to “put food on the table, keep the lights on for their homes,” he said. "So if that means that bailing them out keeps these people working, I support 100%.”

Spirit has struggled financially since the COVID-19 pandemic, weighed down by rising operating costs and growing debt. By the time it filed for Chapter 11 protection in November 2024, Spirit had lost more than $2.5 billion since the start of 2020.

The budget carrier sought bankruptcy protection again in August 2025, when it reported having $8.1 billion in debts and $8.6 billion in assets, according to court filings.

Shortly before, its parent company revealed in a quarterly report that it had “substantial doubt” about Spirit’s ability to stay in business over the next year, citing “adverse market conditions” — including weak leisure domestic travel demand and ongoing “uncertainties in its business operations.”

The company, Spirit Aviation Holdings Inc., struck a more optimistic tone earlier this year, saying in February it had reached a preliminary deal with creditors and expected to exit Chapter 11 in late spring or early summer. It pitched a “new Spirit,” — smaller and leaner, but still focused on low fares while adding more premium seating options.

Instead, the war that started days later when the U.S. and Israel launched strikes on Iran intensified the airline's cash flow problems. Rising jet fuel costs tied to the war added pressure across the industry, and Spirit's creditors last month expressed doubts about whether it could continue operating, raising the possibility of the airline being forced to sell off assets and shut down.

Gianfranco Finizio, a bankruptcy expert and partner at law firm Lowenstein Sandler, said Spirit’s situation reflected an unusually turbulent stretch for the airline, shaped in part by shifting signals from Washington.

He cited the Biden administration’s successful 2023 lawsuit to block Spirit’s merger with JetBlue, followed by mixed messages from the Trump administration about a potential rescue.

“The thought of there even being a bailout is unusual. It’s not something that happens in every day bankruptcy practice,” said Finizio, who is not involved in the airline's Chapter 11 proceedings.

"It's been a tumultuous couple of years and certainly a tumultuous couple of weeks for Spirit,” he said.

Budget-conscious and leisure travelers would likely feel Spirit's absence the most — especially where the airline has a big footprint, such as Las Vegas and the Florida cities of Fort Lauderdale and Orlando.

The carrier flew about 1.7 million domestic passengers in February, roughly half a million fewer than it did during the same month a year earlier, according to aviation analytics firm Cirium. It has also sharply reduced its capacity, with about half as many seats available this month than in May 2024.

___

Yamat reported from Las Vegas. Associated Press video journalist Daniel Kozin contributed from Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Detroit trailed by 22 at the half and Orlando's lead went to 62-38 early in the third quarter. The Magic looked absolutely poised to become the seventh No. 8 seed to eliminate a No. 1 seed in the first round.

And then everything went wrong for Orlando. Everything.

“Detroit grit,” Cunningham said. “That's what we've been talking about all year.”

The Magic became the first team since 1996-97 — when play-by-play began getting tracked digitally — to lose at home after leading by at least 24 points with a chance to win a series.

That number, and a whole lot of others, were just baffling. The Magic missed 23 consecutive shots from the field, Detroit went on a 35-5 run and just like that, the story of the game — and quite possibly the series — changed wildly.

“We took each possession at a time, both offensively and defensively, and tried our best to execute on every single possession," Pistons coach J.B. Bickerstaff said. "Every screening action, every rebound, all the small things. We went out and focused on that. And we put ourselves in position to win.”

Tobias Harris scored 22 points for Detroit, which will host Game 7 on Sunday. Paolo Banchero and Desmond Bane each scored 17 for Orlando, which is now 0-2 in closeout opportunities in this series and was again without injured forward Franz Wagner.

The first quarter was back and forth, Detroit leading 26-25 after those opening 12 minutes.

The second quarter: Magic 35, Pistons 12.

Orlando outscored the Pistons 17-0 from 3-point range and the free-throw line in that quarter, held Detroit to 2-for-11 shooting over the first 5:48 of the period and took a 60-38 lead into the half.

The 22-point halftime lead was the fourth-largest by a No. 8 seed over a No. 1 seed in this format. And there was never an instance of a No. 8 seed — at least in the play-by-play era, which started in 1996-97 — outscoring a No. 1 seed by 23 or more points in any quarter of a playoff game, either.

It seemed over. It was not. Because the third quarter: Pistons 24, Magic 11.

“When things get sideways, people splinter. And this group does the opposite," Pistons guard Duncan Robinson said. "It finds a way to just come together. There’s a lot of pride in that locker room, not wanting to go out like that.”

The tone was set for a comeback — an epic one — and when the night ended those who remained in Orlando's Kia Center booed as they departed for possibly the final time this season.

“We've got to go do it the hard way,” Magic coach Jamahl Mosley said.

___

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

Friday’s storms produced hail from pea to golf ball-size and heavy rain leading to ponding and flooding across the Houston area. Some areas have picked up more than 4 inches of rain!

A cool and breezy Saturday with a near-perfect Sunday:

Saturday is expected to start cool and breezy, but winds will calm in the afternoon. This sets up a mostly sunny and pleasant remainder of the weekend.

Daytime highs climb to the 70s Saturday and Sunday will deliver another taste of beautiful spring weather, with 50s in the morning and afternoon temperatures climbing to the upper-70s.

Heat Returns Swiftly:

Enjoy the lovely patio weather because heat and humidity return early in the week. Then we are tracking more rain midweek, so keep an eye on future updates from the KPRC 2 Weather Team.

Have you captured a dramatic rain photo or video? Share your weather moments with the KPRC 2 community through Click2Pins at Click2Houston.com/pins.

“This filly was struggling,” Brown said. “Her career was really up in the air.”

After more than a month in a veterinary clinic and treatment with a hyperbaric chamber, she began her racing career in February. On Friday night, Always a Runner showed her toughness once again by winning the Kentucky Oaks against some of the best 3-year-old fillies around in the 152nd edition of the race and the first run under the lights in prime time at Churchill Downs.

“This filly is very resilient, very tough,” Brown said after winning the Oaks for the first time. “She didn’t have to be here today. She didn’t have to run again. She could have never run, easily. I’ve had it happen with several horses. The fact that not only did she overcome it and ended up here today as an undefeated horse in the Oaks is just remarkable.”

Ridden by Jose Ortiz, Always a Runner made a move around the final turn and needed every bit of the stretch to pass Bob Baffert’s Explora and and Michael McCarthy’s Meaning before the finish line of the 1 1/8-mile race.

Meaning was second by 1 1/4 lengths and Counting Stars third. Always a Runner finished in 1:48.62 and paid $13.04 to win, $7.46 to place and $5.44 to show.

“We were there every step of the way,” McCarthy said. “Kudos to Chad, that filly came running. We were second best.”

Always a Runner impressed Ortiz, who had never ridden her in a race before the Oaks — just a morning workout. She's now 3 for 3.

“Chad was very confident in her,” said Ortiz, who won five races on Friday at Churchill Downs. "He knew what he had. He told me, ‘Just go out there, get to know her in the work and you’re going to feel like a sports car, like she’s a Ferrari.’ And he was right. I loved the way she worked, and here we are. We won.”

Brown will try to pull off the Oaks- Kentucky Derby double on Saturday with Emerging Market, who also had pneumonia as a 2-year-old and has only raced twice. He has also never won the Derby.

“I stick with things that are working," Brown said. “So, two starts, we should be good.”

The first night Kentucky Oaks was one for the history books, but also took place in front of large swaths of empty seats. Many of the 100,000-plus fans who filled the grandstand and the track from the late morning through the afternoon had departed before sunset. The Oaks has typically been run before 6 p.m.

“For me it’s just a very long day,” Ortiz said. “It was just amazing. Good vibe. It’s for the public. If they have fun, it’s good to me.”

Brown lamented not being able to get presented with the trophy in the infield, the tradition for the Oaks and the Derby that was moved to the paddock because of the time. Other than that, he had no complaints.

“It was a really cool experience, and it’s nice to utilize this facility with the lights and all and I would definitely do it again. Obviously, my horse ran terrific,” Brown said. “(The ceremony) was the only negative. Everything else about it was an incredible experience today with this post time.”

___

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

Fake “product recall” text messages are becoming more common, designed to create urgency so you act quickly without thinking twice.

How the scheme works

It often starts with a text claiming something you recently purchased has been recalled due to a serious safety issue.

The message may appear legitimate — sometimes even referencing a real retailer or a recent purchase. But there’s a catch.

The link included in the message typically leads to a fake website built to steal your personal or financial information.

Experts say thieves time these messages strategically — often during busy shopping seasons or even months after major purchases — to make them more believable.

What you should do

The most important step? Pause.

• Don’t click links in unexpected or random text messages
• Go directly to the company’s official website or app to verify the claim
• Check legitimate recalls through Recalls.gov

Red flags to watch for

• Urgent language pushing you to act immediately
• Requests for personal or financial information
• Links that don’t match official company websites

Real companies will not ask for sensitive information or payments through a text link.

If you already clicked the link

If you interacted with a suspicious message, act quickly:

• Run antivirus software to check for malware
• Contact your bank if you entered any financial information
• Change passwords for any accounts you may have accessed

Leah Napoliello, VP of Investigations with the Better Business Bureau of Greater Houston warns that thieves may try multiple ways to compromise your information — from installing malware to collecting login credentials.

Report the scheme

If you receive one of these messages, report it to:

• The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) consumer.ftc.gov/
• The Better Business Bureau www.bbb.org/local-bbb/bbb-of-greater-houston-and-south-texas

Bottom line

Don’t trust unexpected texts — even if they look real.

When it comes to recalls, always go straight to the source. Taking a moment to verify before clicking can help protect your money — and your identity.

The new rules also include significant changes to the much-criticized international film category, expanding eligibility to include films that won top qualifying awards from prestigious film festivals like Cannes, Venice and Toronto.

“As we do every year, we made a lot of, we think, really smart and progressive changes,” film academy CEO Bill Kramer told The Associated Press. “Obviously, as the academy becomes more global, we need to think about how we are inviting international films into the Oscars conversation.”

AI and the Oscars

As part of its annual review of Oscar eligibility rules, the academy is tackling one of the global filmmaking community's biggest concerns: generative artificial intelligence.

The new rules state that “the tools neither help nor harm the chances of achieving a nomination” and that the academy and each branch “will judge the achievement, taking into account the degree to which a human was at the heart of the creative authorship when choosing which movie to award.” They’re also reserving the right to request more information from the filmmaking team about the nature of the use of AI and “human authorship.”

“Humans have to be at the center of the creative process,” said academy president Lynette Howell Taylor. “As AI continues to evolve, our conversations around AI will do so along with that. But for the academy, we are always going to put human authorship at the center of our awards eligibility process.”

When it comes to the eligibility of performances, only roles “demonstrably performed by humans with their consent” will be considered. The organization declined to comment on whether the upcoming AI-rendered Val Kilmer performance would be eligible as the filmmakers have not yet submitted it for consideration.

A likeness is not an actor, for one, but it might also depend on how Kilmer is credited in the film: As Val Kilmer or something else? One could also take Andy Serkis as Gollum as an example of a human collaborating with technology for the final performance.

“We will review that on a case-by-case basis,” Kramer said. “We, like everybody in our industry and world, we will be assessing this every year.”

There is less ambiguity in the screenplay categories, where the rules state that “screenplays must be human-authored to be eligible.”

The film academy has often had to review its standards to meet the technological advances of the moment, whether it be sound, color or computer generated imagery (CGI).

Sweeping changes to international film eligibility

As its membership has grown much more international, there have been increasing calls for an overhaul to the international film category, which had been continually criticized as unjust, outdated and subject to political interference. That's led to independent and dissident filmmakers often pointedly not being submitted to represent the country they’re from.

Last year’s Palme d’Or-winner at Cannes, for instance, was “It Was Just an Accident,” from Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi, was not submitted as Iran’s official entry for the 98th Academy Awards, but France’s.

Under the new rules, “It Was Just an Accident” could be considered eligible because it won the top Cannes prize and not because a country chose to submit it. In addition to the Palme d’Or at Cannes, the Golden Lion at Venice and the Platform award at Toronto, other festivals with eligible qualifying awards will also include the Berlin International Film Festival’s Golden Bear, the Busan International Film Festival’s best film award and the Sundance Film Festival’s World Cinema Grand Jury Prize.

All the international films will also be credited as the nominee, not the country or region, and the award will be accepted by the filmmaker. The director’s name will also be listed on the Oscar plaque, “after the film title and country if applicable.”

“That really reflects our desire to honor the film’s creative team. That is how we approach other categories,” Kramer said. “And as we become more global, as the filmmaking community becomes more global. I think it’s really about a focus on the filmmakers and less a focus of the country.”

Actors can now be nominated for more than one award in a category

The acting branch is catching up with the rest of the academy in allowing an actor to be nominated for more than one performance in a single category. If, say, this year’s best actor winner Michael B. Jordan has two extraordinary leading performances in two different films in 2026, he could possibly get two best actor nominations.

This is standard practice in the other categories. In 2001, at the 73rd Oscars, Steven Soderbergh was nominated for best director for both “Traffic” and “Erin Brockovich,” winning the prize for the former.

And about those original songs in the end credits

The organization also clarified the eligibility of original songs used during a film’s end credits. For songs in which the first music cue plays over the end credits, that song must overlap with at least the film’s last 15 seconds before the credits roll in order to be considered eligible. This year’s original song winner, “Golden” was a key part of “KPop Demon Hunters” and used several times throughout the film.

“We never stop looking at ways to improve our eligibility process,” Taylor said.

The crash happened around 11 p.m. Thursday in Wimberley, a city about 40 miles (64 kilometers) southwest of Austin, the Texas Department of Public Safety said.

“The pilot and four passengers on board were pronounced deceased on scene,” Sgt. Billy Ray told reporters.

Names of the victims were not immediately released by authorities, though the Amarillo Pickleball Club in Amarillo, Texas, said they were members who were flying to a tournament.

An unidentified woman wiped her eyes and fanned her face with her hands as she stood behind yellow police tape near the crash site Friday afternoon. A man consoled her.

The plane, a Cessna 421C, took off from Amarillo and was headed to New Braunfels National Airport, according to the flight history. Aerial photos posted online by the Austin American-Statesman showed the aircraft destroyed in a wooded area.

Ray said federal authorities were leading the investigation.

Stacey Rohr, who lives nearby, said she was in bed when she heard a crash and “felt everything vibrate.”

“It was so close I felt like it was the back of my place up in flames," said Rohr, who immediately called her landlord.

The players were heading to a pickleball tournament at the Cranky Pickle in New Braunfels, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) northeast of San Antonio, said Martin Robertson, head pro at the venue.

He said they canceled the tournament Friday and plan to say a prayer before they start Saturday and honor the players who died.

“We’re very heavy hearted, heartbroken from this," he said. "The pickleball community is very tight knit. Everybody knows everybody.”

Dan Dyer, president of the Amarillo Pickleball Club, said he’d played many games with four of the five people who were killed.

“I’ve handed them medals. They were excellent players. They were out to win some games," Dyer said. “Every weekend there are dozens of tournaments. Some people get the bug; others don’t. But once they do, they’ll travel for a tournament.”

Dyer said a second plane was traveling to the event from Amarillo at the same time. Authorities said it landed safely at the airport in New Braunfels.

“I haven't heard anything from him,” the pilot of the second plane said, according to Air Traffic Control audio.

A controller responded: "He started to move erratically and now his track is disappeared from the scope. So we want to make sure everything's all right with him.”

At least one pilot in the area confirmed the troubled plane's locator emergency device had emitted a distress signal. The controller called 911.

It was mostly cloudy in the New Braunfels area shortly before the crash and there was a thunderstorm two hours later, the National Weather Service said.

Wimberley, with a population of about 3,000, and New Braunfels, with a population of about 116,000, are tourist destinations in the Texas Hill Country.

___

White reported from Detroit. AP reporters Kathy McCormack in Concord, New Hampshire, and Hallie Golden in Seattle contributed to this report.

Even as negotiations continue, Trump is claiming that the war has been “terminated” because of the ceasefire. The president also called the War Powers Resolution, which states Congress must declare war or authorize the use of force within 60 days, “unconstitutional.”

The resolution’s May 1 deadline is now set to pass without action, as lawmakers left town for a week on Thursday after the Senate rejected a Democratic attempt to halt the war for a sixth time.

Trump also said Friday that he will increase the tariffs charged on cars and trucks from the European Union next week to 25% after claiming without evidence that the E.U. was “not complying with our fully agreed to Trade Deal.” The U.S. and E.U. reached a trade deal last July that sets a 15% tariff on most goods.

Here's the latest:

Trump jokes that US Navy will take on Cuba on the way home from Iran

“Cuba’s got problems,” Trump said in one of several digressions in his Friday evening speech before the non-profit Forum Club of the Palm Beaches. “On the way back from Iran, we’ll have one of our big, maybe the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier — the biggest in the world — we’ll have that come in, stop about 100 yards offshore, and they’ll say, ‘Thank you very much. We give up.’”

The Trump administration is in the midst of a monthslong campaign to press the Cuban government to make dramatic reforms. All the while, Trump has repeatedly threatened that the U.S. could take military action against the island to get what he wants.

Trump now speaking in West Palm Beach, Florida

The president is at the Forum Club of the Palm Beaches Dinner, which is being held at the Raymond F. Kravis Center for the Performing Arts.

“We’re joined tonight by a lot of my friends,” he said.

Trump owns Mar-a-Lago, his home and private club across the causeway in Palm Beach.

He also spoke a little bit about the war against Iran.

US to withdraw 5,000 troops from Germany in next 6-12 months after feud over Iran war

Trump had threatened to withdraw some troops from its NATO ally earlier this week as he continues to feud with Chancellor Friedrich Merz over the U.S-Israel war against Iran. Merz said the U.S. was being “humiliated” by the Iranian leadership and criticized Washington’s lack of strategy in the war.

Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement that the “decision follows a thorough review of the Department’s force posture in Europe and is in recognition of theater requirements and conditions on the ground.”

The U.S. has several major military facilities in Germany, including the headquarters for U.S. European Command and U.S. Africa Command. The number of troops leaving Germany would be 14% of the 36,000 American service members stationed there.

▶ Read more

Court restricts abortion access across the US by blocking the mailing of mifepristone

A panel of the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is requiring that the pill — one of the most common means of abortion in the U.S. — be distributed only in-person at clinics.

Judges have long deferred to the Food and Drug Administration’s judgments on the safety and appropriate regulation of drugs. FDA officials under Trump have repeatedly stated the agency is conducting a new review of mifepristone’s safety, at the direction of the president.

Since the Supreme Court’s 2022 ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade and allowed enforcement of abortion bans, prescriptions by mail has become a major way that abortions are provided — including in states where bans are in place.

“This is going to affect patients’ access to abortion and miscarriage care in every state in the nation,” said Julia Kaye, an ACLU lawyer.

▶ Read more

Trump opens event with older Americans in Florida by referencing shooting at Washington dinner he attended

Trump is visiting The Villages in central Florida, a community for older Americans, to talk about how his policies are helping them.

He said he loves Florida and was “thrilled” to be among the “great American patriots” of The Villages.

“Now, you know I shouldn’t be here,” Trump said, referencing what law enforcement authorities have said was an attempt on his life during a gala dinner in Washington last weekend.

Trump said he should be “indoors at a secure facility” and asked, “What’s more secure than The Villages?”

EPA says oil and gas producers can continue routine flaring at new oil wells

A Biden-era rule had set a May 7 deadline to halt routine flaring of planet-warming methane at new wells. However, the Environmental Protection Agency said Friday it won’t make that change in response to concerns from energy companies.

Republican Rep. Julie Fedorchak of North Dakota hailed the new guidelines, which she said will allow continued production of up to 40,000 barrels of oil a day in her state.

Methane is a potent greenhouse gas that traps heat far more efficiently than carbon dioxide over the short term and is a major driver of climate change. Energy companies routinely flare, or burn, excess methane produced by oil wells because it’s less valuable than the oil.

Chinese envoy says ‘world is big enough’ for both US and China ahead of Trump’s visit to Beijing

Asked if the ongoing war between Iran and the U.S. will overshadow the upcoming Trump-Xi summit, China’s U.N. ambassador Fu Cong said the relationship between the two world powers “goes beyond” the issue of reopening the critical waterway.

“I think it is in the interest of both countries and both people — and I may say, to the entire world, of the people of the entire world — that China and U.S. maintain a steady and sound and sustainable relationship,” he told reporters at the U.N. headquarters in New York.

Fu added that there’s room for both on the world stage and that “it doesn’t have to be a zero-sum game between the two countries.”

Trump contends hostilities with Iran have ‘terminated’

The White House asserted to Congress in a letter Friday that hostilities with Iran have “terminated” despite the continued presence of U.S. armed forces in the region.

The message from Trump effectively skirts a May 1 legal deadline for gaining approval from members of Congress to continue the war with Iran. That deadline was already set to pass without action from Republican lawmakers, who are deferring to the president.

The letter brings into stark relief the bold but legally questionable assertion of presidential power at the heart of Trump’s war, which he began without congressional approval two months ago.

He also made it clear in the letter that the war may be far from over.

“Despite the success of United States operations against the Iranian regime and continued efforts to secure a lasting peace, the threat posed by Iran to the United States and our Armed Forces remains significant,” the Republican president said.

US military reaches deals with 7 tech companies to use their AI on classified systems

Google, Microsoft, Amazon Web Services, Nvidia, OpenAI, Reflection and SpaceX will provide resources to help “augment warfighter decision-making in complex operational environments,” the Defense Department said.

The use of AI can help the U.S. military reduce the time it takes to identify and strike targets on the battlefield, while aiding in the organization of weapons maintenance and supply lines, according to a report in March from the Brennan Center for Justice.

Friday’s announcement comes after concerns raised by a company not on the list, Anthropic, whose battle with the Pentagon to put up AI guardrails has spilled into court.

The tech company said it wanted assurances in its contract that the military would not use its technology in fully autonomous weapons and the surveillance of Americans. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the company must allow for any uses the Pentagon deemed lawful.

▶ Read more

Trump says after CENTCOM briefing that he has two options for Iran

Discussing a Thursday briefing with Adm. Brad Cooper, head of U.S. Central Command, Trump said the U.S. has just two options in Iran.

“I mean, do we want to go and just blast the hell out of them and finish them forever? Or do we want to try and make a deal? I mean, those are the options,” Trump said.

Asked if he wanted to pursue the former, Trump said: “I’d prefer not. On a human basis, I’d prefer not, but that’s the option.”

Trump said he believes Iran’s leadership has made some progress toward unifying around a resolution.

“They’ve made strides, but I’m not sure if they ever get there,” he said. “There’s tremendous discord, they’re having a tremendous problem getting along with each other in Iran.”

Trump dismisses war powers law as ‘unconstitutional’

Friday marked the 60th day since the White House notified Congress of its military operations in Iran, meaning Trump would have to withdraw forces or seek formal approval from Capitol Hill.

But the president said his predecessors have similarly not sought congressional approval for military action abroad, and he wasn’t going to be any different.

“Every other president considered it totally unconstitutional, and we agree with that,” Trump said at the White House as he departed for Florida on Friday.

He also agreed with an argument advanced by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth this week that ceasefire days should not count as hostilities and thus not toward the 60 day limit.

A senior administration official says the U.S.’s military actions in Iran have effectively “terminated” since the April 7 ceasefire.

Meet Dr. Nicole Saphier, Trump’s third pick for US surgeon general

Trump dropped his pick for surgeon general Dr. Casey Means this week after it became clear she didn’t have enough Senate votes.

His new pick Dr. Nicole Saphier, a radiologist and former Fox News Channel contributor, has promoted much of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s agenda, including cutting ultraprocessed foods from diets and encouraging exercise.

But she has been a more vocal advocate for vaccination than Kennedy. She’s also criticized the administration’s handling of some issues as “embarrassing.”

“The more vaccine confusion we create, the more preventable disease we will see,” she said in September, urging the administration to get itself in order on the issue.

Trump sounds open to putting former 2024 GOP rival Ron DeSantis in his Cabinet

When asked Friday if he’d consider a Cabinet role for the Florida governor, who is term-limited and will be out of office in 2027, Trump responded by saying, “Well, I like him a lot.”

Trump’s team in 2024 was considering DeSantis as his defense secretary when then-nominee Pete Hegseth’s path to Senate confirmation seemed shaky.

Trump says he’s still looking at a taxpayer-funded takeover of Spirit Airlines

“We’re looking at it. If we could do it, we’ll do it. But only if it’s a good deal,” Trump told reporters on Friday as he prepared to leave the White House for a trip to Florida.

He didn’t offer any details about what proposal he was considering but said he’d like to save jobs at the airline. Trump said his administration gave Spirit “a final proposal” and would make an announcement Friday or Saturday.

“We’re looking at Spirit and if we can help them, we will. But we have to come first,” he said.

Trump says he’s ‘not satisfied’ with Iran’s latest proposal in negotiations to end the war

“They want to make a deal, I’m not satisfied with it, so we’ll see what happens,” Trump told reporters Friday at the White House.

Asked about what he sees as the proposal’s shortcomings, Trump said, “They’re asking for things I can’t agree to.”

The president said negotiations have continued by phone after he called off his envoys’ trip to Pakistan last week. He expressed frustration with Iran’s leadership, which he described as fractured.

“It’s a very disjointed leadership,” he said. “They all want to make a deal, but they’re all messed up.”

Some background on the 2025 trade deal between the US and EU

The 2025 deal was first cast into doubt after the U.S. Supreme Court this year ruled the Republican president lacked the legal authority to declare an economic emergency and charge tariffs on EU goods.

The initial agreement had been a tariff ceiling of 15% on goods from the EU, but the Supreme Court ruling reduced that to 10% as the Trump administration launched a new set of import taxes based on other laws. The Trump administration is in the middle of investigations on trade imbalances and national security risks to impose a new tariff regime, which could ultimately put the agreement with the EU in risk of violation.

The EU had said it expected the bilateral deal would save European automakers about 500 million to 600 million euros ($585 million to $700 million) a month.

The value of EU-U.S. trade in goods and services amounted to 1.7 trillion euros ($2 trillion) in 2024, or an average of 4.6 billion euros a day, according to EU statistics agency Eurostat.

▶ Read more

Trump says he’ll place 25% tariff on autos from EU, accusing bloc of not complying with trade deal

It’s a move that could jolt the world economy at a fragile moment.

Trump said in a post that the EU “is not complying with our fully agreed to Trade Deal,” though he did not flesh out his objections in the post.

Trump and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen had agreed to the trade deal last July. It set a 15% tariff on most goods.

Bessent wants Americans to avoid easy-money traps and invest in financial literacy

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent winces at the allure of easy money — whether it’s lottery tickets, buy now, pay later loans or the promise of a crypto windfall — warning that the get-rich-quick mindset often leads Americans farther from financial stability, not closer to it.

“There are a lot of young people, mostly young men, going to blue-collar construction jobs, playing the lottery. It drives me crazy,” Bessent said in an interview.

“The best thing you can do is not play the lottery,” he said — rather, people should invest and “then watch it grow.”

Bessent spoke about the basics of building a workable budget and saving for the future at the tail end of Financial Literacy Month, an initiative the billionaire hedge fund manager has made a priority since joining Trump’s administration, driven by a childhood marred by poverty.

▶ Read more

King Charles III wins praise for deft handling of Trump on his US state visit

President Trump sang the praises of King Charles III after the monarch’s state visit this week. He even lifted some tariffs on Scotch whisky as a favor to the British monarch.

The king delivered a diplomatic master-class on the trip, mixing praise for his host with subtle criticism. It’s unclear, though, whether it will make a major difference to a trans-Atlantic relationship troubled by divisions over issues including the Iran war.

“In the short term probably yes, in the long term probably no,” said Kristofer Allerfeldt, a University of Exeter professor specializing in American history. But he said Charles had “definitely clawed back some of the prestige of the monarchy” in his homeland with his assured performance.

“He’s done us proud,” Allerfeldt said.

▶ Read more

Joe Biden endorses a former Atlanta mayor and White House adviser for Georgia governor

The former Democratic president is wading into the midterms, making his first political endorsement of the 2026 cycle by backing Keisha Lance Bottoms for the state’s top job.

Bottoms served as Biden’s senior adviser for public engagement after her tenure as Atlanta mayor.

In a one-minute video promoting her candidacy, Biden praised her track record as mayor and said “those same qualities that made her a great mayor made her invaluable to our administration — smart, focused, gets things done.”

“She handled it all with steady and thoughtful leadership,” Biden said in the video. “That’s the definition of battle-tested.”

After major enforcement operations, the Trump administration recalibrates its immigration crackdown

When Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin was questioned by senators during his confirmation hearing about his vision for implementing President Trump’s mass deportation agenda, he said his goal was to keep his department off the front pages of the news.

To some degree, he has. Gone are the social media video clips of now-retired Border Patrol commander Greg Bovino clashing with protesters. Mullin’s predecessor, Kristi Noem, made her first trip as secretary to New York City to make arrests with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. In contrast, Mullin went to North Carolina to review hurricane recovery efforts.

The Republican administration appears to be recalibrating its approach to a centerpiece policy that helped bring Trump back to the White House, moving in many ways away from aggressive, public-facing tactics toward a quieter approach to enforcement. Despite that shift, the administration insists it’s not backing down from its lofty deportation goals.

▶ Read more

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.

In a Monday statement announcing his death, Marvel described Conway as a legendary comic book writer with a prolific career. He died of pancreatic cancer on Sunday in Thousand Oaks, California, his wife, Laura Conway, told The Associated Press.

“From Spider-Man to the Avengers, Iron Man to Captain Marvel, Gerry Conway has deftly written almost every character in the Marvel Universe,” Marvel Comics Editor-in-Chief C.B. Cebulski said. "Gerry Conway’s legacy has made an undeniable and indelible impact on the Super Hero stories we know and love. He will be dearly missed.”

Tributes were also shared on social media.

“While many know his Marvel accomplishments ... Gerry’s contributions to DC were equally impactful and significant: shaping Batman, Superman, the Justice League of America, and co-creating Firestorm, Jason Todd and Power Girl and so many more,” Jim Lee, chief creative officer and president of DC Comics, said in an Instagram post. “Thank you, Gerry, for the worlds imagined and the heroes created.”

Conway was born in Brooklyn on Sept. 10, 1952. A lifelong fan of comic books, he started writing comic book stories as a teenager, and by the age of 19 he landed work on “The Amazing Spider-Man" — which Marvel's statement described as "the job that would change his life — and the comic book industry at large — forever.”

Conway's writing featured "pivotal moments” that redefined the series, Marvel said, such as the death of Gwen Stacy, Peter Parker's girlfriend. He also co-created the Punisher, a vigilante antihero known for the skull logo on his chest.

The skull imagery has been used by law enforcement in recent years, sparking controversy at times. Nearly a decade ago, Conway objected to police departments putting Punisher decals on their vehicles, saying in a social media post that the character was “a complex morally compromised anti-hero, not to be emulated by cops,” as reported the Syracuse Post-Standard.

Conway had a way of imbuing characters with nuance and emotional depth, Marvel said in its statement.

“Gerry Conway brought real stakes to his writing, able to weave together sensational super heroics with the human and relatable, and in doing so created some of the most memorable stories and characters of all time,” Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige said.

Beyond the Spider-Man comics, Conway wrote for several other major Marvel titles, including “Fantastic Four,” “Thor” and “The Incredible Hulk.”

In a 1981 interview with The Comics Journal, Conway noted how comic books can appeal to both younger and older audiences.

"I'm writing for the youthful part of myself, the primitive part of myself,” he told the magazine. "If an adult likes the books it's because of a nostalgic feeling for that primitive, easy conceptualization of heroic purpose.”

He and his fans loved meeting each other, his wife Laura Conway said. At his last public comic book signing in February, “he was tired and in a lot of pain as the cancer was spreading, but he stayed an extra two hours to make sure every fan in line could get their book signed and have a moment to talk with him about comics,” she said.

“That’s the kind of person he was.”

Conway is survived by his wife and two daughters from previous marriages.

“Being separated from a soulmate is a unique kind of pain. But I’m grateful we found each other and for the time we had together, which changed both our lives,” his wife said.

“I know Andy well, and he is always a Vote we can count on because he knows what it takes to GET THINGS DONE,” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform.

Barr is facing former Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron in the May 19 Republican primary, and would have faced entrepreneur Nate Morris. In a Truth Social post just before his endorsement of Barr, Trump announced that he'd asked Morris to “step aside” from the race to join his administration as an ambassador.

“Nate is a terrific businessman and strong MAGA Warrior,” Trump wrote, adding that he'll announce Morris' specific role soon. Shortly after, Morris posted on X that he was proud to be part of the Trump administration and, in another post, endorsed Barr.

All three Republicans coveted the president's endorsement — and boasted frequently of their Trump loyalty — in the conservative state, where Trump won 64% of the vote in the 2024 presidential race.

It isn’t the first Senate primary where Trump has endorsed or teased an endorsement, and he’s been using his influence to continue shaping the Republican Party.

In Louisiana, Trump backed Sen. Bill Cassidy’s challenger, Rep. Julia Letlow. Cassidy voted to convict the president during his 2021 impeachment trial after the Jan. 6. attack on the U.S. Capitol.

In Texas, the president has dangled a possible endorsement in the primary between Sen. John Cornyn and challenger Ken Paxton, the state’s attorney general, but he hasn’t announced anything.

In Kentucky, Barr said he was honored to have Trump’s endorsement, adding in a statement that he’ll stand with Trump “100% to deliver for Kentucky and to keep Making America Great Again.”

A consultant for Cameron’s campaign, Brandon Moody, said in a texted statement, “Congrats to Mitch McConnell for getting his guy,” but did not explain further.

The Democratic field in Kentucky includes former state lawmaker Charles Booker and former Marine pilot Amy McGrath. Booker narrowly beat McGrath in the 2020 Democratic primary to face McConnell.

Democrats have not won a U.S. Senate race in Kentucky since 1992.

Trump had threatened to withdraw some troops from the NATO ally earlier this week after Chancellor Friedrich Merz said the U.S. was being “humiliated” by the Iranian leadership and criticized Washington’s lack of strategy in the war.

Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement that the “decision follows a thorough review of the Department’s force posture in Europe and is in recognition of theater requirements and conditions on the ground.”

Germany hosts several U.S. military facilities, including the headquarters of its European and Africa commands, Ramstein Air Base and a medical center in Landstuhl, where casualties from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq were treated. U.S. nuclear missiles are also stationed in the country.

The number of troops leaving Germany would be 14% of the 36,000 American service members stationed there.

News of the troop withdrawal drew swift pushback from Democrats in Congress as well as a hawkish Washington think tank. They said the move will benefit Russian President Vladimir Putin and weaken U.S. security interests.

The withdrawal “suggests American commitments to our allies are dependent on the president’s mood," said Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee.

"The president should immediately cease this reckless action before he causes irreversible consequences for our alliances and long-term national security,” Reed said.

Bradley Bowman, a scholar at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said the U.S. military's presence in Germany and elsewhere in Europe “not only strengthens deterrence against additional Kremlin aggression but also facilitates the projection of American military power into the Mediterranean, the Middle East, and Africa.”

Trump ignored questions from reporters about the withdrawal on Friday as he boarded Air Force One in Ocala, Florida, following a rally to tout his economic agenda.

Trump made a similar threat in his first term, saying he would pull about 9,500 of the roughly 34,500 U.S. troops who were then stationed in Germany, but he didn’t start the process and Democratic President Joe Biden formally stopped the planned withdrawal soon after taking office in 2021.

The mercurial U.S. leader has mused for years about reducing the American military presence in Germany, and has railed against NATO for its refusal to assist Washington in the war, which began on Feb. 28 with U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran.

Trump wrote Wednesday on social media that the U.S. was reviewing possible troop reductions in Germany, with a “determination” to be made soon. On Thursday, he was still thinking about Merz, posting that the German leader should “spend more time on ending the war with Russia/Ukraine” and “fixing his broken Country” than concerning himself with Iran.

American allies in NATO have braced for a U.S. troop withdrawal since Trump took office, with Washington warning that Europe would have to look after its own security, including that of Ukraine, in the future.

Depending on operations, exercises and troop rotations, around 80,000-100,000 U.S. personnel are usually stationed in Europe. NATO allies have expected for more than a year that the U.S. troops deployed after Russia launched its all-out war on Ukraine in February 2022 would be first to leave.

Ed Arnold, an expert in European security at the Royal United Services Institute, or RUSI, in London, said Europe is more concerned about issues like a U.S. redeployment of Patriot missile systems and ammunition from Germany to the Middle East.

In October, the U.S. confirmed that it would reduce its troop presence on NATO’s borders with Ukraine. The move to cut 1,500-3,000 troops came on short notice and unsettled NATO ally Romania, where the military organization runs an air base.

——

Madhani reported from West Palm Beach, Florida.

The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. Southern District of Texas Court on Thursday, accusing the company of gross negligence and trespassing for loud blasts caused by 11 rocket tests from April 2023 to October 2025. Because some of SpaceX’s tests involve 400-foot, two-stage rockets, with both stages capable of landing, tests sometimes subjected residents’ homes to multiple prolonged periods of damaging noise, according to the suit.

During the Starship rocket’s initial launch in 2023, the force of the 33-engine booster destroyed the launch pad and flung debris three quarters of a mile away, which the lawsuit said “violently illustrated” the rocket’s destructive power.

The suit asks for a jury trial to seek damages, court costs and attorney fees from SpaceX. The plaintiffs own 53 homes in Laguna Vista, Port Isabel and South Padre Island, including several couples who shared homes.

The suit does not name what specific damages residents’ houses sustained due to the repeated sonic booms, but does explain that the loud blasts can cause damage to walls, windows and roofs of homes.

SpaceX and Benigno Martinez, the primary attorney for the plaintiffs, did not respond to immediate requests for comment. SpaceX has not yet responded to the lawsuit in court, and there are no hearings for the lawsuit currently scheduled.

