WESTERLY, R.I. (AP) — A swarm of dragonflies stunned and surprised beachgoers over the weekend in Rhode Island.
Thousands of the dragonflies, relatively large and often beautifully colored insects, descended on Misquamicut beach Saturday. Video of the dragonflies shows beachgoers running for cover and hiding under blankets. People could be heard screaming.
It’s unclear what prompted the cloud of insects to visit the beach for several minutes and then largely disappear.
“One minute everything was calm. The next minute I saw the most dragonflies I’ve ever seen in my life,” Nicole Taylor told WFSB-TV. “It lasted for like 3 minutes, and then they were gone. It was a very strange experience.”
Christina Vangel, who works at Alfie’s Beach Store, said workers had to shoo the dragonflies out. “As the day went on there were tons of them everywhere. We had to close the doors,” she said.
Chris Fiore, whose family owns Alfie’s, across the street from the beach, marveled at the unique onslaught of dragonflies. “It was fascinating. There were big clouds of them,” he said.
Dragonflies feed mostly on insects like mosquitos and midges, relying on a swiveling head and huge eyes to catch their prey. Some species breed in July and August including the common green darner dragonfly found in Rhode Island. They don’t normally sting or bite humans.
Paris has much to offer its residents and any visitor.
And with the Olympics as their canvas, there are personal portraits being painted all around the City of Light. They have powered through the weather — rain didn’t dampen their spirts and surging temperatures couldn’t cool their heels. They gathered at watch parties to see Simone Biles at her best. Some watched the games in person others just relaxed in front of iconic sights in Paris. There were a few who got to both.
Athletes are chasing dreams of gold medals under the Eiffel Towel, Champions Park, the historic Grand Palais or the sumptuous-looking Versailles Palace gardens and all can be seen embracing the moment.
Spectators watch from a fan zone set up at the Hotel de Ville, the city hall, as Simone Biles, of the United States, performs on the vault during a women’s artistic gymnastics qualification round at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Sunday, July 28, 2024, in Paris. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
Athletes dive into the water for the start of the women’s individual triathlon competition at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Wednesday, July 31, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)
Harry Wilcznski poses for a picture in front of the cauldron with the Olympic flame in the Tuileries Gardens during the 2024 Summer Olympics, Sunday, July 28, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)
A spectator walks through a water mist sprayers on her way to Eiffel Tower Stadium to watch a beach volleyball at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Sunday, July 28, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
Juliette Labous, of France, is seen through a spectator’s umbrella while competing in the women’s cycling time trial event, at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Saturday, July 27, 2024, in Paris. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
Italy’s Filippo Macchi, left, competes with United State’s Nick Itkin in the men’s individual Foil semifinal match during the 2024 Summer Olympics at the Grand Palais, Monday, July 29, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
A woman sits at the Tuileries Garden, during the 2024 Summer Olympics, Sunday, July 28, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)
A man wipes his face as he walks past reproductions of artworks decorating the banks of the River Seine at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Tuesday, July 30, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)
Germany’s Svenja Mueller warms up before a beach volleyball practice in Eiffel Tower Stadium at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Thursday, July 25, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
Canada’s Naïma Moreira-Laliberté, riding Statesman, during the Equestrian Dressage competition, at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Tuesday, July 30, 2024, in Versailles, France. (AP Photo/Mosa’ab Elshamy)
Pedestrians make their way across a sidewalk opened to foot traffic on the Pont Royal, or Royal Bridge, along grandstands used in the opening ceremonies, at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Saturday, July 27, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
Vera Looser, of Namibia, carries her bike down into a metro station while surveying the course through Paris streets during a training session ahead of her road race event at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Saturday, July 27, 2024, in Paris. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
People watch a TV showing the opening ceremony of the 2024 Summer Olympics in a bar in Paris, France, Friday, July 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)
Jenna Baltes, 8, of St. Paul, Minn., holds balloons while walking along the Seine river in front of the Eiffel Tower with her family during the 2024 Summer Olympics, Monday, July 29, 2024, in Paris. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
Tourists take pictures near the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Sunday, July 28, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)
Tourists take a picture near the Louvre Museum at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Sunday, July 28, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)
Technicians remove the pontoon for the start of the triathlon events after the event was postponed over concerns about water quality in Paris’ Seine River, at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Tuesday, July 30, 2024, at the Pont Alexandre III bridge in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)
in a beach volleyball match at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Saturday, July 27, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
Julie Derron, of Switzerland celebrates winning the silver medal at the end of the women’s individual triathlon competition at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Wednesday, July 31, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
A crowd takes photos at the gates to the Tuileries Garden as the cauldron rises at sunset during the 2024 Summer Olympics, Saturday, July 27, 2024, in Paris. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
An Olympic flag hangs outside a bar during the 2024 Summer Olympics, Saturday, July 27, 2024, in Paris. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The warm, soggy summer across much of the Midwest has produced a bumper crop of wild mushrooms — and a surge in calls to poison control centers.
