Over the weekend, Teijo and 74 other women participated in the Houston pageant, with Aarienna Ware ultimately crowned the winner June 22. However, Teijo stood out throughout the competition, making history as the oldest contestant to ever compete in Miss Texas USA, the organization confirmed to NBC News. 

About a month before her historic day, Teijo gushed about the pageant and explained why she signed up in an Instagram post. 

“I am delighted to be a part of this incredible new experience as a contestant in the Miss Texas USA pageant,” she said. “In doing so, I hope to inspire women to strive to be their best physical and mental self and believe there is beauty at any age.”

Leading up to the competition, she shared information about the different sponsors she received and the growing support from fans. 

On June 16, she wrote, “Thank you to all my sponsors-your support has meant so much to me. All of your generous donations have made my participation in the Miss Texas USA possible.”

She added, “I can’t wait to show we all have a new stage of opportunity, strength, and beauty!”

Teijo was eligible to compete in the pageant following a recent rule change that removed age limits, NBC News confirmed. 

In another rule change, increasing the competitions inclusivity, the Miss Texas USA website reveals that since 2023 “women who are or have been married, as well as women who are pregnant or have children” have been able to participate, as well. 

This year’s two-day event began June 21 at the Hilton Houston Post Oak Hotel. Teijo, representing Paso Del Norte, shared a photo of her posing on a red carpet after arriving in H-Town. 

The contestants were judged in three categories: personal interview, swimsuit and evening gown. Ware, who represented Dallas, was crowned Miss Texas USA 2024.

The pageant’s Instagram page uploaded a video June 22 from the moment Ware was awarded the coveted title. She strutted across the stage while holding a bouquet of flowers to celebrate her win. 

She will now prepare for the Miss USA competition, which will air live on The CW on Aug. 4.

The upcoming pageant comes after months of controversy surrounding the organization. In May, former Miss USA 2023 winner Noelia Voigt announced on Instagram that she was resigning to prioritize her mental health. A few days later, Miss USA Teen 2023 UmaSofia Srivastava and former Miss Colorado USA 2023 Arianna Lemus revealed they also decided to renounce their titles. 

Lemus said her decision was an act of “solidarity” with Voigt and Srivastava. “Silencing women is not the definition of pageantry,” she said in the caption on her post. 

In response to the resignations, the Miss USA organization, which is owned by Miss Universe Organization, issued statements on social media. 

“We respect and support Noelia’s decision to step down from her duties. The well-being of our titleholders is a top priority, and we understand her need to prioritize herself at this time,” the Miss USA organization said, in part, thanking Voigt for her “service.”

A similar statement was posted on the Miss Teen USA Instagram account to address Srivastava’s departure.  

The organization did not comment on Lemus’ resignation.

This article first appeared on TODAY.com. Read more from TODAY here:

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Tom Jones and his American Accountability Foundation are digging into the backgrounds, social media posts and commentary of key high-ranking government employees, starting with the Department of Homeland Security. They are relying in part on tips from his network of conservative contacts, including even workers themselves. In a move that alarms some, they are preparing to publish the findings online.

With a $100,000 grant from the influential Heritage Foundation, the goal is to post 100 names of government workers to a website this summer to show a potential new administration who might be standing in the way of a second-term Trump agenda — and ripe for scrutiny, reclassifications, reassignments or firings.

“We need to understand who these people are and what they do,” said Jones, a former Capitol Hill aide to Republican senators.

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The concept of compiling and publicizing a list of government employees shows the lengths that Trump’s allies are willing to go to ensure that nothing or no one will block his plans in a potential second term. Jones’ Project Sovereignty 2025 comes as Heritage’s own Project 2025 is laying the groundwork, with policies, proposals and personnel ready day one of a possible new White House.

The effort, which is focused on top career government officials who are not appointees within the political structure, has stunned democracy experts and shocked the civil service community in what they compare to the “red scare” of midcentury McCarthyism.

Jacqueline Simon, policy director at the American Federation of Government Employees, said the language being thrown around — the Heritage Foundation’s announcement praised the group for ferreting out “anti-American bad actors” — is “so shocking.”

Civil servants are often former military personnel and all are required to take an oath to the Constitution to work for the federal government, not a loyalty test to any one president in the White House, she and others said.

“It just seems as though their goal is to try to menace federal employees and sow fear,” said Simon, whose union is backing President Joe Biden for re-election.

As Trump, who has been convicted of felony charges in a hush-money case and is under a four-count federal indictment accusing him of working to overturn the 2020 election, faces a likely rematch with Biden this fall, far-right conservatives have vowed to take a wrecking ball to what they call the deep-state bureaucracy.

The Trump campaign has said repeatedly that outside groups do not speak for the former president who alone is setting his policy priorities.

Conservatives view the federal workforce as overstepping its role to become a power center that can drive or thwart a president’s agenda. Particularly during the Trump administration, government officials came under attack from both the White House and Republicans on Capitol Hill, as his own Cabinet often raised objections to some of the former president’s more singular or even unlawful proposals.

While Jones’ group won’t necessarily be recommending whether to fire or reassign any of the federal workers it lists, the work aligns with Heritage’s far-reaching Project 2025 blueprint for a conservative administration.

Heritage’s Project 2025 proposes reviving the Trump “Schedule F” policy that would try to reclassify tens of thousands of federal workers as political appointees, which could enable mass dismissals – although a new Biden administration rule seeks to make that more difficult. The Heritage project is working to recruit and train a new generation to come to Washington to fill government jobs.

In announcing the $100,000 “Innovation Award” last month, Heritage said it would support American Accountability Foundation’s “investigative researchers, in-depth reports, and educational efforts to alert Congress, a conservative administration, and the American people to the presence of anti-American bad actors burrowed into the administrative state and ensure appropriate action is taken.”

Heritage President Kevin Roberts said in a statement the “weaponization of the federal government” has been possible only because of the “deep state of entrenched Leftist bureaucrats.” He said he was proud to support the work of American Accountability Foundation workers “in their fight to hold our government accountable and drain it of bad actors.”

The federal government employs about 2.2 million people. That includes those in the Washington, D,C, area but also workers who the unions say many Americans know as friends or neighbors in communities across the country.

About 4,000 positions in the government are considered political appointees who routinely change from one presidential administration to the next, but most are career professionals — from landscapers at Veterans Administration cemeteries to economists at the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The public list-making conjures for some the era of Joseph McCarthy, the former senator who conducted grueling hearings into suspected communist sympathizers during the Cold War. They were orchestrated by a top staffer, Roy Cohn, who went on to become a confidant of a younger Trump.

Skye Perryman, CEO of the advocacy group Democracy Forward, said it’s all deeply disturbing, and reminiscent of “the darker parts of American history.”

“This is part of the overall, highly concerning and alarming trend,” she said.

Publicly naming government workers is an “intimidation tactic to try to chill the work of these civil servants,” she said, and part of a broader “retribution agenda” under way this election.

“They’re seeking to undermine our democracy, they’re seeking to undermine the way that our government works for people,” she said.

Jones, from his desk overlooking rickhouses storing barrels in the “Bourbon Capitol” of Bardstown, scoffed at comparisons to McCarthyism as “nonsense.”

He’s a former staffer to former Sen. Jim DeMint, the South Carolina conservative Republican who went on to lead Heritage and now helms the Conservative Policy Institute, where American Accountability Foundation has a mailing address. Jones also worked for Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisconsin, and provided opposition research for Texas GOP Sen. Ted Cruz’s 2016 presidential bid.

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With six researchers, Jones’ team is operating remotely across the country, poring over the information about federal workers within Homeland Security, State Department and other agencies that deal with immigration and border issues.

Their focus is on the highest ranks of the civil servants — so-called GS-13, GS-14, and GS-15 employees and those in senior executive positions who could put up roadblocks to Trump’s plans for tighter borders and more deportations.

“I think it’s important to the next administration to understand who those people are,” he said.

He dismissed the risks that could be involved in publicly posting the names, salary information and other details of federal workers who have some level of privacy, or the idea that his group’s work could be putting employees’ livelihoods in jeopardy.

“You don’t get to make policy and then say, ‘Hey don’t scrutinize me,”’ he said.

He acknowledges some of the work is often a “gut check” or “instinct” about which federal employees would be suspected of trying to block a conservative agenda.

“We’re looking at, ‘Are there wrong people on the bus right now that are, you know, openly hostile to efforts to secure the southern border?”’

His own group came under scrutiny as it first probed Biden nominees.

Biden had repealed Trump’s Schedule F executive order in January 2021, but a Government Accountability Office report in 2022 found that agencies believed it could be reinstated by a future administration.

Since then, the Biden administration issued a new rule that would make it harder to fire workers. A new administration could direct the Office of Personnel Management to undo the new regulation, but the process would take time and be open to legal challenges.

The Southern California sky was illuminated by a Falcon 9 rocket carrying 20 Starlink satellites into low-Earth orbit out of the company’s base northwest of Santa Barbara.

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The rocket and its exhaust plume are sometimes visible for hundreds of miles as it soars along the coast, if skies are clear. Launches just after sunset and before sunrise usually provide the best views as the rocket reflects the sun’s rays against the backdrop of a darkened sky.

Hawthorne-based SpaceX launched 96 successful missions with its Falcon rockets in 2023, eclipsing its previous annual record of 61 orbital launches in 2022.

SpaceX has a Starlink constellation of satellites orbiting Earth about 340 miles up, shuttled into space by the company’s rockets. The Starlink network is designed to deliver high-speed internet anywhere around the globe.

If light conditions are right, the satellites appear in a train as they parade across the night sky. The satellites are sometimes visible in the first few minutes after sundown and before sunrise when the sun is below the horizon, but the satellites are high enough to reflect direct sunlight.

Use the FindStarlink tracker to find the best upcoming viewing times.

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Air Force Gen. CQ Brown, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Iran “would be more inclined to support Hezbollah.” He added that Tehran supports Hamas militants in Gaza, but would give greater backing to Hezbollah “particularly if they felt that Hezbollah was being significantly threatened.”

Brown spoke to reporters as he traveled to Botswana for a meeting of African defense ministers.

Israeli officials have threatened a military offensive in Lebanon if there is no negotiated end to push Hezbollah away from the border. Just days ago, Israel’s military said it had “approved and validated” plans for an offensive in Lebanon, even as the U.S. works to prevent the months of cross-border attacks from spiraling into a full-blown war.

Netanyahu said Sunday he hoped a diplomatic solution could be achieved but said he would solve the problem “in a different way” if needed. ″We can fight on several fronts and we are prepared to do that,” he said.

U.S. officials have tried to broker a diplomatic solution to the conflict. The issue is expected to come up this week as Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant visits Washington for meetings with U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and other senior U.S. officials.

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U.S. President Joe Biden’s senior adviser, Amos Hochstein, met with officials in Lebanon and Israel last week in an effort to deescalate tensions. Hochstein told reporters in Beirut on Tuesday that it was a “very serious situation” and that a diplomatic solution to prevent a larger war was urgent.

Brown also said the U.S. won’t likely be able to help Israel defend itself against a broader Hezbollah war as well as it helped Israel fight off an Iranian barrage of missiles and drones in April. It is harder to fend off the shorter-range rockets that Hezbollah fires routinely across the border into Israel, he said.

Asked if the U.S. has changed its force posture in the region to better assure troops are protected, he said the safety of the force has been a priority all along and noted that no U.S. bases have been attacked since February.

Brown said the U.S. continues to talk with Israeli leaders and warn against widening the conflict. He said a key message is “to think about the second order of effect of any type of operation into Lebanon, and how that might play out and how it impacts not just the region, but how it impacts our forces in regions as well.”

Pentagon officials have said that Austin has also raised concerns about a broader conflict when he spoke to Gallant in a recent phone call.

“Given the amount of rocket fire we’ve seen going from both sides of the border, we’ve certainly been concerned about that situation, and both publicly and privately have been urging all parties to restore calm along that border, and again, to seek a diplomatic solution,” said Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, the Pentagon press secretary, last week.

A war between the two heavily armed foes could be devastating to both countries and incur mass civilian casualties. Hezbollah’s rocket arsenal is believed to be far more extensive than Hamas’.

Israel and the Iranian-backed Hezbollah have exchanged fire across Lebanon’s border with northern Israel since fighters from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip staged a bloody assault on southern Israel in early October that set off the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.

The situation escalated this month after an Israeli airstrike killed a senior Hezbollah military commander in southern Lebanon. Hezbollah retaliated by firing hundreds of rockets and explosive drones into northern Israel and Israel responded with a heavy assault on the militant group.

Israeli strikes have killed more than 400 people in Lebanon, including 70 civilians. On Israel’s side, 16 soldiers and 10 civilians have been killed.

An escalation in the conflict could also trigger wider involvement by other Iran-backed militant groups in the region.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said in a speech last Wednesday that militant leaders from Iran, Iraq, Syria, Yemen and other countries have previously offered to send tens of thousands of fighters to help Hezbollah, but he said the group already has more than 100,000 fighters.

The gunmen opened fire on two Orthodox churches, a synagogue and a police post in two cities, according to the authorities.

Russia’s National Anti-Terrorist Committee described the attacks in the predominantly Muslim region with a history of armed militancy as terrorist acts.

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday were declared days of mourning in the region.

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Dagestan’s Interior Ministry said a group of armed men shot at a synagogue and a church in the city of Derbent, located on the Caspian Sea. Both the church and the synagogue caught fire, according to state media. Almost simultaneously, reports appeared about an attack on a church and a traffic police post in the Dagestan capital, Makhachkala.

The authorities announced a counter-terrorist operation in the region. The Anti-Terrorist Committee said five gunmen were “eliminated.” The governor said six “bandits” had been “liquidated.” The conflicting numbers couldn’t be immediately reconciled and it wasn’t clear how many militants were involved in the attacks.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attacks. The authorities launched a criminal probe on the charge of a terrorist act.

Russian state news agency Tass cited law enforcement sources as saying that a Dagestani official was detained over his sons’ involvement in the attacks.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said four U.S.-provided Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) rockets, were intercepted over the city of Sevastopol, but fragments from the fifth rocket led to “numerous casualties among civilians” on the ground.

“All flight missions for the American ATACMS operational-tactical missiles are entered by American specialists based on U.S.’ own satellite reconnaissance data,” the ministry said in a statement. “Therefore, responsibility for the deliberate missile attack on civilians in Sevastopol lies primarily with Washington, which supplied these weapons to Ukraine, as well as the Kyiv regime, from whose territory this attack was launched.”

NBC News could not independently confirm what type of weapons were used in the attack. The U.S. has been providing Ukraine with military aid to defend against Russia’s invasion, which started in February 2022. The Biden administration recently gave Ukraine permission to use American weapons to strike inside Russia, two American officials told NBC News.

The White House and the State Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 and considers it part of Russia, though it remains internationally recognized as Ukrainian territory.

“Such actions will not go unanswered,” the ministry added.

Mikhail Razvozhayev, the city’s Moscow-installed governor, said three children were among the dead and more than 120 were injured, Russian state news agency Tass reported.

Razvozhayev declared Monday a day of mourning in the city and said he has been visiting the injured in the hospitals. Russian President Vladimir Putin called him immediately after the attack and expressed his condolences to the families of the victims, Razvozhayev added.

The governor accused Kyiv authorities of striking “on the sly” at a time when many residents were returning from church and the celebrations of the Orthodox holiday of Holy Trinity or were on the beach with their children.

His deputy Alexander Kulagin also told Tass that many among the injured were at the beach during the attack.

Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin said doctors were being sent from the capital to provide all necessary assistance, and Moscow clinics were ready to receive victims.

There was no immediate reaction from Kyiv. The country’s ministry of defense, ministry of foreign affairs and military officials did not immediately respond to NBC News’ request for comment.

Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has called the attack “an act of terrorism” carried out with U.S. weapons that should be condemned by the United Nations. Moscow-appointed head of Crimea, Sergei Aksyonov, said the incident was “a barbaric, unscrupulous terrorist attack.”

Russian authorities have launched a criminal investigation into the attack.

Also on Sunday, Ukrainian authorities reciprocated with accusations of terrorism against civilians, reporting the latest deadly Russian strike on the border city of Kharkiv.

Gov. Oleh Syniehubov said Russia continued to attack civilian infrastructure in the city with aerial bombs. The strikes on Sunday killed one person and injured 11, Syniehubov said, adding that the latest attack left part of Kharkiv without power, shutting down the metro in the country’s second largest city.

It comes just a day after three people were killed and 41 were injured in another attack on Kharkiv that damaged a five-story residential building, according to Syniehubov.

Abigail Williams contributed.

This article first appeared on NBCNews.com. Read more from NBC News here:

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From the mid-Atlantic to Maine, across the Great Lakes region, and throughout the West to California, public officials cautioned residents about the dangers of excessive heat and humidity. In Oklahoma, the heat index — what the temperature feels like to the human body — was expected to reach 107 degrees (41 degrees Celsius) on Sunday.

In the Midwest where South Dakota, Iowa and Minnesota meet, floodwaters rose through the weekend. In northwest Iowa, 13 rivers flooded the area, said Eric Tigges of Clay County emergency management. Entire neighborhoods — and at least one entire town — were evacuated, and the town of Spencer imposed a curfew Sunday for the second night in a row after flooding that surpassed the record set in 1953.

“When the flood gauge is underwater, it’s really high,” Tigges said in a news conference organized by Spencer officials.

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Gov. Kim Reynolds declared a disaster for 21 counties in northern Iowa, including Sioux County. In drone video posted by the local sheriff, no streets were visible, just roofs and treetops poking above the water.

Reynolds told reporters Sunday that more than 1,000 displaced residents slept in shelters Saturday night. National Guard troops were helping with water rescues and transporting needed medications lost in flooding.

“Businesses are shuttered. Main streets have been impacted,” Reynolds said. “Hospitals, nursing homes and other care facilities were evacuated. Cities are without power, and some are without drinkable water.”

National Weather Service meteorologist Donna Dubberke said parts of northern Nebraska, southeastern South Dakota, southern Minnesota and northwest Iowa received eight times the typical average rainfall. And more heavy rain was expected this week.

In South Dakota, Gov. Kristi Noem declared an emergency after severe flooding in the southeastern part of the state bordering Nebraska. Several highways were closed. Sioux Falls, the state’s largest city, had more than 7 inches (17.7 centimeters) of rain in three days. At least one person died in the floods, Noem said Sunday, without providing details.

Several rivers, including the Big Sioux, James and Vermillion, were expected to peak sometime Monday through Wednesday night, the governor said at a news conference.

“I want to remind everybody to remember the power of water and the flow of water, and to stay away from flooded areas,” Noem said. She added that “we’ve got a few days in front of us here that’ll be a little rough, but we’ll get through it together and do the very best to protect infrastructure, homes and families as we possibly can.”

Emergency management officials in the small South Dakota community of Dakota Dunes on Sunday issued a voluntary evacuation order for the area’s roughly 4,000 residents. Dakota Dunes is near the Nebraska and Iowa borders and is sandwiched between the Missouri and Big Sioux rivers, both of which are expected to crest in the coming days. Emergency management in Dakota Dunes warned residents that a mandatory evacuation could come quickly if flood barriers are breached.

But elsewhere, the heat was the biggest worry.

“It’s more important for people who are going to be outside to stay hydrated, because heat, humidity and low winds, even if you’re in good shape and not really acclimated to it, it could be a danger, ” said Bruce Thoren, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Oklahoma. “It happens quickly.”