SpaceX has increased its footprint in the South Texas region significantly as it has ramped up the frequency of its rocket launches and size of its operations. Company employees helped found Texas’ newest city, Starbase, in May 2025, and the company was in talks with the Trump administration to swap land for 775 acres of the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge in December.

In 2025, the Federal Aviation Administration authorized SpaceX to launch rockets up to 25 times per year, five times more than was allowed the year before. SpaceX’s launches cause a closure of an 8-mile long beach that lies adjacent to its launch pad. The company is currently facing a separate lawsuit over how often it can close the beach to launch its rockets. Oral arguments for the case were heard by the Texas Supreme Court in March.

Korda only took advantage on two of the four par 5s at El Camaleon, and she had to scramble on the par-5 18th coming out of the right rough. But she had the right touch on a gap wedge from just over 50 yards to 4 feet to close out her round with a birdie.

That allowed her to catch Do, who had a fairway metal for her second shot into the par-4 ninth and finished with a bogey for a 69.

They were at 9-under 135,having faced a stronger wind than the morning wave from the day before on the course along the coast of the Caribbean Sea.

“Drive it straight, hit it close and make putts,” Korda said of the key to playing El Camaleon, the rest course that previously hosted PGA Tour and LIV Golf events.

Melanie Green, who shared the 18-hole lead with Do, had a slow start until making three birdies over her last six holes for a 70. She was one shot behind.

Minami Katsu of Japan had a 69 and was two shots behind.

Korda hit only seven of the 14 fairways, though she was rarely out of position and at times went with a fairway metal off the tee to avoid the bunkers. But she putted for her birdie on all but two holes and was steady over a few 4-foot par putts.

She also had a big following, only partially related to being the No. 1 player in women's golf with her wire-to-wire victory last week in The Chevron Championship for her second win this year, and her third career major.

She was playing alongside Gaby Lopez of Mexico, who shot 71 and was four shots behind.

“Playing with Gaby the crowds have been amazing to see the local support for her, ” Korda said. “And not complaining about where I am on the leaderboard. Playing some solid golf and playing in front of fun crowds, hometown crowds for Gaby is fun to see. Hopefully I can continue playing well, good golf going into the weekend.”

Do, the 36-year-old American, managed her 69 without making birdie on the par 5s. But her iron game gave her plenty of good looks for birdie, and she converted four of them.

She tied for ninth at the Riviera Maya Open a year ago, her only top 10 on the LPGA Tour.

“I put myself in that position last year here and so I think I’m going to be a little more prepared for it this year,” Do said. “I don’t think you’re ever very comfortable being in contention and leading, and so I’m going accept it and kind of just play within myself and feel the feels and kind of see what happens — just accept what happens.”

___

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

The two-time All-Star left midway through the second quarter of Toronto's 125-120 loss at Cleveland on Wednesday night. He scored one point in 11 minutes before departing.

Guard Jamal Shead started in Ingram’s place in Game 6.

The Raptors are already without guard Immanuel Quickley, who has missed the entire series because of sore right hamstring.

After averaging 21.5 points per game in the regular season, his first with Toronto, Ingram has struggled in the playoffs, averaging 12 in the five games against the Cavaliers. He's shooting 19 for 58 overall and 5 for 13 from 3-point range.

Cleveland leads the series 3-2 and can advance with a win Friday. The home team has won each of the five games in the series.

___

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

The company said more than 1,300 frontline workers and contractors are on standby to handle possible service interruptions and begin restoration efforts if needed.

• Flood and severe weather threat Friday

Officials said the Emergency Operations Center was activated ahead of the storms after continued monitoring of forecast conditions. Crews have also been pre-positioned across the system to respond quickly.

“Our crews are pre-positioned and ready to safely restore service in the event the forecasted severe weather impacts our system,” said Nathan Brownell, vice president of resilience and capital delivery and incident commander.

CenterPoint said it is coordinating closely with local emergency management partners as conditions develop.

Customers are encouraged to sign up for the company’s Power Alert Service to receive updates on outages and restoration efforts through phone, text or email.

Judge Dale E. Ho in Manhattan extended the status temporarily while a lawsuit seeking to preserve the protections plays out. In an emergency order, he wrote that people granted the status are ordinary, law-abiding people who the U.S. government had determined could face threats to their safety if they were returned to a country facing an ongoing armed conflict.

Amid its immigration crackdown, the Trump administration has terminated Temporary Protected Status for people from nine countries, including Haiti, Venezuela and Ethiopia. Before Ho’s ruling, protections for Yemeni refugees were set to end on Monday, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

People with Temporary Protected Status are eligible to remain in the U.S., may not be removed from the country, and are able to receive work and travel authorization.

In his ruling, Ho criticized former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, saying Congress had established a process for Temporary Protected Status to be altered or rescinded, but she had not followed it.

He was particularly critical of a social media message she sent out in early December in which she said she had just met with President Donald Trump and was recommending a full travel ban “on every damn country that's been flooding our nation with killers, leeches, and entitlement junkies.”

On Feb. 13, he noted, Noem announced in a news release that Temporary Protected Status would be terminated for Yemen, finding that letting them stay in the U.S. was “contrary to our national interest.”

“TPS holders from Yemen are not ‘killers, leeches, and entitlement junkies,’ ” Ho wrote at the start of his conclusion in his 36-page decision.

He noted that among 2,810 Yemenis who hold TPS status and another 425 who have applied were a pregnant 33-year-old Detroit woman due to give birth this month whose unborn child has a congenital heart condition that is not treatable in Yemen and a 50-year-old former human rights worker in Brooklyn who is a target of Houthi-aligned militias in Yemen.

“Temporary means temporary and the final word will not be from activist judges legislating from the bench," the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said in a statement.

“Allowing TPS Yemen beneficiaries to remain temporarily in the United States is contrary to our national interest," the department’s statement said, emphasizing that the Trump administration is “returning TPS to its original temporary intent.”

Razeen Zaman, director of immigrant rights at the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, applauded Ho's ruling, saying that “the court has made clear that humanitarian statutes like TPS cannot be used as a deportation pipeline."

Zaman said in a release that Homeland Security had determined that it was unsafe for Yemeni refugees to return to their country “but terminated their protection anyway.”

Zaman said Ho's ruling "affirms that protection must be based on facts and conditions on the ground, not on the political appetite to end it.”

Noem announced her decision to end Temporary Protected Status for Yemen in February. The Department of Homeland Security on Friday said she had reviewed conditions in the country and consulted with government agencies before determining that Yemen no longer met the legal requirements for temporary status.

Yemenis praise ruling

The Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund included comments from several lawsuit plaintiffs in its press release heralding Ho's ruling.

One plaintiff identified by a pseudonym to protect his safety wrote that the people fighting to preserve protections for Yemenis were “doctors, engineers, and pilots like myself, and also drivers, deli workers, and countless other people who contribute meaningfully every day, supporting not just our own families but the broader fabric of society.”

He added that their presence "represents resilience, skill, and dedication — values that strengthen the nation as a whole.”

A woman also identified by a pseudonym called Ho's decision “a lifeline for my family.” She added: "It is the moment we finally breathed a sigh of relief after months of existential anxiety,”

Yemen was initially designated for Temporary Protected Status in 2015, about a year after the country’s civil war began.

As the war persisted, the Obama and Biden administrations extended the designation multiple times, most recently in 2024, when officials estimated that 2,300 Yemenis were eligible to reregister for protected status and that 1,700 Yemenis were newly eligible.

Ho cited other instances in which courts have recently permitted those who have fled other countries under various circumstances to stay in the U.S.

___

Associated Press writer Larry Neumeister contributed to this report.

Mayor John Whitmire’s administration is proposing what it calls an “administrative fee” starting in 2027. The fee would begin at $5 per month for the first two years, then increase by $5 annually until it reaches $25 per month.

City officials stress this is not a traditional garbage pickup fee.

“We’re technically not charging a garbage fee,” said Steven David, the mayor’s deputy chief of staff. “We’re charging an administrative fee.”

City officials say their budget proposal is “the first step in creating long-term sustainability for Houston’s budget.” David said if the city accepts these proposals, it could address part of the city’s $100 million budget deficit.

“If we do nothing, we will see a budget gap of $209 million [for FY27],” David said. “The next year will be $334 million, the year after that’s $381 million, and the year after that’s $446 million.”

David stressed during the budget briefing with KPRC 2 News that if the city does nothing, the city would be in “layoff territory.”

“Can’t lay off police, can’t lay off fire, there’s laws against that. And solid waste is considered the most core function that we do inside the general fund,” he said. “So that means libraries close, parks close, we stop maintaining our parks, we layoff all of basically everybody.”

How the fee would work

Under the proposal:

• Residents would pay $5 per month in 2027 and 2028
• Starting in 2029, the fee would increase by $5 each year
• By 2032, households would pay $25 per month, which officials say reflects the full cost of service

City leaders say the gradual increase is designed to avoid “household shock” for residents who have never paid a direct fee for trash services.

According to the administration, the actual cost of providing solid waste services is already about $24 to $26 per household per month, roughly $25 when spread across Houston’s estimated 400,000 customers. For the first several years, the city plans to subsidize most of that cost using existing funds.

Why the city says it’s not a “trash fee”

Officials argue the distinction comes down to structure and scale.

They say the initial $5 charge is far below the true cost of garbage collection and is meant to cover administrative operations as the city transitions its solid waste department into a municipal utility under state law.

The administration also emphasized that Houston has historically funded trash services through general revenue rather than direct user fees.

The proposed plan does not currently include discounts for seniors or low-income households. It also avoids a “pay-as-you-throw” model used in other major Texas cities, where residents pay based on how much trash they generate.

Cities like Austin, San Antonio, and Fort Worth use tiered systems that charge more for larger bins or higher waste volumes. Houston’s approach, officials say, is intentionally simpler as the city works to stabilize and rebuild its solid waste department.

The proposal is still in the early stages and would need approval as part of the city’s budget process.

Houston has seen multiple incidents of street ponding and flooding, as multiple rounds of storms dropped over 4 inches of rain in some spots.

Continue to watch for street flooding and ponding if you have plans for Friday night.

Southeast Texas also experienced strong to severe storms that produced hail, strong wind gusts, and lightning.

The severe risk remains 1 out of 5, but the good news is that most of the energy continues to move south and east out of the Houston area.

When does the rain end?

Widespread rain will continue through the evening hours; still, watch out for an isolated, strong embedded thunderstorm.

As the night goes on, the rain’s intensity will weaken, and coverage will decrease as well. By 10 PM, most communities will be drying out.

The U.S. government detained and deported a 25-year-old man who says he’s a U.S. citizen to Mexico in April, after police stopped the vehicle he was riding in near Fredericksburg, then called immigration authorities when he couldn’t immediately provide identification or proof of citizenship.

Brian José Morales García, who says he was born in Denver but grew up in Mexico, was living and working in Texas at the time of his arrest. In an interview with The Texas Tribune, he said he repeatedly told police and immigration agents that he was a U.S. citizen and that he had a copy of his birth certificate and his Social Security card at home in Austin that he could show them, but was denied the opportunity.

Still, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is disputing that he is a U.S. citizen and claims he admitted to entering the country illegally.

On Friday, Morales’ attorneys filed a lawsuit on his behalf in a federal court in Austin, arguing that he was coerced into saying he entered the country illegally. The lawsuit is asking a federal judge to allow him to return to the U.S. using his birth certificate and to prevent immigration officials from deporting him again.

Morales, who doesn’t speak English and has dual citizenship in Mexico, was booked into the Gillespie County Jail before U.S. Border Patrol agents took custody of him.

He was held for five days and said he feared being detained for months, so he decided to sign documents agreeing to a quick deportation so he could rejoin his wife and newborn daughter, who live in Mexico.

“Eventually I told them what they wanted to hear because I wanted to speed up the process and return and see my daughter,” Morales said in an interview.

Morales and his lawyer provided the Texas Tribune copies of his Social Security card and his birth certificate, which shows he was born in Denver. They also shared a Denver hospital record showing that he was admitted to the hospital the day he was born.

A spokesperson for the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, which keeps records of births in the state, said the agency is prohibited by state law from providing or confirming the validity of anyone’s birth certificate.

The Tribune also reviewed Morales’ Mexican identification, which shows a different spelling of his first name and a different date of birth. His mother said that when she and her family returned to Mexico when Morales was 1 year old and registered him for Mexican citizenship, the clerk used the common Spanish spelling of his first name — Bryan — and changed his date of birth without checking his American birth certificate.

César Cuauhtémoc García-Hernández, a law professor at Ohio State University and immigration attorney, said that it is common for dual citizens to have different versions of their names on different government documents.

The Texas Department of Public Safety said in a statement that on April 3 one of its troopers pulled over a pickup truck in Fredericksburg for a window tint violation. The trooper called Gillespie County Sheriff’s deputies and officers with the Fredericksburg Police Department to help translate for Morales and another passenger in the pickup.

Officers then called ICE agents, who asked officers on the scene to hold the men.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security disputed Morales’ citizenship claim, saying in a written statement that its agents “did NOT arrest a U.S. citizen.”

“Agents determined Morales-Garcia was illegally in the U.S. through record checks,” the statement said. “Morales-Garcia also admitted he is a Mexican national and he entered the country illegally. He was subsequently removed to Mexico on April 7.”

Morales said he initially told agents that he entered the country legally through a port entry in El Paso, but they again accused him of lying “and they told me I could go to prison, so I just told them I entered illegally.”

“They asked me how many miles away from the city and what date I entered, so at this point I was just making up numbers,” he said.

Homeland Security didn’t respond after the Tribune asked about Morales’ U.S. birth certificate, Social Security card and hospital records.

Univision was the first to report Morales’ arrest and deportation.

Starting a family in Denver before returning to Mexico

Morales’ mother, María del Socorro García, 44, said she and her sister moved from Mexico to Denver in 1999. She lived in an apartment complex and worked cleaning offices. She began dating a restaurant cook who lived in the same apartments, and two years later she gave birth to Brian. A year later they had another son, Miguel Morales García.

Socorro García said she returned to Mexico with her sons in 2002 because she wanted them to meet their grandfather, who had been struggling with diabetes. Her husband followed them later, and they agreed to stay and raise their sons in Mexico.

Miguel Morales, now 24, said when he became an adult he decided he wanted to know “his roots” and live in the country where he was born. He said he came to the U.S. three years ago with his Social Security card and told immigration agents that he didn’t have a copy of his birth certificate but that he was a U.S. citizen. After identifying him, immigration agents let him through, he and his mother said.

Once he reached Denver, he got a copy of his and his brother’s birth certificates and gave his brother’s certificate to him during a visit to Mexico.

In January 2025, a family friend who also has relatives in Denver drove Brian Morales from Aguascalientes to the border city of Ciudad Juárez, where they drove across the bridge into El Paso. Brian Morales said he showed U.S. Customs and Border Protection his birth certificate and they let them through.

“I wanted to come to the U.S. because I wanted to work and help provide for my wife who was three months pregnant at the time,” Brian Morales said.

He moved in with his brother, but said he struggled to find work in Denver and decided to move to Austin with a friend, where he found a job installing air conditioning units. He said his boss was driving him and another coworker to Fredericksburg for a job when they were pulled over.

Miguel Morales said his brother’s roommate called him in Denver with news of his brother’s detention by ICE.

“At first I thought, ‘Well he’s a U.S. citizen, they’re going to eventually release him,’” Miguel Morales said.

Miguel Morales said he didn’t learn his brother was in a detention center until an Univision reporter called him. He and his mother began to worry even more, he said, because he had read that people were suffering in detention centers.

“I got scared,” said Miguel Morales, who works as a cashier at a McDonald’s. “And in my case, I haven’t mastered speaking English yet, so I’m worried about … being questioned, too.”

Brian Morales said he was transferred to five different facilities before he signed the deportation papers and was placed on a plane to Mexico. He said he wants to return to the U.S.

“As a U.S. citizen, how can they treat me like this, just because I only speak Spanish?” he said. “I want them to take responsibility.”

Socorro García said she doesn’t understand why her son was detained and deported.

“I feel angry because he’s from there, so why was he so mistreated?” she said.

Report found U.S. officials detained 170 U.S. citizens

Morales’ deportation is evidence that the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration crackdown is leading immigration agents to racially profile Hispanic people and violate American citizens’ civil rights, said Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, Morales’ lawyer.

“If you think about what this case means for every single other person living in this country, we should all be afraid because no passenger in any vehicle who’s driving down the road in any part of the United States who is a U.S. citizen has any legal obligation to carry proof of their citizenship,” Lincoln-Goldfinch said. “The slippery slope is very obvious.”

U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-San Antonio, said in a statement that he’s advocating for Morales’ return to the U.S.

“His arrest and deportation are the direct result of Trump’s cruel and haphazard mass deportation campaign,” Castro said in a statement. “The Administration’s immigration policies continue to threaten our constitutional rights, and it should raise alarms for everyone — including U.S. citizens. My office is in touch with Brian’s attorney, and I will continue to push for his legal entry into the country. He belongs here.”

The U.S. Government Accountability Office, the research arm of the U.S. Congress, found that immigration agents “arrested 674, detained 121, and removed 70 potential U.S. citizens” between 2015 and 2020, according to a July 2021 report.

A ProPublica investigation found more than 170 U.S. citizens were detained by immigration agents in the first nine months of President Trump’s second administration. The report didn’t identify anyone who was deported.

Late last year, ICE agents arrested 22-year-old Dulce Consuelo Diaz Morales, whose lawyers say is a U.S. citizen and provided ICE officials with her birth certificate showing she was born in Maryland. Homeland Security contested her citizenship, saying she entered the country illegally. She was held in an immigrant detention center for 25 days before she was released.

Recently, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote in a court order that during immigration stops, a person’s “apparent ethnicity” can be used by immigration agents as “a relevant factor” to question a person’s citizenship status. Kavanaugh wrote in his order that if the person is a U.S. citizen, “that individual will be free to go after the brief encounter.”

Immigrant rights advocates and immigration lawyers warned that this ruling would lead ICE agents to racially profile people, including U.S. citizens.

“This administration’s disdain for our fundamental rights has no bounds,” Vanessa Cárdenas, executive director of America’s Voice, a national immigrants rights advocacy group, said in a statement. “The continued examples of U.S. citizens being detained and deported are a built-in feature of” the Trump administration’s “mass deportation crusade and the culture that prioritizes speed and quotas instead of accuracy, accountability or dignity.”

There’s more than a few up-and-coming talents to get excited about in the movies this summer. The Associated Press spoke to 11 ones to watch.

Catherine Lagaʻaia, “Moana”

Catherine Lagaʻaia (“lung-uh-aye-uh”) found out she got “Moana” on a school day. It was around 8:15 a.m. and she’d just heard the best news of her life after a very stressful year of auditioning. But the celebration would have to wait: It was swimming carnival day and she was on deck for the 400-meter backstroke.

“I guess, like, the water vibes carried through,” said Lagaʻaia, 20, laughing.

Lagaʻaia, who is one of eight children, grew up around acting in Sydney, Australia. Her father played Captain Typho in the “Star Wars” prequels, she went to a performing arts high school and a lot of her siblings are in theater. Two of her sisters even auditioned for “Moana” alongside her, but she was just the right age at the right time, she said.

The animated film meant the world to Lagaʻaia, who is of Samoan heritage, and she’s acutely aware of the big expectations for the live action film (out July 10) — she has them for herself too.

“I felt a fair bit of impostor syndrome stepping into it,” she said. “I think we’ve made some great changes, and we’ve kept a lot of the stuff that holds the heart of the film the same.”

Joe Bird and Stacy Clausen, “Leviticus”

Teenage boys Ryan (Stacy Clausen, 21) and Naim (Joe Bird, 19) are drawn to one another in their backwater Australian community in “Leviticus,” the “conversion therapy” horror that broke out at the Sundance Film Festival. It hits theaters on June 19.

“It is about growing up queer and how the fear of growing up queer can block someone mentally from acting on their desires, and physically,” Clausen said. “But I think that there is something in it for everyone, like whether you’re LGBTQIA or not, it’s about love.”

They knew they had made something special, but it’s been affirming to see it resonate with audiences. When the trailer posted on YouTube, Bird noticed one commenter who wrote that they wished they’d had this film when they were younger.

“It just takes one person to be inspired, or you know say, ‘Oh, I wish I had a film like this’ to know that you’ve kind of done your job,” Bird said. “It’s all about connecting.”

Kara Young and Mallori Johnson, “Is God Is”

Aleshea Harris chose a two-time Tony-winner, Kara Young, and a relative newcomer, Mallori Johnson, to anchor the big screen adaptation of her Obie-winning play “Is God Is.” The story is centered on twin sisters searching for their abusive father, who burned and scarred them as babies.

Young plays Racine the Rough One; Johnson is Anaia the Quiet One. After fending for themselves their entire lives are set on an epic road trip and a journey of revenge and reckoning. It’s in theaters on May 15.

“Anaia depends a lot on Racine to protect her,” Johnson said. “I think that they’ve set up a dynamic since they were children … they have this kind of codependent relationship.”

And although both Young and Johnson are in different phases of their careers, their enthusiasm for the material, and getting to be part of it, is identical.

“Getting into the world of ‘Is God Is’ feels like an ancestral calling in some wild, beautiful, almost like indescribable way,” Young said. “It’s an epic road trip. It’s a Greek tragedy. It’s a love story between two sisters …. I lost my train of thought because I just got so hyped.”

Kane Parsons, “Backrooms”

Kane Parsons was a teenager when he was signed to direct his first feature, based on his viral YouTube series “Backrooms.”

The concept was inspired by an internet creepypasta that imagined never-ending expanse rooms and hallways full of fluorescent lights, old carpet and monotonous yellow paint; He took that idea and ran with it, creating unnerving videos from his bedroom with the help of the open-source 3D graphics software Blender. Soon both James Wan and Shawn Levy’s companies were interested in taking it to the next level.

In the film, out May 29, Chiwetel Ejiofor plays a struggling furniture store owner who seemingly slips out of reality. Renate Reinsve co-stars.

“I don’t think of this as inherently horror-driven; it’s definitely not a building full of monsters,” Parsons, 20, said. “I’ve always been more interested in the sort of man looking in the mirror version.”

The bachelors, “72 Hours”

“SNL” cast members Kam Patterson, 27, and Ben Marshall, 30, play a couple of Gen Z guys on a bachelor trip, with Marcello Hernández, groom-to-be Mason Gooding and a middle-aged ad exec (Kevin Hart) who was accidentally added to the group chat in the new Netflix comedy “72 Hours” (streaming July 24).

“It was the most fun you could possibly have shooting a movie,” Marshall said.

Between goofing around in a mansion in New Jersey and hanging in Miami with Hernández, it was, Patterson said, like summer camp. And Hart was their de facto counselor. They teased Gooding about never having his shirt on, Marshall for being so uniquely bad at jet skiing and Patterson for that time someone left him with one of the production assistant’s walkie talkies and for 5 minutes he had an open mic to the entire crew. That energy continued when the cameras were on too.

“I don’t think we said one word that’s actually in the script,” Marshall laughed.

Patterson chimed in: “Not at all. We take that script and threw it out the window.”

The new assistants in “The Devil Wears Prada 2”

Call them the new Emilys. Or, maybe don’t. But there’s a new batch of smart, young things manning the desks at “Runway” in “The Devil Wears Prada 2” (now in theaters).

Simone Ashley, of “Bridgerton” fame, is Miranda Priestly’s first assistant Amari, who screenwriter Aline Brosh McKenna didn’t want to be Emily 2.0.

“With Amari the comedy comes from, like, flick of the wrist kind of sassiness and her quiet confidence,” Ashley, 31, said. “Me and Aline kind of had this inside joke that Amari is like secretly the next Miranda.”

Comedian Caleb Hearon, 31, is Miranda’s second assistant, Charlie, who is not allowed to leave his desk. Ever. But he’s not mad about it: This is literally the dream.

“I really thought a lot about a guy like Charlie and what it would mean to him to be in this office and why he wouldn’t mind staying at the desk all day,” Hearon said.

And finally, there is Helen J Shen, 26, who after breaking out on stage in “Maybe Happy Ending” makes her big screen debut as Andy’s assistant, Jin.

Shen said she “was excited to see that the dialogue was so silly to me, but Jin doesn’t find it silly.”

“I felt like that was a fresh take on someone who knows exactly what they’re trying to do,” Shen added. “She has a lot of wonderful things under her belts, intelligence wise, and she’s just trying to like, show that and be as helpful to Andy as possible.”

___

For more coverage of this summer’s upcoming films, visit: https://apnews.com/hub/movies

But that only covers a fraction of UNT’s projected $45 million budget shortfall that’s driven largely by declining international student enrollment and reduced state funding. Julie Elliot Payne, UNT’s assistant vice president of communications, said deans and division leaders are still weighing other potential cuts, though broad layoffs across the Denton school aren’t expected.

Records obtained through a public information request by The Texas Tribune show 44 professors, tenured administrators and other long-term instructors applied for buyouts during the application window that closed April 10. The records show four were denied because they did not meet eligibility requirements.

The College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences had the most buyouts at 15, including six in English, three in economics and three in media arts.

Some of those departments are also affected by UNT’s academic program changes: English is absorbing the creative writing master’s program and losing the American studies minor, while media arts is losing a master’s program and an undergraduate certificate.

Two linguistics faculty members are among those leaving through buyouts as UNT is phasing out linguistics degrees and merging the department with World Languages, Literatures and Cultures.

The records do not identify faculty by name nor show whether they taught in a degree, minor or certificate program slated for elimination.

The College of Engineering had the second-highest number of buyouts with six, followed by the College of Information and the College of Public Affairs and Health Sciences with four each, and the College of Music with three.

To be eligible, the employees must have worked at UNT for at least 15 continuous years. Tenured faculty, administrators who also hold tenure, and some non-tenure-track faculty could seek the buyouts.

Tenured faculty and administrators taking the buyout will receive one year of base pay, while non-tenure track employees will receive six months. They must leave UNT by Aug. 31, and the university must pay them by Oct. 15, after the next fiscal year begins.

UNT officials said another round of buyouts is not planned and that some positions could be refilled if they advance the university’s strategic plan.

For journalism professor Tracy Everbach, who has taught at UNT for 22 years, the buyout offered a way out of a university she said has become increasingly hostile to academic freedom and faculty input.

Everbach said her concerns compounded over time — beginning with what she described as UNT’s overcompliance with the state’s ban on diversity, equity and inclusion efforts at public colleges in 2023, continuing with the recent removal of artwork from campus exhibits, and culminating with the AI-assisted syllabus review that she said flagged her “Race and Gender in the Media” class.

Finally, the university’s announcement that it would cut or consolidate more than 70 degrees, minors and certificates reinforced her decision to leave. Faculty critics say those changes happened without meaningful input.

Everbach said she has taught “Race and Gender in the Media” nearly every fall and spring semester since 2009. The class, which enrolls about 95 students and is required for journalism majors, examines how people from different groups are represented in the media and teaches critical thinking, she said.

She informed students this week that she was leaving.

“They were very dismayed to hear that,” Everbach said. “They felt like that was one of the most important classes they had taken as college students.”

UNT has blamed the shortfall on a 45% drop in international graduate student enrollment and reduced state funding tied to enrollment. International students typically pay higher out-of-state tuition, so losing them can create a larger budget hole than losing the same number of Texas students.

To close the gap, university officials moved to cut or consolidate academic programs, left some positions vacant, offered buyouts and shifted more than 40 courses to a format in which students watch lectures online and meet in person for smaller groups, a model aimed at teaching more students without hiring more faculty.

The move to cut programs was not made lightly, UNT president Harrison Keller and Michael McPherson, provost and vice president for academic affairs, wrote in a March letter to university staff.

“While these decisions are painful, they are part of a broader effort to position UNT for greater long-term stability in an increasingly dynamic time for higher education,” the leaders wrote.

UNT is not alone in facing budget pressure as international enrollment has fallen amid heightened federal scrutiny and travel restrictions.

Since June, the University of Texas at Arlington has notified 49 employees they are being laid off, according to the Fort Worth Report. UT-Arlington saw a 30% drop in international graduate students in the fall.

The Texas Tribune partners with Open Campus on higher education coverage.

A spokesperson for the DA’s office confirmed Teare sent a letter and the new guidance to law enforcement agencies earlier this week after several inquiries from local departments.

The guidance was necessary, officials said, because of a lack of ability to prove the origin of THC in vape pens based on current lab capabilities.

New guidance

Under the new guidance, the DA’s office says it will not accept charges for individuals possessing a vape pen believed to contain THC because local crime laboratories are not able to determine “if the THC in vape pen oil is derived from marijuana, hemp, or produced synthetically, making these products materially different from smokeable hemp flower and pre-rolled joints,” according to the document.

Under state law, hemp is excluded as a controlled substance, and hemp is defined as “the plant Cannabis sativa L and . . . extracts . . . with a delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) concentration of not more than 0.3 percent on a dry weight basis.”

• MORE NEWS: New research reveals how coffee may help protect against aging and chronic disease

While local crime labs can determine whether THC is present in a vape, and the DPS lab can determine if delta-9-THC levels are above 1%, the DA’s office guidance indicates none of the local crime labs are able to determine the exact delta-9-THC concentration if it’s between 0.3% and 1%.

Since vape pens require liquid and the legislature did not define the meaning of the word “dry,” DA’s office general counsel Joshua Reiss said it presents a challenge for determining legally acceptable levels. He added that storing vape pens as evidence presents a risk to property rooms as the devices utilize lithium batteries and have caused fires in the past.

Legislation issues

In a letter to law enforcement agencies, Teare wrote that “recent changes in state law, combined with a rapidly evolving cannabis industry, have understandably led to confusion among officers regarding which THC-related and THC vape pen possession charges HCDAO will accept.”

A DA’s office spokesperson told KPRC 2 News they hope future legislation will create clarity.

What’s still accepted

In the same guidance document, the DA’s office indicates that agencies that seize vape pens from retail establishments “marketed as containing THC should seek charges at HCDAO.”

The agencies should also follow state requirements for disposing and destructing seized vape pens.

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

Under this section of the state law, Reiss said testing is not required of the products, but it’s a class A misdemeanor if the products are marketed, advertised, offered for sale, or sold.

As part of the guidance, the DA wrote that it’s not designed to impact any school policies, reiterating that e-cigarette possession by minor remains a class C misdemeanor and any “school policies prohibiting e-cigarettes, including vapes by minors, are fully enforceable.”

Subject to change

The current guidance being offered is based on an analysis of laws and discussions with the Houston Forensic Science Center, Harris County Institute of Forensic Science, and the DPS Crime Laboratory Division, but the DA’s office indicates updated guidance could come as legal definitions and scientific methodologies continue to develop.

“We pledge to always work closely with law enforcement to investigate, charge, and prosecute serious drug-related crimes, and we remain particularly focused on dismantling organized gangs, stopping the trafficking and selling of lethal controlled substances,” Teare wrote in the letter.

Google, Microsoft, Amazon Web Services, Nvidia, OpenAI, Reflection and SpaceX will provide their resources to help “augment warfighter decision-making in complex operational environments,” the Defense Department said.

Notably absent from the list is AI company Anthropic, after its public dispute and legal fight with the Trump administration over the ethics and safety of AI usage in war.

The Defense Department has been rapidly accelerating its use of AI in recent years. The technology can help the military reduce the time it takes to identify and strike targets on the battlefield, while aiding in the organization of weapons maintenance and supply lines, according to a report in March from the Brennan Center for Justice.

But AI has already raised concerns that its use could invade Americans' privacy or allow machines to choose targets on the battlefield. One of the companies contracting with the Pentagon said its agreement required human oversight in certain situations.

Concerns about military use of AI arose during Israel’s war against militants in Gaza and Lebanon, with U.S. tech giants quietly empowering Israel to track targets. But the number of civilians killed also soared, fueling fears that these tools contributed to the deaths of innocent people.

Questions about military use of AI still being worked out

The Pentagon's latest contracts come at a time of anxiety about the potential for over-reliance on the technology on the battlefield, said Helen Toner, interim executive director at Georgetown University’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology.

“A lot of modern warfare is based on people sitting in command centers behind monitors, making complicated decisions about confusing, fast-moving situations,” said Toner, a former board member of OpenAI. “AI systems can be helpful in terms of summarizing information or looking at surveillance feeds and trying to identify potential targets.”

But questions about the appropriate levels of human involvement, risk and training are still being worked out, she said.

“How do you roll out these tools rapidly for them to be effective and provide strategic advantage?” Toner asked, “While also recognizing that you need to train the operators and make sure they know how to use them and don’t over trust them?”

Such concerns were raised by Anthropic. The tech company said it wanted assurances in its contract that the military would not use its technology in fully autonomous weapons and the surveillance of Americans. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the company must allow for any uses the Pentagon deemed lawful.

Anthropic sued after President Donald Trump, a Republican, tried to stop all federal agencies from using the company’s chatbot Claude and Hegseth sought to label the company a supply chain risk, a designation meant to protect against sabotage of national security systems by foreign adversaries.

OpenAI had announced a deal with the Pentagon in March to effectively replace Anthropic with ChatGPT in classified environments. OpenAI confirmed in a statement Friday that it was the same agreement it announced in early March.

“As we said when we first announced our agreement several months ago, we believe the people defending the United States should have the best tools in the world,” the company said.

One company's agreement with the Pentagon included language that said there should be human oversight over any missions in which the AI systems act autonomously or semiautonomously, according to a person familiar with the agreement who was not authorized to speak about it publicly. The language also said the AI tools must be used in ways that are consistent with constitutional rights and civil liberties.

Those resemble sticking points for Anthropic, though OpenAI has previously said that it secured similar assurances when it made its own deal with the Pentagon.

The Pentagon's point of view

Emil Michael, the Pentagon's chief technology officer, told CNBC on Friday that it would have been irresponsible to rely on only one company, an acknowledgment of the friction with Anthropic.

“And when we learned that one partner didn’t really want to work with us in the way we wanted to work with them, we went out and made sure that we had multiple different providers,” Michael said.

Some of the companies, including Amazon and Microsoft, have long worked with the military in classified environments, and it was not immediately clear if the new agreements significantly altered their government partnerships. Others, such as chipmaker Nvidia and the startup Reflection, are new to such work. Both companies make open-source AI models, which Michael has described as a priority to provide an “American alternative” to China's rapid development of AI systems in which some key components are publicly accessible for others to build upon.

The Pentagon said Friday that military personnel are already using its AI capabilities through its official platform, GenAI.mil.

“Warfighters, civilians and contractors are putting these capabilities to practical use right now, cutting many tasks from months to days,” the Pentagon said, adding that the military's growing AI capabilities will “give warfighters the tools they need to act with confidence and safeguard the nation against any threat.”

In many cases, the military uses artificial intelligence the same way civilians do: to take on rote tasks that would take humans hours or days to complete, said Toner, of Georgetown University.

AI can be used to better predict when a helicopter needs maintenance or figure out how to efficiently move large amounts of troops and gear, she said. It can also help determine whether vehicles on a drone's surveillance feeds are civilian or military.

But people shouldn't become overly dependent on it.

“There's a phenomenon called automation bias, where people can be prone to assume that machines work better than they actually do,” Toner said.

___

O'Brien reported from Providence, Rhode Island.

___

Follow the AP's coverage of artificial intelligence at https://apnews.com/hub/artificial-intelligence.

More than 40 search warrants have been issued, authorities in North Carolina say, focusing on a married couple who allegedly knew Biffle and his wife Cristina. The suspects did “a lot of planning in an attempt to make a financial gain” off their deaths, Iredell County Sheriff Darren Campbell said. The Associated Press is not naming the pair because no arrests have been made.

Biffle, his wife and his two children, along with three others, died in the Dec. 18 crash, which remains under investigation by the NTSB. Some survivors of those killed are suing the estates of Biffle and the pilot for millions of dollars.

According to a search warrant affidavit, the husband being investigated met Biffle when the former driver used his private helicopter to deliver aid after Hurricane Helene. The woman attended a Christmas party at the Biffles' home in Mooresville, North Carolina, weeks before the crash.

Authorities reported a break-in at the home on Jan. 8, saying $30,000 in cash, two Glock handguns and NASCAR memorabilia were stolen. Search warrants were later executed at two sites, one near the Biffles’ residence and another in a nearby county.

A person seen on surveillance video, identified as a woman, appeared to be familiar with the large home's layout, including the locations of cameras, closets and a safe room, a detective wrote in a search warrant affidavit. The intruder spent nearly six hours inside the house the night of Jan. 7 into the following morning.

Evidence showed a cellphone and multiple devices were active on the property during that time, according to the warrant. The only people allowed to be there would've been the administers of the estate, but they weren't present.

Authorities say they linked the woman to someone who attended Biffle’s celebration of life, and said license plate readers placed her husband’s truck near the home that night.

The warrants also describe alleged financial crimes. Investigators say that bank, Venmo and PayPal accounts tied to the Biffles were accessed online using personal information, with phone numbers and email addresses changed to gain control of funds. Money was then allegedly transferred to accounts not belonging to the family and used for purchases, according to the warrant.

At least one fraudulent check tied to Biffle’s business interests was cashed, and other attempts were made to access accounts. The activity occurred across multiple states. The sheriff would not say whether the same suspects in the break-in are being investigated for the financial crimes, saying the department is waiting for more evidence.

Meanwhile, the plane crash sparked lawsuits against the estates of Biffle and the pilot Dennis Dutton, who was killed along with his son.

On April 17, the estates of Dutton and his son sued Biffle’s estate for at least $15 million each, alleging Biffle failed to properly maintain the plane and operated it in a defective condition. The claims include lost income and “pre-death pain and suffering.”

In February, Biffle’s ex-wife, Nicole Biffle, filed a notice of claim against Dutton’s estate on behalf of the couple’s 14-year-old daughter’s estate, seeking at least $10 million for wrongful death.