At the Minnesota Regional Poison Center, calls from April through July more than tripled over the same period last year, said Samantha Lee, the center’s director. The center took 90 calls for potential exposures over that period, compared to 26 calls for the same months in 2023. Exposures include people who have had actual or suspected contact with potentially poisonous mushrooms and who may or may not develop symptoms, she said.
The cases can include kids who didn’t know what they were doing and foragers who make mistakes, she said. But those numbers don’t include people who are merely curious about whether the mushrooms popping out of their yards are good to eat.
“Fortunately the majority of the time these tend to be mild symptoms,” Lee said. “A lot of these are mushrooms that were in the yard or nearby parks. Many of these cause upset stomachs, vomiting and diarrhea, but every year we do get some cases with serious outcomes.”
The situation appears to be similar throughout wetter areas of the country this spring and summer. Kait Brown, clinical managing director of America’s Poison Centers, said calls were up 26% across all states and territories for April through June.
“There are probably a couple areas in the country that are experiencing large case volumes that could be related to different weather patterns,” Brown said. However, she said her office doesn’t have state-by-state data to pinpoint exactly where.
The Minnesota poison center issued a warning this month that wild mushrooms can be hard for untrained people to identify. Common ones that typically cause milder symptoms include the little brown mushrooms that grow in yards and the small white mushrooms that can form “fairy rings,” Brown said. But some deadly species also grow in the area, including one popularly known as the “death angel” or “destroying angel.” They can cause liver failure.
Foraging for edible wild mushrooms has become increasingly popular in recent years, even before the pandemic, said Peter Martignacco, president of the Minnesota Mycological Society.
“The metro area of Minneapolis-St. Paul itself is having a huge year for mushrooms due to the previous few years of severe drought followed by this year’s extremely wet and cool spring, with consistent moisture thereafter,” said Tim Clemens, a professional forager and teacher who consults for the Minnesota poison center.
The best way to learn what’s safe is to go out with an experienced mushroom hunter, said Martignacco, whose group organizes frequent forays throughout the state. Although there are good guide books, identification apps can be inaccurate and there are guide books generated by artificial intelligence that are “notoriously useless,” Clemens said. The misleading information can cause people to make very serious mistakes, he added.
“I’m not sure what motivates them to eat something when you don’t know what it is, but some people do that,” he said.
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This story was corrected to reflect that calls to the Minnesota Regional Poison Center about potential exposures to poisonous mushrooms from April through July more than tripled over the same period from the previous year, not that they were up by 150%.
The assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump, who is running for reelection, is fueling a range of false claims and conspiracy theories as authorities seek information about the 20-year-old shooter’s background and motive, how he obtained the AR-style rifle he fired at Trump and security at the venue that failed to stop the shooting.
CLAIM: A photo taken on Monday shows former President Donald Trump with no damage to his right ear, contrary to reports that it was injured in an attempted assassination on Saturday.
THE FACTS: The photo was taken on Sept. 17, 2022, at a rally in Youngstown, Ohio, for then-U.S. Senate candidate JD Vance. Trump appeared at the Republican National Convention Monday night with a large, white bandage on his right ear. Myriad photos show his ear bloodied after a shooter opened fire at his rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, over the weekend.
Social media users are sharing the old photo as new, with some falsely presenting it as evidence that Trump was not injured by the gunfire.
“The top part of his ear grew back,” reads one X post from Monday night that had received approximately 40,000 likes and 13,200 shares as of Tuesday. “(Yes. This is from today)”
Another X post from Monday night states: “This image of Trump was taken today. There is absolutely nothing wrong with his ear, and it has zero damage, FROM A BULLET. Everything about Trump is a con or a grift.” It received approximately 26,000 likes and 8,600 shares.
