Discussion

At 900 PM GMT (2100 UTC), the center of Tropical Storm Fay was located near latitude 29.8 North, longitude 41.8 West. Fay is moving toward the west near 6 mph (9 km/h). A generally westward motion with some decrease in forward speed is expected over the next few days.

Maximum sustained winds are near 50 mph (85 km/h) with higher gusts. Some strengthening is possible overnight before weakening likely commences by Friday afternoon.

Tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 80 miles (130 km) from the center.

The estimated minimum central pressure is 1005 mb (29.68 inches).

Watches and Warnings

There are no coastal watches or warnings in effect.

Land Hazards

None.

Copenhaver was in the bleachers during the event in Butler, Pennsylvania, when a 20-year-old gunman opened fire from a nearby rooftop, grazing Trump’s right ear with one bullet. Copenhaver was struck in the arm and in the abdomen, wounds that left him with lingering injuries and walking with a cane.

Two other attendees were also shot — David Dutch, who survived, and Corey Comperatore, who shielded his family from gunfire and was killed.

Copenhaver died Wednesday at Allegheny Health Network’s West Penn Hospital in Pittsburgh, according to a statement from the Allegheny County medical examiner cited in local media accounts.

Copenhaver’s lawyer, Joseph Feldman, said in a statement issued on behalf of the family that he died surrounded by loved ones. The statement did not specify if his death was directly related to the injuries he suffered at the rally.

Copenhaver and his wife, Marianne Copenhaver, sued the federal government in June, alleging that the Secret Service and Department of Homeland Security had “utterly failed” to provide appropriate security at the rally. Copenhaver’s injuries required multiple surgeries, including a transection of his colon, and he had lingering kidney and other damage, including a loss of feeling in his leg. The lawsuit described the wounds as “debilitating, grievous, permanent and life altering.”

The family's statement Thursday called Copenhaver above all else a devoted husband, father and grandfather who instilled the values of hard work, integrity and the service to others in his children.

“James’s dedication to this great country was a defining part of his life,” it said. “As a veteran, he proudly served our nation in the armed forces, and his love of country never wavered. James was a true American patriot who believed deeply in the freedoms and ideals upon which this nation was founded, and he embodied the very best traits of our great nation.”

In a statement posted to social media, Trump on Thursday called Copenhaver “a true American Patriot.”

“Jim showed tremendous bravery, courageously continuing to FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT, and maintaining a positive spirit despite unimaginable hardships,” Trump wrote.

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Johnson reported from Seattle and Smyth from Columbus, Ohio.

Heavy rains from powerful Hurricane Polo could cause life-threatening flooding and landslides in Mexico, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center. In places like the port city of Lazaro Cardenas, seawater swept through homes Thursday and left wooden planks and furniture strewn on the streets.

Polo has gone back and forth between Category 4 and 5, both major-hurricane strength. The strongest winds were expected to remain offshore as the storm’s center skirts the coast before moving out to sea. But Polo was forecast to hook back toward Mexico’s coast farther north on Saturday.

Far off the southern tip of Hawaii’s Big Island, Tropical Storm Nolo was gathering strength, and forecasters expect it to become a hurricane soon. Hawaii is likely to see heavy rains starting late Thursday and winds reaching hurricane levels by early Saturday. Nolo could dump more than 2 feet (60 centimeters) of rain across islands still recovering from a string of storms.

The series of powerful storms comes as the weather phenomenon El Niño prompts major environmental shifts across the world, fueling drought in some areas and flooding in others. El Niño traditionally dampens the Atlantic hurricane season, while it tends to rev up tropical cyclone activity in the Pacific with moist air and little wind shear.

Hawaii has been battered this year by major flooding in the spring, an earthquake and two other hurricanes since mid-August.

“In my 20 years of experience here, I’ve never seen three hurricane watches for the islands in the same year,” said John Bravender of the National Weather Service in Honolulu.

Hurricane Polo could trigger flooding and mudslides in Mexico

Mexican authorities were opening shelters and clearing people from beaches, while coastal residents tried to protect businesses from getting swept away. People in high-risk areas were being evacuated, though authorities didn’t immediately say how many.

Much of the worry from locals comes from hurricanes in past years that devastated cities along the Pacific coast. Hurricane Otis in 2023 unexpectedly plunged Acapulco into turmoil for weeks.

“So many people said it wouldn’t happen and then it did. After that, you’re left on edge,” said Gonzalo Ramírez, a bartender in the city.

Polo posed the biggest threat to Guerrero and Michoacán, neighboring states in southwest Mexico that share a long coastline scattered with small ports, tourist towns and fishing villages. Much of the area is marked by poverty, and residents routinely complain they are left to fend for themselves during natural disasters.

Mexican authorities have deployed 15,000 security personnel across the coast and suspended schools.

In Lázaro Cárdenas, a port city in Michoacán that was hit with high surf, locals and government officials were clearing out piles of wooden planks from a number of destroyed ramadas and shoveling thick mud coating much of the town.

Alicia Contreras said the walls and roof of her restaurant had been severely damaged by 15-foot (4.5-meter) waves. As officers and family helped pick through the damaged house, Contreras worried how she would economically recover.

“This is huge because we have no other source of income. Now we’re just surviving,” Contreras said.

Nolo could hit Hawaii as a hurricane as soon as Friday

Forecasters said Tropical Storm Nolo might grow into a major hurricane and could drop 20 inches (50 centimeters) of rain on the Big Island, with even higher amounts possible through Saturday.

The island of Maui could also be hit with life-threatening floods and mudslides, the hurricane center said.

While the Big Island is expected to bear the brunt of the storm, its full path remains uncertain, according to Bravender, the weather service's warning coordination meteorologist in Hawaii.

Most concerning, he said Thursday, is that the heaviest rain is likely to fall over the same southeastern region of the Big Island hit in August by Hurricane Lala and where grounds are still wet from additional precipitation.

“There are several communities that were isolated, flooded, roads that were washed out,” he said. “It’s that same area that is most under threat,” Bravender said.

Hawaii officials told residents to put together emergency kits and the governor issued an emergency proclamation, activating more than 230 Hawaii National Guard members. Schools were closed for the rest of the week.

Hawaiian Electric, the state’s primary utility, said crews that had been helping restore power in Kauai after this month’s Hurricane Lowell would return to Oahu, Maui and the Big Island in preparation for the coming storm.

Odalys and Fay are not near land

A third storm in the Pacific, Hurricane Odalys, was centered far from land roughly 1,110 miles (1,785 kilometers) west-southwest of the southern tip of Mexico’s Baja California peninsula.

In the northern Atlantic Ocean, Tropical Storm Fay re-formed early Thursday, the U.S. hurricane center said. It was nearly 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) west-southwest of the Azores.

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Aoun Angueira reported from San Diego. Associated Press journalists John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio, Hannah Schoenbaum in Salt Lake City and Jeriel Vargas Ambriz in Lázaro Cárdena, Mexico, contributed.

With their countries in a generational contest for economic and technological dominance, the two appear to be betting that a combination of personal rapport and mutual interest can prevent the competition from boiling over into open conflict.

“From the time of my first election in 2016, President Xi and I have forged a friendship, a truly great friendship, actually, built on mutual respect and the vital interests of our people,” Trump said as he welcomed Xi to the White House for a pomp-filled state visit on Thursday.

Xi was more pointed than Trump, saying Chinese and American interests are “deeply intertwined” and that the “competition should be a healthy one and should be kept within bounds.”

He also reiterated his warning that the U.S. and China must avoid the “ Thucydides trap,” referring to the idea that when a rising power threatens to displace an established one, the result is often war. Xi offered a similar warning when Trump visited Beijing in May.

“It should be a race of catching up with one another, not a wrestle in which one either wins or loses,” Xi added.

China has resisted the Trump administration's urgings — and economic threats — to use its considerable leverage to prod Iran to agree to U.S. terms to end the nearly seven-month war. Xi wants to see Trump permanently halt arms sales to Taiwan and loosen export restrictions on cutting-edge advanced chips. The two sides on Wednesday agreed to extend by two months a one-year trade truce that was set to expire Nov. 10 as they work to find a more durable agreement.

Xi presses Trump on Taiwan

During their private conversation on Thursday, Xi told Trump he hopes the U.S. can adhere to opposing Taiwan independence and urged him to “prudently handle the Taiwan issue,” according to the Chinese state media outlet Xinhua. The White House did not immediately release any readout of the talks and Trump, who frequently offers his own take of his interactions with foreign leaders on his social media platform, has yet to weigh in on the substance of his conversations with Xi.

Trump, who is in the midst of a legal fight after trying to bar CNN, MSNOW, and Politico from the White House, did complain that TV networks “refused to cover one of the Biggest and Most Beautiful Events to take place in many years.” The White House’s five-network television pool rotation refused to cover Trump’s events in response to the action against CNN.

China has made clear it views Taiwan as the most sensitive issue in the U.S.-China relationship. Beijing considers Taiwan to be Chinese territory and vows to annex the island by force if necessary. The United States is obligated by law to provide Taiwan with sufficient hardware to deter any armed attack from the mainland. The U.S. has said it opposes any unilateral changes to the status quo by either side.

China has repeatedly pressed Washington to permanently halt the arms sales, including when Trump and Xi met in Beijing in May.

After that meeting, Trump said he was holding off on final approval for a record $14 billion arms package that was in the pipeline. He also described arms sales to Taiwan as a “very good negotiating chip” with China.

Xi says China and US should make sure AI is ‘always under human control’

Trump said in a social media post earlier Thursday that artificial intelligence — “superintelligence” as he is trying to rebrand it — was high on the agenda. The president has been dismissive of calls for greater regulation amid growing global anxiety that the technology will kill jobs or potentially even wipe out humanity.

“I want to leave it exactly where it is,” Trump wrote. “That is China’s position also.”

But Xi, in his opening comments, said that the two countries had a responsibility to ensure that humans always operate AI.

“We have both the capability and responsibility to develop and manage AI for good and ensure that the development of AI is always under human control and serves the well-being of the people,” the Chinese leader said.

The two countries’ finance ministers met earlier this week, with the U.S. proposing a new “notification mechanism” for AI incidents between the two nations.

Trump rolls out the red carpet for Xi

Trump had made clear he wanted to impress Xi with the visit. The Republican president made sure construction of a new helicopter landing pad on the White House's South Lawn was completed before the visit and he met Xi and his wife, Peng Liyuan, on Wednesday evening when they flew into Joint Base Andrews outside Washington.

The White House also arranged an elaborate military review, which the leaders and their spouses observed before the Oval Office talks.

After about 90 minutes of talks, the leaders stepped out to the South Lawn so Trump could show off the new White House helipad and give Xi a tour of Marine One, the presidential helicopter. Trump and Xi also appeared to peer at the ballroom construction site from afar. Xi left the White House shortly after the quick tour and returned in the evening for the state dinner.

“We had a great meeting,” Trump said in a brief exchange with reporters after the tour.

The black-tie dinner in the White House East Room was decorated in red décor. The White House said there will be a toast honoring the late President Richard Nixon, whose 1972 trip to China led to the establishment of diplomatic relations in 1979 and the parallel severing of formal ties with Taiwan.

While Trump has offered plenty of glitz, some China analysts observed that the talks seemed light on substance.

Danny Russel, a former senior State Department official who served in former President Barack Obama's administration, observed that the two leaders spent more time in social and ceremonial events than in formal talks about the core issues facing the two nations.

“Pageantry and protocol don’t add up to progress. Pandas are cute, but what America needs are rare earths,” said Russel, a distinguished fellow at the Asia Society Policy Institute. “What we’re seeing isn’t diplomacy so much as ‘diplotainment,’ which won’t do much to solve the serious problems in the US-China relationship,” Russel said.

Xi urges US and Iran to return to interim agreement

The two sides discussed the ongoing conflict in Iran, according to Chinese state broadcaster China Central Television.

Trump has argued to little effect that China, which is far more dependent on Gulf oil than the U.S., has plenty of incentive to use its sway with Tehran to help force an end to the conflict.

But Trump's war of choice has unnerved Beijing, with the government condemning the U.S. and Israeli military action and Xi previously expressing concerns that the conflict signaled a return to what he called the “law of the jungle.” The U.S. administration has warned China, Tehran's biggest trading partner, not to aid Iran’s military effort.

Xi, during Thursday's talks, said China supports the U.S. and Iran returning to a short-lived interim deal from the summer to wind down the war, according to CCTV. That agreement broke down soon after it was signed in June as the countries traded renewed fire over control of the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial waterway for energy shipments.

The two leaders also discussed the Russia-Ukraine war and North Korea, according to a Chinese government statement.

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Associated Press writers Bill Barrow, Collin Binkley, Josh Boak, Kevin Freking, Seung Min Kim, Darlene Superville and Will Weissert and AP photographer Jacquelyn Martin contributed to this report.

Reporters from CNN, MS NOW and Politico returned to the White House Thursday afternoon, hours after a federal judge temporarily blocked Trump’s ban of three news outlets. Despite the ruling, the journalists were initially denied access Thursday morning. The back-and-forth was the latest in an extraordinary showdown between Trump and media outlets whose coverage he dislikes.

Trump’s pick to lead the Food and Drug Administration voiced support for the safety of long-established vaccines at a hearing Thursday, even as senators questioned her about the White House’s efforts to upend childhood immunizations.

Here's the latest:

Xi arrives at state dinner

Trump, clad in a tuxedo, and first lady Melania Trump, in a tuxedo-style jumpsuit with a large necktie bow, greeted Xi and his wife Peng Liyuan in front of the White House.

Xi, in a black suit, and Peng, in a red gown, emerged from their limousine onto a red carpet at the North Portico, where they shook hands with the Trumps.

The four then posed for pictures before going inside.

Loud protest near White House can be heard as guests arrive at dinner

The crowd standing behind a fence along Lafayette Park held flags and signs and appeared to have speakers that carried their voices across the park and all the way to the North Portico of the White House, where an honor guard and red carpet were laid out for guests attending the state dinner.

The protesters could be heard chanting “Xi Jinping has got to go” and “Shame! Shame Xi Jinping!” as their chants grew louder.

It’s prime day for Amazon founder at state dinner for Chinese leader

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and his wife, Lauren Sanchez Bezos, arrived at the White House for the state dinner.

Trump has bragged about the wealth gathering in the East Room for the meal, and Bezos brings with him a net worth of $369.3 billion, according to Forbes.

Here’s what’s on the state dinner menu

First lady Melania Trump has ordered a three-course meal that will be served on the red china dishes from Ronald Reagan’s presidency.

The meal will open with a starter of yellow squash velouté and wild mushroom fricassee with crispy pancetta beneath a drizzle of scallion oil.

It will be followed by an entrée of sesame-crusted sea bass with braised baby bok choy, roasted eggplant and herb sauce.

The meal will be capped by a vanilla crémeux with a sour cherry confit center on top of a walnut frangipane and a serving of ice cream made using honey from bee houses at the White House.

Billionaires behind AI join state dinner

Nvidia founder Jensen Huang, famous for wearing black leather jackets at public events worldwide, came to the White House with his wife, Lori, looking far more formal in a well-tailored tuxedo.

The chipmaker whose products power AI is worth an estimated $192.7 billion, according to Forbes.

Open AI CEO Sam Altman autographed baseballs and other items as he arrived at the White House. Altman has warned about AI models creating major risks for the world, but he’s coming to the state dinner as something of a celebrity.

The buildout of AI has been powering U.S. economic growth, and Altman is worth $3.3 billion, according to Forbes.

Democratic senator blasts Trump for deferential treatment of Chinese leader

Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, lambasted Trump’s deferential treatment of Xi and said Trump hadn’t pressed China hard enough to keep its commitments on trade.

“In return for China breaking nearly every trade promise it has made, Trump is rolling out the red carpet for President Xi,’’ Wyden said in a statement. “Trump has not even succeeded in forcing China to live up to the weak deal that he struck.”

Wyden referred to unfulfilled promises made by China to buy more U.S. farm goods and release rare earth minerals, which he said is “harming our manufacturers and American jobs.”

“There is no evidence that Trump is using this opportunity to push back on the Chinese government policies that hurt our workers and businesses, from forced labor to state subsidies,” Wyden said.

More pomp than substance, former US diplomat says

Danny Russel, a former U.S diplomat serving in the Obama administration, expressed concern that the two leaders spent more time on social and ceremonial events than the actual talk, which was about 90 minutes.

“Pageantry and protocol don’t add up to progress. Pandas are cute, but what America needs are rare earths,” said Russel, now a distinguished fellow at the Asia Society Policy Institute.

“What we’re seeing isn’t diplomacy so much as ‘diplotainment,’ which won’t do much to solve the serious problems in the U.S.-China relationship,” Russel said. “No amount of flattery and pomp translates into leverage over China.”

Trump fumes about networks not covering Xi’s White House welcome ceremony

The president posted online that TV networks “refused to cover one of the Biggest and Most Beautiful Events to take place in many years.”

He added, “The event was magnificent — Actually made for Television” but no network covered it “because they knew how good it would be, they didn’t want credit to be given to “TRUMP.”

The event actually wasn’t covered because the White House’s five-network television pool rotation has refused to cover Trump’s events after he moved to ban one of its members, CNN, along with MS Now and Politico, from the White House grounds.

A judge issued a temporary order on Thursday allowing the three outlets back at the White House. But the network pool has continued not to cover Trump because CNN hasn’t yet had its place in the pool rotation covering presidential events restored.

Xi and Trump talk about Iran, Russia-Ukraine and North Korea, China says

The two leaders exchanged views on global and regional issues such as the Middle East, Ukraine and the Korean Peninsula, according to the official Chinese government readout of the meeting at the White House.

Xi and Trump also confirmed their mutual support for hosting regional meetings in the coming weeks, the statement said.

China is to host the annual summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation grouping in November, and the U.S. is holding this year’s G20 summit in Florida. The statement didn’t say if the leaders will attend each other’s summit.

Xi also said the two leaders decided to build a “constructive strategic and stable China-U.S. relationship.” Such a relationship benefits not only the Chinese and American people, but the people of the world, the statement said.

Trump administration seeks Supreme Court approval for quick deportations

The Trump administration has asked the Supreme Court to allow continued quick deportations of immigrants to third countries where they have no ties.

The federal government claims these countries have assured the U.S. no harm will come to the deportees. The administration is asking for an immediate halt to lower court orders finding that these people must have the chance to object before the U.S. government deports them to countries other than their homelands.

The justices previously allowed the deportation flights to continue temporarily — when the case came before them last year. Since then, an appeals court has upheld a Boston-based judge’s final ruling that migrants must have a meaningful chance to argue a third-country deportation would put them in danger of persecution or torture.

Who’ll attend the state dinner from Capitol Hill?

Any White House state dinner guest list is shrouded in secrecy until just before the event, but at least one Republican lawmaker is confirmed to be attending Thursday’s state dinner.

At the last Xi dinner in Washington, then-President Barack Obama made some bipartisan outreach, including then-Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee and then-Rep. Charles Boustany of Louisiana, both Republicans, on the guest list.

It doesn’t seem likely that there will be that kind of cross-party outreach from Trump. During the first state dinner in his second term, honoring King Charles, the lawmakers invited were only Republicans.

Chinese state media: Xi urges talks over Iran and supports a comprehensive deal

In meeting with Trump, Xi said China supports the U.S. and Iran returning to an interim deal that was signed in June in an effort to wind down the war, according to the Chinese state broadcaster China Central Television.

Xi said China hopes the two sides can return to dialogue and negotiations as soon as possible for an eventual, comprehensive deal, including on Iran’s nuclear program.

The interim deal broke down soon after it was signed as the sides traded renewed fire over control of the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial waterway for energy shipments. China is Iran’s biggest oil buyer and its largest trading partner.

The Chinese state broadcaster is authorized to release official statements.

International body says it wasn’t invited to observe US election in break from tradition

An international body known for monitoring elections in 57 countries says it has not been invited to observe the U.S. midterm elections, as it has for every federal election there since 2002.

The United States is a founding member of the group, the Organization for Security and Cooperation and Europe, which was created during the Cold War to help ease East-West tensions.

Maria Telalian, the director of OSCE’s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, said the office had built a constructive relationship with U.S. authorities and electoral stakeholders over the years. She said the organization regrets not being able to continue that work.

The State Department said: “The United States is one of the world’s oldest constitutional democracies. ODIHR should focus its limited resources on elections where it can have the greatest impact.”

Committee vote for surgeon general nominee delayed

A key Senate committee has delayed a vote on the nomination of Trump’s choice for surgeon general, Dr. Nicole Saphier, a radiologist and former Fox News Channel contributor.

Saphier’s nomination, which is Trump’s third pick for the role, was expected to move this week out of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions.

However, a committee statement says her nomination vote has been postponed and will not take place this week. A new date has not yet been set.

Meanwhile, the nomination of Chris Klomp to serve as deputy secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services has advanced out of the Senate Finance Committee — on a 14 to 13 vote. It’s unclear, however, when a full Senate vote will take place on that nomination.

Energy Department to spend $2B to squeeze more electricity from aging power grid

The Energy Department said Thursday that it will spend almost $2 billion to try to squeeze more electricity out of the nation’s aging and stressed power grid.

That announcement comes as the Trump administration steps up efforts to avoid blackouts amid skyrocketing energy demand spurred by artificial intelligence.

Officials say the money will go toward 31 projects across 26 states that are expected to produce enough additional electricity to power 16 million homes. The projects are to use new technologies such as sensors to ensure safe transmission or direct power away from congested or overloaded paths.

The Energy Department says the upgrades could improve power reliability and lower electricity costs for about 100 million Americans. It comes as electricity bills rise faster than inflation in many parts of the U.S.

Israel’s Netanyahu: Attacking Iran was ‘one of the easiest decisions’ he’s ever made

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has told world leaders at the United Nations that attacking Iran “was one of the easiest decisions I’ve ever had to make.”

He denounced as “moral cowards” a mass of delegates who walked out of the U.N. General Assembly when he took the podium to speak. When Netanyahu walked to the rostrum, a mix of cheers, boos and mass walkouts erupted.

The Palestinian delegation had called for a mass walkout.

Netanyahu also thanked Trump for taking decisive action against Iran, and he insisted Israel would prevail: “We will continue to win because we have no other choice.”

Xi departs the White House

The Chinese leader left from the North Portico of the White House around 1:30 p.m.

Before he climbed into his limo, Xi shook hands with Trump and the men briefly spoke about the meeting they had.

Xi will return later Thursday evening for the state dinner.

Xi says there can be more direct flights between US and China

In his remarks at the White House, Xi said the two countries “may also increase direct flights to facilitate two-way travel and trade.”

The number of direct flights between the U.S. and China fell during the COVID-19 pandemic and has yet to recover to the pre-pandemic level.

Xi also said China is willing to strengthen cooperation with the U.S. on counternarcotics and law enforcement and that the two militaries “should maintain regular dialogue, and improve mechanisms for crisis communication and prevention.”

Trump and Xi climb aboard presidential helicopter on new White House helipad

“We had a great meeting” Trump said as the leaders approached the helipad with a green presidential helicopter parked on it. Xi said nothing.

Trump could then be seen gesturing as he showed Xi the letters of the helipad’s presidential seal, prompting Xi to nod.

The leaders later climbed aboard the presidential helicopter, which is known as Marine One when the president is aboard. They could be seen talking to the pilots, though what was said was unclear.

Trump and Xi also appeared to point at the sweeping construction site that is Trump’s planned ballroom, which is being built nearby.

Trump has bragged for weeks about rushing to finish the helicopter landing area in time for a visit by the head of China’s Communist Party — setting up his chance to show it off for Xi.

Energy secretary says administration asking refiners to cut exports to bring down diesel prices

Energy Secretary Chris Wright said the Trump administration is asking diesel exporters to voluntarily cut exports while prices are high and supplies are tight.

Wright told reporters after an event in Allentown, Pennsylvania, that exporters were told: “‘You got to put Americans first. Reduce a little bit your exports overseas, put some more diesel into the United States. Let’s grow our diesel inventories, let’s push prices down.’”

Wright said wholesale diesel prices dropped over 15 cents on Wednesday in the U.S. He added, “We need to see more of that diesel staying here to bring immediate relief to American buyers of diesel.”

Wright said the administration is working on other measures to bring down diesel prices and help refiners produce more but he couldn’t discuss those ideas yet.

Trump FDA nominee Heidi Overton voices support for vaccines

The president’s nominee to lead the Food and Drug Administration faced questions Thursday from senators who will vote on her nomination to lead the federal agency.

A physician and top White House adviser, Dr. Heidi Overton has worked on administration health efforts. That included a plan from Trump announced last month to break up longtime combination vaccines for children over safety concerns.

Overton said Thursday that FDA-approved vaccines remain safe and effective. She also responded to questions about FDA’s oversight of the abortion pill and vaping products.

The committee with vote on her nomination later.

In her current role as a domestic policy adviser, Overton also worked on White House health initiatives including the revamped food pyramid. Previously she was an executive at the America First Policy Institute, authoring papers critical of abortion and transgender care.

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US cybersecurity agency releases its report for the midterms

The agency is laying out potential threats to election systems and listing services it can offer to election officials to protect the vote.

Its report comes just 40 days before Election Day in the midterms and after state election officials have complained that they’ve not been getting the level of cooperation from the agency they’ve had in previous elections.

The Trump administration gutted the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s election work last year. It cut some 1,000 employees and slashed $10 million from two cybersecurity initiatives. That forced state and local election officials to pay for private services to ensure they were prepared for this year’s midterms.

CISA, as the agency is known, is housed under the Department of Homeland Security. Since its founding in 2018, it has helped warn state and local election officials about potential threats from foreign governments.

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Human Rights Watch voices low expectations for summit

At least one group has low expectations for what might come out of Trump’s meeting with China’s President Xi Jinping — Human Rights Watch.

“Human rights are not likely to be on the agenda, as both leaders have shown disregard for international human rights norms meant to constrain state power,” said Maya Wang, HRW’s Deputy Asia Director, writing in an emailed statement.

Trump and Xi were cited in HRW’s World Report 2026 as being major factors in imperiling a rules-based international order.

Dozens of people protest against Xi outside the White House

The protesters are waving Taiwanese flags and holding signs calling for religious freedom and an end to what they call dictatorship.

Some wore white T-shirts reading, “End the CCP,” an acronym for the Chinese Communist Party, while others held up a large banner declaring, “The CCP’s crimes against humanity are countless.”

Others held black-and-white photographs of Xi with large red X’s over his face.

Around 200 supporters of the Chinese leader also gathered outside the Waldorf Astoria hotel, where Xi is staying, waving Chinese and American flags and chanting, “Welcome, welcome, a warm welcome.”

US farmers are watching China’s promises to buy more soybeans

After the previous U.S.-China summit in May, the White House announced that China agreed to buy $17 billion annually in American agricultural products. That was atop China’s earlier commitment in October 2025 to purchase soybeans.

The deal restored an export market for farmers struggling with high fuel and fertilizer prices. But while soybean purchases have doubled since last year, China had only bought $3.9 billion worth of other U.S. agricultural products in the first seven months of 2026, according to data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

That rate is only slightly higher than during the trade war in 2025, and it’s unclear if China will reach the committed level by the end of the year. The USDA forecasts that China will purchase $21.5 billion worth of U.S. agricultural products in the fiscal year starting in October.

CNN, MS NOW and Politico reporters back at White House after judge intervenes

Reporters from CNN, MS NOW and Politico have returned to the White House, hours after a federal judge temporarily blocked Trump’s ban of three news outlets.

The judge said early Thursday that CNN, MS NOW and Politico must have their access restored.

Early Thursday afternoon, CNN and MS NOW journalists were back at the White House after the latest back-and-forth in an extraordinary showdown between Trump and media outlets whose coverage he dislikes.

The president announced Friday he was banning the outlets, assailing what he called “fake news.” The outlets argued they were singled out over the content of their coverage.

White House Press Operations Director Micah Stopperich wrote in a court filing that officials were notified at 7:10 a.m. Thursday to restore access, and the reporters got their badges back shortly after 10 a.m. once the Secret Service located and reactivated them.

Senate to vote on resolution to halt the Iran war as gas prices upend midterms

Increasingly anxious about the Iran war, senators are set to vote Thursday on a war powers resolution seeking to halt Trump’s military action, which has been largely blamed for the spike in fuel prices and become a flashpoint in the midterm election.

The Senate vote, days after Trump’s bombastic address to the United Nations in which he threatened to “annihilate” Iran, is likely to be the last chance for lawmakers to go on record about the war ahead of November. More Republicans are peeling way from the president as the war drags on, a rare slap back to Trump, as they campaign for control of Congress.

“They have been carrying water for this ridiculous and illegal war for months and months and months and not listening to their constituents,” said Sen. Tim Kaine, a Virginia Democrat, who pushed the war powers resolution forward. “And now they finally are.”

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Trump and Xi do a military review

In the late morning, Trump and Xi participated in a military review in the Rose Garden that was smaller in scale compared to the troop review Xi prepared for Trump in May.

With military band members positioned on the roof of the West Wing, the two leaders and their spouses watched as other musicians played, dressed in colonial wear and white wigs in homage to America's 250th anniversary. Twelve Marines later performed rifling tossing and formations. The military review concluded with a flyover of a B-2 bomber and four fighter jets soaring over the White House.

Xi confirms 2 pandas will come to Zoo Atlanta in the coming days

The Chinese president announced that as a measure of good faith, China would send two pandas to Zoo Atlanta after Beijing reclaimed four pandas in 2024 as diplomatic tensions between China and the U.S. intensified.

China and the zoo first announced in April that two pandas, male Ping Ping and female Fu Shuang, would be coming to the U.S. as part of a giant panda conservation agreement with the China Wildlife Conservation Association.

He called the panda loan programs with the U.S. “an envoy of friendship.”

China and the US must ensure AI is under human control, Xi says

Xi touched on artificial intelligence in his opening remarks, saying the two superpowers have a responsibility to ensure that humans always operate AI.

“We have both the capability and responsibility to develop and manage AI for good and ensure that a development of AI is always under human control and serves the well being of the people,” the Chinese leader said.

The two countries’ finance ministers earlier this week met, with the U.S. proposing a new “notification mechanism” for AI incidents between the two nations.

This is the first Trump-Xi meeting at the White House

The U.S. president noted that he and the Chinese leader have met all over the world, including in China and in Palm Beach, Florida, at the president’s club.

But this is actually the first time the two are meeting at the White House proper, Trump noted.

“We have spent time together all over the world,” he said.

During those visits, Xi and Trump have “forged a friendship, a truly great friendship, actually,” the U.S. president said.

Trump noted that a lot has changed at the White House since Xi was last there for an Obama-hosted state visit — a nod to his renovation projects.

Xi state visit underway at the White House

Just after 10 a.m. ET, the official state visit by China’s Xi Jinping was underway.

To the blare of trumpets, Trump and first lady Melania Trump walked out of the White House residence onto the South Lawn, where they were to greet Xi and Madame Peng.

China’s leader and his spouse then walked out of a black vehicle, where they warmly shook hands with the Trumps. Then the four posed for the cameras.

Trump-Xi schedule does not include a joint news conference

The presidents of the U.S. and China are scheduled to deliver remarks Thursday morning at the White House and again in the evening as part of a state dinner.

The schedule does not include a news conference, and it’s unclear whether Trump and Xi will take questions from either American or Chinese reporters.

In a 2015 meeting, Xi and President Barack Obama held a joint news conference as part of a White House summit. In the Rose Garden, which Trump has since turned into a patio, each president made opening remarks. Then they each answered one question from a U.S. reporter and another from a Chinese reporter before taking additional, nation-specific questions.

The Trump-Xi summit comes as U.S. networks are boycotting White House pool coverage in protest of Trump stripping credentials from MS Now, Politico and CNN.

The district says the changes are part of its annual campus leveling process, which compares the number of students schools were expected to have with the number actually enrolled after the school year begins.

One English teaching position at Carnegie Vanguard High School has been eliminated. At Lamar High School, an email to families says several programs and services will be affected, including choir, agriculture, debate, IB Career-related Programs, the pre-K partnership program and student support services.

The changes are happening before HISD’s October enrollment snapshot, when the district counts the students actually enrolled. That number helps determine school funding.

HISD says campuses with enrollment above projections can receive additional funding, while campuses with lower-than-projected enrollment may see funding and staffing adjusted. The district also says some employees may be reassigned to other schools where there are staffing needs.

“We have worked hard over the last three years to put HISD on stronger financial footing while putting more resources into classrooms and increasing teacher pay,” Superintendent Mike Miles said in a September 22 statement. “But we also have to adjust when enrollment and revenues change.”

The district says the budget adjustments are part of a broader financial environment facing HISD and other public school districts, including enrollment declines.

Parents raise concerns about the timing

At a Heights neighborhood school, one parent who asked not to be identified said families were told at a PTO meeting that the campus would lose nearly $180,000 in funding because of district budget cuts.

“It was a PTO meeting where we were told by school leadership that because of budget cuts to the district, that we would be losing, the total was almost $180,000 in funding to our specific campus,” the parent said.

The parent said no specific cuts had been announced at the school at the time of the interview, but said personnel could potentially be affected.

“The kids get to know these staff members, like even if we’re six weeks into the school year, they build relationships with them,” the parent said.

The $180,000 figure is the parent’s account and has not been independently confirmed by HISD.

Questions about programs

Jackie Anderson, president of the Houston Federation of Teachers, said the impact of the cuts is difficult to determine because schools offer a mix of required classes and elective programs.

“A lot of times it’s why students choose those schools because they offer the programs that they want. Are those programs gonna be cut? We have a bunch of questions but no answers,” Anderson said.

Anderson said she has spent nearly four decades working in education and has not seen this type of broad campus-level cuts happen this early in the school year.

“Never, never. Like I said, they wait until the snapshot day,” she said.

Anderson also called for an independent audit of HISD’s finances and for the Texas Education Agency to investigate. Those are requests from the teachers’ union and have not been presented as findings by the district.

The October enrollment count

The timing of the cuts is drawing attention because the district’s fall enrollment snapshot is still ahead.

HISD’s September 22 announcement says the district makes initial staffing decisions based on enrollment projections developed in the spring. Once the school year begins, the district compares those projections with actual enrollment and can make staffing and budget changes.

Former longtime HISD principal and current board member Michael McDonough also questioned the timing.

“Now we are here the third week in September, and we’re already doing that,” McDonough said.

“That’s what’s bringing a lot more concern than usual,” he said.

Questions remain unanswered

HISD has been asked how much each affected campus must cut, how many positions are being eliminated or reassigned, which programs are being reduced, and how the changes could affect teacher-to-student ratios.

The district was also asked how the cuts fit with the recently approved budget and whether any adjustment to Superintendent Mike Miles’ compensation is being considered as HISD addresses its financial situation.

Several emails and calls seeking answers had not been returned at the time of publication.

For now, HISD says the campus changes are tied to enrollment and available resources, while the October snapshot will provide another count of how many students are actually enrolled across the district.

Thursday's state dinner for China’s leader Xi Jinping featured a cavalcade of billionaires, Washington powerbrokers, business leaders and the type of festivities that excite President Donald Trump, who has a reputation for reveling in hosting parties.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman signed autographs as he arrived at the White House. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang chose a tuxedo over his trademark black leather jacket. Bernard Arnault, the CEO of French luxury goods company LVMH, walked through black security fencing to get to the White House.

“Everyone wants to be there,” Trump said during this week's U.N. General Assembly session. “It's the hottest ticket in town.”

Xi and Trump face tensions over Taiwan, trade and artificial intelligence during business hours — even as an ongoing, First Amendment fight over press access at the White House has unfolded. But Trump publicly chose to focus on showing Xi his White House updates on Thursday afternoon, before attention quickly turned to the flashy details of the swanky meal honoring Xi and his wife, Peng Liyuan, in the White House East Room.

Asked on Monday night who'd be in attendance, the president responded, “sort of everybody,” adding, “I would say you have the entire tech world, the entire banking world and a lot more.”

The dinner was expected to showcase “the positive vibes surrounding the visit” and indicate that “the president is very focused on signaling warmth and a close personal connection with Xi,” said Edgard Kagan, senior adviser and chair in China studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

First lady Melania Trump’s menu features a first course of yellow squash velouté with wild mushrooms, fresh herbs, crispy pancetta and drizzled scallion oil.