___

Associated Press writer Allen G. Breed in Wake Forest, North Carolina, contributed to this report. ___

AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/apf-AutoRacing

Jurors found Republican David Rivera and an associate, Esther Nuhfer, guilty on all counts, including failing to register as a foreign agent with the Justice Department and conspiracy to commit money laundering as part of their work for former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro's government.

Much as he did throughout the trial, Rivera looked stone-faced as the jury delivered its verdict.

Rivera, 60, had been out on bond, but Judge Melissa Damian ordered him taken into custody, finding that he posed a flight risk because he has access to sizable funds, faces a potentially long prison sentence, and faces additional federal charges in Washington, D.C., in a related foreign lobbying case.

The seven-week trial offered a rare glimpse into Miami's role as a crossroads for foreign influence campaigns aimed at shaping U.S. policy toward Latin America, one highlighting the city's reputation as a magnet for corruption and anti-communist crusaders among its sizable exile population.

It included testimony from Rubio, Texas Congressman Pete Sessions and a top Washington lobbyist — all of whom testified that they were shocked to learn belatedly of Rivera’s consulting contract with a U.S.-based affiliate of Venezuela’s state oil company, PDVSA.

“These convictions expose a simple truth: the defendants sold access and influence to a hostile foreign regime for money,” said U.S. Attorney Jason A. Reding Quiñones. “In South Florida, where so many families fled communist oppression, that kind of betrayal carries real weight.”

Attorneys for Rivera said they plan to appeal.

In an indictment unsealed in 2022, prosecutors alleged that Rivera was tapped by then Foreign Minister Delcy Rodríguez — now Venezuela’s acting president — to work Republican connections from Rivera's time in Congress to get the first Trump administration to abandon its hard-line stance and ease crippling sanctions on Venezuela.

As part of the charm offensive, prosecutors alleged, Rivera and Nuhfer, a political consultant, manipulated influential friends, including Rubio and Sessions, like “pawns on a chess board." The goal: to try and normalize relations with the new Trump administration at a time when the Maduro government was buffeted by serious accusations of human rights violations.

“As long as the money kept coming in, they didn’t care from where,” prosecutor Roger Cruz said of the defendants during closing arguments.

‘Massive secret’ threatened to damage Rivera's political career

But the two held onto the “massive secret” and didn't disclose their lobbying work as required, for fear it would have ended Rivera's political career as an anti-communist stalwart, Cruz said.

To hide his work, prosecutors allege, Rivera also set up an encrypted chat group called MIA — for Miami — with his main conduit to the Maduro government: Venezuelan media tycoon Raúl Gorrín, who was subsequently charged in the U.S. with bribing top Venezuelan officials.

Members of the group used playful code words to discuss their activities: Maduro was the “bus driver,” Sessions “Sombrero,” Rodríguez “The Lady in Red,” and millions of dollars “melons,” according to copies of text messages presented to the jury.

“It was all about La Luz,” Cruz said, referring to the Spanish word for light, which Rivera and others repeatedly used to discuss payments from Caracas.

Attorneys for Rivera and Nuhfer said the two acted in good faith and believed they were under no requirement to disclose their work. The three-month, $50 million contract with Rivera's one-man consulting firm, they say, was focused exclusively on luring oil giant ExxonMobil back to Venezuela — commercial work that is generally exempt from the Foreign Agents Registration Act.

Wholly distinct from that consulting work, they say, were Rivera's meetings with Rubio and Sessions, which occurred after the consulting contract had expired and was focused on ushering in leadership in Venezuela that would be less hostile to the U.S.

“He was working every possible angle to get Nicolás Maduro out,” defense attorney Ed Shohat said during closing arguments. “There was not a word in the chats about normalizing relations.”

Nuhfer's attorney, David Oscar Markus, likened the government's case to the 17th century Salem witch trials, presuming ill intent that was belied by the flimsiest of evidence.

“My client does not have a dark heart,” he said.

Exxon meetings for Rodríguez

Prosecutors said Rivera used the contract with New York-based PDV USA as cover for illegal lobbying.

Once exposed, the partners tried to hide the work — backdating documents and coming up with sham agreements like one to justify a wire transfer of $3.75 million to a South Florida company that maintained Gorrín’s luxury yacht.

The political activity included setting up meetings for Rodríguez in New York, Caracas, Washington and Dallas. As part of the effort, the two roped in Sessions, who later tried to broker a meeting for Rodríguez with the CEO of ExxonMobil that had succeeded Trump’s then-secretary of state, Rex Tillerson. After a secret meeting in Caracas with Maduro, Sessions also agreed to deliver a letter from the Venezuelan president to Trump.

The outreach quickly unraveled, however. Within six months of taking office, Trump sanctioned Maduro and labeled him a “dictator,” launching a “maximum pressure” campaign to unseat the president.

However, nearly a decade later, Rodríguez has emerged as the second Trump administration's trusted partner after the U.S. military's ousting of Maduro.

Before being elected to Congress in 2010, Rivera was a high-ranking Florida legislator. During that time, he shared a Tallahassee home with Rubio, who eventually became the Florida House speaker.

Rivera has previously faced controversy, including allegations that he secretly funded a Democratic spoiler candidate in a 2012 congressional race. Last year, federal prosecutors dropped the case after an appeals court threw out a sizable fine imposed by a lower court. Rivera was also investigated — but never charged — for alleged campaign finance violations and a $1 million contract with a gambling company while serving in the Florida Legislature.

Paxton filed a lawsuit against ActBlue in late April, claiming that ActBlue allows improper donations from people outside the United States and those who have already hit the mandated donor limits. He opened an investigation into ActBlue in December 2023, and the next year, sent a letter to the Federal Elections Commission, claiming he had uncovered evidence that “bad actors can illegally interfere in American elections by disguising political donations.”

ActBlue’s lawsuit, filed in federal court Friday, says Paxton initiated undercover investigations into the fundraising platform the day after Democratic Senate nominee James Talarico announced he had raised a record-setting $2.5 million in 24 hours.

“The timing of Paxton fighting for his political life in his run for U.S. Senate and his use of the Attorney General’s office to attack ActBlue, should not be lost on anyone,” said Lawrence Oliver, chief legal officer at ActBlue. “He is wasting taxpayer dollars to benefit his political ambitions.”

Background: ActBlue is the main platform used by Democratic candidates and causes. Since its founding, more than 28 million people have donated through ActBlue, which processed $1.78 billion last year alone.

The group began facing pressure from Republican members of Congress in 2023, which Paxton followed by opening an investigation into Texas-based donations. In August 2024, Paxton claimed victory, saying ActBlue had agreed to start requiring CVV codes on credit card donations.

In April 2025, Trump ordered the Justice Department to investigate ActBlue, heightening fears among Democrats about the political targeting of the infrastructure that allows them to fundraise. Paxton also involved ActBlue in his investigation of Texas Democratic House members who left the state in the summer 2025 to protest mid-decade redistricting.

The compounding investigations have led to internal turmoil at ActBlue, The New York Times reported. Earlier this month, the newspaper reported that ActBlue lawyers raised concerns that the company’s systems were not as robust as top executives had told congressional Republicans that they were.

What Paxton is saying: Citing that recent reporting, Paxton filed his lawsuit on April 20, saying that ActBlue “lied to Congress and to the American people.”

“It has blatantly ignored state law that prohibits deceptive practices, and it must pay for its illegal conduct,” Paxton said. “Fair elections are the foundation of our democracy, and I will work to ensure no illegal campaign donation flies under the radar.”

He is suing in state court under the Deceptive Trade Practices Act, a consumer protection statute he has deployed repeatedly over the last year to go after left-leaning organizations. The civil penalties of up to $10,000 per violation could be significant if the judge were to rule against the company.

What ActBlue is saying: ActBlue’s lawsuit says Paxton is violating the company’s First and 14th Amendment rights, and alleges he misinformed the court about the results of his office’s investigation. Paxton’s investigators’ attempts to use gift cards were repeatedly denied, the company said, despite claims in the lawsuit to the contrary.

In a press release, the company criticized Paxton for framing his investigation in “partisan, not consumer protection, terms,” pointing to his comments about the company’s support for “liberal Democrats” and “left-wing campaigns.”

“Ken Paxton has spent more than two years using the power of his office to investigate, harass, and sue ActBlue,” Oliver said in a statement. “This is not law enforcement. It is retaliation against constitutionally protected speech and association, and it is exactly what the First Amendment forbids.”

Disclosure: New York Times has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune’s journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

The win almost certainly guarantees top tier football at Elland Road next season. Leeds moved nine points clear of Tottenham Hotspur, the team occupying the third and last relegation spot.

Daniel Farke’s men improved to 14th place, above Newcastle, Nottingham Forest and West Ham, all of whom have a game in hand. The bottom two, Wolves and Burnley, are already going down.

The Leeds players celebrated in front of a delirious home crowd at the final whistle and although they were not taking their survival for granted yet the win was clearly a relief.

“It’s an unbelievable feeling,” one of Leeds' stars Dominic Calvert-Lewin said. “Leading from the front, high up the pitch, and we executed the game plan really well. They’ve come in playing with nothing to lose and that can be dangerous sometimes, but pleased with and proud of the boys with how we’ve performed.”

Anton Stach put the home side ahead in the eighth minute with a low shot from 30 meters out that somehow sneaked inside Martin Dubravka’s post.

The second came seven minutes into the second half thanks to sloppy defending by Burnley’s Bashir Humphreys. His pass was intercepted by Calvert-Lewin, whose neat backheel created more space in the Burnley defense and allowed Noah Okafor to fire home.

Calvert-Lewin got the third himself four minutes later when he was on hand to prod home in a crowded penalty box after Dubravka could only parry Ao Tanaka’s long-range effort.

Loum Tchaouna got Burnley’s consolation goal.

The Lancashire club fired manager Scott Parker after two years in the role on Thursday and interim coach Mike Jackson was appointed for the last four games of the season.

“I knew this game could go one of two ways with what’s happened in the last 24 hours," Jackson said. “The shock of it to the group. I had a feeling it could go a little bit like that. First half, first 25 minutes, we looked a little bit shellshocked in a way. We grew into the game a little bit more. We started the second half I thought pretty well, and then we can’t make those errors. And then you’re always up against it.”

___

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

Arkansas announced a week ago it would drop its men's and women's programs and Saint Louis followed Monday with the same announcement. Illinois State said Tuesday it would end its men's program, and North Dakota said Thursday it would shut down its men's and women's teams. Gardner-Webb announced in February this would be the last season for the men's and women's programs.

Arkansas and Gardner-Webb are among the 64 teams in the men's NCAA Tournament.

The number of Division I schools sponsoring tennis in 2024-25 was 237 for men and 304 for women. An NCAA spokeswoman said Friday that numbers for 2025-26 were unavailable.

Dozens of schools across all divisions shut down programs in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Since revenue sharing with athletes started last year, Division I schools have chosen to redirect resources to fund direct payments to athletes in football, basketball and a few other sports.

Brian Vahaly, chairman of the board and president and interim co-CEO of the U.S. Tennis Association, said in a statement to The Associated Press on Friday that visibility of the college game needs to be elevated, the pathway for players to continue competing beyond juniors needs to be strengthened and tennis leaders need to work more directly with athletic departments.

“A strong collegiate tennis landscape is fundamental to the future of our sport,” Vahaly said, “and we will continue to look for ways to support its growth and long-term sustainability.”

Arkansas' decision to drop the sport caught the tennis community off guard.

“We in the tennis world have sort of been battling this at the lower levels of college tennis, but not the big, bad SEC,” ESPN tennis analyst and former college and pro player Patrick McEnroe said on the WholeHogSports podcast. "The Division II schools and some of the smaller Division I programs over the years, you're always sort of on the lookout in the tennis community to fight and protect as many programs as possible."

Tennis has been targeted as youth participation for American boys and girls has declined and the ratio of international players at U.S. colleges has continued to grow.

In 2006, the number of boys and girls ages 12-17 playing tennis was equal, at 1.1 million, according to the National Sporting Goods Association. Over the last 20 years, participation has dropped 23% for boys in that age group (849,000) and 26% for girls (811,000).

The most recent NCAA data showed that among first-year college players in 2022, 64% of men and 61% of women were international students. At Arkansas, seven of the nine men and seven of the 11 women on the 2025-26 rosters are international students.

The math didn't work for the Razorbacks anymore. They spent a combined $2.35 million on the two teams in the 2025 fiscal year; the men's team generated $3,202 in revenue and the women $82.

Arkansas' operating expense per player in 2025 was $41,772 for the men and $41,582 for the women, among the highest in the athletic department.

Tennis also ranked among the most expensive sports per player at North Dakota and Gardner-Webb, and at Illinois State the $10,224 cost per men's player was more than football and baseball. At Saint Louis, cost per player ranked third out of six men's sports and sixth out of eight on the women's side.

___

AP college sports: https://apnews.com/hub/college-sports

Then his phone rang on Friday morning with a number from California he did not have saved. It was trainer Doug O'Neill calling to ask if he wanted to take the mount on Robusta, who got into the field when Kenny McPeek's Right to Party was scratched by track veterinarians.

“I was shocked,” Torres told The Associated Press after riding in the fifth race at Churchill Downs later in the day. “I didn’t respond for a few seconds because I couldn’t believe it. It’s been a roller coaster of emotions but just very happy and very grateful.”

Torres, a native of Puerto Rico who began riding in 2019, was set to be aboard Silent Tactic in the 152nd running of the Derby. Trainer Mark Casse and owner John Oxley made the call Wednesday to scratch Silent Tactic because of a foot injury and plan for the Preakness on May 16.

Casse said it was an easy decision in the best interests of the horse but that he felt badly for Torres.

The second chance materialized with Robusta getting in off the also-eligible list. O’Neill tapped Torres for the mount because Emisael Jaramillo was already booked to ride at Santa Anita Park in California on Saturday.

“It’s been crazy,” Torres said. “But I’m very happy to be here, and I’m grateful for Doug. He called me and gave me the chance to ride Robusta. Man, just grateful. Grateful with every opportunity that comes and very happy and very excited.”

Torres is going into the biggest race of his career with limited knowledge of Robusta, who was second in the San Felipe Stakes on March 7 and seventh in the Santa Anita Derby on April 4.

“I’ve watched his replays, his races when he ran in California, but I’m not very close to the horse so I’m just going to watch the replays and see and talk with Doug and see what we can do,” Torres said.

Robusta was the second-to-last horse eligible for the opening leg of the Triple Crown. Dallas Stewart's Corona de Oro would draw in if there are any additional scratches to the current field of 20 horses.

In addition to Right to Party and Silent Tactic, Brad Cox scratched Fulleffort after an X-ray revealed a chip and fluid in the colt's left hind ankle.

Right to Party was a vet scratch, not a choice made by McPeek and owner Chester Broman Sr.

“The safety and well-being of the racehorses training and competing in Kentucky are the center of everything we do,” the Kentucky Horse Racing and Gaming Commission said in a statement.

“(The commission) closely monitors data pertaining to scratches, including those based on the advice of our regulatory veterinarians,” the organization said. "It is one of the most difficult parts of the job, as we share the goal of each horse’s connections for the horse to compete safely. ... We all want what is best for the horse.”

___

This story has been corrected to show that Corona de Oro is also eligible if there is another scratch.

___

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

The Houston Office of Emergency Management says those five roads are equipped with physical metal flood gates designed to shut off access completely when water begins to rise. Because each road has gates on both sides, there are multiple closure points across the city where commutes can be disrupted with little warning.

Some locations are at:

• Travis St and Commerce St
• Louisiana St and Franklin St
• Harrisburg Blvd and Emancipation Ave
• Harrisburg Blvd and Delano St
• Franklin St and St. Emmanuel St
• Navigation Blvd and Bastrop St
• Galveston Rd and Allendale Rd
• Galveston Rd and Brookglen Dr
• Houston Ave and Lubbock St

Officials say flooding was already being reported Thursday at the underpass at Navigation near Franklin in East Downtown Houston.

Brian Mason, of the Houston Office of Emergency Management, says the city’s road infrastructure presents an ongoing challenge.

“The real solution is, if we were building roads from scratch, we’d build them higher instead of using underpasses — but we have what we have, so we’re doing the best we can,” Mason said.

• TIMELINE: Flood Watch issued through Friday night for Houston, tracking waves of rain and storms

Beyond the five gated roads, he says Houston Police and Fire personnel can block off up to 40 additional intersections using temporary barriers when conditions warrant. First responders make those calls in real time, based on conditions on the ground.

Officials say the biggest mistake drivers make is going around those barricades. Even a small amount of water can stall a car or sweep it away entirely.

Underpasses are especially dangerous during heavy rain because they sit lower than the surrounding roadway, meaning water collects there first.

Most major underpasses are equipped with depth markers — and officials warn that if water is visible on the gauge at all, it is already too deep to drive through safely.

• Flood and severe weather threat Friday

In heavy downpours, Houston’s drainage systems can struggle to keep pace, and water levels can rise faster than drivers realize.

Mason says patience after a storm can make a significant difference in safety.

“It’s not uncommon to get two to three inches of rain in an hour — and that overwhelms the drainage system,” Mason said. “If you can wait about 30 minutes after the rain stops, a lot of that water will drain.”

Once a car gets stuck or begins to float, officials say it quickly becomes a rescue situation — putting first responders at risk alongside drivers.

Mason says there is a long-term plan to add more flood gates across Houston. In the meantime, some existing gates have been damaged or stolen, making temporary barricades a more dependable short-term solution.

Drivers are urged to check road conditions before heading out and to take detours rather than attempting to drive through standing water.

The report was filed after the child’s grandmother went to police regarding what the family describes as a humiliating situation at a Fuel Depot on Bellfort Avenue.

The case is now being reviewed by the Houston Police Department’s Crimes Against Children unit. The department tells KPRC 2 that the case remains under investigation, with no other details available for release.

The situation came to light after the boy, a middle school student, refused to return to school.

Family members later learned other students had been teasing him after a video began circulating.

According to the family, the child stopped at the gas station after school and asked to use the restroom but was told it was out of service. He then went behind the building, where surveillance cameras captured the incident.

This story, originally shared by KPRC 2’s Community News Partner Grizzy’s Hood News, has been seen hundreds of thousands of times.

The family alleges images from that footage were later printed and placed on a store door. They also say a clerk showed the video to students, who recorded and shared it.

The video has since spread among students at Attucks Middle School and Alcott Elementary School, the family said, leading to ongoing bullying.

Family members say the child is now struggling emotionally and no longer wants to attend school.

An attorney representing the gas station shared a statement with KPRC 2 News on Friday, two days after originally contacted about the situation.

“The store’s surveillance video - which has been reviewed by the Houston Police Department - shows that the young man never came inside the store. He did not ask to use the restroom. He did not speak to any employee. Our restrooms were fully functional on that day,” a spokesperson wrote.

Fuel Deport Statement To KPRC 2 by Gage Goulding

The employee who shared the video of the teen has since been fired.

“The employee was fired and is gone never to return,” the statement said.

• MORE NEWS: Houston City Council to vote on making speed cushions permanent across dozens of neighborhoods

No federal requirement for public restroom access

While the situation has raised questions about access to restrooms, federal law does not require private businesses to provide restrooms to the public.

The Americans with Disabilities Act requires that restrooms be accessible if they are offered, but it does not require a business to provide one in the first place.

Similarly, Occupational Safety and Health Administration rules require restroom access for employees, not customers.

The result is a narrow standard: if a restroom exists, it must meet accessibility guidelines, but businesses can still limit access to customers or employees.

Texas law allows businesses to restrict access

Texas law does not require private businesses to allow public use of restrooms.

State regulations focus primarily on accessibility and building standards. If a restroom is provided, it must comply with accessibility rules, but businesses can restrict access based on their own policies.

In many cases, businesses can legally deny restroom access if a person is not a customer, if the restroom is designated for employees only, or if there are safety or security concerns.

• MORE NEWS: Texas report finds rising mental health struggles among teen girls, few getting help

No “Ally’s Law” in Texas

Some states have passed what is commonly known as “Ally’s Law,” which requires certain businesses to allow restroom access for people with qualifying medical conditions if no public restroom is available.

Texas has not adopted that law as of 2026.

That means there is no statewide requirement in Texas that guarantees restroom access, even in urgent or medical situations.

Where legal concerns can arise

Although businesses can generally deny restroom access, there are situations where that decision could raise legal questions.

Those include cases involving potential disability discrimination, if someone with a documented medical condition is denied access, or broader civil rights concerns if access is denied selectively.

Local ordinances may also require restrooms in certain types of businesses, such as restaurants or bars, though those facilities are often limited to customers.

The Houston Police Department is continuing their investigation.

The Texans originally signed Gaye as an undrafted free agent out of LSU.

He has nine career tackles and one sack.

Gaye made the Titans roster in 2024. His first career sack was against the Texans during a road win. He finished his rookie year with eight tackles and one sack.

He was with the Titans’ practice squad last season.

The Texans’ original deal for Gaye (6-foot-6, 263 pounds) included $80,000 guaranteed with a $70,000 base salary guarantee and a $10,000 signing bonus.

Gaye had 36 tackles, six for losses, 2 1/2 sacks and two forced fumbles in his final season at LSU. He had 9 1/2 tackles for losses and one interception in 2020. Gaye was ejected from the Florida State game for targeting for a hit on quarterback Jordan Travis.

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

The squad walked off the floor of Toyota Center after one of the most gut-wrenching playoff defeats in recent memory, blowing a six-point lead in the final 30 seconds to fall to the Los Angeles Lakers, 112–108.

The loss was devastating in more ways than one.

It extended LA’s series lead to 3–0, meaning the Lakers needed just one win in their next four games to advance and send Houston home.

But it also shifted the broader perception of the Rockets — not just in this series, but of the team’s construction as a whole.

Seven days later, the pressure has flipped.

The Rockets are now gearing up for a win-or-go-home Game 6 back in Houston, aiming to defy the odds in a way no NBA team has ever accomplished.

ALSO READ: Reed Sheppard’s performance could lead to more clutch moments from the young point guard

How we got here

The Rockets entered the series as clear favorites.

Despite losing Fred VanVleet and Steven Adams — two key contributors — to season-ending injuries, the Lakers appeared to be in even worse shape.

Luka Dončić and Austin Reaves, LA’s top two scorers, were unavailable as the series tipped off, and the consensus was that Houston had the edge in both star power and depth.

But as always, games aren’t played on paper.

Houston suffered a massive blow almost immediately. Kevin Durant — the team’s superstar and offensive nucleus — was ruled out for Game 1 with a knee contusion suffered in practice. The Lakers capitalized, cruising to a 107–98 win.

LA’s role players stepped up in a major way. Luke Kennard and Marcus Smart — two veterans who were expected to play limited roles coming off the bench this year — suddenly became offensive engines. Meanwhile, Houston’s younger, more athletic wings looked outmatched in both effort and execution.

Still, there was no need to panic. Durant returned for Game 2, and Houston seemed poised to respond.

Instead, things got worse.

The Rockets managed just 94 points, looking disjointed whenever Durant wasn’t carrying the offense. He scored 20 efficient first-half points but finished with only 23. KD was back, but the issues from Game 1 were only magnified.

Even down 2–0, Houston had reason for optimism — both losses came on the road, and the series was shifting back home.

Then came another setback: Durant was ruled out of Game 3 with an ankle sprain.

The collapse in Game 3

Game 3 didn’t carry the same sense of doom.

The Rockets lacked offensive firepower, but they fought.

Down eight in the fourth quarter, Jabari Smith Jr., Amen Thompson, and Alperen Sengun fueled a 27–13 run to give Houston a 101–95 lead with under a minute remaining.

A missed Lakers three led to a rebound by Jae’Sean Tate — effectively sealing the game. ESPN’s win probability gave Houston a 97.3% chance to win at that moment.

Then everything unraveled.

A careless pass from Smith Jr. resulted in a turnover. On the next possession, Tate made contact with Smart as he rose of a three, committing a costly foul that gave the Lakers three free points.

Suddenly, it was a one-possession game.

Moments later, LeBron James pressured Houston’s Reed Sheppard into another turnover, then buried a game-tying three to force overtime.

Momentum had completely shifted in seconds. Overtime only confirmed what already felt inevitable: the Lakers were winning this basketball game.

The body language said everything. Head coach Ime Udoka looked furious. While the Lakers embraced and celebrated, every Rockets player stood frozen, eyes locked on the hardwood, replaying the sequence that turned a surefire win into a collapse.

They unraveled possession by possession, turning a potential turnaround into a deeper hole than before.

The moment felt too big. The lights were too bright. A team with serious championship aspirations was now staring at a first-round sweep.

Flipping the script

Durant remained sidelined for Game 4.

From the outside, it looked like a team ready to fold — one already thinking about the offseason.

Instead, Houston responded.

The Rockets played with urgency and energy. No Laker scored 20+ points, and LeBron was held to just 10.

LA emptied its bench early, and Houston cruised to a 19-point win. What once looked like a sweep became a “gentleman’s sweep” scenario. It still felt destined to end in five, right?

Then came Game 5.

With Reaves returning from injury and Durant still out, the Lakers were expected to close things out.

They didn’t.

Reaves showed rust in his first game action in weeks, and the early-series heroes faded. Smart and Kennard combined for just 12 points, with Kennard scoring only a single free throw.

Meanwhile, Houston leaned into its identity.

The Rockets defended aggressively, forced tough shots, and got balanced contributions across the roster.

Late in the fourth, with the lead cut to three, the tension from Game 3 resurfaced.

This time, Houston delivered. Sheppard redeemed himself with a clutch sequence — a mid-range jumper, a steal off LeBron, and a fast-break dunk to seal the game.

Final score: 99–93.

Game 6 outlook

Here’s what Houston needs to force a Game 7:

Generate offense without Durant

Durant has already been ruled out for Game 6.

While his absence is no longer a death sentence, Houston’s supporting cast must replicate its recent production.

Sengun, typically the No. 2 option, shifted into more of a facilitator role in Game 5, finishing with eight assists on just nine shot attempts. That adjustment unlocked Houston’s offense.

If Jabari Smith Jr., Tari Eason, Dorian Finney-Smith, and Amen Thompson continue to produce efficiently, the Rockets will be difficult to stop.

Contain Austin Reaves

Reaves scored 22 points in Game 5, but 12 came from the free-throw line, and he shot just 4-of-16 from the field.

With another game under his belt, expect sharper efficiency. Limiting his perimeter scoring will be critical.

The Kennard factor

Kennard was electric early in the series, scoring 27 and 23 points in Games 1 and 2.

Since then, he’s cooled off dramatically — 14, 7, and 1 point over the next three games, shooting under 25% and failing to hit a three in Games 4 and 5.

His regression has coincided directly with Houston’s resurgence.

The paint trade-off

One of the strangest trends in the series: Houston is 0–3 when winning the rebounding battle.

That reflects a deliberate adjustment.

The Rockets have gone small.

Traditional bigs — including Clint Capela — have been phased out, prioritizing spacing and defensive versatility over size. Sengun has taken over as the primary center, with wings crashing the glass.

The trade-off? Interior dominance from LA’s DeAndre Ayton, who has posted back-to-back double-doubles, including a 17-rebound performance in Game 5.

Houston has accepted that cost.

If the Rockets can win the other four matchups on the floor, they’re willing to concede the paint — and so far, that gamble is paying off.

The S&P 500 climbed 0.3% to its latest all-time high and closed out a fifth straight winning week. That’s its longest such streak since 2024. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 152 points, or 0.3%, and the Nasdaq composite added 0.9% to its own record.

Apple led the way after the iPhone seller reported stronger profit and revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected. Because it’s one of Wall Street’s biggest stocks in terms of overall size, Apple’s rally of 3.3% was by far the strongest force lifting the S&P 500.

Stock prices generally follow the path of corporate profits over the long term, and U.S. companies have been blowing past expectations for earnings in the first three months of 2026. That’s even with the war with Iran and high oil prices souring confidence for many U.S. households.

A little more than a quarter of the companies in the S&P 500 have reported already, and 84% of them have topped analysts’ estimates, according to FactSet. The index is on track to deliver roughly 15% growth in profit from a year earlier.

Estee Lauder’s stock climbed 3.4% after reporting better earnings than expected, thanks in part to strength in China, and it raised some of its upcoming financial forecasts. Sandisk jumped 8.3% after the maker of storage for computers blew past analysts’ expectations for profit thanks in part to voracious demand from data centers.

Colgate-Palmolive added 2.2% after likewise delivering bigger results than expected, though CEO Noel Wallace said it expects “volatile macroeconomic conditions and slower category growth to continue in 2026.”

The main uncertainty for the global economy is where oil prices are heading because of the Iran war. Oil prices spurted higher early this week on worries that the war will keep the Strait of Hormuz closed for a long time. That would in turn keep oil tankers pent up in the Persian Gulf instead of delivering crude to customers worldwide.

But such moves have been quick to reverse throughout the war, as hopes rise and fall for a reopening of the strait. On Friday, the price for a barrel of Brent crude, the international standard, fell 2% to settle at $108.17. Brent was selling for a little more than $70 per barrel before the war began.

That rise since the end of February helped the two biggest U.S. oil companies report stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. But stock prices nevertheless fell for both Exxon Mobil, 1%, and Chevron, 1.4%, as oil prices regressed Friday and each reported drops in net income from a year earlier.

All told, the S&P 500 rose 21.11 points to 7,230.12. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 152.87 to 49,499.27, and the Nasdaq composite climbed 222.13 to 25,114.44.

The fall in oil prices helped Treasury yields ease in the bond market. So did a report in the morning that said growth for U.S. manufacturing was a touch softer last month than economists expected.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.38% from 4.40% late Thursday. Such dips can make mortgages and other loans for U.S. households and businesses cheaper, and they also tend to give upward pushes to prices for stocks and all kinds of other investments.

Many stock markets worldwide were closed for May Day. Among the indexes still trading, Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.4%, and London’s FTSE 100 slipped 0.1%.

___

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

The Conroe Police Department said officers were called about a missing child at approximately 1:15 p.m. to the Lakes of Westview Apartments located at 1900 Westview Blvd.

Officers arrived within minutes and started searching for the child. They found a fenced-in pond on the northwest side of the complex with a partially open gate and a child’s shoe near the pond.

At this point, officers jumped into the pond and began searching for the child. After searching for approximately 10 minutes, the child was recovered from the pond and quickly handed to Conroe Fire and Montgomery County EMS units. The child was unresponsive and was immediately rushed to a local area hospital.

• LIST: Houston-area intersections, roads most likely to flood during heavy rain

“Investigators from the Conroe Police Criminal Investigations Division were called out and responded to the scene. Sadly, at approximately 2:11 pm, the HCA Conroe medical staff advised that the child did not survive and was pronounced deceased,” the Conroe Police Department said.

At this time, no names of further information is being released as this is an ongoing investigation.

• Charges dropped against co-owner of Houston funeral home where decomposing bodies were found

“This is a devastating tragedy and will be felt throughout the Conroe community. Chief Buckholtz and the Conroe Police Department ask that the community keep this family and all involved in their thoughts and prayers,” the department said.

For one local woman, that renewed interest became something much more personal.

Robin Hall, founder of Mahjong for a Cause, said what started as a simple lesson quickly turned into a growing passion shared among friends.

About a year after attending a Friendswood Education Foundation gala, Hall purchased a mahjong lesson package. She invited friends to join her, and what followed was immediate interest and excitement.

Weekly game nights quickly grew into something larger, with friends gathering regularly and even taking the game on trips and cruises. Eventually, Hall realized the hobby had potential far beyond her own circle.

As interest grew, she combined her love for teaching with her desire to stay active in the community.

That led to the creation of Mahjong for a Cause, a space dedicated to playing, learning, and giving back. The group started with pop-up events and quickly expanded, hosting large gatherings that brought in more than 100 people at launch. Today, they operate from a permanent space with multiple tables and a growing membership.

At the heart of the mission is what Hall calls “play, connect and give back.”

Each event charges a modest entry fee, with 100% of proceeds going directly to charity. In recent months, the group has donated thousands of dollars to local organizations, including first responders and other community nonprofits.

Hall said the response has been overwhelming, with players ranging from retirees to working professionals, men and women, and beginners learning alongside experienced players.

The game itself is built on strategy and pattern recognition, but Hall said its real value lies in its social connection.

Hall and her team now hope to expand their impact even further, with a goal of donating $100,000 to local nonprofits this year while continuing to grow their community of players.

One of the most anticipated racing celebrations of the year is bringing a full day of excitement, style, and nonstop entertainment to Houston, and it’s the perfect outing for friends, families, and racing fans alike.

The gates open bright and early at 8:30 a.m., with the first live quarter horse race hitting the track at 10:30 a.m. From there, the energy only builds as the day unfolds with thrilling races, festive traditions, and plenty of chances to cheer on your favorites.

Guests are encouraged to come dressed in their Derby best, and you can even join the Hat Contest, with registration running from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Between races, keep the party going with live music from 2 to 4:30 p.m., and then again from 6:30 to 8 p.m. in the Rose Wine Garden in the infield. Add in great food, refreshing drinks, and a vibrant crowd, and you’ve got a full-on festival atmosphere that lasts all day long.

The 152nd running of the Kentucky Derby, set to begin around 5:59 p.m.

Fans can also shop official Derby merchandise, including shirts, hats, and collectible Mint Julep glasses, available throughout the venue. And if you’re planning to place a wager, keep in mind that betting is available for guests 21 and over, with all wagers placed in cash at designated betting stations.

For more info, log on to shrp.com.

Watch as Lauren Kelly chats with Sam Houston Race Park Vice President and General Manager, Bryan Pettigrew for a preview of the event.

• Flood advisory until 6:30 p.m. for Harris, Fort Bend, Chambers, Brazoria, Galveston, Liberty and Montgomery counties.

Flood watch Friday:

Friday is shaping up to be a day you’ll want to plan around as a strong storm system targets the Houston area. A flood watch is in effect from early Friday through early Saturday, covering nearly 24 hours of potential risk. Rain totals are forecast to range from 2 to 4 inches across much of the region, with some areas possibly seeing as much as 6 inches. The flood watch is in effect for Harris, Brazos, Colorado, Fort Bend, Grimes, Madison, Montgomery, Liberty, Polk, San Jacinto Walker, Waller, Washington and Wharton counties. The watch goes into effect through Saturday 4 AM.

Tracking three rounds of storms:

Three distinct rounds of storms are expected, here’s how the timing breaks down:

• Round one: Heavy rain is expected to begin as early as the morning drive, with widespread downpours moving in around 6 a.m. Most of this first wave should clear out between 9 and 10 a.m., giving the ground some time to drain before the next round forms.

• Round two: Around noon, another burst of rain is forecast to push through. The good news? This round looks fast-moving, likely lasting only about an hour.

• Round three: The most dangerous storms are scheduled to arrive around 4 p.m. and could linger until 8 p.m. This phase brings a strong area of low pressure, which means heavier rain and the risk for severe weather as energy in the atmosphere ramps up.

After 8 p.m., showers should taper off, with only light sprinkles left behind by 11 p.m. Saturday morning is expected to start cool and breezy, setting up for a mostly sunny and pleasant remainder of the weekend.

Severe weather hazards: hail, wind, and tornado risk:

Stay weather-aware, especially late Friday afternoon and early evening. The severe weather risk at Level 1 (on a scale of 1 to 5) for areas from Houston to the west, south and southwest. Although this risk is labeled “isolated,” it does include:

• Large hail: A possibility in storms, especially during the evening wave.
• Strong winds: Straight-line wind gusts could reach dangerous speeds, particularly along the I-10 corridor from Houston to Galveston and southwest.
• Tornado threat: A 2% chance for tornadoes. While the probability is low, it’s not zero and previous events with similar outlooks have produced one or two tornadoes in the area. Be ready to take shelter if warnings are issued.

To watch a video forecast of the above information, click below:

A cool and breezy Saturday with a near perfect Sunday:

Behind the cold front, Saturday will bring a break from the storms. Daytime highs are forecast to remain in the 60s and low 70s, with breezy winds and clearing skies. Sunday will deliver another taste of beautiful spring weather, with 50s in the morning and afternoon temperatures climbing to the mid-70s. More rain could return midweek, so keep an eye on future updates from the KPRC 2 Weather Team.

Have you captured a dramatic rain photo or video? Share your weather moments with the KPRC 2 community through Click2Pins at Click2Houston.com/pins.