It is from a Sept. 17, 2022, rally in Youngstown, Ohio, for Vance during his Senate campaign. The image appeared in multiple articles published around that time. Trump chose Vance, now a U.S. senator, as his running mate on Monday.
The version spreading online is cropped to show only Trump and is zoomed in on the former president’s ear. In the original, Vance can be seen speaking at a podium while Trump stands behind him.
Trump appeared at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee on Monday night with a large, white bandage on his right ear. Numerous photos from the aftermath of the shooting show the same ear bloodied.
Thomas Matthew Crooks, a 20-year-old nursing-home employee from suburban Pittsburgh, fired multiple shots at Trump with an AR-style rifle from a nearby roof at a rally for the Republican nominee on Saturday. He was killed by Secret Service personnel, officials said.
The attempted assassination left Trump and two other men wounded. Corey Comperatore, a 50-year-old fire chief, was killed while protecting his family. The FBI said it was investigating the attack as a potential act of domestic terrorism, but has not identified a clear ideological motive, The Associated Press has reported.
CLAIM: A law enforcement sniper assigned to Trump’s rally Saturday in Butler, Pennsylvania, says the head of the Secret Service ordered him not to shoot the suspect accused of attempting to assassinate Trump.
THE FACTS: No such order was made. Snipers killed the suspected shooter moments after he opened fire on the former president, bloodying Trump’s ear, killing one rally attendee and injuring two. The Secret Service and the Butler Police Department say they have no agents, officers or employees with the name of the person claiming to be the sharpshooter.
Following Saturday’s attempt on Trump’s life, a poster on the online message board 4chan wrote that they were a sniper assigned to the rally, and that they can be seen in a photo of two law enforcement officers on the roof at the rally.
“My name is Jonathan Willis,” the poster wrote. “I came here to inform the public that I had the assassin in my sights for at least 3 minutes, but the head of the secret service refused to give the order to take out the perp. 100% the top brass prevented me from killing the assassin before he took the shots at president Trump,” the post claimed.
But there is no agent or officer by the name of Jonathan Willis working for the Secret Service or the Butler police, and no internet records of such an officer could be located.
A spokesman for the Secret Service said snipers are trained and instructed to act whenever they see a threat, and do not await instructions before taking a shot to neutralize a suspect. He said he couldn’t discuss the specifics of agency communication or the details of the ongoing investigation, but said the post was false.
Witnesses at the rally alerted law enforcement to the suspect, identified as Thomas Matthew Crooks, after they saw him perched atop a nearby roof. A local law enforcement officer climbed to the roof and found Crooks, who pointed the rifle at the officer. The officer retreated, and the gunman quickly fired toward Trump, the officials said. That’s when U.S. Secret Service gunmen shot him, officials have said.
Crooks, a nursing-home employee from suburban Pittsburgh, fired multiple shots at Trump with an AR-style rifle. A spectator was killed and two others were critically injured.
Authorities said the shooting was an attempted assassination, but haven’t yet determined what motivated Crooks to try to kill Trump, the AP has reported.
CLAIM: A photo shows a bullet hole in Trump’s suit jacket, proving that he was shot in the chest during the attempted assassination.
THE FACTS: The photo actually shows a fold in the suit jacket of a Secret Service agent protecting Trump. Another Associated Press image taken moments before clearly shows there is no hole in Trump’s jacket. What appears to be a hole can be seen diminishing as the agent moves in video of the shooting’s aftermath.
Social media users are sharing the photo from the assassination attempt to claim that the former president was shot in the chest. Some posts suggest he survived because he was wearing a bulletproof vest.
In the image, what seems to be a small hole appears inches below Trump’s right underarm. Many posts use a zoomed-in version of the photo that has a circle around the supposed hole to emphasize the hard-to-notice detail.
“#Trump was also shot in the chest,” reads one X post. “The bulletproof vest saved him #We support Trump.
Another X post similarly reads, “It appears that Trump was shot in the chest, as the bullet seem to have pierced his suit; he was wearing a bulletproof vest.”