After that, guests will get sesame-crusted sea bass with braised baby bok choy, roasted garden eggplant and a sauce verte. Dessert is vanilla crémeux with sour cherry confit and walnut frangipane, as well as ice cream with honey from the White House.

Trump has already sought to one-up Xi after Beijing

The dinner comes after the president took the unusual step of personally greeting Xi and his wife on Wednesday as they arrived at Joint Base Andrews outside Washington. Normally, presidents wait for their state visit guests to arrive at the White House itself before offering a formal welcome.

During Thursday's arrival ceremony, Trump and Xi reviewed troops with trumpets blaring and the U.S. president saying, “From the time of my first election in 2016 President Xi and I have forged a friendship.”

Thursday's dinner will include an abundance of technology industry titans, including Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Tesla and SpaceX’s Elon Musk, Sundar Pichai of Google, OpenAI President Greg Brockman and Michael Dell, the CEO of Dell Technologies.

During his own visit to Beijing in May, Xi treated Trump to a state dinner that unfolded beneath grand chandeliers at the Great Hall of the People. That event included many tech luminaries who are likely to be at the White House this time, such as Tim Cook, formerly Apple's CEO and Musk.

Trump has since begun referring to the White House ballroom that he’s building as the “Great Hall of the United States” to rival where he dined in China.

“This is a very large hall,” Trump recently said of the Great Hall of the People before adding, “But we’re gonna top it.”

Trump used to decry the pomp he now revels in

In 2015, as then-President Barack Obama was preparing to host Xi for a state visit, Trump — in the midst of his first run for president — criticized all the hubbub.

“Just take them to McDonald’s and go back to the negotiating table,” Trump said then, during a rally in South Carolina. He later conceded on Fox News Channel that Xi might at least be worthy of getting “probably a double-size Big Mac.”

Xi visited Trump in 2017 for the first time. But the White House said the Chinese wanted that meeting to happen at Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida, viewed as a more relaxed setting that might defuse some of the high expectations of a formal summit in Washington.

A dearth of pageantry didn't mean a lack of extraordinary moments, however, underscoring just how important having China's leader dine with Trump can be.

Later recounting the incident to Fox News Channel, Trump said he sprung a surprise on Xi just after dinner, noting that the U.S. was striking Syria as the pair was having “the most beautiful piece of chocolate cake that you’ve ever seen, and President Xi was enjoying it.”

Trump said he told Xi that U.S. forces had “just fired 59 missiles” and that China's president “was eating his cake. And he was silent.”

The Sept. 18 crash comes as Wyatt continues to face a pending driving while intoxicated charge in Galveston County stemming from her May arrest in Texas City.

According to the Texas Peace Officer’s Crash Report, the four-vehicle collision happened shortly after noon in the 6500 block of the North Freeway, north of Tidwell Road.

Investigators said Wyatt was driving a black 2005 Nissan Xterra northbound in the far-left lane behind another vehicle.

According to the investigator’s narrative, Wyatt “failed to control speed” and struck the back of that vehicle.

The impact caused the second driver to move into the adjacent lane, according to the report. Police said Wyatt then continued north and struck the back of a third vehicle, pushing that vehicle into a fourth.

The report lists six people involved in the crash and says none were injured.

Wyatt was issued a citation for failure to control speed.

The report also indicates no alcohol or drug specimen was collected from Wyatt. There is no allegation in the crash report that alcohol or impairment contributed to the collision.

We have reached out to Wyatt and her attorney for comment and will update this article when they get back.

Wyatt currently facing DWI charge in Galveston County

The crash happened roughly four months after Wyatt was arrested on a DWI charge in Texas City.

As KPRC 2 previously reported, a Texas City police officer responded to Highway 3 around 1:30 a.m. on May 9 after receiving a report of a vehicle stopped in the left lane.

• RELATED: Harris County Treasurer Carla Wyatt’s latest arrest adds to growing legal troubles during re-election campaign

According to the probable cause affidavit obtained by KPRC 2, the officer found Wyatt in the driver’s seat of a running Toyota 4Runner and wrote that she appeared to be asleep.

When the officer woke Wyatt and asked where she was, the affidavit says Wyatt initially responded that she was “in heaven.” She later told the officer she was in Houston and was headed to Galveston for a conference.

The officer wrote that Wyatt initially said she had consumed one glass of wine at home and later said she had two. According to the affidavit, the officer reported smelling alcohol and observing Wyatt swaying and other alleged signs of intoxication.

Wyatt was arrested and charged with DWI. KPRC 2 previously reported that she was released on a $3,000 bond. The case remains pending.

Wyatt’s attorney has previously said they looked forward to reviewing the evidence and investigating the basis for the arrest.

Previous DWI case dismissed after pretrial diversion

The Galveston County case is Wyatt’s second DWI case.

KPRC 2 previously obtained records showing Wyatt was arrested for DWI in Houston in December 2023.

According to the HPD report from that case, officers found Wyatt in the driver’s seat of a vehicle stopped in the roadway on Scott Street near Old Spanish Trail. A witness told police Wyatt appeared to be going in and out of consciousness.

• RELATED: Harris County Treasurer Carla Wyatt told police she was ‘in heaven’ during DWI arrest, affidavit says

Officers reported that Wyatt had slurred speech, balance issues and smelled of alcohol. According to the police report, breath samples registered between .365 and .367, more than four times Texas’ legal limit of .08.

That DWI charge was ultimately dismissed after Wyatt completed a pretrial diversion program.

Other legal and political scrutiny

Wyatt, who was elected Harris County Treasurer in 2022, was also arrested in December 2025 on a burglary of a motor vehicle charge.

Police accused Wyatt of entering another person’s vehicle outside a business on Washington Avenue. Her attorney, Christopher Downey, said at the time that Wyatt’s behavior was “unusual” but maintained that she did not intend to commit theft.

A Harris County grand jury later no-billed the case, declining to indict Wyatt.

Earlier this year, Harris County Commissioners Court also unanimously moved some financial responsibilities out of the Treasurer’s Office. Commissioners have discussed pursuing the elimination of the elected office through the constitutional amendment process.

In August, Wyatt asked for her $139,547 salary to be increased to $305,000, arguing that she should be compensated similarly to other countywide elected officials. A citizen salary grievance committee later recommended a smaller increase to $181,411, but Commissioners Court rejected that recommendation earlier this month.

Wyatt is seeking reelection as Harris County Treasurer in the Nov. 3 election.

The shooting happened around 2:40 p.m. Tuesday on a sidewalk outside Westfield High School, where Witchet was a student. Deputies arrested the accused shooter roughly 24 hours later during a traffic stop. He is now charged with murder, a first-degree felony, the sheriff’s office confirmed Thursday.

What happens first in juvenile court

At 14, the accused is at the minimum age to be considered for certification as an adult. But before that decision is ever made, there is a lengthy process that plays out entirely within the juvenile system.

Houston attorney Rick DeToto of DeToto Law Firm, said it could be six months to a year — give or take — before prosecutors even decide whether to ask a judge to certify the teen as an adult.

“It’s not a snap decision,” DeToto said. “They are working with juveniles, younger people, and they do a very thorough job in trying to make a determination if they should go forward with certification.”

The certification process, explained

The district attorney’s office must first conduct its own internal review — speaking with investigators, consulting with the victim’s family and gathering as much information as possible about the juvenile before making any recommendation to the court.

If prosecutors decide to seek certification, the case moves to a hearing that functions somewhat like a mini-trial. Before that, evidence must be shared with the defense, a psychological evaluation must be completed, and only then does a juvenile judge begin weighing all the factors — including the teen’s maturity and sophistication — before deciding whether to transfer the case to adult court.

“The ultimate decision is up to the judge,” DeToto said. “First, the DA’s office makes a decision if they’re going to take that path. They file the paperwork with the court and then the court does some things to get ready for the hearing to make that determination.”

How the facts of a case can influence the outcome

DeToto said the circumstances of a crime can carry significant weight when a judge considers certification — and the nature of this case is notable.

“A 14-year-old that allegedly committed an execution-style murder — that would probably weigh towards possibly certifying the person, as opposed to maybe someone that has a gun at school and then accidentally goes off and kills somebody,” DeToto said. “I think definitely the facts of the case are something that both the district attorney’s office and the court will look at to make a determination if that person should be certified. It’s a case-by-case basis.”

• RELATED: 14-year-old now charged with murder in fatal shooting of Westfield High School student

However, the suspect’s young age works in the opposite direction.

“I think that the age of the child, the younger the child, depending on the circumstances, it weighs against certification,” DeToto said.

Beyond age and the nature of the crime, judges and prosecutors may also examine a juvenile’s background, psychological history, school record, prior behavior and any known gang affiliations before making a final determination.

What changes if the teen is certified as an adult

If a juvenile judge ultimately decides to certify the teen, the transfer to adult court would happen quickly — often the same day.

“That day or shortly after, they should be picked up and transferred over to the Harris County Jail,” DeToto said. “That’s kind of a scary thing when you have a 14-year-old, 15-year-old that’s certified as an adult that’s transferred over to the Harris County Jail.”

DeToto, who has handled similar cases over a 30-year career, said that once a juvenile is transferred to adult court, defense attorneys can often secure a bond — which doesn’t happen when a case is in the juvenile system.

“They’re most likely going to be held while the case is pending on a murder or a capital murder type case,” DeToto said.

• RELATED: 14-year-old arrested in deadly shooting of Westfield High School student

A detention hearing is generally held every 10 working days while a juvenile is in custody to determine if they can be released, but bond is not an option.

For now, DeToto believes the accused teen will remain in custody.

“I suspect that the district attorney’s office is going to seek that he be detained,” DeToto said. “I think that the judge is going to detain him while his juvenile case is pending.”

Juvenile proceedings remain confidential

One key difference between adult and juvenile court is transparency — or the lack of it. Juvenile proceedings are largely confidential by design, meaning the public will have limited access to details about what happens next in this case.

“It could be frustrating for the public because everything is done confidentially and no one’s going to get to the internal workings of it,” DeToto said. “But I’ve been doing this for 30 years and I’ve done this a couple of times. It’s a very well thought out process that a lot of people get to look at and make decisions on.”

DeToto noted that the confidentiality of the juvenile system exists to protect young people who make mistakes — not to shield suspects in serious criminal cases from accountability.

“The purpose of the juvenile system is rehabilitation,” he said. “The job of the district attorney’s office and the justice system is to sit back and look at everything and make an informed decision if they should or should not go forward on that.”

As the legal process unfolds, Witchet’s family is planning to speak publicly Friday afternoon. Investigators have not yet said whether the two teens knew each other or disclosed a motive for the shooting.

Douglas Stewart Carter was sentenced to death in 1985 after a jury found him guilty of murdering Eva Olesen, the aunt of a former Provo police chief. The state Supreme Court last year ordered a new trial, citing misconduct by investigators. Carter remains in custody and maintains his innocence.

No physical evidence linked him to the crime scene, but the jury convicted Carter, a Black man, based on a signed confession and two witnesses who said he had bragged about killing Olesen, who was white.

Judge Derek Pullan set a bond hearing for Monday, when defense attorney Neal Hamilton said he expects his client to be released pending an eight-week trial set to begin next July.

“It's not time to try to save face and continue with a tainted prosecution,” Hamilton said. “They know they don't have a case. The moral obligation is to dismiss.”

Utah County Attorney Jeffrey Gray said in a Wednesday court filing that the state was withdrawing an earlier notice that it intended to seek the death penalty. He said results of a DNA analysis received Tuesday excluded Carter as a possible match to blood found on a doorknob and material found on the handle of a knife used to stab Olesen, who was also shot.

Gray said the state planned to reexamine its decision to move forward with the case. But the prosecutor added that the new evidence “does not necessarily exonerate Carter of the murder.” Gray noted the handgun used to shoot Olesen was never found and Carter confessed.

Members of Olesen's family had testified during a hearing last month that Carter could pose a safety risk to them if he were released.

In a Thursday statement, the family said they “will not comment on the guilt or innocence of any individual” while prosecutors decide how to proceed.

“The latest developments have raised difficult questions and once again left our family without the sense of resolution we had hoped for after so many years,” the family said in the statement released by the Utah County Attorney's Office.

Carter has said his signed confession was coerced. The two witnesses he allegedly bragged to — a couple living in the U.S. without legal status — said years later that police and prosecutors offered to pay their rent, coached them to lie in court and threatened them and their son with deportation if they did not implicate Carter.

His defense attorneys also say witnesses saw a white man fleeing the crime scene and that an investigator suppressed evidence pointing to other suspects, including the victim’s husband, Orla Olesen. They allege prosecutors were close to filing charges against the husband, but a Provo police lieutenant asked them not to, so he could continue investigating. Carter was identified as a suspect soon after, the document alleges.

Orla Olesen, who died in 2009, had told police he found his wife dead in their home, partially undressed and with her hands tied behind her back.

The Georgian is out of Congress and has had a falling out with Trump. What’s next for her and her movement?

James Fulton Engstrom carried an ornate vessel containing the relics of his namesake, the man whom the Catholic Church credits with his miraculous survival as a newborn — Archbishop Fulton Sheen, who died in 1979.

It was a highlight of a lengthy ceremony of beatification for the famed 20th century TV prelate, who will now be known as Blessed Fulton Sheen — one step away from sainthood.

Catholic devotees converged on St. Louis for the afternoon ceremony, taking place at the Dome at America’s Center after years of delays. The indoor stadium was chosen because there wasn’t a venue large enough in his home Diocese of Peoria, Illinois, to accommodate the anticipated crowd.

The ceremony comes 16 years to the month since James was born at home without a pulse and was rushed to the hospital, even as his parents and others prayed earnestly and asked Sheen to add his heavenly prayers, following the Catholic tradition of seeking the intercessions of departed holy people.

After a formal inquiry, the Catholic Church determined that James' resuscitation — when medical workers were about to declare him dead — was a miracle attributable to Sheen's prayers. To qualify for beatification, the Vatican typically requires one miracle attributed to the candidate.

James' mother, Bonnie Engstrom, said before the ceremony that she expected it would feel like a “foretaste of heaven.”

She said she’d been praying to Sheen throughout her pregnancy, and “it was just a very natural thing in the hardest hour of our life” to seek his help.

The presentation of the relics, placed on a pedestal by the altar, was a highlight of a lengthy service that began with a formal procession of hundreds of priests and scores of bishops, lasting more than half an hour and accompanied by robust organ, choral and orchestral music.

A 20th century bishop draws a new audience

About 50,000 tickets were distributed, according to organizers. The halls and exhibit areas were thronged in the morning by pilgrims — priests in cassocks, nuns in habits, families with young children in tow, elderly worshipers who recalled watching Sheen on TV. Scores of bishops, a thousand priests and hundreds of religious order members, seminarians and deacons participated.

Many thronged exhibit booths or stood in long lines to give confession. Others quietly meditated throughout the morning in a makeshift chapel in front of a Eucharist displayed on an altar, including some who knelt on the concrete floor. Bishops have been seeking to promote this traditional devotion, which Sheen practiced regularly.

The Vatican’s top evangelization official, Filipino Cardinal Luis Tagle, the lead celebrant for the Mass, brought greetings from Pope Leo XIV, calling him Sheen’s “fellow Illinoisan.” Tagle called Sheen a model for evangelization, or sharing the faith.

Sheen was once a regular presence in the living rooms of millions of Americans — including that of the future pontiff, who says he watched Sheen's broadcasts while growing up in Chicago.

Attendees, many too young to have seen Sheen's broadcasts, said they’ve taken inspiration from his books and online videos.

“There’s just a revival in the American church as a whole,” said Joseph Punswick, a seminarian from the Diocese of Kansas City, Kansas. “To have an American pope, to have an American beatified man, is amazing to see. Look around. You see kids, you see young families, you see college kids.”

Other attendees, such as Mary Chalupsky of Milford, Connecticut, recalled watching Sheen’s original TV programs. “He brought so many to the faith,” she said.

The service reflected the modern media era, with a livestreamed liturgy and electrical signs urging attendees to use the social media hashtag #celebratesheen.

Sheen's journey from Peoria to primetime

Sheen was a pioneering radio priest who quickly adopted the burgeoning medium of television in the 1950s, when he began hosting the Emmy-winning program, “Life is Worth Living.” Dressed in a cassock, cape and skullcap, he stood at a chalkboard and delivered moral and religious lessons without a narrow Catholic focus.

Sheen was born in 1895 in the small town of El Paso, Illinois, and raised in Peoria. After becoming a priest and earning a doctorate in philosophy, he became a professor at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.

He became known for his academic lectures and his plainspoken addresses from the pulpit and the broadcast studio. He often signed off with the benediction, “God love you.”

Sheen appeared in a Time magazine cover article, and he guided celebrities and others converting to Catholicism.

He met with popes and spoke at the reformist Second Vatican Council. He railed against communism, though he opposed the Vietnam War.

Sheen raised funds and traveled the world on behalf of Catholic missions. He served as a bishop in New York state, retiring as an archbishop. After his death at 84, he was buried at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York until his niece won a court battle in 2019 to move his body to Peoria’s Cathedral of St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception, which now draws pilgrims to his tomb.

The Illinois teen tied to Sheen's path to sainthood

The late Pope Francis approved the beatification, attributing to Sheen the miracle of James' resuscitation.

James was born at home without a pulse in September 2010 and rushed to the hospital. Medical workers attempted to resuscitate him but were about to declare him deceased when his heart began beating normally, Engstrom and other witnesses said.

Bonnie Engstrom said she and her husband chose Sheen for James' patron after discovering the prelate's old videos, adding that Sheen's Midwestern-accented voice reminded her of her grandfather and great-grandfather. “He’s like a local boy,” she said at a news conference.

James, who just turned 16, has a devotion to Sheen, but he's largely avoiding the media spotlight. “He’s a delightful young man, but he’s still just a teenage boy, and he needs to be given the space and the grace to have his own journey of life," his mother said.

Sheen's beatification backstory

The beatification was originally scheduled for 2019, but the Vatican delayed the ceremony. The Diocese of Rochester, which Sheen briefly led in the 1960s, requested the delay out of caution, due to legal investigations taking place then into the oversight of priests accused of sexual abuse across New York state.

Church officials later concluded that Sheen’s record gave no cause for further delay, and plans for the ceremony resumed. Pope Leo approved the beatification earlier this year.

Monsignor Jason Gray, executive director of the Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen Foundation, said church investigators review records and interview witnesses before determining whether a healing qualifies as a miracle. He said there are now six more cases under investigation; a second miracle would qualify Sheen for sainthood under Vatican rules.

Peoria Bishop Louis Tylka said he believes the wait for canonization will be shorter than for the beatification, especially with an Illinois-born pope who's “very much aware of who Sheen is and how he influenced his own life.”

___

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.

Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco in February seized approximately 650,000 ballots from a November 2025 special election on statewide congressional redistricting favorable to Democrats and pushed by Gov. Gavin Newsom. The measure easily passed statewide, and won in Bianco's county by roughly 80,000 votes.

The court called the ballots’ seizure “unlawful,” saying California law requires ballots to remain in the custody and control of election officials, even during a criminal investigation.

Bianco said in an email message to his supporters that he will comply with the court’s order.

Election officials watched the case with an eye to the November midterms

Bianco’s ballot investigation came as President Donald Trump repeatedly disputed the results of the 2020 election, citing unsubstantiated instances of fraud. Trump’s administration in January seized ballots and other documents from an election office in Georgia. Some Republicans have mirrored Trump’s rhetoric on voting in their states.

Election officials and civil rights groups have been following the Bianco case carefully as they brace for the possibility that Trump or his allies may try to seize ballots in November.

Democratic Attorney General Rob Bonta immediately launched a legal challenge after the seizure, arguing the sheriff had no authority over election materials and warning his action was designed to sow distrust in elections. He ordered Bianco to return the ballots, but Bianco did not.

“The Court has now made clear that this kind of defiance cannot stand, that the Attorney General has the authority to intervene when sheriffs take improper action, and that voted ballots belong in the custody of elections officials,” Bonta said Thursday.

Sheriff seized the ballots after receiving a complaint about the vote count

Bianco said he confiscated the election materials after receiving a complaint from a local citizens group that the count was off. The group said it found a gap between the number of ballots cast and the number of ballots received in the election for the measure, sparked by a nationwide redistricting fight.

The group said it found a roughly 45,000-vote gap between the number of ballots cast and the number of ballots received by Riverside County in the special election for Proposition 50, the measure that redrew California’s congressional districts to favor Democrats.

Riverside County Registrar of Voters Art Tinoco said the group misread ballot data and that the actual gap was 103, well within the margin of error set by California’s secretary of state.

At the time, Bianco was one of two prominent Republicans running for governor in a crowded June primary. He did not advance to the general election and later announced plans to seek reelection as sheriff in 2028.

The University of California, Los Angeles Voting Rights Project also sued the sheriff and the Riverside County Registrar of Voters on behalf of several voters. Xavier Becerra, a former state attorney general and Democrat running for governor, was part of the UCLA lawsuit.

The state Supreme Court heard arguments in both cases last month.

Bianco began his own recount

Bianco began recounting the vote shortly after seizing the ballots, using sheriff’s officials under the supervision of a special master appointed by a court. But he suspended it days later, citing mounting legal challenges. He stopped the count after the California Supreme Court ordered him to do so.

Attorney Bradley Hertz, representing Bianco, argued before the court that the sheriff had a legal duty to open the investigation after receiving the complaint and followed the penal code to carry out that investigation, first issuing search warrants in February, but the court disagreed.

“If election misconduct is suspected, the Elections Code provides several mechanisms for law enforcement to review and examine ballots without compromising their integrity,” the court wrote.

The court ruled Thursday that a search warrant does not override the state’s electoral law.

“These are the voters’ ballots. They must be protected through the processes the Legislature has established. This ruling provides important clarity for election officials, law enforcement, and voters across California,” said Chad Dunn, legal director and co-founder of the UCLA Voting Rights Project.

On Saturday, Newsom signed a bill that would prevent anyone from seizing ballots.

Court finds state attorney general orders are binding

The court also settled whether the state's attorney general has authority over county sheriffs, saying the attorney general's orders are binding. Bianco had argued that an attorney general's role is that of an adviser.

Bianco said in his email message Thursday that while he will comply with the court's rulings, he “will not obey the message behind them — that local law enforcement works for Sacramento, not for the people who elected us.”

The money will go toward 31 projects across 26 states that are expected to produce more than 23 gigawatts of additional electricity capacity — enough to power 16 million homes. The projects will use new technologies such as sensors to measure real-time weather conditions to ensure safe transmission or direct power away from congested paths, the department said.

The upgrades could improve power reliability and lower electricity costs for about 100 million Americans, officials said.

“This is a quick way to lower electricity prices and increase reliability: using fibers that are already in the transmission lines to analyze what’s the temperature out, what’s the wind out, how can we use this transmission line to distribute more power, but safely and only in the right conditions," Energy Secretary Chris Wright said in a news conference promoting the grants Thursday at a PPL Corp. facility in Allentown.

The eastern Pennsylvania electric utility says two data centers in its territory came online this year and six more are under construction, with enough other data centers in the advanced planning stages that its peak electric demand could quintuple by 2032.

PPL said it is receiving $71.5 million to modernize an existing high-voltage transmission line across roughly 30 miles in northern Pennsylvania.

The announcement comes amid warnings that AI’s voracious demand for power is threatening to overwhelm U.S. power supplies, as massive new data centers come online faster than new power plants can be built. It also comes as electricity bills rise faster than inflation in many parts of the U.S., blamed in some areas on demand from data centers.

The snowballing opposition to data centers in communities across the country has thrown a wrench into the plans of the world’s richest companies and transformed the midterm election landscape.

Trump continues to stick up for data centers, even as politicians from both major political parties criticize them and many communities try to block them.

In the meantime, Congress and some states are trying to push utilities to expand their use of new technologies to make grids more efficient and to lessen the need to build new power plants.

Julia Selker, the executive director of the WATT Coalition, a trade association for grid-enhancing technologies, said both the projects and the scale of the investment are significant. Utilities in the U.S. are lagging places like Europe in adopting the technologies, despite federal investment in the past to develop and test them, Selker said.

Still, Drew Maloney, CEO of the Edison Electric Institute, a trade association of for-profit utilities, said America's electric utilities are making a “significant investment” every year in new technologies to strengthen the grid and reduce outages.

Wright said that work on the projects should begin right away and that he hoped some efficiencies are in place before this winter to tamp down price spikes when extreme weather sends demand skyrocketing.

Wright said he didn't know whether the projects would have gotten done without federal funding. Many, he said, had been under consideration before the grants were offered, but the grant recipients hadn't “quite pulled the trigger” on them.

Projects being announced Thursday will involve component enhancements on more than 1,500 miles (2,400 kilometers) of transmission lines and technological enhancements across nearly 21,000 miles (34,000 kilometers), the department said.

Projects were prioritized based on those that can be put into operation quickly, officials said. Money for the grants comes from the bipartisan infrastructure law enacted by Congress under then-President Joe Biden, a Democrat. The government's $1.9 billion in funding will be matched by $3.35 billion from the recipients, the department said.

Recipients include utilities, cooperatives and four state agencies. The state agencies — in Colorado, Indiana, Ohio and Oklahoma — were the biggest recipients, collectively drawing $810 million, with the Colorado and Oklahoma projects promising improvements to regional grids.

Trump has vowed to “unleash” the nation's energy sector in his second term, aiming to drive up record-setting domestic oil and gas production, strip away pollution restrictions on power plants and keep expensive coal-fired power plants operating past their retirement dates.

The administration also has pledged nearly $4 billion to buy back offshore wind leases as Trump seeks to discourage the expansion of wind energy in favor of fossil fuels.

His administration meanwhile has pushed to help tech giants build and connect data centers to power plants and high-voltage power lines and convert Cold War-era uranium enrichment plants into data center and power plant complexes.

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Daly reported from Washington.

Juszczyk was fined $14,926 after he imitated drinking a beverage following a catch in the third quarter of San Francisco's win over the Miami Dolphins on Sunday.

“Your imitation of chugging a beer constituted an offensive demonstration and could reasonably be construed as being in poor taste,” the league wrote in the fine letter to Juszczyk, which was obtained by The Associated Press. "Players are expected to conduct themselves in a manner that reflects positively on the game and is consistent with NFL standards of sportsmanship.”

Juszczyk, whose nickname is “Juice,” has been doing a version of that celebration throughout his career in San Francisco in response to 49ers fans chanting his nickname after catches or other big plays.

“I don't know how else to say it. I wasn’t drinking beer in my celebration,” Juszczyk said Thursday. “I think you guys all know my nickname is Juice. I have Juice on my pads. The stadium yells ‘Juice’ when I catch the ball. When I celebrate, I celebrate by drinking juice, and it’s been that way for years. So I was surprised as anybody when I got a fine this week.”

The fine was first reported by ESPN.

Juszczyk said he initially thought coach Kyle Shanahan was joking when he told him about the fine and hopes it gets removed after his appeal next week.

The NFL has vowed to crack down on celebrations this season and Juszczyk wasn't the only player to get fined this week. Juszczyk said he was told about six other players got fined. That includes Cincinnati receivers Ja'Marr Chase and Tee Higgins with Chase saying the two were docked for their new “people’s elbow” celebration.

Chase insisted the “people’s elbow” celebration, which involves grabbing his right elbow with his left hand and flopping the right arm forward, isn’t the sort of off-color humor others have made it out to be on social media, and they are simply creating a new way to signal a first down.

Juszczyk said he doesn't remember what the players were told about the crackdown during preseason but he never would have thought it would have applied to his longtime celebration.

Juszczyk's teammates are amused by the situation, with tight end George Kittle saying that his new nickname will be “Beer” instead of “Juice.”

Juszczyk himself had fun with it. Before talking to the media, he put a container on his locker shelf wrapped in white paper and “NOT BEER” written on it. He also had a picture of a juice box with his uniform number 44 displayed.

“That’s the other side of it, is I don’t even drink beer,” Juszczyk said. “I maybe drink like five times a year in the offseason. It’s usually with George because he peer pressures me.”

Juszczyk has been the 49ers' nominee for the Art Rooney Award for sportsmanship for the past six seasons. The only fines he has had previously are for illegal use of the helmet and low blocks. Juszczyk was fined $20,033 for illegal use of helmet in Week 1 and will be appealing that as well next week.

Juszczyk is in his 14th season in the NFL and 10th with San Francisco. He has made the Pro Bowl 10 times and was an All-Pro in 2023 and '25.

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AP Pro Football Writer Rob Maaddi and AP freelancer Jay Morrison contributed to this story

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See AP’s full NFL coverage here

Authorities in Florida arrested Robert M. Murphy Jr. on Wednesday night, and he was being held Thursday in the Marion County jail on out-of-state fugitive warrants from North Carolina. That came after a Wake County grand jury indicted Murphy on Sept. 14 on nine felony counts of sexual contact under pretext of medical treatment and 23 counts of sexual battery, a misdemeanor.

In a statement Thursday to The Associated Press confirming the indictment, Wake County District Attorney Lorrin Freeman said the charges were linked to 14 victims who were interviewed by law enforcement officers amid a multiyear investigation.

“This is a big step in a longer process committed to seeking justice on behalf of these victims,” Freeman said. “We commend the hard work of law enforcement and the courage of the victims who have brought us to this point.”

The Marion County Sheriff's Office listed the 32 charges but no additional details on its online database after his arrest, which was first reported by ESPN.

Allegations have moved from civil to criminal court

The case originated with a federal civil lawsuit from a single athlete filed four years ago. That complaint alleged years of misconduct by Murphy, such as improper touching of the genitals during massages and intrusive observation while collecting urine samples during drug testing.

The case eventually landed in state court in 2025 with 14 former Wolfpack athletes, with that number growing to 31 joining the lawsuit by late January. A judge dismissed the lawsuit in June, citing procedural reasons, while attorneys for the players have appealed.

According to the indictments unsealed Thursday afternoon, the 32 charges scattered among 14 victims covered allegations ranging from October 2016 to fall 2021. Murphy faces as many as six charges with two felony counts related to a single accuser, as well as a total of four charges and two felonies with another.

Jared Hammett and Seth Blum, Raleigh-based attorneys who have represented Murphy in the civil suits, have denied wrongdoing by their client. They did so again Thursday in a statement to the AP in response to the criminal charges that referenced N.C. State's 2022 statement that campus police had conducted an investigation that year and filed no criminal charges.

“We are very disappointed that the Wake County District Attorney’s office would choose to prosecute based on a changing story,” Hammett and Blum said. “Four years ago law enforcement concluded there was not enough to support charges. Apparently, after enough careful editing, someone came up with a story that got a prosecutor’s attention.

“We, as always, believe that when people hear the actual facts of what occurred, Mr. Murphy will be cleared and the truth will be paramount.”

Durham-based attorney Kerry Sutton, who has represented players going back to the original case, told the AP that the number of athletes who have contacted players’ attorneys with similar allegations has grown to 35.

“This is a huge development for the men,” Sutton said in a statement about the criminal charges. “They are extremely grateful for (Wake) ADA Melanie Shekita’s dedication and for the assistance of law enforcement in North Carolina and Florida.”

Civil lawsuits have taken winding paths through court system

All but two of those 31 athletes were “John Doe” plaintiffs to protect their identity, while two former men’s soccer players were named.

One is Benjamin Locke, who filed the original complaint in August 2022 and whose allegations dating to August 2015 were the subject of the N.C. State campus police's initial investigation. The AP typically doesn’t identify those who say they have been sexually assaulted or abused unless the person has spoken publicly about it, which Locke has done.

The other is one of two athletes who filed their own federal lawsuits in February 2023 and April 2023. One of those cases were dismissed by a district court before being revived in January 2025 by a federal appeals court.

The lawsuit in state court with 31 athletes as plaintiffs listed Murphy, who was at N.C. State from 2012-22, among nine defendants named individually. Others are school officials accused of negligence in oversight roles, including former athletic director Debbie Yow and current AD Boo Corrigan.

The judge's June dismissal of the lawsuit cited reasons such as the statute of limitations expiring in claims dating back as early as 2013. It had also cited jurisdictional grounds, stating any complaint should go through the North Carolina Industrial Commission — a state agency that deals with workplace matters because N.C. State is a public university — rather than civil court.

In a statement, N.C. State said it was aware of the criminal charges filed against Murphy.

“Sexual misconduct of any kind is unacceptable,” the university said. “The health and safety of students and student-athletes is paramount to N.C. State Athletics and the university. We are aware of the charges filed by Wake County against Robert Murphy. We will cooperate with law enforcement in this matter. As this is an ongoing legal matter, we cannot comment further at this time.”

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See AP’s full sports coverage here

Hamas said it was ready to move forward on a Gaza peace agreement, while a top European Union official said only a small amount of the funds needed to rebuild the Gaza Strip has been collected.

Here is a look at the latest news from the Middle East. More coverage of the U.N. General Assembly is available here.

Netanyahu calls claims of Gaza genocide the ‘lie of the century’

Allegations of Israeli genocide in Gaza are “the biggest lie of the century,” Netanyahu told world leaders in a defiant speech before the U.N. General Assembly.

Netanyahu's appearance in the hall was met with a mix of cheers, boos and mass walkouts. Scores of delegates trooped out and a majority of seats sat empty as he spoke.

“If there are any other moral cowards who have not yet left the hall, please do so now,” Netanyahu said.

His voice rising in emphasis, Netanyahu said attacking Iran “was one of the easiest decisions I’ve ever had to make” and denounced as “moral cowards” delegates who walked out of the hall.

Abbas addresses UN by video after visa is denied

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was forced to address the U.N. in a prerecorded video after the United States again denied him a visa to attend the General Assembly.

The 90-year-old leader’s popularity at home and relevance abroad have both waned. But in his remarks, Abbas made clear he did not intend to quietly accept being sidelined.

“We will not leave our homeland. We will not accept displacement. And we will not allow anyone to decide our future on our behalf,” Abbas said.

Though world leaders have repeatedly invoked the plight of Palestinians in speeches throughout the week, Abbas urged the international community to take more tangible action against Israel.

It was the second straight year Abbas was denied a visa.

Hamas says it's ready to advance Gaza peace agreement

A Hamas spokesman said the group is ready to move forward with the next steps of a peace agreement, after Trump’s Board of Peace unveiled a six-month, $2.45-billion plan for Gaza's reconstruction.

Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem expressed the Palestinian militant group’s “full readiness to implement the Board of Peace’s roadmap” but made no mention of any disarmament plans.

Israel has said it will not allow reconstruction until Hamas disarms.

Last year, Hamas agreed to a plan that includes disarmament but has since traded accusations with Israel of ceasefire violations and has accused Israel of violating the agreement by continuing to occupy much of Gaza.

Houthis claim attacks on Saudi targets

Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen claimed attacks on a “sensitive target” in the Saudi capital of Riyadh and on Aramco oil company facilities in the Saudi port city of Yanbu, but did not provide evidence of those claims.

Houthi military spokesperson Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree said in a statement that cruise and ballistic missiles and drones were used, but did not specify when. It was the second claim of an attack against the Saudi capital in days.

The rebels also said they fired dozens of missiles and drones on the southwestern Saudi province of Jazan. Saree said that they were in response to the “unjust siege and the launching of aggressive airstrikes” from Saudi territory.

The Associated Press couldn’t independently verify the claims.

The Saudi government and Aramco did not immediately respond to requests for comments. A Saudi military spokesman, Maj. Gen. Turki al-Malki, had said earlier that six ballistic missiles targeting Saudi Arabia ’s Red Sea port of Yanbu and southwestern city of Taif had been intercepted.

At the U.N., Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister, Prince Faisal bin Farhan, said he wasn’t worried about a Houthi takeover of parts of Yemen, and that the government is “very capable of defending the territory it controls.”

UN urges access to humanitarian aid for civilians in Yemen

The U.N. pleaded for the fast delivery of humanitarian aid in Yemen as fighting between Iran-backed Houthi rebels and Saudi-backed government forces intensifies an already dire humanitarian situation.

U.N. Human Rights Chief Volker Türk said people fleeing violence need access to food, shelter and healthcare. Ground fighting, artillery and aerial strikes have killed and wounded at least 125 civilians since the beginning of August. Türk also called for the release of 73 U.N. staffers detained by the Houthis in the past few years.

UNRWA raises tens of millions of dollars

UN agency for Palestinian refugees raises tens of millions of dollars including from France, Germany, Spain and Belgium

Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said over 50 countries attended a closed ministerial meeting on the agency, known as UNRWA, on the sidelines of the U.N.’s annual gathering of world leaders on Thursday which he welcomed.