The cities of Washington, D.C., Baltimore and Philadelphia all saw record heat on Saturday, with more high temperatures expected again Sunday.

Lamont Cousins, who owns the Ampersea restaurant on Baltimore’s waterfront, said business had been slow this weekend. The 40 outdoor dining seats at the restaurant, usually packed this time of year, were empty until around dinnertime Saturday.

“I think it’s affected us because people are staying home scared,” he said.

On Saturday, when he went to put umbrellas on the tables, it was already over 90 degrees. But Cousins said he’s not too worried about the lost business – and he expected Sunday would be better.

“Yesterday, it was nobody walking around. It’s hotter today, but there’s a breeze going. Yesterday, it just felt like I was being punished,” Cousins said.

Last year the U.S. experienced the most heat waves since 1936, experts said. An AP analysis of data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that excessive heat contributed to more than 2,300 deaths, the highest in 45 years of records.

The National Weather Service warned of the potential for rare tornadoes in the Northeast later Sunday. Tornadoes on Saturday struck in Wisconsin, leveling the historic Apple Grove Lutheran Church, founded in 1893 in the town of Argyle.

“The good news is we are all safe,” Dan Bohlman, pastor of Apple Grove Lutheran Church, said on the church website.

Marvin Boyd, meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Burlington, Vermont, said a severe thunderstorm warning was issued for parts of northern New York as a storm with wind gusts exceeding 60 mph (95 kph) and the threat of tornadoes head toward Vermont near Lake Champlain. It is one of several expected to pass through the region Sunday afternoon.

“It’s an unusual alignment of ingredients for Vermont and northern New York to produce a threat of tornadoes,” Boyd said.

___

Associated Press journalists Summer Ballentine in Columbia, Missouri; Leah Willingham in Charleston, West Virginia; Julie Walker in New York; Ron Todt in Philadelphia; and Michael Casey in Boston contributed reporting.

Six people wearing shirts with an environmental message dumped a powdery orange substance on the green as Scottie Scheffler, Tom Kim, and Akshay Bhatia stood by and watched.

Cromwell police quickly subdued the protesters and handcuffed them.

WATCH: Protesters stormed the 18th green at the TPC River Highlands as the leaders were preparing to putt on the final hole of regulation at the 2024 Travelers Championship on Sunday afternoon.

More: https://t.co/1NTgUdicx4 pic.twitter.com/ZYE8LNQ4cL

— NBC Connecticut (@NBCConnecticut) June 23, 2024

The massive crowd around the 18th chanted “USA, USA” as the protesters were led away.

According to Cromwell police, all 6 protesters were charged with first degree criminal mischief, first degree criminal trespass, and breach of peace. The six protesters hailed from a number of out of state locations including Washington, D.C., White Plains, Maryland, and Brooklyn, New York.

Cromwell Police said they were all released on bond and given a court date of July 1 in Middletown Superior Court.

Scheffler had a one-shot lead over Kim coming the the 18th but Kim made a 10-foot put for birdie to send the Travelers Championship to a playoff.

Scheffler went on to win the tournament after parring the first playoff hole to defeat Kim, who bogeyed. Scheffler, who has won six of his last 10 starts, shot a final round 5-under 65 to finish at 22-under in regulation play.

He told reporters Saturday that he already has made his decision and that the person will be in attendance Thursday night in Atlanta at the first debate of the general election campaign against Democratic President Joe Biden.

Trump’s choice would likely become the immediate front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination four years from now if Trump were to win a second term, the constitutional limit. But that No. 2 will be under immense pressure from Trump and his allies to show loyalty at all times.

Trump turned on his first vice president, Mike Pence, after Pence rebuffed his boss’ efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, based on false theories promoted by the then-president after his loss to Biden.

Pence has declined to endorse Trump this time around.

Trump has said his top consideration for a vice president is whether someone is qualified to take over as commander in chief.

But other factors at play: Who can raise money? Who performs well on television? Who will be most effective on the debate stage against Vice President Kamala Harris? Who risks overshadowing Trump, as a lame-duck if he is elected in November, with talk soon of 2028? And who has “the look”?

Trump’s campaign has repeatedly cautioned that anyone “claiming to know who or when President Trump will choose his VP is lying, unless the person is named Donald J. Trump.”

And given Trump’s penchant for unpredictability and drama, the best-laid plans could change.

A look at the top contenders heading into the convention in Milwaukee that will begin July 15.

Doug Burgum

Trump likes rich people. North Dakota’s two-term governor is most definitely rich.

Before his time as governor, Burgum led a software company that was acquired by Microsoft for more than $1 billion. He also has worked in real estate development and venture capital and spent millions on his own White House bid.

Burgum had initially run against Trump for the 2024 nomination, but the little-known governor from a sparsely-populated state gained little traction. When Burgum dropped his bid, he quickly endorsed the former president. Since then, Burgum has become one of Trump’s most visible defenders, appearing frequently on television, joining him at fundraisers, and traveling to New York for Trump’s criminal trial.

But more than that, Trump and Burgum have hit it off personally.

Burgum and his wife, Kathryn, are said to get along especially well with Trump and his team — the kind of rapport that has particular currency in Trump’s orbit. It does not hurt that Trump thinks Burgum looks the part — a “central casting” pick.

Selecting Burgum would, in some ways, echo Pence: a staid, uncontroversial governor with lesser national name recognition. Burgum, 67, would be unlikely to compete with Trump for the spotlight or to immediately overshadow him with 2028 talk.

Burgum also brings money and rich friends to the table.

But does the Republican Party want two older white guys atop the ticket?

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J.D. Vance

Swept to national prominence by his bestselling memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy,” Vance has held office for less than two years. But during his short time in the Senate, the former venture capitalist from Ohio has established himself as one of the fiercest defenders of Trump’s “Make America Great Again” agenda, especially when it comes to foreign policy, trade and immigration.

Despite his early criticism of Trump, Vance has become personally close with the former president and his son Donald Trump Jr., who has talked up the senator. Vance has become a fixture of the conservative media circuit, frequently spars with reporters on Capitol Hill and has appeared with Trump at recent fundraisers and at court.

At 39, Vance, would inject some millennial energy into a race that features an 81-year-old (Biden) and a 78-year-old (Trump) at the top of the major parties’ tickets. And a debate with Harris would certainly be heated.

But will Trump be able to get over Vance’s record of past insults, which he mentions still?

In 2016, Vance was one of Trump’s fiercest critics, casting the then-reality TV star as “a total fraud” and “moral disaster” and calling him “America’s Hitler.”

Vance has said he was proved wrong by Trump’s performance in office and the senator now castigates the liberals who made his book a bestseller as they sought a window into understanding Trumpism.

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Marco Rubio

If picking Vance would excite Trump’s base, choosing the Florida senator might expand the ticket’s appeal, particularly among deep-pocketed donors and more establishment-minded and moderate Republicans turned off by Trump’s rhetoric and extremism.

Rubio, once seen as a GOP hotshot, is now a well-respected voice on foreign policy and national security issues in his party. The son of Cuban immigrants, he speaks Spanish and could help Trump win over the Hispanic voters that his campaign is eagerly courting.

Rubio is also seen as a skilled debater who could hold his own against Harris.

Running alongside Trump might once have seemed unlikely possibility, given that the two were bitter rivals in 2016 for the GOP nomination and viciously attacked one another. Trump belittled Rubio as “Little Marco,” mocked him for drinking water during speeches and called him a “nervous basket case,” who was “disgusting.” Rubio said Trump was a “con man” who tried to “swindle” the Republican Party and Rubio tried to question Trump’s manhood.

“You know what they say about men with small hands,” Rubio quipped at one point during that campaign.

But then there is Rubio’s Florida “problem,” as Trump has called it.

The Constitution says two candidates from the same state cannot run as president and vice president, meaning Rubio would need to change his residency — something he is reportedly willing to do.

But does he really want the job? Rubio has been noticeably less present, publicly, than some of the others vying to be Trump’s No. 2 and did not appear with Trump at his criminal trial.

Tim Scott

The only Black Republican in the Senate, the South Carolinian would bring racial and stylistic diversity to the GOP ticket as well as a preacher’s touch. The self-described “born-again believer” often quotes Scripture in political speeches that often reach a crescendo of call-and-response.

Scott and Trump worked closely together while Trump was in the White House on a host of policy issues, including Trump’s tax cuts, opportunity zones, and criminal justice reform legislation.

Though Scott ran against Trump for the nomination this year, the senator largely declined to criticize the former president. After failing to gain traction despite millions spent on his behalf by high-profile donors, Scott endorsed Trump over fellow South Carolinian Nikki Haley, Trump’s U.N. ambassador, and immediately began enthusiastically campaigning across New Hampshire and South Carolina on Trump’s behalf.

He continues to make frequent appearances on television and recently launched a $14 million campaign to win over minority voters in seven key swing states.

Trump has often joked that Scott has made a far better surrogate than he did a candidate.

But that has also raised questions about how Scott might perform on a debate stage with Harris later this year.

Elise Stefanik

The only woman on his shortlist, the New York congresswoman could help Trump win over skeptical college-educated and suburban women who sided with Biden in 2020.

Stefanik was once an aide to former House Speaker Paul Ryan and served in President George W. Bush’s White House, working for two Republicans now shunned by Trump loyalists. But she transformed during Trump’s four years in office into a fully-fledged Trump acolyte.

She defended him vigorously in both of his impeachment trials and railed against his criminal indictments. In 2022, Stefanik was the first member of Republican House leadership to endorse Trump’s campaign, and did so before he had even announced.

She saw her profile rise after her aggressive questioning in December of a trio of university presidents over antisemitism on campus that led to two of their resignations. Trump has repeatedly praised that performance.

Stefanik has spent years ingratiating herself with Trump and positioning herself as one of his most trusted allies and confidantes on Capitol Hill.

But at 39 and a member of the House, does she have enough experience?

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Ben Carson

Relationships and trust matter to Trump. Carson, who served as secretary of housing and urban development during Trump’s administration, has developed a strong bond with the former president over the years, despite a contentious start as 2016 rivals.

A soft-spoken former renowned neurosurgeon, Carson, 72, could help Trump win over minority voters as the first Black person to be named to a Republican presidential ticket. Given Carson’s age and demeanor, there is little chance of him overshadowing Trump or stealing the spotlight.

But Carson also has a history of controversial comments on abortion, guns and other issues that could cause headaches for the ticket.

The Florida congressman has become one of Trump’s most prominent conservative Black supporters and a reliable surrogate on television and at events.

His selection could help bolster Trump’s appeal with Black voters, especially the younger Black men that the campaign has been courting as it tries to eat into Biden’s 2020 coalition.

Byron Donalds

At 45, Donalds is also the kind of fresh face who would serve a marked contrast to the men at the top of both parties’ tickets.

But like Rubio, Donalds would likely need to move to join the ticket. And he, too, has a history of controversial statements, including at a recent “Congress, Cognac, and Cigars” event in Philadelphia, where he seemed to reflect favorably on the Jim Crow era as he talked about “the reinvigoration” of the Black family.

“You see, during Jim Crow, the Black family was together. During Jim Crow, more Black people were not just conservative — Black people always have been conservative-minded — but more Black people voted conservatively,” Donalds said, according to audio from the Philadelphia Inquirer.

The events will include a nationwide mobilization of surrogates, events targeting groups the campaign sees as crucial to its coalition, like members of the LGBTQ community and college students, and 300 debate night watch parties.

Some of those watch parties will be hosted by social media content creators — to whom the campaign says it will grant access to the post-debate spin room, a place usually reserved for credentialed media.

This pre-debate push will kick off Monday, when the campaign and its allies will host 16 events across a dozen states to mark the second anniversary of the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade, including events featuring Vice President Kamala Harris in Maryland and Arizona.

The Biden campaign is looking to present the debate as “two distinct visions for the future,” driving a contrast between the presumptive nominees in a razor-thin race less than five months before voters cast ballots.

Voters will see “President Biden, who is fighting for the American people, and Donald Trump, who will walk on stage as a convicted felon fighting for himself no matter how much harm he inflicts on the American people,” said Biden campaign spokesman Michael Tyler in the memo.

Tyler laid out key issues where Trump “continues to pose the most extreme threat,” pointing to the end of Roe v. Wade, attacks on democracy and economic plans.

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An NBC News poll from April found that a plurality of registered voters — 23% —  said that inflation and the cost of living was the most important issue facing the country. But the same poll found that Trump pulled ahead by 22 points when voters were asked which of the two men would be better at dealing with the issue. 

Biden is spending several days at Camp David preparing for Thursday’s debate, including going toe-to-toe with his personal lawyer Bob Bauer, who is role-playing as Trump. Bauer also played Trump during debate preparation in 2020.

Bauer is joined by a slew of Biden confidants who are working to prepare the president ahead of the debate, including former chief of staff Ron Klain, campaign chair Jennifer O’Malley Dillon and White House senior adviser Anita Dunn.

Trump has been holding informal policy sessions ahead of the debate. A campaign official also said that Trump’s rallies and interviews demonstrate “elite stamina,” adding that the former president “does not need to be programmed by staff” like Biden.

Polling indicates that the race to the Oval Office is neck and neck, with a Fox News poll from last week showing Biden garnering support from 50% of registered voters, compared to Trump getting 48% support, which is within the poll’s margin of error.

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Police were called to a hotel in uptown Tampa a few hours before sunrise, having received reports of a shooting at the address. NBC News reports upon arriving at the scene, they found two vehicles that had been shot at in the parking lot.

One person, now identified as Jones, was pronounced dead, according to the Tampa Police Department. Three additional victims are in stable condition and being treated at the hospital.

Police said officers are still investigating the motive for the shooting and working to identify individuals involved.

Jones was celebrating his birthday the night of his fatal shooting, according to footage he posted on his Instagram story. The 26-year-old rapper, who had 1 million followers on the platform, shared a video advertising a pool party Saturday evening. He told his followers to direct-message him for the address.

Later that night, he posted that police had “shut us down and kicked us out” of their Airbnb.

His lawyer Lewis Fusco wrote in a statement that Jones then relocated to a Holiday Inn, where he was reportedly ambushed in the parking lot.

“Best birthday everrrr 🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞 appreciate everybody who pulled up we turnt up till we couldn’t nomo,” Jones wrote in another Instagram story just a few hours before the shooting. “We otw to the show now yall pull-up.”

God thank you for allowing me to see another Year & To celebrate another birthday 🥳🤞✊💕 appreciate all the birthday wishes so far 🤝

— ESPN 98💔 (@Espn_Foolio) June 21, 2024

In April, when announcing the release of his latest album, “Resurrection,” Jones also posted that he had already survived “MULTIPLE ATTEMPTS ON MY LIFE.”

Jones, who had nearly 1 million monthly listeners on Spotify at the time of his shooting, had been making music since 2015.

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On June 20, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission shared a notice that Vitamix is voluntarily recalling its Ascent Series and Venturist Series eight-ounce and 20-ounce blending containers and blade bases, noting the containers can separate from the bases, exposing the blades and posing a laceration hazard to consumers. 

The recall affects 569,000 parts — this includes 105,000 that were previously recalled in August 2018 (at the time, the company advised customers to pause use and offered repair kits as a remedy).

According to the CPSC, Vitamix has received 27 reports of lacerations that happened when user’s hands have come in contact with exposed blades, including the 11 reported injuries from the 2018 recall.

“Despite the rigorous testing each product undergoes before going to market, Vitamix often learns a great deal about its products after they’ve been used by thousands of people in real-life situations,” a representative from Vitamix tells TODAY.com via email, adding that the brand aims to continue improving customers’ experiences.

The clear containers and black blade bases being recalled are sold as individual parts, but also come with certain Vitamix Venturist and Ascent Series blenders. The recall lists Venturist V1200, Ascent A2300, Ascent A2500, Ascent A3300 and Ascent A3500 as some of the affected products. 

The parts are also sold as sets or bundles in various configurations with a Vitamix logo printed on the blending container.

Vitamix blenders sit at the higher end of the market when it comes to pricing. On the brand’s website, Ascent blenders sell for between $549.95 — $749.95. Venturist series blenders can cost up to $549.95 for the V1200 model.

Vitamix is not offering a replacement or a refund as part of the recall. The company instructs anyone with these parts to immediately stop using the products and contact the company via a dedicated recall website for a repair kit.

The company told CNN that it worked with Health Canada and the U.S. CPSC to evaluate potential remedies, agreeing on the repair kit as a solution.

“Vitamix’s top priority is the safety of its customers,” a representative for the brand told CNN. “To ensure Vitamix has a well-built product, Vitamix products undergo extensive testing, leveraging the 130+ test procedures in Vitamix’s catalog to assess every component for quality and durability.”

The parts were sold at Costco, Best Buy, Crate & Barrel, Macy’s, Target, Williams Sonoma, Walmart and other specialty and independent stores nationwide for between $30 and $990. They were also sold online at Vitamix.com, Amazon.com and QVC.com from April 2017 through May 2024.

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The Israel Defense Forces said the incident violated military protocol and is under investigation, NBC News reported.

In the video, a man, apparently bloodied, can be seen lying on the hood of one of two military vehicles riding in a convoy past two ambulances on a narrow road in what appears to be a residential area. The man appears to be injured, but the extent of his injuries is hard to ascertain based on the video. However, he can be seen making some small movements as he lies on the hood of the military vehicle driving down the road.

The video, verified by NBC News, has been widely shared online, including by Francesca Albanese, the United Nations special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied territories, who accused the IDF of using the man as a human shield.

“#HumanShielding in action,” wrote Albanese, sharing the video in a post on X. “It is flabbergasting how a state born 76 years ago has managed to turn international law literally on its head,” Albanese added.

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The Israeli army told NBC News in response to the video Saturday that the man was one of the “suspects” injured and apprehended during a morning raid in the area of Wadi Burqin, west of the city of Jenin in the northern West Bank. According to the IDF statement, militants opened fire on Israeli soldiers, who returned fire.

The IDF, however, said that the incident captured in the video was “in violation of orders and standard operating procedures.”

“The conduct of the forces in the video of the incident does not conform to the values of the IDF. The incident will be investigated and dealt with accordingly. The suspect was transferred to the Red Crescent to receive medical treatment,” the Israeli army’s statement said.

NBC News could not independently verify who the man in the video is or the exact circumstances of the incident. Additional videos of the same incident have been posted since the first one emerged.

Sharing the video in a post on X Saturday, the Palestine Red Crescent Society said the Israeli forces prevented their crews from providing first aid to an injured person in the Jabarat area of Jenin. “They then placed the injured person on the front of a military jeep and detained him before later allowing our crews to transfer him to the hospital,” the post said.NBC News reached out to the PRCS for further comment.

It’s the latest in a series of incidents that the Israeli military has characterized as inappropriate and “contrary to the values of the IDF.”

In November, videos emerged appearing to show Israeli troops abusing bound and blindfolded Palestinian detainees. The IDF called the conduct of its forces “deplorable” and noncompliant with the army’s orders in that case.

Other examples in which Israel had admitted wrongdoing by its forces include the killings of seven aid workers with the World Central Kitchen in the Gaza Strip in April, an incident which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described as his country’s forces unintentionally hitting “innocent people.” The IDF dismissed two officers and reprimanded three others for their roles in the incident, ruling it a “grave incident.” And in December, three Israeli hostages waving a white flag were killed by Israeli troops in Gaza in a mistake that brought into question how Israeli forces treated unarmed noncombatants on the battlefield.