But the apparent hole is actually a fold in the sleeve of the Secret Service agent’s jacket, not the aftermath of a bullet.
The photo taken by an AP photographer shows the agent bending over as she protects Trump, her jacket appearing slightly darker than the former president’s. The fold can be seen by following the edge of the agent’s jacket from her neck to just below her left shoulder.
Moreover, another AP image taken moments before the one with the supposed hole clearly shows the right side of Trump’s jacket as he raises his fist. No hole can be seen in the jacket.
Trump wrote on his social media platform that he was “shot with a bullet that pierced the upper part of my right ear.” Photos and video from the rally show blood on his right ear and on the right side of his face.
The Secret Service declined to comment on details of the shooting, including where the bullets hit, and did not respond to a follow-up inquiry about whether Trump was wearing a bulletproof vest. Trump’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
CLAIM: A photo from the attempted assassination of Trump shows Secret Service agents smiling as they surround him after the shooting.
THE FACTS: The photo was edited to make it appear the agents were smiling. In the original, taken by an Associated Press photographer, the same agents can be seen with neutral expressions.
After the shooting, social media users shared the altered image, with some suggesting it was evidence that the assassination attempt had been staged.
The photo shows Trump with blood on his face and ear, pumping his fist in front of an American flag while Secret Service agents surround him. Three agents whose faces are visible seem to be grinning as they protect the former president.
“Why are all 3 Secret Service agents smiling, at least that is how it appears to me,” reads one post on X. “Do to the seriousness of the situation, I would think their expressions would be grim + determined. Now, if it was a staged event, these expressions would make more sense.”
But the agents were not smiling at that moment. The photo was edited to make it appear otherwise.
The original image shows the same three agents with neutral expressions. One man is positioned behind Trump, a second man stands by his left shoulder and a woman is bent over on his right side, beneath his raised arm.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Elon Musk filed a lawsuit on Monday against OpenAI and two of its founders, Sam Altman and Greg Brockman, renewing claims that the ChatGPT-maker betrayed its founding aims of benefiting the public good rather than pursuing profits.
The lawsuit, filed in a Northern California federal court, called Musk’s case a “textbook tale of altruism versus greed.” Altman and others named in the suit “intentionally courted and deceived Musk, preying on Musk’s humanitarian concern about the existential dangers posed by artificial intelligence,” according to the complaint.
Musk was an early investor in OpenAI when it was founded in 2015 and co-chaired its board alongside Altman. In the lawsuit, he said he invested “tens of millions” of dollars and recruited top AI research scientists for OpenAI. Musk resigned from the board in early 2018 in a move that OpenAI said — at the time — would prevent conflicts of interest as he was recruiting AI talent to build self-driving technology at the electric car maker.
The Tesla CEO dropped his previous lawsuit against OpenAI without explanation in June. That lawsuit alleged that when Musk bankrolled OpenAI’s creation, he secured an agreement with Altman and Brockman to keep the AI company as a nonprofit that would develop technology for the benefit of the public and keep its code open.
“As we said about Elon’s initial legal filing, which was subsequently withdrawn, Elon’s prior emails continue to speak for themselves,” a spokesperson for OpenAI said in an emailed statement. In March, OpenAI released emails from Musk showing his earlier support for making it a for-profit company.
Musk claims in the new suit that he and OpenAI’s namesake objective were “betrayed by Altman and his accomplices.”
“The perfidy and deceit are of Shakespearean proportions,” the complaint said.
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Former U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers has secured the Republican nomination for a U.S. Senate seat in Michigan and will face Democratic Rep. Elissa Slotkin in the November election.
Slotkin and Rogers, long considered the front-runners for their respective party nominations, will now shift focus to the general election. Slotkin enters with a massive fundraising advantage and emerges nearly unscathed from a sparse primary, while Rogers has the backing of national Republican groups and former President Donald Trump.
Former U.S. Rep. and Republican candidate for Michigan Senate Mike Rogers talks to supporters at a post election gathering, Tuesday, Aug. 6, 2024, in Lake Orion, Mich. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)
Slotkin defeated actor Hill Harper in the Democratic primary, while Republicans chose Rogers over former U.S. Rep. Justin Amash and physician Sherry O’Donnell. Both candidates will now compete for a seat left open by longtime Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow’s retirement.