“We continue to emphasize that UNRWA is indispensable, irreplaceable against the horrific humanitarian reality that continues to exist in Gaza,” he told a press conference afterward.

Israel has banned UNRWA from operating in its territory and the United States has cut all funding.

UNRWA’s acting commissioner-general Christian Saunders said the agency received about 30 million euros Thursday, according to an unconfirmed tally, bringing its deficit down to near $60 million.

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This report will be updated throughout the day as new developments emerge.

The administration said the ruling by the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals came Wednesday just minutes before midnight, forcing the cancellation of a flight with 70 people that was headed to three countries. It said justices needed to step in to “halt that chaos” and said the flight cancellation “required a new round of diplomatic engagement with each of the three countries,” which it did not name.

Plaintiffs for immigrants sought emergency relief from the appeals court Wednesday night, saying they heard from “multiple sources” that a deportation flight was scheduled the next day from Alexandria, Louisiana, to Burundi, Rwanda and the Central African Republic.

Within hours of that request, the appeals court said it was clarifying a ruling against the policy last week and said a previous order allowing flights to continue while legal challenges play out was no longer in effect.

Administration officials reacted furiously. Attorney General Todd Blanche said the order “in the dark of night” robbed authorities of “an entirely legal and valuable tool to stem the tide of illegal immigration.”

The vast majority of people deported to countries other than their own have been sent to Mexico, but under a series of often-secret agreements, the administration has deported thousands of others to more than two dozen countries, from Liberia to Guyana.

Some have found themselves in countries they’d never heard of before their arrivals and held there against their will. Some also face serious safety risks, and are left with little choice except to return to the home countries they were fleeing.

This month, lawyers for two men deported to Equatorial Guinea said they were beaten and held at gunpoint in a hotel-turned-detention center by police who covered their heads with bags.

The government asked for an immediate halt to lower court orders finding that people must have the chance to object before the U.S. government deports them to countries other than their homelands.

The justices previously allowed the deportation flights to temporarily continue when the case came before them last year. Since then, an appeals court has upheld a Boston-based judge’s final ruling that migrants must have a meaningful chance to argue a third-country deportation would put them in danger of persecution or torture.

The ruling didn’t prohibit those deportations outright but it lengthens the process. The government argues it has already led to the cancellation of a flight carrying 70 people with criminal convictions to three different countries.

“The government has been able to remove thousands of aliens to third countries in recent months, and thousands more are eligible for such removal,” Solicitor General D. John Sauer wrote.

Trump's Republican administration has said that it sends people to third countries when it is unable to quickly return them to their homelands. Those third-country governments provide assurances that people won’t be persecuted or tortured, attorneys said.

The lower courts' legal requirements would mean cascading delays and could force the reworking of agreements with foreign countries, attorneys wrote.

The case comes amid a sweeping immigration crackdown by the Trump administration, which has pledged to deport millions of people who are living in the United States illegally.

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Tim Sullivan contributed to this report from Minneapolis. Follow the AP's coverage of the U.S. Supreme Court at https://apnews.com/hub/us-supreme-court.

From private island stops to themed parties, tasty dining options and all kinds of fun activities and entertainment, this is family bonding for every generation.

To explore options for your next Disney Cruise visit their website. You can also keep up with Emily Kaufman’s adventures and even enter to win special vacation giveaways by following the Travel Mom online.

With just over three weeks left before early voting, Democratic U.S. Senate nominee James Talarico on Thursday challenged his GOP opponent Ken Paxton to a debate moderated by Fox News’ Bret Baier.

“Texans deserve to make an informed choice in this really critical race, so I’m challenging Ken Paxton to a game on his own turf,” Talarico said during an interview at The Texas Tribune Festival. “He’s been running from accountability his whole life. It’s time to stop running.”

In July, Paxton’s campaign said, “of course we are going to debate James Talarico,” after Talarico announced he had accepted invitations from Texas media groups for three televised debates.

“We look forward to engaging with potential debate hosts,” Paxton senior adviser Nick Maddux said at the time. “Talarico is a serial liar who has spent his entire campaign shamelessly deceiving Texas voters about his radical record with[out] answering the hard questions.”

But Paxton had not committed to any debates as of Thursday. WFAA, whose debate invitation Talarico accepted, reported Tuesday that Paxton’s campaign had not responded to messages since Aug. 24 after communicating with station management “for weeks to organize a potential debate.”

On Sept. 2, Talarico accepted another debate invitation from CNN. In response, Maddux said, “no Texan wants to watch James Talarico and two of his fellow far-left activists posing as moderators spew left-wing talking points in a ‘debate,’ or what they would try to turn into a CCP-style struggle session.”

Talarico on Thursday said he wanted to debate and was “willing to go anywhere to make that a reality,” adding that his campaign had been communicating with TV stations and hosts about the prospect for months.

“I am proud of my record, and I’m not afraid of hard questions,” he said before referencing a running attempt by Republicans to cast him as unmasculine and lacking in testosterone. “Ken Paxton is running from the fight. That sounds like low-T behavior to me.”

Paxton’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday. Paxton had been invited to participate in the Tribune festival.

Talarico and Paxton are locked in an intensely competitive Senate contest. Polls have found the race within the margin of error, with Talarico leading in the polling average and in every public poll conducted this month. 

National Republican groups have poured over $160 million into advertising and campaign material on Paxton’s behalf, a staggering sum that has rapidly overtaken Talarico’s previous spending advantage, according to media tracking firm AdImpact.

Asked about the influx, Talarico argued that the GOP was dropping “unprecedented money” in Texas “because the people at the top were terrified of this movement.”

“They are terrified of people coming together across party and across race and gender and religion and culture to take on the people at the top,” Talarico said. “Big money is powerful. I don’t want to sugarcoat it. But it’s nothing compared to people power.”

The Republican spending is fueling efforts to define Talarico as a “radical liberal,” citing his opposition to various GOP bills in the Texas House, including bans on certain foreign agents purchasing land in the state and restrictions on transgender athletes.

Talarico defended his record on those bills, saying the legislation was too broad and extreme. He said he supported amendments to ensure that law-abiding, ordinary immigrants — not foreign agents — from nations like China would not be prevented from purchasing land, as well as amendments to ensure local communities and officials had power over trans athlete eligibility decisions.

“The legislative process is complicated, and there’s ways you can twist it to tell a story on one side,” Talarico said. “This is just what happens in campaigns. People take a little bit of information and they try to distort it.”

In an election cycle where Republicans have sought to paint all Democrats as Democratic Socialists or communists, Talarico rejected the attack and offered the populist economic message unifying working Texans against billionaire political influence.

“I’m a capitalist: I believe in free enterprise, I believe in competition, I believe in free markets and growth,” he said. “This system we have now is actually not capitalism. This system only works for those who can afford to buy politicians like Ken Paxton.” 

DOE officials joined CenterPoint Energy leadership Thursday morning at CenterPoint’s Houston headquarters, to announce the investment, which both organizations describe as a major step toward building a stronger, more resilient energy future for the Greater Houston region — confirming Houston is among the 31 grid-improvement projects selected as part of DOE’s SPARK initiative.

What DOE announced

The SPARK — Speed to Power through Accelerated Reconductoring and other Key Advanced Transmission Technology Upgrades — initiative is funded through DOE’s Office of Electricity and its Grid Resilience and Innovation Partnerships (GRIP) program. The total investment includes $1.9 billion in federal funding and $3.35 billion in recipient cost-share funding across 26 states.

Nationwide, the projects are expected to reconductor or rebuild more than 1,500 miles of transmission lines and deploy Grid-Enhancing Technologies (GETs) across nearly 21,000 miles of existing infrastructure — making more than 23 gigawatts of additional electricity capacity available.

“Today’s announcement reinforces the Trump Administration’s commitment to commonsense energy addition policies that lower electricity prices and strengthen our grid,” said U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright. “These investments will get more out of the infrastructure we already have, move more electricity across the grid, and help deliver affordable, reliable, and secure power that will fuel American prosperity for decades to come.”

“These selected SPARK projects put advanced transmission technologies to work, modernizing critical infrastructure, maximizing the capacity of existing lines, and unlocking more than 20 gigawatts of additional grid capacity,” said OE Assistant Secretary Catherine Jereza. “DOE is moving with urgency to strengthen our grid, lower costs, and ensure America has the energy infrastructure needed to power the next generation of economic growth.”

How the money works

Rather than building entirely new transmission lines from scratch, SPARK focuses on reconductoring — replacing existing power lines with higher-capacity conductors — paired with other Advanced Transmission Technologies (ATTs). By using existing rights-of-way, projects eliminate congestion bottlenecks and avoid expensive greenfield construction, which DOE says will help lower consumer electricity bills.

The initiative also aims to mitigate wildfire hazards, prevent blackouts, and protect against severe weather events — and bypasses the multi-decade timelines typically required to build entirely new transmission corridors.

The program aligns with President Trump’s Executive Order, “Unleashing American Energy,” which directs the expansion of grid capacity. Officials claim increased operational efficiency and lower energy prices for American families and businesses.

Does your child’s school have a nurse?

ENOUGH’s Amy Davis asked parents and school nurses to tell us what they are seeing at their schools. The responses raised questions about school nurse staffing, student health and how schools are handling medical needs when a licensed nurse isn’t on campus.

60 HISD campuses have no school nurse

ENOUGH filed a public information request with Houston Independent School District to find out how many campuses did not have a school nurse this school year.

HISD provided data showing that 60 of about 273 campuses do not currently have a school nurse.

Davis said some of those campuses are working to hire a nurse. In some cases, another staff member may be on campus helping students, but that person is not a licensed nurse.

That distinction matters to parents whose children have medical conditions that may require specialized care during the school day.

The issue first came to ENOUGH after a mother contacted Davis at the start of the school year. Her daughter has diabetes, and the mother regularly communicates with the school nurse about how to care for her daughter.

But this school year, she discovered her daughter’s school did not have a nurse.

The school still does not have one.

Parents respond to ENOUGH’s question about school nurses

After hearing from the parent, Davis went to Facebook to ask parents and school nurses about their experiences.

Parents responded.

Katie Pearson said two of her middle school children attend a school on HISD’s list of campuses without a nurse.

“Yes, I care. The school nurse is an important adult for kids to rely on when they are not well,” Pearson wrote.

Andrea Lynne questioned how schools can operate without a full-time school nurse.

“Literally insane to me that any school would take on the liability these days to not have a full-time school nurse staffed,” she wrote.

School nurses say their jobs go far beyond first aid

ENOUGH also heard from school nurses who say school nurses do much more than treat minor injuries.

Renee Montgomery, a school nurse, said nurses promote student health, safety and academic achievement through advocacy, education, research and community connections.

She also said early recognition of illness and disease has allowed her to change or save lives.

Constance Kilroy, another school nurse, said staffing and school nurse-to-student ratios are major concerns.

Kilroy said some nurses are responsible for more than 1,000 students and that many districts have cut school nurse positions because of budget concerns.

She also said school nurses are leaving because of low pay and high workloads.

“Kids today have many medical issues that the average person is not trained to handle,” Kilroy wrote.

Why school nurse staffing matters

The responses to ENOUGH’s Facebook question point to a larger issue: What happens when a school does not have a licensed school nurse on campus?

For parents of children with diabetes and other medical needs, having access to a school nurse can be particularly important.

School nurses who responded to ENOUGH said their responsibilities extend beyond treating bumps, cuts and minor illnesses.

Related: TEA school nurse guidelines

The staffing question also raises concerns about how many students one nurse may be responsible for when nurses are available only at certain campuses or are responsible for large numbers of students.

Does your child’s school have a nurse?

ENOUGH wants to hear from parents, students and school nurses.

Below is the full list of HISD campuses identified as NOT having a school nurse.

• Alcott ES
• Barrick ES
• Bellaire HS
• Bellfort ECC
• Briscoe ES
• Burrus ES
• Chavez HS
• Community Services-SEC
• Coop ES
• DAEP EL
• DeZavala ES
• Durham ES
• Energized ECC
• Energized ES
• Energized MS
• E-STEM Central HS
• E-STEM West MS
• Field ES
• Fleming MS
• Forest Brook MS
• Franklin ES
• Halpin ECC
• Harper DAEP
• Henderson NQ ES
• High School Ahead Acad MS
• Hilliard ES
• Hogg MS
• Holland MS
• Houston MSTC HS
• JJAEP
• Jones Futures Academy HS
• Lamar HS
• Lantrip ES
• Las Americas MS
• Lawson MS
• Leland YMCPA
• Love ES
• MacGregor ES
• Martinez R ES
• McGowen ES
• Middle College HS - Fraga
• Middle College HS - Gulfton
• Milby HS
• Mitchell ES
• Ortiz MS
• Osborne ES
• Peck ES
• Pershing MS
• Port Houston ES
• R D S P D
• Red ES
• Ross ES
• Rucker ES
• Scarborough ES
• Scroggins ES
• Special Ed - HCC Lifeskills & Transition
• TCAH
• Welch MS
• Young ES

If your school is on the list — or if you have questions about school nurse staffing at your child’s campus — tell ENOUGH about your experience.

This is ENOUGH: You asked. We listened. And we’re asking questions.

Dorian Alcantar knows that firsthand.

“You get like rejection and rejection and like, you really don’t get feedback,” Alcantar said. “Hey, what am I doing wrong?”

Alcantar graduated in May 2025 with a degree in journalism and mass communication. He wants to work in film, but nearly a year and a half after graduation, he is still looking for his first break.

He estimates he has submitted about 500 job applications.

And the hardest part, he said, is not always knowing why he isn’t getting hired.

“If I’m going to go purely on my rejection letters, is that they feel I’m not qualified enough or there’s better candidates,” Alcantar said. “That’s always like, well, how do I become that candidate?”

RELATED: Job seekers say AI is making the search harder; experts say the reality is more complicated

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York tracks the labor market outcomes of recent college graduates and has found that 42% are underemployed, meaning they have jobs but are working in positions that typically do not require a bachelor’s degree.

For Alcantar, the goal is different. He wants to find a job that puts his degree and skills to work and gets him closer to a career in film.

So ENOUGH decided to see if a recruiter could help.

A fresh look at the job search

Alcantar met with Robert Vaughn, a regional manager with Robert Half who has spent nearly 17 years in the recruiting industry.

Vaughn had already reviewed Alcantar’s résumé before the two met.

His first piece of advice: Start over.

“What I would just start doing is kind of just go back to, pretend like tomorrow’s a new day and start from zero,” Vaughn said.

One place Vaughn suggested looking is LinkedIn.

He recommended that Alcantar search for alumni from his college who are working in Houston and reach out to them.

For someone trying to break into a specific industry, those connections can be particularly valuable.

Vaughn also encouraged Alcantar to broaden the types of positions he considers.

That includes freelance, contract and project-based work.

Alcantar said he is open to freelance opportunities.

Vaughn said that flexibility could help.

“56% of companies are going to plan to hire at the end of the year in the contract space,” Vaughn said.

For Alcantar, contract or freelance work could provide more than a paycheck. It could also help him gain experience, build connections and add work to his résumé.

Don’t send the same resumé everywhere

Vaughn also had advice about how Alcantar applies for jobs.

Instead of sending the same résumé and cover letter to every employer, Vaughn recommended tailoring both to the specific position.

“I would definitely tailor every cover letter and every resume to the job you’re applying for,” Vaughn said.

That means researching the company, understanding what it does and identifying experiences that connect to the job.

For a recent graduate, that can mean looking beyond traditional work experience.

Internships, school projects, freelance work and other relevant experiences can demonstrate skills an employer is looking for.

What recent graduates can do differently

For Alcantar, the meeting did not immediately produce a full-time job offer. But it did give him a new strategy and a connection to a recruiter who works with employers.

Vaughn asked Alcantar to send him an updated résumé.

He also plans to connect Alcantar with someone who specializes in recruiting for marketing and creative positions.

RELATED: Job search FAQ: Career coach explains how to get your resume noticed

“We can definitely get your information floated into our network to see how we can help,” Vaughn told him.

For other recent graduates facing the same frustration, the lesson is not necessarily to send out more applications.

Instead, Vaughn’s advice is to be more targeted.

Three things recent graduates can try

Build connections. Find alumni from your college who work in the industry you want to enter and reach out to them.

Customize your applications. Tailor your résumé and cover letter to the specific job and research the employer before applying.

Consider contract or freelance work. Project-based work can provide experience and help build professional connections while you’re looking for a permanent position.

For Alcantar, the search continues.

But now he has a recruiter looking at his résumé, another industry connection to pursue and a different approach to finding that first opportunity.

ENOUGH will stay in touch with Alcantar and follow where his job search leads.

But as that deadline approaches, shootings involving ICE agents in Houston, Austin and Maine are raising a larger question: Will the promised body-camera rollout provide the transparency and accountability families are demanding when agents use force?

In August, ICE Director David Venturella said the rollout was ahead of schedule. On Sept. 1, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said he was confident the agency would meet the end-of-September target.

Then, days before that deadline, NBC News reported that the ICE officer who shot a man in Austin had been issued a body camera, but was not wearing it.

In Austin, local police released video from their investigation within days of the shooting. The footage shows parts of what happened before and after the gunfire, but not the moment the ICE agent fired. NBC News reports another ICE agent at the scene was wearing a body camera, but that camera also did not capture the shooting. After a separate ICE shooting in Maine last July, families and the public were also left with questions about what happened and what evidence was available.

Those incidents are now part of a broader debate over whether body cameras can provide accountability during encounters between ICE agents and people in the communities where they operate.

Family calls for accountability after deadly shooting

The questions are especially significant in Houston, where ICE agents shot and killed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo on July 7, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

No ICE agents involved in that shooting were wearing body cameras.

Sons of Salgado Araujo are demanding all evidence be preserved.

“Every piece of evidence must be preserved and shared, including audio, agency communications, radio traffic, and any other video or audio that exists — even though no agent that day wore a body camera,” Lorenzo Salgado Jr. , said. “We have sent our own letters demanding the preservation of evidence, and we ask that you do the same.”

Ronaldo Salgado also addressed ICE directly at a hearing in Washington, D.C. this week.

“ICE is killing people, whether on the streets or in detention centers, and millions of immigrants and their loved ones are living in fear that they might be next,” Ronaldo Salgado said.

In the Houston case, there are also three witnesses who were with Salgado Araujo when he was killed.

Houston bus video under review

KPRC 2 has requested video from a Metro bus that passed near the scene of the Houston shooting. The Texas Attorney General’s Office is reviewing whether that footage can be released.

KPRC 2 has also asked DHS whether ICE agents in the Houston region are currently wearing body cameras and whether they have been trained to use them.

The agency’s end-of-September deadline is now approaching, but questions remain about compliance, training and whether agents who are equipped with cameras are wearing them and turning them on.

Back in July, the Associated Press reported that the agency’s policy on body-worn cameras says DHS will release video of shootings and other encounters when its agents cause death or serious injury only after determining, “it is in the best interest of the agency,” to do so.

The subpoenas require the former FBI employees to testify in Fort Pierce, Florida, as the Justice Department pursues an ill-defined theory of a “deep state” conspiracy to deprive Trump of his civil rights and keep him from power.

The investigation so far has been focused largely on former government officials who examined ties between Russia and Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, but the subpoenas disclosed Thursday hint at the far-reaching nature of an investigation that is also scrutinizing the FBI's 2022 search of Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida for classified documents. That search formed the basis of one of four criminal cases Trump faced between his first and second terms.

Justice Department officials are pressing ahead with the investigation after the resignation this month of Joseph diGenova, a Trump ally who had been brought in to help lead the probe that has animated right-wing commentators who have long alleged former law enforcement and intelligence officials conspired against the Republican president.

The filing on behalf of the subpoenaed employees tees up a fresh legal question for U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, the Trump-appointed judge who not only dismissed the classified documents prosecution of Trump but also sits in the Fort Pierce courthouse where the Justice Department has centered its yearlong conspiracy probe of Trump's perceived foes.

Cannon last February issued an order blocking the release of a report on the classified documents investigation prepared by special counsel Jack Smith, whose team in 2023 brought dozens of felony charges against the then-Republican candidate, and barring the release of information about the case to non-Justice Department employees.

Now, lawyers for the subpoenaed former employees are asking Cannon to clarify whether that order precludes their clients from being able to testify before the grand jury since they'll be asked about the investigation.

Without clarity, they say, they may be forced to decide between being in contempt of the order if they testify, “not providing full, unconstrained testimony" in order to comply with the order or invoking their constitutional rights against self-incrimination — an option they say “creates unnecessary negative options for innocent former civil servants.”

“Specifically, clients seek to confirm that they can freely discuss non-public information related to their work on the investigation with individuals outside the DOJ, including but not limited to the grand jury and client's own counsel, without running afoul of the terms of the order,” the lawyers wrote.

The attorneys observed that the Justice Department has already taken the position that testimony about the Mar-a-Lago investigation would violate Cannon's order, noting that government lawyers emailed attorneys for Smith before he testified before Congress that he was not permitted to reveal non-public information. But they say officials in the current conspiracy investigation in Florida have declined to articulate a position or seek clarity from the court.

The lawyers say their clients are happy to testify about the investigation if legally cleared to do so.

“If allowed by the court to testify unconstrained by the order, clients will readily provide to the grand jury a detailed account of the investigation, reasoning, decision-making, and other ‘non-public’ information spanning from the time the classified documents investigation was first referred to the FBI up through and including execution of the warrant," the filing says. “Clients will each detail their firsthand memories of investigating a properly predicated allegation that then-citizen Trump had unlawfully retained hundreds of highly classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago residence.”

The filing reveals new details about the scope of the investigations and negotiations with the government.

Submitted on behalf of a group of current and former agents and analysts who participated in the Mar-a-Lago investigation, the filing says that the FBI in July and August reached out to request voluntary interviews and told the attorneys that grand jury testimony would follow those interviews.

The lawyers say two of their clients received subpoenas on Monday. One individual was subpoenaed to testify next week and two others, including one represented by separate lawyers, have been subpoenaed to appear the following week, according to the filing.

They say the Justice Department has broached the possibility of giving immunity to the witnesses but has not formally offered that yet. But they say immunity wouldn't resolve the issues, in part because their clients don't believe they or anyone else involved in the Mar-a-Lago investigation broke any laws.

Texas (79-80) stopped a three-game losing streak and moved a half-game ahead of Houston, which played Thursday night at the Athletics. The Astros (78-80) hold the head-to-head tiebreaker with the Rangers.

Texas, which finishes the regular season with three games in Minnesota, went ahead to stay on Jung’s two-run homer in the first inning off rookie left-hander Zac Thornton (5-6). Seager snapped an 0-for-15 skid when he led off the sixth with his 19th homer.

Rocker (6-11) struck out four while allowing one run and three hits. Jordan Montgomery, the fourth Rangers reliever, worked a perfect ninth for his second big league save. He’s made 161 starts and 17 relief appearances over nine big league seasons.

Francisco Lindor led off the game with a double and scored on Carson Benge’s two-out single to put New York up 1-0. Benge has a Mets rookie record 160 hits.

Thornton struck out four and walked one in his five innings. He allowed four hits and the only runs he surrendered were on Jung’s 12th homer. Seager went deep off Jefry Yan, another rookie.

Jung, who finished with three hits and a walk, is hitting .341 (15 for 44) in 11 games since coming off the injured list Sept. 12. He missed 47 games because of a left calf strain.

Up next

New York (73-86) goes to Washington (75-84) to open a three-game series Friday matching the two teams at the bottom of the NL East standings.

Texas plays Friday against the Twins, who never trailed while sweeping three games in Texas in mid-June.

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See AP’s full MLB coverage here

We also visit the bug house to meet some of the zoo’s tiniest residents and learn how they get ready for the day. Plus, we’re eating our way around the zoo with seasonal treats, specialty coffees, cookies and new breakfast options.

Stream Houston Life Monday to Friday HERE at 1 p.m. on KPRC 2.

And with 90 years under its belt, this isn’t just a fair—it’s a Fort Bend County tradition that has been bringing generations of families together for decades.

The midway is packed with rides, attractions and plenty of classic fair favorites while you make your way around the grounds.

For the little ones, there’s Mutton Bustin’, the Diaper Derby, a Stick Horse Rodeo and even a Children’s Tractor Pull.

There are also livestock shows featuring everything from rabbits and goats to steers, swine and lambs, giving visitors a chance to see the hard work local 4-H and FFA exhibitors put in throughout the year.

The PRCA Rodeo takes over the O.D. Tucker Arena October 1–4, along with events including barrel racing, team roping, calf roping, mutton bustin’ and more.

The fair’s 90th anniversary celebration also comes with a packed concert lineup. This year’s performers include Sawyer Brown, Pat Green, Prófugos de Nuevo León, David Lewis, Josh Meloy, Vincent Mason and Gary P. Nunn, among others.

And the Fort Bend County Fair isn’t just about entertainment. The organization supports local youth, agriculture and education, including scholarships and youth livestock programs. Over the past decade, the fair has awarded more than $2 million in scholarships, while last year’s youth auctions generated $1.4 million in support of local exhibitors.

The Fort Bend County Fairgrounds are located at 4310 Highway 36 South, Rosenberg, TX, and you can find tickets and info at fortbendcountyfair.com.

Watch as Lauren Kelly saddles up for a first look!

Pettit's alma mater, LSU, announced Thursday that he died a day earlier. The university did not provide a cause of death.

Pettit was an All-American at LSU before going on to the NBA, where he was an All-Star for each of his 11 seasons, all with the Hawks. He led them to the 1958 championship over the mighty Boston Celtics, the Hawks’ lone title.

He was also the NBA MVP in 1959 and was the MVP of the All-Star game four times, an achievement matched only by Los Angeles Lakers great Kobe Bryant.

Pettit was a force at a time when the NBA featured the likes of Wilt Chamberlain, Bill Russell, Oscar Robertson and Elgin Baylor. But it was also before a time when the NBA was widely seen on television, and Pettit — playing in a smaller market — was denied a larger audience.

At 6-foot-9 and 205 pounds and with a deeply receding hairline, Pettit was a physical presence at power forward, before such a position became part of basketball’s vocabulary. He rarely missed a game. He also played center and was one of the first big men who did not play solely with his back to the basket.

Pettit was the Rookie of the Year in 1955, the last year the Hawks played in Milwaukee before moving to St. Louis.

He captured the MVP the next season, leading the league in scoring at 25.7 points a game. He also was the NBA’s scoring leader in 1959 at 29.2 points.

He retired after the 1964-65 season with career averages of 26.4 points and 16.2 rebounds. At that time, he was the NBA’s career leader in points (20,880) and second in rebounds (12,849).

He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1970.

“Lean, graceful, and always well-conditioned, Bob Pettit's physical build made him one of the first big men to play facing the basket,” reads Pettit’s biographical profile at the Hall of Fame. “But Pettit's resolve set him apart from his peers; he simply would not be outworked.”

Robert Lee Pettit Jr. was born on Dec. 12, 1932, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. His father worked in law enforcement and served as East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff. Pettit was a late bloomer in basketball, not making the Baton Rouge High School varsity until his junior season.

As a senior, he led Baton Rouge to a state championship and wound up with more than a dozen college offers. He chose to stay home and starred at LSU as a sophomore, an era when players could not join the varsity until then.

He led the Southeastern Conference in scoring all three of his seasons, with averages of 25.5 points as a sophomore, 24.9 as a junior and 31.4 as a senior.

Pettit is one of only three LSU players — Pete Maravich and Shaquille O’Neal the others — to earn a place in the Hall of Fame. Bronze statues of Pettit and O’Neal stand outside LSU’s home arena, the Pete Maravich Assembly Center. His No. 50 is retired by LSU, his No. 9 by the Atlanta Hawks.

Pettit’s misfortune was that most of his career coincided with a run of Celtics championships that remains one of the most dominant runs in American pro sports history.

Pettit was two victories short of being a three-time NBA champion. Pettit’s Hawks advanced to the finals four times, all against Boston, twice losing in seven games.

The first meeting, won by Boston in 1957, came down to double overtime of Game 7. The second ended with a championship for the Hawks, interrupting Boston’s run of nine titles in 10 seasons. The Hawks also dropped NBA Finals matchups with the Celtics in 1960 (in seven games) and 1961 (in five).

Pettit retired to his native Baton Rouge after leaving basketball and worked in banking and financial consulting. He was a regular at LSU and New Orleans Pelicans games in recent years.

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See AP’s full NBA coverage here

Xi was making his first state visit to the U.S. in 11 years, and the geopolitical rivals had a long list of thorny subjects before them, including the risks of unchecked artificial intelligence, Taiwan, trade tensions over tariffs and the war in Iran, a country with which Beijing has close economic ties.

But Trump made time for a tour of his White House projects. After 90 minutes in the Oval Office, he walked his Chinese counterpart out to the South Lawn, where his chopper had been parked in advance on the new granite landing area.

As the leaders approached, a Marine opened the door and saluted as Trump and Xi climbed aboard with a small group of aides and translators. They looked around and chatted with the pilots for several minutes, though the aircraft never took off.

Trump also spent time gesturing toward the ballroom he is building where the East Wing once stood. Xi peered at two hulking concrete towers under construction as Trump intently watched Xi’s face while he spoke about the project, out of earshot of a group reporters summoned for the occasion.

Trump says Xi ‘loves good granite’

The president's attempts to impress Xi come as he's built his party's midterm election messaging strategy around slamming Democrats as “communists.”

Trump has devoted an increasingly large portion of his second term to building projects around the White House and greater Washington. He has spent weeks saying crews were scrambling to finish the helipad in time for the Chinese leader’s visit and lamenting that the ballroom wouldn't be done.

“We had a great meeting and he has great interest in granite,” Trump said after giving Xi a first-hand look.

"He’s an expert on stone, aside from many other things -- and he loves good granite,” he said.

Trump gestured with relish and pointed to the large letters spelling out the “Seal of the President of the United States” on its surface. He enthusiastically touched Xi’s arm repeatedly, and China’s leader even returned the gesture a single time, reaching to tap Trump back once.

During Xi's visit, the president didn't miss the chance to brag about the photos he's hung inside the West Wing, images of Trump around the world, framed in gold.

Trump showed Xi a picture of the two of them taken when the U.S. president visited Beijing in May, according to a social media video posted by a White House aide.

“Who is that? I don’t recognize him!” Trump joked. “That’s great,” Trump said in the video. “We have a lot of respect for you. We have this up. We’ve had that up for a year. A lot of respect,” Trump said.

Trump also showed Xi the wall-mounted copy of the Declaration of Independence he had installed in the Oval Office, according to a handout image released by the Chinese Embassy.

Trump also gives Xi a glimpse of his autopen gag

Trump's tour started even before their Oval Office session, when Trump walked Xi past a row of presidential portraits Trump has installed along the colonnade between the White House residence and the West Wing — pausing to gesture grandly at his own picture.

There are two portraits of Trump, one for each of his terms. Between them, instead of a picture of President Joe Biden, Trump has hung a depiction of an autopen signing his Democratic predecessor's name — a reference to Trump’s frequent allegation that Biden was not up to the job by the end of his term in office.

An aide's video showed Trump pointing to the three images, saying, “Trump, and then Trump, and this is the autopen,” as Xi laughed.

“It’s Biden,” Trump said, slapping Xi on the arm.

On social media, job seekers shared their frustrations with Stephania Jimenez about sending out dozens — sometimes hundreds — of applications without hearing back.

“My wife has been looking for over a year. Don’t see anyone interviewing her or trying to help her,” Abel Gallardo wrote on Facebook.

Others echoed similar experiences.

“My daughter graduated summa cum laude from the University of Houston business school,” Esther Vandergaag Burchert wrote. “She has applied for countless jobs. The result is always the same.”

“I’ve applied to several on Indeed and not heard from them,” Elizabeth Gonzales wrote.

Federal data suggests those experiences are not uncommon. The latest data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics found that people who were unemployed had been out of work for an average of about 25 weeks.

At the same time, the U.S. Department of Labor reports there are roughly 7.4 million job openings nationwide.

The contradiction has led some job seekers to blame artificial intelligence.

Many companies now use AI-powered software to screen resumes and help identify candidates who move forward in the hiring process. For applicants, that can create the perception that a machine — rather than a person — is deciding their future.

However, experts say the reality is more nuanced.

One job seeker’s frustration

“Lynn,” who asked that her identity be concealed because she is still searching for work, said she has submitted more than 150 applications within a six month period.

“I have the experience. I have a degree,” she said.

Still, finding employment has been difficult.

“I’ve probably applied for over 100 jobs, probably close to 150 at this point. It’s frustrating,” Lynn said.

Lynn, who has experience as a project manager, special education teacher and business owner, believes many of her applications never went before a human.

“That’s frustrating because I feel like they’re not seeing a qualified applicant, somebody that could thrive in the company,” she said. “AI is bypassing it.”

RELATED: College graduate has applied for 500 jobs: a recruiter says this could help him get hired

Despite the setbacks, she remains determined.

“I am ready,” Lynn said. “I’ll work seven days a week if I have to. Fifty-plus hours. I am not afraid of work. I’m a hard worker. Strong work ethic. I’m ready.”

“You get to a point where you’re worthless. It’s like nobody wants to hire me. What is the problem?” said Lynn.

Her experience highlights something statistics cannot fully capture: the emotional impact of prolonged unemployment.

When job seekers spend months applying for positions without success, rejection can begin to feel personal rather than professional.

Why finding a job feels harder

Steven Craig, an economics professor at the University of Houston, said today’s job market presents challenges that did not exist a decade ago.

“It’s really, really hard,” said Craig.

Craig believes job seekers are having a more difficult time today than they were ten years ago. Part of the challenge stems from technology and automation, which have transformed both hiring and job searching.

“The greater technical automation is a barrier,” Craig said.

Job seekers must navigate multiple platforms, determine where employers are posting openings and compete in systems that often prioritize specific keywords and qualifications.

Craig said technology allows applicants to submit hundreds of applications quickly, but that strategy may not be effective.

“For everything except entry-level jobs, you want a write specific to that job,” he said. “That means you have to rewrite your cover letter every time.”

Generic resumes and cover letters often fail to stand out, particularly when employers use software to identify candidates whose skills closely match job descriptions.

“The technology exists. I can put out a thousand job applications today,” Craig said. “But the bot would never pick me out because if I just wrote a generic letter, I wouldn’t show up with the right set of skills.”

As a result, he said, job seekers often need to customize both resumes and cover letters for every position.

“Looking for a job is a full-time job,” Craig said.

Still, Craig cautioned against viewing AI as the enemy.

“AI is a tool, and we need to learn how to use it,” he said.

Making AI work for job seekers

To better understand how applicants can navigate today’s hiring landscape, Lynn met virtually with Tiffany Bell, vice president of Swipejobs.

Bell said one of the biggest mistakes job seekers make is relying solely on online applications.

“When you see a company hiring and you see a specific job that you’re interested in, go in and follow that company,” Bell said. “Who’s posting that job? Is it a recruiter? Connect with that recruiter.”

Networking remains one of the most effective ways to stand out, she said.

“A lot of when you’re in the market and trying to do a job search, it is networking as much as you can,” Bell said.

Bell also reviewed Lynn’s resume and offered advice on improving its visibility in applicant-tracking systems.

“When you’re looking for a project management role, they’re going to look for what did you deliver,” Bell said. “What were your KPIs? They’re going to look for measurable results.”

Rather than listing duties alone, applicants should emphasize accomplishments and outcomes.

“You need to look at what the job description is and tailor your skill set to that,” Bell said. “You’ve got to have the skills, but you want to tailor it appropriately, so it’s picked up.”

Her advice to job seekers is straightforward.

“Adapt AI. It’s here. It’s not going anywhere,” Bell said. “Make it work for you. Don’t be afraid of it.”

RELATED: Job search FAQ: Career coach explains how to get your resume noticed

Three ways to improve your chances

Experts interviewed for this story recommended three key strategies:

• Customize your resume for each application.

• Highlight measurable results, accomplishments and outcomes.

• Build relationships by networking with recruiters and employers.

For many people, finding a job is about more than earning a paycheck. It is about stability, confidence and feeling that their experience still matters.

While AI is changing how employers identify candidates, experts say the most important part of the hiring process remains human. And in a job market where searches can stretch beyond six months, networking, relationship-building and personal connections may be what ultimately opens the door to the next opportunity.