The IDF appears to issue a similar response every time it faces a substantiated allegation of questionable behavior by Israeli service members, saying it “acts to address exceptional incidents that deviate from the orders and expected values of IDF soldiers” and “handles them with command and disciplinary measures.”

The IDF often does not comment on any disciplinary measures ultimately taken, and investigations into such behavior are often slow and in most cases end without charges being filed. Human rights activists have long complained that Israeli forces operate in a climate of impunity, an allegation the military rejects.

Videos of IDF soldiers have appeared regularly in the course of the war, drawing outrage. These have included images of soldiers setting fire to items in a candy factory, and breaking children’s toys and gifts in a store in the Gaza Strip.

In response to a number of social media videos purporting to show examples of Israeli soldiers riding bicycles in the Gaza rubble, going through lingerie in a Gaza home, using a prayer rug in a bathroom of a home in Gaza or stepping on a Palestinian flag in the enclave, the IDF previously has told NBC News that it “has taken action and will continue acting to identify misconduct and behavior that does not align with the expected morals and values of IDF soldiers.”

As the war in Gaza drags on after the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7, violence has flared in the occupied West Bank, with frequent military raids and altercations. At least 553 people including 135 children have been killed in the territory since the Oct. 7 attacks, and more than 9,300 have been detained, according to Palestinian authorities.

Matteo Moschella and Associated Press contributed

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The request has been ignored by the Republican lawmakers who have supermajority control in the Legislature and banned abortions in the state in 2022, shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a constitutional right to the procedure.

The petition, with more than 2,500 signatures, is essentially meaningless given the current makeup of the Legislature. But it illustrates the frustratingly limited options millions of Americans face in trying to re-establish abortion rights as the country marks the two-year anniversary since the Supreme Court’s ruling.

West Virginia is among the 25 states that do not allow citizen initiatives or constitutional amendments on a statewide ballot, an avenue of direct democracy that has allowed voters to circumvent their legislatures and preserve abortion and other reproductive rights in a number of states over the past two years.

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Republicans there have repeatedly dismissed the idea of placing an abortion-rights measure before voters, which in West Virginia is a step only lawmakers can take.

“It makes you wonder what they’re so afraid of,” said Democratic Del. Kayla Young, one of only 16 women in the West Virginia Legislature. “If they feel so strongly that this is what people believe, prove it.”

The court’s ruling to overturn Roe v. Wade was praised by abortion opponents as a decision that returned the question to the states. Former President Donald Trump, who named three of the justices who overturned Roe, has repeatedly claimed “the people” are now the ones deciding abortion access.

“The people are deciding,” he said during a recent interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity. “And in many ways, it’s a beautiful thing to watch.”

But that’s not true everywhere. In states allowing the citizen initiative and where abortion access has been on the ballot, voters have resoundingly affirmed the right to abortion.

Voters in seven states, including conservative ones such as Kentucky, Montana and Ohio, have either protected abortion rights or defeated attempts to curtail them in statewide votes over the past two years. Reproductive rights supporters are trying to put citizen initiatives on the ballot in several states this year.

But voters don’t have a direct say in about half the states.

This is particularly true for those living in the South. Republican-controlled legislatures, many of which have been heavily gerrymandered to give the GOP disproportionate power, have enacted some of the strictest abortion bans since the Supreme Court ruling while shunning efforts to expand direct democracy.

States began adopting the initiative process during the Progressive Era more than a century ago, giving citizens a way to make or repeal laws through a direct vote of the people. Between 1898 and 1918, nearly 20 states approved the citizen initiative. Since then, just five states have done so.

“It was a different time,” said John Matsusaka, professor of business and law at the University of Southern California. “There was a political movement across the whole country when people were trying to do what they saw as good government.”

Some lawmakers argue citizen initiatives bypass important checks and balances offered through the legislative process. In Tennessee, where Republicans have gerrymandered legislative districts to give them a supermajority in the statehouse, House Majority Leader William Lamberth likened ballot measures to polls rather than what he described as the legislature’s strict review of complicated policy-making.

“We evaluate bills every single year,” he said.

As in West Virginia, abortion-rights supporters or Democratic lawmakers have asked Republican-controlled legislatures in a handful of states to take the abortion question straight to voters, a tactic that hasn’t succeeded anywhere the GOP has a majority.

“This means you’re going to say, ‘Hey Legislature, would you like to give up some of your power? Would you like to give up your monopoly on policymaking?’” said Thad Kousser, professor of political science at the University of California, San Diego. “You need a political momentum and then have the process cooperate.”

In South Carolina, which bans nearly all abortions, a Democratic-backed resolution to put a state constitutional amendment on the ballot never got a hearing this year. Attempts to attach the proposal to other pieces of legislation were quickly shut down by Republicans.

“If you believe you are doing the right thing for all the people of South Carolina — men and women and babies — you should have no problem putting this to the people,” said Democratic Sen. Margie Bright Matthews, alleging that Republicans fear they would lose if the issue went directly to voters.

In Georgia, Democratic Rep. Shea Roberts said she frequently fields questions from her constituents asking how they can get involved in a citizen-led ballot measure. The interest exploded after voters in Kansas rejected an anti-abortion measure from the Legislature in 2022 and was rekindled last fall after Ohio voters overwhelmingly passed an amendment codifying abortion rights in the state’s constitution.

Yet when she has brought legislation to create a citizen initiative process in Georgia, the efforts have been ignored inside the Republican-controlled Legislature.

“Voters are constantly asking us why we can’t do this, and we’re constantly explaining that it’s not possible under our current constitution,” Roberts said. “If almost half of states have this process, why shouldn’t Georgians?”

The contrast is on stark display in two presidential swing states. Michigan voters used a citizen initiative to enshrine abortion rights in their state constitution in 2022. Voters in neighboring Wisconsin don’t have that ability.

Instead, Wisconsin Democrats, with a new liberal majority on the state Supreme Court, are working to overturn Republican-drawn legislative maps that are among the most gerrymandered in the country in the hope of eventually flipping the Legislature.

Analiese Eicher, director of communications at Planned Parenthood Advocates of Wisconsin, said a citizen-led ballot measure process would have been especially valuable for her cause.

“We should have legislators who represent their constituents,” she said. “And if they don’t, there should be another option.”

In West Virginia, Steve Williams acknowledges the petition he spearheaded didn’t change minds inside the Legislature.

But the Democratic mayor of Huntington, who is a longshot candidate for governor, said he thinks state Republicans have underestimated how strongly voters believe in restoring some kind of abortion access.

Republican leadership has pointed to a 2018 vote in which just under 52% of voters supported a constitutional amendment saying there is no right to abortion access in the state. But Williams said the vote also had to do with state funding of abortion, which someone could oppose without wanting access completely eliminated.

The vote was close, voter participation was low and it came before the Supreme Court’s decision that eliminated a nationwide right to abortion. Williams said West Virginia women weren’t facing the reality of a near-total ban.

“Let’s face it: Life in 2024 is a heck of a lot different for women than it was in 2018,” he said.

___

Associated Press writer Jeffrey Collins contributed to this report from Columbia, South Carolina. Kruesi reported from Nashville, Tennessee, and Fernando from Chicago.

___

The Associated Press receives support from several private foundations to enhance its explanatory coverage of elections and democracy. See more about AP’s democracy initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

With Netanyahu scheduled to address U.S. lawmakers on July 24 and his government now at war with Hamas in Gaza, the number of absences is likely to be far greater.

Congressional Democrats are wrestling with whether to attend. Many are torn between their long-standing support for Israel and their anguish about the way Israel has conducted military operations in Gaza. More than 37,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire since the Hamas attack on Oct. 7 that triggered the war, according to the Health Ministry in Hamas-run territory. The ministry does not differentiate between civilians and combatants in its figures.

While some Democrats are saying they will come out of respect for Israel, a larger and growing faction wants no part of it, creating an extraordinarily charged atmosphere at a gathering that normally amounts to a ceremonial, bipartisan show of support for an American ally.

“I wish that he would be a statesman and do what is right for Israel. We all love Israel,” former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said recently on CNN about Netanyahu. “We need to help them and not have him stand in the way of that for such a long time.”

She added, “I think it’s going to invite more of what we have seen in terms of discontent among our own.”

Tensions between Netanyahu and Democratic President Joe Biden have been seeping into the public, with Netanyahu last week accusing the Biden administration of withholding U.S. weapons from Israel — a claim he made again Sunday to his Cabinet. After the prime minister leveled the charge the first time, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said, “We genuinely do not know what he’s talking about. We just don’t.”

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The invitation from House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., to Netanyahu came after consultation with the White House, according to a person familiar with the matter who was granted anonymity to discuss the sensitive subject. As of now, no meeting between the leaders during Netanyahu’s Washington visit has been scheduled, this person said.

Netanyahu said in a release that he was “very moved” by the invitation to address Congress and the chance “to present the truth about our just war against those who seek to destroy us to the representatives of the American people and the entire world.”

Republicans first floated the idea in March of inviting Netanyahu after Sen. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, the highest-ranking Jewish official in the United States, gave a speech on the Senate floor that was harshly critical of the prime minister. Schumer, D-N.Y., called the Israeli leader “an obstacle to peace” and urged new elections in Israel, even as he denounced Hamas and criticized Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

Republicans denounced the speech as an affront to Israel and its sovereignty. Johnson spoke of asking Netanyahu to come to Washington, an invitation that Schumer and House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York ultimately endorsed, albeit reluctantly. Pelosi, who opposed the invitation to Netanyahu in 2015 when she was Democratic leader, said it was a mistake for the congressional leadership to extend it again this time.

Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, who attended the 2015 address as a House member, said he saw no reason why Congress “should extend a political lifeline” to Netanyahu.

Rep. Michael McCaul, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said it would be “healthy” for members of both parties to attend. “I think that a lot of Americans are getting a one-sided narrative, especially the younger generation, and I think it’s important they hear from the prime minister of Israel, in terms of his perspective,” said McCaul, R-Texas.

Interviews with more than a dozen Democrats revealed the breadth of discontent over the coming address, which many feel is a Republican ploy intended to divide their party. Some Democrats say they will attend to express their support for Israel, not Netanyahu.

New York Rep. Gregory Meeks, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said he has an “obligation” to attend because of that position.

“It should not have taken place,” he added. “But I can’t control that. And I have to do my job.”

Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., who leads the Sente Foreign Relations Committee, has signaled he will be there. Cardin said that what he’s looking for in Netanyahu’s speech is a “type of message that can strengthen the support in this country for Israel’s needs,” but also lay the groundwork for peace in the region.

Other Democrats are waiting to see whether Netanyahu will still be prime minister by the time he is supposed to speak to Congress.

There have been open signs of discontent over the handling of the war by Netanyahu’s government, a coalition that includes right-wing hard-liners who oppose any kind of settlement with Hamas.

Benny Gantz, a former military chief and centrist politician, withdrew from Netanyahu’s war Cabinet this month, citing frustration over the prime minister’s conduct of the war. On Monday, Netanyahu dissolved that body. Meantime, a growing number of critics and protesters in Israel have backed a cease-fire proposal that would bring home hostages taken by Hamas.

Rep. Seth Magaziner, D-R.I., said he stands with those “who hope that he’s not prime minister by the time late July rolls around. I think that he has been bad for Israel, bad for Palestinians, bad for America.” But, he added, he believes it his job to show up when a head of state addresses Congress, “even if its someone who I have concerns about and disagree with.”

Rep. Don Beyer, D-Va., attended the 2015 speech and described it as “among the most painful hours” he has spent while in Congress. He plans to boycott unless Netanyahu became a “champion for a cease-fire.”

A large portion of the Congressional Progressive Caucus — lawmakers who are among the most critical of Israel’s handling of the war — is expected to skip. Among them is Washington Rep. Pramila Jayapal, the chair of the caucus, who told The Associated Press that it was a “bad idea,” to invite Netanyahu.

“We should be putting pressure on him by withholding offensive military assistance so that he sticks to the deal that the president has laid out,” she said.

Netanyahu’s visit is expected to draw significant protests and some members of Congress are planning an alternative event.

Rep. Jim Clyburn said he is in the early stages of bringing “like-minded” people together to exchange ideas about a path forward for Israelis and Palestinians that includes a two-state solution. The senior Democrat from South Carolina was a vocal critic of Netanyahu’s 2015 address, which he and several prominent members of the Congressional Black Caucus viewed as an affront to Obama.

“I just think that, rather than just say, ‘I’m not going to go, I’m going to stay way,’ I am saying ‘I’m going to stay away with a purpose,’” he said. “I’m not going to listen to his foolishness. But here are some ideas that we have that might be a way forward.”

___ Associated Press writers Kevin Freking, Josh Boak, Mary Clare Jalonick and Stephen Groves contributed to this report.

Saudi Health Minister Fahd bin Abdurrahman Al-Jalajel said that 83% of the 1,301 fatalities were unauthorized pilgrims who walked long distances in soaring temperatures to perform the Hajj rituals in and around the holy city of Mecca.

Speaking to state-owned television, the minister said 95 pilgrims were being treated in hospitals, some of whom were airlifted for treatment in the capital, Riyadh. He said the identification process was delayed because there were no identification documents with many of the dead pilgrims.

The fatalities included more than 660 Egyptians. All but 31 of them were unauthorized pilgrims, according to two officials in Cairo. Egypt has revoked the licenses of 16 travel agencies that helped unauthorized pilgrims travel to Saudi Arabia, authorities said.

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief journalists, said most of the dead were reported at the Emergency Complex in Mecca’s Al-Muaisem neighborhood. An Egyptian diplomat said most of the dead have been buried in Saudi Arabia.

Egypt sent more than 50,000 authorized pilgrims to Saudi Arabia this year. The Egyptian government announced the death of 31 of those authorized pilgrims due to chronic diseases during the Hajj, which is required of every able Muslim once in their life.

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Saudi authorities cracked down on unauthorized pilgrims, expelling tens of thousands of people. But many, mostly Egyptians, managed to reach holy sites in and around Mecca, some on foot. Unlike authorized pilgrims, they had no hotels to escape from the scorching heat.

In its statement, the government said the 16 travel agencies failed to provide adequate services for pilgrims. It said these agencies illegally facilitated the travel of pilgrims to Saudi Arabia using visas that don’t allow holders to travel to Mecca.

The government also said officials from the companies have been referred to the public prosecutor for investigations.

According to the Egyptian state-owned Al-Ahram daily, some travel agencies and Hajj trip operators sold Saudi tourist visas to Egyptian Hajj hopefuls, violating Saudi regulations which require exclusive visas for pilgrims. Those agencies left pilgrims in limbo in Mecca and the holy sites in scorching heat, the newspaper said.

The fatalities also included 165 pilgrims from Indonesia, 98 from India and dozens more from Jordan, Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria and Malaysia, according to an Associated Press tally. Two U.S. pilgrims were also reported dead.

The AP could not independently confirm the causes of death, but some countries like Jordan and Tunisia blamed the soaring heat.

Associated Press journalists saw pilgrims fainting from the scorching heat during the Hajj, especially on the second and third days. Some vomited and collapsed.

Deaths are not uncommon at the Hajj, which has seen at times over 2 million people travel to Saudi Arabia for a five-day pilgrimage. The pilgrimage’s history has also seen deadly stampedes and epidemics.

But this year’s tally was unusually high, suggesting exceptional circumstances.

A 2015 stampede in Mina during the Hajj killed over 2,400 pilgrims, the deadliest incident ever to strike the pilgrimage, according to an AP count. Saudi Arabia has never acknowledged the full toll of the stampede. A separate crane collapse at Mecca’s Grand Mosque earlier the same year killed 111.

The second-deadliest incident at the Hajj was a 1990 stampede that killed 1,426 people.

During this year’s Hajj period, daily high temperatures ranged between 46 degrees Celsius (117 degrees Fahrenheit) and 49 degrees Celsius (120 degrees Fahrenheit) in Mecca and sacred sites in and around the city, according to the Saudi National Center for Meteorology. Some people fainted while trying to perform the symbolic stoning of the devil.

The Hajj, one of the five pillars of Islam, is one of the world’s largest religious gatherings. More than 1.83 million Muslims performed the Hajj in 2024, including more than 1.6 million from 22 countries, and around 222,000 Saudi citizens and residents, according to the Saudi Hajj authorities.

Saudi Arabia has spent billions of dollars on crowd control and safety measures for those attending the annual five-day pilgrimage, but the sheer number of participants makes ensuring their safety difficult.

Climate change could make the risk even greater. A 2019 study by experts at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology found that even if the world succeeds in mitigating the worst effects of climate change, the Hajj would be held in temperatures exceeding an “extreme danger threshold” from 2047 to 2052, and from 2079 to 2086.

Islam follows a lunar calendar, so the Hajj comes around 11 days earlier each year. By 2029, the Hajj will occur in April, and for several years after that it will fall in the winter, when temperatures are milder.

By the time the actual nuptials roll around, I’ve run a marathon of festivities — an engagement party, bridal shower, bachelorette party — many of which require a gift. On the day of the wedding, I feel like I’ve already paid a small fortune to celebrate my friend, so does the happy couple really need me to purchase them an air fryer?

Not including a gift, bridesmaids spend, on average, more than $1,600 being in a wedding, according to 2024 data from The Knot. Then, you’re supposed to shell out another $100. To me, this feels like robbery.

To see if I was being totally unreasonable, I talked to etiquette and financial experts. Here’s what they had to say.

Tori Dunlap, founder of Her First 100k

“Striking a balance between what you can afford and the general expectations for being in the bridal party is key.

If you’re already spending a considerable amount on these activities, it’s absolutely OK to scale back on the wedding gift. In fact, many couples understand the financial commitment that comes with being in the bridal party and don’t expect an extravagant gift on top of everything else.

My advice is to communicate openly with the couple. Let them know that you’re thrilled to be part of their special day and explain your situation honestly. Often, a simple conversation is all it takes. A heartfelt note, a small but meaningful gift, or even just your presence can be just as valuable.”

Allison Cullman, vice president of brand strategy at Zola

“It is customary for members of the wedding party to give a gift, but it doesn’t have to be of large monetary value. It is a gesture of love. 

Consider what options are available to you. Maybe the couple has a cash registry and you can donate a small amount. You could opt for something small from their wedding registry or you can also create a personalized token of your love.

You could offer to do something for the couple before or on their wedding day, like corralling all your friends for a photo. One of my bridesmaids did that for me and it was very much appreciated.

Anything that demonstrates that you are by someone’s side is more meaningful than a check.”

Jen Glantz, founder of Bridesmaids for Hire

“When you’re in a bridal party, before day one of the role you should set a budget and stick to it. That should include all the pre-wedding events and that budget shouldn’t be what anyone else tells you.

There is no expectation that you have to bring a gift. I think you feel pressure to do that but there is no expectation to do that. 

When it comes to why we give gifts, one reason is that we want to celebrate these people as they enter a new phase in their life.

You can write them a hand-written note. The purpose of going to a wedding and giving a gift is to celebrate.”

Hannah Nowack, senior editor at The Knot

“It’s customary for wedding party members to give the couple a gift. However, you ultimately need to decide on what to gift based on what fits your budget and how close you are to the couple.

Since you’ll be investing a lot of time and money into pre-wedding festivities it’s OK to use your best judgment about how much you feel comfortable gifting.

One great idea is to join up with some other bridesmaids to give a group gift. This is a nice option whether or not you’re on a tight budget. Maybe there is a big gift, like an espresso machine or a honeymoon couple’s massage, that you want to gift to the couple but know that doing so alone would be outside your budget.”