High water barricade locations

City officials said the following intersections or underpasses may be barricaded if flooding becomes a problem:

• Greens Road at 45 N. Fwy.
• Greens Road at E. Hardy Road
• Washington Avenue at Hempstead
• Barker Cypress at W. Parkview
• Barker Cypress at Clay
• Barker Cypress at Saums
• Clay Road at West of Brittmore Road
• Crosstimber at 45 N. Fwy.
• Kelly Road at Hardy Toll Road
• West of Boundary St. at North Main St.
• Jensen Dr. at South of Bennington St.
• Bennington St. at 59 North Fwy.
• Jensen at N. Of 610 Fwy.
• Mesa at N. Of U.S. 90 Hwy.
• Katy Road at Silver Eagle
• Allen Pkwy. at Waugh Dr.
• Memorial at Waugh Dr.
• White Oak at Taylor
• White Oak at Sabine
• Studewood at I-10 Fwy.
• Center St. at Houston Ave.
• Houston Ave. at I-10 Fwy.
• North Main at Burnett
• 2900 Allen Pkwy. at Montrose Dr.
• Memorial at Shepherd
• Memorial at Studewood
• Memorial Dr. at Houston Avenue
• Lamar St. at Bagby
• Walker St. at West of Bagby
• Travis St. at I-10 Fwy.
• Louisiana St. at North of Franklin St.
• 1300 Commerce St. at Austin St.
• Texas St. at Prairie St.
• Franklin St. at St. Emanuel St.
• Jensen Dr. at North of Lyons Ave.
• 7000 Main St. at Holcombe Blvd.
• 7000 Fannin St. at Holcombe Blvd.
• Lawndale St. at Braes Bayou
• 9600 Lawndale at E. Of Goodyear Dr.
• Galveston Rd. at S. Of Howard

KPRC 2 FLOOD TRACKER: Get alerted if flooding is occurring in your immediate area

Underpass locations

City officials said the underpasses at the following locations could become problematic if heavy rain falls:

• 100 Milam St
• 100 Shepherd Dr Fr
• 100 Yale
• 1000 Houston Ave
• 11600 West Park
• 11700 Richmond
• 11700 West Park
• 1200 Studemont
• 1200 Wayside
• 1500 North Main
• 1600 East Crosstimbers
• 1600 Jensen
• 1900 Kelly
• 200 75th
• 200 Forest Hill
• 2100 Franklin
• 2400 Harrisburg
• 2900 Allen Parkway
• 300 Studewood
• 3400 North Shepherd
• 3500 Kelly
• 3800 Polk
• 400 Houston Ave
• 4800 Elgin
• 4800 Memorial
• 4900 Galveston Rd
• 5000 Washington
• 5600 Mesa
• 600 Broadway
• 6500 Jensen
• 7000 Clinton
• 7000 Fannin
• 7000 Main
• 7000 Old Katy Road
• 7200 J W Peavy
• 7200 Senate Ave
• 8000 Memorial
• 8100 Harrisburg
• 8100 Hempstead
• 9600 Lawndale

Flood signal locations

City officials said to look for flood signals in these areas if heavy rain falls:

• 4401 Elgin St (Ih-45s And Railroad)
• 1989 Allen Pkwy (Montrose)
• 3087 Allen Pkwy (Waugh)
• Main & Holcombe Blvd (1000 Blk Holcombe)
• Fannin & Holcombe Blvd (1100 Blk Holcombe)
• 6514 Jensen Dr (Creston)
• 1700 Jensen Dr (Railroad)
• 3500 Kelley (Between Ih-69 Hov And Jensen)
• 5800 Elysian St (North Loop 610 East)
• 7506 E Hardy Rd (Hardy Toll Road And Crosstimbers)
• 5405 Mesa Dr (Liberty And Railroad)
• 10704 W Little York Rd (Between Business Park And Sam Houston Tollway West)
• 774 Houston Ave (Memorial)
• 4450 Memorial Dr (Shepherd)
• Houston Ave & Center St (1100 Block Houston Ave)
• 600 Brooks St (North Main)
• 7220 Clinton Dr (North Wayside)
• Yale & Center St (100 Block Yale)
• 9600 Lawndale (Sims Bayou)
• 615 Broadway St (Between East Erath And East Elm)
• 8040 Harrisburg Blvd (Railroad)
• 306 S 75th St (Between Railroad And Rusk)
• 247 Forest Hill Blvd (Between Rusk And Capitol)
• 6598 Lawndale (Wayside)
• 3799 Polk (Milby And Railroad)
• 2050 Franklin St (Commerce)
• 5455 Old Spanish Trl (Spur 5 And Railroad)
• 4953 Galveston Rd (Allendale And Railroad)
• 10200 Old Katy Rd (Conrad Sauer)
• 7095 J W Peavy Dr (Railroad)

Click here to check our exclusive KPRC 2 Flood Tracker for rainfall and flood conditions where you live.

Local nonprofit Grupo de Teatro Índigo is launching its 2026 season with Cinco de Mayo: México, Leyendas, y Herencia (Cinco de Mayo: Mexico, Legends, and Heritage). The second annual production highlights Mexican culture through music, dance, and storytelling rooted in history and tradition.

Featured singer Vanessa Alonzo joined Houston Life to talk about the event and her longtime career in mariachi music. A Houston native, Alonzo began training at age 12 and has gone on to perform in major productions across the country and internationally, including work with Houston Grand Opera and other leading opera companies.

Alonzo said audiences can expect an energetic and emotional performance featuring traditional folklórico dance, mariachi music, and special appearances by acclaimed artists, including Grammy Award winner Aida Cuevas. She added that the show is designed to both entertain and educate audiences on the true history and cultural meaning behind Cinco de Mayo.

The family-friendly event takes place Sunday, May 3, at 7 p.m. Tickets are available at the door and online. Please note, this is a Spanish forward production with a bilingual emcee and Mariachi music in Spanish.

Progressive groups criticized the report, saying it fails to document a pattern of discrimination, focuses on causes favored by conservative Christians and amounts to “advocacy dressed up as investigation.”

The Task Force to Eradicate Anti-Christian Bias, created within the Justice Department by President Donald Trump last year, issued its conclusions Thursday in a 200-page report.

“When Christian beliefs about morality and human nature conflicted with the Biden Administration’s views, religious rights often suffered," the report said.

Report alleges an unfair hard line against conservatives

The task force — which included numerous Cabinet secretaries — didn't accuse the Biden administration of any large pattern of suppressing churches themselves or the right to worship. But the report did accuse it of taking a hard line against those who advocated for conservative policies on the basis of their faith in such areas as abortion, gender, school curriculum and vaccine exemptions.

“The Biden Administration generally tolerated religious beliefs that were privately held but zealously pursued actions to limit Christians’ ability to act in accordance with their faith," it said.

Critics said the report essentially equates one strand of conservative Christianity to be representative of Christians overall, then construes policy disagreements to be persecution.

The report is “advocacy dressed up as investigation,” said Jim Simpson, executive director of the Center on Faith and Justice at Georgetown University.

He said the report falsely deems policy disagreements to be “evidence of anti-Christian bias rather than the normal functioning of a pluralistic democracy." He also said it falsely positions Christians — nearly two-thirds of Americans — as “a persecuted minority despite being the country’s largest and most politically influential religious group.”

The task force report contends that the Biden-era Justice Department sought severe penalties for anti-abortion activists who illegally blockaded clinics and took such protests more seriously than threats to pregnancy resource centers — often Christian-run facilities that seek to persuade women not to obtain abortions.

It cited a group of people convicted in federal court and sentenced to prison after invading and blockading a Washington abortion clinic. Trump pardoned them in 2025.

The report contended that the Biden administration “sidelined Christians in favor of their preferred constituencies.”

Alleged abuses related to Easter and LGBTQ+ rights

One section of the report accuses Biden of “replacing Easter" with Transgender Day of Visibility, which takes place every March 31. That event coincided with Easter on 2024. In fact, Biden issued proclamations honoring both occasions. The report accused Biden of “profound lack of consideration for the Christian faith.”

Christian groups have mixed views on LGBTQ+ issues, with some progressive churches flying Pride flags. Conservative denominations generally oppose same-sex marriage and transgender rights. The report chided the Biden administration for flying Pride flags at U.S. Embassies, including at the Vatican.

Melissa Rogers, who served as executive director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships under Biden, contrasted Trump's Easter messaging this year with his predecessor's.

“President Biden spent Easter and Orthodox Easter wishing Christians worldwide joyful Resurrection Sundays, not by pretending to be Jesus, by tweeting profanities, and by attacking the pope,” she said.

She also noted that Biden is a devout Catholic, and that his administration's officials routinely met with Christian and other faith leaders to cooperate on a wide range of concerns, from the security of sanctuaries to immigration to supporting COVID-19 clinics.

The task force’s report criticized a Biden-era Justice Department memo that discussed possible efforts to prevent violence and threats targeting school boards. The discussions never led to federal action, and then-Attorney General Merrick Garland defended the effort, saying it was to curtail violence, not inhibit debates over policy.

The report did not directly say how it considered this anti-Christian bias, though many school board meetings in that time period did draw conservative Christians and other critics denouncing school policies and lessons on such topics as gender and race.

The report also criticized denials in federal agencies for Christians seeking exemptions from such things as COVID-19 vaccine mandates.

It criticized federal regulators that had told a Catholic hospital in Oklahoma to snuff its chapel candle, deemed a safety hazard because of the risk of combustion to patients with oxygen equipment. The hospital was allowed to keep the candle while putting up a barrier and a warning notice.

The report also cited what it said were disproportionately heavy fines imposed by Biden's Department of Education on two Christian universities — Grand Canyon University for allegedly deceiving thousands of students over program costs, and Liberty University for failures to comply with required disclosures of crime statistics. The Trump administration cleared Grand Canyon University of the charges and rescinded the fine.

Amanda Tyler, executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, criticized the report for “cherry-picked anecdotes” that don't add up to a pattern of persecution.

“To the extent that the government ever did overreach or violate the law in any of these examples, the courts of law, not a partisan political report, provide the right venue to settle any legal disputes,” she said. “Focusing government resources on this narrow issue while ignoring or discounting the much more widespread instances of anti-religious discrimination against other faith groups in the U.S. further harms religious freedom for all.”

The report comes even as the Religious Liberty Commission, another entity created by Trump, prepares a report on its findings; its hearings featured many of the same grievances cited by the task force.

___

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

Brailen Weaver is charged with armed bank robbery and firearms offenses that caused death, according to federal court records.

Weaver entered a branch of U.S. Bank in Berea on Thursday, just before 2 p.m. and “immediately shot and killed a male victim” and then fatally shot a teller, according to an FBI affidavit filed in federal court Friday. He checked multiple drawers in the bank and then fled, the affidavit said. Investigators have not said if any money was taken from the bank.

"While there is no longer imminent danger, we understand that the tragedy is far from over for the community," Olivia Olson, special agent in charge of the Louisville FBI office, said at a news conference Friday. “The only solace that we can offer is that this individual, who valued a stolen dollar more than two human lives, will be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law.”

Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman announced Friday he would pursue state murder charges against Weaver. Court records say Weaver is 18, and officials said Friday he lived somewhere in Kentucky.

Authorities identified a silver BMW sedan on surveillance video and matched it to a car for sale by Weaver on Facebook, the affidavit said. Investigators were also able to match clothing on the suspect to photos of Weaver on social media. Investigators said Weaver continued to post on social media after the robbery.

The FBI located Weaver’s car on I-75, and he was pursued at speeds over 100 mph (161 kph) Thursday night. He exited the highway into Lexington, where he exceeded speeds of 130 mph (209 kph) before crashing the car and fleeing on foot, the affidavit said.

Kentucky State Police Officer Justin Kearney said in a social media post Friday that a “person of interest believed to be involved in yesterday’s Berea bank robbery has been apprehended."

The affidavit was written before he was captured so it makes no mention of an arrest.

Rawl Kazee, a Lexington attorney identified in court records as representation for Weaver, did not immediately return a phone message later Friday morning.

Jason Parman, first assistant U.S. attorney for the eastern half of Kentucky, said in his 18 years as a prosecutor, he could not recall a death related to a bank robbery. Parman said it’s not uncommon for a bank robber to be armed and to threaten violence, but deaths are uncommon in his experience.

Bank robberies nationally have declined from 5,546 in 2010 to 1,263 in 2023, a decrease of 77%, according to the FBI’s annual Bank Crime Statistics report. There were no deaths associated with bank robberies in 2022 and 2023, the most recent year available for the data.

Tom Myers, a crime historian and retired FBI agent, said the drop in bank robberies is due to experienced criminals opting to move on to easier crimes that don’t come with the risk of a lengthy federal prison sentence. Bank security technology has also evolved rapidly, he said, and tiny, powerful tracking devices can make it easier to find stolen money bundles once a robber has left the bank.

“The juice ain’t worth the squeeze,” Myers said. “There’s so many other things to do that are profitable — you can go to a big box store and walk out with the same amount in some places, and only face state charges if you’re caught.”

Law enforcement officials went door to door in search of information and surveillance video, as well as using helicopters, drones and dogs. The Lexington Police Department and county sheriff’s offices took part in the search, along with the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Area schools went into lockdown for a while Thursday until campuses were deemed safe. Students were not allowed to go home on buses and had to be picked up by their parents, state police said.

U.S. Bank said it was working closely with law enforcement and committed to supporting the victims' families and bank colleagues. The small bank branch in the quiet community of Berea is located just a mile from Berea College and its campus that dates back to the 1850s.

“We’re deeply saddened by the tragic event that took the lives of two of our employees at our Berea, Kentucky branch earlier today,” the company said in a statement Thursday. “Our hearts go out to the families of the victims, our colleagues and the entire Berea community.”

Berea is about 36 miles (58 kilometers) south of Lexington.

__

Rebecca Boone contributed to this story from Boise, Idaho.

According to documents filed by the Harris County District Attorney’s Office, three abuse of a corpse charges against Gayle Bell, co-owner of Richardson Mortuary, have been dismissed.

• RELATED: Richardson Mortuary’s funeral director, owner charged with abuse of corpse

In the filing, prosecutors state they “cannot prove beyond a reasonable doubt at this time,” but noted the case is subject to being refiled.

The court order goes on to say the motion was presented to a judge and that the case is “dismissed.”

Court records show the funeral home’s other co-owner, Michael Richardson, still faces multiple abuse of a corpse charges. His next court appearance is scheduled for May 28.

Background: Investigation began after disturbing discovery

The criminal case stems from a series of events that began in April 2025, when families arrived at the funeral home and made a shocking discovery.

Relatives who came to make arrangements, ahead of a funeral service, for their loved ones reported finding bodies inside the mortuary in what they described as deplorable conditions.

One woman told KPRC 2 News she saw her mother’s body with gnats already present. Others described non-refrigerated rooms, bodies partially covered, and construction debris scattered throughout the building.

Video shared with KPRC 2 News appeared to show multiple bodies inside the facility. Houston police later said at least 10 bodies were visible when officers responded.

The situation escalated during a confrontation at the funeral home, when a man recording video was stabbed by an employee. Police said he suffered minor injuries.

State, police investigations followed

After families raised alarms, state regulators and law enforcement launched investigations.

Inspectors with the Texas Funeral Service Commission later confirmed they found multiple bodies in “disturbing conditions” inside the Brookfield Drive facility.

The agency suspended the mortuary’s license and issued a cease-and-desist order, citing violations of building, health, and safety codes, along with alleged unprofessional and deceptive conduct.

• RELATED: Houston funeral home ordered to shut down after bodies found in disturbing conditions

The Houston Police Department also opened an investigation into whether the remains were improperly stored or mishandled.

Following the shutdown, several bodies were transferred to another funeral home so families could complete services for their loved ones.

The case sparked outrage across the Houston area and raised broader concerns about oversight in the funeral industry.

While charges against Bell have now been dropped, for now, the case against Richardson remains ongoing.

Spritz Season: elderflower takes center stage

St-Germain elderflower liqueur has officially kicked off what it’s calling “Spritz Season,” and the lighter, brighter spritz cocktail is popping up across patios and happy hours. With delicate elderflower flavor and just a hint of sweetness, the spritz is fast becoming a top pick for warm afternoons and pre-dinner aperitivo time.

According to the Bacardi Cocktail Trends Report, spritzes are expected to be one of the top cocktails this year — even outpacing some longtime classics.

Why Houstonians are reaching for spritzes

The appeal is simple: spritzes are refreshing, easy to sip and easy to make at home. They pair well with light bites, outdoor gatherings and anything that benefits from a lower-alcohol, effervescent option. For Houston’s humidity and sunshine combo, it’s the perfect warm-weather drink.

Easy at-home spritz recipe and tips

To make a classic elderflower spritz: fill a glass with ice, add Prosecco, top with sparkling water and finish with St-Germain elderflower liqueur. Garnish with fresh mint and a lime wedge for brightness. Keep it chilled, use quality sparkling wine, and taste as you go — a little elderflower goes a long way.

For more recipe ideas and tips, visit stgermainliqueur.com.

Please drink responsibly.

Explosions and a fire were recorded at the terminal, the statement from the General Staff said. Local officials in Russia said a Ukrainian drone attack sparked the blaze and that no casualties were reported.

The facility had been hit previously on April 16, April 20 and April 28. Regional governor Veniamin Kondratyev said a fire at the city’s oil refinery had also been extinguished Thursday, less than 24 hours before the latest strike.

Meanwhile, Russian attacks continued to strike Ukraine.

Russia attacked the western Ukrainian city of Ternopil with over 50 drones on Friday, Mayor Serhii Nadal said.

Hits were recorded in industrial facilities and infrastructure, he said. At least 10 people were wounded, he added, while some neighborhoods remain without electricity as a result of the mass attack.

Two multi-story residential buildings and port infrastructure in Odesa were damaged after Russian forces launched another overnight drone attack on the southern region, local authorities said.

As a result of the strikes, an apartment in a 16-story building was destroyed and the roof caught fire. In another high-rise residential building, a fire engulfed the 12th floor, according to Ukraine's Emergency Service.

In a post on Telegram, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said at least five people were wounded in the region. He said damage from overnight attacks was also recorded in the central city of Kryvyi Rih and the northeastern Kharkiv region, where railway infrastructure was hit.

“Russia continues to attack our energy infrastructure, critical infrastructure, and civilian objects. Tonight, there were 210 drone strikes, and about 140 of them were “Shahed” drones,” Zelenskyy wrote.

Saphier, a radiologist and former Fox News Channel contributor, has promoted several aspects of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s Make America Healthy Again agenda, including removing food additives, cutting ultraprocessed foods from diets and encouraging exercise.

But she has been a more vocal advocate for vaccination than Kennedy, and at times she has criticized the Trump administration's handling of health issues as “embarrassing.”

If confirmed as the nation's doctor, Saphier would be empowered to issue advisories that warn of public health threats. Surgeons general also have used the office to advocate on vaccination issues — though the office doesn't create vaccine policy.

Means, a Stanford University-educated physician and MAHA influencer who didn’t complete her surgical residency in Oregon and has an inactive medical license, faced grueling questioning from senators of both major political parties over her experience and stance on vaccination. She told The Associated Press her failed nomination was the result of a “yearlong smear campaign."

Saphier is a mom, radiologist and former Fox News contributor

Trump's new surgeon general pick is the director of breast imaging at Memorial Sloan Kettering Monmouth, according to her profile on the institution’s website. She has a medical degree from Ross University School of Medicine in Barbados, along with fellowships at the Mayo Clinic, according to her profile.

She has earned the approval of institutions including the American College of Radiology, whose president, Dr. Dana Smetherman, on Thursday called her a “tireless advocate for women's health.” Kennedy said in a social media post that her experience with breast cancer patients and early detection will help the Republican administration take on the chronic disease epidemic.

Saphier was also a longtime Fox News Channel contributor until this week — one of several of the channel's personalities Trump has brought into his administration. Trump's first surgeon general pick, Dr. Janette Nesheiwat, was also a contributor at the network, but her nomination fell apart last year after questions arose about her academic credentials.

An author and podcaster with her own show, “Wellness Unmasked with Dr. Nicole Saphier,” Saphier frequently comments on the Trump administration's approach to health, often positively. She also used the phrase “Make America Healthy Again” years before Kennedy popularized it. It was the title of a 2020 book she wrote that criticized the government’s handling of healthcare and the Affordable Care Act.

Saphier also has dipped into the wellness product industry, creating a line of herbal supplements called Drop Rx, according to her LinkedIn profile.

A mom of three boys, Saphier has often said she is thankful she decided to keep her first son after becoming unexpectedly pregnant at age 17. She has advocated for more resources for mothers who make the same choice.

Advocating for vaccination while criticizing COVID-era mandates

Like Means, Saphier has questioned some aspects of the U.S. childhood vaccine schedule, including the universal birth dose of the hepatitis B vaccine, a longtime recommendation that the Trump administration has been trying to weaken.

She also has aligned with Kennedy's disdain toward COVID-19 vaccination requirements in schools, saying on her podcast in September that they were “a complete disaster" and one of the reasons for declining trust in vaccination.

Saphier says she supports immunization while arguing patients should be free to make their own medical decisions. In March, she praised acting U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya for posting a message encouraging Americans to get vaccinated against measles.

“The more vaccine confusion we create, the more preventable disease we will see,” she said in September, urging the administration to get itself in order "because it’s really upsetting.”

She's called the health department's mistakes ‘embarrassing’

While being supportive of the Trump administration at large, Saphier has publicly cringed at some of its health mishaps. Last summer, she decried its long-anticipated first attempt at a MAHA report, which cited some studies that didn't exist.

"There were a lot of flaws in this report," she said on her podcast. “In fact, it was pretty embarrassing."

She said Kennedy's firing of his first CDC director, Susan Monarez, after less than a month on the job was “a mess.”

"When we keep hearing radical transparency and we’re going to regain trust, I can tell you these shenanigans are taking us farther away from that mission,” Saphier said on her podcast.

In an email to the AP last year, Saphier said Trump's advice to pregnant women not to take Tylenol, which promoted unproven ties between the medication and autism, was overly simplistic. She said equally important, and missing from Trump's message, was the fact that untreated fever or severe pain can also pose serious risks to mothers and babies.

After Means' confirmation hearings earlier this year, Saphier said on her podcast that she expected Means would do a good job as surgeon general but wished she were “a little bit less involved with MAHA.”

“I’d really like to see a little bit more reaching across the aisle when it comes to public health,” Saphier said. “That doesn’t mean it has to be some Democratic nominee for surgeon general, maybe just someone a little less aligned with the MAHA movement who, I don’t know, finished their residency and has an active medical license.”

At least a few prominent MAHA influencers have suggested Saphier is no ally. Turning Point USA podcaster and anti-pesticide campaigner Alex Clark said in a post on Friday that Saphier “gets an F when it comes to all things MAHA.”

Trump turned back the latest proposal almost as soon as it was delivered. Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency reported that Iran handed over its plan to mediators in Pakistan on Thursday night.

“They want to make a deal, I’m not satisfied with it, so we’ll see what happens,” Trump told reporters Friday at the White House, without elaborating on what he saw as its shortcomings.

The shaky three-week ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran appears to still be holding though both countries have traded accusations of violations.

While the ceasefire has largely halted fighting in Iran, the U.S. and Iran are locked in a standoff over the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world’s traded oil and gas passes in peacetime. A U.S. Navy blockade stopping Iran’s tankers from getting out to sea has Iran’s economy reeling. The world economy is also under pressure as Iran maintains its chokehold on the strait.

Negotiations have continued by phone after Trump called off his envoys’ trip to Pakistan last week, the president said. Trump this week floated a new plan to reopen the critical passageway used by America’s Gulf allies to export their oil and gas.

On Friday, Trump expressed frustration with Iran’s leadership, describing it as fractured.

“It’s a very disjointed leadership,” Trump said. “They all want to make a deal, but they’re all messed up.”

Discussing a briefing he had Thursday with Adm. Brad Cooper, head of U.S. Central Command, the president said the U.S. has just two options in Iran.

“I mean, do we want to go and just blast the hell out of them and finish them forever? Or do we want to try and make a deal? I mean, those are the options,” Trump said.

Trump said he believes Iran’s leadership has made some progress toward unifying around a resolution.

“They’ve made strides, but I’m not sure if they ever get there,” he said. “There’s tremendous discord, they’re having a tremendous problem getting along with each other in Iran.”

Iran’s top diplomat sought support for plan

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi held a flurry of calls on Friday with many of his regional counterparts, including from Turkey, Egypt, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Azerbaijan, to brief them on his country’s latest initiatives to end the war, according to his social media.

European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas also spoke over the phone Friday with Araghchi. They discussed ongoing diplomatic efforts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and long-term security arrangements, Kallas’ office said in a statement. Kallas also has been in contact with the EU’s Gulf partners.

Pakistani officials have said efforts were continuing to ease tensions between Iran and the U.S.

Pakistan’s former ambassador to Washington, Masood Khan, said the continued exchange of proposals indicates that the U.S. and Iran remain engaged in seeking a diplomatic midpoint.

The proposals also come after leaders of the two countries had exchanged some of their harshest threats, Khan said, fueling fears that military hostilities could resume at any moment.

Imprisoned Iranian Nobel laureate moved to hospital

Iran’s imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi was urgently transferred from prison to a hospital in northwestern Iran after a “catastrophic deterioration” of her health, her foundation said Friday.

The Narges Mohammadi Foundation said she had two episodes of complete loss of consciousness and a severe cardiac crisis. She was believed to have suffered a heart attack in late March, according to her lawyers who visited her a few days after the incident.

The hospital transfer comes “after 140 days of systematic medical neglect,” since her arrest, the foundation said.

Mohammadi, 53, a rights lawyer who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2023 while in prison, was arrested in December and sentenced to seven more years in prison.

Explosion of leftover bombs killed 14 in Iran

An explosion of leftover bombs from strikes during the war against Iran killed 14 Revolutionary Guard members, IRNA and other Iranian media reported Friday.

A report by the Nournews website, believed to be close to Iran’s security, said the explosion happened near the northern city of Zanjan, which is northwest of Tehran.

It was the largest number of Revolutionary Guard members reported to be killed since the ceasefire began on April 7. The report said the ammunition included cluster bombs and air mines dropped during the fighting.

Since the war began on Feb. 28, at least 3,375 people have been killed in Iran, and more than 2,600 people in Lebanon, where new fighting between Israel and the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah broke out two days after the war started, according to authorities.

Additionally, 24 people have died in Israel and more than 20 in Gulf Arab states. Seventeen Israeli soldiers in Lebanon and 13 U.S. service members throughout the region have been killed.

___

Ezzidin reported from Cairo and Binkley from Washington. Associated Press writers Sylvie Corbet in Paris and Sarah El Deeb in Beirut contributed to this report.

However, they also agreed to continue discussing alternative proposals and entertain new ones, which could change the plan substantially.

Nations met this week at the International Maritime Organization headquarters in London in preparation for potentially voting in the late fall on new, global regulations to clean up shipping, or the “Net-zero Framework." Instead of finishing the discussions, the delegates scheduled more meetings for the fall to keep working ahead of a vote, keeping the framework as a foundation for their negotiations.

A number of countries submitted alternative proposals and suggested changes, and said those should still be on the table, for inclusive, constructive negotiations. The meeting chairman, Harry Conway of Liberia, assured the group on Friday that these options could still be considered at the forthcoming meetings, and new documents could still be submitted. The document that outlines the work for these meetings was modified to make that explicit.

Australia and others expressed concerns that continuing to discuss alternatives would set the process back, when the impacts of climate change are being felt worldwide and the shipping industry is calling for certainty now to make investments in green technologies.

As the meeting closed, IMO Secretary-General Arsenio Dominguez said “we kind of are back on track,” while urging delegates to rebuild trust and continue talking to each another.

Em Fenton, of Opportunity Green, said the framework survived, with a majority of countries supporting it, but “survival is not a victory and we cannot end up in a cycle of open-ended negotiations.”

“We must now look forward to moving toward adoption of the framework later this year in a way that maintains urgency and ambition, and delivers justice and equity for countries on the front lines of climate impacts,” said Fenton, senior director for climate diplomacy at the U.K.-based climate change nonprofit.

The regulations would establish a pricing system which would impose fees for every ton of greenhouse gases emitted by ships above allowable limits, in what is effectively the first global tax on greenhouse gas emissions. The United States and Saudi Arabia are among those that strongly oppose a fee.

Nations agreed on the Net-zero Framework last year. Delegates met in October to adopt it, a step that was widely expected to be a formality. The U.S., with trade threats from U.S. President Donald Trump, and support from Saudi Arabia and others, derailed the meeting. Delegates decided to postpone the decision by a year and adjourn.

Most ships today run on heavy fuel oil that releases carbon dioxide and other pollutants as it’s burned. Shipping emissions have grown over the past decade to about 3% of the global total as trade has grown and vessels use immense amounts of fossil fuels to transport cargo over long distances. There is a lot of interest in ammonia as an alternative fuel because the molecule doesn’t contain carbon.

The framework would set a marine fuel standard that decreases, over time, the amount of greenhouse gas emissions allowed from using shipping fuels. The regulations also would establish the pricing mechanism. The fees collected would go into an IMO fund to invest in fuels and technologies needed to transition to green shipping, reward low-emission ships and support developing countries so they aren’t left behind with dirty fuels and old ships.

This will put the global shipping industry on more sustainable footing, both environmentally and economically, than where it is today, said Mark Brownstein, senior vice president, energy transition at Environmental Defense Fund. Oil prices keep going higher since the war with Iran began.

The IMO, which regulates international shipping, set a target for the sector to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by about 2050, and has committed to ensuring that fuels with zero or near-zero emissions are used more widely.

Large ships last about 25 years, so the industry would need to make changes and investments now to reach the goal around 2050. The International Chamber of Shipping, which represents over 80% of the world’s merchant fleet, has advocated for adoption of the regulations.

___

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.

Trump said in a social media post that the EU “is not complying with our fully agreed to Trade Deal,” though he did not flesh out his objections in the post.

Asked by reporters on Friday about the increase in import taxes as he departed the White House for Florida, Trump said the EU was not “as usual” adhering to last year's trade framework, without detailing the source of the tension. He added that he believed the shift to higher tariffs “forces them to move their factory production much faster” to the U.S.

Trump and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen had agreed to the trade deal last July. It set a tariff ceiling of 15% on most goods, though the Supreme Court this year ruled against the legal authority that Trump had used to charge that tax. This left Trump looking for substitute authorities, and his administration has imposed a 10% tax while investigating trade imbalances and national security issues to put in new tariffs to make up for lost revenues.

Tariffs could hit a global economy already hurt by the Iran war

The tariffs hit at a moment when the Iran war has crushed the world economy with expectations of slower growth and higher inflation, as oil and natural gas prices have risen due to the effective closure of the critical Strait of Hormuz after strikes by the U.S. and Israel began at the end of February.

At the same time, Trump faces political pressure in the U.S. going into November's midterm elections because of rising levels of inflation. Trump, a Republican, returned to the White House last year on the explicit promise that he could quickly tame prices that jumped in the aftermath of the government's response to the coronavirus pandemic, but higher energy costs pushed annual inflation in March to 3.3%, which was higher than what he had inherited.

Just 30% of U.S. adults approved of Trump's handling of the economy, according to the latest poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

Europe wants last year's trade deal to hold

The European Parliament has been moving slowly on finalizing last year's trade agreement but was expected to finish work on the deal next month. The EU said in a statement that it was implementing its “commitments in line with standard legislative practice” and should the U.S. “take measures inconsistent with" that agreement "we will keep our options open to protect EU interests.”

Trump administration officials have not responded to questions about the tariff increase and why Trump said the agreement had been violated. But Trump has had a testy relationship with Europe, having threatened earlier this year to take control of Greenland and later blasting NATO allies for not providing more support to the U.S. for the Iran war.

Bernd Lange, chair of the European Parliament trade committee, posted on social media that Trump's tariff hike on autos was “unacceptable” and that the Trump administration “keeps breaking its commitments,” including on import taxes for steel and aluminum products.

Jennifer Safavian, CEO of Autos Drive America, which represents the American operations of foreign auto manufacturers, said the tariff increase “would threaten the progress that has already been made to open EU markets and grow the U.S. auto industry.”

Both the U.S. and the EU had previously confirmed their commitment to preserving the trade framework, known as the Turnberry Agreement, which was named after Trump’s golf course in Scotland.

Trump's tariff plans were already upended by the Supreme Court

The status of the 2025 deal was first cast into doubt after the Supreme Court this year ruled that the president lacked the legal authority to declare an economic emergency and charge tariffs on goods from the members of the EU and other states.

The Trump administration has opened up trade investigations under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 to replace the tariffs struck down by the court. One of the investigations is looking into whether those trading partners have been lax in cracking down on forced labor. And the other is pursuing allegations that they’ve overproduced goods, driving down prices and putting American manufacturers at a disadvantage.

The alternative tariffs being explored by the Trump administration could ultimately put the agreement with the EU in risk of violation, though European Commissioner for Trade and Economic Security Maroš Šefčovič told reporters last week that the relationship with the U.S. had become more positive over the past year.

To raise tariff rates, Scott Lincicome of the libertarian Cato Institute’s Center for Trade Policy Studies said, the president would likely use Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, which allows for duties on national security grounds.

Trump imposed 25% Section 232 tariffs on foreign autos in March 2025, but those tariffs were then lowered as part of the trade framework with the EU.

Lincicome also said Trump’s threats are “just another example of why these trade deals are vaporware. They all rely on handshakes and winks and hopes that Trump doesn’t get mad about something.’’

The EU had said it expected the bilateral deal would save European automakers about 500 million to 600 million euros ($585 million to $700 million) a month.

The value of EU-U.S. trade in goods and services amounted to 1.7 trillion euros ($2 trillion) in 2024, or an average of 4.6 billion euros a day, according to EU statistics agency Eurostat.

___

AP writers Paul Wiseman in Washington and Alexa St. John in Detroit contributed to this report.

Israel’s military and Hezbollah kept up their attacks despite a ceasefire in place since April 17.

Israel’s military on Friday afternoon urged residents of the Lebanese village of Habboush near the southern city of Nabatiyeh to evacuate, warning that those close to Hezbollah’s facilities would be in danger. An airstrike on Habboush that occurred around the time of the warning killed six people, including a woman and a child, and wounded eight, the Health Ministry said.

The state-run National News Agency reported that four people were killed in strikes on three other southern villages.

By Friday afternoon, Hezbollah had issued six statements saying it launched drones and rockets at Israeli military positions.

The Israeli military confirmed that Hezbollah launched an explosive drone that fell in northern Israel near the border with Lebanon. Israeli media reported that a drone strike near Margaliot in northern Israel caused a fire, and that two soldiers were lightly wounded in a separate Hezbollah drone impact in the area.

Friday’s exchanges came after paramedics in southern Lebanon recovered the bodies of five people, including a man and his three sons, from under rubble in the village of Kfar Rumman, also near Nabatiyeh, a day after they were killed.

National News Agency reported that the five were killed in an airstrike late Thursday on Kfar Rumman. The agency identified those whose bodies were recovered as Malek Hamza and his sons, Ali, Fadel and Hamza. It said the strike also killed a Lebanese soldier. The Lebanese army confirmed that a soldier, Ali Jaber, was killed in the strike.

Damaged homes and overburdened hospitals

Despite the war, residents have continued to return to homes in southern Lebanon after being displaced for weeks because of the hostilities.

One of them was Umm Ali Khodor, whose apartment in the southern port city of Tyre was damaged during the previous Israel-Hezbollah war in 2024 and again in the current conflict.

“We were displaced, we rented a house, but as you know the situation is very difficult,” the woman said. “We could not continue so we returned to our home.”

At Jabal Aamel hospital in Tyre, one of the few in the area that are still functioning, director Wael Mroueh said many of the wounded they are treating are people who initially fled but decided to return and take their chances in areas facing periodic bombardment.

The dynamic was “different from all the previous wars,” he said. Many residents left the villages surrounding Tyre in the early days of the war, "but a large number did not find places and came back.”

Many of the hospital’s staff are also displaced, and the medical facility is hosting them and their families to ensure that it can continue to operate. The hospital has enough food and supplies to last for a month, Mroueh said, and is relying on international organizations to maintain its supply chain.

Official condemns targeting of Red Cross

Also Friday, a senior official with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies condemned the targeting of Red Cross volunteers during the Israel-Hezbollah war.

IFRC Under Secretary General for National Society Development and Coordination Xavier Castellanos Mosquera, who was visiting Lebanon, said that two Lebanese Red Cross volunteers have been killed and 18 others wounded by Israeli strikes. More than 100 health workers in total have been killed in Lebanon during the war, according to the country’s health ministry.

Mosquera told The Associate Press that Red Cross volunteers in southern Lebanon have described hugging each other before departing on a call “because they don’t know if they will return.”

He added that he had seen video showing “ambulances that were hit by bullets” while trying to rescue journalist Amal Khalil, who was buried in rubble when an Israeli strike hit a building where she was sheltering in southern Lebanon last month. Her body was pulled from the rubble hours later when rescuers were able to reach the scene.

The IFRC official also recently visited Iran, where he said key facilities of the Iranian Red Crescent Society had been targeted. Two chemical plants that had been their main providers of raw materials to produce plastic syringes and dialysis components were struck and destroyed. Another strike hit close to a Red Crescent rehabilitation center in Tehran that served children, elderly people and people with disabilities, causing damage.

Israel has denied that it deliberately targets health facilities and emergency workers.

The latest war between Israel and Hezbollah began on March 2, when Hezbollah fired rockets into northern Israel two days after the United States and Israel launched a war on its main backer, Iran. Israel has since carried out hundreds of airstrikes and launched a ground invasion of southern Lebanon, capturing dozens of towns and villages along the border.

Since then Lebanon and Israel have held their first direct talks in more than three decades. The two countries have formally been in a state of war since the founding of the state of Israel in 1948.

A 10-day ceasefire declared in Washington went into effect on April 17. The ceasefire was later extended by three weeks.

The Health Ministry said Friday that the war’s death toll reached 2,618 while 8,094 were wounded.

___

Mroue reported from Beirut. Associated Press journalist Koral Said in Abu Snan, Israel, and Abby Sewell in Beirut contributed to this report.

The message from President Donald Trump effectively skirts a May 1 legal deadline to gain approval from members of Congress to continue the war with Iran. That deadline was already set to pass without action from Republican lawmakers who are deferring to the president.

The letter brings into stark relief the bold but legally questionable assertion of presidential power at the heart of Trump’s war, which he began without congressional approval two months ago.

“The hostilities that began on February 28, 2026, have terminated,” Trump wrote House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, the Senate president pro tempore.

Yet he also made it clear in the letter that the war may be far from over.

“Despite the success of United States operations against the Iranian regime and continued efforts to secure a lasting peace, the threat posed by Iran to the United States and our Armed Forces remains significant,” the Republican president said.

Under the War Powers Resolution of 1973, Congress must declare war or authorize the use of force within 60 days — Friday was the deadline — or within 90 days if the president asks for an extension. This Congress made no attempt at enforcing that requirement, leaving town Thursday for a week after the Senate rejected a Democratic attempt to halt the war for a sixth time.