Attorneys representing the 18-year-old Black college student's family have called for transparency, asking that the grand jury investigative materials and the official autopsy report be publicly released. Crump and his team discussed the contents of the cellphone analysis, even reading a few Snapchat messages out loud, but they did not release a full report of all the messages sent and received in the days leading up to and the day of Wells' death.

The grand jury had access to that information, including 282 pages of Snapchat conversations, when it convened last week, according to the panel's report and Crump. Crump said the forensic examiner was able to track messages received and sent and tie them to the location of Wells' phone from the day before he went missing all the way up to when his family got the phone back.

“The messaging, as I said, was very telling … some of his own friends were concerned about (how) people on Horn Island can be racist,” Crump said Thursday.

Wells' family and their legal team have slammed the grand jury report and have been working to keep the investigation open and active. They've asked for federal authorities to look into the events surrounding Wells' death. His body was found two days after he went with a group of mostly white friends on a boat trip to a barrier island for a July 4 party.

The high-profile death in a Deep South state with a history of racial tension has sparked rampant speculation and suspicion. State and local officials and several of Wells' white friends who had become the target of that speculation had hoped that the grand jury report would quell critics.

Wells' parents and lawyers express suspicions

Wells’ parents and their lawyers voiced suspicions after Wells’ friends left the island without him, saying he wanted to stay behind and talk to a girl. Wells’ phone was on the boat that took him to the island, and his family and their attorneys have expressed doubt that he would choose to stay behind without his phone.

Crump said the last text message sent by Wells was July 3 around 8:30 p.m., but that was not unusual given that he and many teenagers communicate primarily on social media, including Snapchat and Instagram.

Andrew Garrett, the forensic examiner who extracted the contents of Wells' phone, said the GPS and other phone data showed that Wells had opened it with his face while it was on the boat around 2:17 p.m. It was then locked and continued to receive messages as it traveled on the boat, then by car and eventually was picked up by his family.

Garrett also said at the news conference Thursday that some snap messages had been deleted. He did not specify whether the senders deleted those messages on their own phones, but he made clear that he could not ascribe intent to those deletions. There was no evidence presented that suggested someone had unlocked Wells' phone after it left the island and before the family got it back.

The Associated Press sent a message to Crump's team seeking clarification Thursday.

A lawyer who represents some of Wells’ friends who have been the subject of speculation and online hate said it was unclear what new information the cellphone report revealed, reiterating that none of his clients were on the boat carrying Wells’ phone.

“They never had the phone,” attorney Edward Paltzik said of his clients.

The grand jury findings attempt to explicitly clear the friends who left the island without Wells from any wrongdoing, including trying to squash several online rumors.

Lawyers question drowning determination

The grand jury report said the panel found Wells' death to be “consistent with drowning” and found that he had not been in a fight or altercation while on the island.

Crump and Wells' parents questioned how the panel could determine Wells likely drowned, when both the official and independent autopsies said the cause of death could not be determined.

The state's official autopsy report, which Crump's team received late Wednesday, also said Wells' airways and stomach were empty, raising questions about how the grand jury found he had likely drowned.

“What this means is that there is no water in the stomach, there is no water in the lungs and there is no water in the throat,” Wells' family attorney Liza Park said.

Both the official and independent autopsies noted fresh bruising on Wells' head. A witness testified to the grand jury that he saw Wells slip awkwardly off the side of a boat around 3:30 p.m. on July 4, but that Wells continued to socialize after the fall and didn’t appear injured, the report said. The panel said it couldn’t determine whether the fall caused the bruising, but noted it was not a fatal injury.

Netanyahu addressed the plenum after days of speeches by world leaders condemning Israel's war in Gaza and accusing him of orchestrating a genocide against the Palestinian people. At times, the Israeli leader, facing a tough race for re-election next month, became emotional and indignant as he lectured his critics, among them New York's mayor.

Netanyahu, his voice rising in emphasis, said attacking Iran “was one of the easiest decisions I’ve ever had to make” and denounced as “moral cowards” a mass of delegates who walked out of the hall when he took the podium to speak.

“In defending itself, Israel is also defending many of the countries whose delegates just left this hall,” Netanyahu said. “In fact, I want you to know that many of their leaders even thank us privately for taking out Iran’s nukes.”

When Netanyahu walked to the rostrum, a mix of cheers, boos and mass walkouts erupted. Scores of delegates marched out and a majority of visible seats sat empty afterward. “Order in the hall, please,” General Assembly President Khalilur Rahman said repeatedly.

“If there are any other moral cowards who have not yet left this hall, please do so now,” Netanyahu said.

A speech aimed at a domestic audience

Netanyahu's remarks — which at times sounded like a stump speech — were aimed largely at the audience at home as the country prepares for elections on Oct. 27. It was delivered during the evening prime time in Israel and filled with standard talking points used to defend policies in the occupied West Bank and treatment of the Palestinians.

Netanyahu reminded the assembly of the scale of the Oct. 7, 2023, attack in which Hamas militants killed about 1,200 people.

“This is equal to 40,000 innocent Americans slaughtered in less than 24 hours,” he said, or 16 times the death count of the 9/11 attacks that left nearly 3,000 people dead in New York and more in Pennsylvania and at the Pentagon.

Netanyahu said the attack left Israel with no choice but to hit Hamas hard. Many governments have accused Israel of committing war crimes, and Netanyahu himself faces an arrest warrant by the International Criminal Court accusing him of crimes against humanity.

He predicted the fall of Iran's government

While the war in Iran has been inconclusive and caused havoc on the global economy, Netanyahu insisted he had made the right decision.

He thanked U.S. President Donald Trump for taking decisive action against Iran, and predicted Iran’s theocratic government would fall. Trump made a similar assertion at the outset of the war that began nearly seven months ago, but the Iranian government appears to remain firmly in charge.

Netanyahu, known for using visual aids during his General Assembly speeches, at one point held up a pager while reminding the audience of the Sept. 17, 2024, attack in which Israel remotely detonatedthousands of pagers that had been distributed to the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon. The pager attack wounded more than 3,000 people and killed 12, including two children.

He says reports of settler violence in the West Bank are distorted

Netanyahu dismissed incidents of Israeli settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank as a “handful of young juvenile delinquents” throwing stones, chopping down olive trees and lighting fires.

“I can’t stand that. I won’t stand for vigilantism,” the prime minister said before accusing foreign leaders and the international press of distorting the scale of violence in the West Bank.

Netanyahu’s government is dominated by settlers and their allies, and has made few arrests in the wave of settler violence.

Israel captured the West Bank and east Jerusalem in the 1967 war, and the Palestinians want both as part of their future state. The Palestinians and most of the international community view the settlements as illegal and as an obstacle to creating a viable, contiguous Palestinian state.

The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has reported more than 1,600 settler attacks this year.

At least 104 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli settlers or soldiers this year, according to the Ramallah-based Palestinian Health Ministry. Four Israelis have been killed by Palestinians over the same period. This week, a settler was killed and the son of Israel's ambassador to the U.S. badly wounded in separate Palestinian attacks.

Israel is increasingly isolated on the world stage

Netanyahu also accused New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani of spreading lies about Israel and endangering Jewish New Yorkers with his criticism of the country's military actions in Gaza.

Before the prime minister arrived in New York, Mamdani called him a “war criminal” and pushed for his arrest. The mayor has acknowledged that New York does not have the authority to execute an International Criminal Court warrant but urged federal authorities to do so.

In past years, Netanyahu has used his General Assembly speech to both denounce the United Nations as biased and make Israel's case to world leaders. His address is the cornerstone of an abbreviated trip to the United States as Israel has grown increasingly isolated throughout the war in Gaza.

The war in Gaza began on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas-led militants attacked Israel, killing around 1,200 people and kidnapping 251. At least 73,922 Palestinians have been killed in Israel's subsequent offensive, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, part of the Hamas-run government whose numbers are generally considered reliable by the international community.

A ceasefire agreed to by Israel and Hamas last October halted the heaviest of the fighting and led to the release of the remaining hostages yet further steps have since stalled. Israel maintains control of most of Gaza and continues to carry out airstrikes on Palestinians near military-held zones. Hamas not disarmed or relinquished power and there has been no progress toward reconstruction in the mostly destroyed territory.

Netanyahu has said no Palestinian state will be established while he is Israel’s leader and has argued that the Palestinian Authority is not a partner for peace.

Netanyahu followed the Palestinian president’s remote speech

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas also addressed the U.N. General Assembly earlier Thursday, delivering prerecorded remarks from his office in Ramallah after the United States denied him a visa to attend the gathering for the second year in a row.

Though world leaders have repeatedly invoked the plight of Palestinians in speeches throughout the week, Abbas urged the international community to take more tangible action against Israel.

“How long will some countries continue to remain silent about Israel, or continue supplying it with weapons that it uses against our people?" Abbas said. “What, then, is the international community waiting for before it acts to protect the Palestinian people?”

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Associated Press reporters Jennifer Peltz and Edith M. Lederer contributed.

Election officials said the plan is both inadequate and belated after the administration gutted the agency’s election security work last year, prompting the officials to pay for private services to ensure they were prepared for the upcoming elections.

“For them to come in five weeks before the election, yeah, nice effort,” said Nevada's Democratic Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar, who added that he would have liked to see the federal government provide more funding for cybersecurity, rather than Nevada taxpayers having to pay for it.

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin had originally promised to release the plan by mid-August as part of the Trump administration's move to kickstart election security assistance after a hiatus. He announced the plan at the same time he threatened election officials for not cooperating with the administration's preferred methods to hunt down noncitizen voting, a phenomenon that research shows is extremely rare.

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, which is housed under the Department of Homeland Security, has since its founding in 2018 helped warn state and local election officials about potential threats from foreign governments.

But CISA, as it’s known, was largely absent from that role in last year’s elections after the Trump administration dismantled much of its role in election security. The administration cut some 1,000 employees from CISA and slashed $10 million from two cybersecurity initiatives, including one dedicated to helping state and local election officials.

CISA has also gone the entirety of Trump’s second term without a Senate-confirmed director, instead cycling through a series of acting leaders.

Plan refers to ‘consistent’ support that many election officials say has been lacking

The 13-page document released Thursday warns of various threats to election security, including software vulnerabilities, hacks of voter registration databases, insider threats and physical security incidents, such as bomb threats that targeted several polling locations in the 2024 elections.

But it affirms that many longstanding election practices can address such threats and says the agency’s goal is “to ensure the American people can trust voting systems and know that physical safety measures will be in place when they go to their assigned polling locations to cast their votes.”

It states that DHS has “consistently supported CISA’s delivery of cybersecurity and physical security services to election officials,” something numerous election officials around the country have said isn't true.

Multiple secretaries of state told The Associated Press that services previously provided by CISA, such as live tabletop exercises and penetration tests to evaluate security of their systems, were not available in the lead-up to this year's midterms.

Minnesota Secretary of State Scott Simon, a Democrat, said in August that his office expects to spend roughly $250,000 on private vendors to conduct penetration testing, which can expose security vulnerabilities and recommend actionable fixes.

Shenna Bellows, the Democratic secretary of state in Maine, told the AP the same month that communications with CISA had been “sporadic and irregular, to say the least.” She said it would be helpful if the Trump administration could restore intelligence briefings that used to be granted to election officials about threats from foreign adversaries, but noted that trust with federal officials had been broken with the cuts to the agency.

Thursday's plan doesn't mention any specific 2026 threats from adversaries like Russia, Iran or China, all of whom have sought to meddle in U.S. elections — either directly through hacking or indirectly through influence campaigns.

Kris Warner, the Republican secretary of state in West Virginia, said Thursday that some of CISA’s assistance to his state had been continual throughout the Trump administration, including no-cost reviews of its public-facing websites for cybersecurity issues.

Warner acknowledged CISA had cut back under the Trump administration but said he views the agency “as a resource and not as a service provider” and said his office had last year hired a departing CISA election security adviser who has helped fill any gaps that may exist.

Report follows August call between CISA and election officials

In early August, two CISA officials — acting director Nick Anderson and assistant director for integrated operations Jim Harrell — joined a National Association of Secretaries of State call attended by a bipartisan group of secretaries of state, according to several election administrators.

The call grew tense when Arizona's Democratic Secretary of State Adrian Fontes voiced his concerns about the withdrawal of federal resources.

Fontes told the AP at the time that he told the CISA officials he didn’t trust them. He said it seemed to him the officials were there “to cover their butts.”

“They even acknowledged on the call that it was too late for them to do anything for 2026,” he said.

Simon said the officials appeared interested in rebuilding relationships and previewing their future plans, which he appreciated. But he said the effort at goodwill came later than election officials needed.

“Secretaries of state have already moved on and sought other partners and other resources for the services that CISA has retreated from over the last year and a half,” Simon said.

In Michigan, a voting rights group has tried to fill the gap

In Michigan, where mail ballots have already been sent out for the Nov. 3 elections, Deputy Secretary of State Aghogho Edevbie said the state’s relationship with CISA has been “nonexistent” this year despite working together closely in previous election cycles.

“If the federal government wants to be helpful, they can’t do so at the 11th hour,” the Democrat said.

Ashiya Brown, the Michigan state director of the voting rights group All Voting Is Local, agreed. She noted the new plan says CISA has 10 regional directors to support election administrators but still doesn't answer her biggest question.

“Does CISA still have the people and capacity to provide that support when clerks need it?” she asked. “I’m glad CISA has put forward a plan, but what matters now is whether the support described in it reaches local election officials before November.”

CISA has been hiring on its website for new positions, Brown said, but it's unclear whether they are all staffed yet.

Meanwhile, Brown, a former security official with the Michigan Department of State, said her group has hired former CISA employees to help provide training and other support to election clerks and fill the gap.

Edevbie said even without collaboration with CISA, he is confident the state’s elections are secure.

“We are always prepared to defend our elections and to ensure that every voter who is eligible to cast a ballot can do so here in Michigan,” he said.

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Associated Press writers Jessica Hill in Las Vegas and Jacqueline GaNun in Lansing, Michigan, contributed to this report.

That’s one of the key takeaways from ENOUGH’s latest viewer question series.

Producer Andrea Slaydon spent the day with career coaches at JobNet, a workforce development program run by the Christian Community Service Center, to get answers to some of the job-search questions viewers are asking.

JobNet helps people build job skills, search for work, prepare for interviews and connect with resources. Many of its services are available for free.

RELATED: Job seekers say AI is making the search harder; experts say the reality is more complicated

Here are some of the biggest job-search questions we asked — and what career coach Lexus Smart had to say.

Should I use the same resume for every job?

No.

Smart says one of the biggest mistakes job seekers make is sending the exact same resume to every employer.

Instead, tailor your resume to the specific job you want.

That means highlighting the skills and experience that are most relevant to the position and using language that matches the job posting.

There’s another reason tailoring your resume matters: You may not be the first person looking at it.

Is AI already being used to screen resumes?

Yes.

Companies are increasingly using technology to scan resumes and identify keywords and qualifications that match a job posting.

So should job seekers use AI to help write their resumes?

Smart says yes — but with an important warning.

Use AI as a starting point, not as your final product.

Her advice is to use AI to help get started, then change and personalize the language so the resume actually sounds like you.

RELATED: College graduate has applied for 500 jobs: a recruiter says this could help him get hired

The goal is to use AI as a tool without losing your own voice, experience and personality.

Why am I applying for jobs but never hearing back?

One thing job seekers can change is when they apply.

Smart recommends being strategic about the age of a job posting. She suggests filtering job searches to show the most recently posted positions, including jobs posted within the last 24 hours.

Why?

You could be a great candidate, but if hundreds of people have already applied, your resume could be competing against a large pool of applicants before anyone ever sees it.

Applying early can give you a better chance of getting noticed.

Should I leave some qualifications off my resume?

This advice may sound surprising.

Smart says that in some situations, job seekers who appear significantly overqualified for a position may want to think strategically about how much experience and education they include on their resume.

For example, someone with a master’s degree applying for a position that only requires a high school diploma could potentially be viewed as overqualified.

Smart said that, in some cases, “underreporting” qualifications could help get someone through the door for an interview.

That does not mean lying on a resume.

Instead, the idea is to make your resume relevant to the job you are actually trying to get.

What should I say about a gap on my resume?

Don’t panic — and don’t feel like you need to spend 10 minutes explaining it.

People take time away from work for many reasons, including raising children, caring for family members or dealing with major changes in their lives.

Smart’s advice is to be direct.

Explain the gap briefly, then move the conversation forward.

For example, you might explain that you took time away from work to help a family member through a crisis and then emphasize that you are now ready to return to work.

The goal is to answer the question without allowing the resume gap to become the entire conversation.

What jobs are less likely to be replaced by AI?

Another thing Andrea saw during her visit to JobNet was training for non-medical home caregivers — a type of work that relies heavily on human interaction and relationship-building.

The training includes topics such as caregiving, dementia, Red Cross training, relationship-building and even business and marketing strategies to help caregivers find clients.

As more people search for jobs that involve skills technology cannot easily replicate, human-centered work such as caregiving remains an area worth considering.

What if I’m feeling defeated by my job search?

For many job seekers, the biggest obstacle may not be the resume.

It may be burnout.

Applying for job after job without hearing back can leave people feeling discouraged and alone.

That’s where workforce development programs such as JobNet can help.

The program offers support that can include career coaching, job-search assistance, computer classes and interview preparation.

The larger takeaway from our conversation with Smart was simple:

Don’t just apply to more jobs. Be more strategic about how you apply.

And if you have a job-search question you want ENOUGH to investigate, send it to us. We may take your question to an expert next.

Parents at two failing Austin middle schools should have a say in whether the campuses close, a last-ditch effort to prevent a state takeover of the entire school district, Superintendent Matias Segura said Thursday.

The Texas Education Agency is poised to add the Austin Independent School District to its growing lists of takeovers after five years of poor test scores at Burnet and Webb middle schools. In doing so, the Texas education commissioner would appoint a new board of trustees and hire a new superintendent.

Segura’s comments came during a candid one-on-one discussion with Austin Current Editor Melissa Taboada at The Texas Tribune Festival, where Segura addressed the threat of a state takeover, the district’s financial crisis, his tenure and other challenges facing Austin ISD.

Austin Mayor Kirk Watson proposed earlier this month that parents at the schools sign a Parent Petition for Action, a rarely invoked caveat in the state’s intervention policy that allows parents to have a say in what happens when a school triggers the intervention law, to request Education Commissioner Mike Morath close their schools rather than take over the entire district.

“I cannot lead that, it needs to be driven by the community because I am focused on student outcomes, that’s where my lane is,” Segura said. “When it comes to my thoughts on it, I believe strongly that families should have a voice in what happens to their students and the success of their students.”

Burnet and Webb middle schools earned their fifth consecutive failing accountability ratings from the Texas Education Agency last month. While those ratings are preliminary and under appeal, if either becomes final, Morath could close the schools or replace the district’s school board and superintendent with state appointees. Final ratings are expected in December. Segura said intervention is a real threat.

“The commissioner has immense discretion to do what he thinks is most appropriate,” Segura said. “It is a real issue, it’s something that we’re working through.”

Experts warn the state’s education policy allows Morath to intervene in more than one way, meaning even if parents form a petition, he could side with parents to close a school and still impose additional interventions or sanctions.

Parents at both Burnet and Webb campuses responded to Watson’s proposal with mixed feelings, stating the ask felt like an unfair burden on a long-marginalized community, particularly without an assurance of what would happen to the students. Segura said he took full responsibility for the schools’ lack of academic success and that for a long time, the expectations and rigor were different for different parts of the city, particularly those with high numbers of economically disadvantaged students.

“We should not change our approach to high expectations be reduced because it feels as though the students will not achieve,” Segrua said.

The district’s appeal of the schools’ ratings is its latest attempt to avoid intervention. Earlier this year, Austin ISD turned Burnet and Webb, as well as Dobie Middle School, over to external operator Texas Council for International Studies. The district hoped the handoff — sanctioned by state law — would stave off intervention. However, TEA denied pausing accountability ratings at the schools while the external group worked to improve academics, citing the organization’s lackluster record of improving failing schools. The district dissolved the partnership shortly after it began in July, returning the schools to AISD oversight.

The district also closed Paredes Middle School, citing academic data that suggested the school would likely receive a fourth failing rating and was on a path to a fifth by the end of 2026-27. Texas does not allow districts to close a school in the year that they could receive a fifth failing rating, so Segura moved for a preemptive closure in spite of large community pushback.

Paredes’ fourth failing rating was confirmed in August, when the TEA also approved the school’s closure. The state admonished the district for the path taken to do so and ruled that the school’s history of failing ratings be transferred to B-rated Bailey Middle School, which received the majority of the closing school’s students. TEA also said the same rule would apply to five other closing schools with a history of four unacceptable accountability ratings, bringing the count of schools that could potentially trigger a state intervention of Austin ISD in 2026-27 up from three to nine.

Houston Fire Department was dispatched to the scene around 12 p.m. and quickly brought the fire under control to prevent the flames from spreading to adjacent residences.

The residence was unoccupied at the time of the blaze, and emergency personnel reported no injuries or medical transports.

HFD arson investigators are working to determine the cause of the fire.

But media coverage of Trump’s White House was hardly normal. On a high-profile day when Chinese leader Xi Jinping was visiting Washington and planning to attend a state dinner, no major American network was airing live coverage.

After the White House banned CNN from a rotation of five major U.S. broadcast outlets who take turns shooting and sharing video, the other four — in a show of solidarity — were still declining to participate in the so-called video pool.

The president posted online that TV networks “refused to cover one of the Biggest and Most Beautiful Events to take place in many years ... because they knew how good it would be, they didn’t want credit to be given to “TRUMP.”

It was a chaotic day for the media at the White House and in court.

Initially, in the morning, CNN, MS NOW and Politico journalists were denied entry. A Secret Service agent had confiscated their credentials as part of the ban. After the ruling for the outlets in the early hours Thursday, White House operations officials were notified to restore access to the affected reporters, but said they needed time to find, reactivate and deliver their entry badges. The process took over two hours, according to an administration court filing.

In his decision to provisionally lift the ban, U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly ordered the White House to “immediately return, reinstate, and restore” the three outlets’ access. He said they had met the legal thresholds to obtain a temporary restraining order and were likely to succeed in showing that their press passes were revoked without due process.

The ruling did not address CNN's removal from the White House video pool. The White House did not respond to an email seeking comment.

The judge's ruling issued a temporary order

Kelly — whom Trump nominated in 2017 and who ordered a CNN journalist’s access restored in a similar case in 2018 — said the government must have clear standards for conduct that would lead to revoking a press pass. He called the standard of objectionable reporting outlined in letters that the White House sent the outlets “so vague it hardly does the trick.”

The judge also made clear he did not buy the administration’s argument that the news outlets’ reporting endangered national security — and noted that Trump himself had not used that argument in the beginning, focusing solely on what he called negative coverage.

Theodore Boutrous Jr., the news outlets' attorney, said the judge’s quick ruling vindicated the freedom of the press, due process and the rule of law.

“I think we’re going to end up stronger because of this, and this tactic of just attacking the press, attacking individual journalists, is going to be discredited,” Boutrous said in an interview on MS NOW Thursday afternoon. “The law is just clearly on our side here,” he said.

The temporary restraining order — typically designed to preserve the status quo pending a closer review of the case by the court — expires in two weeks. The judge gave both sides until Oct. 5 to file their arguments over whether he should consider issuing a longer-lasting ruling called a preliminary injunction. Kelly said he “intends to rule expeditiously” on the preliminary injunction request.

Attorneys debated access to the White House and any risk to national security

Boutrous argued in the hearing that there was an urgent need for renewed access, saying that the ban caused irreparable harm to the outlets at a time of momentous news events. “We’re at war," he told the judge. "We have world leaders coming to Washington.”

Justice Department attorney Michael Velchik, in his argument, reiterated the administration’s point that the president has the right to choose who gets into the White House.

“Access to the White House is a privilege, not a right,” Velchik said.

In arguing that Trump was not engaging in viewpoint discrimination — the government singling out specific media outlets for the content of what they say or publish — Velchik said the president had criticized other news organizations, but not banned them. He noted, for example, that Trump had called ABC “the worst."

Major networks refrained from covering Trump for the media pool

On Wednesday, after the hearing, the major networks refused to air footage of Trump without assurances that CNN would be permitted back into the video pool.

At Joint Base Andrews, where the president formally welcomed Xi, journalists from Fox News, CBS and NBC were present but not shooting video.

Other television outlets whose crews were present, according to signs on their tripods and cameras, were NewsNation, Newsmax, Right Side Broadcasting Network, One America News and LindellTV.

The Associated Press said it provided video coverage of Trump greeting Xi to its customers, so they could decide whether to broadcast. “We did not stream the coverage on our own platforms, including APNews.com or our YouTube channel,” said an AP spokesman, Patrick Maks.

In an advisory to customers, AP said it would not have independent video coverage of meetings between Trump and Xi. It noted that a U.S. government handout live feed could be accessed on the White House website.

The AP was one of some 50 groups filing an amicus brief ahead of Wednesday’s hearing, urging the court to immediately restore the three outlets’ White House access.

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Golden reported from Seattle, and Kellman from London. AP reporter Rebecca Boone in Boise, Idaho, contributed.

Leaving their husbands behind at the White House, the first ladies visited the Smithsonian's National Museum of Asian Art in a display of soft power that united two figures known for fusing style and diplomacy. It was the first public meeting in nearly a decade between the spouses, one a former fashion model and the other a famed soprano.

The first ladies arrived to crowds gathered on sidewalks across from the museum, many waving Chinese and American flags.

Inside the museum, the first ladies toured the Peacock Room, a gilded green, blue and gold dining room that was once housed in a London mansion before opening to the public in Washington in 1923. The room was created by American artist James McNeill Whistler.

They also paused to look at a stone disk from ancient China, along with “Princess from the Land of Porcelain,” an oil painting by Whistler hanging in the Peacock Room and featuring a kimono-clad woman standing and holding a fan. Later, youngsters from Hope Chinese School serenaded the women with renditions of famous Chinese folk songs, “Song and Smile” and “Jasmine Flower.”

First ladies last met in 2017 in Beijing

The meeting drew global attention, featuring two powerful and glamorous women from the world's two biggest economies.

“They definitely add to the grandiosity and the symbolic significance of this trip,” said Yun Sun, director of the China Program at the Stimson Center, a Washington think tank.

Every interaction between the first ladies was scrutinized for clues about the standing between their countries, Sun said. Also closely watched were their style choices, which are followed in fashion circles. Melania Trump wore a black tweed jacket and skirt from Alexander McQueen, while Peng wore a qipao-style dress with a traditional collar adorned with a silver flower.

Their last public meeting was in 2017, when President Donald Trump stopped in Beijing during a tour of Asia in his first term. During that trip, the first ladies shared tea at the Palace Museum and visited a school where students performed songs and dances. Melania Trump did not attend her husband’s visit to Beijing earlier this year.

Trump and Peng approach their roles differently

Peng, 63, has embraced a more public role than her predecessors, who rarely attended state visits and usually stayed in the background. Melania Trump, who is 56, keeps a lower profile, often preferring to work behind the scenes.

They split off from the White House on Thursday while Donald Trump and Xi Jinping held private talks, touring the museum after a White House welcome ceremony and before a lavish state dinner.

Peng’s last trip to the White House was in 2015, when President Barack Obama hosted Xi. A noted star before her husband's rise, Peng ascended to national fame in the 1980s as a military singer, performing patriotic songs in full dress uniform.

As the children's choir sang on Thursday, Peng quietly mouthed some of the lyrics and later clapped along with the boys and girls. At one point, she turned and shared a laugh with Melania Trump.

Peng is also a public welfare advocate, taking on roles that have little precedent for her position in China. She has been an official antismoking ambassador in China, and in 2011 she was appointed as the World Health Organization goodwill ambassador for tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS.

She has been appearing more in public recently following a period in which she was less visible on the global stage because of the COVID-19 pandemic and a cutback in diplomatic trips by her husband.

Asian art museum houses thousands of objects

The Smithsonian's Asian art museum, located along the National Mall, has been a target of the Trump administration’s attempt to eliminate what it sees as liberal ideology from the institution's museums.

The White House last year ordered a review of Smithsonian museums to make sure exhibits “celebrate American exceptionalism” and “remove divisive or partisan narratives.”

The Asian art museum features more than 46,000 objects dating from the Neolithic period to the present, according to its website. It has been part of a broader Smithsonian effort to return stolen or unethically obtained objects to their home countries. Last year, the museum returned fragments of a silk manuscript from China that dated to more than 2,000 years ago and had been looted from a tomb.

In a Fox News Channel interview on Wednesday, Melania Trump said she was taking Peng to the museum to show the “connection with the culture, with us and China.”

When Peng visited the White House in 2015, she joined first lady Michelle Obama at a naming ceremony for a giant panda at the National Zoo. The ceremony also featured songs sung by preschoolers at a local Chinese immersion school. The panda, Bei Bei, was later returned to China in 2019 to enter a breeding program.

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Associated Press writers Seung Min Kim, Didi Tang and Fu Ting contributed to this report.

Dr. Heidi Overton is currently serving as a White House adviser and has worked on a series of Trump health initiatives, including an executive order last month that called for splitting up and spacing out decades-old childhood vaccinations. Overton, a physician, stood beside Trump in the Oval Office when he falsely remarked that the combined measles, mumps and rubella vaccine could be “quite lethal.”

Senate Health Committee Chairman Sen. Bill Cassidy, a physician from Louisiana, pushed Overton to reject that statement and affirm the safety of FDA-approved vaccines.

“Right now every vaccine that is on the market has been determined to be safe and effective,” including the MMR vaccine, Overton said.

Cassidy has repeatedly tried to extract commitments from Trump health nominees to uphold vaccine standards, including from Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., only to see the Republican administration push forward with efforts undermining their use.

“Kennedy gave me guarantees, and he did not keep them," said Cassidy, a Republican. “If the president asks you to do something that goes against those guarantees you give us today, what will you do?”

Overton said she would “follow the statutory requirements” for FDA commissioners and give Trump her best advice. Later in the hearing, Overton declined to explicitly say that Trump was wrong about the MMR vaccine's safety.

“This committee needs to know whether you will be radically honest, whether you will use your authority to stand up for sound science and protect children’s health,” Cassidy said. He didn’t indicate whether he’d support Overton’s nomination or when he might schedule a committee vote on it.

If confirmed, Overton would inherit a raft of other controversial projects at the agency, including a safety review of the nation’s principal abortion drug and new rules that make it easier to sell flavored electronic cigarettes. Both issues were a focus for Republicans and Democrats on the panel.

Overton sidesteps past statements on abortion pill

The FDA approved the abortion pill mifepristone in 2000 and has repeatedly affirmed its safety while broadening access, including allowing it to be sent through the mail. But Kennedy ordered an FDA review of the drug’s safety last year, following calls from anti-abortion groups and lawmakers favoring abortion restrictions.

While working at the Trump-aligned America First Policy Institute, Overton wrote that the FDA decision to allow mail delivery of mifepristone was “dangerous to women,” referring to the practice as “chemical abortion on demand.”

In response to questions from Washington Sen. Patty Murray, Overton sidestepped her personal views on the drug, stating that it “has met the safety and efficacy determinations of the FDA.” Overton said she didn't want to “prejudge” the FDA's ongoing safety review of the pill.

“The FDA has said this is safe,” responded Murray, a Democrat. “We need someone in FDA to make sure this is done by science.”

Republicans on the health committee, including Cassidy, recently published a report suggesting the handful of companies that sell mifepristone may not be complying with rules for overseeing doctors who prescribe the drug.

“If I’m confirmed as commissioner I would be committed to making sure every company is following the law,” Overton told Republican Sen. Jim Banks of Indiana.

Overton’s abortion views could complicate her efforts to win over two moderate Republicans on the panel: Maine Sen. Susan Collins and Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski. Both have bucked their party on the issue, supporting federal access to abortion. Collins is currently locked in a tight reelection race in which abortion access is a central issue.

But Collins focused her questions Thursday on a different issue: recent FDA decisions allowing new flavored e-cigarettes onto the market. Under previous administrations, including Trump's first term, the agency had restricted sweet vaping flavors due to their potential appeal to kids.

Overton pointed out that approval of several fruit-flavored vapes had the backing of FDA scientists, who determined the products met the standard of “appropriate for the protection of public health,” by helping adult smokers quit cigarettes.

“They believed that standard was met because so many adult smokers are using flavors preferentially,” Overton said.

To become commissioner, Overton will need a majority of votes from the 21-member health committee, followed by a positive vote from the full Senate.

Under the current administration, leading the agency has involved balancing Trump’s demands for slashing regulations — such as those for vaping products — alongside Kennedy’s interests in scrutinizing vaccines, drugs and food ingredients.

The previous FDA head faced numerous challenges before quitting

Those challenges dogged the tenure of the previous FDA head, Dr. Marty Makary, who resigned in May. Makary's time at the agency was defined by scientific disputes, leadership changes and a string of media stories detailing low morale and internal dysfunction among staffers. The FDA has lost about 20% of its employees to layoffs, buyouts, retirements or resignations since Trump took office.

Overton studied under Makary at Johns Hopkins University, where she received a doctoral degree in clinical research after earning her medical degree at the University of New Mexico.

Like Makary, Overton has no experience running a large bureaucracy, a critical skill for steering the FDA's 16,000 staffers spread across numerous U.S. and international locations.

In financial disclosure forms, Overton reported no investments in healthcare or food companies. That’s a stark contrast to Makary and other recent FDA nominees who have had to divest investments or cut other financial ties with companies regulated by the FDA.

Overton reported $50,000 to $100,000 in student loans.

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The Associated Press’ health and science coverage receives financial support from the AP Fund for Journalism and 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.

Star Meat Delivery Inc., based in Lucama, North Carolina, is recalling more than 167,000 pounds (75,750 kilograms) of raw pork, beef, and goat nationwide. The USDA said that number could grow as it continues its investigation.

Food produced without inspection may contain undeclared allergens, harmful bacteria, or other contaminants, the agency said Tuesday in announcing the recall. So far, there have been no confirmed reports of illnesses or injuries from the meats, according to the USDA.

The meat in question was produced “on various dates” before Sept. 22 and has USDA inspection stickers falsely bearing an establishment number — EST. 1363 — that the agency said “does not have a federal grant of inspection.” However, some packages people purchased may not bear that labeling because retail stores may have applied their own stickers with pricing and safe handling instructions, the agency warned.

The products were shipped to Georgia distributor A&D Foods to send to retail and restaurant locations nationwide.

The USDA said the products should be considered misbranded and unsafe to eat and be discarded or returned to the place of purchase.

The agency said the problem was discovered during the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service’s routine checks. It’s not clear whether anyone has been arrested or criminally charged.

Star Meat Delivery, in a statement posted on its Facebook page Thursday, pushed back at the notion that the inspection stamps on its products were somehow falsified. It said the establishment number in question was “legitimately reserved” as part of the USDA application process while it seeks approval to process and package meat for the Georgia distributor.

That approval process is still underway, Star Meat said, although the meat involved was sourced from a USDA-inspected supplier.

“No other products sold by Star Meat Delivery were mislabeled, and no other products sold by Star Meat Delivery are part of the recall that has been issued,” the company said. “We are cooperating fully with the appropriate authorities to finalize the application and are following the recall procedures that have been put into place.”

The USDA didn’t immediately respond to Star Meat's statement.

Recalls triggered by forged inspection stamps are relatively rare, according to Keith Schneider, a food safety professor at the University of Florida in Gainesville.

“This is someone taking a shortcut,” he said. “Systems are in place to catch these sorts of things and it appears the system worked as intended. You can’t skip inspections.”

Last year, some 32,000 pounds (14,500 kilograms) of meat, including chorizo, pork chops and ribs, produced by Sabrositos Hondurenos, of New Jersey, were recalled after the USDA determined they had fake inspection stickers.

The S&P 500 finished nearly flat and edged down by less than 0.1% following several turns between losses and gains. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 161 points, or 0.3%, and the Nasdaq composite added less than 0.1%.

Stocks have slowed their rally since the S&P 500 climbed to the brink of its all-time high earlier this week as pressure from the bond market has cranked higher.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury jumped to 5.20% from 5.11% late Wednesday and is back to where it was in 2007. High yields slow the overall economy by making it more expensive to borrow money, while also undercutting prices for stocks and other investments.