The retiring incumbent joined Slotkin onstage at an event in Detroit shortly after the race was called to endorse her. Slotkin praised Stabenow for her years of service before delivering a speech positioning herself as the “normal” and “rational” candidate.
North of Detroit, in Oakland County, Rogers thanked supporters at a watch party for “not giving up on politics.” Like Slotkin, Rogers represented a mid-Michigan swing district in Congress, and he similarly positioned himself as the common sense candidate in his speech. No Republican has won a U.S. Senate race in Michigan since 1994.
With Democrats holding a razor-thin majority in the Senate and Republicans in the House, competitive races like those in Michigan have drawn lots of attention. The state’s status as a key presidential swing state raises the stakes for those seats even higher, with party control on the line from the top of the ballot all the way down to the state Legislature.
U.S. Senate candidate, Rep. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., left, holds hands with Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., at a primary election night event in Detroit, Tuesday, Aug. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
Michigan’s open Senate seat is one of a handful of races nationwide that will determine control of the upper chamber in November. With a later congressional primary, Slotkin and Rogers will have a short period to transition from competing against their own party members to appealing to a broader base of voters for the Nov. 5 general election, which may explain why they have campaigned with their eyes on the general election.
National groups on both sides have already reserved millions of dollars worth of advertisements after the primary. Both Slotkin and Rogers, viewed for months as the overwhelming favorites in their primaries, have skipped debates and refrained from holding large campaign events.
Several U.S. House seats with primaries on Tuesday could influence the balance of power in the lower chamber, but there, too, the biggest battles will be fought in the fall campaign.
Slotkin’s entry into the Senate race left her mid-Michigan 7th Congressional District seat open, historically one of the nation’s top battleground districts. Both party candidates ran unopposed in their primaries there, setting the table for a November matchup between Democrat Curtis Hertel Jr. and Republican Tom Barrett.
Democratic U.S. Rep. Dan Kildee’s retirement will leave an open seat in the 8th Congressional District, which extends northward from the outskirts of Detroit and covers areas such as Flint, Saginaw and Midland. First-term state Sen. Kristen McDonald Rivet, who had been endorsed by Kildee, defeated state Board of Education President Pamela Pugh and Matt Collier, the former mayor of Flint, to secure the Democratic nomination.
On the Republican side, former TV anchor Paul Junge defeated Mary Draves, a former chemical manufacturing executive at Dow Inc., and Anthony Hudson to win the GOP nomination. Junge lost to Kildee by over 10 percentage points in 2022.
What to know about the 2024 Election
Meanwhile, several incumbents in battleground districts now have their November matchups set following Tuesday’s primaries.
U.S. Rep. Hillary Scholten, who in 2022 became the first Democrat to represent Grand Rapids in decades, will face Paul Hudson, an attorney who defeated Michael Markey Jr. in the western Michigan district’s GOP primary.
A district just north of Detroit will see a rematch between freshman GOP Rep. John James and Carl Marlinga, a longtime Macomb County prosecutor who defeated three other Democrats in the primary. Marlinga lost to James by 1,600 votes, and national Democrats have made the seat a top target this cycle.
In a heavily Democratic district encompassing downtown Detroit, U.S. Rep. Shri Thanedar defeated Detroit City Council member Mary Waters, who had been endorsed by Mayor Mike Duggan. Thanedar significantly outraised her, and his win likely leaves Detroit — a city that is nearly 80% Black — without Black representation in Congress for a second consecutive term.
Down-ballot races held primaries across the state on Tuesday. Control of the state House of Representatives will be at stake in November, with all 110 seats up for election. Democrats took control of both chambers and the governor’s office for the first time in four decades in 2022 and will be trying to defend those majorities.
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Associated Press writer Isabella Volmert in Lansing, Michigan, contributed to this report.
OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — The Chicago White Sox lost their 21st straight game, tying the American League record with a 5-1 defeat to the Oakland Athletics on Monday night as Max Schuemann hit a tiebreaking, two-run single in the fourth inning.
Chicago is on the longest losing streak since the 1988 Baltimore Orioles lost 21 in a row. The NL record since 1900 is held by the 1961 Philadelphia Phillies, who lost 23 straight.
The major league low belongs to the 1889 Louisville Colonels, an American Association team that lost 26 consecutive games during a 27-111 season.