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There are areas in the U.S. that are considered to be the least difficult places to buy a home, according to a new real estate indicator.

When the counties are sorted by index rank, Iroquois County, Illinois is the least difficult market to buy a home, according to the NBC News Home Buyer Index. 

The following counties ranked as the least difficult areas when sorted by the four contributing factors:

1. Cost: Iroquois County, Illinois is the most cost-effective or affordable housing market among measured counties in the U.S.
2. Competition: Somervell County, Texas is the least competitive housing market of the counties measured in the U.S.
3. Scarcity: Imperial County, California is the least scarce housing market among measured areas.
4. Economic Instability: Macon County, Tennessee has the most stable local economy among measured areas.

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The index evaluates cost, competition, scarcity and economic instability.

Cost, the most heavily weighted element, measures how much a home costs relative to household incomes and inflation, as well as expenses like insurance costs, according to NBC News.

Competition looks into the level of demand in an area or how many buyers are on the market for a home.

Scarcity refers to an area’s supply of listed homes for sale and how many more are expected to enter the market in the coming month.

And finally, economic instability considers an area’s market volatility, unemployment levels and interest rates.

The NBC News Home Buyer Index was developed by NBC News alongside housing experts, such as a real estate industry analyst and a bank economist from the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.

On a scale from zero to 100, the index score represents the level of difficulty to buy a home in a U.S. county: The greater the value, the harder it is to buy a home in that area, according to NBC.

But, to compare counties with one another, it is important to consider the index rank as "ranks provide context to the scores," said Joe Murphy, a data editor at NBC News who co-created the index.

A low index rank — or closer to the value of 1,310, the number of counties measured in this month's report — suggests the county has better market conditions for potential buyers. In other words, a county with an index rank of number one "is the worst," Murphy said.

For most Americans, buying — and even maintaining — a home in the U.S. remains costly.

The median sales price of houses sold in the U.S. was $420,800 in the first quarter of 2024, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the U.S. Census Bureau via the Federal Reserve.

On top of the high cost, the 30-year fixed rate mortgage in the U.S. is still close to 7%. Borrowing costs are unlikely to significantly change as the Fed held rates steady at its June meeting.

However, if you plan or aspire to own a home, there are ways to prepare, experts say.

Here are three things to do

If you want to be a homeowner, but remain on the sidelines, "getting financially prepared is one of the most important things people can do" before buying a home, said Danielle Hale, chief economist at Realtor.com.

"Spend more time getting your finances in really good shape," said Jacob Channel, a senior economist at LendingTree. "It's very important, especially when you're making a six-figure purchase, to really take your time."

Here are three things to consider:

1. Boost your credit score: Take a moment to pay down debt and increase your credit score, said Channel.

Your credit score helps measure how creditworthy you are as a borrower, said Hale. You could potentially qualify for a home purchase with a minimum credit score of 500, depending on the lender, according to Experian. But having a higher score can help you achieve better terms on the mortgage, said Hale.

"Doing what you can to improve your credit score will raise your odds of getting a lower mortgage rate," Hale said.

2. Seek pre-approval from lenders: "It's worth it to start the process earlier rather than later so that there aren't as many surprises," said Hale, especially for buyers who've never bought a home before.

Rate lock policies will depend on the lender. In some cases, a lender will let you lock in a mortgage rate after they pre-approve you, Channel said.

But generally, a pre-approval is not enough to guarantee an interest rate, said Hale, "because you cannot lock in a mortgage rate until you have a full mortgage application."

"And you can't do a full mortgage application until you have a specific property that you want to buy," she said.

Once a buyer makes an offer on a property and officially kicks off the application process, it's possible the lender can lock in a mortgage rate if you ask, said Hale. Depending on the lender, the mortgage rate will be locked in for a period spanning from 30 to 60 days, which is "enough time for the closing process to happen," said Hale.

Ask your lender about what the rate-lock period is and ask what stage in the process the mortgage rate gets locked, said Hale. 

3. Intentionally budget and save: "The thing people should be doing is budgeting and saving," said Channel. The more time you give yourself to saving money for expenses like the down payment and closing costs, he said, "the better off you'll likely be."

When someone becomes a homeowner, "they're going to have a higher monthly payment than what they had before," said Hale. Therefore, while you prepare for homeownership, consider setting aside an extra payment, she suggested.

It would help build up savings for a down payment or an emergency fund, and "give an idea of how comfortable that housing payment" truly is, said Hale.

"It's better to be a renter who can afford your rental unit than it is to be a homeowner who can't afford your house," Channel said.

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Ancient baby names are the perfect choice for parents looking for a name unlikely to be repeated among their children’s future classmates. In other words, choose an ancient baby name if you want your baby to stand out.

Beautiful names like Persephone and Timon have stood the test of time, but these ancient baby names aren’t likely to be on the top 10 list of most popular baby names anytime soon. There’s even an “X” ancient baby name: Xerxes.

There are a few exceptions: Among ancient baby boy names, Sebastian is ranked number 13 on the list of most popular baby boy names. Alexander (number 22), Jason (147), Felix (192), Julius (400) and Damon (424) all cracked the top 500 most popular baby boy names. Among ancient baby girl names, you’ll find Mila (28), Valentina (49), Brianna (152), Aurelia (371) and Fiona (400) on the top 1,000 list.

If you want the most ancient of ancient baby names, consider Kushim. According to some historians, Kushim may be the oldest recording of a name. It was the name of an accountant and appears on tablets from ancient Persia as early as about 3400 B.C.E.

Here is a list of 155 ancient names and their origins and meanings.

Ancient baby names for boys:

• Aarav: Hindi, peaceful
• Alexander: from Greek, defending men
• Amadeus: from Latin, lover of God
• Amias: from French, loved
• Andreas: Greek version of Andrew, strong and manly
• Arit: Sanskrit, one worthy of praise
• Arram: Hebrew, high
• Atlas: from Greek, bearer of the heavens
• Atticus: Latin, from Attica
• Augustus: from Latin, great or magnificent
• Aurelius: from Latin, the golden one
• Balthasar: Baal, protect the king
• Bharat: from Sanskrit, universal monarch
• Bodhi: from Sanskrit, awakening or enlightenment
• Bruce: from Latin, a man from the brushwood
• Bruno: German, brown
• Caesar: from Latin, long-haired. Caesar was also the title given to rulers of the Roman empire.
• Caius: from Latin, rejoice
• Cassius: from Latin, hollow
• Castor: from Greek and Latin, beaver
• Cato: from Latin, all-knowing
• Caxton: Old Norse/Old English, lump settlement
• Corbett: French, young crow
• Cornelius: from Latin, horn
• Cosmo: from Greek, Italian, and English, order and beauty
• Cyrus: from Persian, sun
• Damon: English, to tame or subdue
• Decimus: from Latin, tenth
• Demetrius: from Greek, follower of Demeter, the Greek goddess of harvest
• Divit: from Sanskrit, heaven
• Engjell: Albanian, English and Slavic, angel
• Evander: Scottish, strong, or a good man
• Felix: from Latin, happy
• Flavius: from Latin, yellow or golden
• Ivo: German, yew wood or archer
• Hardik: from Sanskrit, heartfelt friendship
• Helios: from Greek mythology, the sun god
• Hiro: Japanese, large or widespread 
• Horatio: from Latin, hour or time
• Icarus: from Greek mythology, a character who flew too close to the sun
• Jason: from Greek, healer
• Jasper: from Persian, bringer of treasure
• Julius: from Greek, youthful
• Jupiter: from Latin, supreme
• Lazarus: Latinized from the Greek Eleazar, God is my helper
• Leander: from Greek, lion-man
• Loki: from Norse mythology, a trickster god
• Lucius: from Latin, light
• Magnus: from Latin, greatest
• Marcellus: from Latin, young warrior
• Marcus: from Latin, warlike
• Marius: from Latin, related to Mars, the god of war
• Maximus: from Latin, greatest
• Mercury: from Roman mythology, the messenger god
• Neptune: from Roman mythology, a variation of Neptunus, god of the sea
• Nero: from Latin, stern
• Obi: African, heart
• Octavius: from Latin, eighth  
• Odysseus: from Greek, hero of Homer’s epic saga
• Orion: from Greek mythology, a rising star
• Orpheus: from Greek, the darkness of night
• Osirus: Egyptian, with strong eyesight
• Otto: from German, wealthy
• Ozius: from Greek, salvation
• Quintus: from Latin, fifth
• Remus: from Latin, meaning unknown, one of the legendary wolf twins who, with brother Romulus, founded Rome
• Rhodes: from Greek, where roses grow
• Romulus: from Latin, a citizen of Rome, one of the legendary wolf twins who, with brother Remus, founded Rome
• Rufus: from Latin, red-haired
• Scorpius: Italian, a creature with a burning sting
• Sebastian: from Greek and Latin, a person from the ancient city of Sebastia
• Seneca: from Latin, people of the standing rock. Also, Seneca is the name of a Native American tribe.
• Septimus: from Latin, the seventh son
• Severus: from Latin, stern
• Shadrack or Shadrach: Babylonian, command of Aku
• Tarquin: Latin, Roman clan name
• Theon: from Greek, godly
• Thor: Norse, thunder
• Tiberius: Latin, from the Tiber
• Timon: from Greek, worthy or honorable
• Titus: from Latin, title of honor
• Urban: from Latin, of the city
• Wolfgang: German, traveling wolf
• Xerxes: Persian, a hero among heroes
• Zephyr: from Greek, west wind
• Zotikos: from Greek, full of life

Ancient baby names for girls:

• Abelia: from Hebrew, sigh or breath
• Aeliana: from Latin, sun
• Aine: Gaelic, pronounced AWN-yah, radiance. Aine is the name of a legendary Irish fairy queen.
• Anahita: Persian, river, and water goddess
• Aphra: from Hebrew, dust
• Aquilla: from Latin, eagle
• Arya: Sanskrit, noble, air, song
• Asha: from Sanskrit or Swahili, hope or life
• Atarah: from Hebrew, crown
• Athalia: from Hebrew, the Lord is exalted
• Aurelia: from Latin, golden one
• Avalon: Welsh, apple
• Basilia: from Greek, basil
• Boudicca: Ancient Irish, victory
• Brianna: Celtic, one who is honorable and noble
• Bronwen: Welsh, blessed and pure of heart
• Calliope: from Greek mythology, beautiful voice
• Candida: from Latin, white
• Cassia: from Latin, feminine form of Cassius, or from Greek, cinnamon
• Cerridwen: Welsh, poetry
• Chrysanthe: from Greek, golden flower
• Columba: from Latin, dove
• Cyra: Persian or Greek, sun or throne
• Damaris: from Greek, dominant woman
• Deidre: Gaelic, a young girl
• Delicia: from Latin, delight
• Dominica: Italian, belonging to the Lord
• Drusilla: from Latin, fruitful
• Elishah: from Hebrew, salvation of God
• Faustina: from Latin, fortunate one
• Felicia: from Latin, lucky 
• Fiona: Gaelic, white or fair
• Flavia: from Latin, golden or blonde
• Florentina: from Latin, blooming
• Gaia: from Greek, earth mother
• Hadassah: from Hebrew, myrtle tree
• Hilaria: from Latin, cheerful
• Honoria: from Latin, a woman of honor
• Isolde: Welsh, ice ruler. In Arthurian legend, Isolde was the name of a queen of Ireland.
• Itzel: Mayan, rainbow lady
• Juno: from Latin, queen of the heavens
• Junia: from Latin, born in June
• Justina: from Greek, fair or just
• Kamala: Hindi or Hawaiian, lotus or a garden. Kamala is also a name for the Hindu goddess Lakshmi.
• Khrystyna: with Greek and Russian origins, follower of Christ
• Laurentina: from Latin, laurel tree
• Liene: from Greek and Latvian roots, bright and beautiful
• Lipa: from Greek, a friend of horses
• Livia: from Latin, blue or envious
• Lucia: from Latin and Italian, light
• Lucretia: from Latin, profit or wealth
• Mahala: from Hebrew and Aramaic, tender
• Marilla: from Latin, shining sea
• Mila: Russian, gracious or dear
• Minerva: from Latin, of the mind or intellect
• Niamh: from Irish mythology and pronounced NEEV, beauty, and brightness
• Octavia: from Latin, eighth
• Parisa: Persian, like a fairy
• Perpetua: from Latin, perpetual
• Persephone: from Greek mythology, daughter of Zeus by Demeter, queen of the harvest
• Persis: from Greek, Persian woman
• Rhiannon: Celtic, great queen.
• Silvia: from Latin, of the woods 
• Tanaquil: from Etruscan, gift of God
• Tulsi: Hindi, basil
• Valentina: from Latin, strength or health
• Valeria: from Latin, strength or health
• Vita: from Latin, life
• Viviana: from Latin, life

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The FBI on Saturday offered up to $10,000 for information in connection with the South Fork Fire and Salt Fire in southern New Mexico, which forced thousands to flee.

An agency statement said it was seeking public assistance in “identifying the cause” of the fires near Ruidoso, New Mexico, that were discovered June 17. But the notice also pointedly suggested human hands were to blame, saying the reward was for information leading to arrest and conviction of “the person or persons responsible for starting the fires.”

The South Fork Fire, which reached 26 square miles (67 square kilometers), was 26% contained on Saturday, while the Salt Fire, at 12 square miles (31 square kilometers), was 7% contained as of Saturday morning, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. Full containment was not expected until July 15.

Recent rains and cooler weather have assisted more than 1,000 firefighters working to contain the fires. Fire crews on Saturday took advantage of temperatures in the 70s Fahrenheit (21 to 26 Celsius), scattered showers and light winds to use bulldozers to dig protective lines while hand crews used shovels in more rugged terrain to battle the fires near the mountain village of Ruidoso.

Elsewhere in New Mexico, heavy rain and flash flood warnings prompted officials to order some mandatory evacuations Friday in the city of Las Vegas, New Mexico, and communities near Albuquerque, about 200 miles (320 kilometers) north of Ruidoso. Las Vegas set up shelters for displaced residents, and some evacuation orders remained in place there on Saturday.

Flash flood warnings were canceled Saturday, though the National Weather Service said afternoon storms could produce excessive runoff and more flooding in the area.

The wildfires have destroyed or damaged an estimated 1,400 structures. Other fallout from the fires, including downed power lines, damaged water, sewer and gas lines, flooding in burn scars, continued “to pose risks to firefighters and the public,” according to a Saturday update from the New Mexico Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department.

Evacuations in areas near Ruidoso and road closures were still in effect. In Ruidoso, full-time residents will be allowed to return Monday, though everyday life won’t return to normal.

“You’re going to need to bring a week’s worth of food, you’re going to need to bring drinking water,” Mayor Lynn Crawford said on Facebook.

President Joe Biden issued a disaster declaration for parts of southern New Mexico on Thursday, freeing up funding and more resources to help with recovery efforts including temporary housing, low-cost loans to cover uninsured property and other emergency work in Lincoln County and on lands belonging to the Mescalero Apache Tribe.

Deanne Criswell, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, met with Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, Crawford and Mescalero Apache President Thora Walsh Padilla on Saturday. “These communities have our support for as long as it takes to recover,” Criswell posted on the social media platform X.

Much of the Southwest has been exceedingly dry and hot in recent months. Those conditions, along with strong wind, whipped the flames out of control, rapidly advancing the South Fork Fire into Ruidoso in a matter of hours. Evacuations extended to hundreds of homes, businesses, a regional medical center and the Ruidoso Downs horse track.

Nationwide, wildfires have scorched more than 3,344 square miles (8,660 square kilometers) this year, a figure higher than the 10-year average, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.

A shortage of Zyn, a smokeless nicotine pouch that users tuck into their lips to get a buzz, has fueled a wave of social media outcry in recent weeks, amplified by a legal challenge that forced its parent company to halt online sales earlier this week.

Zyn has been around since 2014, but sales took off in the past year amid a wave of online creators (“Zynfluencers”) expressing their loyalty to the product alongside mentions from popular podcasters like Joe Rogan and the Nelk Boys.

The increased attention has helped fuel a sales boom: In April, Philip Morris, which acquired Zyn maker Swedish Match for $16 billion in 2022, reported shipments had soared 80% year over year to reach 131.6 million cans. Today, Zyn accounts for approximately 3 of every 4 purchases of oral smoke-free products, according to Tobacco Reporter, an industry publication.

In a statement, a Philip Morris spokesperson acknowledged that there was a “short-term inventory constraint” on Zyn that was “demand driven.”

“An increasing number of adult smokers are choosing Zyn as a better alternative than continued smoking,” the spokesperson said. “No regulatory or production issues have affected distribution.”

Online and in interviews with NBC News, Zyn users have voiced frustration with getting their hands on Zyn products.

“I’ve just kind of moved to another brand while they figure out the shortage problem, which isn’t ideal, but you know, it is the only thing you can do at this point,” said James Perkins, the CEO of a software startup and a Zyn user.

On TikTok, content creator Hayden Iverson called the shortage a “Zyndemic,” saying he would be rationing his Zyn cans. At the end of May, he said, he went to four different stores near his home in Boca Raton, Florida, but wasn’t able to find any of his preferred tins.

“They’ve always been easy to find, but now they’re a little bit harder to find,” he said in a phone interview.

Iverson’s video drew thousands of likes and hundreds of comments, many from people who said they’ve also encountered difficulty finding the product.

Some online Zyn fans have speculated about whether a March fire at a Swedish Match factory may have affected supply. At the time, a representative for the company reportedly told Swedish outlet Aftonbladet that there was not a risk of a shortage.

The Philip Morris spokesperson said Swedish Match, which directly manufactures Zyn, is currently making investments to expand and diversify U.S. production, including adding capacity at its Owensboro, Kentucky, facility.

The factory is also making process adjustments to increase production to help ensure consistent supply, which the spokesperson said would improve continuously over the next year.

And Philip Morris said it is working on constructing a new U.S. factory for Zyn production in 2025.

But users may still be waiting for some time before they feel improvements in availability. Earlier this month, Philip Morris CFO Emmanuel Babeau said supplies wouldn’t “be back to a normal situation” until the end of this year, according to Bloomberg News.

And while the company has said the vast majority of sales occur in stores, the recent announcement that it was halting shipments from the Zyn.com website in response to a subpoena from the District of Columbia has fueled further fears about how supplies could be affected.

Even as he awaits a resupply, Perkins said he remains loyal to the brand.

“Other brands are just very much trying to almost copy [Zyn] and hope for the best,” Perkins said. “A lot of them just don’t do a good job. The flavor is so intense that it’s just not pleasant in your mouth or the nicotine pouch itself is just poor quality.”

This story first appeared on NBCNews.com. More from NBC News:

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The person died Saturday evening, Arkansas state police said in a statement, listing a total of 14 people as hit by gunfire: “11 civilians, two law enforcement officers and the suspect.”

The dead were identified as Shirley Taylor, 62, Callie Weems, 23, Roy Sturgis, 50, and Ellen Shrum, 81 — “all civilians,” according to the statement.

The wounded range in age between 20 and 65, police said. Four were still hospitalized, including a woman who was in critical condition.

The wounded agents were identified as Fordyce Police Officer James Johnson, 31, who was released from a hospital Saturday evening, and Stuttgart Police Officer John Hudson, 24, whose injuries were said to be minor.

Police said the suspect is Travis Eugene Posey, 44, of New Edinburg, and he will be charged with four counts of capital murder.