Some GOP senators are growing uneasy about the war’s timeline, which Trump initially said would last a few weeks. But Trump's letter showed how the president continues to forego congressional approval. It contends the deadlines set by the law do not apply because the war in Iran effectively ended when a shaky ceasefire began in early April.

The Republican debate over the war

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said Thursday he did not plan on a vote to authorize force in Iran or otherwise weigh in.

“I’m listening carefully to what the members of our conference are saying, and at this point I don’t see that,” Thune said.

The reluctance to defy Trump on the war comes at a politically perilous time for Republicans, with public frustration mounting both over the conflict and its impact on gas prices. Still, most GOP lawmakers say they are supportive of Trump’s wartime leadership or are at least willing to give him more time amid the fragile ceasefire.

Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., said he would vote for an authorization of war if Trump asked for it. But Cramer questioned whether the resolution passed during the Vietnam War era, as a way for Congress to claw back its power, was constitutional.

“Our founders created a really strong executive, like it or not like it,” Cramer said.

Some GOP senators did make it clear that they eventually want Congress to have a say.

Indiana Sen. Todd Young said in a statement that lawmakers “must ensure that the people, through their elected representatives, weigh in on whether to send our military into combat.”

He added that since the Trump administration is stating that “the Iran conflict has ceased, there should be no hostilities moving forward,” and that if the conflict resumes, he expects the White House to work with Congress to pass an authorization for use of military force.

Some Republicans signal they want a vote

A handful of GOP senators have said for weeks that Congress should assert its authority over the war at some point. One of those, Maine's Susan Collins, voted for the first time with Democrats on Thursday to halt the war. She said in a statement that she wants to see a defined strategy for bringing the conflict to a close.

“The president’s authority as commander in chief is not without limits," Collins said, adding that the 60-day deadline is “not a suggestion, it is a requirement."

In addition to Collins and Young, Republican Sens. John Curtis of Utah, Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Josh Hawley of Missouri, among others, have said they would eventually like to see a vote.

Curtis said he would not support continued funding for the war until Congress votes to authorize it.

“It is time for decision-making from both the administration and from Congress — and that can happen in league with one another, not in conflict,” Curtis said.

Thune suggested the White House step up its outreach to lawmakers with briefings and hearings if it wants continued support from Capitol Hill.

“Obviously, getting readouts from our military leadership on a somewhat regular basis, I think, will be helpful in terms of shaping the views of our members about how comfortable they are with everything that’s happening there, and the direction headed forward,” Thune said.

Administration argues the deadline doesn't apply

With the 60-day window under the War Powers Resolution expiring Friday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said during a congressional hearing Thursday, “We are in a ceasefire right now, which our understanding means, the 60-day clock pauses or stops.”

The administration is making that argument even though Iran maintains its chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz and the U.S. Navy is maintaining a blockade to prevent Iran’s oil tankers from getting out to sea.

Trump on Friday echoed Hegseth’s argument, and stressed that other presidents had similarly not sought congressional approval as laid out under the 1973 law.

“Every other president considered it totally unconstitutional, and we agree with that,” Trump said at the White House as he departed for Florida.

Democrats scoffed at the suggestion that May 1 was not the real deadline.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said on social media, “There’s no pause button in the Constitution, or the War Powers Act. We’re at war. We’ve been at war for 60 days. The blockade alone is a continuing act of war.”

The development came as little surprise to at least one House Democrat who oversees the military.

Washington Rep. Adam Smith, the ranking Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, told The Associated Press: "Is the expectation that the Trump administration is going to follow the law? I do not have that expectation.”

“There are a lot of young people, mostly young men, going to blue-collar construction jobs, playing the lottery. It drives me crazy,” Bessent said in an interview, giving an example of why he has prioritized meeting with community bankers, retirees and schoolchildren to talk about how to budget, save and manage debt.

”The best thing you can do is not play the lottery," he said — rather, people should invest and “then watch it grow.”

Bessent spoke to The Associated Press about the basics of building a workable budget and saving for the future at the tail end of Financial Literacy Month, an initiative the billionaire hedge fund manager has made a priority since joining President Donald Trump's administration, driven by a childhood marred by poverty.

Former Treasury Secretaries Hank Paulson and Tim Geithner were known for helping navigate the U.S. out of the global financial crisis. Steven Mnuchin made his mark designing and promoting the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, and Janet Yellen was the only person to also head the Federal Reserve and the Council of Economic Advisers. But Bessent's passion for promoting financial literacy is what he hopes, in part, defines his legacy.

His push to boost budgeting skills comes as Americans grapple with the cost of housing, groceries, energy and everyday items and are skeptical about the Republican administration's performance on the issue. The latest AP-NORC poll data shows Trump’s approval rating on the economy dropped from 38% in March to 30% in April.

The nation is enmeshed in record levels of debt, which surpassed $39 trillion in March, and critics wonder how Bessent can persuade Americans to save for their futures when the government itself is drowning in debt.

“The Trump administration in particular has a problematic record on cutting taxes without offsets and growing spending," said Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.

A billionaire with humble beginnings

Bessent, 63, made his money through a long career in hedge funds, including working with George Soros, a financier and philanthropist whom Trump and other Republicans have vilified. Bessent was famously involved in the Soros firm’s 1992 currency speculation against the British pound tied to Black Wednesday, which generated massive profits. Bessent later launched his own hedge fund called the Key Square Group.

But he often talks about his humble beginnings in rural South Carolina, not far from Myrtle Beach, where at the age of 9 he got his first jobs as a busboy at a cafeteria and hustling to set up chairs and umbrellas on the beach. His father, a real estate developer, had lost generations of Bessent family wealth by overleveraging his obligations.

Bessent wanted to attend the U.S. Naval Academy in 1979 but was barred as an openly gay applicant. That also shut the door to joining the foreign service.

He went to Yale University, where his former professor David Darst recalled teaching him about new financial instruments in capital markets. Darst described Bessent as a "guy who’s working at the highest levels, but he’s interested in people learning the ABCs of finance.”

In 2025, Bessent became the nation's first openly gay treasury secretary. “I sit here knowing that President Trump chose me because he believes I’m the best candidate, not because of my sexual preference, not because treasury secretaries with green eyes do better," Bessent said at his confirmation hearing.

After reaching public office, one of Bessent's first actions was relaunching Financial Literacy Month at the agency.

“Wall Street has grown wealthier than ever before, and it can continue to grow and do well,” Bessent has peppered into various speeches over the past year, insisting that his work in the Trump administration is "focused on Main Street.”

During a roundtable with community financial institutions at the department — one of several such events Bessent hosted last month — he listened to bankers express concerns about the a surge in sophisticated fraud schemes targeting customers and their efforts to get high schoolers interested in saving.

“It could be as simple as a 14-year-old starting a savings account and watching interest compound at 4% a year,” said Thomas Fraser, CEO of First Mutual Holding Co. in Lakewood, Ohio, who attended that roundtable.

Promoting financial literacy to young people

Bessent is not a newcomer to preaching financial literacy. Geoff Canada, president of Harlem Children’s Zone, has known Bessent for 30 years and said the treasury secretary has mentored one of the program's scholars for more than a decade. Canada said Bessent has a “deep understanding that financial literacy is essential for fostering real social and economic mobility for America’s children.”

He said Bessent “has championed this issue long before joining the administration, and I know it remains a top priority.”

A conversation with Bessent about financial literacy inevitably turns to Trump Accounts — the financial vehicle meant to give $1,000 to babies born during the Trump administration. That money is then invested in the stock market by private firms, and the children can access the money when they turn 18.

Bessent said he thinks it will encourage a generation of young people to care more about investing as it shows them “the power of compounding, because that money is locked up for 18 years."

But Bessent said people of all ages and income brackets could be better at managing their money. “There’s a narrative that doctors are famously terrible at finance,” Bessent said.

Critics of the treasury secretary’s approach argue that the problem is less about Americans not knowing how to invest and more about people not having enough spare income to do so, as the cost of living has steadily increased and the war in Iran has driven energy prices higher.

“You cannot preach penny-pinching while making it harder for Americans to pay their grocery, utility and healthcare bills,” said Emily DiVito, senior adviser for economic policy at the left-leaning Groundwork Collaborative. “If Secretary Bessent is serious about advancing financial literacy, he should focus on lowering the cost of living for working families.”

Rising debt in the foreground

Bessent's desire to see Americans invest wisely comes as the U.S. debt has reached record levels — and the trajectory of those increases is a cause for concern for budgeting experts.

The U.S. national debt hit $37 trillion in August and then $38 trillion just two months later. Now, it’s at $39 trillion and has surpassed the size of the economy.

Budget advocate MacGuineas warned that the long-term trend of borrowing more and paying more in interest will force Americans to face tougher fiscal tradeoffs ahead.

She praised Bessent for having the goal to cut deficits in half and bring them down to 3% of gross domestic product but said ”it’s going to take a combination of spending reductions, revenue increases and economic growth” to get there.

The Treasury argues that the federal deficit decreased during Trump’s first year back in office and that the provisions in Republicans' tax cuts law have put money back in Americans' pockets.

“It's hard to disagree with the fact that we need more financial literacy in this country,” MacGuineas said. “The bigger picture, of course, is that we should also probably give a financial literacy class to our lawmakers."

A 10-year-old viewer is stealing hearts after delivering his own storm coverage during Friday morning’s severe weather. Reporting live from Pearland, and yes, still in his pajamas, Angel Maldonado gave a play-by-play as hail pounded his neighborhood.

Angel’s parents shared the adorable clip through Click2Pins, writing, “When a hail storm wakes your weather-loving son, what do you do? Let him report live in his PJs.”

And he didn’t miss a beat.

About 10 minutes into the storm, Angel described a “dense wave of hail” moving through his area, sounding every bit like a seasoned pro. He even made sure to look out for viewers, reminding everyone to stay safe and watch for slippery roads.

It’s the kind of wholesome moment that cuts through a stormy morning, and honestly, the confidence, the delivery, the dedication (pajamas and all), it’s giving future broadcaster energy.

Who knows? One day, you might just see Angel Maldonado delivering the forecast on your TV screen.

Democratic Gov. Janet Mills was forced to abandon her U.S. Senate campaign on Thursday, unable to generate sufficient fundraising or enthusiasm to compete against Graham Platner, an oyster farmer who has never served in elected office. The announcement marked a stinging defeat for Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, who recruited Mills to lead the party's decades-long quest to defeat Republican Sen. Susan Collins.

The swift defenestration of a two-term governor by a political neophyte highlighted a stark reality that has begun to take hold at a pivotal moment — Democratic voters are rejecting their party’s establishment and embracing new risks, even as their confidence grows that a blue wave is coming in November's midterm elections.

Sometimes Democrats seem almost as angry at their own party's aging and entrenched leadership as they are at President Donald Trump.

“Rank-and-file Democrats don’t want the Democratic Party as we know it,” said Ezra Levin, co-founder of the Democratic resistance group Indivisible. “Rank-and-file Democrats want fighters.”

Local Indivisible chapters, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who's an independent but caucuses with Democrats, and other leaders from the party's progressive wing had already lined up behind Platner, who is now almost certain to be the Democratic nominee in one of the party’s best Senate pickup opportunities in the nation.

Platner on Friday insisted he would continue to speak out against his party's leadership, including Schumer, although he acknowledged that the two spoke privately the night before.

“The fact that we’ve been able to do all of this without the help of the establishment, it puts us in such an amazing position,” Platner said on MS NOW's “Morning Joe.” “My criticisms of the party leadership, my criticisms of the party, they have not changed, and I’ve been very vocal about that since the beginning. But we will absolutely take the help that we can get.”

Republicans, meanwhile, are giddy — and some moderate Democratic strategists are worried — that the anti-establishment shift may undermine the party’s effort to claw back control of Congress in November.

“Chuck Schumer has officially lost the first battle in his proxy war with Bernie Sanders,” said Bernadette Breslin, spokesperson for the Senate Republicans' campaign arm. “As Sanders hits the campaign trail to prop up progressives in messy Democrat primaries in Michigan and Minnesota, Schumer’s chances of getting his preferred candidates through look grim.”

The backlash is bigger than Maine

Maine is far from alone.

Prominent anti-establishment clashes are playing out in high-profile Senate races across Michigan, Minnesota and Iowa, along with House races in several states.

Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist, continues to promote Platner and other critics of the Democratic Party's national leadership. The Vermont senator will campaign this weekend in Detroit with Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, who is running in a three-way Senate primary against Rep. Haley Stevens and state Sen. Mallory McMorrow.

“There’s a desire to turn the page on the old guard,” Sanders' political adviser Faiz Shakir said. “It’s not even just the Democratic electorate. There’s a populist mood in this country. You’d have to be blind not to see it.”

Indeed, McMorrow is actively working to remind voters that she would not support Schumer as Democrats’ Senate leader if given the chance.

“Frankly, I was the first person in this country to say no,” McMorrow said in a video she posted Thursday on social media. “It is a different moment. This is no longer a Republican Party we’re dealing with, it is a MAGA party that has been taken over by Trump loyalists. ... You need to respond in a very different way.”

Veteran Democratic strategists like Lis Smith, who works with candidates across the country, tied the anti-establishment shift to the party's painful losses in 2024, when President Joe Biden was forced to abandon his reelection bid and Vice President Kamala Harris went on to lose to Trump.

“After 2024, voters are sick of the gerontocracy, sick of the status quo, and Chuck Schumer has completely misread that,” Smith said.

Moderates push back

Privately, Schumer's allies downplay the impact of the anti-establishment backlash.

The Senate Democratic leader's preferred picks in North Carolina, Ohio and Alaska haven't faced the same challenges as Mills did in Maine. The four states represent the party's most likely path to a majority in the chamber, which has 53 Republicans, 45 Democrats and two independents who caucus with the Democrats.

Mills is the oldest of the candidates and, at 78, would have been the oldest freshman senator in history. She promised to serve one term if elected. Platner is only 41.

Schumer's team is unwilling to make any apologies for backing Mills over Platner.

“Leader Schumer’s North Star is taking back the Senate," Schumer spokesperson Allison Biasotti said. "When no one thought a Senate majority was possible just a year ago, he made it a reality by recruiting great candidates across the country and laying out an agenda for lower costs and better lives for Americans.”

Some in the Democratic Party’s moderate wing are worried.

Matt Bennett, co-founder of the center-left group Third Way, said that Platner’s emergence in Maine “without a doubt” will make it harder for Democrats to defeat Collins in November. He warns that it could be the same elsewhere if Democratic primary voters rally behind anti-establishment candidates.

“Our message is if you would like to beat Donald Trump’s Republicans, you better nominate people who can win,” Bennett said.

The crash was reported at 9:43 a.m. on IH-10 Katy Westbound At IH-610 West Loop/ US 290 Direct Connect, according to Houston TranStar.

The crash involved three vehicles, including a heavy truck. The right shoulder, right lane and two center lanes are currently blocked as crews work to clear debris.

It is unknown if anyone was injured in the crash.

The ground delay comes due to the widespread storms that are hitting the Houston area today. At 3 a.m., a flood watch was issued and will remain in effect through early Saturday morning.

The ground delay is set to cover Harris, Brazos, Colorado, Fort Bend, Grimes, Madison, Montgomery, Liberty, Polk, San Jacinto, Walker, Waller, Washington and Wharton counties.

• Total delays at Bush Airport: 317
• Total cancelations at Bush Airport: 11
• Total delays at Hobby Airport: 70
• Total cancelations at Hobby Airport: 10

Three distinct rounds of storms are expected. Here’s how the timing breaks down:

• Round one: Heavy rain is expected to begin as early as the morning drive, with widespread downpours moving in around 6 a.m. Most of this first wave should clear out between 9 and 10 a.m., giving the ground some time to drain before the next round forms.
• Round two: Around noon, another burst of rain is forecast to push through. The good news? This round looks fast-moving, likely lasting only about an hour.
• Round three: The most dangerous storms are scheduled to arrive around 4 p.m. and could linger until 8 p.m. This phase brings a strong area of low pressure, which means heavier rain and the risk for severe weather as energy in the atmosphere ramps up.

Talankin, who co-directed the best documentary winner “Mr. Nobody Against Putin,” didn't expect to have to check his statuette for a flight from New York's John F. Kennedy Airport bound for Frankfurt, Germany, on Wednesday. But a Transportation Security Administration agent said it couldn't go on board.

“At the airport, a TSA agent stopped him and said the Oscar could be used as a weapon,” Talankin's co-director, David Borenstein, said Thursday night in a post on Instagram.

“Pavel didn’t have a bag to check it in, so the TSA put the Oscar in a box and sent it to the bottom of the plane,” added Borenstein. “It never arrived in Frankfurt.”

After Borenstein's announcement prompted an international outcry, the airline Lufthansa on Friday said it had found the lost Oscar.

“We can confirm that the Oscar statue has now been located and is safely in our care in Frankfurt,” the airline said in statement. “We are in direct contact with the guest to arrange its personal return as quickly as possible. We sincerely regret the inconvenience caused and have apologized to the owner.”

Lufthansa added that an “internal review of the circumstances is ongoing.”

In March, “Mr. Nobody Against Putin” won the Academy Award for best documentary, and Talankin and Borenstein's acceptance speech supplied one of the most memorable moments of the ceremony.

Talankin — the “Mr. Nobody” of the film — was a teacher and activities director in a small-town school in Russia who captured on video his students’ lessons, chants and songs promoting Putin's war in Ukraine. He smuggled his hard drives out of the country to collaborate with Borenstein, who lives and works in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Talankin, speaking in Russian through a translator, said from the stage: “In the name of our future, in the name of all of our children, stop all of these wars now.”

The TSA didn't immediately respond to queries Friday.

Friday, May 1

• HL Rhythm Energy Question of the Week
• Teatro Indigo
• Teatro Indigo at Hobby Center for the Performing Arts
• Mahjong for a Cause
• Sam Houston Race Park

Thursday, April 30

• St‑Germain Elderflower Liqueur
• National Pet Month is here! Houston SPCA offers tips for responsible pet ownership
• • Houston SPCA
• From Knee Replacement to the Boston Marathon: A Story of Movement, Medicine, and Meaning
• • Dr. Richard A. Berger Outpatient Hip and Knee Surgery
• Tyler Henry “The Hollywood Medium” heading to Houston for unforgettable live show
• • Tyler Henry Live at Smart Financial Center
  • Connect with Tyler Henry

Wednesday, April 29

• In the Kitchen with Kroger: Celebrate Mother’s Day with Kroger, the world’s largest florist
• • KPRC 2 INSIDERS: Enter for your chance to win a $250 Kroger gift card!
• Sail into Alaska with Princess Cruises - tips from The Travel Mom, Emily Kaufman
• • The Travel Mom
  • Princess Cruises
• How wearing denim became an international symbol of supporting assault survivors and victims
• • National Denim Day
  • Fort Bend Women’s Center
• Country superstar Parker McCollum surprises nurses ahead of National Nurses Week

Tuesday, April 28

• Inside Golden Roastery: A popular Middle Eastern shop serving traditional desserts and coffee
• How to make a popular Arab dessert Kunafa
• • Golden Roastery (Walk-in offer only; get 20% off Kunafa items from now to May 10)
• Help us save lives at the KPRC 2 Community Blood Drive with Gulf Coast Blood
• • Community Blood Drive at KPRC 2
• Cedric The Entertainer brings the laughs in new Netflix animated film ‘Swapped’
• • Netflix’s ‘Swapped’

Monday, April 27

• Summer safety for kids: what parents need to know
• • Bivona Law Firm
• From Blueprint to Backyard Oasis: A Missouri City Transformation Designed for Real Life
• • Allied Outdoor Solutions
• First annual AAPI Fest coming to Alief
• • AAPI Fest
  • Kaminari Taiko of Houston,
• The story behind Agnes and Sherman where Asian flavors meet American comfort food
• • Agnes and Sherman
  • AAPI Restaurant Weeks
• Hosts Mike “The Miz” Mizanin and Rocsi Diaz chat reboot of ‘American Gladiators’
• • American Gladiators

Friday, April 24

• HL Rhythm Energy Question of the Week
• Step inside August Wilson’s “Fences” at Houston’s Alley Theatre - A timeless story of love, legacy, and second chances
• • August Wilson’s “Fences” at Alley Theatre
• Prime Video’s ‘Cocaine Quarterback’ Owen Hanson visits Houston, shares incredible comeback story
• • “Cocaine Quarterback” on Prime Video
• National Bucket List Day: A Trafalgar River Cruise with The Travel Mom
• • The Travel Mom
  • Trafalgar

Thursday, April 23

• Silambam Houston highlights the beauty of Indian classical dance at the Hobby Center
• • Silambam Houston
• A preview of Great Age on the Green, Houston’s new festival celebrating aging boldly
• • Great Age on the Green
• Kids learn money the fun way with Financial Fortunes card game
• • Financial Fortunes Card Game
• Teeing off for the LPGA’s first major of the season - The Chevron Championship
• • The Chevron Championship

Wednesday, April 22

• Houston is driving the Biotech future - starting with students
• • Texas Medical Center BioPath Program
• From ‘Dance Moms’ to the stage and page: Nia Sioux’s next act
• • Follow Nia Sioux on Instagram
• From ‘Dance Moms’ to the stage and page: Nia Sioux’s next act
• • Nia Sioux’s Memoir “Bottom of the Pyramid”
• Wildflowers, western heritage, and a Mother’s Day to remember at The George Ranch
• The George Ranch

Tuesday, April 21

• Orchid care 101: Simple tricks to keep your orchids blooming longer
• • Ace Berry
  • Flora & More
• Affordable luxury: New upholstered bed collection unveiled at Texas Mattress Makers
• • Texas Mattress Makers
• Music, food and rodeo fun for all at the Galveston County Fair & Rodeo
• • Galveston County Fair & Rodeo
• Texas Dental Implant Center

Monday, April 20

• Robins Landing Neighborhood Floor Plans - Houston Habitat for Humanity
• Homeownership Process - Houston Habitat for Humanity
• Volunteering - Houston Habitat for Humanity
• ReStore - Houston Habitat for Humanity
• Third Ward - Houston Habitat for Humanity

Friday, April 17

• ‘Houston Life’ is live today at the Houston Ballet Nutcracker Market Spring
• • Houston Ballet Nutcracker Market® SPRING
  • Dog Collar World
  • Linked by Stevi
  • The Hive
  • Big Creek Farms
  • EK The Boutique
  • House of Cottonwood
  • ParkerJoe

Thursday, April 16

• TUTS presents ‘Monty Python’s Spamalot’ rides into the Hobby Center
• • Monty Python’s Spamalot at TUTS Tickets
• One ticket, endless fun at the Galveston County Fair and Rodeo
• • Galveston County Fair and Rodeo
• Carpet Giant celebrates 50 years of proudly serving generations of Houstonians
• • Carpet Giant Website (mention Houston Life to get $150 off your purchase of $1,000)
• Faith ‘One Arm Wonder’ Malton and Zack ‘Pitbull’ Ruhl rappel 30 stories for non-profit Camp For All
• • Camp For All
  • Faith Malton

Wednesday, April 15

• Brush up on your makeup routine at Blushington River Oaks
• • Houston Life Deals (Get 20% off beauty services at Blushington River Oaks)
  • Blushington River Oaks
• The King himself shares how to save 20% on tickets to the Texas Renaissance Festival
• • Texas Renaissance Festival
• Ethan’s Ohana
• Cube Against Cancer 2026 Houston
• Cube Against Cancer
• Fortis College

Tuesday, April 14

• Former Texans WR Steven Sims Jr. to host FREE youth football camp
• • Must See Foundation
• Why it’s not just the generator - it’s the company behind it
• • Gen Pro
• How the Houston Hispanic Chamber of Commerce helps local companies grow
• • Houston Hispanic Chamber of Commerce
• Step Onward Foundation uses music to fight homelessness in Texas
• • Step Onward Foundation
  • Sunday Funday Community Celebration

Monday, April 13

• Robins Landing Neighborhood Floor Plans - Houston Habitat for Humanity
• Homeownership Process - Houston Habitat for Humanity
• Volunteering - Houston Habitat for Humanity
• ReStore - Houston Habitat for Humanity
• Third Ward - Houston Habitat for Humanity

Friday, April 10

• Your guide to the Houston Barbecue Festival this weekend: Top pitmasters, unlimited BBQ samples, and more
• • Houston BBQ Festival
• Texas CASA’s partner agencies train volunteers to be a voice and a lifeline for children in the foster care system
• • Become a CASA
• ‘Grow the Game’ Initiative expands soccer access in Houston ahead of the World Cup with Guinness World Records attempt
• • Airbnb GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS™
• Houston’s Garden Theatre celebrates 5 years with Stephen Sondheim’s “Company”
• • The Garden Theatre
• Father daughter duo Steve Zahn and Audrey Zahn chat new film ‘She Dances’

Thursday, April 9

• The Salvation Army Women’s Auxiliary kicks off 22nd annual ‘Chic Boutique’
• • Chic Boutique
• Aramie Payton brings Broadway pedigree to Alley Theatre’s revival of “Fences”
• • Alley Theatre
• Layoff leads Houston creator to viral small business mission
• • Follow David on Instagram
• At just 19, Jalyn Hall is stepping into his moment
• • NBC’s “The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins”
• KPRC 2’s “Eat Like a Local”

Wednesday, April 8

• Houston Underwater Film Festival returns this weekend with stunning ocean films 🌊🌊
• • School, college and scuba students: claim a free ticket by emailing huff@hups.org
  • Houston Underwater Film Festival Tickets
• Celebrate Earth Month by sipping sustainably!
• • Wine and Travel Contributor Daniela Garrido
• Shred Day Houston: Safely destroy documents and fight hunger on April 18
• • Comerica Shred Day Houston
• Trade-show-tested home picks: Coffee, Water, Bidets and Moving Gear
• • Kathryn Emery Home Improvement & Lifestyle Expert
• A kid’s guide to top play picks to cut screen time and spark creativity
• • Kid-trepreneur Dylan Emery

Tuesday, April 7

• Grand Marshals Kam Franklin & Brian Ching preview the 39th annual Art Car Parade
• • Houston Art Car Parade
• This Texas artist is turning Titanic artifacts into art
• • Souls of the Titanic
• In Houston, Your Windows May Not Last as Long—Here’s What to Know (and What to Do About It)
• • Pella Windows and Doors
• Houston’s Trillest Chef bringing bold flavors of H-Town the national stage
• • Follow Chef Machete on Instagram
• Texas Dental Implant Center

Monday, April 6

• Houston’s Garden Theatre celebrates 5 years with Stephen Sondheim’s “Company”
• • The Garden Theatre
• Sysco’s World Cup-themed food show is a preview of how Houston plans to feed the world
• • Sysco World Cup-themed food show
• The Houston Art Car Parade

Friday, April 3

• HL Rhythm Energy Question of the Week
• WWE Wrestler Je’Von Evans
• WWE Monday Night Raw at Toyota Center Tickets
• IBEW Local 66
• KPRC 2’s “Eat Like a Local”

Thursday, April 2

• Disney on Ice
• The Chevron Championship
• Maxine Sharf brings ‘Maxi’s Kitchen’ to Houston Life with her mom
• • Follow Maxine Sharf on Instagram
  • "Maxi’s Kitchen: Easy Go-To Recipes to Make Again and Again"
• Father daughter duo Steve Zahn and Audrey Zahn chat new film ‘She Dances’

Wednesday, April 1

• Spring gets sweeter with two easy recipes: Carrot cupcake and blueberry crumble bun
• • Follow Cookbook Author Florence Jackson on Instagram
• This Houston Restaurant Hasn’t Raised Prices Since Its Food Truck Days
• • Black Restaurant Week
  • Chitalian Pizzeria
• Tarot, the Fool card and finding meaning on Derrick’s birthday (April Fool’s Day)
• • Tarot Card Reader Amber Ambrose
• Theatre Under the Stars presents ‘Back to the Future: The Musical’ through April 5th
• • TUTS “Back to the Future: The Musical”

Tuesday, March 31

• Send Well Wishes to Tessa on her last day
• • Tessa Barrera announces she’s leaving ‘Houston Life’
• Calling all book lovers: Houston indie bookstore crawl returns for its third year of literary adventure
• • 2026 Houston Bookstore Crawl
• Preview the 13th annual Insperity Invitational presented by United Healthcare
• • Insperity Invitational
• Texas roots and coastal growth, how the Oyster Bros in Palacios are redefining the gulf oyster
• • Oyster Bros
• Goodtaste with Tanji Patton

Monday, March 30

• How Autism Moms of Houston became a lifeline for families raising children who are neurodivergent
• • Autism Moms of Houston
  • Autism Awareness Festival
• An offer fit for a new you! Grab the Alloy Personal Training Houston Life Deal
• • Alloy Personal Training Houston
  • Houston Life Deals
• Who’s responsible when a child is hurt at daycare?
• • Bivona Law
• At just 19, Jalyn Hall is stepping into his moment
• • NBC’s “The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins”

Friday, March 27

• Family fun, charity, & of course golf shine at Texas Children’s Houston Open ⛳
• • Texas Children’s Houston Open
  • TCHO Cleats for Kids

Wednesday, March 25

• Tessa Barrera announces she’s leaving ‘Houston Life’
• Plan aims to turn Garden Oaks Theater into an arts hub before it’s too late
• • Save the Garden Oaks Theater
• Fore! Preview the 2026 Texas Children’s Houston Open
• • Texas Children’s Houston Open
• Women, Wealth, and breaking ‘The Success Lie’
• • Chantell Preston
  • “The Success Lie” by Chantell Preston
• McGovern Allergy & Asthma Clinic
• Gexa Energy

Tuesday, March 24

• From puppy playtime to pesky nipping, helpful springtime tips for dog owners
• • Stephanie Bennett’s Believe in Dog Training
• How one Houston program is helping kids discover confidence—and their future
• • Sam Houston Area Council Boy Scouts of America
• Houston Ballet’s Busy Spring: Nutcracker Market, Sons de L’âme & YAGP Finals
• • Houston Ballet
• Breaking barriers and popping corks with CEO and Master Sommelier June Rodil
• • Master Sommelier June Rodil
  • Goodnight Hospitality

Monday, March 23

• Blooming Wonders at ARTECHOUSE
• • Spring arrives at ARTECHOUSE Houston with ‘Blooming Wonders’
• Texas Dental Implant Center
• • Trusted Dental Implant Care in Houston — Board-Certified Periodontist Helps Complex Cases
• Disability Attorney Marc Whitehead
• • Expert tax advice: Are your Social Security and Disability benefits taxable?
• Allied Outdoor Solutions
• • From basic to beautiful: See this stunning backyard transformation in Weston Lakes

Thursday, March 19

• Springtime fun at the Houston Zoo
• • Zoo Bloom
  • All you can Zoo
  • Saving the Galápagos Islands

Wednesday, March 18

• Houston Latino Film Festival celebrates 10 Years with Cheech Marin
• • Houston Latino Film Festival
• Find the good vibes every weekend for Jazzy Sundays in the Parks
• • Jazzy Sundays in the Parks
• Get to know Dash rising star, Avery Patterson
• • Houston Dash
• Kevin Williamson makes fans SCREAM all over again in latest franchise installation
• • Kevin Williamson
• Self Employed? Tax Filing Moves That Help You Qualify for a Mortgage
• • Habayit Home Loans
  • Mortgage Expert Rich Bonn’s Upcoming Webinar

Tuesday, March 17

• Houston’s Mezclada Dance Company blends hip hop, Latin and contemporary dance forms into high-energy performances
• • Performing Arts Houston New/Now featuring Mezclada Dance Company
• METRO rolls out systemwide changes: A first look at the new technology to help streamline your ride
• • Metro Houston
• Houston Life Deals: Fun & savings for the entire family
• • HoustonLifeDeals.com
• Frontier Utilities teams with Kids’ Meals Houston to pack thousands of meals
• • Frontier Utilities

Monday, March 16

• Affordable rodeo-ready outfits you can find at Target this season
• • Target.com
• Houston’s growing need for linemen: Why the trade pays and how to start
• • IBEW Local 66
• ET hosts Nischelle Turner and Kevin Frazier share highlights from the 98th Academy Awards
• • Entertainment Tonight Oscars Coverage
• Houston Ballet principal dancer Karina González brings Frida Kahlo to life in Broken Wings
• • “Broken Wings” at Houston Ballet Tickets
• The Largest Indoor Waterpark in the U.S.? It’s Just a Road Trip from Houston
• • Kalahari Resorts and Conventions

Friday, March 13

• HL Rhythm Energy Question of the Week
• Houston Life Deals: Fun & savings for the entire family
• Outriding the Devil: Angela Ganter’s incredible rodeo comeback
• • Outriding the Devil premieres at River Oaks Theatre
• ‘Aliens’ 40th anniversary cast reunion and more at Pop Culture Con 2026
• • Pop Culture Con
• Alley Theatre brings Oscar Wilde’s “The Importance of Being Earnest” to Houston with a fresh twist
• • “The Importance of Being Earnest” at Alley Theatre Tickets
• Bounce your way to better fitness: trampoline workouts in West U
• • Motiv Fitness at West University
• Moon 2 Mars Festival returns to Space Center Houston with out-of-this-world fun and concerts this spring break
• • Space Center Houston

Thursday, March 12

• KPRC 2 INSIDERS: Enter for your chance to see Tim McGraw at RODEOHOUSTON
• The Birthday Joy Program helps kids in foster care, shelters and group homes celebrate their special day
• • the Birthday Joy Program Website
• Inside “The Feminine Universe” Houston’s new all-women immersive art experience
• • The Feminine Universe Art Show Tickets
• Bring the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo home with these sips and bites
• • Entertaining Expert Paul Zahn
• Spring is in full swing at CITYCENTRE Houston
• • CITYCENTRE
• Kalahari Resorts and Conventions

Tuesday, March 10

• Enjoy Spring Break at the Houston Museum of Natural Science
• • Houston Museum of Natural Science
• Honoring the fallen & recognizing community heroes
• • Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo
  • BP America
• Houston author Margie Seaman proves it is never too late to chase a dream
• • Margie Seaman
  • “Someday Is Our Horizon” by Margie Seaman on Amazon

Monday, March 9

• NestFest beach cleanup invites volunteers to protect nesting sea turtles on the Galveston Coast
• From bumper boats to STEAM activities, enjoy a FUNonmenal spring break at Discovery Green
• • FUNomenal Spring Break at Discovery Green
• This veteran-owned business is helping Houstonians keep the heat the out and the savings in with new windows
• • The Window Source
• You’ve been diagnosed with cancer, now what? Non-profit CanCare pairs you with survivors who can help
• • CanCare
• Spring Break Staycation: Why The Travel Mom says Houston families love Great Wolf Lodge
• • The Travel Mom
  • Great Wolf Lodge

Friday, March 6

• Houston Life Deals
• Pickle vs. anime: Largest pickle festival in Texas comes to Rosenberg with anime-inspired food
• • In A Pickle Festival
• Expedia’s 2026 Air Hacks: Best days to book, when to fly and top savings
• • Expedia Air Hacks Report
• The Parking Spot making airport parking a breeze
• • The Parking Spot
• A rustic dream venue just outside Houston
• • Country Oaks Venue
• Rare Texas artifacts step out ‘From the Vault’ at The Bryan Museum
• • The Bryan Museum
• Rhythm Energy Question of the Week

Thursday, March 5

• Gold Buckle Foodie Awards at Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo
• Houston Life Deals
• Avoiding vacation headaches: New Vrbo survey on group travel reveals common pet peeves
• • Vrbo
• Houston wellness trend: A local body sculpting technique focused on lymphatic health
• • The Tox
• Catching up with Russell Dickerson ahead of debut RODEOHOUSTON performance
• • RODEOHOUSTON

Wednesday, March 4

• Houston Life Deals
• Moon 2 Mars Festival returns to Space Center Houston with out-of-this-world fun and concerts this spring break
• • Space Center Houston
• What to Wear to the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo: Your Ultimate Style Guide 
• • Boot Barn
• Destin-Fort Walton Beach, more than beaches: reefs, fishing, little adventures
• • Visit Destin-Fort Walton Beach
• Baz Luhrmann’s ‘EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert’ gives fans a front-row seat to The King
• • “EPiC: Elvis Presley In Concert” Film

Tuesday, March 3

• Diana Ross coming to Smart Financial Centre at Sugar Land
• Learn about the untold history of Black baseball
• • Houston Freedmen’s Town Conservancy
• Houston Life Deals
• Modern dental implants give Houston patients natural, comfortable smiles
• • Texas Dental Implant Center
• Houston native Kyrie McAlpin Talks ‘The Burbs’, Keke Palmer & a very Seth MacFarlane Christmas party

Monday, March 2

• Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo
• • Houston Life kicks off opening day at 2026 Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo
• Suits & Boot Injury Lawyers

Friday, February 27

• Gabriel Basso takes us behind the scenes of Netflix’s ‘The Night Agent’
• • Netflix’s “The Night Agent”
• Mudbug Mania: Tanji Patton celebrates crawfish season in Houston
• • Goodtaste with Tanji Patton
  • Crawfish Shack
  • Crawfish Hideaway
• Theatre Under The Stars reveals 2026-27 season with Broadway tours & local shows
• • Theatre Under the Stars
• Boot Barn
• What to see and do in Malta — beaches, history and booking tips from The Travel Mom
• • The Travel Mom

Thursday, February 26

• Diana Ross at The Sugar Land Smart Financial Center
• KPRC 2 INSIDERS: Enter for a chance to see Creed perform at RodeoHouston
• Get a peek inside RodeoHouston’s World Championship BBQ Cookoff
• • Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo
• Soulful river cruises that connect Black travelers to heritage and culture
• • AmaWaterways Soulful Experience River Cruise
• Houston Life Deals
• Allied Outdoor Solutions
• HCC Southeast College

Wednesday, February 25

• Behind the scenes of TUTS’ ‘Million Dollar Quartet’
• • Tickets to ‘Million Dollar Quartet’ at Theatre Under the Stars
• Houston influencers share their best thrifting tips for Rodeo
• • Find your nearest Goodwill store
• Plan the ultimate spring break getaway for everyone at Moody Gardens
• • Moody Gardens
• Ride along: METRO Police Chief explains new safety measures for Houston transit
• • Metro Houston

Tuesday, February 24

• Spring Break, but make it San Antonio
• • Visit San Antonio
• Alley Theatre’s ‘English’ explores identity, belonging, and the weight of learning a new language
• • Tickets to ‘English’ at Alley Theatre
• Looking for a Career Change? Here’s How You Could Be Job-Ready in 10 Months
• • Learn more about programs at United Education Institute Houston

Monday, February 23 (WE ARE BACK!!!)