“We talk about it every day,” White Sox manager Pedro Grifol said of the streak. “Everybody knows what it is. It’s 21 in a row. It sucks. It’s not fun. It’s painful. It hurts. You name it. However you want to describe it. It’s not for lack of effort. Nobody wants to come out here and lose, so we’ve just got to put a good game together and put this behind us.”
Chicago, which last won on July 10 in a doubleheader opener against Minnesota, dropped to 27-88 and is on pace to finish 38-124, which would be the most losses since the 1899 Cleveland Spiders of the National League went 20-134. The White Sox have been held to one run or none 32 times.
“You just try to turn the page,” outfielder Corey Julks said. “Look forward to the next day, bounce back, don’t dwell on the loss, just try to learn from them and get better each day. … We’re just trying to rally as a team and find a way to get a win.”
Tyler Nevin’s first-inning sacrifice fly put the A’s ahead, but Andrew Benintendi tied the score with an RBI single against JP Sears (9-8) in the fourth.
JJ Bleday doubled in the bottom half off Ky Bush (0-1), a 24-year-old left-hander making his big league debut. Zack Gelof walked and Darell Hernaiz was hit by a pitch, loading the bases. Schuemann grounded a single between shortstop and third that bounced into left for a 3-1 lead.
Lawrence Butler hit a sixth-inning homer against Chad Kuhl, his 13th home run this season.
Gelof added a run in the eighth when he sprinted home from first after Jared Shuster’s pitch bounced away from catcher Korey Lee as Schuemann struck out. Lee looked toward Gelof at third and threw to first baseman Andrew Vaughn for the out, and Gelof ran home as Vaughn’s throw skipped past Lee.
“Our whole plan coming into this series was to continue our focus, focus on the details of the game, play the game the way we know we’re capable of, and we did that tonight,” A’s manager Mark Kotsay said.
Sears allowed three hits in seven innings with five strikeouts and a walk, improving to 5-1 in his last six decisions.
“I thought his outing was great,” Kotsay said. “Five strikeouts, just one earned run. He managed the game great.”
Austin Adams and Tyler Ferguson finished a four-hitter that took just 2 hours, 15 minutes, and included eight overall hits.
Bush allowed three runs, two hits and five walks over four innings with three strikeouts. He played college baseball at Saint Mary’s College in Moraga.
“Got the first one out of the way,” Bush said. “Obviously, a little amped up. But happy to debut and just be here.”
TRAINER’S ROOM
White Sox: RHP Dominic Leone (right elbow inflammation) was reinstated from the 60-day injured list. RHP Prelander Berroa and LHP Sammy Peralta were optioned to Triple-A Charlotte.
Athletics: RHP Mason Miller (fractured left pinky finger) threw batting practice and could return from the 10-day IL as soon as Wednesday, according to Kotsay.
UP NEXT
White Sox rookie RHP Jonathan Cannon (1-5, 4.11 ERA) will start Tuesday night opposite A’s RHP Ross Stripling (2-10, 5.64).
SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. (AP) — A fast-moving wildfire that swept into a Southern California hillside community this week destroyed five homes and damaged three others, authorities said Tuesday.
The flames erupted Monday afternoon and chased residents from the neighborhood in San Bernardino, about 60 miles (97 kilometers) east of Los Angeles,
One firefighter was treated for a minor injury but there were no reports of injuries to residents, said Eric Sherwin, spokesperson for the San Bernardino County Fire Department.
“How quickly this fire hit this community,” Sherwin said, “the fact that we have no civilians injured is truly a miracle.”
The fire was reported at 2:40 p.m. Monday and stopped progressing about three hours later after scorching 54 acres (22 hectares). Containment was holding at 75%, Sherwin said. All evacuations were lifted late Tuesday morning.
Investigators were working to determine the cause of the fire, which erupted amid very dry and hot conditions that have made swaths of California quick to burn this summer.
In Northern California, firefighters battled the reawakened Park Fire, a massive blaze that re-exploded Monday after several days of slumber and grew by as much as 20 square miles (53 square kilometers), mostly in about 12 hours.
The Park Fire, California’s largest so far this year and the state’s fourth-largest on record, had already scorched nearly 647 square miles (1,676 square kilometers) by Tuesday morning.