“He was treated for non-life-threatening injuries after exchanging gunfire with law enforcement” and was then released to police custody and taken to the Ouachita County Detention Center, police said in the statement.

Police have not released a motive. A media briefing to update about the shooting was announced for 2 p.m. Sunday.

The shooting took place around 11:30 a.m. Friday at the Mad Butcher grocery store in Fordyce, a city of about 3,200 people located 65 miles (104 kilometers) south of Little Rock.

Roderick Rogers, a member of the city council, said he called the sheriff when employees at his restaurant nearby notified him of the shooting. When he got there, he saw people running for cover in every direction, even one running to the hospital nearby.

“People were just jumping into cars to get to safety,” Rogers said Friday.

Video posted on social media showed at least one person lying in the parking lot, while another captured multiple gunshots ringing out.

Images from reporters on the scene showed a slew of bullet holes in the store’s window, and spent shell casings strewn throughout the parking lot. In video images, local and state agencies could be seen responding with at least one medical helicopter landing nearby.

It was the latest mass shooting with a grocery store as its backdrop. In 2022 a white supremacist killed 10 Black people at a Buffalo supermarket. That came a little more than a year after 10 people were fatally shot at supermarket in Boulder, Colorado.

The award by a King County jury found that the city of Seattle and the owners of an apartment building are responsible for the amount, the Seattle Times reported.

Lesley Mettler Auld, 53, said in a news release issued by her attorneys on Friday that she will never run again and struggles to walk after the fall on a sidewalk in Seattle’s Queen Anne neighborhood.

“Today, fully 34 months since the fall, I still have to pull myself up the stairs in my house on my hands and knees,” she said.

The professional fitness coach has completed numerous ultramarathons, which are races longer than the standard marathon distance of 26.2 miles (42.2 kilometers), her lawyers said.

She fell on a stretch of sidewalk “perennially covered in water and algae,” according to her lawsuit. Other residents testified in court they had also fallen there.

Mettler Auld severely damaged her quadriceps and required multiple surgeries.

A spokesperson for the Seattle city attorney’s office declined to comment.

Trump also endorsed displaying the Ten Commandments in schools and elsewhere while speaking to a group of politically influential evangelical Christians in Washington on Saturday. He drew cheers as he invoked a new law signed in Louisiana this week requiring the Ten Commandments to be displayed in every public school classroom.

“Has anyone read the ‘Thou shalt not steal’? I mean, has anybody read this incredible stuff? It’s just incredible,” Trump said at the gathering of the Faith & Freedom Coalition. “They don’t want it to go up. It’s a crazy world.’’

Trump a day earlier posted an endorsement of the new law on his social media network, saying: “I LOVE THE TEN COMMANDMENTS IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS, PRIVATE SCHOOLS, AND MANY OTHER PLACES, FOR THAT MATTER. READ IT — HOW CAN WE, AS A NATION, GO WRONG???”

The former president and presumptive Republican presidential nominee backed the move as he seeks to galvanize his supporters on the religious right, which has fiercely backed him after initially being suspicious of the twice-divorced New York City tabloid celebrity when he first ran for president in 2016.

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That support has continued despite his conviction in the first of four criminal cases he faces, in which a jury last month found him guilty of falsifying business records for what prosecutors said was an attempt to cover up a hush money payment to porn actor Stormy Daniels just before the 2016 election. Daniels claims she had a sexual encounter with Trump a decade earlier, which he denies.

Trump’s stated opposition to signing a nationwide ban on abortion and his reluctance to detail some of his views on the issue are at odds with many members of the evangelical movement, a key part of Trump’s base that’s expected to help him turn out voters in his November rematch with Democratic President Joe Biden.

But while many members of the movement would like to see him do more to restrict abortion, they cheer him as the greatest champion for the cause because of his role in appointing U.S. Supreme Court justices who overturned national abortion rights in 2022.

Trump highlighted that Saturday, saying, “We did something that was amazing,” but the issue would be left to people to decide in the states.

“Every voter has to go with your heart and do what’s right, but we also have to get elected,” he said.

While he still takes credit for the reversal of Roe v. Wade, Trump has also warned abortion can be tricky politically for Republicans. For months, he deferred questions about his position on a national ban.

Last year, when Trump addressed the Faith & Freedom Coalition, he said there was “a vital role for the federal government in protecting unborn life” but didn’t offer any details beyond that.

In April of this year, Trump said he believed the issue should now be left to the states. He later stated in an interview that he would not sign a nationwide ban on abortion if it was passed by Congress. He has still declined to detail his position on women’s access to the abortion pill mifepristone.

About two-thirds of Americans say abortion should generally be legal, according to polling last year by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

Attendees at the evangelical gathering on Saturday said that while they’d like to see a national abortion ban, Trump isn’t losing any of their deep support.

“I would prefer if he would sign a national ban,” said Jerri Dickinson, a 78-year-old retired social worker and Faith & Freedom member from New Jersey. “I understand though, that as in accordance with the Constitution, that decision should be left up to the states.”

Dickinson said she can’t stand the abortion law in her state, which does not set limits on the procedure based on gestational age. But she said outside of preferring a national ban, leaving the issue to the state “is the best alternative.”

According to AP VoteCast, a wide-ranging survey of the electorate, about 8 in 10 white evangelical Christian voters supported Trump in 2020, and nearly 4 in 10 Trump voters identified as white evangelical Christians. White evangelical Christians made up about 20% of the overall electorate that year.

Beyond just offering their own support in the general election, the Faith & Freedom Coalition plans to help get out the vote for Trump and other Republicans, aiming to use volunteers and paid workers to knock on millions of doors in battleground states.

Trump is also rallying voters in Philadelphia, where supporters were gathering to hear him speak at an arena.

Tyler Cecconi, 25, of Richmond, Virginia, said he’s glad that Trump is stepping out of his comfort zone and going to places that may not be red. At the venue, organizers hung a banner that read “Philadelphia is Trump Country.”

“He’s showing the people that regardless if you vote for him or not, or if it’s a blue county or a red county, it doesn’t matter to him,” Cecconi said. “A president is for everybody in this country.”

The GOP Senate candidate of Pennsylvania, Dave McCormick, attended the rally and appeared on stage to talk to voters about the economy and immigration.

“This economy is not working for most Pennsylvanians and it’s not working for most Americans,” McCormick said.

Earlier in Washington, Trump returned several times during his roughly 90-minute remarks to the subject of the U.S. Mexico border and at one point, when describing migrants crossing it as “tough,” he joked that he told his friend Dana White, the president of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, to enlist them in a new version of the sport.

“‘Why don’t you set up a migrant league and have your regular league of fighters. And then you have the champion of your league, these are the greatest fighters in the world, fighting the champion of the migrants,’” Trump described saying to White. “I think the migrant guy might win, that’s how tough they are. He didn’t like that idea too much.”

His story drew laughs and claps from the crowd.

Biden’s campaign responded to Trump’s remarks by saying it was “fitting” that Trump, convicted of a felony, spent time at a religious conference making threats about immigration and “bragging about ripping away Americans’ freedoms.”

“Trump’s incoherent, unhinged tirade showed voters in his own words that he is a threat to our freedoms and is too dangerous to be let anywhere near the White House again,” campaign spokesperson Sarafina Chitika said in a statement.

___

Alexander reported from Philadelphia. Associated Press writers Tom Strong and Amelia Thomson DeVeaux contributed to this report.

The Bay County Sheriff’s Office identified the three men on Saturday as 24-year-old Harold Denzel Hunter, 25-year-old Jemonda Ray and 24-year-old Marius Richardson from Birmingham, Alabama.

The three arrived with friends in Bay County on Friday evening and “checked into their rental and rushed out to get into the water,” Sheriff Tommy Ford said. The men were caught in a rip current around 8 p.m.

Ford said his office received a call reporting three distressed swimmers on Friday night and his office responded with the U.S. Coast Guard, Bay County Emergency Services and other agencies to locate them.

First responders attempted their search and rescue for more than two hours, Ford said. Once the men had been pulled out of the Gulf of Mexico, they received medical care. On Saturday, Ford announced that all three men had died at local hospitals.

“I have such a heavy heart this morning about the loss of three young visitors to our community,” Ford said in a statement. “I witnessed so many people, including visitors to our community, come together last night on the beach to desperately search for them.”

After the individuals were located, the U.S. Coast Guard’s Panama City station urged locals and visitors to exercise caution in the Gulf waters, as “rip currents pop up unexpectedly and can happen on even the nicest days.”

As of Saturday morning, the National Weather Service’s rip current risk forecast for Florida’s Gulf beaches remained high, citing “life-threatening rip currents” and a 2-foot surf that is “dangerous for all levels of swimmers.”

The incident comes at a time of heightened awareness around beach safety. A Pennsylvania couple drowned at Stuart Beach on Florida’s Hutchinson Island on Thursday after getting caught in a rip current, and two teenagers went missing at Jacob Riis Park in Queens, New York, on Friday after a large wave overtook them.

The U.S. Coast Guard announced Saturday that it suspended its operation looking for the missing teens after searching more than 600 square miles off of New Jersey and New York.

“The decision to suspend a search is always difficult and weighs heavily on all involved,” said Jonathan Andrechik, commander of the Coast Guard’s New York sector. “Our crews, along with our partner agencies, have conducted an exhaustive search.”

As of June 9, the National Weather Service has counted at least 11 fatalities as a result of rip currents.

Madison Lambert contributed.

This article first appeared on NBCNews.com. Read more from NBC News here:

• A deadly tornado and a rare feat for storm chasers
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Fadel Naem, director of the al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City, told The Associated Press that more than three dozen bodies arrived at the hospital. The Palestinian Civil Defense, an emergency group active in Gaza, said its emergency workers were digging for survivors at the site of a strike in the Shati refugee camp west of Gaza City and that it had pulled several dozen bodies from a building hit by an Israeli strike in an eastern neighborhood of Gaza City.

Israel said Saturday that its fighter jets struck two Hamas military sites in the Gaza City area but did not elaborate further.

The deaths come a day after at least 25 people were killed in strikes on tent camps and 50 wounded near the southern city of Rafah.

Israel said Saturday that it was continuing to operate in central and southern Gaza and has pushed ahead with its invasion of Rafah, where over a million Palestinians had sought refuge from fighting elsewhere.

Most have now fled the city, but the United Nations says no place in Gaza is safe and humanitarian conditions are dire as families shelter in tents and cramped apartments without adequate food, water or medical supplies.

news Jun 20

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Israel-Hamas War Jun 10

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news Jun 10

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A separate Israeli strike Saturday in Lebanon’s eastern Bekaa Valley killed a member of the military wing of al-Jamaa al-Islamiya, or the Islamic Group, a Sunni Muslim faction closely allied with Hamas, according to the group. The member was the seventh killed by Israeli strikes in Lebanon since the war began.

The Israel-Hamas war erupted on Oct. 7. when Hamas militants who stormed southern Israel killed about 1,200 people and took some 250 others hostage. Israel has responded by bombarding and invading the enclave, killing more than 37, 400 Palestinians there according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians in its count.

Also Saturday, Israel’s army said an Israeli man was fatally shot in the northern West Bank town of Qalqilya, where Israeli forces fatally shot two militants Friday, the latest flare of violence in the territory since the Israel-Hamas war erupted.

At least 549 Palestinians in the territory have been killed by Israeli fire since the war began, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry, which tracks the killings. Over the same period, Palestinians in the West Bank have killed at least nine Israelis, including five soldiers, according to U.N. data.

Israeli nationals are prohibited from entering Qalqilya and other areas of the West Bank that fall under the under the control of the Palestinian Authority.

In April, the death of a 14-year-old Israeli settler sparked a series of settler attacks on Palestinian towns in the territory. The army said a Palestinian was later arrested in connection with the killing.

On Saturday, the Palestinian Health Ministry said a 12-year-old Palestinian boy died from his wounds after being shot by Israeli forces in Ramallah last week. Commenting on the shooting, the Israeli army said its forces raided al-Amari refugee camp near Ramallah to arrest a suspect Friday and then opened fire on a group of Palestinians who were pelting them with stones.

Israel said Saturday that it was investigating a separate incident into conduct of its soldiers after a video surfaced online showing an injured Palestinian being transported on the hood of an Israeli armored car in the northern West Bank. The army said the man in the video was a wanted suspect and injured during an exchange of fire between Palestinian militants and Israeli forces near the city of Jenin. The man was being transported to a Red Crescent ambulance situated nearby, it said. The army said the conduct in the video didn’t “conform to the values” of the army.

Anger across the country is growing at the government’s handling of the war in Gaza and the hostage crisis.

On Saturday, tens of thousands of people demonstrated in Tel Aviv calling for new elections and for the government to bring the hostages home. Among the families were the parents of Naama Levy, an Israeli soldier who marked her 20th birthday in captivity.

___

Jeffery reported from Ramallah and Associated Press writers Bassem Mroue in Beirut and Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv contributed to this report.

Callie Weems, who worked at Dallas County Medical Center, was grocery shopping at Mad Butcher in Fordyce when she was shot, NBC affiliate KARK-TV of Little Rock reported.

Her mother, Helen Browning, told the news station that after she heard about the shooting she checked her daughter’s location and it showed that Weems was at the medical center. Browning’s initial thought was that her daughter had gone to work.

“I’m thinking, ‘She’s at work. She came in to help,’” she said.

When Browning got to the grocery store, she was told what happened.

“My best friend was standing right there and I said, ‘Kristie, tell me my baby’s OK.’ And she said, ‘I can’t,’” Browning told KARK-TV. “And that’s when I just broke.”

Browning has now been left grappling with how she is going to raise her granddaughter, Ivy, who she said was Weems’ “saving grace.”

“And now she gets to be mine too,” Browning said.

A motive in the Friday-morning shooting, which appears to have begun in the parking lot, remains unclear. Law enforcement officials briefed on the shooting told NBC News on Saturday that there are no indications of any sort of extremism as a possible motive.

Travis Eugene Posey, 44, of New Edinburg, a community about 11 miles east of Fordyce, was arrested in connection with the shooting and booked at the Ouachita County Detention Center. He was treated earlier Friday for non-life-threatening injuries after exchanging gunfire with officers.

Posey will be charged with three counts of capital murder with additional charges pending, the Arkansas Department of Public Safety said in a news release.

Video that was verified by NBC News but does not reveal what transpired beforehand shows a man in a parking lot firing a long gun. Some rounds appeared to be directed at vehicles.

Eleven people were shot, including the three who died. The identities of the other two victims killed have not been released. Two officers were also injured with non-life-threatening injuries.

Sisters Amiya and Ashiya Doherty were in the back of the family SUV when shots rang out.

“He shot at my mother’s car and hit the tire and pssshshsh,” Amiya said, mimicking the sound of air escaping.

Ashiya, who was also unharmed, said “it was like a movie.”

Amiya said she grabbed her sister and pulled her down to avoid being hit as the windows of nearby cars shattered. Their SUV only suffered tire damage.

Matt Gill, a meat cutter, was in the back of the store when he heard gunfire and shattering glass.

“He came in and started shooting,” he said. “We made it out the back door. I had to get out there, I have a wife and kids at home.”

Roderick Rogers, a Fordyce native and pastor at Grace United Church, recalled seeing “people just lying in the parking lot.”

“There were shots going on everywhere,” he said.

The grocery store said in a statement Saturday that it was “shocked and deeply saddened over the senseless act of violence.”

“Our hearts go out to the victims, their families, and all those affected,” the store posted on Facebook. “We’re truly grateful to our local law enforcement and first responders who arrived on the scene to secure the area and apprehend the suspect. Their swift and courageous actions helped prevent further harm. We can’t thank them enough for their dedication and service.”

The store will remain closed as the investigation continues, Mad Butcher said. Employees will continue to be paid.

Fordyce is a small town about 70 miles south of Little Rock. The attack follows a mass shooting in Oakland, California, where 15 people were wounded during Juneteenth events on Wednesday. That same day, seven people were injured after a shooting in Philadelphia, officials said.

This story first appeared on NBCNews.com. More from NBC News:

• Husband of bride killed in alleged DUI crash on wedding night to receive nearly $1M in settlement
• At least 39 people killed in Israeli strikes across northern Gaza, officials say
• Palestinians reel from repeated strikes on ‘humanitarian zones’

Tom Winter, Jonathan Dienst, David K. Li and Dennis Romero contributed.

Sirens blared at 2 a.m. in Rock Valley, Iowa, population 4,200, where people in hundreds of homes were told to get out as the Rock River could no longer take rain that has slammed the region. The city lacked running water because wells were unusable.

“We’ve got National Guard helicopters coming in where people are on their roofs — literally on their roofs or the second floor because their first floor is completely flooded,” Mayor Kevin Van Otterloo said.

“We’ve had so much rain here,” he said. “We had four inches last night in an hour and a half time. Our ground just cannot take anymore.”

Gov. Kim Reynolds declared a disaster for Sioux County, which includes Rock Valley. Drone video posted by the local sheriff showed no streets, just roofs and the tops of trees above water.

Elsewhere in the U.S., the miserable grip of heat and humidity continued. The National Weather Service said roughly 15 million people were under a heat warning — the highest warning — while another 90 million were under a heat advisory. Millions of residents across the country have had their lives disrupted by days of unusually high temperatures.

The U.S. last year experienced the most heat waves since 1936, experts said. An Associated Press analysis of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data found that the excessive heat contributed to more than 2,300 U.S. deaths, the highest number in 45 years of records.

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Temperatures around 100 degrees Fahrenheit (37.8 degrees Celsius) were predicted for Washington, D.C., and Richmond, Virginia — while Philadelphia; Newark, New Jersey; Columbus, Ohio; and Detroit were bracing for the high 90s.

Heat-related hospital visits in New York state were 500% higher than the average June day, according to the Department of Health.

“We still have this prolonged heat wave across portions of the Ohio Valley and into the Northeast,” weather service meteorologist Marc Chenard said. “We get a little bit of relief by early in the week, at least in the eastern U.S., the Northeast, but in general above-normal temperatures are going to cover a large portion of the country even into next week.”

In southeastern Michigan, DTE Energy said 8,300 customers still lacked power Saturday morning from storm-related outages, compared to 75,000 homes and businesses earlier in the week.

Flooding from rain was South Dakota’s problem. Several highways were closed, including a key stretch of Interstate 29, south of Sioux Falls, where there were no alternate routes. Sioux Falls, the state’s largest city, had more than 7 inches (17.7 centimeters) of rain in three days.

Spencer, Iowa, said flooding forced it to shut off power at the wastewater treatment plant, cutting off sewer service in the city of 11,300 people.

In New Mexico, heavy rain and flash flood warnings prompted officials to order some mandatory evacuations, with shelters set up for displaced residents.

The National Weather Service office announced a flash flood emergency on Friday night through early Saturday. The impacted areas included the city of Las Vegas, New Mexico and communities near Albuquerque.

In Ruidoso, a mountain village in New Mexico, full-time residents will be allowed to return Monday after they were forced out by wildfires, though everyday life won’t return to normal.

“You’re going to need to bring a week’s worth of food, you’re going to need to bring drinking water,” Mayor Lynn Crawford said on Facebook.

___

AP reporters John Hanna in Topeka, Kansas, Julie Walker in New York City, and Ken Miller in Oklahoma City contributed to this story.