Yields climbed through the morning, which pushed stocks downward, until they took a sudden turn lower in the midday hours. The 10-year yield dropped from nearly 5.17% to less than 5.13% in about 20 minutes before ultimately turning higher again.

Yields once again were following the track of oil prices, which have been scattershot because of uncertainty about when the war with Iran will allow crude oil to flow freely again from the Middle East.

The price for a barrel of Brent crude in the most actively traded part of the market went from $102 to roughly $99 in a matter of minutes midday Thursday. It later rose to settle at $100.22, up 2.1% from the prior day.

It’s not just worries about expensive oil and inflation that have sent Treasury yields higher. The U.S. economy continues to expand, which also supports yields.

On Thursday, a report showed fewer U.S workers applied for unemployment benefits last week and further strengthened expectations for the economy.

Such numbers could convince the Federal Reserve that the economy can withstand more hikes to short-term interest rates. The Fed raised its main interest rate last week for the first time in three years in hopes of slowing the economy and removing some of the fuel for inflation.

Traders now see better than a coin flip’s chance that the Fed could raise rates twice more by the end of the year, according to data from CME Group.

So far, the solid overall economy has helped U.S. companies continue to deliver strong growth in profits. That in turn has helped their stock prices remain relatively strong despite worries about war, inflation and tariffs.

“The headlines have turned more ominous, but the underlying drivers of growth remain intact,” strategists at Barclays wrote in a report. “As long as AI-related investment, US corporate profitability, and consumer spending continue to beat expectations, the economy and markets seem capable of absorbing tighter central banks and higher rates.”

Stitch Fix became one of the latest U.S. companies late Wednesday to report better quarterly results than analysts expected. But its stock nevertheless tumbled 21.6% after it said “a more challenging consumer environment” could hold back its revenue growth this upcoming fiscal year.

Darden Restaurants, the company behind Olive Garden and LongHorn Steakhouse, fell 3% after reporting a profit for the latest quarter that matched analysts’ expectations.

High yields in the bond market hurt prices for all kinds of stocks, and they often hit hardest on those seen as the most expensive. That puts the target on AI stocks, which soared for years in the frenzy around the technology.

Higher yields also make it more expensive for companies to borrow money to build AI data centers, which could slow their construction and restrain demand for AI chips.

Nvidia slipped 0.4% and was the heaviest weight on the S&P 500.

On the winning side of Wall Street was Everpure. The data storage and management company’s stock jumped 11.2% after it stood by its financial forecasts for this fiscal year and said it expects revenue growth to accelerate in the following one.

All told, the S&P 500 fell 1.90 to 7,704.13 points. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 161.61 to 51,349.98, and the Nasdaq composite rose 3.34 to 26,939.37.

In stock markets abroad, indexes fell modestly around much of the world. A drop of 1.2% in Shanghai and gain of 0.8% in Tokyo were two of the bigger moves.

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AP Business Writer Yuri Kageyama contributed to this report.

Osiris, a 26-year-old female whale, died on Monday, Chicago's Shedd Aquarium said in a statement. The death comes less than a week after a fourth beluga, named Jelly Bean, died since it was rehomed at Oceanogràfic de València in Spain.

The deaths were sudden and unexpected as their health wavered amid the challenges of adjusting to a new home, according to statements from the aquariums.

Beluga whales are particularly vulnerable to changes in their environment, like climate change, pollution and other sources of stress, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Beluga whales native to the Cook Inlet on Alaska's coast are classified as an endangered species, and their population rapidly declined by nearly 80% from 1979 to 2018.

“When Shedd was asked to help with this rescue, we understood that these animals arrived with significant vulnerabilities and that the outcome for every individual could not be guaranteed,” the Shedd Aquarium said in a statement.

The belugas struggled to adapt to the aquarium

The Shedd Aquarium took in 10 of the 30 belugas and four dolphins stranded at Marineland, an Ontario park that closed years ago and could no longer care for them. The Canadian government signed off on a last-minute agreement to move its last captive whales out of the country earlier this year, saving them from euthanasia.

The belugas came from the Marineland park and zoo in Niagara Falls, Ontario, which announced in early 2023 that it was for sale and closed to the public in late summer 2024. Twenty whales — 19 belugas and one killer whale — had died at Marineland since 2019, according to provincial government data obtained through freedom of information laws and official statements.

The rescued belugas were moved in custom-made slings and temperature-controlled containers, Shedd staff told The Associated Press. Aquarium personnel traveled to Marineland to examine their health records in preparation for the move. They have monitored their health minute-by-minute since they arrived, the aquarium staff said.

Peekachu and Rain died at the Shedd in late August and early September after arriving from Canada. Another beluga that had lived at the aquarium for decades died around the same time.

Osiris was a “whale of clinical concern” since she arrived, according to the aquarium. The whale did not eat as consistently as her fellow animals, which complicated the efforts to keep her well-fed and hydrated, according to the statement.

“Osiris experienced periods of meaningful progress, both nutritionally and socially, but her overall condition remained closely monitored,” the aquarium stated.

Osiris' caretakers noticed sudden changes in her behavior and breathing patterns the morning of her death, according to the aquarium. She was moved to the medical habitat, but “her condition declined rapidly,” and she “passed away despite lifesaving efforts.”

A beluga sent to Spain died suddenly

Jelly Bean, the whale that died at Oceanogràfic de València, also died “suddenly and unexpectedly,” according to José Rafael Serra, a spokesperson for the facility. The whale “experienced feeding difficulties, prompting the veterinary team to intensify her monitoring,” despite periods of improvement, Serra said in an email.

The Spanish aquarium took in two of Marineland's beluga whales, including Jelly Bean. The Georgia Aquarium and SeaWorld locations in San Diego and San Antonio have also accepted whales from the Canadian park.

The two rescued whales at the Georgia Aquarium showed decreased appetites and were examined, but no issues were found, the aquarium said in a social media post Friday. The whales at SeaWorld are in “stable health,” according to AnneMarie Iturrizaga, a spokesperson for the company that owns the parks.

The Shedd Aquarium notified the NOAA of Osiris’ death Monday, according to John Chu, a spokesperson for NOAA Fisheries. Within 30 days of the whales’ deaths, the aquarium must formally submit their names and causes of death, and on request, provide copies of necropsy reports, Chu said in an email earlier this month.

The Shedd Aquarium said it will conduct necropsies into the whales and will share the results when they are confirmed.

Andrew Trites, the director of the University of British Columbia’s Marine Mammal Research Unit, said it was concerning that the four belugas had died “so shortly after arriving in their new homes."

The belugas were in small, confined spaces on the flights out of Marineland, but that's not out of the ordinary for them, Trites said. The whales often swim in narrow spaces between sheets of ice, and “should be reasonably well adapted to that sort of condition,” he said.

“Four animals have died so shortly after arriving in the new homes, and that’s what stands out to me as being surprising," Trites said.

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This story corrects the name of the agency to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

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Mayes-Osterman reported from Chicago, and Associated Press reporter Ryan J. Foley contributed. Mayes-Osterman is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

This statement is meant to shift the international response to the rise in sea level driven by humans from fragmented initiatives to sustained, coordinated and adequately-funded action. It comes as country after country has lamented the toll of climate change in speeches this week and called for collective action.

Contrarily, U.S. President Donald Trump repeatedly calls climate change a hoax, a con job or a scam.

Here are the world leaders in their own words:

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THE QUOTE: “Until recently, the response to climate change was firmly established at the center of the international agenda. This year, however, the topic disappeared from the debates of the G7 and G20, forums that bring together the largest carbon emitters. It is time to resume the offensive and inflict a defeat on denialism. Nature reminds us every day that we live on one planet. The glaciers in the Himalayas are melting. The super El Nino may cause torrential rains, droughts and forest fires in different parts of the globe.”

— Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, president of Brazil

THE SITUATION: Climate change and deforestation threaten the Amazon. A strong El Nino, a cyclic warming of the equatorial Pacific, causes higher temperatures and drier weather in the rainforest, conditions that worsen wildfires.

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THE QUOTE: “What we experienced in Nepal was Himalayan tsunami. But the larger looming threat is even more consequential. It is not only the devastation we mourn today; it is for greater danger that lies ahead if the world continues to look away... I call upon you to treat climate action not as a charity, but as a matter of justice.”

— Shisir Khanal, minister of foreign affairs for Nepal

THE SITUATION: Human-caused global warming thinned glaciers and thawed mountain permafrost, likely helping to destabilize the Himalayan slope that collapsed last month and unleashed catastrophic flooding across Nepal, according to a World Weather Attribution report. More than 1,300 people were killed and over 5,000 remain missing.

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THE QUOTE: “To protect the lives of present and future generations, all states must take serious action to tackle global warming. I believe that climate action and economic growth can go hand-in-hand.”

— Sanae Takaichi, prime minister of Japan

THE SITUATION: Japan is working to protect communities from warming and has pledged to slash emissions, but extreme heat remains a threat in the short term.

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THE QUOTE: “I think this summer was a summer of truth. The recent summer months have been, as we heard from the scientists, the hottest on record, but may be the coolest for the years to come.”

— Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission

THE SITUATION: Europe is heating up twice as fast as the global rate, making it the fastest-warming continent.

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THE QUOTE: “By the end of this century, 12 to 18% of our coastal areas could be submerged by sea level rise, affecting the livelihoods of tens of millions. Climate change has caused loss and damage equivalent to 1% of our GDP. And our food security is at serious risk”

— Tarique Rahman, prime minister of Bangladesh

THE SITUATION: The low-lying geography of Bangladesh makes it one of the countries most vulnerable to climate change.

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THE QUOTE: “Cabo Verde speaks with the same voice as other countries that are also living the climate crisis every day. For us, climate change is not a distant risk. It is an existential reality affecting our economies, our food and water security, our coastlines and ultimately our people’s future.”

— Francisco Carvalho, prime minister of Cape Verde

THE SITUATION: Cape Verde, like other small island developing states, is grappling with rising sea levels and increasingly powerful storms that erode shorelines, submerge land and threaten homes and livelihoods.

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THE QUOTE: “Nearly a third of the world’s tuna is caught in Pacific waters. And it’s moving east into the high seas. More than a quarter of our people live within a kilometer of the shore. Six of our communities have already moved. Two more are moving now. And half a degree is not a rounding error. For us, it is the difference between adaptation and relocation.”

— Naiqama Lalabalavu, president of Fiji

THE SITUATION: Lalabalavu cited projections that by 2050, the fish available to each Fijian is projected to fall by nearly a quarter, from 41 kilograms (90 pounds) a year to about 31. And more than half of that loss comes from climate change, he said.

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THE QUOTE: “The climate crisis is often referred to as a ‘global group project shared by all 8 billion people on Earth.’ A single country cannot tackle this challenge alone. At the same time, abandoning growth cannot bring everyone on board.”

— Lee Jae Myung, president of Korea

THE SITUATION: The impact of extreme weather worsened by climate change is far-reaching in South Korea. Farmers face higher costs and must use more labor to produce the same or lower yields.

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THE QUOTE: “We live in a fragmented world. Nations are turning inward. Promises are made loudly and kept quietly, if at all. Each country is tempted to say: It is not my storm, not my coastline, not my problem. The ocean does not recognize that thinking. It is one body of water. What warms in one hemisphere breaks upon another. The sea has never been fragmented. Only we are.”

— Philip Davis, prime minister of the Bahamas

THE SITUATION: Like many other countries in the Global South, Bahamas has a lot of debt from warming-connected weather disasters. Hurricane Dorian, the strongest storm to hit the country on record, caused $3.4 billion in damage in 2019.

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THE QUOTE: “For those who have declared climate change a hoax perpetrated by geopolitical opponents, the warnings of recent times cannot have been clearer. Melting glaciers, flash flooding, droughts, record-breaking heatwaves, brush fires, hurricanes and other extreme weather phenomena are unmistakable signals of an overburdened planet. Climate change is the ultimate test of global equity.”

— John Dramani Mahama, president of Ghana

THE SITUATION: Ghana faces erratic rainfall, erosion of its coastal towns and accelerating desertification. In June, Mahama said Ghana and coastal West Africa were hit with unprecedented torrential rain that killed 39 people.

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The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

The airstrikes struck the southern and eastern Afghan provinces of Kandahar, Paktia and Khost, killing four civilians, Afghan government spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said in a statement.

“These shameless acts of aggression and attacks by the Pakistani military regime will be met with an appropriate response,” he said.

Pakistani Information Minister Attaullah Tarar announced the strikes after officials said Afghanistan’s Taliban forces had fired eight drones and shelled Pakistani border posts after Pakistani troops foiled what they described as a cross-border infiltration attempt by militants.

Tarar also posted on X aerial footage that appeared to show several strikes hitting sprawling compounds in Afghanistan’s Kandahar and Khost provinces. He said the air and drone strikes destroyed militant hideouts and support infrastructure, including drone launch and storage sites, across 10 locations in Taliban-controlled areas. He said the sites were linked to attacks on civilians in Pakistan and the drone incursions on Wednesday.

Mujahid, the Afghan government spokesperson, rejected Pakistan's claims of drone attacks and warned of “consequences” for Pakistan over its airstrikes.

On Monday, Pakistani fighter jets struck sites in eastern Afghanistan that Islamabad said were militant hideouts.

The escalation threatens mediation efforts by China, Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia to broker a lasting peace between Kabul and Islamabad.

Pakistan has repeatedly accused Afghanistan’s Taliban government of allowing militants to operate from its territory and carry out attacks across the border, an accusation Kabul denies.

“Instead of dismantling these networks and taking credible and verifiable action against those using Afghan territory to perpetrate terrorism against Pakistan, the Afghan Taliban regime has chosen to escalate the situation through hostile drone operations against Pakistan,” Tarar said.

“The strikes were deliberate, precise, calibrated, and proportionate and strictly limited to identified military objectives directly linked to the attempted attacks against Pakistan,” he added.

Pakistani officials also claimed Wednesday that security forces had neutralized eight rudimentary drones launched by the Afghan Taliban before they could enter the northwestern city of Kohat and the border town of Torkham, and that Afghan forces fired mortars and other heavy weapons at Pakistani border posts. Pakistani forces responded with artillery fire targeting Taliban border posts, mortar sites and defensive positions, they said.

The four officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media about the latest flare-up.

Pakistan’s Information Ministry said 28 militants were killed in Monday's airstrikes, while Afghan authorities said at least three civilians died and four others were wounded. The U.N. mission in Afghanistan confirmed the civilian casualties and Kabul formally protested the attack.

On the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York, Pakistani Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar expressed concern about what he said was the presence of more than two dozen anti-Pakistani militant groups in Afghanistan.

Monday’s airstrikes followed a shootout with militants in Hangu, a district in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province near the Afghan border, that killed six Pakistani security personnel. Days earlier, a suicide bomber struck a mosque inside a police compound in the nearby city of Kohat.

Eight gunmen then stormed the compound, triggering a 20-hour gunbattle that killed at least 21 people, most of them police officers. No group had claimed responsibility for the attacks.

Pakistani authorities blamed the violence on the Pakistani Taliban and allied militant groups. The Pakistani Taliban, formally known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, have stepped up their attacks on Pakistani security forces, boosted by the Afghan Taliban's return to power in Afghanistan in 2021.

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Ahmed reported from Islamabad. AP writer Abdul Qahar Afghan in Kabul, Afghanistan contributed to this report.

The New York-based CPJ says it regularly updates its findings as new information comes to light. It removed another three Palestinians from its list because their role as journalists could not be established. It reinstated six cases, including two Israeli journalists killed in Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack that started the war.

“The accuracy and credibility of CPJ’s research are fundamental to our mission,” CEO Jodie Ginsberg said in a statement. “We base the determinations we make solely on whether individuals meet our definitions of who we consider to be a journalist, not an individual’s affiliation or views, nor in response to pressure or intimidation from any government or interest group.”

The group said that even after the review, its figures show that Israeli forces were responsible for “by far the majority of killings of journalists and media workers worldwide since 2023.”

Among those killed during the war was Mariam Dagga, a visual journalist who worked for The Associated Press and other outlets. She was killed, along with 21 other people, including rescue workers and other journalists, when Israel carried out a double strike on a Gaza hospital in August 2025.

Israel denies targeting journalists and has said a number of slain journalists were members of Hamas or other armed groups posing as reporters. In some cases, it has provided evidence of such ties that was rejected by their employers.

In a statement, the Israeli military said the revised numbers showed CPJ's “hypocrisy and lack of professionalism in its fact-checking of events on the ground.”

Critics accuse Israel of deliberately targeting journalists to silence war coverage. Israel has barred foreign reporters from entering Gaza outside of brief military-run visits since the start of the war, while officials at the same time have questioned the credibility of Palestinian journalists inside the territory. CPJ says that it considers all Palestinian journalists killed in Gaza to have been killed in connection with their work since they can do their work anywhere and because they are not allowed to leave the territory.

Journalists are protected under international law

CPJ said obituaries for Hamas and other militants released after the October 2025 ceasefire deal identified fighters who the rights group had previously classified as journalists.

That prompted CPJ to launch an internal review in June and commission an auditor the following month to examine its findings.

Since the Oct. 7 attack, CPJ has removed a total of 27 people from its list of slain journalists after finding that they participated in combat or belonged to a militant group. It removed another nine for other reasons. The updated list also includes a Palestinian journalist killed by a Palestinian militia and four Israelis killed by Hamas.

Journalists are considered civilians under international law regardless of their political views or affiliations, unless they participate in hostilities. Israel says militants posing as journalists have used such protections to collect intelligence and help target Israeli forces.

Hamas and other armed groups operate media outlets, as well as political parties, charities and other civilian institutions alongside their highly secretive armed wings. They also have military media units embedded with fighters that film attacks and release propaganda and hostage videos.

CPJ said it initially did not consider membership in a military media unit alone as proof of engagement in combat, but has since revised its criteria to exclude "anyone with active membership of any military arm of a state or non-state actor." Five of the 19 were removed because of those new criteria, it said.

AP Executive Editor Julie Pace is on the CPJ board.

Israel has faced heavy criticism over the killing of civilians

Hamas-led militants killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in the Oct. 7 attack and abducted 251 people. The last remaining hostages were released, or their remains were returned, under the ceasefire deal reached nearly a year ago.

Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed nearly 74,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and militants in its figures but says around half were women and children. The ministry, part of the Hamas-run government, maintains detailed records, and its figures are seen as generally reliable by U.N. agencies and independent experts.

Israel says it only targets militants and takes extraordinary measures to avoid harming civilians, blaming their deaths on Hamas because it operates in dense residential areas. Major rights groups and experts have accused Israel of genocide, allegations it vehemently denies.

The problem, which officials in the Republican-controlled state have not publicly defined, also could have disenfranchised people who wanted to vote in the state’s March primary but whose registration applications were never processed, local election officials said during a news conference Wednesday.

“This is really out of left field. Knowing that this one element of (state) applications didn’t come through, and we had no insight on it,” said Chris McGinn, executive director of the Texas Association of County Election Officials.

The size of the backlog statewide hasn’t been determined, but the association said it is in the tens of thousands for some of the state’s most populous counties. In Bexar County, which includes San Antonio, the election office received about 45,000 backlogged voter registration applications.

Some election offices will need to hire temporary workers to handle the crush, officials with the association said.

The issue started last October in the Texas Department of Public Safety, which among other things allows people to register to vote or update their voter registrations when they renew their driver’s license.

An unspecified error failed to send a large number of records to applicants’ home counties, where the applications are processed and verified. Those records could be a new voter registration application or an update to an existing registration, such as a change of address.

The association of local election officials said its members did not receive any communication from the Department of Public Safety about why the backlog occurred or why they were not informed of the issue for nearly a year.

In a statement, the Department of Public Safety said certain records submitted online “were incomplete and not fully transmitted” to the secretary of state’s office. It said the “system issue” had been resolved, without elaborating on the nature of the issue. The department did not immediately respond to a request for further explanation. County officials said the problem appeared to be with the department’s online portal.

Counties have until early in-person voting starts on Oct. 19 to finish processing the late-arriving applications.

During their news conference, county election officials said it is possible that some people might have been prevented from voting in the state’s primary earlier this year or initially turned away because there was no record of them registering to vote or updating their registration.

The unexpected backlog comes as counties are already inundated with tasks leading up to the November election in a state with a nationally watched U.S. Senate race between Democratic state Rep. James Talarico and Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton.

The Texas Secretary of State’s office and county election leaders say voters don’t need to worry about their registration as long as it is submitted by Oct. 5. If a person shows up to vote and they do not appear on the voter rolls, election officials said they can cast a provisional ballot.

They also can check whether they are registered on the state’s online registration site or call their county election office.

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Wilder is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

Starting next week, parking enforcement officers will have the option to mail citations directly to the vehicle’s registered owner. Windshield tickets will still be allowed.

Drivers will have 40 days from the date the ticket is written to pay the fine or contest it.

The change comes after Houston City Council unanimously approved the ordinance. The measure passed on the consent agenda and is being described as a modernization of the city’s parking rules -- not a complete overhaul.

According to the city’s Administration and Regulatory Affairs department, the updates clarify technology requirements, remove outdated references, improve compliance and support the safe, efficient management of public streets and parking spaces.

What’s changing — and what isn’t

Under the new process, the city will have 30 days after a violation to issue a citation. The ticket will be mailed to the address connected to the vehicle’s license plate through the DMV.

The citation will include:

• The type of violation
• The date, time and location
• A photo or video of the violation
• The vehicle’s license plate number
• The fine amount

Drivers will be able to pay in person, by mail or online.

The ordinance also updates language involving parking permits, enforcement technology, booting and delinquent vehicles. It gives the city more flexibility to use newer technology without having to rewrite the ordinance every time the technology changes.

The city says any mailing costs will be covered through existing parking operations budgets, with no new funding required.

Reaction from Houston drivers

Not everyone is comfortable with the idea of receiving a ticket in the mail.

“I’m a little nervous about that because I don’t get half of my mail at the time,” said Houston driver Aaron Robinson. “If something is coming to me and I don’t have it and I can get in trouble for it, that is a whole other thing right there.”

Julie Stuhrenberg was also skeptical.

“I think that is a terrible idea,” she said. “I think if you have a violation just put it in your car, take care of it.”

Robinson also questioned how the city will make sure the ticket goes to the right person, especially when a vehicle may be borrowed, rented or used for rideshare.

“You can tow a car, you can ticket a car, but it can be somebody else’s,” he said. “So there has to be something that says this is yours to be able to match you.”

Why the city says it’s making the change

Houston City Council Member At-Large Twila Carter called the updates a positive step toward modernizing parking enforcement.

She said the transition should be manageable because officers can still leave citations on vehicles while the city rolls out the mailed-ticket option.

Carter also said the additional time to respond—40 days instead of 30—is intended to make it easier for drivers to pay or contest a citation.

Council members said the ordinance also clarifies the existing parking rules and could help officers avoid confrontations with the public in some situations.

The shooting happened on Tuesday, shortly after school was dismissed along a sidewalk near Westfield High School and the Spring ISD administration building on Ella Boulevard.

The victim was identified by his family as 15-year-old Royce Witchet. Witchet was taken to a hospital in critical condition where he later died.

• RELATED: 14-year-old arrested in deadly shooting of Westfield High School student

The suspect, who isn’t being named because of his age, is also believed to be a student in Spring ISD, according to Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez.

Investigators have not released details about what led to the shooting, including whether Witchet and the suspect knew each other.

• RELATED: ‘I called him my heart’: Family identifies 15-year-old killed near Westfield High School

Authorities have asked students and others who witnessed the shooting -- or who have video, messages or other information -- to contact the Harris County Sheriff’s Office at 713-221-6000. Anonymous tips can be submitted to Crime Stoppers at 713-222-TIPS (8477).

Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao provided the information to Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand in a letter dated Tuesday after the New York Democrat inquired last month about the strike group's crew. The Lincoln's extended deployment drew the nation's attention following reports of crew stress and poor mental health, as well as supply shortages, including food and hygiene products.

Eight attempts in a strike group of 6,000 sailors over 10 months is actually low, experts say. The Navy reported 356 suicide attempts across the service in 2024, while there were more than 1,500 attempts among all active duty personnel that year, according to the latest annual report.

However, the reported attempts are not the best measure for conditions on the Lincoln and its supporting destroyers, particularly with no other additional details, said Dr. Harold Kudler, a former national lead for mental health services at the Department of Veterans Affairs and a retired VA psychiatrist.

“But something happened to get those families upset. Something happened to raise concerns about the health and well-being of those troops,” Kudler said, referring to media reports that quoted sailors and their families. “It reverberated through the military and reverberated across the country. So we need to understand what that was because we don’t need that to happen again.”

Acting Navy secretary offers information following questions about mental health and hygiene

Gillibrand had asked Cao several questions focused on ship conditions, including about the availability of mental health support and healthy food as well as hygiene. The senator also asked if there were any suicides.

“There have been no suicides on board during this deployment,” Cao wrote in the letter, which was obtained by The Associated Press and reported earlier by CNN. “Since the beginning of LINCOLN'S deployment, there have been a total of eight suicide attempts across the strike group — this number includes the LINCOLN crew and Sailors from the carrier wing, strike group and destroyer squadron staff, escorting destroyers, and all embarked aviation squadrons.”

Cao wrote that the carrier deployed with a psychologist, a clinical social worker, a counselor, three behavioral health technicians and a therapy dog.

Cao said the Lincoln maintained adequate food supplies, but because combat operations limited resupply opportunities, meal options were reduced from two to one for a short time. However, he wrote that four nutritionally balanced meals were served daily.

Cao acknowledged delays in scheduled resupply shipments but said the Navy prioritized the delivery of hygiene products and established a rotation to streamline distribution to different squadrons. He also acknowledged piping failures on the carrier early in its deployment as well as temporary issues with desalination units.

Trump had downplayed reports on ship conditions

President Donald Trump had downplayed reports about conditions on the Lincoln, which left its homeport in San Diego in November, arrived in the Middle East in January in support of Iran operations, and spent a record-setting uninterrupted time at sea of more than 260 days.

The carrier and some of its supporting ships stopped in Thailand in early September on their way back home to California. The Lincoln’s commanding officer, Capt. Dan Keeler, said then that the ship was heading home soon but may make further supply stops. He declined to say the exact date the strike group was expected back in the U.S.

Last month, Trump called the nearly nine months at sea that the sailors endured a “good period of time” but added that “over the years, we’ve had them out there much longer.”

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth also had said that conditions about the Lincoln were “completely misrepresented.”

Gillibrand slams the Trump administration for ‘deteriorating conditions’ for troops

Gillibrand took aim at Trump and Hegseth in a statement released this week in response to Cao's letter.

“What Trump and Secretary Hegseth dismissed as ‘fake news’ turned out to be serious and deteriorating conditions for our service members," she stated.

“Our troops and their families make immense sacrifices every single day, yet the president dismissed them with open disrespect,” Gillibrand said. "That this administration can find endless taxpayer dollars for bombs, ballrooms, and billionaires, but cannot take care of our service members, is completely unacceptable.”

Extended deployments of carriers wear on service members who are away from home for long periods and increase strain on the ship and its equipment. The Navy is enforcing a blockade on Iranian ports in the Strait of Hormuz, and the Trump administration has offered no clarity on how it intends to wind down the nearly seven-month-old war.

Kudler, the retired VA psychiatrist, said it can be challenging for troops counting down the days of their deployment to have it extended. He said the Lincoln could be a learning opportunity for the Navy.

“Let’s really do a serious look at what lessons have been learned and what we can do in the future,” he said, “to ensure that these kinds of deployments, if they are necessary, are easier on the service members and the families.”

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EDITOR’S NOTE — This story includes discussion of suicide. If you or someone you know needs help, the national suicide and crisis lifeline in the U.S. is available by calling or texting 988. There is also an online chat at 988lifeline.org.

The warning Tuesday came despite no “confirmed information” that kratom contributed to either death, Lafayette County Metro Narcotics said in a news release. The students were found Monday afternoon in different locations, one on campus and the other off campus, a university spokesperson said.

The university on Thursday identified the students as Aidan Hamilton, a freshman from Englewood, Colorado, and Robert Strang, a junior from Atlanta. The school said in a statement that their families "have asked for privacy as they grieve.”

U.S. health officials and states have increasingly scrutinized kratom, an herbal extract that acts as a stimulant at low doses and a sedative at high doses, over the past decade. Kratom is legal at the federal level, but some state and local governments have banned the substance and federal authorities have issued warnings about its risks.

Toxicology reports aren't yet available

Two state agencies were working to expedite toxicology reports for the students, Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves said in a statement Wednesday.

“Mississippi is praying for the families and friends of the two Ole Miss students during this incredibly difficult time,“ Reeves said.

Authorities said they had no evidence the deaths were connected but noted the kratom found at the scenes was sold at a retail store. Officials did not name the store or say whether any criminal charges would be filed.

“Out of an abundance of caution, we encourage everyone to avoid kratom and any other medication or substance that was not prescribed to you or obtained from a trusted, regulated source,” the task force's news release said.

Kratom is extracted from a tree native to Southeast Asia

It is used in capsules, powders and liquids that are often sold in gas stations or smoke shops. Proponents say that in its pure form, kratom is a safe, natural herbal supplement that can help manage pain, anxiety and depression and ease the effects of opioid withdrawal.

Doctors who treat addiction, however, say people can quickly become dependent on it, leading to withdrawal symptoms. A U.S. Food and Drug Administration webpage is blunt: Don’t use it.

The agency says it carries the risk of serious adverse effects, including liver toxicity, seizures and substance use disorder.

In rare cases, it's been associated with deaths, though kratom was usually used in combination with other drugs in those cases, and the contribution of kratom in the deaths is unclear, the agency says on its website.

A trade organization has pushed back

Mac Haddow, with the American Kratom Association, said the FDA and states that have banned kratom are conflating the natural product with synthetic and chemically manipulated ones, which are associated with adverse effects and even deaths.

Haddow, a senior fellow on public policy with the association, said he's heard numerous people tell lawmakers over the years how kratom has improved their lives.

"Some believe it saved their lives because it allowed them to get off of opioids,” he said.

Podcast host Joe Rogan and Cindy Crawford's late son, Presley Gerber, have talked about their experiences using kratom.

Last year, the FDA recommended a ban on products with concentrated levels of 7-hydroxymitragynine, a chemical found in only trace amounts in natural kratom.

Mallory Pullman, managing director at Mississippi Poison Control, said she's seen an increase in such concentrated products in recent years, and consumers may not be able to distinguish them from natural kratom.

“Until you know what product you’re working with, whether it’s kratom or some of these highly concentrated derivatives, you really have to be careful about buying a product and just taking it arbitrarily,” she said in a phone interview with The Associated Press.

Eleven states have banned kratom

Others, including Mississippi, have regulated it, in part by requiring people to be 21 or older to buy it. Both the city of Oxford and Lafayette County, where the University of Mississippi is located, have bans in place.

North Dakota Gov. Kelly Armstrong signed a bill this month restricting the sale of kratom products after declaring kratom a public health crisis this summer and calling a special legislative session to address it. The state has had 50 deaths associated with kratom since 2019, according to the governor's office.

Despite the bans and restrictions, use of kratom in the U.S. has increased, according to researchers at the University of Michigan and Texas State University.

In a paper published this year, they found kratom use in the U.S. was at an all-time high, with more than 5 million people saying they had used it in their lifetime. The group includes more than 100,000 children ages 12-17.

"Policy changes regarding kratom and 7-OH products are needed in all states if we are serious about protecting our children,” the study's main researcher, Sean McCabe, said in a statement in the University of Michigan News.

___

Associated Press writer Dave Collins in Hartford, Connecticut, contributed.

The Senate tally, 49-50, coming days after Trump's bombastic address to the United Nations in which he threatened to “annihilate” Iran, was likely the last chance for lawmakers to go on record about the war ahead of November. More Republicans are peeling way from the president as the war drags on, a rare slap back to Trump, as they campaign for control of Congress. The Senate outcome fell short, with four GOP senators joining most Democrats in favor of the resolution.

“They have been carrying water for this ridiculous and illegal war for months and months and months and not listening to their constituents,” said Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., who pushed the war powers resolution forward.

About half of rural American voters believe the economy is worse off now than when Trump returned to office, according to a new survey from The Associated Press in partnership with KFF. The costs of groceries, gas and healthcare rank as top pain points for the rural voters.

"We’ve got to break the cycle,” said Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., who joined in voting yes.

Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Rand Paul of Kentucky also voted for the resolution to end the war, as they have in many previous tallies, and Democratic Sen. John Fetterman voted against.

This was the 14th time the Senate has considered a war powers resolution, since Trump launched the conflict on Feb. 28.

War powers resolutions are largely political statements, without the full force of law, but stand among the sharper tools the House and Senate have to express disapproval of the White House, short of halting funds for Trump's military actions. As resolutions, they do not go to the president's desk for his signature.

As gas prices climb, Republicans start to question the war

Republicans in control of Congress have shied away from directly confronting Trump over the war, now stretching past the seven-month mark. But their unrest is surfacing as stubbornly high gas prices leave voters in a cash crunch back home.

Diesel costs, in particular, have almost doubled, topping $6 a gallon, according to AAA.

Just returning from a swing through Iowa, Kansas and Nebraska stumping for GOP candidates who are suddenly at risk in their elections, Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana called on Trump to hold a prime-time address to the nation to explain the Iran war strategy and the end game.

“People are confused about the war and upset about the cost of living,” he said.

But he and others were not yet ready to vote against the war.

“My own view is that the focus right now needs to be on attacking the cost of living issues,” said Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., who opposes the war powers resolution and believes the president is acting within his authority to conduct the military action.

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries scoffed at the handful of Republicans now trying to distance themselves from what he called Trump's failed economy. “Now all of a sudden they’re waking up,” he said.

Democrats keep pushing war powers votes in Congress

Earlier this month, the House for a third time approved a war powers resolution, this time with seven Republicans joining the Democrats, including two from battleground Iowa, Rep. Zach Nunn and Rep. Mariannette Miller Meeks, where affordability issues among rural voters are dominating the campaigns.

Senators, though, have rarely been able to confront Trump by passing a war powers resolution.

In June, the Senate approved a war powers resolution after four GOP senators joined Democrats, but Republicans abruptly reversed course the next day after Trump berated them during a private lunch over the outcome.

At the time, Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, stood up to defend his vote only to end up in a shouting match with Trump. He later switched to oppose the war powers resolution after receiving a personal briefing from the White House.

Thursday's vote was on a resolution that had passed the House in July with GOP support. Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., who authored the House resolution, said the Senate outcome was "a slap in the face to the millions of American people who want this war to end."

Other options to halt the Iran war

As the war drags on, costing $43.5 billion so far, Congress is also seeking other ways to force Trump to rethink his military strategy in Iran.

Rep. Thomas Massie, the renegade Republican from Kentucky, pushed forward articles of impeachment against Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth before the GOP leadership abruptly adjourned the House and sent lawmakers home to campaign for the election, avoiding any potential vote on the matter.

Lawmakers also have the power of the purse to curtail military spending, something Republicans have been reluctant to do but Democrats are sure to tackle if they win power in the midterm election. The White House's request for an additional $87.6 billion funding package for the war and other needs has idled in Congress.

First created in the aftermath of the Vietnam War as a way to hold a president accountable for military actions, the war powers act has long posed a test of the balance of power between the executive and legislative branches of government.

While the Constitution says only Congress can declare war, the president as commander-in-chief is also able to engage the military. The war powers act seeks to provide clarity by requiring the president, within 60 days of any such action, to seek approval — or risk disapproval — from Congress.

___

Associated Press writers Joey Cappelletti and Mary Clare Jalonick contributed to this report.

Interscope Records announced that Nov. 13 will be the sale date for U2's 16th studio album and released a new track, “Silencio.” “Street of Dreams,” the first song to be taken from the new album, was released in July.

“It’s a messy, provocative, sacred collection of songs," The Edge, the band's guitarist, said in a statement. Added singer Bono: “There will be loud guitars, deep bass, some ecstatic rhythms.”

“Carnaval De Luz” — which translates from Spanish and Portuguese to “Carnival of Light” — is produced by Jacknife Lee, who has been working with U2 since 2004’s “How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb.”

The last track on the album is “Torn,” a duet with Parton that a statement describes as “what has sadly turned out to be her last recorded vocal performance.” A representative for Parton confirmed it is her final vocal performance. It was co-written by U2, Parton and Snow Patrol’s Johnny McDaid and is described as “a tender country song detailing broken family ties that holds wider resonances.”