• Indian Film Festival of Houston celebrates France with film, food and culture
• • Indian Film Festival of Houston Website
• KPRC 2 INSIDERS: Enter for a chance to see Riley Green perform at RodeoHouston
• • Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo
• Chris Hemsworth will keep you on the edge of your seat in ‘Crime 101’
• • “Crime 101” Movie Times
• Modern dental implants give Houston patients natural, comfortable smiles
• • Texas Dental Implant Center

February 6 - 20

• Houston is off air due to the Winter Olympics, but that doesn’t mean we’ll stop entertaining you. Be sure to follow us on social media to see all the HL fun. We’ll be back Feb. 23.
• • Instagram
  • Facebook
  • YouTube
  • Pinterest

Thursday, February 5

• Papa Johns Pizza
• The Cody Stephens Foundation saves lives with free heart screenings for young athletes
• • Cody Stephens Foundation
• Get ready for the return of the one and only Monster Jam in Houston
• • Tickets to Monster Jam at NRG Stadium
• Getting your best night’s sleep: How the latest materials and technology can help you sleep better
• • Texas Mattress Makers
• What is an “Orphan Generator”? And why it could put Houston homes at risk during an outage
• • GenPro.com
• Follow Mersha the Mini Panther on Instagram (Use MERSHA20 to get a discount at PrettyLitter)

Wednesday, February 4

• Simon & Garfunkel Story at The Sugar Land Smart Financial Center
• Behind the scenes of ‘Real Women Have Curves’ on stage at Alley Theatre
• • Tickets to ‘Real Women Have Curves’ at Alley Theatre
• Decoding body language: How to spot liars, read subtle signals, and communicate with confidence
• • Jan Hargrave
• In the Kitchen with Kroger: Why they are your one stop shop for the Big Game and Valentine’s Day
• • Kroger

Tuesday, February 3

• MFAH’s new exhibit explores Frida Kahlo’s lasting legacy
• • ‘Frida: The Making of an Icon’ at MFAH
• United Way of Greater Houston’s 211: Help is one call away
• • United Way of Greater Houston’s 211 Helpline
• After the freeze - now what? How to care for perennials and shrubs in Houston
• • Gardening with Skip
  • Houston Home and Garden Show
• Go back in time at Popfancy Dessert Bar’s new retro 80’s sci-fi arcade cafe
• • Popfancy Fan Cafe

Monday, February 2

• Kenny G at The Sugar Land Smart Financial Center
• The relationship advice that helps couples feel closer — even during hard conversations
• • Connection Expert Jenn Pinkerton
  • Connectin Cards Couples Edition on Amazon
• Paris Hilton’s “Infinite Icon”
• Arandas Bakery
• Texas Dental Implant Center

Friday, January 30

• Monster Energy Supercross heads into Houston featuring the world’s fastest racers
• • Monster Energy Supercross at NRG Stadium This Weekend
• From Trinidad and Tobago to Top Chef: Tristen Epps’ journey is rooted in culture
• • Chef Tristen Epps
  • A Classically Black Dinner - Vibrant + Modern + African
• Few physicians leave a legacy like this: Houston honors cancer pioneer Dr. Philip Salem
• • Salem Oncology Center
• The Travel Mom: Family-Friendly Wave-Season Deals from Princess
• • The Travel Mom
  • Princess Cruises

Thursday, January 29

• The Simon & Garfunkel Story at The Sugar Land Smart Financial Center
• Former KPRC 2 reporter shares ‘With Love From Harlem’: The story behind America’s First Black power couple
• • ReShonda Tate’s new book ‘With Love from Harlem’
• American Home Buyer
• How personalized aesthetics - Botox, fillers & lasers - can help you age better
• • Anti Age Institute
• The cast of ‘Bridgerton’ takes us behind-the-scenes of the ton for season 4
• • Netflix’s Bridgerton Season 4

Wednesday, January 28

• KPRC 2’s new evening anchor Stephania Jimenez makes her Houston debut with passion and purpose
• • Follow Stephania on her KPRC 2 Instagram Account
• Cars, boats and more: What to know about this year’s Houston AutoBoative Show 2026
• • Houston Autoboative Show (Save $20 with Family Four Pack Option)
• Get a taste of Old Town Katy with Tanji Patton of Goodtaste TV
• • Goodtaste with Tanji Patton
  • Peanut Butter Pie from Southern Dough
  • Southern Dough Baking Co.
  • Humble Grounds Coffeehouse
  • Harvest Kitchen & Bakery
• A Family Business Built on Trust: Luke’s Plumbing & Air Conditioning Serves Houston for Over 30 Years
• • Luke’s Plumbing & Air Conditioning

Tuesday, January 27

• Remembering the iconic artist David Adickes on his 99th birthday and his lasting legacy in Houston
• • David Adickes Art Website
  • Follow ‘Adickes Art’ on Instagram
• Plan a Vacation Day: Experts share 2026 travel trends and how to protect your trip
• • The Travel Mom
  • Follow The Travel Mom Emily Kaufman on Instagram
  • Travel Guard Insurance
• Texans Serving Texans: Gexa Energy gives back
• • Gexa Energy
• Bill Skarsgård steps beyond horror roots in new film, ‘Dead Man’s Wire’

Monday, January 26

• Houston relationship and intimacy expert dishes on the small relationship habits that make love last
• • Houston Relationship Therapy
  • VIVID Relationships app
• Crawfish & Noodles gearing up for a busy crawfish season
• • Crawfish & Noodles
• Traveling smarter in 2026: What travel experts say to book now
• • Travel Expert Jeanenne Tornatore
  • Follow the Outside Insider on Instagram

Friday, January 23

• Discover why Sam Houston Race Park is a top spot for family outings with “Houston Life”
• • Sam Houston Race Park
  • Corgi Races
  • Shannon Jewelers Presents Diamond Dig
  • Wiener Dog Races

Thursday, January 22

• WEIGH IN: What are your must have products during a freeze?
• Cars, boats and more: What to know about this year’s Houston AutoBoative Show 2026
• • Houston Autoboative Show (Save $20 with Family Four Pack Option)
• Honoring Dr. Philip A. Salem for innovations in cancer care and research
• • Salem Oncology Center
• Bert Kreischer talks fatherhood, fame, and his new scripted comedy series, “Free Bert”
• • Netflix’s “Free Bert”
• Last chance to enjoy the Green Mountain Energy Ice at Discovery Green
• • Ice at Discovery Green

Wednesday, January 21

• Seth Rogen, Ike Barinholtz & Chase Sui Wonders chat comedy series ‘The Studio’
• • Apple Tv+’s ‘The Studio’
• Allied Outdoor Solutions
• Living Designs Furniture
• The Women’s Resource empowers women and girls through free financial and career coaching services
• • The Women’s Resource
• Houston woman helps bring Black cowboy history to PBS
• • Alma’s Way on PBS Kids
  • Black Cowboy Coalition

Friday, January 16

• School Makes You Super: KPRC-TV reporter and mom Haley Hernandez debuts first children’s book to ease school anxiety
• • Buy ‘School Makes You Super" here
• Children’s Museum Houston celebrates the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
• • MLK Day Celebration at Children’s Museum Houston
• Two experts explain why Key Largo, Florida should be on your 2026 travel list
• • The Travel Mom
• The man known as “the human lie detector” works to keep serial killers behind bars
• • Killer Confessions

Thursday, January 15

• Young voices, lasting legacy: Houston students honor Dr. King in 30th Annual Oratory Competition
• • Foley MLK Jr. Oratory Competition
• Breaking through the plateau with Dr. Ian Smith’s ‘The Last 15′
• • Follow Dr. Ian Smith on Instagram
  • Purchase “The Last 15″ on Amazon
• Mindful eating tips and a pesto vinaigrette recipe to kickstart a healthier new year
• • Leaf & Grain
• Stay powered and protected with GenPro.com, Houston’s premier generator specialists
• • Call or log on to book an estimate and receive a functional mini generator worth $50 for FREE

Wednesday, January 14

• Check out the fun, food and giveaways for Houston Rockets fans this week
• • Houston Rockets Game Day Tickets
• A Kroger pharmacist’s guide to everyday wellness in 2026
• • Enter for a chance to win a Kroger gift card
  • Kroger
• Mix-MATCH Festival returns with over 20 performances celebrating Houston’s creative spirit
• • Tickets to 3rd Annual Mix-MATCH Festival
  • Daisies & Pancakes

Tuesday, January 13

• Kick off the new year with magic: Magician Curt Miller returns with his show “The Conjurer”
• • Curt Miller
  • Tickets to The Conjurer: An Intimate Magical Experience with Curt Miller
• Brad Meltzer Book Signing
• • Follow Brad Meltzer on Instagram
• Innovative Lasers of Houston

Monday, January 12

• Turn to tea this year to slow down, reset, and satisfy without regrets
• • Tea Please
• The Travel Mom: Family fun at Knott’s Berry Farm - a California getaway everyone will love
• • The Travel Mom
  • Visit Buena Park
  • Knott’s Berry Farm
• Pet adoption events for the new year at Fort Bend County Animal Services
• • Fort Bend County Animal Services
• New Year, New Smile: AI-driven smile design at Texas Dental Implant Center
• • Texas Dental Implant Center

Friday, January 9

• Shop The Sale Houston with proceeds benefitting childhood cancer research
• • The Sale Houston
• A new chapter begins: Jenna Bush Hager and Sheinelle Jones chat about their new pairing
• • TODAY with Jenna & Sheinelle
• Former radio personality, Sarah Pepper returns to Texas to emcee 2026 Chevron Houston Marathon
• • Follow Sarah Pepper on Instagram

Thursday, January 8

• Belle comes to Houston - Kyra Belle Johnson stars in Disney’s ‘Beauty and the Beast’ now at the Hobby Center
• • Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast” Tickets at Hobby Center
• Mathew Knowles launches new Destiny’s Child nationwide tribute tour; Houston is first stop
• • Destiny’s Child: Iconic Reimagined Tribute Tickets
• Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo

Wednesday, January 7

• The story behind Luke’s Plumbing and Air Conditioning serving Houstonians since 1991
• • Luke’s Plumbing & Air Conditioning
• Where karaoke meets claw machines: Welcome to Klaw‑Oke Kingdom in Pearland
• • Klaw-Oke Kingdom
• Brace yourself, the 1993 Oilers vs. Bills game is featured in new docuseries ‘Don’t Call it a Comeback’
• • VICE TV’s “Don’t Call It A Comeback”
• New Year, Strong Start: EōS Fitness Experts Share Tips to Crush 2026 Goals
• • EōS Fitness

Tuesday, January 6

• Houston bagel pros talk schmear, slices and specials ahead of National Bagel Day
• • Bagel Shop Bakery
• Comedian Chinedu Ogu takes H-Town-rooted comedy on a national tour
• • Chinedu at Punch Line Houston
• Start your new year weight loss journey at Health Solutions and Weightloss
• • Health Solutions and Weightloss
• Enroll Now: Key deadlines and tips for 2026 Marketplace coverage
• • Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas

Monday, January 5

• Rosca de Reyes Season is here - and this Houston bakery is busy
• • Arandas Bakery
• Damp or Dry January? These non-alcoholic wines actually taste like wine
• • Daniela Garrido | Wine and Travel Expert
• New Year, New Smile: AI-driven smile design at Texas Dental Implant Center
• • Texas Dental Implant Center
• Freeze Miser

Friday, January 2

• Tough but fair: NBC Nightly News anchor Tom Llamas visits Houston Life
• • NBC Nightly News
  • Tom Llamas
• Tarot Card Reader Amber Ambrose
• Opening weekend kicks off at Sam Houston Race Park TODAY!
• • Sam Houston Race Park

Thursday, January 1

• New Year’s fitness made simple: Tips and a low-impact workout for beginners
• • Hoodfit
• Chantell Preston
• HiFi at The Finn

SEEN ON HL 2025 ARCHIVE

SEEN ON HL 2024 ARCHIVE

SEEN ON HL 2023 ARCHIVE

Judge Daniella DeSeta Lyttle’s ruling on Friday continues the pause on the ban that was granted earlier this month. Lyttle granted the Texas Hemp Business Council, Hemp Industry & Farmers of America, and several Texas-based dispensaries and manufacturers a temporary injunction against new testing requirements that create a 0.3% total THC threshold that would effectively bar the sale of natural smokeable hemp products. The ruling also prevents a 3,000% increase in licensing fees for hemp retailers from taking effect for now. 

The temporary pause on the ban will last until the next hearing, currently scheduled for July 27, but could end earlier if the state appeals the latest ruling and the court agrees to hear the appeal. Once the court agrees to the appeal, the state’s rules will go back into effect, meaning smokeable hemp will need to be pulled off the shelves once again. 

During a three-day hearing this week, lawyers for the hemp industry argued that the Texas Department of State Health Services overstepped their constitutional authority by rewriting the statutory definitions of hemp established by lawmakers in 2019. 

“The Texas Legislature must answer to the voters of Texas; that is a fundamental check and balance of our constitution. Agency bureaucrats lack accountability to the people of Texas, which is why their authority is limited,” said Jason Snell, one of the attorneys for the hemp businesses. 

Attorneys for the state argued in court that Texas law requires the health agency to prioritize Texans’ well-being in rulemaking, allowing them to implement new hemp regulations. The judge disagreed, saying the rules were doing irreparable harm to the industry.  

“The Court finds that the purpose of a temporary injunction is to preserve the last, actual, peaceable, non-contested status that preceded the controversy,” said Lyttle. 

Andrew Alvarado, an attorney representing the hemp industry, said Lyttle’s ruling upholds the separation of powers among government entities. 

“Frankly, I think it’s a win for all Texans, because fundamentally, the Court confirmed that unelected officials and state agencies cannot impose rules that conflict with the will of the people,” he said. 

In a separate decision that could harm the industry’s chances of defeating the overall ban on smokeable hemp products, the Texas Supreme Court on Friday upheld the state health agency’s prohibition on another natural intoxicating hemp compound called delta-8 THC. Delta-8 THC has been off store shelves since 2022 because of the ban, allowing delta-9 THC to proliferate and become the most commonly found intoxicating chemical in hemp products now.

The court’s decision says the delta-8 ban can remain because state law gives the agency overarching authority to protect Texans. The state could invoke this ruling to allow the state health agency to ban any or all consumable hemp products based on its statutory responsibilities to protect Texans, and that can only be undone if the Legislature tells the state agency those products are legal. 

“If the legislature desires to legalize powerful drugs, it has every tool it needs to do so—and to do so unmistakably, as we expect for such a major change to social policy. The role of the courts is merely to assess the state of the law as it is,” Texas Supreme Court Justice Evan Young said in his court opinion.  

State law defines hemp as containing less than 0.3% levels of intoxicating delta-9 THC. The health agency redefined hemp in accordance with federal law which clarified last November that hemp can’t contain total amounts of any type of THC — not just delta-9 THC — that is more than 0.3% of its dry weight, according to Zachary Berg, an attorney with the Texas Attorney General’s Office. Berg added that the federal government’s new definition doesn’t go into effect until this coming November, but the state wanted to be in compliance early with federal law.  

Snell said that by trying to mirror a federal law that isn’t yet in effect, the state clearly overstepped its regulatory authority. He also called on a slew of witnesses, including veterans, suburban mothers, rural store owners, and economists, to testify on how these new regulations are already shuttering businesses and killing off the industry.  

Hemp retailers told the court that businesses have lost over 50% of their revenue since the rules went into effect; manufacturers are shutting down production due to increased licensing fees; and farmers are not planting crops because new testing requirements are making hemp flower worthless. 

The hemp businesses also asked for a temporary injunction on other rules that increase licensing fees for retailers and manufacturers and prevent businesses from selling smokeable hemp out-of-state. Both of these were also lifted by the court for now. 

The background: Even though Texas law bans marijuana, lawmakers legalized hemp in 2019 with the Texas Farm Bill. State law defines hemp as containing less than 0.3% levels of intoxicating delta-9 THC.

To get around the law’s delta-9 THC restrictions, manufacturers started cultivating hemp plants with another type of THC, called THCA, that, when ignited in a joint or smokeable product, can produce a high. Many lawmakers have said this legal loophole has allowed a recreational THC market to appear overnight without direct approval from the state.

Last year, the Texas Legislature voted to ban the products out of fear that these intoxicating products were consistently getting into the hands of children. But, Gov. Greg Abbott vetoed the decision last summer, before asking the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission and DSHS to increase regulations on the industry instead. 

The Texas Department of State Health Services released regulations on consumable hemp-derived THC products that went into effect on March 31. These new regulations include child-resistant packaging, a significant increase in licensing fees, new labeling, testing, and bookkeeping requirements. The rules also codify the legal purchasing age to 21, which went into effect last year as an emergency directive. 

Why the hemp industry sued: Also under the new rules, laboratories tests now measure the total amount of any THC in a product. If the THC levels exceed the 0.3% threshold, even if it’s only activated upon being smoked, the product will be noncompliant under state regulations. As a result, some of the most popular hemp products, like THCA flower and pre-rolled joints, have been banned. 

Hemp businesses caught selling noncompliant products face a range of penalties and fines, including license revocation and up to $10,000 in violation fees for each day these products were sold in stores. 

Retailers cannot sell hemp to out-of-state customers either. 

Several hemp industry representatives testified on Thursday that smokable products aren’t the only items being removed from shelves due to the new testing requirements. Hair gels, bath bombs, balms, tinctures, dog treats, and much more can no longer be made because the main ingredient is hemp flower.  

“It’s like trying to regulate the sale of wine by banning grapes,” said Amanda Taylor, one of the attorneys for the hemp businesses, in court.  

The state health agency didn’t conduct a complete economic impact report on the proposed rules and regulations, which the lawyers for the hemp industry called negligence. 

Attorneys for the state said the health agency either couldn’t find or verify the data needed to confirm the economic impact of these rules or wasn’t required to do so because the well-being of Texans takes priority over industry concerns. 

Beau Whitney, the founder and chief economist at Whitney Economics, a cannabis economic research firm, told the court that his own impact report done earlier this year found that the new rules and regulations will have a $7.2 billion negative impact on the Texas economy due to job losses and reduced tax revenue from hemp retail closures. He said the process of preparing the economic report on the Texas hemp industry was simple and well within the state health agency’s reach in both economic and time terms. 

The rules also increase licensing fees for manufacturers of hemp-derived THC from $258 to $10,000 per facility and retail registrations from $155 to $5,000, which industry leaders say will fulfill the ban by forcing businesses to close. The state’s attorney said the state needs the fees to build a system to regulate the hemp industry, despite the health agency stating in its rules that it didn’t have any plans to hire additional DSHS employees for this effort. 

The hemp business community’s lawsuit is not challenging the other new regulations, including the age verification or ones they say protect consumers.  

What the state says: Concerns about the safety of these high-THC products among youth led lawmakers to attempt to ban hemp-derived THC products outright last year. While the overall ban didn’t succeed, lawmakers successfully banned vape pens containing THC and other hemp-derived intoxicating chemicals. 

Berg said in court that the state has received reports of hemp products containing 100 times the recommended amount of THCA being sold in these stores, and customers weren’t using it for wellness reasons but to get intoxicated. 

“Many are consuming recreationally and not just adults,” said Berg. 

Data provided from the Texas Poison Center Network confirms a sharp increase in cannabis-related poisoning calls starting in 2019, a year after hemp-derived THC was legalized by the federal government, from 923 to a 10-year high of 2,592 in 2024. Calls climbed to 2,669 last year. The majority of these calls involve suspected poisoning of children under the age of five and teenagers.

Drug policy experts said these numbers seem alarming, but it is natural for poisoning calls to increase when a drug has become legalized, and the data needs additional context before making conclusions from it.

What’s next: It’s not clear if Friday’s Texas Supreme Court ruling on delta-8 could affect the court case involving the smokeable hemp ban.

The state health agency added delta-8 to the controlled substance list, making it illegal in 2021. The Texas Supreme Court’s ruling upheld that, giving the agency broad authority over drugs on the list. However, Katharine Neill Harris, a drug policy fellow at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy, said that doesn’t give the state agency authority to prohibit any substance it wants.

However, if the state agency ever wanted to put any THC found in consumable hemp on the controlled substance list, the ruling could be invoked to justify making consumable hemp illegal.  

“While the Texas Farm Bill legalized hemp and its derivatives, it did not explicitly legalize or remove from scheduling all THC compounds. The delta-8 issue was not directly addressed in that legislation, and DSHS clarified back in 2021 that delta-8 was considered a controlled substance,” Harris said.  

David Sergi, an attorney representing the hemp industry, has broader legal concerns about the Texas Supreme Court’s decision, as it places the state’s health agency on the same level as lawmakers in terms of authority to make industry-shifting decisions. 

“There are some very large constitutional concerns that, I think, a result-driven case like this, an opinion like this, causes us. But those are the conversations that the legal team is having right now,” Sergi said, adding they have been speaking with lawyers around the country about the Texas Supreme Court decision and what it might mean legally. 

Separate from the Texas Supreme Court’s ruling, the federal government passed restrictions that redefined hemp so that only 0.3% of any type of THC is allowable, which effectively bans smokeable hemp nationally starting this November. There are ongoing efforts in Congress to alter the ban or allow states to opt out of following this new definition. 

SIGN UP HERE: Schedule an appointment

Help save up to three lives with your blood donation by scheduling your appointment at one of the links below. All successful blood donors will receive a “Lone Star Life Saver” t-shirt (in April) or a beach towel (in May) as a thank you gift while supplies last. Donors will also receive a free A1C test to screen their blood for prediabetes.

Tuesday, April 28

Houston Christian University (Donor Coach in front of Brown Administrative Complex) - 7502 Fondren Rd., Houston, TX 77074 | 10:00 am - 4:00 pm

Thank you to all who donated!

Thursday, May 14

KPRC 2 (Donor Coach) - 8181 Southwest Freeway, Houston, TX 77074 | 8:00 am - 5:00 pm Schedule an appointment

If you cannot make it to the blood drives at KPRC 2’s studios or HCU, you can donate at your Neighborhood Donor Center. There’s a critical need for blood donations in our community, especially with donations typically slowing down over the summer months. Your support now is critical in helping patients in the Greater Houston area.

Do you know your blood type? If not, you’ll find out when you donate blood. According to the Gulf Coast Blood, blood type O- is considered to be the universal red cell donor for all patients. To learn more, visit Gulf Coast Blood’s website at giveblood.org. Gulf Coast Blood is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.

Blood recipients and their families share the impact your blood donation can make:

The KPRC 2 Community Blood Drive is one of our spotlight initiatives in partnership with Energy Transfer and Houston Christian University. KPRC 2 would like to thank our partners at Energy Transfer for hosting a blood drive for their employees in May, too!

Thank you again to HCU for hosting the KPRC 2 Community Blood Drive on campus!

Now a stolen fire truck can be added to the list.

Early Friday morning, Engine 11 with the Houston Fire Department was stolen along the 1000 block of the East Memorial Loop according to HFD.

The department says it responded to an automatic alarm which turned out to be a burglary. In the minutes following their response, “Engine 11 was discovered to have been stolen.”

The truck ultimately was discovered along the Memorial Golf Course and a suspect was detained. Officers discovered that during the theft the suspect left his mark with Engine 11 as they “hit a parked car.”

The suspect, according to the city, was checked out by HFD for “unknown injuries.”

Scientists at Texas A&M University College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences say compounds found in coffee may help protect the body by activating a key receptor tied to aging and disease.

The findings, recently published in Nutrients, offer one of the clearest biological explanations yet for coffee’s widely observed health benefits.

Researchers focused on a receptor in the body known as NR4A1 receptor, which plays a role in how the body responds to stress, inflammation, and damage.

“This receptor acts like a nutrient sensor,” said Dr. Stephen Safe, a professor involved in the study. “When tissues are damaged, it helps reduce that damage. Without it, the effects can be worse.”

The receptor is already known to be involved in processes tied to aging, including metabolism, inflammation, and tissue repair, all of which are linked to diseases like cancer and neurodegenerative conditions.

While coffee has long been associated with lower risks of diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, most research has been observational, meaning scientists saw the effects but didn’t fully understand the cause.

In this study, researchers found that several compounds in coffee, especially polyphenols like caffeic acid, can bind to and activate the NR4A1 receptor.

That activation appears to:

• Reduce cellular damage
• Influence how cells respond to stress
• Slow the growth of cancer cells in lab models

When researchers removed the receptor, those protective effects disappeared, strengthening the case that NR4A1 plays a key role.

Despite coffee’s reputation, researchers say caffeine may not be the main factor behind these benefits.

Instead, naturally occurring plant compounds, also found in fruits and vegetables, appear to have a stronger impact on the receptor.

That could help explain why both regular and decaffeinated coffee have been linked to similar health outcomes.

Researchers caution that the study does not prove direct cause-and-effect in humans. Instead, it helps explain the biological mechanisms that may be at play.

“There are many pathways involved,” Safe said. “This is likely one important piece of a much bigger puzzle.”

The findings could eventually help scientists develop new treatments targeting the same receptor for conditions like cancer and metabolic disease.

The activists, Spanish-Swedish citizen of Palestinian origin Saif Abukeshek and Brazilian citizen Thiago Ávila, were among dozens of activists intercepted by the Israeli navy off the coast of Crete. They are members of the Global Sumud Flotilla's steering committee, whose mission was to break Israel's naval blockade and bring some humanitarian aid to the Palestinian territory.

In all, 22 boats and 175 activists were intercepted by the Israeli navy. Activists said Israeli forces stormed their vessels, smashed engines and detained some of those onboard. The incident occurred hundreds of miles (kilometers) from Gaza and Israel overnight from Wednesday to Thursday.

Israeli officials said they needed to take early action against the flotilla before it reached Israeli waters because of the high number of boats involved.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry said Friday on X that it was taking the two activists to Israel for questioning, and that Abukeshek was “suspected of affiliation with a terrorist organization” and Ávila was “suspected of illegal activity," without providing evidence.

In a joint statement, the governments of Brazil and Spain condemned “the kidnapping of two of their citizens in international waters by the Government of Israel." Unlike other flotilla participants who were disembarked in Crete, the Spanish and Brazilian activists remained detained aboard an Israeli navy ship in Greek territorial waters.

“This flagrantly illegal action by the Israeli authorities outside their jurisdiction constitutes a violation of International Law, which may be invoked before international courts, and may constitute a crime in our respective national jurisdictions,” the statement added.

The governments of both nations demanded the immediate return of their citizens and immediate consular access.

Activists say they were mistreated by Israeli forces

The Global Sumud Flotilla appealed for international support to pressure Israel to release the activists. It said it was particularly concerned for Abukeshek, who was aboard an observer boat and did not plan on sailing to Gaza, and Ávila.

“We don’t know if they are still in Greek waters,” Ávila's spouse, Lara Souza, said. She added that Brazil's government told her that once the two activists were taken to international waters, it would become more difficult to achieve their release.

In an audio message released Friday, Spain's Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares demanded Abukeshek's immediate release. Around 30 other Spanish citizens disembarked in Crete and were assisted by the embassy in Greece, he said.

Flotilla organizers said Israeli authorities denied activists food and water and forced them "to sleep on floors that were deliberately and repeatedly flooded.”

When Israeli forces proceeded to take Abukeshek and Ávila away, the group resisted and were met with “sheer violence,” flotilla organizers said in a statement Friday. “Participants were punched, kicked and dragged across the deck with their hands bound behind their backs. They suffered broken noses, cracked ribs and bloody beatings. Shots were even fired at them in the chaos.”

Some 34 people, including citizens of the U.S., Australia, Colombia, Italy, Ukraine and others were injured and taken to the hospital upon disembarkation, organizers said.

Israeli authorities did not immediately respond to the accusations. Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said Thursday that activists “taken off the vessels were taken off unharmed.”

Of the 53 vessels that had been sailing prior to the interception, 31 reached safe waters and would continue their attempts to “break the illegal siege of Gaza,” organizers said. The flotilla set sail earlier this month from Barcelona, Spain.

The Greek Foreign Ministry said Thursday that it had asked Israel to withdraw its ships from the area and offered its “good services” for the activists to disembark in Greece and be repatriated.

US condemns the flotilla

Protests in solidarity with the flotilla erupted across several capitals including in Rome, Athens and Istanbul.

The U.S. government described the flotilla as a “pro-Hamas initiative” and called on allies to deny the vessels' port access, among other actions.

“The United States expects all our allies, particularly those who have committed to supporting President Trump’s successful 20-Point Plan, to take decisive action against this meaningless political stunt,” the State Department said.

The flotilla’s latest attempt to reach Gaza comes less than a year after Israeli authorities foiled a previous effort by the group. That attempt involved about 50 vessels and around 500 activists, including Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, Nelson Mandela’s grandson Mandla Mandela, and several lawmakers.

Israel arrested, detained and later deported the participants, including Ávila, who claimed Israeli authorities abused them while in detention. Israeli authorities denied the accusations.

But this year, delays in Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, a program that has shielded her and hundreds of thousands of others from deportation, led to her missing her renewal deadline, losing her job and fearing detention in the country she has called home since she was 6 years old.

She said that as an immigrant in the U.S., fear has become her “new baseline." “But now, having a new level of vulnerability, it was a very quick increase in the fear," said Candia.

Renewal wait times for the Obama-era program that allows people who were brought to the U.S. as children to temporarily remain in the country and work have increased to levels not seen since 2016 when there were significant technical issues.

Some of the program’s more than 500,000 beneficiaries, often referred to as “Dreamers,” have waited months for an answer only to see their deadline pass without a decision. Now they’re stuck in a type of limbo in which their work authorization disappears, oftentimes along with their driver’s license, and their ability to stay in the U.S. is at risk.

“It’s not just anecdotal; it’s happening at a larger scale than we’ve ever seen before,” said Greisa Martinez Rosas, executive director of United We Dream, an immigrant youth-led network.

No numbers were available on how many people have recently missed their renewal deadline despite applying 120 to 150 days before their DACA lapses, which is what U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services recommends.

“Under the leadership of President Trump, USCIS is safeguarding the American people by more thoroughly screening and vetting all aliens, which can lengthen processing times," Zach Kahler, an agency spokesperson, said in a statement.

Wait times nearly 5 times longer

DACA grants those who qualify two-year, renewable permits to live and work in the U.S. It does not confer legal status but is meant to offer protection from deportation.

From October 2025 to the end of February 2026, the median wait time for renewals was about 70 days, compared to about 15 days in fiscal year 2025, according to USCIS. This is the longest median wait time since 2016, when it was about 79 days, according to the agency’s data, which did not include 2020 because of the pandemic.

The Department of Homeland Security attributed the 2016 delays to technical issues that emerged as it transitioned to fully processing DACA renewals in its electronic immigration system.

At the end of April 2026, USCIS was reporting that the majority of renewal requests were being completed within about 122 days. That marked a two-week increase from the processing times listed earlier that month.

Federal lawmakers and immigrant groups say some applicants recently have had to wait 6 months — about 183 days — or longer.

“The delays that people are concerned about used to be sort of a matter of weeks at a time,” U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., said in an interview. “Now it’s from a few months to many, many months.”

He is one of dozens of lawmakers behind letters sent to federal agencies that question the inflated wait times and whether people who have missed their renewal deadline are being targeted for arrest or deportation.

More than five months after Elsa Sanchez submitted her DACA renewal request, she is still waiting for an answer. When the deadline passed at the beginning of April, she was put on leave at her job at a healthcare IT company and now, as a single mother of a college freshman, has no income.

It's made her worried about everything from traveling to spending money on pricier household products like shampoos and detergents.

“I’m like, ‘I don’t know, maybe I can cut down on that. Maybe I don’t need this,'" she said. “Because I’m saving every penny.”

Sanchez said something similar happened about a decade ago, but this time she's scared of the possible repercussions amid President Donald Trump’s mass deportations agenda.

Since DACA's introduction in 2012, it's faced myriad legal battles, including two that made it to the Supreme Court. And now, while the government is still approving renewals, a 2025 federal court decision means it isn't processing first-time applications and has left the door open for another possible trip to the Supreme Court.

Hundreds of DACA recipien

ts arrested

In the first 11 months of 2025, more than 250 DACA recipients were arrested and 86 deported, then-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said earlier this year. She said the majority of those arrested had “criminal histories,” without indicating the nature of the crimes or if they were arrests, charges or convictions. In a separate response to a Democratic congresswoman’s inquiry, DHS reported conflicting numbers saying that 270 were arrested and 174 DACA applicants were removed in the first nine months of 2025.

Their eligibility is dependent in part on not having a felony conviction, a significant misdemeanor or three misdemeanors. Previously, if their status was in jeopardy, they would get a warning and still have the chance to fight it before immigration officers detained them and began efforts to deport them.

Kahler, from USCIS, said that DACA recipients are not automatically protected from deportation.

“Any illegal alien who is a DACA recipient may be subject to arrest and deportation for a number of reasons — including if they committed a crime,” he said.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not respond to questions about whether DACA beneficiaries were being targeted after missing their renewal deadlines.

But federal lawmakers have recently noted people picked up by ICE after their DACA lapsed.

Their protections may have been further eroded with a precedent decision last week in which the Board of Immigration Appeals determined that DACA status alone is not enough to stop deportation.

People from certain countries may be most at risk

Experts have suggested the longer wait times could be related to the biometric appointments, which were paused during the pandemic, being restarted. Some may also not be getting approved by their deadline because they're not sending it in by the recommended time.

Maria Fernanda Madrigal is an immigration attorney and DACA recipient who submitted her renewal application about a month and a half before the deadline because she said that’s all the processing time that’s been needed in the past. She said she was also waiting for her job to hold a DACA workshop so that she could get the more than $550 fee for renewal waived.

Earlier this month, her DACA lapsed and the mother of three was let go from her job.

“My first concern was my cases, to be honest, because I knew I was going to have to hand off everything, and my team is already overworked,” said Madrigal.

Immigration attorneys have also said that USCIS has paused processing renewals for people from dozens of countries the agency described in recent policy memorandums as “high-risk” following presidential proclamations. The National Immigration Law Center estimated that as many as 3,000 to 4,000 people could be impacted.

“This process that has no timeline is leading to people from certain countries experiencing a pause. And we don’t know how long that pause will be in place," said Ignacia Rodriguez Kmec, attorney at the National Immigration Law Center.

Every day, Candia checks on her renewal. She said she's most afraid of being locked up in bad conditions in an ICE detention facility, but also thinks about what it would be like returning to Bolivia after more than 25 years.

“If God forbid that happened, it would break my heart because I’ve been in this country since I was 6," she said. “My entire life is here.”

The Thaddaeus Ropac Gallery, which represented Baselitz, said the artist died on Thursday, citing his family. It said he died “peacefully,” but did not give a cause of death.

Born Hans-Georg Kern, Baselitz took his artistic name from the village of Deutschbaselitz in the eastern Saxony region, where he was born on Jan. 23, 1938, in Nazi-ruled Germany before the outbreak of World War II. After growing up in the ruins of the war, he left the then-East Germany in 1957 at a time of rising political pressure, and emigrated to the West.

“I was born into a destroyed order, into a destroyed landscape, into a destroyed people, into a destroyed society,” he told German news agency dpa before his 85th birthday.

The gallery called him “a titan of contemporary painting, sculpture, drawing and printmaking" and “one of the most important artists of our time," who influenced fellow artists and the international art world.

His first exhibition in 1963 reportedly caused a stir, with a vice squad identifying pornography in at least two of his paintings, and confiscating them.

He was often described as an “artist of rage,” and had a motto of "contradiction," according to dpa.

His works hang in some of the world's top galleries and have fetched millions at auction. In 2017, German police announced they had recovered 15 stolen paintings and drawings by Baselitz worth around 2.5 million euros ($2.9 million).

Baselitz recalled that some of his earliest recognition came in the 1960s through his series of golden-colored “Hero” paintings, based on fictional characters from Russian civil war novels. The works depicted broken figures staggering toward the viewer in ragged uniforms — in distorted sizes, giant hands and small heads. His battle-weary hero, “Der Hirte (The Shepherd)” from 1966 won international acclaim.

In 1969, Baselitz created “Der Wald auf dem Kopf,” (The Forest on its Head), his first “inverted” painting — featuring trees upside down, a theme that would become one of his trademarks.

“Georg Baselitz did not just turn his paintings upside down; he also turned our thinking routines upside down,” German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier said. “Having experienced the destruction and suffering of the Second World War as a child, the collapse of all order forced him to question everything around him.”

Baselitz mused about his long career in a recent video, commenting that “typical painting has never appealed to me.”

“I actually wanted to be more of a black-and-white painter, and above all, I didn’t want to work spatially, perspectively, with shadows and light and such things that arise with the imitation of nature," he said while seated in a wheelchair in a paint-smudged jacket.

“I must say that throughout my life, I was not aware that I was a painter of color, even though I am constantly told that I have such wonderful colors,” Baselitz said.

Baselitz said he sought to “construct my connection to the world, to myself and to my wife,” using the most “simple and ordinary" means possible. He spoke in a video from the Giorgio Cini Foundation in Venice, which is hosting an exhibition of Baselitz's “Golden Heroes” works from May 6 to Sept. 27.