The Post and Courier reported that Aric Hutchinson will receive about $863,300 from Folly Beach bars The Drop In Bar & Deli, the Crab Shack and Snapper Jacks; Progressive auto insurance; and Enterprise Rent-A-Car, according to a settlement approved earlier this week by Charleston County Circuit Court Judge Roger Young.

Hutchinson sued the businesses after driver Jamie Lee Komoroski crashed a rented vehicle into a golf cart carrying him and his new bride, 34-year-old Samantha Miller, away from their wedding reception on April 28, 2023.

South Carolina Aug 2, 2023

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The golf cart was thrown 100 yards (91.44 meters). Miller died at the scene, still wearing her wedding dress. Hutchinson survived with a brain injury and multiple broken bones. Komoroski was driving 65 mph on a 25 mph road, the newspaper reported.

Hutchinson charged in the wrongful death lawsuit that Komoroski “slurred and staggered” across several bars around Folly Beach before speeding in her Toyota Camry with a blood-alcohol concentration more than three times the legal limit.

The settlements amount to $1.3 million but will total less than that after attorney and legal fees are paid.

Komoroski is out on bond as her case makes its way through the court system. In September, she was charged with felony driving under the influence resulting in death, reckless homicide and two counts of felony driving under the influence resulting in great bodily injury.

CNBC Make It has talked to plenty of real people who show you can make more than just a couple extra bucks here and there — their side hustles typically bring in more then $100,000 per year.

“I’ve been doing [my side hustle] for about three and a half years now, and I wouldn’t do anything else,” Sophie Riegel, a part-time online clothing reseller, told Make It. “I love it so much. It makes me so happy.”

Here are four ways you can start earning this summer and maybe even have some fun while you’re at it.

1. Resell clothing

Spring cleaning doesn’t have to stop when summer begins. In fact, you might be able to turn selling unwanted things into a sustainable year-long side hustle.

Riegel started selling old clothing items in her childhood bedroom as a bored Duke freshman during the pandemic in 2020. After she made around $200 selling some of her own unused stuff, she was hooked.

She began combing through thrift stores for items she could buy on the cheap and resell at a profit. In 2023, she earned $123,800 selling clothes on online marketplaces like eBay, Poshmark and Mercari.

Riegel’s main job includes work as a professional writer, mental health coach and speaker. She told Make It that she spends around 25 hours a week on her side hustle.

Much of Riegel’s success comes down to her research on everything from item value to restocking schedules at local stores.

“Technically, the thrifting takes the most time,” Riegel told CNBC Make It. “But it doesn’t feel like work to me.”

2. Rent your pool

Jim Battan spent $110,000 building a pool at his home in West Linn, Oregon back in 2012. Ten years later, the pool “has paid for itself and more,” Battan told Make it in 2022.

By renting his pool by the hour on an app called Swimply, Battan made $177,000 in less than two years.

Not everything goes swimmingly, Battan warned. He had to learn a lot about pool chemistry and management, and estimated checking the pool’s chemicals 5 to ten times a day. It’s a time-consuming side hustle, he said, but folks can do it if they put in that extra effort.

“I think of my pool as an investment and I take it really seriously,” Battan said. “But there are all kinds of hosts out there that I see posting on the Facebook group that say, ‘Hey, I put a bunch of chlorine in. Is that good enough?’ And I think to myself, ‘That’s just the beginning of it.'”

3. Showcase your career through content creation

By day, Kelly Gordon is a superyacht captain. Also, by day, she spends about five hours a week creating social media content, a side hustle she told Make It brings in $10,300 a month.

Gordon stumbled into yachting after attending a wedding reception on a boat in 2007. She told Make It she “didn’t even know port from starboard,” but returned to the yacht the next day and asked the captain everything there was to know about the profession.

Now Gordon shares the ins and outs of yachting with viewers on Instagram. She brought in $124,000 in revenue in 2023 through sponsorships, merchandise sales, ads and affiliate marketing and public speaking engagements.

Even though she’s found success creating content, Gordon isn’t leaving her day job. Her side hustle works because she’s still yachting.

“I’m not done running boats anytime soon,” Gordon said.

4. Rent out your car

As summer travel picks up, people road tripping across the United States often look to rent cars. Andrei Echeverria’s side hustle offers an alternative to traditional car rental services. He rents out his six cars through an app called Turo, which earned him up to $14,000 a month, based on financial documents reviewed by Make It in 2023.

Echeverria lives near Boston Logan International Airport, which gives him an advantage over other Turo users in finding renters. And because the app allows him to set prices, Echeverria can offer more attractive rates than the rent-a-car counters.

He spends eight to 10 hours a week cleaning, managing and booking his cars, in addition to time spent developing relationships with local repair shops. Echeverria told Make It that the success of his side hustle depends on “meeting the right people and building trust with them.”

Want to be a successful, confident communicator? Take CNBC’s new online course Become an Effective Communicator: Master Public Speaking. We’ll teach you how to speak clearly and confidently, calm your nerves, what to say and not say, and body language techniques to make a great first impression. Sign up today and use code EARLYBIRD for an introductory discount of 30% off through July 10, 2024.

Plus, sign up for CNBC Make It’s newsletter to get tips and tricks for success at work, with money and in life.

“[It’s] the first car-free neighborhood built from scratch in the U.S.,” Ryan Johnson, CEO of Culdesac tells CNBC Make It.

Cars are not allowed on the Culdesac’s streets, and residents can’t park their own vehicles on site. Residents are offered discounts on transportation services like Waymo, a self-driving car.

“Our communities prioritize biking, walking, and transit over cars and parking,” the website states.

The community, located in Tempe, Arizona, has 180 residents with plans to grow to over 1,000. Apartments there range from studios to three-bedroom units, and prices start at around $1,400 a month.

“Since moving to this walkable community, I feel like I’ve definitely gotten a lot more out of my comfort zone,” Stratman tells CNBC Make It. “They’re not against cars; they’re just against car dependency.”

Stratman moved into one of Culdesac’s live-work spaces in February. The Brite Candle Co. shop is housed up front and Stratman’s bedroom and other living spaces are in the back. The unit features a walk-in closet and a washer and dryer.

“I’m able to actually have a retail front-facing shop to the public and also make money out of my apartment,” she says.

“At first, it was a bit uncomfortable just having so many people in my living space, but over time, I’ve gotten really used to it. I’m actually really excited for people to come and make candles.”

Stratman pays $1,472 in monthly rent and an additional $140 for utilities and Internet. Stratman’s upfront costs included a $1,000 security deposit.

Culdesac offers Stratman and other residents access to a pool, a fully equipped gym, rental cars, and light rails. Each resident is also given a free e-bike. The community has several shops and a supermarket on the grounds.

Though car-free, Culdesac still has parking spaces for visitors and the residents who need them.

Stratman does own a car and keeps it off property, as required, but says she has “actually become less dependent on my vehicle, although I use it for business purposes.”

Stratman doesn’t see herself leaving the neighborhood any time soon. “I’ve always grown up so introverted and just to myself,” she says. “So coming here and meeting all the friendly people that I have met and the connections that I’ve made is why I chose Culdesac.”

“Having a live-work space has actually saved me a lot of money,” she says.

Since moving in, Stratman has seen her business grow and wants to eventually move into a larger retail space there.

“Having [my work and home] integrated into one has been so helpful, especially for a small business owner who’s not making thousands of dollars.”

Want to be a successful, confident communicator? Take CNBC’s new online course Become an Effective Communicator: Master Public Speaking. We’ll teach you how to speak clearly and confidently, calm your nerves, what to say and not say, and body language techniques to make a great first impression. Sign up today and use code EARLYBIRD for an introductory discount of 30% off through July 10, 2024.

Plus, sign up for CNBC Make It’s newsletter to get tips and tricks for success at work, with money and in life.

“Twenty-three years after you began destroying my life, I am still dealing with the pain and damage you caused,” Cindy Clemishire, 35 at the time, wrote to Morris on Sept. 20, 2005, according to partially redacted emails provided to NBC News by her attorney.

“I want some type of restitution. Pray about it and call me.”

Morris responded two weeks later.

“Debbie and I really do care for you and we sincerely want God’s best for you,” he wrote, referring to his wife, Debbie Morris, according to the emails. Robert Morris wrote that he’d long ago confessed his sins to Clemishire’s father and believed that he’d “obtained your forgiveness as well as your family’s.” 

Morris ended his reply with a legal warning.

“My attorney advises that if I pay you any money under a threat of exposure, you could be criminally prosecuted and Debbie and I do not want that,” he wrote. “If you need more information, have your attorney contact mine.”

Morris’ email was the final exchange in a series of messages that year between Clemishire, Morris and a former Gateway elder, Clemishire said. The emails, spanning from April to October 2005, appear to reveal Clemishire’s attempts to get Morris — who later rose to become a leading evangelical figure who served on former President Donald Trump’s spiritual advisory panel — to compensate her for the trauma she says he inflicted on her as a child.

“Men that have over 100 counts of child molestation go to prison,” Clemishire wrote to Morris in one of the messages. “Men who pastor churches that have over 100 counts of child molestation go to prison and pay punitive damages. You have not had to do either.”

At the urging of a retired pastor, Clemishire went public with her allegations against Morris last week in a post published by The Wartburg Watch, a website focused on exposing abuse in churches. In the post and in a subsequent interview with NBC News, Clemishire accused Morris of molesting her for years beginning at her home in Oklahoma on Christmas night in 1982, when she was 12. 

Morris hasn’t been charged with a crime. He didn’t respond to a request for comment. 

Last weekend, Morris and Gateway’s elders initially responded to Clemishire’s allegations by acknowledging in statements that Morris had several sexual encounters with a “young lady” when he was in his 20s and saying he had been transparent about his sin and had repented. On Tuesday, following days of backlash from church members and elected officials, Gateway’s board of elders announced it had accepted Morris’ resignation. 

“The elders’ prior understanding was that Morris’s extramarital relationship, which he had discussed many times throughout his ministry, was with ‘a young lady’ and not abuse of a 12-year-old child,” the church leaders said in their statement.

Clemishire and her lawyer, Boz Tchividjian, contend that Gateway elders should have long ago investigated Morris’ account of a consensual relationship. 

Gateway officials did not immediately respond to a message requesting comment. The board of elders announced this week it had hired a law firm to investigate the matter.

The 2005 emails reveal that at least one Gateway Church elder, Tom Lane, was aware that Clemishire had been in touch with Morris and seeking compensation. The emails do not indicate, however, whether Lane, who has since left the church, was aware that Clemishire was accusing Morris of child sexual abuse. The initial email Clemishire sent is missing from the chain shared with NBC News; Clemishire’s lawyer said she could not locate it. 

In a statement to NBC News on Friday, Lane said that, until Clemishire went public with her story last week, he “did not fully understand the severity and specifics of the sexual abuse she experienced, nor did I know she was 12 years old when the abuse began.”

Lane’s spokesperson, Richard Harmer, said in an email that Lane was under the impression that Clemishire was under 18, but old enough to consent to a sexual relationship with Morris, who would have been in his early 20s. (The age of consent in Oklahoma, where the abuse is alleged to have occurred, is 16.)

“I am deeply saddened by the pain Cindy Clemishire has endured and the recent revelations regarding Pastor Robert Morris,” Lane said in his statement. “My deepest sympathies go out to Cindy, and I pray her suffering is fully recognized and validated.”

In April 2005, Lane wrote to Clemishire on behalf of Morris, after Clemishire initially reached out in the email that NBC News has not seen. Lane asked to speak with her, and Clemishire replied that she wanted to address the matter with Morris directly. 

Lane then wrote that he and the other Gateway elders wanted Clemishire to “find help and healing.” 

Lane told Clemishire that Morris had been “completely open with the Elders of Gateway Church about his past and specifically about his indiscretion with you.” He said Morris and his wife had treated Clemishire with “caring concern but their responses apparently have not brought the healing you seek.”

“The ‘Blessed Life’ that Robert writes about in his book and you refer to in your email, is not one of perfection but one of submission and obedience to God, something that he has made diligent effort to walk in, both in failure and success, for more than twenty years,” Lane wrote to Clemishire. “Robert and Debbie have done what they can to help you heal. Our church believes in healing, forgiveness, and restoration of all individuals. We would like to help you find that healing for your life.”

The emails shared by Clemishire’s lawyer do not include a response from her to Lane’s message. 

In a statement, Tchividjian, Clemishire’s lawyer, questioned why Lane and other Gateway elders didn’t investigate Morris’ claims.

“It seems as if it was preferable for them to simply accept his vague narrative instead of seeking the truth regarding a sexual offense perpetrated upon a minor,” Tchividjian said. “The leaders at Gateway had the responsibility to find out what happened and not to blindly accept his words.”

Five months after Lane’s message, on Sept. 9, 2005, Clemishire wrote again directly to Morris.

“I am giving you one last chance to call me,” she wrote. “You really have no idea how devastating it will be if you don’t. I don’t want Tom or anyone els to contact me. This is your issue not his.”

A week later, Morris wrote to say he was praying about how to respond, and he followed up several days after that to ask what Clemishire wanted.

Clemishire wrote back less than two hours later: “I have suffered almost my entire life from the emotional damage you inflicted on me. If you want to know what I want, call me.”

Morris never called, Clemishire said, although she said she did speak briefly with his attorney to discuss setting up a meeting with Morris but never followed up.

In his final reply included in the messages shared by Clemishire, Morris told her she was wrong to believe that he’d benefited from keeping secret what happened between them.

“You see the blessings God has poured out on my life and conclude that it is because I have hidden my past,” Morris wrote. 

“God does not work that way. He will not be mocked by deceit.”

This story first appeared on NBCNews.com. More from NBC News:

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An officer on patrol near Ocean Avenue and Dawson Avenue saw a vehicle parked on the beach around 2:30 a.m. When the officer approached, he reportedly heard significant screaming coming from the water.

According to police, the officer entered the water and saw a man and two small children. In the water, the man reportedly continued to drift further away with the boy and the girl and yelled at police to stay back.

Investigators said the officer determined the the 41-year-old man was attempting to deliberately drown his children, who are both under the age of 3. Additional officers entered the water and firefighters used a boat to help.

An officer was able to get to both children in the water and other officers were able to help him bring them to shore. Lifesaving measures were given to both children before they were taken to the hospital.

Police said both children are currently in the intensive care unit at a local hospital. Their conditions are said to be improving.

The father, who is from Queens, New York, has been arrested and is facing two counts of attempted homicide and two counts of risk of injury to a minor. More charges are pending.

It’s unclear why the father attempted to drown the kids. The investigation is active and ongoing.

The mayor says the officers who helped save the children will be honored at a police commission meeting in July.

Hadley Duvall of Owensboro, Kentucky, first told her story publicly last fall in a campaign ad for the governor’s race in her home state, discussing the consequences of abortion restrictions, particularly those without exceptions for rape or incest.

In the ad supporting Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear, Duvall spoke of how she was raped by her stepfather at age 12, became pregnant and miscarried. Her stepfather was convicted of rape and is in prison.

In the ad, Duvall called out the anti-abortion Republican candidate by name and said that “anyone who believes there should be no exceptions for rape and incest could never understand what it’s like to stand in my shoes.”

Beshear won reelection, and Democrats have said Duvall’s ad was a strong motivator, particularly for rural, male voters who had previously voted for Republican Donald Trump for president.

Now, Duvall is turning her attention to the White House election.

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She plans to appear with first lady Jill Biden at a Pittsburgh rally on Sunday that is part of President Joe Biden’s push to motivate voters on abortion rights, and Duvall will continue to campaign for the Democratic incumbent. Jill Biden will also hold an event in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, on Sunday.

The Supreme Court decided on June 24, 2022 to overturn abortion rights that had been in place since 1973. Since then, roughly half the states have some sort of ban in place, and 10 states have no exceptions for rape or incest. The consequences of these bans go far beyond restricting access for those who wish to end unwanted pregnancies.

“Survivors like me have our childhood taken away from us, and it’s something we are healing from every single day. At the very least, we deserve to have our own choices,” Duvall said in a statement to The Associated Press. “But, because of Donald Trump, right now there are abortion bans across the country with no exceptions for rape or incest. I feel like I owe it to myself and to a lot of little girls to speak up. They can’t speak up and I can — and our lives and futures are at stake in this election.”

Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, has repeatedly taken credit for the overturning of a federally guaranteed right to abortion. He nominated three of the Supreme Court justices who voted to overturn Roe v. Wade. But he has publicly resisted supporting a national abortion ban.

The Pennsylvania events are part of a larger campaign push around the anniversary of the decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. That effort kicked off this week with events by Vice President Kamala Harris.

The campaign is holding more than 35 events across the country, including in the swing states of Michigan, Wisconsin and Georgia. The events feature women and doctors who have been deeply impacted by the fall of Roe, including Amanda Zurawski and Kaityln Joshua, who have said abortion restrictions put them in medical peril.

The majority of U.S. adults, including those living in states with the strictest limits on abortion, want it to be legal at least through the initial stages of pregnancy, according to a poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

In the two years since Roe’s demise, reproductive health in the U.S. has become increasingly more fraught, and Biden and Democrats are seeking to highlight the growing fallout as a reason to reelect the president.

Women who never intended to end their pregnancies have nearly died because they could not get emergency treatment. Miscarriage care has been delayed. Routine reproductive medical care is drying up in states with strict bans. Fertility treatments were temporarily paused in Alabama.

Duvall is a senior at Midway University in Midway, Kentucky. She has also spoken publicly about a state bill that would provide narrowly tailored exceptions to the state’s abortion law.

The AP does not normally identify sexual assault victims, but Duvall chose to be identified and has spoken out publicly about her experience and its connection to the debate over abortion.

TikTok is chock-full of tips for building wealth.

The latest money-saving trend taking over is the “no-spend month,” which encourages TikTok users to cut out all non-essential purchases for a set period.

But, in this case, even the best intentions can backfire.

Here is what you should know before swearing off unnecessary spending.

The no-spend rules

The “no-spend” challenge can last for a week, a month or even a full year. Some consider it akin to a detox or fast, which can help break the habit of overspending. Any funds that would otherwise be spent on new clothes or dining out can be put toward a long-term financial goal.

On its face, “the no-buy challenge is as much pragmatic as it is symbolic,” according to Gregory Stoller, a professor at Boston University’s Questrom School of Business. “Why purchase non-essential products that you don’t need to begin with?”

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Consumers often track their daily progress and try to rack up as many consecutive no-spend days as possible.

“The gamification can be kind of fun,” Ted Rossman, senior industry analyst at Bankrate, recently told CNBC.

‘No spend’ pledges can be hard to sustain

Like any quick fix, such a challenge could be hard to sustain over time.

“The potential complication with the no-buy challenge is to what extent people are willing to honor their commitment,” Stoller said.

Just as Americans often fail to uphold their New Year’s resolutions, it’s even easier to break a no-buy promise with a simple click, he added.

“And in most cases, you don’t even need to make the extra effort of opening a laptop if your phone is in your pocket,” Stoller said.

And then there is the risk of splurging even more on impulsive purchases, a phenomenon also known as revenge spending or even “doom spending.”

Alternatives to the no-buy pledge

Most financial experts say there is no shortcut to practicing good money habits.

Rather than hop on the latest extreme fad, “it comes back to setting a budget and setting expectations,” Rossman said.

“No hack can teach you self-control, mindful spending or how to keep your balance low,” Paul Hoffman, a data analyst at BestBrokers, who wrote a recent report on harmful FinTok trends, also said.

Michael Hershfield, founder and CEO of Accrue Savings, recommends creating a budget that aligns with your overall financial goals, income and expenses and then keeping track of your spending and your budgeting plan so you can make adjustments as needed.