The band, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, has not been dormant, having dropped two EPs, “Days of Ash” and “Easter Lily,” each with six songs, released for Ash Wednesday and Easter, respectively.

The new album cover has The Edge and Bono joined by drummer Larry Mullen Jr. and bassist Adam Clayton walking in a line along a beach, with Bono leading the way in a top hat and black coat, in a clear echo of the Beatles' “Abbey Road” cover.

___

AP Music Writer Maria Sherman contributed to this report.

A favorite to win the NL MVP award, Crow-Armstrong became the seventh player with at least 40 homers and 40 steals in a season, joining a group that includes Los Angeles Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani and Atlanta Braves outfielder Ronald Acuña Jr. Jose Canseco was the first with the 1988 Oakland Athletics.

Crow-Armstrong hit his 45th homer during Sunday's 9-1 win at Cincinnati, extending his career high. The 24-year-old drew a leadoff walk from Tyler Phillips in the first inning and swiped second base on the next pitch to Seiya Suzuki for his 40th steal in 47 attempts. Fans chanted “MVP” as the Wrigley Field videoboard proclaimed the feat.

Ohtani was the previous player with a 40-40 season, hitting 54 homers and stealing 59 bases for the 2024 Dodgers. Acuña hit 41 homers and swiped 73 bases for Atlanta in 2023.

Alfonso Soriano (2006 with Washington), Alex Rodriguez (1998 with Seattle) and Barry Bonds (1996 with San Francisco) are the other 40-40 players.

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See AP’s full MLB coverage here

The record to beat for most people grilling simultaneously was 2,220, set in Japan's Ishigaki City in 2023.

The South African hopefuls, who were denied in a failed attempt last year, poured into a sports stadium in the capital, Pretoria, to take up their positions around 500 grilling stations. Organizers said they expected around 3,000 participants.

The strict rules, according to a Guinness World Records adjudicator who watched over the attempt, were: Everyone needs to be barbecuing simultaneously for a minimum of five minutes to be counted.

“And if anyone leaves, they do get disqualified,” said the adjudicator, Paulina Sapinska, who wore a blue blazer and tie and held an official-looking clipboard as she monitored the mass sausage and burger grilling.

Cooking meat outside on a wood, charcoal or gas fire is a beloved South African pastime, just as it is in the United States, Australia and elsewhere.

It's called a “braai” in South Africa, and one of the favorite meats is a fat, curled up sausage known as boerewors — which translates as farmer's sausage. But there were also burgers, steaks and chops to grill for the record attempt.

The mass cookout came on Heritage Day, a national holiday where people in multiracial and multicultural South Africa are encouraged to show off and celebrate their own specific heritage. The holiday has become known informally as “Braai Day” because the love of the cookout is shared by people across the country and it's how many South Africans celebrate it.

Participant Alex Coetzee said he also took part in the 2025 record attempt, when South Africa fell short because too many people left their grilling stations.

"It’s gonna be better (this time)," said Coetzee, who wore a shirt emblazoned with the colors of the South African flag. "We’re actually gonna break the world record now. South Africans have the record and that’s the most important part.”

But was this year's attempt well done, or did it go up in smoke?

Sapinska, the Guinness World Records adjudicator, kept the country on a knife edge by saying she and other officials were reviewing the evidence and that the final word on if there was a new world cookout champion might only come on Friday.

___

AP Africa news: https://apnews.com/hub/africa

Court records indicate Angel Saldivar-James and Oscar Armando Roland Menjevar are federally charged with conspiracy to interfere with commerce by robbery, interference with commerce by robbery, using, carrying, brandishing, discharging, and possessing a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence resulting in death, and using, carrying, brandishing, discharging, and possessing a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence.

• RELATED: 2 suspects charged with capital murder in deadly taco truck shooting, court records show

In addition, Angel Saldivar-James is accused of possessing a firearm while unlawfully in the United States.

The two are accused of shooting and killing Yaddua Barraza-Hernandez, 36, on Dec. 4, 2025.

Barraza-Hernandez was working at a taco truck on West Dyna Drive when two suspects, alleged to be Saldivar-James and Menjevar, approached the business. One of the suspects allegedly fired shots into the taco truck while the other grabbed cash. Both fled on foot after the shooting.

Saldivar-James is currently in the Harris County Jail with bond denied. Menjevar is currently in the Harris County Jail with a $400,000 combined bond.

Both suspects have immigration holds.

Two decades later, the Mohegans have sold the Sun to the Houston Rockets and the Sun is relocating.

“I remember the energy in the arena,” Meehan said. “I knew it was Mohegan’s team we were cheering for.”

Now 29, Meehan is among a loyal group of Mohegan fans preparing to say goodbye to a team that became a point of community pride.

The Mohegan Tribe purchased its WNBA franchise for $10 million in 2003, becoming the first Native American tribe to own a professional sports team. Over 24 seasons, the Connecticut Sun connected generations of tribal members and gave Mohegan people a platform to share their language, culture and values with the league and its fast growing fan base.

But in May, the tribe’s business arm closed a $300 million deal with Houston Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta to sell the Sun and relocate the team, with proceeds going to help strengthen the tribe's balance sheet as it digs out from substantial debt.

Beth Regan, chairwoman of the Mohegan Tribe’s Council of Elders and a self-proclaimed “Day 1” Connecticut Sun fan, said the team’s last game on Mohegan land on Thursday night will be emotional.

“Family and community mean everything to us,” Regan said. “The Connecticut Sun are part of our cháhshayooô, our family.”

Tribal members embraced the team

Basketball is not a particular passion for Meehan, Their loyalty and enthusiasm for the Sun is an exception.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s not a good year and they’re not winning or whatever,” Meehan said. “The team is special and the fan base is special.”

Meehan remembers wearing their hair in space buns like their favorite Sun player, Nykesha Sales, and flocking to the tunnel with other tribal members to ask for players’ autographs.

Players visited tribal youth camps and the annual Mohegan Wigwam Festival. The Sun’s fiery, free-spirited mascot, Blaze, made appearances at social dances.

Generations of Heather Landry's Mohegan family connect over their love of the Sun. Landry bought season tickets this year, giving her 10-year-old daughter Emersyn an opportunity to meet favorite players and even score a selfie with Brittany Griner and Saniya Rivers.

But Landry said her favorite memory of the team came when her family stopped by the Mohegan government center, happened upon a Sun practice session in the community gym and got invited to watch from the bleachers.

“I’m sure my daughter will cry when we walk out of the arena on Thursday,” Landry said of the team's last game in Connecticut.

The Sun “Moheganized” the WNBA

In April, when WNBA guard Charlisse Leger-Walker learned she had been drafted by an Indigenous-owned team, she felt it was “meant to be.”

Leger-Walker, who is Māori and Samoan, said Mohegan elders often visited Sun practices to welcome new players and offer blessings and prayers for the team’s success.

“It was cool for me to come to that realization, that a lot of my values that I carry with me from home are the exact same here,” Leger-Walker said.

From halftime performances featuring tribal singers and dancers to a team logo styled after a traditional Mohegan symbol, the Connecticut Sun brought Mohegan culture to the WNBA and to a national stage.

Regan has smudged the team with sage during losing streaks, a cleansing practice meant to help the players let go of poor performances. She has also gifted injured players sweetgrass braids and laughed when she remembered athletes including 6’6” center Jonquel Jones hugging their knees to squeeze into the community’s sweat lodge.

In 2021, when the WNBA and Nike gave team uniforms an upgrade, Regan said it was the perfect opportunity to “Moheganize” their uniforms with imagery like the “trail of life” motif, which is traditionally painted on woven baskets, and alternating purple and white trim styled after a wampum collar. One of the team’s alternate jerseys displays the word “Keesusk,” the Mohegan word for “Sun.”

“Our languages were taken from us in colonization,” Regan said. “So to see ‘Keesusk’ on those uniforms is so joyous, so validating for our tribe.”

The tribe took an early bet on the WNBA

The Mohegan Tribe purchased the WNBA’s Orlando Miracle in 2003 amid a financial crisis for the league with no clear path forward. That's when the team relocated to Uncasville, Connecticut and became the Sun.

By 2010, the Sun had made deep playoff runs, ranked near the top of the league in game attendance and became the first WNBA team to turn a profit despite playing in the league's smallest market.

Following the Mohegan's lead, other tribes have since invested in professional sports to diversify their economies. Wilton Rancheria is now majority owner of Major League Soccer's Sacramento Republic FC. The Seneca Nation recently purchased the National Lacrosse League’s Rochester Knighthawks. And the Pechanga Band of Indians' business arm is a founding partner of the LA Clippers' Intuit Dome arena.

Regan said the “writing's been on the wall” since the WNBA exploded in popularity and players negotiated a new collective bargaining agreement that requires teams to provide state-of-the-art practice facilities among other expensive upgrades that the tribe would have struggled to afford.

The Mohegan Tribal Council declined an emailed interview request Wednesday. In selling the team, Meehan trusts that the council made the right business decision. But they called the WNBA's move to effectively block a deal that would have sent the Sun to Boston, a much closer venue, a “betrayal" of the tribe that they say rescued the franchise.

Ahead of Thursday's final game, Meehan is gathering 24 years of Connecticut Sun mementos—ticket stubs, her original 2003 team jersey—to keep in a framed shadow box signed by the 2026 team's players.

Regan fought tears while explaining what Mohegan people will lose when the team relocates. She said her people should be proud of the role they played in shaping the WNBA's success story.

“Before all the attention, when the WNBA needed investment, who stepped up?” Regan said. “Mohegan did.” ___ This story is published through the Global Indigenous Reporting Network at The Associated Press.

“Mr. Mamdani, since you were elected mayor of this city, many Jews no longer feel safe in New York. They talk to me, they tell me ‘this isn’t the city we remember, it changed so quickly,'” Netanyahu told world leaders during the United Nations General Assembly.

Mamdani has long been a vocal critic of Israel’s military actions in Gaza and has called Netanyahu a “war criminal” who is “the architect of a horrific genocide against the Palestinian people.”

Mamdani met with U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday in New York.

The two-term governor of Oklahoma makes his case for conservative governing and what the rest of the country can learn from his home state.

As the war with Iran has dragged on, Trump and Netanyahu have split over how to prosecute it, straining a relationship between the two allies. Netanyahu has also faced global criticism both for Israel’s war in Gaza and settler violence in the occupied West Bank. Instead of a packed itinerary, Netanyahu, who arrived on Thursday, was scheduled to meet only a handful of leaders before giving his speech.

The apparent snub underscored how badly the relationship between Trump and the prime minister has fractured. Many in Washington associate Netanyahu with the increasingly unpopular fight with Iran and Trump has labored to avoid the appearance that the Israeli leader forced him into a war that Trump said would be a “little excursion” lasting only weeks.

Netanyahu's brief visit also demonstrated how isolated he is globally, three years after launching a punishing war in Gaza in retaliation for the Hamas-led attacks on Oct. 7, 2023. He faces an election next month widely seen as a referendum on his responsibility for the security failures surrounding the attacks and his ability to defend Israel's reputation on the world stage.

Day after day this week, as other heads of state have stepped to the podium, many have harshly criticized Israel's actions, particularly in Gaza. Ahead of his visit, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani urged his arrest, saying the U.S. should honor a warrant for Netanyahu issued by the International Criminal Court. He is wanted for war crimes and crimes against humanity allegedly committed in Gaza, though the U.S. is not a member of the court and New York City lacks the authority to arrest him.

Still, the prime minister is a master showman, and often turns to props and visual aids during speeches in flawless English to drive home his message. Last year at the summit, scores of diplomats walked out while he was speaking. But that is unlikely to faze him, as he speaks primarily to an audience of Israeli voters.

“He times his speech so that it is broadcast here in primetime,” said Michael Oren, a former Israeli ambassador to the U.S. who served under Netanyahu and lives in Israel.

But experts say without the usual high-profile meetings, the trip could hurt Netanyahu’s image at home.

“I think the trip is a mistake, because it exposes his weaknesses,” said Eytan Gilboa, an expert on U.S.-Israel relations and professor at Israel’s Bar-Ilan and Reichman universities.

While many Israelis view the U.N. as hostile toward Israel, he added, the fact that he could not secure a meeting with Trump only highlights how poorly Netanyahu has managed the relationship with his nation's strongest ally.

In 2023, U.S. President Joe Biden was reluctant to host Netanyahu at the White House but still made time to sit down with him on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly.

“Israel cannot survive without the United States,” Gilboa said.

The slight in New York follows sharp criticism from Mike Huckabee, the U.S. ambassador to Israel and a longtime supporter of Israeli settlements, of the settlers attacking Palestinian communities in the West Bank. In unusual remarks for an ambassador, he referred to the attackers as “terrorists."

“It’s significant of a deeper rift,” Oren said of Netanyahu's slim itinerary.

When Trump was in New York on Tuesday, he met with an array of leaders from Arab nations, as well as from Denmark, Japan, Greenland, Ukraine and Venezuela, among others. He then quickly returned to Washington to roll out the red carpet for Chinese President Xi Jinping.

For a leader who likes to portray himself as a global statesman, it is a “big, big miss for him at a time where he can’t afford misses,” Natan Sachs, senior fellow at the Middle East Institute in Washington, said of Netanyahu.

On other past trips, Netanyahu met with a slate of high-profile leaders, including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and then-German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

This year, though, the prime minister's office said “many world leaders” asked to meet with Netanyahu during his brief visit, but that he was on a “tight schedule” and needed to return to Israel before the start of the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, which begins at sundown on Friday.

On his schedule, the statement said, were leaders from Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay, Panama, Ethiopia, Greece, Slovenia, and Papua New Guinea.

The weekly average rate on a 30-year fixed-rate home loan rose to 7.03% from 6.95% last week, mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday. One year ago, the average rate was 6.30%.

The average rate is now the highest it's been since Jan. 16, 2025, when it was at 7.04%.

“Beyond the immediate financial constraints, the 7% threshold is a foreboding psychological barrier,” said Lisa Sturtevant, chief economist at Bright MLS. “Crossing this mark could create a chilling effect on the market" that would lead to a considerable slowing of home sales transactions this fall.

Higher mortgage rates can add hundreds of dollars a month to borrowers’ costs, limiting homebuyers’ purchasing power. As rates rise, that can also lead prospective home shoppers to delay buying.

In late February, the average rate on a 30-year mortgage briefly dipped to 5.98%, its lowest level going back to late 2022. The roughly 1 percentage point increase in the rate since then translates roughly into an additional $276 a month cost for a borrower financing a $400,000 home loan at the current average rate.

Depending on a borrower’s income, credit and other factors, they may qualify for a rate on a 30-year mortgage that is below or above the current average.

The housing market has been stuck in a rut this year in large part because of elevated mortgage rates, which have been climbing in the months since the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran in late February.

Mortgage rates are influenced by inflation, Federal Reserve policy and bond-market investors’ expectations for the economy, among other factors. They generally follow the trajectory of the 10-year Treasury yield, which lenders use as a guide to pricing home loans.

Expectations of higher inflation amid surging oil prices have pushed up the 10-year Treasury yield, which was at 3.97% in late February, before the war began. It surged to 5.17% in midday trading on the bond market Thursday. That’s put it roughly back to where it was in 2007.

The latest increase in the 10-year Treasury yield suggests that “upward mortgage rate pressure seems likely to linger,” said Anthony Smith, senior economist at Realtor.com.

The Federal Reserve’s decision last week to increase its key interest rate for the first time in three years in a bid to tame surging inflation could also keep upward pressure on mortgage rates.

While the central bank doesn’t set mortgage rates, its decisions to raise or lower its short-term rate are watched closely by bond investors and can ultimately affect the yield on 10-year Treasurys. The Fed also signaled that another rate hike could occur later this year.

Wall Street traders now see close to a coin flip’s chance that the Fed could raise rates twice more by the end of the year, according to data from the CME Group.

The U.S. housing market has been in a slump since 2022, when mortgage rates began to climb from pandemic-era lows. Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes were essentially flat last year, stuck at a 30-year low. U.S. sales of those homes slowed again last month.

The latest data on home loan applications show that the upward trend in mortgage rates has given some would-be homebuyers reason to pause.

Mortgage applications, which include loans to buy a home or refinance an existing mortgage, fell 1.5% last week from the previous week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. This marks the third straight weekly drop.

Applications for loans to refinance existing mortgages also declined, falling to their slowest pace since February 2025.

The latest move in rates on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages, often sought by borrowers refinancing a home loan, is likely to discourage some homeowners eager to refinance. That average rate increased this week to 6.42% from 6.26% last week. A year ago, it was at 5.49%.

The elevated mortgage rates are driving more prospective homebuyers to adjustable-rate mortgages, or ARMs. Such loans, which typically offer lower initial interest rates than traditional 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages, accounted for nearly 10% of all mortgage applications last week, MBA said.

But there's something different near the end — a bit of text at the bottom that says “paid for by the U.S. government.”

According to AdImpact, which tracks media spending, the advertisement cost $14,000 and it ran during conservative shows on Fox News and Newsmax.

The White House said in a statement the ad is "educational and unapologetically patriotic."

“These public service announcements are about reminding Americans to love their country and understand what makes it worth defending, at home, at our borders, and abroad," the White House statement said.

Fox News and Newsmax did not immediately return a request for comment.

The White House did not say what agency paid for the spot, which includes background music with singers crooning “love me” over and over.

The advertisement does not say who voters should support in the midterms, but it meshes with campaign messaging from Trump and other Republicans, particularly during the party's unusual convention in Dallas earlier this month.

Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, who is in line to chair the House Judiciary Committee if his party wins the majority in November, said in a social media post that it's a violation of the Hatch Act for government employees to work on such a video.

“It is blatantly unethical under numerous federal ethics provisions proscribing the use of government resources for political campaigns,” Raskin wrote.

Republicans also criticized the ad.

North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis, who is not running for reelection, referenced the former right-wing Hungarian prime minister to critique the advertisement.

“It’s inappropriate. It’s not like they need a GoFundMe page to have the dollars to do that sort of ad and they could do it. But using taxpayer dollars, it feels like Viktor Orban,” he said.

Louisiana Republican Sen. John Kennedy said he hadn't seen the ad but questioned whether it was legal.

"I don’t generally like to see politicians use public money to pay for their own campaign ads,” he said.

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Associated Press reporters Joey Cappelletti and Steven Sloan in Washington contributed to this article.

The National Book Award-winning author and historian discusses the arguments behind his new book, “Chain of Ideas: How Authoritarian Thinking Takes Root in America.”

The Laredo City Council voted 7-2 Monday night to set a nonbinding referendum for May — delaying a decision that is coming due for cities, counties and law enforcement agencies that face a financial reckoning after Gov. Greg Abbott blocked state money from being spent on the roadside cameras.

“In my opinion as the head of this local government, with state funding paused, the circumstances have changed,” Laredo Mayor Victor Treviño said before the vote. “If continuing these Flock systems will require the local taxpayer to fund their entire system, I believe that 272,000 residents should have an opportunity to express their opinion.”

At least 14 cities and counties have shut off more than 900 Flock cameras since state funding was rescinded in late August, and more are scheduled to decide their next steps in the coming weeks. Larger cities like Houston and Dallas shuttered grant-funded cameras while leaving much of their networks in operation, while Plano, Robinson and Kendall County were among those that ended their Flock contracts entirely.

Complicating those decisions is a lack of information from the governor’s office about the duration of the funding pause and a desire from local law enforcement to keep the cameras they attribute to reductions in crime. In addition to the funding block, Abbott recently directed the Texas Department of Transportation to pause installation of license plate readers along state roads.

Flock cameras and other AI-enhanced automated license plate readers have come under fire from privacy advocates over their ability to scan all passing vehicles to build a database that can be accessed by law enforcement agencies from across the country. The cameras compile license plate numbers and other identifying information, including make, model, paint color, dents and bumper stickers.

Police say the information provides unprecedented ability to identify suspects, pinpoint stolen vehicles and locate missing persons. Critics fear the creation of a surveillance state and say the databases have been repeatedly abused by police conducting improper searches.

As of late August, there were an estimated 13,000 Flock cameras across Texas, according to DeFlock, an anti-surveillance watchdog that uses verified crowdsourcing to map the locations of Flock cameras.

Abbott’s office did not respond to a request for comment about guidance provided to local governments about how to proceed without state funding.

Schertz Assistant Police Chief Phillip Waller said the lack of information about the freeze is causing “major havoc” in smaller departments as local elected officials mull the long-term implications.

“I mean, depending on how big or how small the government entity is, having tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars of [automated license plate readers] not being reimbursed like we thought they were is a major hit to the budget,” Waller said.

Without information about when or if Abbott’s funding freeze will end, some local leaders have been hesitant to make decisions regarding the cameras while their current contract terms are still active.

In Addison, City Council members on Tuesday debated whether Abbott’s funding freeze was temporary or indefinite as they began weighing the loss of state support on the city’s $260,000 Flock contract. In Laredo, City Council member Tyler King cast doubt on the permanence of the funding block in Monday’s meeting.

“I personally believe it’s political, and I think on Nov. 4, if [Abbott is] reelected, that’ll come back, and the money will start flowing in again,” King said. “So if we make a decision based on that, then we’re going to be back in the same situation come Nov. 4 — the money’s back, what do we do now?”

Abbott withdrew state funds for the cameras in August as The Texas Tribune prepared to publish an investigation exploring how a small state agency had directed at least $30 million to help cities, counties and law enforcement agencies pay for more than 3,200 Flock cameras across Texas.

That support from the Motor Vehicle Crime Prevention Authority had been set to continue into 2027, with $10.9 million earmarked to help local agencies afford subscriptions for more than 2,600 Flock cameras, a Tribune review of approved grants found.

The vehicle authority, overseen by a governor-appointed board that includes Laredo’s police chief, Miguel Rodriguez, had completely covered Laredo’s installation costs for its 165 cameras, according to a police department spokesperson. Rodriguez has been a vocal advocate for placing the cameras across Texas and has commended their use in Laredo and elsewhere for allowing a new approach to detecting crime.

Like Laredo, League City southeast of Houston also will hold a nonbinding referendum on Flock cameras — a decision made mid-August, prior to Abbott’s funding freeze.

In addition to grappling with the loss of state money for Flock cameras, some local officials face a financial hit because vehicle authority grants are given as reimbursements.

Kyle, a small city south of Austin, has not received its 2026 grant for $205,000, $80,000 of which would help pay for 32 Flock cameras. Even so, the City Council voted 6-1 at a Sept. 5 meeting to continue Kyle’s Flock contract.

Mayor Yvonne Flores-Cale said they’ve had no issues with the devices.

“When we’re asked to remove something like Flock, it’s difficult, because what do we use instead of it?” Flores-Cale said. “It can’t just be like, ‘take it away and then we’re going to be a safer city,’ because we’ve never had a problem or a complaint or a misuse in our city.”

Like Kyle, Conroe and Carrollton have rejected calls to end their partnerships with Flock.

Even in cities and counties that are not immediately shifting their approach to Flock, the governor’s actions and widespread scrutiny have prompted police to provide presentations and explanations for how they use their cameras.

During the Schertz City Council meeting on Sept. 15, council members accepted the city’s latest $309,000 vehicle authority grant, with roughly $100,000 intended to be used for 41 Flock cameras before the funding freeze. Waller, the assistant police chief, also detailed how police were — and weren’t — using their cameras, including clarifying that vehicles, not people, are tracked.

Waller said in an interview after the presentation that misinformation about the cameras is rampant online, and he called automated license plate readers a helpful and natural improvement in policing.

“Technology advances and so does police work, and LPRs are just the next step in that advancement,” he said.

Some conversations prompted by the funding pause are the first time local elected officials have publicly discussed whether the cameras should be used. In 2024, when the Laredo City Council approved its first million-dollar installment for Flock cameras, it did so without public discussion — and did the same in January when it approved a $5 million, five-year contract.

Other cities that canceled their contracts, such as Leander and El Paso, had their police enter Flock agreements without city council involvement. The El Paso City Council responded with an ordinance requiring future contracts for license plate readers to be approved by the council.

Not all of the recent cancellations stemmed from funding concerns.

In Pflugerville and Hutto, political leaders ended Flock agreements after learning the extent to which other agencies could access their camera data. A records request from a Pflugerville resident found that hundreds of agencies across the United States had been using the city’s Flock data.

Several law enforcement agencies have begun cracking down on who can access vehicle data collected by their cameras after audits found that unauthorized departments — sometimes hundreds or thousands of them — had used their data. The Texas Department of Public Safety reined in its access significantly after a Tribune analysis found more than 2,800 agencies had repeatedly tapped into their network of more than 900 cameras without signing agreements the department said were mandatory.

The U.S. Government Accountability Office documented costly problems in several initiatives ICE has pursued since President Donald Trump returned to office in January 2025 and ordered the mass arrest and deportation of people who are in the country illegally.

Among the misspending was nearly $3 million to erect tents at Guantanamo Bay that were never used, $20 million to maintain purchased warehouses that are now being sold without having housed a single detainee, and excessive rates paid to hold detainees at a deficient and now-shuttered Florida lockup.

ICE has no strategic plan for spending its windfall

Congress gave ICE an unprecedented $45 billion to expand detention capacity last year as part of the Trump-backed One Big Beautiful Bill, but the agency still lacks a comprehensive strategic plan for how to spend it wisely, the report warned. The detainee population has increased from 39,000 in January 2025 to 67,000 as of July 30.

“Without taking action to manage detention investments in accordance with program and project management practices, ICE will likely continue to make uninformed decisions and risk further inefficiency and wasted resources,” warned the GAO, a nonpartisan agency that investigated at the request of congressional Democrats.

The Department of Homeland Security, ICE’s parent agency, told GAO it would develop a plan to guide its detention expansion by Aug. 31, 2027, but that may be too late to prevent more waste, the report said.

ICE and DHS offered no immediate additional comment on the report.

The government scrapped a plan for mass detention at Guantánamo Bay

Shortly after Trump returned to the White House, the government began blowing money by hastily pursuing plans to detain more people who were in the U.S. illegally, the report found.

After the White House directed officials to use the military base in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, for immigration detention in January 2025, the Department of Defense assembled enough tents to hold 5,000 people there at a cost of $2.85 million, the report said. But DHS found that the tents didn’t meet detention standards, and they were removed before they housed a single detainee.

The plan for mass detention at Guantánamo Bay was later found to be “infeasible” and scrapped because of the costs of building facilities that could meet federal standards. Instead, the agency housed an average of 16 detainees daily there this year, at a cost of millions of dollars, the report found.

ICE is wasting millions of dollars on empty warehouses

Earlier this year, ICE purchased 11 large warehouses across the country for $1.07 billion as part of a plan backed by former DHS Secretary Kristi Noem to increase detention capacity. But that idea was scrapped amid public opposition before any detainees were housed in them because the department didn’t conduct “appropriate due diligence and planning,” according to the GAO report. DHS is now planning to sell seven of the facilities.

ICE has spent $20 million on costs and services related to those seven warehouses that it will not recover, including zoning assessments, title insurance, utilities and security, and will need to sell them for the total purchase price of $707 million to avoid more waste, the report said.

ICE has also “incurred significant costs” for the four warehouses that it plans to keep, including a $426 million outlay to renovate facilities in Arizona and Maryland that is on hold due to legal challenges.

Report finds waste on ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ and other plans

After the warehouse initiative faltered, ICE launched a plan to purchase facilities owned by private contractors that were already housing detainees, saying it would give more control over infrastructure and limit local governments’ ability to restrict their use.

The agency spent $1.5 billion to buy two of them in July and could buy more even though ICE has “not assessed the long-term affordability of owning these facilities,” the report said.

The report found fault with other initiatives. ICE never reached a contract with the state of Florida to operate the facility nicknamed “Alligator Alcatraz,” which housed detainees for a year until it was closed in June following reports of substandard and abusive conditions.

Instead, DHS agreed to reimburse the state through a special $608 million Federal Emergency Management Agency grant that authorizes a charge of $249 per detainee per day — 171% higher than ICE’s normal rate of $92, the report found. DHS is also paying the state the higher rate for a second facility that’s still open in Sanderson, Florida.

ICE is also facing high costs under an agreement in which the Bureau of Prisons is housing detainees at eight facilities. The agreement requires ICE to reimburse the full cost, which has ballooned because of overtime and other staffing assignments, and pay a rate of $182 per detainee per day, the report said.

Wearing his “Catman” T-shirt, DeBacker pulled off the intricate rescue of a frightened and exhausted cat named Lola who had spent about five days trapped, likely upside down for most of that time, behind a wall in her family's old home in the New York City suburbs.

Lola's ordeal began about two weeks before the rescue, when she ducked under a floorboard while the family was moving out of their second-floor apartment in Franklin Square.

That’s when DeBacker and his team were called in.

DeBacker, who has been rescuing cats for at least 15 years, set a trap with food and cameras in the hopes of luring Lola out, but she'd avoid the trap when she emerged at night.

Things took a turn for the worse when she stopped showing up at all — she had fallen and was now stuck behind a first-floor wall.

When they found her, Lola was trapped upside-down, eating insulation and becoming increasingly weak. DeBacker was losing hope that they’d get her out alive.

But their luck changed last Friday. With a contractor's help, they used an electric saw to start cutting a hole in the wall and managed to see Lola through an endoscopic camera. She seemed nervous, so to prevent her from trying to flee further into the wall, they switched to a quieter drill.

“After two weeks we did not want to lose the cat again,” he said.

In video of the rescue, DeBacker can be seen reaching through the narrow hole, where he made contact with Lola’s hind legs. He then moves into a standing position, shifts his weight back and carefully pulls her out backward.

“Safe!” a woman can be heard saying as the dusty and exhausted cat is placed into a towel-lined crate.

When Lola was finally freed, DeBacker described it as the greatest feeling in the world.

“We were all so happy,” he said.

“It’s pretty miraculous that the cat survived there five days with no food or water,” DeBacker said. “And when you’re upside-down, all the blood is rushing to your head.”

Lola was taken to an emergency vet, where they found insulation in her body, he said. She is now back with her family and struggling with a poor appetite. Her family has been taking her to the vet to try to figure out what's going on, he said.

DeBacker, who has four cats of his own, offered a word of caution to any fellow cat owners who are preparing to move: "Secure the cats first and not after all the moving. The moving will scare the cat into hiding.”

It is the second big round of store closures under Starbucks Chairman and CEO Brian Niccol, who joined the company in 2024. Last September, Starbucks closed 627 stores in North America and Europe.

In a letter to employees, Starbucks Chief Operating Officer Mike Grams said the locations targeted either aren't delivering acceptable financial results or can't provide the kind of experience that Starbucks wants for customers and employees.

The company didn't say Thursday which coffeehouses will close or how many are located in the U.S.

Starbucks Workers United, which represents workers at the 700 company-owned U.S. Starbucks stores that have voted to unionize, said 20 unionized stores are among the 250 that are closing, or 8% of the total. Starbucks stores have been voting to unionize since late 2021, but the union and the company have yet to reach a labor agreement.

Grams said Starbucks is continuing to retrofit its North American coffeehouses to make them cozier and more inviting. The company expects 1,500 stores will be retrofitted by Sept. 30, which is the end of Starbucks' fiscal year.

“This progress has given us a clearer view of the performance of every coffeehouse,” Grams said in his letter. “While most are benefiting from this overall momentum, some coffeehouses continue to underperform despite the hard work and commitment of all of you.”

Grams said Starbucks is still committed to growing its store count in North America. At the end of June, the company had 18,371 stores in the region.

Starbucks said it will transfer employees to other stores if possible or provide severance support if it's not able to place an employee in another location. Starbucks Workers United said Thursday it's sending a formal request for information to Starbucks about the planned closures and will engage in bargaining at every unionized store.

Starbucks has also been cutting its corporate ranks. The company laid off 900 nonretail employees when it closed stores last September. In May, Starbucks laid off an additional 300 corporate employees and closed some underused U.S. offices.

The company said it will incur $300 million in restructuring charges with this round of closures, including $200 million in cash charges as it exits leases and pays employee separation benefits and $100 million in non-cash charges due to the disposal and impairment of coffeehouse assets.

Starbucks shares fell less than 1% Thursday in afternoon trading.

Every edition is built around you. These are your questions, your frustrations, your wins, your concerns. When you reply to this email, leave a comment, or send me a note, you’re not shouting into the void. I’m paying attention! (honestly... sometimes maybe too much. 😂)

I do my best to answer every single one of you. Sometimes a single message uncovers a great story. Other times, I start seeing a pattern in the questions you’re asking, and that’s when I know it’s time to dig deeper.

I also want to highlight the good stuff too. The people making a difference, the hidden gems, and the resources that can actually help you.

Think of me as your own on-the-ground accountability reporter. I live and work in this community too. I’m in the neighborhood every day, and this newsletter is how you can tap me and say, “Hey Nicole, can you look into this?” The stories, guides, and updates I share come directly from what you tell me you want to know more about. Not every story is breaking news. In fact, most aren’t. Sometimes the most important stories are the ones that have been frustrating people for years. Asking why something hasn’t changed is often how change starts.

My favorite days are the ones where I can actually see the impact a story has made. I can’t always promise change, but I can promise to ask questions, look for answers, and shine a light on issues that matter.

Between newsletters, you can always find me on my Instagram or on my Facebook. That’s where I’m sharing daily updates, asking for your input, and posting things as they happen.

So now that you have this direct line... tell me what’s going on by responding to this email! I can’t wait to hear from you.

A dry cool front moves through late Thursday afternoon. Before it gets here, we’ll again make a run for a record high. Thursday record is 98° set in 2023. I’ve got a high of 96°. On Wednesday we broke the record of 97° with a high of 99°.

Thursday is hot and humid with dewpoints reaching the mid-70s. Dewpoint is an excellent measure of how much moisture is in the air. The higher the number the more humid it feels. Once dewpoints fall to the 50s that is a much more comfortable feel for us in Houston.

You are going to love the way it feels Friday:

As dry air settles in late Thursday, we’ll wake up to a refreshing feel Friday morning. North of I-10 we’ll start the day in the 60s! Along I-10 and south we’ll be in the 70s. But even those of us with mild temperatures will feel good with a low humidity in the morning and throughout the day.

Humidity back this weekend:

The day air does not stay with us. The humidity starts climbing Saturday and it will feel sticky Sunday.

Tracking a Fall front:

Two things I’m watching next week are tropical moisture from the Pacific and a cold front. The Pacific Ocean has two hurricanes, Cat 1 Odalys and Cat 5 Polo. Both of those will send tropical moisture to Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. Some of that moisture could arrive in Houston Wednesday with a cool front moving through at the same time. This may result in widespread heavy rain and lower temperatures. We’ll keep watching this set up to see if it actually occurs.

Tracking the tropics:

All is quiet in the Gulf. There is one area near Cabo Verde being monitored by the National Hurricane Center. It’s off the coast Africa and drifting north. It has a 60% chance of becoming our next named storm. There is no threat to the United States.

So far this hurricane season we’ve had six tropical storms. We have not had a hurricane in the Atlantic basin. The latest first hurricane to form was Gustav and Humberto, which formed on September 11th. This means our 2026 hurricane season set a record for the latest hurricane to form.

Extended forecast:

Our next chance of rain arrives next week. And there is the possibility we get a cold front Thursday. We could get some heavy rain as well with high in the 80s and a few mornings in the 60s!

China and the zoo had said in April that Ping Ping, a male, and Fu Shuang, a female, would go to the United States. But Xi’s announcement at the White House, in opening remarks before talks with President Donald Trump, marked the first public confirmation of the timing. Beijing had reclaimed four pandas from Atlanta in 2024, the last of the animals on loan from China to the U.S. at the time.

Xi said Ping Ping and Fu Shuang, “will come to their new home in Zoo Atlanta and meet with the American people” in “a few days.” He called it “a piece of good news” and hailed the panda loan program as an example of “friendship between the Chinese and Americans.”

The pandas are part of a conservation agreement between the zoo and the China Wildlife Conservation Association. Both pandas were born at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in China.

In 2024, Lun Lun, Yang Yang, Ya Lun, and Xi Lun returned from Zoo Atlanta to China, ending a 25-year partnership and leaving the U.S. without any of the animals for several months. The National Zoo in Washington returned three pandas to China in 2023 before accepting new arrivals Bao Li and Qing Bao, in October 2024 after Atlanta lost its pandas. Other American zoos sent pandas back to China before that as loan agreements lapsed.