A “Naked Masters” exhibit at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna in 2023 spanned his half-century career and dealt with controversial themes of nudity — notably of the painter and his wife, Elke — displayed alongside oil paintings by old masters also evoking nudity.

He is survived by his wife and sons, Daniel Blau and Anton Kern, the gallery said.

KPRC 2 FLOOD TRACKER: Get alerted if flooding is occurring in your immediate area

An aerial flood warning advisory has been issued for much of Harris County until about 11:45 a.m.

Drivers are encouraged to avoid certain areas prone to flooding and, if possible, turn around so you don’t drown.

LIVE BLOG: Storms moving into Houston for another round during the morning commute

Currently, there are no high-water locations reported by Houston Transtar or Harris County Flood District. However, KPRC 2 Meteorologist Daji Aswad circled the following areas on this map that are under a flood advisory until 1 and 1:45 p.m., respectively.

Here is also a list of locations and intersections to avoid when severe weather moves through the Houston area.

High water barricade locations

City officials said the following intersections or underpasses may be barricaded if flooding becomes a problem:

• Greens Road at 45 N. Fwy.
• Greens Road at E. Hardy Road
• Washington Avenue at Hempstead
• Barker Cypress at W. Parkview
• Barker Cypress at Clay
• Barker Cypress at Saums
• Clay Road at West of Brittmore Road
• Crosstimber at 45 N. Fwy.
• Kelly Road at Hardy Toll Road
• West of Boundary St. at North Main St.
• Jensen Dr. at South of Bennington St.
• Bennington St. at 59 North Fwy.
• Jensen at N. Of 610 Fwy.
• Mesa at N. Of U.S. 90 Hwy.
• Katy Road at Silver Eagle
• Allen Pkwy. at Waugh Dr.
• Memorial at Waugh Dr.
• White Oak at Taylor
• White Oak at Sabine
• Studewood at I-10 Fwy.
• Center St. at Houston Ave.
• Houston Ave. at I-10 Fwy.
• North Main at Burnett
• 2900 Allen Pkwy. at Montrose Dr.
• Memorial at Shepherd
• Memorial at Studewood
• Memorial Dr. at Houston Avenue
• Lamar St. at Bagby
• Walker St. at West of Bagby
• Travis St. at I-10 Fwy.
• Louisiana St. at North of Franklin St.
• 1300 Commerce St. at Austin St.
• Texas St. at Prairie St.
• Franklin St. at St. Emanuel St.
• Jensen Dr. at North of Lyons Ave.
• 7000 Main St. at Holcombe Blvd.
• 7000 Fannin St. at Holcombe Blvd.
• Lawndale St. at Braes Bayou
• 9600 Lawndale at E. Of Goodyear Dr.
• Galveston Rd. at S. Of Howard

KPRC 2 FLOOD TRACKER: Get alerted if flooding is occurring in your immediate area

Underpass locations

City officials said the underpasses at the following locations could become problematic if heavy rain falls:

• 100 Milam St
• 100 Shepherd Dr Fr
• 100 Yale
• 1000 Houston Ave
• 11600 West Park
• 11700 Richmond
• 11700 West Park
• 1200 Studemont
• 1200 Wayside
• 1500 North Main
• 1600 East Crosstimbers
• 1600 Jensen
• 1900 Kelly
• 200 75th
• 200 Forest Hill
• 2100 Franklin
• 2400 Harrisburg
• 2900 Allen Parkway
• 300 Studewood
• 3400 North Shepherd
• 3500 Kelly
• 3800 Polk
• 400 Houston Ave
• 4800 Elgin
• 4800 Memorial
• 4900 Galveston Rd
• 5000 Washington
• 5600 Mesa
• 600 Broadway
• 6500 Jensen
• 7000 Clinton
• 7000 Fannin
• 7000 Main
• 7000 Old Katy Road
• 7200 J W Peavy
• 7200 Senate Ave
• 8000 Memorial
• 8100 Harrisburg
• 8100 Hempstead
• 9600 Lawndale

Flood signal locations

City officials said to look for flood signals in these areas if heavy rain falls:

• 4401 Elgin St (Ih-45s And Railroad)
• 1989 Allen Pkwy (Montrose)
• 3087 Allen Pkwy (Waugh)
• Main & Holcombe Blvd (1000 Blk Holcombe)
• Fannin & Holcombe Blvd (1100 Blk Holcombe)
• 6514 Jensen Dr (Creston)
• 1700 Jensen Dr (Railroad)
• 3500 Kelley (Between Ih-69 Hov And Jensen)
• 5800 Elysian St (North Loop 610 East)
• 7506 E Hardy Rd (Hardy Toll Road And Crosstimbers)
• 5405 Mesa Dr (Liberty And Railroad)
• 10704 W Little York Rd (Between Business Park And Sam Houston Tollway West)
• 774 Houston Ave (Memorial)
• 4450 Memorial Dr (Shepherd)
• Houston Ave & Center St (1100 Block Houston Ave)
• 600 Brooks St (North Main)
• 7220 Clinton Dr (North Wayside)
• Yale & Center St (100 Block Yale)
• 9600 Lawndale (Sims Bayou)
• 615 Broadway St (Between East Erath And East Elm)
• 8040 Harrisburg Blvd (Railroad)
• 306 S 75th St (Between Railroad And Rusk)
• 247 Forest Hill Blvd (Between Rusk And Capitol)
• 6598 Lawndale (Wayside)
• 3799 Polk (Milby And Railroad)
• 2050 Franklin St (Commerce)
• 5455 Old Spanish Trl (Spur 5 And Railroad)
• 4953 Galveston Rd (Allendale And Railroad)
• 10200 Old Katy Rd (Conrad Sauer)
• 7095 J W Peavy Dr (Railroad)

Click here to check our exclusive KPRC 2 Flood Tracker for rainfall and flood conditions where you live.

Exxon Mobil and Chevron reported quarterly results on Friday, with adjusted profits for both companies topping Wall Street expectations. The shares of both companies, up sharply this week, ticked higher before the opening bell.

With energy prices depressed at the start of the year, Exxon Mobil and Chevron had arranged hedges to offset volatility, a standard practice in the industry. Companies and investors through hedges lock in a price in advance to protect themselves from futures swings. That can provide them with some predictability on costs.

In the aftermath of an attack by the U.S. and Israel on Iran, however, the physical delivery of oil became impossible with the Strait of Hormuz essentially closed. Exxon and Chevron cannot book gains on those hedges until the crude is physically delivered.

The near closure of the Strait of Hormuz off the coast of Iran is a flashpoint in the war and the source of much of the economic pain being felt globally. About 20% of the world’s oil passes through the strait on a typical day, but the passage has been choked off since the war began in late February.

Exxon earned $4.18 billion, or $1 per share, for the period ended March 31. A year earlier it earned $7.7 billion, or $1.76 per share. The company lost almost $4 billion in the quarter on what it called “unfavorable estimated timing effects” of its hedges.

Removing such one-time impacts, Exxon earned $1.16 per share, 9 cents better than Wall Street projections, according to a survey by Zacks Investment Research predicted. Exxon does not adjust its reported results based on one-time events such as asset sales.

Revenue totaled $85.14 billion, breezing past Wall Street's expectation of $81.49 billion.

First-quarter net production was 4.6 million oil-equivalent barrels per day. That’s down from 5 million oil-equivalent barrels per day in the previous quarter.

“If you look at the unprecedented disruption in the world’s supply of oil and natural gas, the market hasn’t seen the full impact of that yet," CEO Darren Woods said during a conference call. "So there’s more to come if the strait remains closed, why haven’t we seen those impacts manifest themselves fully in the market yet? Well, I think we all know there was a lot of water and a lot of oil in transit on the water, a lot of inventory on the water.”

Chevron reported a first-quarter profit of $2.21 billion, or $1.11 per share. It earned $3.5 billion, or $2 per share, a year earlier.

The company said that its quarter included a $360 million net loss related to a legal reserve and that foreign currency effects lowered earnings by $223 million.

Chevron's adjusted profit was $1.41 per share, easily beating the 92 cents per share Wall Street was calling for. Like Exxon, Chevron does not adjust its reported results based on one-time events such as asset sales.

The company's revenue totaled $48.61 billion, also better than expected.

Exxon and Chevron are among the big drillers reporting earnings this week. On Tuesday BP said that its first-quarter profit more than doubled.

The oil companies' results come at a time when gasoline prices in the U.S. hit new multiyear highs, a point of increasing agitation for travelers, households and also businesses that are particularly sensitive to higher energy prices.

The average price of gasoline in the U.S. hit $4.39 on Friday, according to motor club AAA, up more than 8% this week.

Inflation in the U.S. rose sharply in March, fueled by the largest jump in gas prices in six decades, according to data from the U.S. Department of Labor. The surge in gas prices has squeezed the budgets of lower- and middle-income families, making it more difficult to pay for necessities.

But it’s disrupting businesses as well, particularly those sensitive to higher fuel costs. Airlines worldwide have begun canceling flights as the war in the Middle East strains jet fuel supplies and pushes up ticket prices.

Oil prices eased on Friday, helping to steady the relatively few stock markets open worldwide on the May Day holiday.

Prosecutors said they decided to charge Claire Freemantle, 49, with two counts of causing death by dangerous driving and seven counts of causing serious injury by dangerous driving after the Metropolitan Police reopened its investigation and discovered new evidence.

The London police force apologized for how it initially treated the crash and said it had referred its own officers to a watchdog agency looking into police misconduct.

Freemantle was originally not charged after prosecutors said she had an epileptic seizure. She had issued a statement expressing her “deepest sorrow” but said she had no recollection of what occurred.

Defense lawyers questioned why prosecutors reversed their original decision not to charge Freemantle and said she will plead not guilty when she makes her first court appearance June 16 in Westminster Magistrates’ Court.

It's not clear what new evidence police found, but the reinvestigation came after complaints by the parents of Nuria Sajjad and Selena Lau, who were killed in the crash outside the private Study Preparatory School in Wimbledon, south London, on July 6, 2023.

The driver plowed through a fence and into the side of the school building. More than a dozen people were treated for injuries at the scene and 10, including several pupils, were taken to the hospital for treatment.

Essa Suleiman was remanded into custody after appearing in Westminster Magistrates' Court to face two counts related to the attack in Golders Green. He also faces a third count of attempted murder over an incident elsewhere in the city earlier Wednesday that left a man with minor injuries.

Police have labeled the Golders Green attack an act of terrorism.

Suleiman, a Somalia-born British citizen who lives in London, did not enter a plea. His case was transferred to the Central Criminal Court for a May 15 hearing.

Prosecutor Emma Harraway said Suleiman attacked Ishmail Hussein, his friend of 20 years, in south London before taking a train to the north part of the city where he targeted Jews hours later.

Shloime Rand, 34, was stabbed in the chest outside a synagogue, puncturing his lung, and Norman Shine, 76, who was wearing a traditional Jewish skullcap, was stabbed in the neck at a bus stop.

“As Mr. Shine adjusted his kippah, Suleiman ran towards him and set upon him, launching a series of aggressive blows," Harraway said.

Rand was discharged from the hospital and Shine is in stable condition.

Police said Suleiman was referred in 2020 to the government’s Prevent program, which tries to steer individuals away from extremism. The police force said his file was closed later the same year, and didn’t disclose the reason for the referral.

The British government pledged to tackle antisemitism after the stabbings in an area in north London that is an epicenter of Britain’s Jewish community. The assault followed a string of arson attacks on synagogues and other Jewish sites in London in recent weeks.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer said that his government would increase security for the Jewish community and “do everything in our power to stamp this hatred out.”

Britain’s official terror threat level was raised from substantial to severe after Wednesday’s stabbing attack. Severe is the second-highest rung on a five-point scale and means intelligence agencies consider an attack highly likely in the next six months.

The government said the change was not due solely to the Golders Green attack but also due to increased danger “from Islamist and extreme right-wing terrorist threat from individuals and small groups based in the U.K.”

The traveling exhibition, “Freedom Plane National Tour: Documents That Forged a Nation,” brings rare Founding-era documents directly to the community.

Running May 8–25, 2026, the exhibition will give visitors a chance to stand face-to-face with the original records that shaped the nation’s identity. Organized by the National Archives and Records Administration in partnership with the National Archives Foundation, the tour is traveling to eight cities across the country, with Houston as one of its key stops.

Visiting Information & Tickets

The exhibition is free and open to the public, though high demand is expected.

• May 8 (Friday): Reserved exclusively for museum members
• May 9 onward: Public access begins via walk-up entry
• Ticket options:
• • Members (or those who become members) can reserve timed entry slots in advance
  • Non-members can obtain tickets first-come, first-served at the HMNS Box Office
• Visitors are encouraged to arrive early, as wait times may be long and same-day tickets could run out
• For security, all bags will be inspected before entry

A Nation’s Story Through Its Documents

At the heart of the exhibition are original documents that trace the United States’ journey from a collection of colonies to an independent nation governed by the Constitution. Each artifact offers a snapshot of a pivotal moment:

• Articles of Association (1774) – The first unified colonial action, coordinating a boycott of British goods.
• Oaths of Allegiance (1778) – Signed pledges, including those of George Washington and Alexander Hamilton, declaring loyalty to an independent America.
• Declaration of Independence (1823 Stone Engraving) – A meticulously reproduced version of the founding document that announced America’s break from Britain.
• Treaty of Paris (1783) – The agreement that officially ended the Revolutionary War and recognized U.S. independence.
• Brearley’s Annotated Constitution Draft (1787) – A working draft showing real-time edits during the Constitutional Convention.
• Constitutional Convention Voting Record (1787) – The recorded vote that finalized the U.S. Constitution.
• Bill of Rights Senate Revisions (1789) – The marked-up amendments that would secure fundamental freedoms like speech and religion.

The bill, rolled out along with several other proposals under the Congressional Progressive Caucus’ “New Affordability Agenda,” takes aim at what Casar argues are excessive profits being hauled in by utility companies. Under the bill, federal regulators would have to establish a “reasonable” return on equity — the profit utilities collect beyond what’s needed to cover infrastructure costs — that accounts for the lower risk faced by electric and gas utilities due to their captive customer bases.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission would then have to apply this new figure when approving the rates that for-profit utilities can charge customers. Utility companies would also be required to use that “reasonable” number when asking state regulators — such as the Texas Public Utility Commission — to authorize rate hikes.

“They pay basically no risk, but pay themselves more than anybody else can get investing in the stock market, and then you are forced to pick up the tab,” Casar said during a Wednesday news conference.

Casar’s bill, dubbed the Lowering Utility Bills Act, was filed Wednesday with the support of 21 co-sponsors, including Houston Reps. Al Green and Christian Menefee, along with numerous members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, which Casar chairs.

Additionally, the bill would prevent transmission providers and investor-owned utilities from charging customers higher rates to pay for things like lobbying, political contributions or private plane travel and entertainment for executives. And it would require utilities to prioritize cost-saving investments such as “grid-enhancing technologies.”

“This bill is about a simple idea. You should not pay more so that a private utility CEO can rent a private jet,” Casar said during the news conference.

Violators could face a $1 million penalty per day, per violation, according to a draft of the bill from Casar’s office.

The new legislation comes as Texans grapple with higher day-to-day costs and rising utility bills, which in Texas have risen by 30% since 2020, according to the Texas Energy Poverty Research Institute. Across the country, the U.S. Energy Information Administration estimated the average household’s electric costs rose by 6% in 2025 from the year before, more than double the rate of inflation, with Texas coming in right at the nationwide average.

The American Economic Liberties Project estimated that the bill would save the average family $500 a year, Casar said.

Since joining Congress in 2023, Casar has called on Democrats to focus on affordability and cost of living, urging an economic populist approach that talks about taking on billionaires and special interests.

That framework was evident throughout the “affordability agenda” from the Casar-led Congressional Progressive Caucus, which also introduced bills this week aimed at lowering the costs of necessities like groceries, housing, childcare and prescription drugs. One proposal would create a federal program to manufacture generic drugs like insulin and asthma inhalers and sell them at lower prices.

A memo unveiling the caucus’ suite of bills says that, amid rising everyday costs, “Democrats are searching for a vision that wins back the trust of working families and provides a mandate to deliver the big changes our country needs in 2026.”

The memo goes on to describe the caucus’ “affordability agenda” as a collection of “bold new policies that will make things cheaper in America by taking on wealthy special interests and corrupt billionaires.”

Casar is unlikely to get the Republican support needed to advance his utility bill through both GOP-controlled chambers of Congress, and the prospects appear similarly dim for the caucus’ other proposals. But they could provide a policy framework for Democrats if they win control of the House in the midterm elections, a prospect that political forecasters rate as increasingly likely.

“I hope we can get Republican support, but I hope and expect you’ll see a large amount of Democratic support very quickly,” Casar said. “This is just a kind of issue that’s hitting everybody.”

The House Republican Study Committee, a key driver of policy on the right, laid out an affordability framework of its own in January, calling for a second reconciliation bill that centers on lowering costs for housing, healthcare and energy. It aims to rein in higher prices that Republicans attribute to the Biden administration.

“The RSC released a comprehensive affordability agenda in January to actually lower costs for hardworking families, not expand the same big-government policies that drove up prices in the first place,” Rep. August Pfluger, a San Angelo Republican who chairs the committee, said in a statement. “Progressives think Washington should run your life. We know government is the problem, not the solution, and I’m committed to getting it out of the way for Texas families.”

Casar’s utility bill is one in a slew that lawmakers in Congress have introduced this year focused on protecting ratepayers from rising energy and utility costs.

This week, lawmakers on the House Subcommittee on Energy took up seven of these bills, each related to artificial intelligence and its impact on the power grid. The proposals included requiring data center developers, rather than consumers, to shoulder costs stemming from the facilities’ energy demand, and requiring federal regulators to meet with operators about controlling costs for residential and small commercial ratepayers.

The matter is especially top of mind for many Texans as the number of data centers in the state continues to balloon. Texas is home to more of the facilities than all but Virginia, which has spurred concerns about impacts on local utility rates and the state’s water crisis.

“The American people are understandably uneasy. Many question whether AI, and the data centers that power it, will ultimately do more harm than good, particularly when it comes to individual energy costs,” House Subcommittee on Energy Chair Bob Latta, R-Ohio, said during his opening statement at Wednesday’s hearing. “These concerns deserve to be taken seriously.”

These AI-related energy bills have been introduced by members of both parties, setting up a clash with the Trump administration, which has pledged to accelerate data center development with hopes of bolstering AI innovation.

In a nod to rising electric costs, President Donald Trump invited major tech executives to the White House to sign a “ratepayer protection pledge” in which they promised to supply their own power for AI data centers. The pledge included few specifics, however, and experts say it would not fully insulate consumers from data center-related costs.

Police said the unnamed man was arrested after the attack Wednesday near David’s Tomb — a holy site outside Zion’s Gate on the southern side of the Old City — “on suspicion of a racially motivated attack,” and remained in custody.

Police video showed the nun bruised and the attacker wearing tzitzit, a fringed undergarment worn by some observant Jewish men.

Olivier Poquillon, the director of the French School of Biblical and Archaeological Research, said the nun was a researcher at the school. He called the attack an “act of sectarian violence" in a post on X.

The Old City in Israel-annexed east Jerusalem is a centuries-old walled enclave built atop millennia of history and home to some of the holiest sites for Jews, Christians and Muslims. It is a flash point for tensions as access and ownership to the sites are deeply entangled with the historic and political claims that lie at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Religious groups have documented a rise in acts of harassment and violence against Christian pilgrims and clergy as well as Palestinian Christian residents, including assaults and spitting, often by ultra-Orthodox Jewish yeshiva students.

Wadie Abunassar, the coordinator of the Holy Land Christian Forum, called attacks targeting Christians a growing phenomenon. He attributed the quick response to the attack on the nun to the fact that it was caught on video.

He said he felt “great anger on the system and great sadness because I feel that this will not end anytime soon.” One of the problems, he said, was the deterrence against such violence.

“Many times in such cases there are no arrests and if there are arrests, sometimes after one or two days, (suspects) are released,” he added. “In some cases, the police do not recommend the prosecution to file charges or to indict them. And in some cases, when there is indictment, the indictment is mild.”

The arrest comes as Israeli treatment of religious minorities is under scrutiny, weeks after police limited access for holiday worship to Muslims as well as Christians, up to Latin Patriarch Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa.

Israel also drew international criticism after a soldier photographed himself having bludgeoned a fallen statue of Jesus on the cross with an ax in southern Lebanon. Israeli leaders later disavowed the incident and said he would be reprimanded.

“In a city sacred to Jews, Christians, and Muslims alike, we remain committed to protecting all communities and ensuring those responsible for violence are held accountable,” Israeli police said in a social media post about the man arrested for attacking the nun.

The postseason switch sure got flipped against the rival Denver Nuggets, as the players promised all along. The energy and urgency was never greater than in the series-clinching Game 6 victory on Thursday, when the determined Timberwolves shook off the absence of their three best guards and beat the Nuggets 110-98.

“Still part of our growth,” coach Chris Finch said. “We’ve been really good with the high moments. Our consistency sometimes throughout the season isn’t always there, which we don’t really like about ourselves, but we know we have it in ourselves to meet these moments.”

Jaden McDaniels clearly does.

Nobody on the Timberwolves embodies the mercurial nature of this close-knit but often-moody team than McDaniels, the sixth-year forward who made a name for himself in this series.

Tirelessly chasing All-Star guard Jamal Murray around screens and everywhere he tried to go along the perimeter, limiting him to 4-for-17 shooting in Game 6, McDaniels did even more on the offensive end.

With a big chunk of the team's shot creation missing due to injuries to Anthony Edwards, Donte DiVincenzo and Ayo Dosunmu, McDaniels went 13 for 25 from the floor for 32 points with 10 rebounds.

“What I was the most proud about him was just his emotional control, being able to stay poised, not overreact to adversity, calls or missed shots, or mistakes,” teammate Rudy Gobert said. "He stayed present, and he stepped up big time when we needed him the most, so I’m really, really proud of him.”

McDaniels tossed even more spice into this well-developed rivalry early in the series with his blanket “ bad defenders ” jab at the opponent, and he made no secret of the motivation he gets from seeing “Denver” or “Nuggets” sewed on the other team's jersey.

“The only thing I said to him, after he had made his comments, was, ‘Now it’s time to back it up,’” Finch said. “And talking doesn’t matter. You've got to go do it. I knew he was going to put the effort in, so he was ready for it, and he owned it, and he responded.”

McDaniels later irked Nuggets star Nikola Jokic by taking an uncontested layup in the closing seconds of Minnesota's blowout win in Game 4, sparking a brief shoving match.

McDaniels had his worst game of the series in the loss in Game 5 on Monday, when he was booed often by the Denver crowd, but he responded on his home court with one of the best games of his career.

With the Timberwolves trying to put away the game, McDaniels delivered the dagger shot — swishing his signature mid-range pull-up to give them a seven-point lead with 1:06 to play. Then he intercepted a harried pass by Jokic to get the ball back and start a parade to the line.

Jokic gave McDaniels a hug after the final horn, a sign of respect from the three-time NBA MVP despite the irritation he caused all series long.

“I’m just happy it’s over, happy we were able to come out on top,” McDaniels said. “Stuff was said. I’m just happy we were all able to prove our point, get the win and move on to the next round.”

Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs have been waiting. They'll host Game 1 on Monday.

“I figured the real winner of this series was going to be San Antonio, because both these teams were going to take a lot of pieces out of each other, and did,” Finch said. “So I’m not sure what we have left standing there before we go down there.”

Even if they're short-handed and overmatched, the Timberwolves are a good bet to put up a strong fight.

“You have to believe that you can win, no matter what,” Gobert said. "Obviously we’re missing some pretty important players, right? But no matter who’s out there, we believe in our defense. We believe in trusting one another. Anything’s possible.”

___

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

Kroger has the quality produce, meats, bakery items, and pantry staples you’ll need to stock your kitchen -- all at a value that’s hard to beat.

To help you make the most of your money, “Houston Life” is bringing you an “In the Kitchen with Kroger” series through August.

“In the Kitchen with Kroger” kicked off on April 29 on “Houston Life” at 1 p.m. with ways you can celebrate the special moms in your life this Mother’s Day.

Kroger is also offering KPRC 2 Insiders a chance to win $250 gift cards!

• Scroll down to enter now!

Insiders can enter the In the Kitchen with Kroger gift card sweepstakes daily during each round through Aug. 28 at 12 p.m. The first gift card winner will be announced on May 29, the day the second round begins. There will be four rounds with a new winner chosen at the end of each round.

Entries reset at the start of each of the four sweepstakes rounds, so make sure to bookmark this article and enter daily!

The schedule of rounds is as follows (all times CDT):

• ROUND ONE: April 29, 2026 at 12 p.m. to May 29, 2026 at 12 p.m. (Winner announced May 29 at 1 p.m. on Houston Life)
• ROUND TWO: May 29, 2026 at 12 p.m. to June 26, 2026 at 12 p.m. (Winner announced June 26 at 1 p.m. on Houston Life)
• ROUND THREE: June 26, 2026 at 12 p.m. to July 31, 2026 at 12 p.m. (Winner announced July 31 at 1 p.m. on Houston Life)
• ROUND FOUR: July 31, 2026 at 12 p.m. to August 28, 2026 at 12 p.m. (Winner announced August 28 at 1 p.m. on Houston Life)

OFFICIAL SWEEPSTAKES RULES

You can save on your groceries starting today with the free Kroger app which is available through the Google Play store and the Apple App Store. Use the app to download digital coupons, make your shopping list, and see weekly ad specials for the best prices.

Herrera, who works two jobs at Atlanta's airport, never imagined he would own a home at the age of 27.

“It’s special. It’s magical,” he said.

In May, nearly 1,000 volunteers with Habitat for Humanity will complete Herrera's new home and 23 other affordable housing units in Atlanta's Sylvan Hills neighborhood for the 40th Carter Work Project.

The intensive, weeklong building sessions named after former President Jimmy Carter and his late wife Rosalynn have constructed roughly 5,000 homes in 14 countries since 1984. The project is returning to Atlanta for the first time since 1988, when the Carters helped construct 21 homes in another neighborhood.

Habitat is not just a homebuilder anymore

The Sylvan Hills construction also reflects a new shift into real estate development for Habitat for Humanity, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year amid a growing crisis in affordable housing and a broadening political battle over affordability more generally.

“The gap between what a family can afford and what it costs to create that unit of housing is the widest it has been in modern history,” said Jonathan Reckford, CEO of the international organization.

The nonprofit plans to serve as a developer on more of its projects because many smaller developers still haven’t recovered from the losses caused by the COVID-19 pandemic or have gone out of business altogether.

The Sylvan Hills project includes another first for Habitat

In Sylvan Hills, Habitat for Humanity is building on 8 acres (3 hectares) of land that it purchased in 2015. It also worked to get the site, which used to house a saw-blade manufacturer, rezoned for residential use. The 24 housing units will be a mix of single-family homes and townhomes, forming a new community called Langston Park. It's the first time Atlanta Habitat for Humanity will build multifamily townhomes.

“We do believe it’s important to get the best use out of every precious piece of land that we’re able to acquire and come by so that we can serve more families,” said Atlanta Habitat for Humanity President and CEO Rosalyn Merrick.

The homes in Langston Park will cost about $200,000 each to build. The new homeowners will pay a monthly mortgage based on their income, but Habitat does not charge them interest. The goal is to eventually build 40 more homes on the site.

Phileena Daniel, 27, also qualified to buy one of the homes. She and her 7-year-old son have struggled with housing over the past two years, including living in a unit infested with rats and roaches. She’s grateful for the stability a permanent home in Langston Park will bring.

“You know, sometimes we don’t see ourselves going far in life as young Black women in this society,” she said. “This is giving us an opportunity to expand.”

Habitat's shift earns praise

Habitat for Humanity’s move into community development is “a classic example of a nonprofit organization really trying to be responsive to community needs,” said Vincent Reina, urban economics and planning professor at the University of Pennsylvania.

“They can still be true to their core mission, which is advancing homeownership opportunities, but they are also acknowledging that we need a diverse set of housing solutions to really meet the needs of individuals,” said Reina, who is also founder and faculty director of the Housing Initiative at Penn.

High home prices and 30-year mortgage interest rates over 7% have made it impossible for even moderate-income households to afford a home in all but a handful of the 98 most expensive metro areas in the country, according to research published last year by Reina and Benjamin J. Keys, a Wharton real estate and finance professor.

That shift has made affordable housing a major issue around the country.

Congress steps in

In Congress, both the House and the Senate have passed different affordable housing bills. Lawmakers are working to reconcile differences to send a final bill to President Donald Trump for approval.

Trump has signed executive orders to reduce housing regulatory burdens and help smaller banks provide mortgages. His proposed 2027 budget, however, seeks cuts to the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the elimination of numerous community development programs that currently help cities build affordable housing.

Herrera is hopeful

Back in Atlanta, Herrera couldn't stop thinking about all the possibilities homeownership could unlock. His mother had breast cancer, and she and his father could come live with him if the need arose. A low, stable monthly payment for housing would also help him pursue his goal of owning a coffee shop. Herrera said rising rents in the Atlanta area had forced him to move previously, taking time and money away from that project.

“Now, I can finally take some risks,” he said.

_____

Gamboa reported from Cleveland. Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. For all of AP’s philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy.

To some degree, he has. Gone are the social media video clips of now-retired Border Patrol commander Greg Bovino clashing with protesters. Mullin's predecessor, Kristi Noem, made her first trip as secretary to New York City to make arrests with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. In contrast, Mullin went to North Carolina to review hurricane recovery efforts.

The Republican administration appears to be recalibrating its approach to a centerpiece policy that helped bring Trump back to the White House, moving in many ways away from aggressive, public-facing tactics toward a quieter approach to enforcement. Despite that shift, the administration insists it is not backing down from its lofty deportation goals.

“Clearly they’ve stepped back from the, for want of a better word, the Bovinoist tactics of before," said Mark Krikorian, the president of the Center for Immigration Studies, which advocates for immigration restrictions. "But it’s not clear this means they’re actually stepping back from immigration.”

The Trump administration launched a series of immigration enforcement operations last year in mostly Democratic-led cities, which drove up arrests in large-scale sweeps. The crackdown sparked clashes between protesters and enforcement officers and led to the shooting deaths in Minneapolis of two U.S. citizens.

Since then, the president’s hard-line anti-immigration agenda has lost popularity with voters and there have been no new high-profile city-based operations launched, raising questions about the administration's strategy.

“We’re still enforcing immigration laws. We’re still deporting illegals that shouldn’t be here. We’re still going after the worst of the worst — but we’re doing it in a more quiet way,” Mullin said in an interview April 16 with CNBC.

Immigration arrests have dropped, but deportation goals remain

ICE arrests have fallen in recent months, and the number of people in immigration detention has dropped from a high of roughly 72,000 in January to 58,000 this week, according to data obtained by The Associated Press.

But in a sign of its continued determination, ICE in budget documents says it plans to remove 1 million people this fiscal year and the next compared with roughly 442,000 people last year. The agency also has plenty of money to carry out its mission, with Congress granting the Department of Homeland Security more than $170 billion for Trump's immigration agenda last year.

The administration aims to have enough space to detain roughly 100,000 people this fiscal year, which would more than double the average daily number held in ICE detention last year. The administration has already expanded its detention capacity with the purchase of 11 warehouses across the country.

“They are working on really building a juggernaut of a system,” said Doris Meissner, who headed the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, a predecessor to ICE, during President Bill Clinton's Democratic administration and is now a senior fellow at the Migration Policy Institute.

White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said there had been no change to Trump's strategy.

"President Trump’s highest priority has always been the deportation of illegal alien criminals who endanger American communities,” Jackson said.

ICE did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

Stripping away legal protections to ramp up deportations

Advocates for immigrants are bracing for the Trump administration to turn its attention more intently to stripping away protections for migrants with temporary legal status to remain in the U.S. while their cases are being adjudicated.

In one example of this, the number of green cards approved by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services dropped by half over the course of a year under the Trump administration, according to an analysis by the Cato Institute, which supports immigration into the U.S. Humanitarian visas for refugees or people who qualified for asylum saw the biggest declines.

USCIS spokesman Zach Kahler said the drop was due to increased vetting of applicants by the administration.

The Trump administration has also pushed to strip Temporary Protected Status from hundreds of thousands of people, with a key case weighing whether it's overstepped its power to do so being heard at the Supreme Court this week.

Advocates see it as a way to send a chilling message to immigrant communities and make more people vulnerable to deportation. It also enables the department to operate without the public spectacle of workplace raids or home arrests.

ICE has also focused over the past year on creating agreements with jurisdictions around the country that allow local and state law enforcement to carry out an expanding array of immigration enforcement tasks, ranging from checking the immigration status of people in their jails to incorporating immigration checks during routine traffic stops.

These agreements, known as 287g, have grown from 135 in 20 states before Trump took office to more than 1,400 in 41 states and territories now.

Some states, most noticeably Florida and Texas, have mandated various forms of cooperation between local law enforcement and ICE.

Meissner, from MPI, said Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, is likely to prioritize further discussions about how cities and states can cooperate with ICE.

“At the end of the day, some of this may very well succeed in increasing the numbers,” Meissner said.

Calls to enforce work restrictions

Conservatives who want more deportations say the only way to truly crack down on illegal immigration is to make it so difficult for the migrants to work that they’ll leave on their own.

The Trump administration has already taken steps to make life harder for people in the country illegally including limiting who can live in public housing by immigration status, sharing Medicaid information with ICE and requiring people in the country illegally to register with the federal government.

Krikorian, of the Center for Immigration Studies, said the Social Security Administration could send out letters alerting employers when an employee's name doesn't match their Social Security number. Authorities could repeatedly and consistently carry out audits of I-9 forms, which companies are supposed to fill out and submit to the federal government showing that new hires are legally able to work. And they could require banks to collect citizenship information on customers.

Whatever the strategy going forward, the administration is facing heavy pressure not to back away from its goals.

“The numbers are too low," said Mike Howell, part of the Mass Deportation Coalition, which launched a playbook for how the administration can actually get to a million deportations a year by using tactics such as worksite enforcement.

“The deportation numbers are just too low," Howell said, "and they need to be much higher, and they can be much higher.”

___

This story has been corrected to show Meissner’s quote was “working on really building a juggernaut,” not “working really on building a juggernaut.”

___

Associated Press writers Lisa Mascaro and Will Weissert contributed to this report.

The China deal covers Africa's 20 largest economies, including South Africa, Egypt, Nigeria, Algeria and Kenya. China had already dropped tariffs on 33 poorer African countries, meaning 53 of the continent's 54 nations are now eligible for “tariff-free treatment” for their goods, according to China.

The country not eligible is the small nation of Eswatini because it is the only one in Africa that maintains formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan.

China says it'll help mutual development

The Customs Tariff Commission of the State Council in China said the agreement would promote the common development of China and Africa. China's official Xinhua News Agency said a shipment of 24 metric tons of apples from South Africa that cleared customs in Shenzhen in the early hours of Friday was the first batch of goods to enter under the new zero-tariff policy.

According to Xinhua, China's Commerce Ministry said it would especially benefit African products like cocoa from Ivory Coast and Ghana, coffee and avocados from Kenya, and citrus fruits and wine from South Africa, which used to face tariffs of between 8% and 30%.

Ivory Coast is by far the world's biggest cocoa producer and it and Ghana account for more than 50% of the global supply. South Africa is a major citrus fruit exporter.

African nations looking away from the US

Several of Africa's top economies said they would look for new markets for some of their U.S.-bound products after the Trump administration imposed reciprocal tariffs a year ago — at one point with rates of 30% for Africa's leading economy, South Africa, and higher than 40% for some other African countries.

“South Africa looks forward to working with China in a friendly, pragmatic and flexible manner,” South African Trade Minister Parks Tau said in February during bilateral talks in China.

While the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Trump's far-reaching global tariffs as unconstitutional in February, the Republican president said his administration had "very powerful alternatives” and promptly rolled out temporary import taxes to replace them.

China is already the biggest trade partner for Africa, a continent of 1.5 billion people that's expected to nearly double to 2.5 billion by 2050, according to the United Nations, when it would have more than a quarter of the world's people.

China dominates a large trade imbalance with Africa

China hailed its tariff-free deal as promoting common development, but there is a large trade imbalance between it and Africa, while African nations owe Beijing billions in debt repayments.

China-Africa trade reached a record $348 billion in 2025, though China's exports to Africa increased by around 25% to $225 billion, while its imports from Africa increased by only around 5% to $123 billion, widening the trade deficit for Africa.

China has long imported raw materials from Africa and sent back manufactured goods. Thierry Pairault, a China-Africa expert at France's National Center for Scientific Research, said that while the new policy might have some benefits for agricultural products, most African raw material exports like oil and minerals already had tariff-free access to China.

“(Chinese leader) Xi Jinping is positioning China as the antithesis of Western protectionism. This gesture is intended to appeal to both African public opinion and global markets,” Pairault wrote in an assessment published by the China Global South Project, which analyzes China's relationship with poor countries.

But the policy “only applies where it costs (China) almost nothing,” Pairault wrote.

___

AP Africa news: https://apnews.com/hub/africa

The trade deal was signed Jan. 17 at a meeting of the South American group. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen's move to provisionally enact the deal, effectively sidestepping the EU Parliament, is being challenged by EU lawmakers at the bloc’s judiciary. The agreement will be halted if the European body rules against it.

“This is good news for EU businesses of all sizes, good news for our consumers and good news for our farmers, who will gain valuable new export opportunities, with full protection for sensitive sectors,” she said Thursday.

Von der Leyen is expected to hold a videoconference Friday with leaders of Mercosur nations Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay to celebrate the agreement.

Earlier this week, Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, one of the key supporters of the agreement, signed a decree validating the deal in his country. He said it is a response to unilateral tariffs imposed last year by U.S. President Donald Trump and a reaffirmation of multilateralism.