“By moderating, rather than going cold turkey, you will set yourself for long-term financial health,” Hershfield said.

Ultimately, consumers should focus on “intentional spending by making purchases with a clear purpose in mind that aligns with your personal financial situation and goals,” Hershfield said, rather than following any purchasing advice on social media. 

Subscribe to CNBC on YouTube.

Without a water supply, it is impossible to guarantee essential services to “thousands of people” who travel to the island daily during the tourist season, Mayor Paolo Falco said. “The health and hygiene situation is explosive, we have taken our countermeasures and activated the crisis unit and issued a restrictive order,” the mayor’s order said.

The emergency was caused by a failure in the mainland’s water system that provides vital supplies to the world-known island.

At the moment, water is still supplied to most of the island. Some isolated areas of the upper municipality of Anacapri are already dry.

Only local reservoirs supply the network, which in the absence of supplies from the mainland, risks being run out.

Meanwhile, tanks are expected to reach the island to support essential services, pending the restoration of full supply.

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The mayor’s order was notified shortly after 9 a.m. local time causing an immediate stop to ticket sales.

The move has created long lines of passengers at the ticket offices at the ports of the southern city of Naples, the departing point for most ferries to Capri.

Ferries and hydrofoils that had already departed for Capri were contacted by radio by the maritime authorities, which ordered their return to port and disembarkation of passengers.

A recent fundraising email sent by a GOP political action committee is an example of how they are framing the order, saying it compels federal agencies “to act as Biden’s personal ‘Get-Out-The-Vote’ machine.”

A Republican-led House committee recently issued subpoenas to agency directors and a group of GOP secretaries of state asked the Supreme Court to take up a case challenging the order.

Despite the pushback on the right, there has been no indication the order favors voters of one party over another.

White House spokesperson Robyn Patterson said the administration will continue to protect the voting rights of eligible citizens regardless of political affiliation. Biden issued the order in 2021 as Republican legislatures across the country were debating a wave of state voting restrictions amid the false claims that widespread fraud had cost former President Donald Trump reelection.

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“These are baseless claims brought by the very people who spread debunked lies about the 2020 elections and have used those same debunked lies to advance laws across the nation that make it harder to vote and easier to undermine the will of the people,” Patterson said in a statement.

Here’s a look at what the order does, what federal agencies have done so far to comply with it and what Republicans are saying about it.

Intended to make voting easy

Biden issued the executive order on March 7, 2021, noting the federal government’s “duty to ensure that registering to vote and the act of voting be made simple and easy for all those eligible to do so” and that it would be implemented “consistent with applicable law.” Agency leaders were asked to submit a strategic plan within 200 days.

The order directed updates to the federal website vote.gov, including ensuring that voting information be made available in more than a dozen languages. The site is not engaged in registering voters directly, but instead connects visitors with state and local election offices to begin the registration process.

The order specifically mentions the Department of Defense and asks it to establish procedures to provide active-duty military personnel the opportunity each year to register, update their voter registration information or request an absentee ballot.

It also directs the Department of Justice to provide educational materials about registration and voting to those in federal custody as they prepare to be released, along with information about rules that might prohibit them from voting.

Republicans question approach

A year after the order was issued, congressional Republicans sent a letter to the White House raising concerns that the administration had exceeded its authority and was directing federal agencies to engage in activities beyond their mission.

Republicans said the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service had informed state agencies that the costs of providing voter registration services were allowable administrative expenses under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and could be “reimbursed at the 50 percent level.”

“Using the nation’s multi-billion-dollar nutrition program to implement the Biden Administration’s voter registration scheme is not only a cause for concern, but one that necessitates further scrutiny,” the Republicans wrote.

What the letter didn’t say, according to a former White House official who helped implement the order, is that states administer the food assistance program and that states were specifically directed to provide voter registration information under a federal law passed years ago.

Justin Levitt, who served as a senior policy adviser at the White House, also said the agency was only reiterating previous guidance that those expenses were reimbursable.

A few months later, Republicans sent letters to federal agencies requesting information about their plans to comply with the order. They also included repealing the executive order in a broad elections bill they introduced last year.

Last month, the chairman of the Committee on House Administration sent letters requesting documents related to the order and set a two-week deadline to comply. The chairman, Wisconsin Republican Rep. Bryan Steil, then issued subpoenas. He called the federal order “another attempt by the Biden Administration to tilt the scales ahead of 2024.”

A White House official said the Office of Management and Budget had sent an initial response and other agencies were working on responding to the committee when it issued the subpoenas.

The order requires state buy-in

While federal agencies have not published their proposals, they have announced steps they’ve taken to comply with the order.

Levitt, a lawyer and expert on constitutional law, described the order as groundbreaking but limited in scope. Although federal law allows agencies to help with voter registration, he said military recruitment offices were the only ones doing it before Biden issued the executive order. He also said a federal agency can do this only if a state requests it.

“Most of what the agencies have done is directly what states have asked them to do or clarified the rules to make sure people know what the rules are,” Levitt said.

Kansas and New Mexico designated two Native American colleges run by the U.S. Department of Interior as voter registration agencies. Kentucky and Michigan have said they will designate Veterans Administration offices in their states. Michigan also plans to add offices of the federal Small Business Administration.

Asking the Supreme Court to step in

A group of Republicans, who serve as their state’s top election officials, also has been critical of the order, calling it federal overreach into states’ administration of elections.

West Virginia Secretary of State Mac Warner sent a letter in May 2022 asking Biden to rescind it and spoke against it when testifying before Congress last year. A few months ago, he issued a statement saying his state would refuse to accept any voter registration forms collected by federal agencies.

“Adding federal agencies to an already complex administrative process will make it even more challenging for election officials to ensure timely and accurate registration services before the election,” he said in a statement in April.

In May, Warner joined eight other GOP secretaries of state to file a brief in the U.S. Supreme Court asking the justices to take a case challenging the order. The others were from Arkansas, Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, New Hampshire, Tennessee and Wyoming.

The court rebuffed a plea to take up and decide the case by the end of June, and won’t consider it for the first time until the justices’ first private conference in early fall. In the unlikely event the court agrees to hear the case, arguments wouldn’t take place before early next year.

‘Innocuous as an order gets’

Republicans who oppose the executive order have labeled it “Bidenbucks,” an apparent reference to the controversy that erupted after the 2020 election when Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg provided more than $350 million to a nonprofit that was later distributed to election offices. Republicans have claimed the “Zuckerbucks” effort was an attempt to benefit Democrats.

David Becker, a former Justice Department lawyer who leads the Center for Election Innovation & Research, said the timing of the ramped-up criticism — years after Biden issued the executive order and just months before the presidential election — is noteworthy.

“It’s being portrayed as some deep-state power grab, when in reality it’s an effort to ensure that eligible citizens who are engaging with the federal government can easily register or have their registration updated,” Becker said. “It is as innocuous as an order gets.”

He said an important benefit of the federal order is that voters already registered are provided opportunities to update their information. That ensures more accurate voter rolls, something Republicans have said is needed.

“It’s good for election integrity. It’s good for participation,” Becker said. “This didn’t used to be controversial.”

___

Associated Press writer Mark Sherman in Washington contributed to this report.

We’re talking 60-plus — women and men. And we’re talking about hitting the gym and weight training. Don’t be put off, Bamman says.

“Resistance training is in many ways the true fountain of youth,” Bamman said in an interview with The Associated Press. “I like to say the fountain of youth is the water cooler in the gym.”

Of course, there are biological limits. But Bamman says the bulk of age-related decline in strength, flexibility and endurance is behavioral — putting too few demands on the body, not too many.

“When I tell somebody that in four to six months your strength and muscle mass and overall muscle function is going to elevate to the levels of people 30 to 35 years younger, that hits home,” he said.

So you know you’re too sedentary and the birthdays keep piling up. You suspect resistance training would be beneficial. But perhaps you’re intimidated. Don’t be.

Getting started

Check with medical professionals to make sure there are no health problems that stand in your way.

Then find a gym. Larger gyms offer a social component with things to do on a day off from weight training. And Bamman suggests getting a trainer.

“It’s actually quite safe, but it does require proper progression,” Bamman said. “You have to have a good instructor who can teach the movements properly.”

Bamman, a research scientist at the Florida Institute for Human & Machine Cognition, said finding a fully qualified trainer can be tricky.

“We need more rigorous certification of trainers,” he said. “The problem is that you can go online tonight and pay $50 and get some certification as a trainer.”

Done and dusted in an hour

Bamman suggests resistance training twice a week. Three times is even better, and he recommends non-weight-training days in between. For instance, work out on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and let Tuesday and Thursday be days of rest.

He suggests 10 different exercise movements — eight is sufficient. Do 10 repetitions of each movement. Do this three times, described as three sets. Then move on to the next movement.

When you reach the 10th repetition, you should feel you can’t do many more. If you could have done 10 more reps, you might want to increase the resistance.

Bamman says machines are better for beginners, but free weights — barbells or dumbbells — may be more effective as you gain confidence.

Before the weights, start with a 5-10 minute warmup — on the treadmill, stationary bike or elliptical machine — to get the blood flowing. You can add a few minutes on the mat for stretching and abdominal work.

Then come the weights.

“Sometimes you see people who sit on the machine, do a set and then play with their phone for three or four minutes. We like to keep them moving.”

Women may benefit even more than men

Women may benefit from resistance training even more than men because it’s a way to fight osteoporosis, the loss of bone density.

“Women are on a disadvantaged trajectory for bone loss, particularly in susceptible areas such as the hips and lower back,” said Bamman, who completed his doctorate at the University of Florida College of Medicine.

“But the strength-training benefits for both sexes are really important. There are no sex differences in the ability to respond. In gaining muscle mass and strength in untrained people, men and women track the same.

Yasuko Kuroi is 72 and started resistance training about 20 years ago.

“I saw the men in the gym and thought I could do that, too,” she said, speaking at a municipal recreation center in Tokyo.

The body demands work

In a few words: Use it or lose it.

Bamman cautions against pampering yourself and criticized even health care professionals “who baby seniors.” Of course, common sense is required.

“Our human body is a demand-based system,” he explained. “If you chronically impart a low demand on the body, we have adaptations to low demand. That’s why we lose muscle mass, that’s why we get weaker. We’re not demanding much.”

“But if you put high demands on the system — like resistance training — now the body has to adapt to these higher demands. The body says: ‘To adapt to these new demands I’ve got to make my bones stronger. I’ve got to make my muscles bigger.”

Bamman used the example of space flight, or extended bed rest, where people rapidly lose strength.

“Bed rest or space flight is essentially expedited aging,” he said. “All of our systems as we age are capable of responding and adapting. They just need the stimulus.” He said he’s seen positive effects for people in their 70s and 80s, and even for some in their 90s.

Bamman is 57 and joked he’s getting “closer in age to the people I study.” He also emphasized there are no shortcuts.

“These programs that roll out for older adults — seated exercises and the like. This is gimmicky and they don’t impart enough demands on the body,” he said.

This was the latest deadly attack in the Gaza Strip, where hundreds of thousands have fled fighting between Israel and Hamas. It comes less than a month after an Israeli bombing triggered a deadly fire that tore through a camp for displaced Palestinians in southern Gaza, drawing widespread international outrage — including from some of Israel’s closest allies — over the military’s expanding offensive into Rafah.

Witnesses whose relatives died in one of the bombardments near a Red Cross field hospital north of Rafah told The Associated Press that Israeli forces fired a second volley that killed people who came out of their tents.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said the hospital was flooded with casualties, including 22 dead and 45 wounded, and condemned the firing of “high-caliber projectiles” a few meters (yards) from the facility. Hundreds of people live in tents nearby, including many of the hospital staff, the ICRC said.

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According to Ahmed Radwan, a spokesperson for Civil Defense first responders in Rafah, witnesses told rescue workers about Friday’s shelling at two locations in a coastal area that has become filled with makeshift tents. The Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza reported the number of people killed and wounded in the attacks.

The locations of the attacks provided by the Civil Defense and the Red Cross hospital appear to be just outside an Israeli-designated safe zone on the Mediterranean coast, known as Muwasi. The Israeli military said the episode was under review but that “there is no indication that a strike was carried out by the IDF” inside the safe zone, using an acronym for Israel’s armed forces. It did not offer details on the episode or say what the intended targets might have been.

Israel has previously bombed locations in the vicinity of the “humanitarian zone” in Muwasi, a rural area with no water or sewage systems where displaced Palestinians have built tent camps in recent months.

Israel says it is targeting Hamas fighters and infrastructure and that it tries to minimize civilian deaths. It blames the large number of civilian casualties on militants and says it’s because they operate among the population.

With Israel’s war against Hamas now in its ninth month, international criticism is growing over the campaign of systematic destruction in Gaza, at a huge cost in civilian lives. The top United Nations court has concluded there is a “plausible risk of genocide” in Gaza — a charge Israel strongly denies.

The attack near the Red Cross hospital began with a munition that only made a loud bang and bright flash, said Mona Ashour, who lost her husband after he went to investigate what was happening.

“We were in our tent, and they hit with a ‘sound bomb’ near the Red Cross tents, and then my husband came out at the first sound,” Ashour said, holding back tears while clutching a young girl outside Nasser Hospital in nearby Khan Younis.

“And then they hit with the second one, which was a little closer to the entrance of the Red Cross,” she said.

Hasan al-Najjar said his sons were killed helping people who panicked after the first strike.

”My two sons went after they heard the women and children screaming,” he said at the hospital. “They went to save the women, and they struck with the second projectile, and my sons were martyred. They struck the place twice.”

The hospital’s location is known to all parties in the conflict and marked with the Red Cross emblem, the ICRC noted on Friday. The 60-bed field hospital was opened in mid-May to provide emergency surgeries, obstetric, pediatric and outpatient care, according to a news release at the time, which shows white tents covering an area about the size of a soccer field.

Israel is pushing ahead with its invasion of Rafah, where over a million Palestinians had sought refuge from fighting elsewhere. Most have now fled the city, but the United Nations says no place in Gaza is safe and humanitarian conditions are dire as families shelter in tents and cramped apartments without adequate food, water, or medical supplies.

Elsewhere, Civil Defense teams in the northern Gaza Strip recovered the bodies of five people who were killed in an airstrike that hit two apartments in Gaza City, and several others were wounded. An airstrike earlier Friday hit a municipal garage in the city and killed five people.

Fadel Naeem, the orthopedic chief at al-Ahli hospital, said the bodies of 30 people were brought there Friday, calling it “a difficult and brutal day in Gaza City.”

Meanwhile, the Israeli army said Friday that two soldiers were killed in combat in central Gaza. No information was given about the circumstances of the deaths of the two, both men in their 20s. Three other Israeli soldiers were severely injured, the army said.

Israeli ground offensives and bombardments have killed more than 37,400 people in Gaza, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians in its count.

Israel launched the war after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, in which militants stormed into southern Israel, killed some 1,200 people — mostly civilians — and abducted about 250.

Associated Press writers Jack Jeffery in Ramallah, West Bank, and Drew Callister in New York contributed to this report.

Wild Thang won the 2024 World’s Ugliest Dog contest in Petaluma, California, on June 21.

Wild Thang, an 8-year-old Pekingese, has competed in the contest four previous times, placing in second three times before finally winning first place this year.

The dog was born and raised in Los Angeles and recently retired to North Bend, Oregon.

According to his bio, Wild Thang contracted distemper as a puppy from a rescue foster.

“He survived, but not without permanent damage,” his bio says. “His teeth did not grow in, causing his tongue to stay out and his right front leg paddles 24/7.”

Apart from the physical issues, Wild Thang is “a healthy, happy Glugly (glamorous/ugly) guy,” his bio says.

He and his owner Ann Lewis took home a $5,000 check.

NBC News’ Gadi Schwartz helped judge the 2024 contest, along with Linda Witong Abrahm, Brian Sobel, Amy Gutierrez, Fiona Ma.

Last year, a hairless Chinese Crested pup named Scooter took home the title. Scooter was born with deformed back legs and turned into animal control for euthanasia by his breeder. He was rescued by the Saving Animals From Euthanasia (SAFE) rescue group, which his owner is a member of, and now uses a cart to help him walk.

The contest has been going on for nearly 50 years, according to the Sonoma-Marin Fair’s website, where the event takes place. The annual competition focuses on celebrating the uniqueness of all dogs and the benefits of adopting.

“The annual World’s Ugliest Dog Contest is not about making fun of ‘ugly’ dogs,” the website reads. “But having fun with some wonderful characters and showing the world that these dogs are really beautiful!”

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The U.S. Agriculture Department inspectors “will gradually begin to return to the packing plants following recent aggression against them,” Salazar said in a statement. “However, it is still necessary to advance in guaranteeing their security before reaching full operations.”

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“In fact, more work still needs to be done so that the (agriculture) inspectors are safe and can resume inspections and thereby eliminate the impediments to the trade of avocado and mango to the United States from Michoacan.”

Last weekend, two USDA employees were assaulted and temporarily held by assailants in Michoacan, Salazar said earlier this week. That led the U.S. to suspend inspections in Mexico’s biggest avocado-producing state.

The employees work for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. Because the United States also grows avocados, U.S. inspectors work in Mexico to ensure exported avocados don’t carry diseases that could hurt U.S. crops.

Earlier this week, Michoacan Gov. Alfredo Ramírez Bedolla said the inspectors had been stopped in a protest by residents of Aranza in western Michoacan on June 14.

He downplayed the situation, suggesting the inspectors were never at risk. He said that he got in touch with the U.S. Embassy the following day and that state forces were providing security for the state’s avocado producers and packers.

Many avocado growers in Michoacan say drug gangs threaten them or their family members with kidnapping or death unless they pay protection money, sometimes amounting to thousands of dollars per acre.

There have also been reports of organized crime bringing avocados grown in other states not approved for export and trying to get them through U.S. inspections.

In February 2022, the U.S. government suspended inspections of Mexican avocados “until further notice” after a U.S. plant safety inspector in Michoacan received a threatening message. The halt was lifted after about a week.

Later that year, Jalisco became the second Mexican state authorized to export avocados to the U.S.

The new pause in inspections didn’t block shipments of Mexican avocados to the United States, because Jalisco is now an exporter and there are a lot of Michoacan avocados already in transit.

Salazar said he was optimistic things were moving in a positive direction, but would not be satisified until the inspectors can work without threats to their safety.

On June 14, TikTok user @kaitlentippett posted a video to the social media platform that quickly went viral, garnering more than 1.9 million views. In the short, 22-second clip, the social media user is at her local Target, where she’s thrilled to spot Stanley’s latest product in the big box store.

“Oh my gosh, look what I just found at Target: toddler Stanleys,” she says as a baby coos and Madonna’s “La Isla Bonita” plays over the in-store speakers.

She flips the camera to show the shelves she’s looking at, which house several Stanley cups in bold colors waiting to be purchased. But, these aren’t the usual large-and-in-charge 40-ounce cups that have historically sent the public into a tizzy, rather they’re a tinier, more precious-looking variety.

“They’re so cute,” she says before grabbing a bright pink tumbler. “You’re coming home with me.”

@Kaitlentippett isn’t the only one to notice the petite size of the Target item, either. On June 14, Madilynn Cameron (@themadivlog) also posted a video to TikTok sharing her love for what she calls “Baby Stanley’s FOR TODDLERS.”