When the pandas' Atlanta return was officially promised in the spring, Zoo Atlanta CEO Raymond B. King celebrated “the wonder and joy of giant pandas" and said his facility was “delighted and honored to yet again be trusted as stewards of this treasured species.”

In a new ad, which Hinojosa announced Thursday on stage at the Texas Tribune Festival, Lynn Davenport, a self-described MAGA conservative who believed the 2020 election was stolen, said she will break with her party and vote for Hinojosa.

“She voted for President Trump, and she rides hard for me,” Hinojosa said at the festival, citing her record opposing school vouchers, standing up against data centers and talking about affordability issues.

Hinojosa is running closer to Abbott than anyone predicted, with some pollsters projecting the race as a “toss up” despite the governor’s deep pockets and history of double-digit wins.

With mounting rural anger over data centers, transmission lines and the cost of living, Hinojosa is trying to appeal to moderate Republicans and independents — even if it requires separating herself from the Democratic Party brand.

“I’m not asking voters to trust Democrats,” she said on stage. “It’s hard enough to get people to trust me.”

The Tribune invited Abbott to participate in the festival, but he did not respond.

Speaking to a packed crowd that cheered her arrival, Hinojosa rejected the label “progressive,” saying it was too often associated with culture war issues. Instead, she branded herself as a populist, focused more on economic issues that impact Texans’ pocketbooks.

This reflects a messaging shift after a decade as one of the most left-leaning members of the state House and co-chair of the Texas Legislative Progressive Caucus, although Hinojosa said on stage that her values had not changed.

Eduardo Leal, Abbott’s press secretary, said in a statement that Hinojosa can’t “erase her radical, socialist record of high taxes, supporting boys playing in girls’ sports, and open borders.” 

Asked about what conservative victories she would try to undo if she was elected governor, Hinojosa demurred, saying it would be difficult without Democratic majorities in the Texas Legislature — which she said there was no chance of, despite talk of a blue wave this cycle.

“There’s just not,” she said. “I live in reality.”

Other Democrats are projecting more confidence, as they see their best chance in decades at breaking the Republican political monopoly, amid low approval ratings for President Donald Trump and frustrations over affordability. In the Senate race at the top of the ticket, polls show Democrat James Talarico running ahead Attorney General Ken Paxton, with record-setting money flowing in on both sides.

On stage, Hinojosa said her campaign will announce they had raised $20 million since the start of the year, although she acknowledged they would need much more to take on Abbott. As of the end of June, Abbott had about $67 million on hand, compared to Hinojosa’s $3 million.  

Even as Hinojosa tries to appeal to the “Gina-curious” — voters who have never previously considered voting for a Democrat — some in her core base raised concerns that she may be forsaking their issues.

During the audience question portion of Thursday’s event, a University of Texas graduate raised the racist social media posts made by Republican Railroad Commission nominee Bo French about South Asian students celebrating the university’s win over Ohio State.

“I know you said you have no interest in culture wars, but if your constituents are being drawn into them without being asked … how are you going to balance staying out of it with showing support when needed?”

Hinojosa responded by calling on her record in the House of standing up when Republican leadership “punched down” on certain communities.

“Nobody has fought to defend Texans stronger than I have, and that will continue to be the way I operate,” she said.

Bulwark publisher Sarah Longwell discusses her new book, “How to Eat an Elephant: One Voter at a Time” with Astead Herndon for a live recording of his “America, Actually” podcast.

The Dodgers are once again among the best teams in the big leagues, and they'll have several challengers in October, including the Milwaukee Brewers and Tampa Bay Rays. All three teams could finish the regular season with 100 wins or more. Los Angeles is rolling into the postseason and four-time MVP Shohei Ohtani returned to the lineup on Wednesday after a stint on the injured list and was 1 for 4 at the plate with two strikeouts and a walk.

The New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox and Atlanta Braves have also clinched spots in the postseason. Yankees slugger Aaron Judge, a three-time AL MVP, is dealing with a right calf strain that will likely keep him out through at least the Wild Card Series.

While the 12-team playoff field appears mostly set, there are a few long-shot contenders for the postseason, and specific matchups are in flux.

Here's some of what to watch as the season comes to a close.

Here's who can clinch a playoff spot Thursday

In the American League, the Cleveland Guardians can clinch a postseason spot with a win at Boston or a loss by the Rangers or a loss by the Astros.

The Chicago White Sox can clinch a postseason spot with a win at Kansas City.

Over in the National League, the San Diego Padres can clinch with a win at the Dodgers or a loss by the D-backs. The Chicago Cubs can clinch with a win vs. Miami or a loss by the D-backs.

The Philadelphia Phillies can clinch their spot in October with a win vs. Milwaukee and a loss by either the D-backs or the Padres.

AL Central and West are tight, other division winners are set

There's quite a bit of mediocrity in the AL Central and West divisions this season, which has led to some fascinating pennant races and could lead to a sub-.500 team making the postseason.

The Guardians (82-76) have a narrow advantage over the White Sox (81-77) in the AL Central while the Rangers (78-80) and Astros (78-80) are fighting for the AL West. Houston has the tiebreaker if the season ends in a tie.

Over in the National League, the playoff bracket is close to set.

The Padres (88-70), Cubs (87-71) and Phillies (87-71) are jockeying for position in the wild-card race but will almost certainly make the postseason. The only team within shouting distance is Arizona (84-74), which is three games back. Chicago holds the head-to-head tiebreaker for home field over Philadelphia and San Diego, and the Phillies own the tiebreaker over the Padres after sweeping that season series 6-0.

MVP races, stats to watch

MLB's major awards probably won't have much drama this season.

Both MVP races have strong favorites with Chicago's Pete Crow-Armstrong running away with the NL honor while Houston's Yordan Alvarez is the probable choice in the AL, though Tampa Bay's Junior Caminero has also had a fantastic season. Alvarez still has an outside shot at a Triple Crown. He leads the AL in batting average at .316 and his 41 homers are tied with Caminero, New York's Ben Rice and Baltimore's Pete Alonso. His 102 RBIs are eight back of Alonso.

For the Cy Young Award, Milwaukee flame thrower Jacob Misiorowski and New York ace Cam Schlittler are the favorites in the NL and AL, respectively.

The Rookie of the Year races also look set with Cincinnati's Sal Stewart and his 110-RBI season the leader in the NL and Detroit's Kevin McGonigle the favorite in the AL.

What is the MLB playoff format?

There are 12 teams that qualify for MLB’s postseason, including six teams from both the AL and NL. The three division winners in each league get seeds No. 1 through No. 3, ranked by win-loss record. Then the three wild-card teams get seeds No. 4 through No. 6, also ranked by win-loss record.

The top two teams with the best record in both the AL and NL automatically advance to the Division Series. The other eight teams play in the Wild Card Series, which is a best-of-three format beginning on Tuesday, Sept. 29. In both the AL and NL, the No. 6 seed will travel to face the No. 3 seed while the No. 5 seed goes to No. 4. The higher seed hosts all three games.

The winners then advance to the best-of-five Division Series, followed by the best-of-seven League Championship Series and a best-of-seven World Series between the winners of the AL and NL.

What is the MLB postseason schedule?

Wild Card Series: Sept. 29-Oct. 1 (NBC/Peacock)

Division Series: Oct. 3-10 (AL on TBS, NL on FOX/FS1)

Championship Series: Oct. 11-20 (AL on TBS, NL on FOX/FS1)

World Series: Oct. 23-31 (FOX)

Who are the favorites to win the World Series?

The Dodgers (+200) are the favorites to capture a third straight World Series title while the Brewers (+550), Rays (+800) and Yankees (+850) are viewed as the top contenders.

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See AP’s full MLB coverage here

Coleman served in the Texas House from 1991 until his retirement in 2022. During his tenure, he worked on legislation involving health care, mental health services, criminal justice and economic development.

He was involved in creating Texas’ Children’s Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program in 1999 and later worked to expand enrollment by addressing administrative barriers. Coleman also served as the House’s lead writer on the health and human services section of the state budget during four legislative sessions, helping direct additional funding to health coverage, mental health care and HIV/AIDS services.

His legislative work included support for the state’s Medicaid 1115 Transformation Waiver, which brought federal funding to Texas health care providers. He also participated in a group of state lawmakers selected by the Obama administration to work on national health reform.

Coleman’s criminal justice work included legislation requiring crisis intervention training for peace officers and the 2017 Sandra Bland Act. The law addressed officer de-escalation training, traffic-stop data, jail safety, investigations into jail deaths and efforts to connect people experiencing mental health issues with treatment.

He also backed mental health training for teachers and university staff, legislation extending state health coverage to foster children attending college, and a measure allowing rural hospitals to employ physicians.

In Houston, Coleman helped establish management districts in areas including Midtown, Downtown, East Downtown and Greater Southeast Houston. He also advocated for Texas Southern University, Prairie View A&M University and the University of Houston.

His work at TSU included helping preserve the university’s independence and securing civil rights funding for TSU and Prairie View A&M. At UH, he supported the creation of the Hobby School of Public Affairs and the College of Medicine, as well as funding efforts aimed at helping public universities achieve Tier One status.

Coleman previously chaired the Texas Legislative Study Group House Caucus and the Texas Legislative Black Caucus. He also served on the House Committee on Public Health for many years.

The family said details about funeral services and other arrangements will be announced later. Relatives have asked for privacy and said they hope Coleman will be remembered for his public service, commitment to his family and efforts to improve opportunities for Texans.

Editor’s Note: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated former Rep. Coleman’s age as 75. It has been corrected to state he was 65.

According to a law enforcement source, the operation targeted the group YNS, a self-described gang that has maintained a prominent presence on social media. Members have allegedly posted videos connected to criminal activity.

Authorities believe those arrested may be linked to multiple violent crimes in Houston over the past year and possibly earlier, according to the source. The suspects face federal and state charges.

The Houston Police Department, Texas Department of Public Safety, U.S. Marshals Service Gulf Coast Violent Offender Fugitive Task Force and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives assisted with the operation. The FBI said the agencies worked together to safely carry out the complex takedown.

#BREAKING Late last night, FBI Houston's Safe Streets Task Force led a massive takedown of a violent Houston gang! More than 15 alleged gang members and associates are now behind bars facing federal & state charges.

Thanks to @houstonpolice, @TxDPSSoutheast, USMS GCVOFTF, and… pic.twitter.com/toD9xaDedG

— FBI Houston (@FBIHouston) September 24, 2026

As in years past, African leaders attending the U.N. General Assembly this year are demanding a reform of the powerful Security Council that would include permanent seats for countries from the continent in the global body's highest decision-making structure.

Many African heads of state who addressed the meeting since it began on Tuesday have decried the continent’s lack of permanent representation in the Security Council as it navigates global security issues that directly and indirectly affect their populations and governments.

These include the war between Russia and Ukraine, the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict and, more recently, the U.S. war with Iran — issues that all loom large at this year's General Assembly.

The 15-member Security Council has five permanent members — the United States, Russia, France, the United Kingdom and China — that hold veto power. Other nations, which do not, are elected by the General Assembly rotate in and out every two years on a staggered basis. Africa holds three of those nonpermanent seats.

The representation question is becoming more urgent

While the calls for Africa to be represented permanently on the Security Council have often been debated by the General Assembly, many said the global conflicts currently faced by the organization made it more urgent for the body to be more inclusive.

According to most African leaders, the unfair representation in the Security Council has created doubt about the credibility of the organization and its oft-trumpeted commitment to multilateralism and equality among nations.

“Every nation is sovereign and equal under the (U.N.) charter. Yet, on the gravest question of war and peace, five nations possess a permanent power that the other 188 do not. The equality proclaimed in this assembly ends at the doors of the security council,” Kenyan President William Ruto told delegates on Wednesday.

They have also highlighted the large African population and the high number of African countries that are member states of the United Nations.

“How can a world led with a right conscience justify the denial of 1.6 billion Africans, the right to equal representation?” asked Ethiopia’s president, Taye Atske Selassie.

In 2024, the United States said it would support the addition of two new permanent seats for African countries on the council. That, however, was under the administration of former President Joe Biden.

Liberia's president, Joseph Nyuma Boakai, said Wednesday that “the historical injustice is no longer tenable.”

“The imbalance is not a favor for Africa,” he said. “It is necessary to restore United Nations trust, credibility and legitimacy.”

Artificial intelligence is a key example

As the world's leaders grapple with the future of artificial intelligence at the meeting, many in Africa also insisted that the decision-making about its rapid growth and development should include the developing nations as they were likely to feel its impact reverberate across the continent.

This came a day after U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres urged global competitors in artificial intelligence to cooperate in addressing threats from the technology. And on the same day, the Security Council held a special meeting about AI that featured the industry's leaders calling for help in managing the technology.

On Wednesday, Botswana President Duma Boko was among the leaders calling for African nations to be included in the discussions. He said this extended to critical minerals, rare earths, and energy resources that power the technological developments. Many of those come from developing countries.

“Therefore, developing countries must have a meaningful voice in setting the standards and safeguards that will govern these technologies, ensuring that they expand opportunities, support decent work, and strengthen public services, while protecting human dignity, rights, and security,” Boko told delegates.

Most leaders are sticking the initial demands contained in the African Union's position on the issue adopted in 2005, which includes a demand for at least two permanent seats on the Security Council.

Said Namibia President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah: “The time has come for us to recognize that we have been negotiating for too long."

Reform is not an attack on the United Nations, said Somalia's president Hassan Sheikh Mohamud.

“Reform is necessary to protect its legitimacy, renew confidence in its institutions and ensure that it remains capable of responding to the realities of our time,” he said Wednesday.

Lucio has spent 18 years on death row, but questions about her possible innocence have focused on whether daughter Mariah Alvarez’s fatal head trauma was caused by abuse or an accidental fall. 

Paramedics called to Lucio’s Harlingen home, where she lived with her nine children, found a badly injured and unresponsive Mariah, who Lucio said had fallen down a flight of stairs. Hospital staff found multiple bruises on Mariah’s body and ruled she had died from blunt force trauma to the head.

The appeals court stayed Lucio’s execution in 2022 and directed a lower court to review claims that new scientific evidence contradicted testimony that Mariah’s injuries could only have been caused by abuse. Defense lawyers also argued that prosecutors suppressed favorable evidence during her trial. 

In separate 2024 rulings, District Judge Arturo Nelson — who had presided over Lucio’s original trial — recommended that the state’s highest criminal court overturn her sentence and declare Lucio “actually innocent.”

Instead, the Court of Criminal Appeals cast doubt on her claims and said Nelson’s rulings relied too heavily on Lucio’s interpretation of events and not the prosecution’s case.

“We decline to adopt any of the habeas court’s findings and conclusions, which exclusively reflect Applicant’s interpretation of the evidence and are often unsupported,” the court said in an unsigned opinion from which four of the nine judges dissented.

Three judges — David Newell, Lee Finley and David Schenck — filed dissenting opinions and a fourth, Scott Walker, dissented from the ruling without filing an opinion.

Newell noted that prosecutors conceded during Lucio’s appeal that they had withheld material evidence during her trial, and admonished the court for ignoring their concession.

“The facts in this case are devastating. This makes the State’s failure to disclose material exculpatory evidence all the more tragic,” Newell wrote.

Two judges, Burt Richardson and Gina Parker, filed concurring opinions. Parker’s opinion was one page followed by eight photos of Mariah’s body that showed a significant number of bruises, scratches and what prosecutors at trial claimed was a bite mark on her back. Parker wrote that she included the images “because a picture can be worth a thousand words.”

Part of Lucio’s appeal included new evidence that Mariah had a blood coagulation disorder her family was unaware of. Defense lawyers argued the disorder accounted for the bruising, but Richardson’s 132-page opinion said the bruising could not explained  by the clotting disorder alone.

Richardson also described “significant inexplicable dissonances” in Nelson’s rulings.  

“Even when viewed for any cumulative effect, the evidence [Lucio] presents undermines and contradicts other evidence that might otherwise offer a modicum of support for her case,” Richardson wrote.

Lucio’s lawyer, Vanessa Potkin, said she will appeal the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court.

“Between Judge Nelson’s detailed findings of innocence, and District Attorney [Luis] Saenz’s concession of error, we are confident that the courts will clear Melissa Lucio and allow her to return home to her children and grandchildren,” Potkin said. 

If exonerated, Lucio would be the first woman declared innocent from Texas death row, joining 18 exonerated men since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976

Lucio’s conviction has received significant public attention and criticism, including from state lawmakers. Before the appeals court granted a stay of execution for Lucio in 2022, a bipartisan group of lawmakers urged the state parole board to consider Lucio’s innocence.

On Wednesday, Geely Auto unveiled technology that can charge an electric vehicle battery from 10% to 70% in just 4.5 minutes, a leap analysts called a significant development for the Chinese auto group.

Geely is joining the ranks of BYD, which last year overtook Tesla as the world's biggest EV maker, as well as CATL, the world’s largest EV battery maker, both of which this year rolled out around 5-minute EV ultrafast charging.

By comparison, some of the fastest-charging EVs available in the U.S. currently can take roughly 20 minutes, analysts said.

“China is way, way, way ahead in terms of multiple players engaged in the charging competition,” said Lei Xing, an independent analyst of China's auto industry based in Easthampton, Massachusetts.

Geely, BYD and CATL lead ultrafast charging race

Chinese automakers are seeking to eliminate the “ultimate barrier” to EV adoption – range anxiety – by narrowing the gap between EV charging and the roughly five-minute refueling experience of gasoline vehicles, explained Stephen Chan, an analyst at S&P Global Ratings.

At a launch event Wednesday, Geely Auto announced its new system that can charge an EV from 10% to 70% in 4.5 minutes, and 10% to 97% in just 8 minutes and 40 seconds.

BYD in March launched a new generation of its “blade” EV battery that it said can charge an EV from 10% to 70% in 5 minutes, and from 10% to 97% in 9 minutes. In April, CATL rolled out technology that can charge an EV from 10% to 80% in 3 minutes and 44 seconds, and from 10% to 98% in 6 minutes and 27 seconds.

Despite the breakthroughs, experts cautioned there are other obstacles.

“The real challenge is whether the battery can accept that level of current quickly and repeatedly without overheating, excessive degradation or internal bottlenecks,” said Chris Liu, a Shanghai-based senior analyst at Omdia, a technology research and advisory group.

EV makers face intense competition inside China

With more than 100 domestic passenger car brands, Chinese auto makers face intense competition. Domestic car sales have fallen for months in China as automakers are exporting more cars overseas. A focus on technological advancements like ultrafast charging is a way to set themselves apart and try to improve sales.

But success will depend on factors including the scale of companies' charging network.

For one, the majority of China’s public charging stations still operate below 1 megawatt, while Geely, BYD and CATL’s ultrafast charging technologies rely on higher charging power to reach their full potential, said Chan at S&P. That means network expansions or grid updates will remain as hurdles for large-scale adoption.

Some in the industry are already taking ambitious steps. China's BYD, for instance, is targeting 20,000 superfast charging stations by the end of this year, followed by 30,000 more in 2027 and 40,000 in 2028, bringing the total to 90,000 stations by that time, according to a Deutsche Bank analysis.

China leading the world in EV fast-charging

Other countries including the U.S. is still behind China when it comes to ultrafast EV charging.

In the U.S., EV fast-charging sessions typically take roughly 20 to 40 minutes to charge from 10% to 80%, according to S&P, although newer models from brands like Hyundai, Kia and Porsche can reduce charging times to approximately 18 to 20 minutes under optimal conditions.

“Overall, while the battery-charging network in the U.S. is growing at a rapid pace, it is still well behind China’s ultrafast charging speeds by orders of magnitude,” said Neal Ganguli, a partner and managing director in the automotive and industrial practice at consultancy AlixPartners.

But Ganguli also believes the U.S. may not be attempting to match China’s “megawatt race” in EV charging at least in the near future, but to pursue a “more moderate” path to upgrades.

Coleman first joined the Texas House in 1991 and represented parts of central and southeast Houston throughout his tenure until 2022.

During that time, he worked on major legislation related to healthcare and mental health including helping to establish Children’s Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program in Texas. He authored the sweeping Sandra Bland Act, which requires county jails to divert people with mental health issues toward treatment and mandates that jail deaths be investigated by independent law enforcement agencies. He also advocated for Texas Southern University, Prairie View A&M University and the University of Houston.

Texas House Speaker Dustin Burrows, R-Lubbock, said he remembers Coleman as a passionate advocate for Houston, a champion of the underserved and a great man.

“Garnet’s service in the Texas House began long before I entered the chamber, but I had the privilege of serving alongside him from my freshman year until his retirement,” Burrows added in a Thursday post on X. “As a new member of the House, I looked to longtime public servants like Garnet to understand how to get things done for the people who sent us to Austin. It didn’t take long to see his compassion, courage and deep commitment to the community he served.”

In addition, Coleman chaired the Texas Legislative Black Caucus and the Texas Legislative Study Group House Caucus.

He announced his retirement from the Texas Legislature in late 2021 primarily because of health reasons. His family said he died of natural causes.

“The family asks for privacy at this time and that he be remembered for his service, dedication to his family, and never-ending passion for uplifting all Texans,” the statement said.

Disclosure: University of Houston has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune within the past five years. The Texas Tribune is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in our journalism. Find a complete list of them and more information about our financial and disclosure policies here.

The horse’s name drew attention after winning his debut Monday at Horseshoe Indianapolis Racecourse. Hitler was born in Austria and was an artist before becoming the head of the Nazi Party in Germany.

“The Registrar determined that the name is ineligible under Rule 6.F.9.d, which prohibits names that ‘are likely to be offensive or threatening based upon factors including, but not limited to, color, creed, disability, ethnicity, gender, national origin, race, religion, politics or sexual orientation,’” the Jockey Club said in a statement announcing its decision.

Owner and breeder Scott Herbertson said on social media it was a reference to Austrian painter Gustav Klimt and that his filly originally called New Order was named for his favorite band. New Order is also a term for the Nazis' plan for occupying Europe.

The Jockey Club said that horse, a full sister to Merrylegs, had also been unnamed.

“We take these matters seriously and appreciate that they were brought to our attention,” the Jockey Club said.

___

See AP’s full horse racing coverage here

The lawsuit is the latest legal challenge from a state moving to rein in popular and now-ubiquitous betting apps that allow people to place wagers on most anything, including sports, weather, elections and technology.

Prediction market platforms have argued states do not have the authority to govern them because they are regulated at the federal level by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

New York officials filed Thursday's lawsuit against Polymarket in state court and want the company to face fines and be forced to pay restitution to users because the platform did not get a gaming license from the state. The state has previously sued other platforms such as Kalshi, Coinbase and Gemini using a similar argument.

“By running an unlicensed gambling operation, Polymarket has done more than just knowingly violate state law, they have put New Yorkers at risk, especially those underage who are most vulnerable to problem gaming,” Gov. Kathy Hochul said in a statement.

In a statement, Polymarket’s Chief Legal Officer Neal Kumar said, “We'll fight for our users.”

“Polymarket was founded in a tiny NYC apartment and now has more than 350 employees here, embodying why people and businesses come here to make it. We believe in New York and we’re staying here,” Kumar said.

Prediction market platforms have said they operate differently than traditional gambling operations, because consumers are trading against other consumers, similar to how stock markets work. They allow participants to buy and sell contracts tied to the probable outcome of an event. The platforms say prices are based on trading and they only take a fee from the trading.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which has opposed state regulation of the platforms, did not immediately return a request for comment.

But what happens when the hackers aren't human?

That's the question at the center of a public policy debate roiling Silicon Valley and Washington following disclosures by leading tech companies that their artificial intelligence models went rogue and hacked into other organizations. The attacks have generated calls even from within the industry for greater oversight and regulation, spurred congressional inquiries and raised questions about whether a years-old legal framework designed to punish criminal hackers is sufficient in an era of autonomous actors capable of engineering their own havoc.

It all adds up to a “Wild West,” said Jack Nelson, chief information security officer and deputy general counsel at the software company Ivanti. Questions of accountability will focus on what the companies knew when they were developing the models, how much they understood about what could happen and what guardrails existed, he said.

“If you owned a tiger and you didn’t put a lock on the cage, the tiger probably did something bad you didn’t intend for it to but you knew it could have, so you are responsible for not putting a lock on that cage,” Nelson said.

“I don’t know if I would go so far as to say these models are tigers without locks, but that’s probably a decent framework to think of it as,” he added.

The prospect of legal accountability is unclear. Lawsuits are a possibility, but some legal experts believe any criminal investigations would face an extremely high burden given the autonomous nature of the attacks and the absence of evidence the AI models were designed with the intent to hack into other networks.

The FBI director has called the autonomous attacks ‘the new frontier’

The issue surfaced in July when OpenAI revealed that its artificial intelligence system escaped from a testing ground and used stolen credentials to break into the servers of Hugging Face, an AI development hub and marketplace, to obtain information it needed to carry out a task.

Since then, Anthropic said its AI models hacked into three other organizations during testing, triggering a company review into whether the models were able to access the internet from within testing environments that should have been sealed off. Meta has said a “misconfiguration” during testing resulted in an AI model accessing the internet on its own and hacking another company. Google recently made a similar disclosure.

The revelations contributed to Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei urging a development slowdown. The topic has likewise dominated Washington, with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent telling lawmakers he opposed giving AI labs a “liability exemption — which is what they are asking for." President Donald Trump, meanwhile, has resisted calls for greater oversight but did announce plans to appoint an AI czar and task force.

The hacks could tee up a fight over liability reminiscent of the debate over Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act, which shields technology companies for material posted on their platforms.

The FBI has not publicly announced any investigations, but Director Kash Patel at a congressional hearing last week called the issue “the new frontier." He suggested in response to questions from Sen. Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican who has launched a congressional investigation, that the bureau would limit scrutiny to models created with the intent of committing a crime.

“What we need to do on a resource basis is go after the people that created these models that are going rogue ...for the specific purpose and with the intention to commit a criminal act,” Patel said. “We can’t be punishing people if they created something lawfully and then a criminal took it and changed it and then dispersed it."

Attorney General Todd Blanche has said that the Justice Department had no plans to regulate AI but that “if anyone associated with AI violates criminal law, we’ll investigate that.”

The case law and FBI and Justice Department approach "is going to be fascinating because it can go a bunch of different ways,” said former Justice Department cybercrime prosecutor Sid Mody.

Various criminal statutes govern cyberspace

The Department of Justice does have statutes at its disposal for a company determined to have been "reckless in the way that it tests its AI agents," said Michael Zweiback, a former chief of the cyber and intellectual property crimes section of the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles.

"And if in fact the AI agent gets loose in the wild and then causes substantial damage to other companies, then DOJ has to look at it from a prosecutorial discretion issue as to whether or not they want to make an example out of the particular company," he added.

Among the possibly relevant laws: a 40-year-old statute called the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, which makes it illegal to knowingly access a computer without authorization. The White House cited the statute, which has been used against hacktivists, nation-state hackers and other cybercriminals, in an executive order directing prosecutors to pursue those who use AI to illegally access computers or further other crimes.

But some experts say even if there may be a basis to investigate, that hardly means a crime was committed.

For one thing, the law makes several references to behavior done “knowingly” or “intentionally," but there's no indication the autonomous agents were given any command or authorization by the companies to enter another network, said Kiran Raj, a former senior Justice Department official who specializes in cybersecurity law.

In detailed public accountings of the incidents, the companies have characterized the hacks as inadvertent outgrowths of testing and evaluation, with OpenAI calling its model behavior “unexpected" and “unprecedented" and Meta attributing the incident to a “misconfiguration.”

“I think it would be a pretty big stretch to say any of these companies are intentionally trying to do this. That's not their purpose. That's not what they're doing,” said Raj, also a former lead Microsoft program manager. “The fact that an AI agent may intentionally be doing something is going to be, I think, pretty hard to attribute the intent to the company.”

Thursday, September 24

• UT MD Anderson’s Boot Walk to End Cancer^®
• Fort Bend County Fair and Rodeo
• Dessert Gallery
• The Travel Mom
• • Disney Cruise Line

Wednesday, September 23

• BOO! HL visits Houston Zoo to preview their annual Zoo Boo and all the month-long creepy crawly fun
• • Houston Zoo
  • Zoo Boo

Tuesday, September 22

• A book lovers dream returns to POST Houston this weekend at Readers Fest
• • Readers Fest at Post Houston
• Dr. Berger Outpatient Hip and Knee
• Cheers to Fall: Pumpkin drinks, dishes and desserts to try this season
• • Goodtaste TV with Tanji Patton
• Allied Outdoor Solutions

Monday, September 21

• Kindness and community returns to Houston with award-winning ‘Come from Away’ at Stages Houston
• • ‘Come from Away’ at Stages Houston
• A Look Inside Surgical Tech Training
• • Fortis College
• How the City of Houston is keeping older adults in mind during Falls Prevention Awareness Week
• • Falls Prevention Awareness Week
• Full-arch implants in Houston: rebuild your smile with lasting stability
• • Texas Dental Implant Center
• ROCO, Houston’s Chamber Orchestra, kicks off season 22 with packed lineup for opening weekend
• • ROCO Houston Chamber Orchestra

Friday, September 18

• Rhythm Energy Question of the Week
• Salvador Dalí’s rare art comes to Houston thanks to Madame Christine Argillet, the last living link to the iconic artist
• • The Argillet Collection
  • “Salvador Dalí: The Argillet Collection”
• KPRC 2 Community: Standing with Houston families facing childhood cancer
• • Candlelighters
• The wait is over! Houston hot spot Burger Bodega has landed in Katy
• • Burger Bodega
• What’s in your water? Water purification company NECOA shows how Houston’s water measures up
• • NECOA
• Look Up: Discover Astrotourism in Australia’s Northern Territory
• • Australia’s Northern Territory
  • Your Bucket List Guide

Thursday, September 17

• Ben Chavez brings his “Golden Era” to the stage with “Last Day, County Fair”
• • Tickets to “Last Day, County Fair”
  • Follow Ben on Instagram
• Hands-On Training for High-Demand Jobs
• • Fortis College
• Lauren Kelly visits Jimmy Fallon at Rockefeller Center to chat Rodeo, Beyoncé and his fall season
• • NBC’s “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon”
• Breathtaking destinations for the fall travel season
• • Travel Expert, Jeanenne Tornatore | The Outside Insider

Wednesday, September 16

• Get Growing: What to Plant in Your Houston Fall Garden
• • Urban Harvest Planting Guide
• ‘The Music Man’ brings Broadway charm to the Hobby Center
• • Theatre Under The Stars “The Music Man”
• Meet Fariha Nasir the interior designer crafting spaces that tell stories
• • Fariha Nasir Pennies for a Fortune

Tuesday, September 15

• What’s the beef with beef? Good Ranchers talks imported meats and what to look out for
• • Good Ranchers
• The art and beauty of Ballet Folklórico with Instituto de Arte Nokali
• • Instituto de Arte Nokali
• Comfort Foodies serves up love, culture and big flavor for Latin Restaurant Weeks
• • Comfort Foodies
  • Latin Restaurant Weeks
• KPRC 2’s “Enough”

Monday, September 14

• A cello concert in the great outdoors? Free shows coming to two Texas state parks
• • Wild Notes Foundation
• Houston native Armani Greer steps into the spotlight in Tyler Perry’s ‘Why Did I Get Married Again?’
• • Armani Greer
• Ready for Recess? Inside the new River Oaks spot built for the whole family
• • Recess River Oaks
• Filling the vital need for non-emergency medical transport
• • CarlMichaels Transportation & NEMT

Friday, September 11

• Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo “Mission Rodeo” podcast
• Rhythm Energy Question of the Week
• Celebrate Rosh Hashanah with traditional favorites at The New York Deli & Bagel Shop Bakery
• • The Bagel Shop Bakery
• 25 years after 9/11, Todd Hill’s story lives on through faith, purpose and hope
• • 9/11: Reflections of the Past 25 Years
  • Todd Hill 9/11 Memorial Scholarship Fund
• Kefita coffee bringing authentic Ethiopian coffee and culture to Houston
• • Kefita Coffee
• Owen Wilson, Rodrigo Santoro & Scott Waugh chat high-stakes action thriller ‘Runner’
• • ‘Runner’ (2026) in theaters now

Thursday, September 10

• Veteran’s fishing wish granted by nonprofit
• • Twilight Wish Foundation
• Quality roofs, easy process: Why Adams Roofing treats roofs as a complete system
• • Adams Roofing
• The Travel Mom
• • Beaches
  • Trafalgar
  • National Geographic and Lindblad Expeditions
• Two veterans, two comebacks: Why they’re saying “you’re not done yet”
• • Fenix Shepard
  • Loved Unconditionally: A Spiritual Memoir of Trauma, Addiction Recovery, and Finding God Beyond Religion

Wednesday, September 9

• The signs and symptoms of prostate cancer
• • Texas Oncology
• 5 tips to avoid plumbing disasters
• • Village Plumbing & Air
• Việt Cultural Fest brings student robotics to Houston
• • Việt Cultural Fest
• The Perfect Pumpkins brings picture-perfect fall porches straight to your door
• • The Perfect Pumpkins

Tuesday, September 8

• The Travel Mom
• • Universal Kids Resort
• KPRC 2 Community: Standing with Houston families facing childhood cancer
• • Candlelighters Fun Walk
• Texas Dental Implant Center

Monday, September 7

• With love, from Fredericksburg! How the visitor bureau can help plan your stay
• • Visit Fredericksburg
• History, wine and Texas Charm at Das Peach Haus in Fredericksburg
• • Das Peach Haus
  • Dietz Distillery
  • Fischer & Wieser
• Enchanted Rock State Natural Area
• Step inside history at Fredericksburg’s National Museum of the Pacific War
• • National Museum of the Pacific War
• Make the most of your trip to Texas Hill Country with the Fredericksburg Food & Wine Fest
• • Fredericksburg Food & Wine Festival
  • K Estate Winery & Vineyards
• Dot’s Bakery
• Albert Hotel

Friday, September 4

• Netflix’s “A Different World”
• • Stars from ‘A Different World’ reboot on Netflix chat about why the new series is a must-watch
• Dr. Rosie Thomas
• • Dr. Rosie Thomas explains the tax strategies small business owners need to know
• Rhythm Energy Question of the Week

Thursday, September 3

• Hank Schwaeble
• Hank Schwaeble’s “Normal for the Spider”
• Preemo’s Bakeshop
• “Miss Dee’s Kitchen” at The Hobby Center
• Jurassic Quest
• The Day Savers: A National Tradesmen Day Contest

Wednesday, September 2

• Southern Smoke Festival
• Houston Texans new Rivalries uniform is love letter to H-Town
• • Houston Texans Apparel
• 3 simple design tips to make your space feel more stylish with Benjamin Johnston
• • Ben Johnston Design

Monday, August 31

• National Matchmaker Day: Expert tips for setting up friends like a pro
• • Jenn Pinkerton
• Is your home Wi-Fi ready for back to school? Here’s what parents should know
• • Ezee Fiber
• Transform your existing patio into an outdoor retreat
• • Allied Outdoor Solutions
• The hidden reason you’re struggling to lose weight after 40
• • Optimal Body

Friday, August 28

• Houston Life celebrates 10 years on the air with epic lookback of the broadcast

Thursday, August 27

• Bar Moon brings cocktails, live music and a night out to Post Oak
• • Bar Moon
• Happy 190th birthday, Houston! Celebrate with FREE family-friendly activities at The Heritage Society
• • The Heritage Society at Sam Houston Park
• Companion Energy volunteers pamper pets at Houston Humane Society ahead of Clear The Shelters
• • Companion Energy
• Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library
• Harris County Public Library
• George Observatory

Wednesday, August 26

• Next Level Urgent Care
• Woodlands Christian Academy
• Happy National Dog Day! How dogs bring us together plus easy homemade treats for your furry friend
• • National Dog Day: Small Treats. Big Wags: The Neighborhood Edition
  • 6 free dog treat recipes
• HL Rhythm Energy Question of the Week
• Derrick Shore and Cathy Hernandez take on the the ‘Minute-To-Win-It Oreo Challenge’

Tuesday, August 25

• Kam Franklin steps into the spotlight with her first solo album, ‘Land of the Neon Sun’
• • Kam Franklin’s Website
  • Preorder “Land of the Neon Sun” and receive a priority wristband to her album release party
• Singing, dancing, and a little murder, Night Court returns for another year of musical mayhem
• • Night Court at the Hobby Center
• Time Mission lands in Houston, bringing a new kind of social gaming adventure
• • Time Mission Houston