Firefighters were told during their morning briefing to focus on safety and to be mindful of extreme fire behavior including intense and rapidly moving flames.
The Park Fire was allegedly ignited by arson on July 24 outside the Sacramento Valley city of Chico, and has destroyed 640 structures and damaged 52.
ST. LOUIS (AP) — St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell has defeated U.S. Rep. Cori Bush in a Democratic primary in St. Louis, marking the second time this year that one of the party’s incumbents has been ousted in an expensive contest that reflected deep divisions over the war in Gaza.
Bush, a member of the progressive congressional group known as the “Squad,” was seeking a third term in Missouri’s 1st Congressional District, which includes St. Louis city and part of St. Louis County. Bell is heavily favored to carry this overwhelmingly Democratic district in November, when his party is aiming to retake control of the U.S. House.
“I am committed to serving the St. Louis region in Congress with integrity, transparency, and dedication,” Bell said in a statement. “Together, we will tackle the challenges ahead and build a community where everyone has the opportunity to thrive.”
Bush, in a fiery concession speech, said she still has work to do, even if she’ll no longer be in Congress.
“At the end of the day, whether I’m a congresswoman or not, I’m still taking care of my people,” Bush said.
Bell’s campaign received a big boost from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, whose super political action committee, United Democracy Project, spent $8.5 million to oust Bush. She was targeted after repeated criticism of Israel’s response to the Oct. 7 Hamas attack.
It was a gameplan that worked earlier this year in New York. In June, United Democracy Project spent $15 million to defeat another Squad member — U.S. Rep. Jamaal Bowman. Bowman lost to George Latimer, a pro-Israel centrist.
A statement from United Democracy Project said the wins by Bell and Latimer, along with John McGuire’s defeat of U.S. Rep. Bob Good in a Republican primary last week in Virginia, “is further proof that being pro-Israel is good policy and good politics on both sides of the aisle. UDP will continue our efforts to support leaders working to strengthen the U.S.-Israel alliance while countering detractors in either political party.”
Bush, in her concession speech, said she won’t change.
“We will keep supporting a free Palestine,” Bush said. A crowd member answered back: “Free, free Palestine.”
In October, Bush called the Israeli retaliation an “ethnic cleansing campaign.” Soon after the Hamas attack, Bush wrote on social media that Israel’s “collective punishment against Palestinians for Hamas’s actions is a war crime.”
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Her comments prompted backlash, even among some supporters in her district. Bell, who had been planning a Senate run against incumbent Republican Josh Hawley, instead opted to challenge Bush. He told The Associated Press last month that Bush’s comments about Israel were “wrong and offensive.”
Bush responded by saying that the donors behind AIPAC support former President Donald Trump and other Republicans.
“This is only the beginning,” Bush told the AP. “Because if they can unseat me, then they’re going to continue to come after more Democrats.”
Bush and Bell both honed their leadership skills in Ferguson, Missouri, in the unrest that followed Michael Brown’s death at the hands of a police officer in 2014. Friday marks the 10th anniversary of Brown’s death.
Brown, a Black 18-year-old, was walking with a friend on Aug. 9, 2014, when a white officer, Darren Wilson, confronted them. Wilson said he fired in self-defense because Brown was so enraged. Some witnesses said Brown, who was unarmed, had his hands up in surrender. Wilson was cleared of wrongdoing and resigned, and Brown’s death led to months of protests.
Bush, 48, became a protest leader. She was outspoken and critical of how police in Ferguson and other parts of the St. Louis region treated Black people. Her activism prompted an unsuccessful run against longtime incumbent 1st District Democrat William Lacy Clay in 2018, before she defeated him in 2020. She easily won reelection in 2022.
Bell, 49, began hosting conversations about community policing after Brown’s death. The lawyer, who previously served as a municipal prosecutor and judge, ran successfully for a seat on the Ferguson City Council before defeating seven-term incumbent St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Bob McCulloch in the August 2018 Democratic primary.
As prosecutor, Bell reopened an examination into Brown’s death. He announced in July 2020 that while the investigation didn’t exonerate Wilson, there wasn’t enough evidence to charge him.
“My heart breaks” for Brown’s parents, Bell said at the time. “I know this is not the result they were looking for and that their pain will continue forever.”