“The literal way you’re gonna scream when I show you what I just found at Target — there’s no way,” Cameron says in her video, which has racked up more than 563,300 views. “This is the cutest thing ever.”

The small cups in the video are Stanley’s 14-ounce Stainless Steel Quencher H2.0 Flowstate Tumblers, which retail for $20 each in-store and online at Target and come in four colorways: Vivid Violet, Tropical Teal, Passion Pink and Bright Lime. 

Representatives for Stanley and for Target did not immediately respond to TODAY.com’s request for comment.

While this sale hasn’t caused quite the same brouhaha that the limited-edition Winter Pink Starbucks x Stanley Quencher did in 2023, the small cups are proving to be quite popular. Although the Target website lists the item with its “New at Target” tag, they have almost sold out — the store’s website lists most colorways as having less than five left in stock per store in the New York City, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., areas.

Still, the tumbler isn’t exactly new; Stanley has other colorways of the item available on its website and seems to have offered it as early as 2022.

None of the colors offered at Target are available on the Stanley website as of the time of publication, so folks looking for a more passionate pink or vivid violet can find those at the nationwide retailer.

“Yeap.. my 7yrs old loves her pink Stanley cup,” one parent commented on @themadivlog’s TikTok. Another said their five-year-old is “obsessed” with it.

“I just saw these on Facebook and now on tiktok so safe to say I was influenced and bought my toddler and I matching teal Stanley’s 😍,” commented one more.

Still, some folks were less than thrilled at the item’s arrival.

“They’ve been making the 14oz Stanley’s,” someone pointed out in the same comments section. “My daughter has one and gets water all over the place when she uses it 😭.”

“I thought they all have lead?” remarked one person. The short answer is yes, they do contain lead, but the long answer is a little more complex (lead is used in the manufacturing process but the product needs to be damaged in order for any lead to be exposed, according to the company).

Several TikTok users commented on @kaitlentippett’s post saying that if the 14-ounce cups had handles like the larger tumblers do, they would be more desirable.

Luckily for them, a healthy secondary market for Stanley cup accessories exists. Retailers like Amazon and Etsy sell attachable handles for 14-ounce Stanley tumblers for around $10 each — there’s even a two-handle variety to turn your Stanley into the trendiest sippy cup on the playground.

This article first appeared on TODAY.com. Read more from TODAY here:

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A group of talented canine surfers caught waves with their human partners in Huntington Beach, California, Friday as part of the annual Purina Pro Plan Incredible Dog Challenges & Surf Dog Competition.

Dogs of all sages, shapes, sizes and breeds came out to complete on the first day of the contest, according to Dr. RuthAnn Lobos, a senior veterinarian for Nestle’ Purina PetCare.

“A lot of dogs love water,” Lobos said. “They love to have a purpose and something to live for.”

Many of the canine surfers typically learn to enjoy the sport through their human best friends with surfing backgrounds.

Steve Drottar, who is a self-described lifetime surfer, said he’s been surfing with his pal Rosie, a golden Labrador, since she was 7 months old.

“Rosie and I surf together about four times a week. It’s awesome,” Drottar said. “She’s a great noserider. Always up on the end of the board.”

Kentucky Gallahue and his best friend Derby are also regulars at the annual event. 

The human surfer said the surfing competition is one of their favorite events as the pair showed off their matching blue mohawks.

“Derby wants to do anything I’m doing,” Gallahue said. 

Following Friday’s surfing competition, other canine athletes were set to compete in agility, flying disc and fetch contests Saturday.

A federal judge last month sentenced David DePape to 30 years in federal prison for the 2022 attack against Paul Pelosi.

A San Francisco jury on Friday found DePape also guilty of first-degree burglary, false imprisonment of an elder, threatening a family member of a public official, dissuading a witness to the charges and aggravated kidnapping.

DePape’s public defender Adam Lipson told the jury during closing arguments that DePape was guilty of three of the charges but that prosecutors had not presented evidence to convict him of threatening a family member of a public official and aggravated kidnapping.

Prosecutors added those two charges in late May, as DePape’s federal trial was wrapping up.

A federal jury convicted DePape of assaulting a federal official’s family member and attempting to kidnap a federal official. On May 28, he was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison during an unusual resentencing hearing that resulted from judicial error. DePape will likely be deported back to Canada after he completes his punishment.

Lipson earlier argued that the state trial represents double jeopardy following the federal conviction. Even though the criminal counts are not the same, the two cases stem from the same act, he told the judge.

San Francisco Superior Court Judge Harry Dorfman agreed and dismissed the state charges of attempted murder, elder abuse and assault with a deadly weapon. Another judge upheld the decision on appeal.

Lipson focused his closing arguments on explaining to the jury that prosecutors did not prove DePape kidnapped Paul Pelosi, who was 82 at the time, with the intent “to exact from another person money or something valuable,” which is integral to the charge.

Prosecutors said the valuable thing DePape wanted from the kidnapping was to create a video of Nancy Pelosi confessing to crimes he believed she had committed, prosecutors said.

Lipson argued the video didn’t exist and if it did, it wouldn’t have had any value.

“When he broke into the Pelosis’ home his intent was to confront and potentially hurt and assault Nancy Pelosi. That was his intent at that time, that has nothing to do with Mr. Pelosi,” he said.

In her rebuttal, Assistant District Attorney Phoebe Maffei pointed out DePape told a detective and testified in federal court that he planned to get a video of Nancy Pelosi confessing to what he believed to be crimes and post it on the internet.

“There is inherent value in a video of the Speaker of the House confessing to crimes in her own home,” Maffei said.

The attack on Paul Pelosi was captured on police body camera video just days before the 2022 midterm elections and shocked the political world. He suffered two head wounds including a skull fracture that was mended with plates and screws he will have for the rest of his life. His right arm and hand were also injured.

On Monday, Maffei told the jury DePape unleashed a “reign of terror” on Paul Pelosi before bludgeoning him with a hammer as part of a plan he put together over months.

“The plain facts of this case are terrifying by themselves without embellishment,” Maffei said. “David DePape broke into the home of an 82-year-old man while he slept, entered his bedroom, held him hostage with a hammer, threatened him, threatened his wife and attempted to kill him.”

DePape admitted during his federal trial testimony that he planned to hold Nancy Pelosi hostage, record his interrogation of her, and “break her kneecaps” if she did not admit to the lies he said she told about “Russiagate,” a reference to the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential campaign.

Lipson told the jury during closing arguments that before the attack, DePape was living an isolated, lonely life and “went down the rabbit hole of propaganda and conspiracy theories.”

This week the judge expelled DePape’s former partner from the public gallery and the second floor of the San Francisco courthouse because the judge said she was trying to tamper with the jury.

On Monday and Tuesday, Gypsy Taub, a well-known activist in the Bay Area, handed out pieces of paper outside the courtroom with the address of a website she runs that promotes conspiracy theories. The cards were also found in a women’s bathroom near the courtroom where the website’s address was scrawled in marker on a wall.

“You have been trying to corruptly influence one or more jury members,” Dorfman said sternly before asking two bailiffs to escort Taub out of the courtroom.

DePape’s federal public defender said during his federal sentencing that DePape was first exposed to extreme beliefs by Taub, who has two children with DePape.

Taub met DePape in Hawaii when he was 20 years old and she was in her 30s and pregnant, DePape’s twin sister, Joanne Robinson, said in a letter to the federal judge seeking leniency.

Robinson wrote that Taub isolated DePape from his family and inflicted “extreme psychological damage” on her brother.

Immigration Jun 18

Half a million immigrants could eventually get US citizenship under a sweeping new plan from Biden

What does the plan consist of?

• Allows partners of U.S. citizens and non-citizen children to request permanent legal residency without leaving the United States.
• Accelerates the legal residence request process, decreasing it from a five-year process to a six-month process to get an interview, once candidates are granted parole.
• Allows DACA holders to request work visas that “can turn into permanent residencies,” according to immigration lawyer Alma Rosa Nieto.

According to Nieto, the biggest difference with the new executive order is that couples will no longer have to leave the country to process their documents. This will not only protect them from deportation but will also provide them with work permits.

I am considering applying. What should I do?

Nieto explained that many of the requirements to apply are still unknown. “We are waiting for them to publish all of this so that we have more detailed information. What we know for now is that to be eligible, you have to have resided in the United States for at least 10 years, you must be in good standing and you must be married to a U.S. citizen,” she said.

Steps that Nieto recommends taking:

• Decipher if you are eligible
• If you are eligible, apply as soon as possible.
• When preparing your application, seek advice from a trustworthy lawyer.
• Compile all important documents: official marriage certificates, birth certificates, certificates of legal status, if applicable.

According to Nieto, “the Biden Administration has already announced that they will turn those who are not eligible into immigration authorities if they have criminal records,” so she recommends ensuring your eligibility before applying. 

Applying as soon as possible is the most important thing to do, according to Nieto. If the new president decides to cancel the plan, or if it gets detained by court orders, at least the already submitted requests will be processed.

“Get advice from a lawyer, maybe even from two. Not from your friend who works with a paralegal or from your nephew who is in law school, but advice from a lawyer who has experience, who understands the parole, and who is also honest with the person who will be giving them advice about immigration and criminal records, because you do not want to walk straight into the lion’s den,” Nieto said.

The details of this new immigration plan will be revealed soon. For now, it is important to begin to get lawyers’ advice to be prepared for when the time comes to submit a residency request.

As parts of the U.S. are sweltering under potentially record-breaking temperatures, Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said extreme heat could qualify as a major disaster under a law governing how the federal government responds to natural disasters but that local communities historically have been able to deal with major heat waves or wildfire smoke without needing federal assistance.

Mayorkas spoke to The Associated Press during a visit to the headquarters of the Federal Emergency Management Agency for a briefing about the hurricane season, which started on June 1. Experts think this year could be one of the busiest Atlantic hurricane seasons on record as climate change causes storms to become more intense. Already Tropical Storm Alberto, the season’s first named storm, brought heavy rain to parts of Mexico.

Mayorkas said one reason FEMA is prepared is that the agency staff has gotten so much practice responding to disasters as climate change has intensified.

“They have exercised these muscles regrettably year after year. As the impacts of climate change have been more and more evident, we have seen and experienced increasing frequency and gravity of extreme weather events,” Mayorkas said.

Against that backdrop, the secretary said he was concerned about the size of the agency’s disaster relief fund. That’s the primary way that FEMA funds its response to hurricanes, wildfires, floods and other disasters.

“We expect the disaster relief fund, which is the critical fund that we use to resource impacted communities, we expect it will run out by mid-August. And we need Congress to fund the disaster relief fund,” he said.

If the fund runs out of money, it doesn’t mean the agency doesn’t respond to emergencies. Instead, the agency goes into what’s called immediate needs funding — redirecting money from other programs so it can respond to the most urgent, lifesaving needs. But that can take away money from longer-term recoveries.

Much of the United States has been baking in a heat wave, with numerous areas expected to see record-breaking temperatures and hot weather expected to continue through the weekend. The hot start to the summer comes after the U.S. last year experienced the most heat waves since 1936.

With climate change raising temperatures nationwide, advocates and some members of Congress have questioned whether heat waves should be considered natural disasters in the same way hurricanes, tornadoes and floods are.

Environmental and labor groups earlier this week petitioned FEMA to include extreme heat and wildfire smoke as major disasters under the Stafford Act, the law spelling out federal disaster response. They argued that both are among the biggest environmental killers and that a clear federal designation would unlock money for things like cooling centers to be used in heat waves or community solar energy projects to reduce grid load.

“In recent years, increasing extreme heat events have impacted millions of workers and communities — ranging from farmworkers sowing outdoor crops under fatal heat dome conditions, to postal workers ducking in and out of searing hot trucks, to warehouse workers experiencing record indoor heat while undertaking fast-paced physical labor, and to communities of color suffering disproportionate heat while living in concrete urban heat islands,” the petition read.

Mayorkas said the law doesn’t prevent extreme heat or smoke from qualifying as a major disaster but that the federal government only steps in to help when a local community doesn’t have the resources to respond itself. But historically that “has not been the case with respect to extreme heat and smoke,” he said.

Alaska Airlines‘ flight attendants union said Friday that it reached a “record” tentative labor deal with the carrier, ending a drought of new contracts for cabin crews that have clamored for pay raises for years.

The details of the deal, struck under federal mediation, weren’t immediately made public. It will be reviewed by union leadership and then voted on by rank and file members, the Association of Flight Attendants said.

“With our combined efforts, we’ve been able to reach an agreement that provides quality of life and continued career growth at Alaska,” the airline said in a statement. 

A day earlier, American Airlines‘ flight attendants union said talks had broken down for a new contract, and that its members should prepare for a possible strike. However, a company spokeswoman said the two sides had made “good progress in negotiations this week, adding even more to the industry-leading proposal we’ve had on the table for months.”

United Airlines is also negotiating a new contract with its flight attendants union.

Strikes in the U.S. airline industry are extremely rare. If a deal cannot be reached, there could be a 30-day cooling-off period before a possible work stoppage.

Adam Bied, 39, was charged with allegedly trafficking the body parts of endangered and protected species for at least two years. Bied, a resident of Reading, bought, sold and traded these products, some under the guise of shipping labels like “resins or “rodents,” federal prosecutors say.

Investigators say from January 2018 to at least June 2021, Bied allegedly conspired with individuals in Cameroon and Indonesia who killed wildlife. He did not possess the correct licenses or permits to do so.

“The illicit trafficking of endangered wildlife for financial gain is a grave offense that poses a significant threat to global conservation efforts and preservation of these species,” said Joshua S. Levy, U.S. attorney. “These laws and international treaties exist to protect endangered species from exploitation and to maintain ecological balance.”

He was charged with two counts of conspiracy and three counts of violating the Lacey Act, which prohibits the illegal trafficking of animals and plants. He allegedly knew that these transactions violated U.S. laws.

A complaint for forfeiture was filed, allowing the government to seize property involved in a crime. There were more than 100 wildlife parts included in the list, such as body parts of endangered and vulnerable species like orangutans, tigers, otters, polar bears, jaguars and leopards.

“This forfeiture action sends a clear message that we will not only prosecute those who engage in illegal wildlife trafficking, but also take legal actions to strip them of their ill-gotten gains,” said Levy.

More on wildlife

Connecticut Jun 12

Video shows moment wildlife specialist removes escaped python from police cruiser

Animals and Wildlife Jun 14

Yellowstone visitors hope to catch a glimpse of rare white buffalo calf

Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford stood for a moment after Clark County District Court Judge Mary Kay Holthus ruled that Las Vegas was the wrong venue for the case and asserted he would take the case to the state Supreme Court.

“The judge got it wrong and we’ll be appealing immediately,” Ford, a Democrat, told reporters afterward. He declined additional comment.

Defense attorneys bluntly declared the case dead, saying that to bring it now before another grand jury in another venue such as Nevada’s capital city of Carson City would violate a three-year statute of limitations that expired last December.

“They’re done,” said Margaret McLetchie, attorney for Clark County Republican party chairman Jesse Law, one of the defendants in the case.

The judge called off trial, which had been scheduled for January, for defendants that also included state GOP chairman Michael McDonald; national party committee member Jim DeGraffenreid; national and Douglas County committee member Shawn Meehan; Storey County clerk Jim Hindle; and Eileen Rice, a party member from the Lake Tahoe area. Each was accused of offering a false instrument for filing and uttering a forged instrument — felonies carrying a penalty of up to four or five years in prison.

Elections Dec 6, 2023

Nevada grand jury indicts six ‘fake electors' who falsely certified that Trump won the state in 2020

politics Mar 23

This Gen Z Democrat quit his job protecting elections to run against a fake elector

Arizona Jun 11

Rudy Giuliani's mug shot released in Arizona ‘fake electors' case

Defense attorneys led by McDonald’s lawyer, Richard Wright, contended that Ford improperly brought the case before a grand jury in Las Vegas — Nevada’s largest and most Democratic-leaning city — instead of Carson City or Reno, northern Nevada cities in a more Republican region where the alleged crimes occurred. They also accused prosecutors of failing to present to the grand jury evidence that would have exonerated their clients, who they said had no intent to commit a crime.

“Crimes are tried and venue lies in the venue in which the offense was committed,” Wright told the judge on Friday. “Signing the document occurred in Carson City.”

Challenged by Judge Holthus to respond, Deputy State Attorney General Matthew Rashbrook argued that “no one county contains the entirety of these crimes.”

“Society is the victim of these crimes,” the prosecutor said. “Voters who would have been disenfranchised by these acts … would have been victims of these crimes.”

But the judge decided that even though McDonald and Law live in Las Vegas, “everything took place up north.”

After the court hearing, Hindle’s attorney, Brian Hardy, declined to comment on calls from advocacy groups for his client to resign from his elected position as overseer of elections in Story County, a jurisdiction with a few more than 4,100 residents. Those calls included a news conference Friday outside the courthouse by leaders of three organizations.

Meehan is the only defendant not to have been named by the state party as Nevada delegates to the 2024 Republican National Convention next month in Milwaukee. His defense attorney, Sigal Chattah, said her client chose not to seek the position. Chattah ran as a Republican in 2022 for state attorney general and lost to Ford by just under 8% of the vote.

Nevada is one of seven presidential battleground states where slates of fake electors falsely certified that Trump had won in 2020, not Democrat Joe Biden. Others are Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

Nevada’s case, filed last December, focused on the actions of six defendants. Criminal cases in three other states focus on many more — 16 in Michigan, 19 in Georgia and 18 in Arizona.

Trump lost Nevada in 2020 by more than 30,000 votes to Biden and the state’s Democratic electors certified the results in the presence of Nevada Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske, a Republican. Her defense of the results as reliable and accurate led the state GOP to censure her, but Cegavske later conducted an investigation that found no credible evidence of widespread voter fraud in the state.

The ruling from the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is narrow, applying only to the eight employers who objected to providing the coverage. The conservative court declined to make the ruling apply nationwide.

“While we were predicting the worst, at the moment insurers will still have to cover preventive services, including PrEP, except for the original plaintiffs. That is the good news,” Carl Schmid, executive director of the HIV+Hepatitis Policy Institute, said in an email, referring to a common HIV preventative treatment. But, Schmid lamented that the court found that the coverage requirement for HIV prevention was adopted in violation of the Constitution, and that the case is going back to a lower court for resolution of other issues that could further muddy the coverage issue.

The requirements in question were adopted by federal health officials under provisions of the Affordable Care Act, sometimes referred to as Obamacare. Challengers raised religious and procedural objections to some of the requirements.

U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor in Texas ruled last year that the requirements violated the Constitution. In its ruling Friday, a three-judge 5th Circuit panel said the coverage requirements in question were adopted unconstitutionally because they came from a body — the United States Preventive Services Task Force — whose members were not nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate.

Not all preventive care is threatened by the ruling and attorneys on both sides said that some employers could decide to adopt copays or deductibles that would keep the affected coverages, including HIV preventatives, available, if not free.

An analysis prepared last year by the KFF, a nonprofit, found that some screenings, including mammography and cervical cancer screening, would still be covered without out-of-pocket costs because the task force recommended them before the health care law was enacted in March 2010.

Meanwhile, the opinion left some issues unresolved, including whether coverage can be required that was adopted from recommendations by two other entities, the Public Health Service’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, and the Health Resources and Services Administration.

“The bad news is, the court still finds the mandate to cover USPSTF recommended services unconstitutional and now asks the lower court to review both the HRSA and ACIP preventive services,” Schmid said.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment Friday afternoon.