“Nothing better than believing in the exercise of democracy, in multilateralism, and in cordial relations between nations,” Lula said in a ceremony in the capital, Brasilia, to celebrate the milestone after more than 25 years of negotiations.

Last week, Brazil's vice president and one of the negotiators of the deal, Geraldo Alckmin, said in an interview with The Associated Press and other news agencies that not striking the deal with the EU would have meant staying behind while competitor nations made other agreements.

Brazil is by far Mercosur’s largest economy, with a gross domestic product estimated at over $2.3 trillion in 2025.

Lia Valls, an associate researcher at the think-tank Fundacao Getulio Vargas based in Rio de Janeiro, agrees that the deal offers better perspectives against unilateralism worldwide.

“The EU and Mercosur are showing that it is possible for big blocs to reach a deal in this world where that multilateral system is being very weakened and where the U.S. clearly operates to do that,” Valls told the AP. “It is a very positive sign.”

The agreement faced opposition from European farmers and environmental groups and was delayed in December, before being referred to the EU’s top court.

South American agribusiness industries, chiefly beef, fruit and minerals, are expecting a boost in exports to Europe. European automakers, pharmaceutical companies and technology firms also look forward to making new inroads in Mercosur markets.

While companies based in Mercosur countries have expressed fear of tough competition from European peers in hi-tech industries, European farmers have shown concerns about price pressures and imports that do not follow similar environmental standards.

French President Emmanuel Macron, one of the critics of the deal, has long demanded safeguards to monitor and stop large economic disruption in the EU, increased regulations in the Mercosur nations like pesticide restrictions, and more inspections of imports at EU ports.

The agreement gradually removes trade barriers and tariffs in the two blocs, but it also keeps economic safeguard clauses for European countries to protect some sectors from excessive competition, such as poultry, beef, sugar, and fruit.

___

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

On May 9, a free multicultural festival will spotlight traditions from East Asia, South Asia, the Middle East and the Polynesian Islands, all in one place. The event falls on Mother’s Day weekend, making it an easy pick for a family outing.

Whether you’re in it for bold flavors, high-energy performances or unique cultural finds, OCA-Greater Houston, AAPI Restaurant Weeks and Tokyo X are teaming up to deliver a one-of-a-kind experience during Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. By attending this one-day celebration, you’ll also support local Asian businesses.

One of the festival’s featured performance groups, Kaminari Taiko of Houston, recently stopped by “Houston Life” and gave a powerful Japanese drumming performance that filled the room with rhythm and energy.

Watch the video above to see the performance in action.

Founded in 1996, the group has toured more than 20 cities and performed at events including the Japan Festival Houston, the Rothko Chapel Summer Solstice Celebration, the New Orleans Japan Fest and the Nashville Cherry Blossom Festival.

Experience the sights, sounds and flavors of Asia — all right here in Houston.

• May 9, 2026
• 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
• Alief Amity Park
• Free and open to the public

For more info, visit www.tokyonightfest.com/aapi.

Game 1 of a Western Conference semifinal series between San Antonio and Minnesota — which ousted Denver — will be Monday night in Texas.

It'll be the third series between the franchises, after the Spurs beat the Timberwolves in both 1999 and 2001. Both of those were first-round, best-of-five matchups where San Antonio prevailed in four games.

New York is through to Round 2 as well, after a 51-point rout in Atlanta eliminated the Hawks.

The Knicks await the Philadelphia-Boston winner; that series is going to Game 7, after the 76ers staved off elimination yet again with a win on Thursday night. The Timberwolves are about to enter a showdown of French centers — Rudy Gobert for Minnesota, Victor Wembanyama for the Spurs.

On Friday, Detroit (trailing 3-2) plays at Orlando, Cleveland (up 3-2) goes to Toronto and the Los Angeles Lakers (up 3-2 after losing closeout chances in Games 4 and 5) head to Houston.

Friday's schedule

— Game 6, Detroit at Orlando, 7 p.m. EDT (Prime)

Series: Orlando, 3-2.

Odds: Detroit by 3.5.

Eighth-seeded Orlando let a 3-1 lead slip away against top-seeded Detroit in Round 1 in 2003. The Magic get another chance Friday night to ensure that such a fate won’t happen again this time.

— Game 6, Cleveland at Toronto, 7:30 p.m. EDT (Prime)

Series: Cleveland, 3-2.

Odds: Cleveland by 3.5.

The Raptors pushed Cleveland to the limit in Game 5 even with Brandon Ingram (heel) limited to one point in 11 minutes. The Cavaliers went 18 of 36 from 3-point range to win Game 5 at home.

— Game 6, LA Lakers at Houston, 9:30 p.m. EDT (Prime)

Series: Lakers, 3-2.

Odds: Houston by 3.5.

The Lakers are 0-2 in closeout chances in this series, and a Rockets team that isn’t lacking for swagger suddenly looks to be brimming with confidence. Lakers do not seem to be panicked, yet.

Saturday's schedule

— Game 7, Philadelphia at Boston, 7:30 p.m. EDT (NBC/Peacock)

Series: Tied, 3-3.

Odds: Boston by 7.5.

The Celtics are 27-10 all-time in Game 7s, the 76ers are 6-12 in such games and are 0-4 in them since 2001. It'll be the ninth Game 7 between these two franchises, with Boston going 6-2 in the previous ones.

Thursday recaps

— Knicks 140, Hawks 89 to win series 4-2. Inside NY's numbers, and Atlanta's collapse.

— 76ers 106, Celtics 93 to even series at 3-3. George goes from ‘rock bottom’ to Game 7.

— Timberwolves 110, Nuggets 98 to win series 4-2. Nikola Jokic wants to stay in Denver.

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 (-130) is favored to win the NBA title, oddsmakers say.

The Thunder are followed by San Antonio (+425), Boston (+600), Cleveland (+1300), New York (+1800), the Los Angeles Lakers (+2500) and Detroit (+3500). Philadelphia (+12500) is next, followed by Minnesota (+20000).

Orlando, even with a 3-2 series lead on Detroit, entered Friday at +25000. The only teams that entered Friday with longer odds than the Magic were Houston (+50000) and Toronto (+100000).

Key dates

— Sunday, Monday and/or 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

“If we were in Serbia, we would all get fired." — Denver's Nikola Jokic, after the Nuggets were eliminated from the playoffs by short-handed Minnesota.

Stats of the day

— Boston led by five on Thursday, then lost by 13. Denver led by five on Thursday, then lost by 12. Atlanta led by four on Thursday ... then lost by 51.

— The Knicks are the first reigning NBA Cup champion to win a playoff series. The Los Angeles Lakers (the 2023 Cup champs) and the Milwaukee Bucks (the 2024 Cup champs) both lost in Round 1 of those season's playoffs.

___

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

One of the world's most sprawling and populated urban areas, at 3,000 square miles (about 7,800 square kilometers) and some 22 million people, the Mexican capital and surrounding cities were built atop an ancient lake bed. Many downtown streets were once canals, a tradition that continues in the rural fringes.

Extensive groundwater pumping and urban development have dramatically shrunk the aquifer, meaning that Mexico City has been sinking for more than a century, leaving many monuments and older buildings — like the Metropolitan Cathedral, where construction began in 1573 — visibly tilted to the side. The contracting aquifer has also contributed to a chronic water crisis that is only expected to worsen.

“It damages part of the critical infrastructure of Mexico City, such as the subway, the drainage system, the water, the potable water system, housing and streets,” said Enrique Cabral, a researcher studying geophysics at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. “It’s a very big problem.”

Mexico City is sinking so fast that the subsidence can be spotted from space.

In some parts it is happening at an average rate of 0.78 inches (2 centimeters) a month, according to NASA’s newly released report, such as at the main airport and the iconic monument commonly known as the Angel of Independence.

Overall that means a yearly subsidence rate of about 9.5 inches (24 centimeters). Over the course of less than a century, the drop has been more than 39 feet (12 meters), according to Cabral.

“We have one of the fastest velocities of land subsidence in the whole world,” he said.

The NASA estimates are based on measurements taken between October 2025 and January 2026 by a powerful satellite known as NISAR, which can track real-time changes on the Earth’s surface and is a joint initiative between NASA and the Indian Space Research Organization.

NISAR scientist Paul Rosen said that by capturing details of the Earth from space, the project is also “telling us something about what’s actually happening below the surface.”

“It’s basically documentation of all of these changes within a city,” Rosen said. He added: “You can see the full magnitude of the problem.”

With time the team hopes to be able to zoom in even more on specific areas and someday get measurements on a building-by-building basis.

More broadly, researchers hope to apply the technology around the world to track things like natural disasters, changes in fault lines, the effects of climate change in regions like Antarctica and more.

Rosen said it could be used to bolster alert systems, letting scientists alert governments to the need for evacuations in cases of volcano eruptions, for example.

For Mexico City the technology amounts to a big advance in studying the subsidence issue and mitigating its worst effects, according to Cabral.

For decades the government has largely ignored the problem other than stabilizing foundations under monuments like the cathedral. But following recent flare-ups of the water crisis, Cabral said, officials have begun to fund more research.

Imagery from the NISAR satellite and the data that comes with it will be key for scientists and officials as they plan on how to address the problem.

“To do long-term mitigation of the situation,” Cabral said, “the first step is to just understand.”

___

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

It was already decided when the scuffle took place. OG Anunoby extended the Knicks' lead to 50 points with a pair of free throws and 4:39 remaining in the first half.

Robinson boxed out Daniels and things got heated, with an official even taking a tumble as many people tried to calm them down. The Hawks' Onyeka Okongwu and the Knicks' Jalen Brunson held Robinson back as the fight inched toward fans sitting courtside.

“It’s tough because when you’re up that big, stuff happens," Knicks coach Mike Brown said after New York's 140-89 series-clinching win. “If somebody feels like something that shouldn’t happen to them happened, it’s hard to keep your composure in that moment.”

Nickeil Alexander-Walker and several coaches pulled Daniels away, including Hawks head coach Quin Snyder.

It was easy to understand why the Hawks were frustrated. Atlanta's 83-36 deficit was the largest at halftime in NBA playoff history.

“I couldn’t see the details of the situation, who did what to whom," Snyder said. “I know that both teams were competing and they were having their way with us on many, many levels — as evidenced by the scoreboard.”

___

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

Instead, she gave the Indiana Fever and fans a scare Thursday night.

Clark crumpled to the ground early in the third quarter when Dallas forward Alanna Smith collided with her leg on a shot attempt, and then limped toward the bench as she walked off the injury during a replay review that resulted in a Flagrant 1 call. The two-time All-Star then made two free throws before departing and watching the rest of the game from the bench.

“I feel good. I just landed on my kneecap really hard,” Clark said after scoring 21 points in a 95-80 loss to the Wings. “I know there's a committee of people that really wanted them (the refs) to start calling things, and I thought they did a great job of that. Honestly, I thought the refs were great, and it's preseason so you're probably going to see more fouls called. I expect that number to drop. But I think overall, it's going to improve the product.”

Initially, it looked as if little had changed since Clark last suited up in Gainbridge Fieldhouse on July 13, when the Fever beat Dallas.

The pregame autograph line snaked through the seats, the No. 22 jerseys and Clark T-shirts were as fashionable Thursday night as they were during her record-breaking rookie season, and, naturally, Clark was greeted with the usual loud cheers during player introductions.

Sure, it was only a preseason game, but it did feature the league's last two Rookie of the Year award winners — Clark and Paige Bueckers. Yet Fever fans had been yearning for this moment since Clark went down July 15 with a right groin injury that forced her to miss the All-Star Game and the All-Star weekend festivities in Indianapolis, as well as Indiana's final 22 regular-season games and its incredible run to the WNBA semifinals.

The long absence only made Thursday's game an even bigger deal.

“This is the first (Fever) game I've been to — ever,” said Nikki Niccun, dressed in a No. 22 jersey. “I've seen every one on TV, but this is the first time in person. I know it's a preseason game, but I'm excited."

Clark first returned to the court for Team USA in the FIBA Women's World Cup qualifying games in early March, then helped the Fever open the preseason with a 109-91 victory at New York despite a 2-for-10 shooting performance.

This time, Clark looked more like herself. She scored 14 of her 21 points in the first quarter, had four assists, three turnovers and two rebounds while going 4 of 6 from the field and 11 of 13 at the free throw line in 16 minutes.

“We had planned for her to come out about that time anyway," coach Stephanie White said. “It was just an extra precaution getting her out in that moment, but the plan was for her to start the third quarter and then get her out quickly.”

White also held out All-Star center Aliyah Boston for the second straight game because of a lower leg injury. All-Star guard Kelsey Mitchell finished with 10 points in 17 minutes.

Not everyone came to see Clark, though.

A smattering of fans also showed up in Bueckers jerseys, and she dazzled the crowd by scoring 20 points in 20 minutes on 8-of-12 shooting. Rookie Azzi Fudd, the No. 1 overall draft pick, added four points in 16 minutes as the Wings used a 22-5 second quarter run to seize control with a 53-26 lead. They never trailed again.

Whether that's an indication one of last season's 10-win teams could be headed for major improvement remains to be seen.

And though there were plenty of empty seats Thursday night, a rarity when Clark takes the stage, longtime Clark admirers welcomed the chance to get an early look at what they anticipate will be a big season.

“They're going to bounce back,” Niccun said. “We're going to be all right.”

___

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

The tax accountant said he “got the same high” on those platforms that he got from gambling. “That was how I relapsed — with Kalshi and Polymarket. I lost a bunch of money.”

The rapid growth of prediction markets has sparked a high-stakes debate that is playing out in courts and legislatures all over the country. Operators of those companies believe they should be regulated like the stock exchange because of federal law and their customer-to-customer structure, while sportsbooks and state officials think they should be supervised the same way as sports gambling platforms.

While that argument continues with no sign of resolution, the clinicians who treat gambling disorders are more concerned about what they are seeing with their patients. In their spaces, when it comes to sports gambling and prediction markets, the end result is virtually the same.

Two gambling addicts who spoke to The Associated Press — the soccer coach and tax accountant — say they had relapses on prediction markets after they took legal action to protect themselves from the allure of sports betting. They are being identified by their occupations because of the sensitivity of their situations. Their stories reflect what experts say they see with some of their clients.

“There may be real differences in how these products are defined or regulated, but in the therapy room, we are often seeing the same cycle of anticipation, action and reaction play out again and again,” said Dr. Cynthia Grant, the vice president of clinical for Birches Health, which operates a national network of providers for treating gambling addiction.

“I sometimes think of it like different doors into the same room. The label on the door may change, but once someone’s inside, the experience can feel very familiar.”

The road from sportsbooks to prediction markets

Sportsbooks and prediction markets offer a lot of similar options. Wagers on games, individual performances and other possibilities. But the format is different.

Sportsbooks have in-house experts who set odds that dictate payouts for winning bets. It's the house versus the gamblers. Traders on predictions markets swap contracts of yes-or-no questions, and profits and losses are dictated by the market. Win a “yes” holding on an event contract where most of the market guessed “no,” and the payout is bigger. Prediction markets generally make money through fees on contracts.

For addicts, they are two paths to the same result.

The soccer coach who spoke to the AP started gambling when he was 16. Small bets against friends in his New York neighborhood, everything from cards to basketball and tennis. When he turned 18, he started going to casinos and making bets at sportsbooks. Amid mounting losses, he turned to prediction markets.

“I would be in all this debt and get a paycheck for $2,000 on a Friday and it would be gone by Saturday or Sunday,” said the coach, 21. “I wouldn’t have money to fill up my gas tank.”

He was struggling with loans and maxed-out credit cards while working and going to college before he stepped away in January to confront his addiction problems, which also included smoking marijuana.

He joined Gamblers Anonymous, and he was told he had to stop associating with people who gamble.

“For a younger crowd, that’s difficult because it’s everywhere,” the coach said. “My friends from childhood — most of them all gamble."

The coach and the tax accountant had formally self-excluded from sportsbooks before they started trading on prediction markets. Self-exclusion programs provide an opportunity for gamblers to ban themselves from gambling facilities and betting apps. They are offered in many states as part of gambling regulations, but there is no widely adopted national system.

The landscape for self-exclusion programs becomes even more fragmented when predictions markets are included. Kalshi started a voluntary opt-out program when it launched a customer protection hub in March 2025, and it's one of several platforms — including Polymarket — collaborating on a national self-exclusion program for prediction markets. But it's not clear if that program would ever overlap with the systems used by state gambling regulators.

The accountant, 33, said his gambling problems started after New York launched legalized mobile sports betting in January 2022. He had “a boatload of debt” in August 2023 when he told his then-fiancée about what was going on with him.

She married him anyway. Looking to save money after the wedding, they moved into a rental house owned by his parents. He self-excluded from sportsbooks. Then, after the couple lost their first pregnancy, the accountant started day-trading before signing up for Kalshi.

“Prediction markets are the same thing packaged in a different way,” the accountant said. “It’s a dangerous loophole. ... How can you do all that and say you’re not a sportsbook?”

Tennis was his go-to sport — he liked the speed of the matches — before he went to rehab in Virginia last year.

He had a relapse in December when he downloaded Polymarket and made a free $10 wager. He was confronted by his wife, who had his email connected to her phone and reached out to his sponsor.

While there has been no substantive research into the effect of prediction markets on sports gambling addiction, the experiences of the coach and the accountant are not uncommon for treatment experts.

“You’re seeing a lot of the same behaviors, whether it’s a prediction market or it’s gambling,” said Jody Bechtold, the CEO of The Better Institute, a Pennsylvania practice that works with people impacted by gambling disorders. “You’re seeing, you know, wagering more and more. Chasing losses, so ‘Oh, today was a bad day, I have to work tomorrow at the prediction markets to get my money back.’ ... The lies, the secrecy, and that it’s impacting everyday life.”

Kalshi spokeswoman Elisabeth Diana highlighted its programs for responsible trading — such as trading breaks and self-limits — and said it's working on other measures to further facilitate healthy trading behavior.

Compared to casinos, Diana said, Kalshi is “fairer, more transparent, and less predatory.”

"There is no house that wins when customers lose,” she said. "This means that Kalshi doesn’t hook losers and penalize winners.”

A message was left seeking comment from Polymarket.

Event contracts are increasingly popular on prediction markets

Sports have become a major category for prediction markets. Kalshi had more than $2 billion in total trading volume on this year’s NCAA men’s basketball tournament, according to Diana. Michigan’s 69-63 victory over Connecticut in the championship had $10.6 million in volume on Polymarket.

The U.S. market for sports-focused event contracts could grow to approximately $1.1 trillion in annual volume, according to a Bank of America report.

“A year ago, if you said prediction markets, I mean I don’t know what that is, I don’t see it,” said Dr. Timothy Fong, the co-director of the UCLA Gambling Studies Program. “Now we’re starting to see it more and more in our patients that come into the clinic. And it’s usually not one, it’s multiple platforms they’re betting on, right? ... When you have something that’s available, that’s accessible, that’s anonymous, is super easy to use, multiple times in a day, of course that’s going to raise the risk of addiction for any human on Earth.”

There are multiple ongoing lawsuits involving states and prediction markets, and the ramifications of the legal dispute are being felt on a variety of levels.

Marlene Warner, the CEO of the Massachusetts Council on Gaming and Health — a private nonprofit health organization that provides educational programs on gambling along with other services — said the situation with prediction markets “feels a bit like the wild, wild west right now.”

“We’re very used to like going to our state regulator or, you know, seeing a process go through where all of a sudden now you’re like, ‘OK, a piece of legislation has outlined what is appropriate for a licensed sports betting operator to do,’" Warner said. “And then you see the regulation come into place. And so you can track it. But right now, nobody knows kind of what the limits are.”

In most states with legal sports gambling, it is limited to ages 21 and older, while prediction markets are open for 18- to 20-year-olds with some exceptions. Prediction markets also have a presence in states where sports betting is illegal, including Texas and California.

“I don’t know enough frankly, we don’t know enough, nothing’s been studied about them, I can’t tell you whether they’re more less or exactly the same in terms of risk level,” Warner said. “But what I do know is they're in a very gray, unregulated space and that alone makes it difficult.”

Prediction markets fall under the jurisdiction of the federal Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which has a regulation that prohibits an event contract “that involves, relates to, or references terrorism, assassination, war, gaming, or an activity that is unlawful under any state or federal law.”

CFTC chairman Michael Selig is backing prediction markets in their legal proceedings against several states, asserting the commission's “exclusive jurisdiction over these markets.”

While that argument continues, the soccer coach and tax accountant are rebuilding their lives — while doing their best to stay vigilant with their addictions.

“You have to face this stuff or it just keeps getting worse,” the coach said.

___

AP sports: https://apnews.com/sports

___

The Associated Press receives support from Charles Schwab Foundation for educational and explanatory reporting to improve financial literacy. The independent foundation is separate from Charles Schwab and Co. Inc. The AP is solely responsible for its journalism.

Menefee announced the “Special Election Timeliness Act,” a bill that would require states to hold a special election within 180 days of a vacancy in the U.S. House of Representatives.

• Houston Democrat Christian Menefee wins special election to complete Sylvester Turner’s term in Congress

The proposal comes just months after Menefee was sworn in to represent Texas’ 18th Congressional District, a seat that remained vacant for nearly a year following the death of longtime Congressman Sylvester Turner.

Menefee says the legislation is personal.

He took office in February, roughly 11 months after Turner’s death, leaving constituents without representation in Congress for an extended period.

• Here’s what happens next with late Congressman Sylvester Turner’s House seat

The bill aims to prevent similar gaps nationwide by setting a clear timeline for states to follow.

What the bill would do

Under the proposal:

• States would be required to hold a special election within 180 days of a House vacancy
• It would allow for legal action to enforce the deadline if states fail to comply
• An exception would apply if a regularly scheduled general election falls within that 180-day window

Supporters argue the measure would ensure Americans are not left without a voice in Congress for long periods of time.

While the bill is Menefee’s first as a member of Congress, it also highlights a broader issue: how election timelines vary widely by state, sometimes leading to lengthy vacancies.

If passed, the legislation would create a uniform national standard, something that currently does not exist.

Last weekend Fisher took the stage in a former Presbyterian church that he bought for a song and converted into a performance space and recording studio he calls Ragamuffin Hall, in the rural Pennsylvania community of McCoysville.

Fisher performed two sold-out concerts with Ben and Rose Stoltzfus, a married couple whose Amish background and church choir harmonies have drawn millions of YouTube clicks. It was a sort of warmup for shows they're playing together in the coming months at much larger theaters in Pennsylvania and Indiana.

“Ragamuffin Hall,” Fisher said, "is supposed to be a place where those weird things that'll get you ostracized everywhere else, we're like, 'Oh, no, that's a gift. And here's how you use it.'”

Fisher's parents were both raised in Amish families but his father joined a Mennonite congregation as a young adult. Among the Mennonite churches Fisher attended as a boy, musical instruments were rarely used.

Nonetheless, his father was a fan of Johnny Cash and didn't look too closely at what was on Fisher's MP3 player. When Fisher's brother came home from a camping trip with a mix CD featuring Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly, the Everly Brothers and the Beach Boys, it changed his life.

“It blew my mind, right?” Fisher, now 31, recalled. He started learning keyboards and then guitar, bass and drums before adding music production — “mostly because I was dead set on making a living with music.”

“My buddies would be like, ‘Hey, I wrote a song for my girlfriend. Can you do a track?' And I’m like, sure.”

Recording in a converted church

He moved to Tennessee as a young adult and for three years immersed himself in the songwriting industry — the Oak Ridge Boys even recorded one of his tunes. But the road life didn't suit him — particularly bar gigs.

“There's drinking and carrying on,” Fisher said. “It's just not me. I'm not a prude, but I just don't enjoy that scene.”

Fisher considers his wife and three children his main priority and he remains a faithful Mennonite — his pastor once asked him why he didn’t just start a cabinetry business and launch a prison ministry. Yet his music production work eventually grew to the point three years ago that he could stop working as a carpenter.

In 2022, Fisher learned an old brick church several miles from his home was up for sale. After he laid out his vision for making it into a music incubator, they sold it to him below market value.

Musicians now regularly find their way to Ragamuffin Hall, mostly to record “clean country music" and rootsy bluegrass with a heavy dose of gospel. The acts he's recorded include an Amish man who played steel guitar with his son's band, a musician who drove for hours from Missouri and an Amish band from Ohio.

Last Saturday, he sprinkled his own songs between tunes made popular by Waylon Jennings, Alison Krauss and Don Williams. After a short set by Fisher's five-piece band, they stayed on stage to back up Ben and Rose. Fisher used an electric guitar fashioned from a beam recovered during his renovations of a church stairwell.

The overwhelmingly white matinee crowd consisted mostly of older people and included several of the musicians' family members. Downstairs, Ragamuffin Hall T-shirts were for sale alongside $3 homemade whoopie pies, a regionally ubiquitous Pennsylvania Dutch dessert.

A paradigm shift on stage

The insular culture and unadorned lives of conservative Anabaptist people aren't often associated with music, but Amish sacred music dates back half a millennium. Their 900-page hymnal — the “Ausbund” — was composed in part by Anabaptist prisoners in 16th century Germany and is still used today.

Fisher’s Amish roots and ability to speak Pennsylvania Dutch, the Old Order Amish dialect, has helped build rapport with likeminded musicians.

But Amish church music is almost always group singing only, without instruments or soloists. And the community generally discourages public performances and other “acts of pride.”

“There's a lot of great talent in that community that goes undeveloped because," Fisher said — using a Pennsylvania German phrase — "that's just, ‘we don’t do that,' you know.”

That's the sort of pushback he received in February after uploading a rollicking, live version of “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” to YouTube. Fisher felt compelled to respond.

“I'm a believer, I'm a man of faith, and I'm not ashamed of that,” he replied in a video message. “But I do play a lot of different kinds of music, just like, you know, if you're a shed builder you build sheds for all kinds of people, not just churches and schools.”

Elam Stoltzfus, director of the Nicholas Stoltzfus Homestead in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania, said it was “one of the shocks of my life” to attend a charity fundraiser last year at a farm where Ben and Rose performed. (Stoltzfus is a common name among the Amish.) There were bright lights, a video screen, barbecued chicken and vendors selling T-shirts, CDs and books.

Stoltzfus, whose family left the Old Order in the mid-1960s when he was 10, said the gathering was packed with Mennonite and Amish people. They weren’t dancing, but they did clap.

“I was thrilled to see this happen, because I knew this was a paradigm shift," he said. “When I was a teenager, it would never have happened.”

Legions of fans on social media

Amos Raber, of Goshen, Indiana, also grew up in a “horse and buggy” Amish family and considered himself Amish until he turned 22. Nowadays, he supports his family with concert performances and revenues garnered from what he says are millions of clicks a month on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Music and Facebook.

In recent decades, Raber said, he's seen Amish youth increasingly come together with guitars to sing. But they can still run up against prohibitions on public performances.

“Most times, if you see someone who's really Amish doing that kind of thing, they're probably not going to be Amish long,” Raber said. Since they began recording and performing music, Ben and Rose have left their Amish church and joined a different Christian congregation. They declined comment for this story.

LeRoy Stoltzfus, a singer-songwriter living near Lancaster, was 13 when his family left the Amish church. He said changes in the Lancaster Amish settlement in recent years have made it easier for people to leave without losing contact with families and friends, a process called “shunning” that has long fascinated outsiders.

After years of playing guitar as a church worship leader and after spending four years at a Colorado Bible college, he's now making a living as a musician, stitching together concerts with online ad revenue and recordings for a fan base that includes many Amish and formerly Amish people.

“Ever since I can remember I wanted to be a star,” LeRoy Stoltzfus said. “But the older I got, I realized it wasn't about me — it was about putting out music and helping people.”

‘I would have laughed at you’

Justin Hiltner, a Nashville-based banjo player and songwriter who serves as managing editor of the roots music blog “The Bluegrass Situation,” said after delving into the music he was impressed with its quality. He said he also got the sense that Ben and Rose and Conrad Fisher and the others are building a musical community.

“This is clearly not just insular music that’s just facing other Amish folks or other Mennonite folks,” Hiltner said. “Clearly it’s ‘broken containment’ here.”

Hiltner called the music -- and Fisher’s videos -- “really compelling.”

“To kind of an outsider, this is the performance of American essentialism, the rural American ideal, right?” said Hiltner. “I did hear a level of talent that’s very clearly pushing and pulling these folks towards bringing their music to a wider audience.”

Religiously conservative musicians can market their recordings through a network of bookstores across the U.S. and Canada. At one of them, Ken’s Educational Joys in Ephrata, Pennsylvania, racks of CDs are sold alongside a floor-to-ceiling selection of Bibles.

Proprietor Lydell Zimmerman said his biggest music sellers are a cappella recordings, but he's noticed Ben and Rose have drawn a real following.

“I think their presence as an Amish couple singing online is what brought people’s attention to them,” Zimmerman said.

Ben and Rose came to Fisher's studio when Ben's brother, a friend of Fisher's from Lancaster, booked a session there.

He realized right away Ben and Rose had talent. Tapping into Fisher’s production skills, they've amassed more than 30 million views for their videos on YouTube. Eventually he proposed some live shows and the couple agreed.

“I started recording when I was 14,” Fisher said. “If you would have told me two years ago that what's going to put me on the map or boost my business in a big way, it's going to be an Old Order Amish couple, I would have laughed at you.”

___

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

All-night sessions. Hours of dead zones with no action on the floor. Legislation being written on the fly, behind closed doors. Sudden votes scheduled. Spectacular failures. And, as happened this week, stunning turnarounds in which the House actually passes bills.

"Sometimes it’s an ugly process, sometimes it’s a long process," Johnson said after House passage of a bipartisan bill to fund much of the Department of Homeland Security, ending the longest agency shutdown in history. "But we got it done."

Republicans, who face an uphill climb this election year to keep hold of their paper-thin House majority, appear at times as if they are still learning on the job, years after having returned to power in 2022, while they are also about to ask voters in November to rehire them for another term.

This week's starts and stops — for example, five hours of delay as Johnson huddled behind closed doors to salvage his agenda, then a sudden vote tally near 11 p.m. — would typically have been the kind of situation that shocked the political and procedural senses. Now, it's just another Wednesday.

Or two weeks ago, when a routine House Rules Committee hearing ended up becoming a midnight forum to debut a just-produced 14-page bill to revise a surveillance bill, known as the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, before it was rushed to the floor for a 2 a.m. vote. It failed.

“House Republicans have shown again that they can’t govern,” said Rep. Ted Lieu of California, part of Democratic leadership.

“They routinely pass bills to the Senate that are way too extreme, then it ends up that we have all these floor session days where we’re just doing nothing,” he said.

House GOP's slim majority makes leader's job challenging

Johnson, who took over for the ousted Kevin McCarthy more than two years ago, is presiding over one of the slimmest House majorities in modern times, leaving him no room to spare if he's trying to pass legislation on party line votes, without Democrats.

The speaker is juggling not only President Donald Trump's priorities but also those of the various factions that make up his majority, from the conservative House Freedom Caucus to what remains of the GOP's more pragmatic conservatives.

And Johnson’s own future is always in question, after Republicans chased other speakers, including McCarthy, John Boehner and Newt Gingrich, to early exits.

Last year Johnson, of Louisiana, led passage of the party's signature achievement, a big bill of tax breaks and safety net cuts, which Trump signed into law. At the time, he quipped about the difficulty of getting it over the finish line.

“I do so deeply desire to have just a normal Congress,” the speaker said in July.

“But it doesn’t happen anymore," he said. “Our way is to plow through and get it done."

What's ahead as House GOP tries to stay in power

Ahead of the fall elections, Johnson and other Republican lawmakers have discussed an agenda that includes the promise of another GOP-only budget package like the tax cuts bill that they could push through the House and the Senate, without Democratic votes.

Budget Chairman Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, said Thursday that he expects “the centerpiece” of that package "will be supporting our troops" with more than $100 billion in funding for the war against Iran as well as money to replenish defense munitions and other Pentagon-related needs.

Despite the turbulent week in the House, Arrington said what they're calling budget reconciliation 3.0 should be the “next order of business.”

Yet GOP lawmakers may decide it's better to skip the hard work of legislating, and the dramatic upheavals that tend to come with it, and hit the campaign trail to win over voters instead.

Rep. Richard Hudson, R-N.C., the chairman of the House GOP's campaign arm, the National Republican Congressional Committee, acknowledged that trying to pass legislation with such a tight majority "can be rough. It's ugly."

“I'd be fine with letting us go home and campaign,” Hudson said. “But we've got a lot of important work still to do.”

Some of Johnson's most ardent sparring partners, those most conservative Republican lawmakers, turned their blame for the messy process not on Johnson's leadership but on their own GOP allies across the Capitol in the Senate, who often dismiss the House's work.

“Yeah, sometimes, it gets a little tense,” said Republican Rep. Chip Roy of Texas. “But we’re still getting stuff done. We’re sending it over to the Senate. So we look forward to them doing their job.”

Mall management announced it will implement a temporary youth curfew for guests under 18 on Saturday, May 2, and Saturday, May 9, citing safety concerns tied to recent social media activity.

The mall says the move is being made “out of an abundance of caution” after posts suggested the potential for large, unsupervised gatherings of teens, sometimes referred to as “teen takeovers.”

What are the rules?

The mall’s Parental Guidance Required (PGR) program will begin at 2 p.m. on both Saturdays and includes the following:

• Anyone under 18 must be accompanied by a parent or supervising adult age 21 or older
• Public safety officers will be stationed at entrances to check IDs of guests who appear 17 or younger
• Guests without valid ID showing they are 18 or older will need an adult present to remain inside
• One adult can supervise up to four minors, and must stay with them at all times

Mall officials say the policy is meant to ensure a safe and peaceful environment for shoppers, employees, and the broader community.

While the program is temporary, leaders say it’s not a decision they made lightly and hope it won’t need to become a long-term or permanent policy.

They are also asking visitors to follow the mall’s code of conduct during the affected days.

Court documents indicate Donald Cameron Perkins is charged with injury to a disabled individual, a third-degree felony.

The incident happened on April 23 at the Carlton Pre-vocational Center. Cy-Fair ISD police were called to investigate a serious medical emergency involving a child.

• TIMELINE: Flood Watch issued through Friday night for Houston, tracking waves of rain and storms

Court documents indicate police spoke to the child’s mother and father who said he was diagnosed with autism at a young age and was essentially non-verbal in his daily life.

Police spoke to the principal and also to Perkins, who was the behavioral specialist in the room with the child when the child had the medical emergency.

Perkins allegedly told police he had been summoned to a bus after the student took a piece of food from the bus driver and shoved it into his mouth. After arriving, Perkins said he took the child off the bus and to an exterior door of the school where the student fell to the ground. Perkins said he then escorted the student to his classroom where he went to his seat before moving around the room and taking his clothes off. The staff in the room told Perkins the student wasn’t behaving normally and one of them said they thought he was choking on something. Perkins said he attempted the Heimlich maneuver on the student.

Officers later learned Perkins allegedly omitted some information in his statement.

Court documents state an officer viewed surveillance video and saw Perkins walking with the student in his grasp to the classroom. The video allegedly showed Perkins increasing his intensity of handling the child as they approached the classroom. The documents state the officers saw that it appeared Perkins pushed the child from behind while entering the classroom.

• House approves bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security and end the record shutdown

Video from the bus also did not show the child falling outside the door of the school as Perkins had said, according to the court documents.

After reviewing another video, officers noticed Perkins pushed the child with significant force. The documents state the child became slightly airborne before landing on his chest with his knees and hands hitting the tile floor. The officers state in the court documents this was excessive and that Perkins knew the child still had food in his mouth and also a history of potential choking hazards.

The documents state staff noticed the child was choking when he began to remove his clothes and brought a trash can thinking he was going to throw up. The child went limp and Perkins attempted the Heimlich maneuver on him, but was unsuccessful.

The child was transported to Memorial Hermann - Cypress hospital and later flown by helicopter to Texas Children’s Hospital in the Texas Medical Center. Court documents say officers learned the child went through a significant period of oxygen deprivation. Brain scans also showed no brain activity and officers learned the child died on Wednesday.

Perkins was taken into custody on Wednesday. The district says he is currently on administrative leave.

Perkins has been employed by CFISD since August 2018.

Cy-Fair ISD released the following statement:

“Student safety is our top priority. The district does not tolerate conduct that compromises the safety of our children, and we thoroughly investigate any allegations of staff mistreatment of students.

We are currently investigating a serious incident involving a student and a staff member at the Carlton Center. Upon learning of the allegation, the district took immediate action to remove the staff member and place the individual on administrative leave. CFISD is cooperating fully with law enforcement to ensure a comprehensive investigation and will take all necessary actions based on the findings.

“We are devastated by the loss of one of our students. My most sincere prayers are with the family, and we grieve alongside them during this heartbreaking time,” said Dr. Doug Killian, superintendent of schools.

Due to the active investigation and student privacy laws, the district cannot provide further details at this time."

In a humorous video posted Thursday on his Instagram account, Banksy showed snippets of how the sculpture was put up in the dead of night. The sculpture appeared to have been erected in the early hours of Wednesday on a plinth on a traffic island in Waterloo Place, near Buckingham Palace.

Before the artist's post, locals and tourists gathered to inspect the statue on the assumption it was Banksy's work because his signature was scrawled at the base of the plinth.

The statue is situated close to those of King Edward VII, who reigned between 1901 and 1910, and legendary nurse Florence Nightingale, as well as the Crimean War Memorial.

Statues are not what Banksy is primarily known for. He is far more famous for his spray-painting on buildings, with his first creations appearing in the early 1990s in his hometown of Bristol in southwest England. He has since gone global and his paintings and installations have sold for millions of dollars at auction. His street art is often targeted by thieves and vandals.

Banksy, who has never publicly revealed his identity, is part of a tradition of street artists who viewed the undercover act of posting their art in public as a subversive form of expression.