Monday, August 24

• 5 years of STEM magic: Crystal Lister shares 2 fun chemistry experiments
• • Mommy and Me The Listers
• From one restaurant to 6 locations, Local Table has been serving Houston for a decade
• • Local Table
• Next Level Urgent Care

Friday, August 21

• Antico Casa from Antico Pizza brings frozen Neapolitan-style pies to Houston (Aug. 20–23)
• • Antico Fine Food
• Donald and Lisa Pliner share their love story, fashion journey and legacy
• • The Selling of One’s Sole
• Kandi Burruss brings one-woman show “I Do, I Did, I’m Done,” to Houston
• • “I Do, I Did, I’m Done” Tickets
• Houston’s Starduster Lounge puts its spin on the viral martini trend
• • Starduster Lounge
• Next Level Urgent Care

Thursday, August 20

• Houston author Mariah Kingsley brings a fresh perspective to romance stories
• • “Fractured” on Amazon
• Labor Day Getaways: Vail Peaks, Coastal Sun in Corpus Christi and Tennessee’s Real-Deal Travel
• • Visit Corpus Christi
  • Discover Vail
  • Tennessee Vacation Instagram
  • Travel Expert, Jeanenne Tornatore | The Outside Insider
• Easy Back-to-School Lunches Kids Will Actually Eat, Recipes & Packing Tips
• • My Diary of Us Lunchbox Guide

Wednesday, August 19

• Houston humidity, meet your match: Simple tips for frizz-free hair
• • Frequency Salon
• Mambo Seafood
• Meet Fariha Nasir the interior designer crafting spaces that tell stories
• • Fariha Nasir Pennies for a Fortune
• Actors Jeff Daniels and Jared Harris take us inside ‘The Brink of War’
• • The Brink of War

Tuesday, August 18

• What do school accountability ratings really tell us? Local non-profit Good Reason Houston breaks it down
• • Good Reason Houston
• How the UH Mariachi Pumas continue to bring Mariachi to a new generation
• • Follow UH Mariachi Pumas on Instagram
  • Houston Theater Week Presented by Huntington Bank
• How 80s supermodel Kim Alexis is living her best life after 55
• • Kim Alexis
• Clear the Shelters is back: Houston pets are ready for homes
• Next Level Urgent Care

Monday, August 17

• For one Katy grandfather, an 11,000-mile motorcycle ride is about more than the road
• • Do What You Love to End ALZ program
  • Follow Scott “Sugar Bear” Brown on YouTube
• Houston hip-hop legend Willie D is inviting everyone to his big 60th birthday party
• • The Roast of Willie D: Cooked by Legends Tickets
• Personalized Dental Implants: Dr. Michel Azer on restoring smiles in Houston
• • Texas Dental Implant Center

Friday, August 14

• Enter to win a getaway for two from The Fredericksburg Convention and Visitor Bureau
• With love, from Fredericksburg! How the visitor bureau can help plan your stay
• • Visit Fredericksburg
• History, wine and Texas Charm at Das Peach Haus in Fredericksburg
• • Das Peach Haus
  • Dietz Distillery
  • Fischer & Wieser
• Enchanted Rock State Natural Area
• Step inside history at Fredericksburg’s National Museum of the Pacific War
• • National Museum of the Pacific War
• Make the most of your trip to Texas Hill Country with the Fredericksburg Food & Wine Fest
• • Fredericksburg Food & Wine Festival
  • K Estate Winery & Vineyards
• Dot’s Bakery
• Albert Hotel

Thursday, August 13

• HL Rhythm Energy Question of the Week
• Disco, roller skates and 1980s fun: The Garden Theatre brings the musical world of ‘Xanadu’ to the stage
• • The Garden Theatre’s “Xanadu”
• Melanie Lynskey chats new Netflix film ‘Don’t Say Good Luck’
• • Netflix’s Don’t Say Good Luck
• Houston Dynamo FC celebrates 20 years of its 2006 MLS Cup Championship
• • Houston Dynamo FC
• Next Level Urgent Care

Wednesday, August 12

• Get ready for mystery: ‘The Girl on the Train’ now on stage at Alley Theatre
• • Alley Theatre’s “The Girl on the Train” tickets
• Water heater warning signs Houston homeowners shouldn’t ignore
• • Mission AC & Plumbing
• Humble’s Cris Sosa advances to AGT live shows after hilarious cereal comedy set
• • Comedian Cris Sosa
  • NBC’s “America’s Got Talent”
• Kenny and Ziggy’s owner Ziggy Gruber whips up traditional Jewish kugel for National Deli Month
• • Kenny & Ziggy’s

Tuesday, August 11

• Houston Theater Week is almost here! Here’s how to snag BOGO tickets to 400+ shows
• • Houston Theater Week Presented by Huntington Bank
• Back-to-School Anxiety: What Parents Need to Know
• • Houston Christian University
• How the DiIorio family is celebrating 70 years of family, farming and community
• • DiIorio Farms
• Josh Duhamel and Minka Kelly talk love, loyalty and drama of ‘Ransom Canyon’ Season 2
• • Ransom Canyon on Netflix

Monday, August 10

• Clear the Shelters is back: Houston pets are ready for homes
• Eclipse cruises take off: The Travel Mom on why astro‑tourism is booming with Princess Cruises
• • The Travel Mom
  • Princess Cruises
• Bear Grylls takes the cast of ‘The Chosen’ Into the Wild in new Prime Video series
• • Prime Video’s “The Chosen in the Wild with Bear Grylls”
• Next Level Urgent Care
• These women athletes from Afghanistan escaped Taliban rule. Now the players of Houston Shine FC find joy in soccer again
• • Houston Shine FC

Friday, August 7

• Houston’s Pink Phurree dragon boat team heads to France to celebrate breast cancer survivorship
• • Pink Phurree Dragon Boat Team
• Now playing: Queensbury Theatre’s brand new production of Mean Girls The Musical
• • Queensbury Theatre’s ‘Mean Girls The Musical’
• 12-year-old Houston golfer Alaina Villarreal makes her debut on Stephen Curry’s UNDERRATED Golf Tour
• • UNDERRATED Golf Tour
  • Alaina Villareal
• Protein-packed rice for easy weeknight meals with SunRice Protein+
• • SunRice

Thursday, August 6

• Kenny and Ziggy’s owner Ziggy Gruber whips up traditional Jewish kugel for National Deli Month
• • Kenny & Ziggy’s
• Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey brings ‘The Greatest Show On Earth’ to Houston
• • Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey® Presents The Greatest Show On Earth
• Houston City College Is Where Art Meets Innovation
• • Houston City College
• Find Calm at the Coast: Travel Mom Emily Kaufman Celebrates ‘Spa Weekend’ at Terranea Resort
• • The Travel Mom
  • Travel Guard’s Spa Weekend Getaway Sweepstakes

Wednesday, August 5

• It’s National Sandwich Month: Husband-wife duo behind Yuma brings Brazilian flavor to a Cuban classic
• • Yuma
• WWE Superstar Trick Williams previews Survivor Series: WarGames coming to Houston
• • WWE Survivor Series: Wargames
• Ready to dance? Houston Rockets Clutch City Dancers to hold open auditions
• • Clutch City Dancers open Auditions
• Next Level Urgent Care

Tuesday, August 4

• Josh Duhamel and Minka Kelly talk love, loyalty and drama of ‘Ransom Canyon’ Season 2
• • Ransom Canyon on Netflix
• Houston’s own Cris Sosa competes on NBC’s ‘America’s Got Talent’ Season 21
• • Comedian Cris Sosa
  • NBC’s “America’s Got Talent”
• Gexa Energy marks 25 Years by volunteering with Meals on Wheels, The Beacon and Houston Habitat for Humanity ReStore
• • Gexa Energy
• Brassica Shares the vegan secret behind its signature chocolate chip cookie
• • Brassica
• Master P Brings Hip-Hop History to Houston With Cash Money and No Limit Reunion Tour
• • Cash Money & No Limit Tour

Monday, August 3

• Houston students and teachers share their work beyond the classroom in new exhibition “The Sequence Is Yours”
• • Contemporary Arts Museum Houston‘s ‘The Sequence Is Yours’ Exhibition
• Sip, savor and celebrate Labor Day Weekend at the Galveston Island Wine Festival
• • Celebrity Chef Brian Duffy serves up a preview of the Galveston Island Wine Festival
  • Moody Gardens Galveston Island Wine Festival
• Modern dental implants give Houston patients natural, comfortable smiles
• • Texas Dental Implant Center

Friday, July 31

• HL Rhythm Energy Question of the Week
• ‘Hot Wheels Monster Trucks Live: Glow-N-Fire’ brings high-octane family fun to Houston
• • Hot Wheels Monster Truck Live Glow-N-Fire at Toyota Center
• There’s a story behind every building: Take a tour of Downtown Houston with Preservation Houston
• • Preservation Houston

Thursday, July 30

• Meet the twin sisters who turned their cheesecake passion into a successful business
• • KK Cheesecakes
• How HCU’s high-tech simulation lab is preparing nursing students for in-demand jobs
• • Houston Christian University Linda R. Dunham School of Nursing
• Gexa Energy marks 25 Years by volunteering with Meals on Wheels and The Beacon
• • Gexa Energy
• Garbage Girlfriend

Wednesday, July 29

• Houston Shakespeare Festival is back at Miller Outdoor Theatre with a reimagined lead in “The Tempest”
• • Houston Shakespeare Festival
• In the CLASSROOM with Kroger: How they’re helping parents and kids start the school year happy, healthy, and prepared
• • KPRC 2 INSIDERS: Enter for your chance to win a $250 Kroger gift card!
  • Kroger
• Happy National Lipstick Day! Here’s the lowdown on choosing a matte, glossy, or satin pigment 💄
• • Makeup Artist Darcie Teasley
• Tony Danza is coming to Houston this week, here is where to see him
• • Doc’s Houston Presents Tony Danza - “Standards and Stories”

Monday, July 27

• Back-to-school safety: What kids should know and what parents should watch for in case of a school emergency
• • CPR and Safety Lady Gail Gould
  • Back to School Safety Webinar with CPR and Safety Lady Gail Gould
• Anaheim: The Urban Basecamp You Didn’t Know You Needed In Southern California
• • Gabe Saglie The Travel Guy
• Houston students turn thousands of plastic bags into an award-winning business
• • Plastic Free July
  • Next Use
• Allied Outdoor Solutions

Friday, July 24

• Houston celebrates Art House Theater Day with a “Car Wash” screening and preshow party
• • Houston Art House Theater Day
• The best tacos in Texas arrive in Houston this weekend + Texas Monthly Taco Editor‘s spicy gig getting paid to eat tacos
• • 2026 Texas Monthly Taco Fest South
  • Huncho’s Tacos
• BISSELL Pet Foundation Empty the Shelters
• Rosenberg Animal Control and Shelter

Thursday, July 23

• Meet the Houston Rig Hands: The city’s pro 3-on-3 basketball team 🏀🏀
• • Follow Houston Rig Hands on Instagram
  • BIG3 Playing at Toyota Center Tickets
• Houston City College’s Coleman Campus: Training the next generation of health care workers
• • Houston City College
• Vic Mignogna on Anime Matsuri, Star Trek & life with Dominique Sachse
• • Follow Vic Mignogna on Instagram
  • Anime Matsuri

Wednesday, July 22

• 16th annual Mayor’s Back 2 School & Health Fair brings free supplies, screenings to Houston families
• • Mayor’s Back to School & Health Fair
• Tips for Planning the Perfect Summer Getaway
• • Travel Expert, Jeanenne Tornatore | The Outside Insider
  • Marriott Bonvoy
  • Official Guide to Breckenridge
• Celebrate National Tequila Day at Zanti Cucina Italiana in River Oaks
• • Zanti Cucina Italiana
• Academy Award-winner Morgan Freeman heading to Houston for blues experience
• • Performing Arts Houston Presents “Morgan Freeman’s Symphonic Blues Experience”

Tuesday, July 21

• How CenterPoint Energy says they’re building a stronger, more resilient electric grid
• • CenterPoint Energy Action Center
• NBC’s “American Ninja Warrior”
• Ox St. Kitchen
• Ivan Chavez Chavos BBQ
• The world’s fragrance community comes together at FRAGCON in Houston
• • Global Fragrance Convention

Monday, July 20

• Houston’s Girl Gone Grilling shares her buffalo chicken stuffed garlic bread
• • Katherine Salom “Girl Gone Grilling”
• Powerhouse performer Christina Wells, now in a wheelchair, is still lighting up Houston stages
• • Christina Wells
• When a smile needs more than veneers: one Houston patient’s transformation
• • Texas Dental Implant Center

Friday, July 17

• Hidden Omakase serves up a Summer favorite while continuing its comeback story
• • Hidden Omakase
• East Houston Medical Center works to improve access to health care in the community
• • East Houston Medical Center
• “Moulin Rouge! The Musical” at The Hobby Center for the Performing Arts
• 13th Annual Ohana Surf Dogs Competition

Thursday, July 16

• 93Q’s Cowboys & Angels Concert Brings Country Stars to Houston
• • 93Q’s Cowboys & Angels
• Here’s Blue Willow Bookshop’s summer reading picks you need to add to your TBR
• • Blue Willow Bookshop
• UniverSoul Circus brings big top thrills to Houston Life
• • UniverSoul Circus

Wednesday, July 15

• Llamas, haunted houses, and mermaids?! Houston realtor Noel Collier talks HGTV’S ‘Extreme Buyers Club’
• • HGTV’s ‘Extreme Buyers Club’
  • Noel Collier Group
• Protect Yourself After a Crash: What to Do If You’re Illegally Solicited
• • The Miller Law Firm, home of The Texas Bulldog
• Skip the oven and beat the summer heat with this no-bake chocolate raspberry tart
• • Florence Jackson
• Raising Cane’s and the Norris family to honor Chuck Norris’ legacy on National Chicken Finger Day
• • Raising Canes

Tuesday, July 14

• Casa de Cultura turns a Houston gallery into a living archive one family story at a time
• • Photographer Violeta Álvarez
  • FreshArts
• The late Chuck Norris continues to empower kids through Kickstart Kids martial arts program
• • Kickstart Kids
  • Raising Canes
• Protein-Packed Plates: Casa do Brasil, Los Tios and a High Protein Bowl with Tanji Patton of Goodtaste TV
• • Goodtaste for the Soul with Tanji Patton

Monday, July 13

• Remembering the iconic artist David Adickes on his 99th birthday and his lasting legacy in Houston
• • David Adickes Art
• Spend the Summer at Moody Gardens: Animal encounters, weekly themes, and how to register
• • Moody Gardens
• There’s a story behind every building: Take a tour of Downtown Houston with Preservation Houston
• • Preservation Houston
• Celebrate 713 Day with Houston Rap Legend Lil’ Keke
• • Follow Lil Keke on Instagram
• Best places and deals around Houston to celebrate 713 Day

Friday, July 10

• HL Rhythm Energy Question of the Week
• Houston Hula Academy brings the spirit of Polynesia to Houston Life
• • Houston Hula Academy
  • Drums of the Pacific
• A car lover’s dream! Where to see life-size Hot Wheels cars in the Houston area
• • Hot Wheels Legends Tour
• Fire Up The Grill: Easy Grilling for a Crowd
• • III Catering
• Sleep in Heavenly Peace

Thursday, July 9

• Meet the Houston 6-year-old golfer makes national tournament history
• • Ascend Golf Academy
• Fort Bend County Fair Celebrates 90 Years with Pat Green, Sawyer Brown and a Star-Studded 2026 Lineup
• • Fort Bend County Fair
• Houston City College: College that fits your schedule
• • Houston City College
• Goode Company Seafood celebrates 40 years
• Goode Company Seafood x Texas Parks and Wildlife

Wednesday, July 8

• Fort Bend County Fair
• Fung’s Kitchen
• East Houston Medical Center hosts free FIFA World Cup 2026™ watch parties and a chance to win a free trip to the final
• • East Houston Medical Center
• Houston’s Ensemble Theatre marks 50th anniversary with premieres, revivals and, honoring the past
• • The Ensemble Theatre
• Stars of Netflix’s ‘Little House on the Prairie’ chat reimagining the iconic story
• • Netflix’s Little House on the Prairie

Tuesday, July 7

• KPRC 2 Insider
• Inside the New Era of Fitness: How 24 Hour Fitness Is Rethinking the Modern Gym
• • 24 Hour Fitness
• Cosmic Ice Cream and Trill Burgers teaming up for National Ice Cream day
• • Cosmic Ice Cream
  • Trill Burgers
• Houston Ballet’s Dance 2 Thrive program brings movement, music and wellness to the Community
• • Houston Ballet
  • Dance 2 Thrive registration form

Monday, July 6

• Why Trae Tha Truth Keeps Turning His Birthday Into Houston’s Biggest Give-Back
• • Traeday 2026
• PopUp Bagels lands in Houston — grip, rip and dip your way to a viral bagel
• • PopUp Bagels
• When a smile needs more than veneers: one Houston patient’s transformation
• • Texas Dental Implant Center
• Your Bucket List Guide
• Flora Houston
• Make this at home! The Two-Ingredient Cocktail Popping Up Around Houston During the FIFA World Cup 26™
• • Bucanita by Buchanan’s

Thursday, July 2

• HL Rhythm Energy Question of the Week
• These women athletes from Afghanistan escaped Taliban rule. Now the players of Houston Shine FC find joy in soccer again
• • Houston Shine FC
• ‘Read With Jenna’ debuts cozy Book Nook aboard MSC Seascape sailing from Galveston
• • ‘Read with Jenna’
• Keep Kids Safe Around Water: Expert Guidance on Supervision and Drowning Prevention
• • Bivona Law Firm
• New Sprouts in Kingwood Is Here | And Yes, You Can Sample Just About Anything
• • Sprouts Farmers Market

Wednesday, July 1

• Celebrate America’s 250th with Houston Life’s special Fourth of July Show
• • Houston Christian University’s Independence Hall
  • Baytown’s Fourth of July Festivities
  • PBS’s Annual A Capitol Fourth celebration
  • Houston Zoo
  • Blue Bell Creameries
• LIST: Fourth of July fireworks, parades, celebrations across Greater Houston

Tuesday, June 30

• This Thai-inspired hot dog brings new flavor to your Fourth of July cookout
• • MaKiin Concepts Hospitality Group
• Firework Safety | Cy-Fair Fire Department, TX
• United Against Human Trafficking
• Houston native shares how being stranded at sea during COVID inspired a documentary, memoir and mission to help others
• • Angela Harger Productions
• 5 Things Houston Homeowners Should Know Before the Next Power Outage
• • GenPro.com

Monday, June 29

• Meet the cast of ‘Young Washington’ ahead of the film’s July 3rd release
• • ‘Young Washington’
• From Houston to American homes: Good Ranchers celebrates America’s 250th with homegrown meat
• • Good Ranchers
• New Zealand by train: Scenic journeys, culture and food
• • Gabe Saglie The Travel Guy
• Gexa Energy gives back: Make-A-Wish reveal brings joy to local child
• • Gexa Energy
• Hands-on training at Houston City College prepares students for high-demand careers
• • Houston City College

Friday, June 26

• HL Rhythm Energy Question of the Week
• Best Friends Animal Society hosts a free pet adoption event this Saturday
• • RSVP to Best Friends “Bring Love Home” Adoption Event
• Houston’s own Tyce Green stars in Disney’s ‘The Hunchback of Notre Dame’
• • Houston Broadway Theatre’s “The Hunchback of Notre Dame”
• Stay connected with reliable internet during hurricane season
• • Ezee Fiber
• Better STAAR scores, bigger goals: Here’s why Good Reason Houston focuses on a path to a living wage
• • Good Reason Houston
• Baytown Is Going Big for the Fourth of July
• • Visit Baytown
• Rodney Atkins

Thursday, June 25

• Best Friends Animal Society hosts a free pet adoption event this Saturday
• • RSVP to Best Friends “Bring Love Home” Adoption Event
  • Best Friends Houston
• A New Sprouts Farmers Market Has Opened in Webster—Here’s What You’ll Find Inside
• • Sprouts Farmers Market
• Why this financial expert says small business success starts with financial organization
• • Aragon Tax Return Services
• Mattress expert links poor sleep to serious health risks
• • Texas Mattress Makers

Wednesday, June 24

• Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo announces historic agriculture complex benefitting Texas youth
• • Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo
• Vegan recipes to add to your summer cookout menu
• • Dr. Chinwe Orabuchi
• Could your roof be hiding storm damage: What Houston homeowners should know
• • Adams Roofing
• Companion Energy brings ‘Energy that Cares’ to the Houston Humane Society
• • Companion Energy
• Travel Mom Emily Kaufman says now’s the time to book Australia
• • Travel Mom
  • Visit Sydney
  • Visit South Wales

Tuesday, June 23

• Houston Life goes LIVE from new IKEA Webster ahead of Grand Opening
• • KPRC 2 Insiders, Enter for a chance to win IKEA gift cards!
  • IKEA
  • IKEA Webster: Friends and Family Shopping Event

Monday, June 22

• HL Rhythm Energy Question of the Week
• Family-owned restaurant Foreign Grill shares Uzbek flavors ahead of the FIFA World Cup 2026™ match
• • Follow Foreign Grill on Instagram
• Prime Day Picks to upgrade your home
• • Home Improvement Expert, Kathryn Emery | Be The Best Home
• Meet the Houston skincare brand embracing beef tallow with no frills and all the beneficial ingredients
• • NutréLux Beauty
• Future-Proof Careers: Celebrating the HVAC Technicians Who Keep Houston Cool
• • Fortis College
• Why cruises are the hottest ticket this summer - expert tips & where to go
• • Carnival Cruises
  • Travel Expert, Jeanenne Tornatore | The Outside Insider

Thursday, June 18

• HL Rhythm Energy Question of the Week
• KPRC 2 INSIDERS: Enter for your chance to win a $250 Kroger gift card!
• • Kroger
• The South Dakota Road Trip You Didn’t Know You Needed
• • Your Bucket List Guide
  • Travel South Dakota
• Hands-on training at Houston City College Southeast prepares students for high-demand careers
• • Houston City College
• Stay connected with reliable internet during hurricane season
• • Ezee Fiber

Wednesday, June 17

• WANTED: An audience ready to laugh at the Texas Outlaw Comics tonight at Houston Improv
• • Texas Outlaw Comics
• The cast of Netflix’s ‘I Will Find You’ talks bringing the bestselling thriller to life
• • Netflix’s Harlan Coben’s “I Will Find You”
• Saunawelt opens Houston’s first public European sauna house
• • Saunawelt
• Village Plumbing, Air & Electric shares summer safety tips as company celebrates 80 Years of servicing Houston
• • Village Plumbing

Tuesday, June 16

• ‘Heart & Hustle: Houston’ Star Muneera Page opens up about fame, friendship and season two
• • OWN’s “Heart & Hustle: Houston”
• Looking for a Father’s Day activity? See more than 100 exotic cars at Velocité in Houston
• • Velocité – A Father’s Day Tradition in Motion
• AEW Star Thunder Rosa balances two wrestling worlds while inspiring fans to chase their dreams
• • All Elite Wrestling at Smart Financial Centre
  • Follow Thunder Rosa on Instagram
• Transform your outdoor space with Carvestone - Plus, a chance to win $5,000 in outdoor furniture
• • Allied Outdoor Solutions

Monday, June 15

• Local 17-year-old filmmaker makes her mark with movie focusing on men’s mental health
• • “Used to Be” tickets
• WWE star Braun Strowman chats season 2 of ‘Everything On The Menu’
• • USA Network’s “Everything on the Menu With Braun Strowman”
• How Houston Habitat for Humanity is helping families build generational wealth
• • KPRC 2 Habitat for Humanity
  • Houston Habitat for Humanity
• Houston’s own Cris Sosa competes on NBC’s ‘America’s Got Talent’ Season 21
• • Comedian Cris Sosa
  • NBC’s “America’s Got Talent”

Friday, June 12

• HL Rhythm Energy Question of the Week
• Why the Rothko Chapel may be Houston’s most transformative space
• • Rothko Chapel
• Keep your home cool and save on energy with these tips from Champion & Nash
• • Champion and Nash
• Marco’s Pizza brings New York-style pizza to your neighborhood
• • Marco’s Pizza
• Meet Yassine Cheuko, personal bodyguard to soccer superstar Lionel Messi

Thursday, June 11

• FIFA Fan Festival™ Houston

Wednesday, June 10

• Houston physician and educator Dr. Tim Garson makes history approachable and relatable to modern life in new book
• • Dr. Arthur “Tim” Garson
  • Book: “Five Thousand Years of Controversies: A Family’s Journey Through World History”
• Ishida Dance Company presents ‘Waiting/Rex’ at Asia Society Texas
• • Ishida Dance Company Tickets
• Father’s Day finds and summer-ready home upgrades
• • Kathryn Emery
• Peptides and functional health: How Antiage Institute helps Houstonians age better
• • Antiage Institute

Tuesday, June 9

• How a community effort saved Houston’s printmaking legacy
• How custom coasters are made by hand at Red Bird Press studio
• • Red Bird Press
• A 34-Day soccer watch party in Houston with Diplo, wagyu burgers and VIP lounges?
• • The Ranch Presents Pitch Live
• Find the right mattress with expert help in Texas
• • Texas Mattress Makers

Monday, June 8

• Meet Saxboy Billy, the man behind the viral “Puerto Rico Song”
• • Follow Saxboy Billy on Instagram
• Celebrate Culture through music and movement with Tx2 Dance Company
• • T2 Dance Company
• NBC’s ‘American Ninja Warrior’ Season 18: What Lauren Kelly learned from the Hosts
• • NBC’s “American Ninja Warrior”
• Replace an entire arch, not just a tooth: How ONEARCH changes lives
• • Texas Dental Implant Center
• Visit San Antonio

Friday, June 5

• The music collective behind the Houston remix for FIFA World Cup 2026™
• • Bombón
  • Official FIFA World Cup 26™ Houston Sonic ID
• Why Alley Theatre’s “Misery” is leaving Houston audiences gasping
• • Misery at Alley Theatre
• Young Houstonians will learn how to train like a pro at the Simple Truth Will Anderson Jr. ProCamp
• • Will Anderson Jr. Football ProCamp

Thursday, June 4

• Magician Michael Carbonaro is ready to wow fans in Houston with his new show ‘WONDERBOY’
• • Michael Carbonaro at Houston of Blues
• HCC Southwest ramps up hands-on training in AI, robotics and cybersecurity
• • Houston City College
• The Travel Mom’s tips for planning and booking a breathtaking Alaskan cruise
• • The Travel Mom
  • Holland America Cruises
• Spice Routes: Cardamom Challenge a culinary passport awaits at Houston’s stunning Ismaili Center
• • Ismaili Center

Wednesday, June 3

• Celebrate Freedom Festival returns to Emancipation Park this Saturday
• • Juneteenth Houston
• Why this red velvet cornbread recipe belongs on your Juneteenth table
• • Chef Cassi
• Houston Rockets Skills Camp returns to various locations this summer
• • Houston Rockets Youth Skills Camp
• KPRC 2’s 2026 Hurricane & Flood Survival Guide
• IMDB “Masters of the Universe”

Tuesday, June 2

• CPR and AED basics: Simple skills that can help save a life
• • Register for FREE CPR webinar on June 3
  • Gail Gould
• Meet the local break dancers uplifting women and youth through hip-hop, culture, and the arts
• • BGirl City Worldwide
• Cool Treats in the Heights: Where to find Hawaiian shaved ice and frozen cocktails
• • Happy Go Lucky

Monday, June 1

• Houston Author Jenny Block drops new book about finding authenticity, success and joy in life
• • Follow Jenny Block on Instagram
• The laughs keep coming in season 2 of Netflix’s ‘The Four Seasons’
• • Netflix’s “The Four Seasons”
• Discovery Green celebrating summer with free family fun and soccer-inspired events
• • Discovery Green
• Why natural looking dental implants are the new luxury in facial rejuvenation
• • Texas Dental Implant Center

Friday, May 29

• Texas Teen Pageant Queens use their platforms to empower foster kids, fight bullying, and inspire future farmers
• • Kyleigh’s Kidz
• Immersive Gamebox is launching ‘Soccer Arcade,’ the world’s first immersive soccer experience
• • Immersive Gamebox
• Tanji Patton reveals what’s next after 11 seasons of Goodtaste TV
• Sweet, Savory & Spicy: Creative cantaloupe recipes worth trying this Summer
• • Goodtaste with Tanji Patton

Thursday, May 28

• Game day skin care tips for FIFA World Cup 2026™ watch parties and summer heat
• • Board-Certified Dermatologist Dr. Sherry Ingraham
• A Quick Drive From Houston, This Louisiana Resort Delivers Vegas-Style Luxury Without the Flight
• • Coushatta Casino Resort
• Licasa Treatment Center Opens in Conroe to expand compassionate mental health and addiction care
• • Licasa Treatment Center

Wednesday, May 27

•  Powering Houston’s future: Electrical apprentices showcase skills at annual Wire-Off Competition 
• • IEC Texas Gulf Coast
• Los Souldees is the local band bringing the sounds you love from the past with a fresh Houston twist
• • Los Souldees

Tuesday, May 26

• Lone Star College
• A Houston little boy’s toughest battle led to a monster surprise!
• • Gexa Energy
• Captain MC’s Seafood
• The Window Source Houston

Friday, May 22

• Get your bike ready for summer rides with these simple safety tips
• • Sun & Ski Sports
• This easy road trip from Houston comes with luxury suites, gaming, and a powerful legacy
• • Coushatta Powwow
  • Coushatta Casino Resort
• Hear the hits - ‘Beautiful: The Carole King Musical’ in Houston
• • “The Carole King Musical” at Theatre Under the Stars
• Support local veterans while having fun at the Patriots Charity Classic
• • Patriots Charity Classic Event

Thursday, May 21

• The World comes to Houston! Here’s what to expect ahead of the FIFA Fan Festival™ kicking off in EaDo
• • FIFA Fan Festival™
• This easy road trip from Houston comes with luxury suites, gaming, and a powerful legacy
• • Coushatta Casino Resort - New Legacy Tower
• SUMMER SWEEPSTAKES: Enter to win 3 weeks of free airport parking from The Parking Spot
• • The Parking Spot
• Train for Houston’s in demand jobs at HCC Northeast - Public Safety, Automotive, & more
• • HCC Northeast
• Schlotzsky’s Deli launches new stacked subs in Houston - Try three bold flavors
• • Schlotzsky’s Deli

Wednesday, May 20

• Schlotzsky’s Deli launches new stacked subs in Houston - Try three bold flavors
• • Schlotzsky’s Deli
• Swap, shop, sustain: Houston’s eco-friendly clothing event returns this Sunday
• • The Houston Clothing Shop
• A Houston little boy’s toughest battle led to a monster surprise!
• • Gexa Energy
• Early detection, AI tools, personalized care redefine preventive health
• • Fountain Life Houston Clinic
• Get your backyard summer ready with pest control, pool upgrades, trampolines and whole home backup power
• • Kathryn Emery
• Need summer plans? This easy Galveston getaway has dinosaurs, beaches & lazy rivers
• • Moody Gardens

Tuesday, May 19

• In the Kitchen with Kroger: Memorial Day hosting doesn’t have to start from scratch
• • KPRC 2 INSIDERS: Enter for your chance to win a $250 Kroger gift card!
  • Kroger
• Moody Gardens
• Houston Ballet closes 2025-2026 season with two standout productions
• • Houston Ballet
• From award-winning tv to action-packed films, Bob Odenkirk chats ‘Normal’
• • Follow Bob Odenkirk on Instagram

Monday, May 18

• Celebrate World Ocean Day in Galveston with art, music & ocean fun for free 🌊 🌊
• • Artist Boat
• A collector’s dream: U.S. Coins & Jewelry opens brand new showroom for buying and selling
• • U.S. Coins and Jewelry
• Mental Health Awareness Month: How to spot the signs when stress becomes something more
• • The Harris Center for Mental Health and Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IDD)
• Spring couple transforms builder-grade patio into beautiful backyard with Allied Outdoor Solutions
• • Allied Outdoor Solutions
• Why natural looking dental implants are the new luxury in facial rejuvenation
• • Texas Dental Implant Center

Friday, May 15

• HL Rhythm Energy Question of the Week
• At Houston’s Alley Theatre, “Dear Alien” explores the beautiful weirdness of being human
• • “Dear Alien at Alley Theatre
• Gear up inside the newly renovated and relocated Sun & Ski Sports Memorial City
• • Sun & Ski Sports Memorial City
• The Travel Mom on the perks of RV life on the road
• • The Travel Mom
  • Go RVing

Thursday, May 14

• Musaafer Houston Beekeeper cocktail program highlights honey from local neighborhoods
• • Musaafer
• Help us save lives at the KPRC 2 Community Blood Drive with Gulf Coast Blood
• • Schedule an appointment
• Port Aransas
• Children’s Museum Houston

Wednesday, May 13

• Why one Fulshear homeowner calls his generator “The Easy Button”
• • GenPro.com
• Family fun meets coastal charm in Port Aransas, Texas’ premier Gulf Coast getaway
• • Port Aransas
  • Red Dragon Pirate Cruises
• Local chef turns pandemic setback into a thriving Filipino food pop-up business
• • Aleng Nina’s
  • Chef Nina’s Pop-up Event at Third Place

Tuesday, May 12

• Rob Riggle among authors featured in ‘A Celebration of Reading’ 2026
• • Barbara Bush Houston Literacy Foundation
• Texas’ legendary 1877 tall ship ELISSA joins Sail250 voyage to New York Harbor
• • The Official Official Tall Ship of Texas
  • Galveston 250 Kickoff Party Tickets
• The Future of noninvasive wellness is in Sugar Land
• • Oasis Aesthetics & Wellness and Oasis Dry Eye Center
• Chef Jose Hernandez on his roots, restaurants, and fresh pasta
• • Savoir Restaurant
  • Patton

Monday, May 11

• Texas breweries shine at World Beer Cup as American Craft Beer Week kicks off
• • What’s on Tap Radio
• Could Retirement Living Actually Feel Like a Resort? Inside Life at Eagle’s Trace
• • Eagles’ Trace by Erickson Senior Living
• Empty Bowls Houston returns for its 20th anniversary
• • Empty Bowls Houston
  • Houston Food Bank

Friday, May 8

• HL Rhythm Energy Question of the Week
• Children’s Museum Houston and Houston Life present a first look inside the ‘Gallery of Wonder’ on KPRC 2
• Easy at-home kitchen STEM activities to spark curiosity with Children’s Museum Houston
• • Children’s Museum Houston
• Rung Film Festival returns to Houston, highlighting Pakistani storytellers on the big screen
• • Rung Film Festival
• Scammed out of $90,000: Houston woman shares warning for seniors
• • AARP Houston
• KPRC 2’s “Eat Like a Local”

Thursday, May 7

• Celebrate National Hamburger Month with OMG! Burger
• • OMG! Burger
• How Houston City College Is Building the City’s Workforce
• • Houston City College
• The Insperity Invitational presented by United Healthcare happening in The Woodlands this weekend
• • Insperity Invitational
• Bridge the Gaps

Wednesday, May 6

• From local finds to feel-good vibes, ‘Shop Fulshear First’ family-friendly night market
• • “Shop Fulshear First”
• Why you keep repeating the same unhealthy relationship patterns and how to change them
• • Jenn Pinkerton
• Houston Grand Opera

Tuesday, May 5

• Bun B announces “UGK Been Ridin’ Dirty,” Celebrating 30 Years of a Southern Hip-Hop Classic
• • Bun B Presents “Been Ridin’ Dirty” Tickets
• From classroom to center stage: The Tommy Tune Awards showcase Houston’s rising theatre talent
• • Tommy Tune Awards Finalists List
• Houston Life co-hosts learn calligraphy with live event artist Jenny Blaschke
• • Jenny Blaschke

Monday, May 4

• “Houston’s Enchilada Queen” Sylvia Casares serving up big flavor & family tradition
• • Sylvia’s Enchilada Kitchen
• This Houston program uses comedy to build confidence and change lives
• • Comedy Unlocked
  • The Opportunity Center
• Hot products: Summer grillin’ and chillin’ with Lifestyle and Home Improvement expert Kathryn Emery
• • Kathryn Emery
• New Smile: AI-driven design at Texas Dental Implant Center
• • Texas Dental Implant Center

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