Brown’s father, Michael Brown Sr., was featured in an ad for Bush.
“He used my family for power,” Brown says of Bell in the ad. “And now he’s trying to sell out St. Louis.”
Bush’s campaign focused on what she’s accomplished for St. Louis. She said her efforts have brought $2 billion to the 1st District and that it was her protest on the steps of the Capitol in 2021 that helped extend the federal eviction moratorium as part of the COVID-19 pandemic, aiding thousands of St. Louisans.
Bell touted his own progressive credentials. He noted that as a prosecutor he has said he will not prosecute any abortion cases in a state that bans the procedure in most instances. He created diversion programs to point people with mental health and substance abuse problems toward treatment instead of jail. And his office has expanded efforts to examine potential cases of wrongful convictions.
In Missouri’s 3rd District, which stretches from the western outskirts of the St. Louis region through central Missouri, the candidate with Trump’s endorsement won. Bob Onder, a physician and also a former state senator, defeated former state Sen. Kurt Schaefer.
Trump wrote on Truth Social last month that Onder was “an incredible America First Patriot.” The former president wrote that Schaefer “is WEAK ON MAGA,” adding, “That’s all you have to know!”
The 3rd District is heavily Republican, and Onder will be favored against Democrat Bethany Mann, a political newcomer, in November. ___
This story has been updated to correct that Onder won in Missouri’s 3rd District, not Schaefer
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Summer Ballentine in Columbia, Missouri, contributed to this report.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A former Kansas attorney general and failed candidate for governor has found at least initial success in his political comeback attempt, winning Tuesday’s Republican primary for an open U.S. House seat.
Former Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt prevailed in the primary in the 2nd District of eastern Kansas over Jeff Kahrs, a former top regional federal health official, and Shawn Tiffany, a rancher. Even though Kahrs worked in former President Donald Trump’s administration, Schmidt won Trump’s endorsement.
In the Democratic primary, former U.S. Rep. Nancy Boyda, who held the 2nd District seat in 2007 and 2008, defeated Matt Kleinmann, a public health advocate who was a member of the 2008 national champion University of Kansas men’s basketball team.
Boyda won the nomination even though she riled up some party activists by positioning herself toward the political center for what she saw as a more viable general election campaign in the Republican-leaning district. She lost her 2008 race for reelection.
Messages seeking comment were left with both Boyda and Kleinmann.
The district’s two-term GOP incumbent Jake LaTurner was not seeking reelection.
Boyda was the last Democrat to represent eastern Kansas in Congress, and the district became redder after the GOP-controlled Legislature redrew it two years ago. Schmidt, who is also a former state senator, raised the most money of any candidate, more than $616,000, including more than $119,000 since mid-July alone, according to campaign finance reports.
“America needs more effective, conservative voices in public service,” Schmidt said in a statement. “I will continue to prioritize securing our border, stopping inflation, and rolling back big government’s overregulation and over-taxation of our daily lives.”
Schmidt narrowly lost the governor’s race in 2022 to Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly, and even though he embraced conservative causes in his three terms as attorney general, he continued to face criticism from the right. Kahrs suggested in mailings that he was not tough enough on illegal immigration, for example.
Besides Trump, Schmidt had the backing of Americans for Prosperity. Part of the political network of billionaire Wichita businessman Charles Koch and his family, the group can mobilize scores of low-tax, small-government activists in Kansas.
“Kansas voters, once again, saw through the political attacks and made the right choice,” said Liz Patton, the group’s senior Kansas adviser said in a statement.
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Republican voters were also settling contested primaries in two other districts where incumbents are seeking reelection.
In the 1st District, which includes western Kansas, two-term U.S. Rep. Tracey Mann prevailed easily over Eric Bloom, a farmer and real estate investor. Mann’s Democratic opponent in November is Paul Buskirk, an academic counselor and adviser for student athletes at the University of Kansas. It’s considered a safe Republican seat.
In the Kansas City-area 3rd District, Dr. Prasanth Reddy, an oncology and internal medicine specialist, defeated small business owner Karen Crnkovich for the right to challenge three-term U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids, the only Democrat in the state’s congressional delegation. Davids made headlines with her 2018 election as a lesbian, Native American and former mixed martial arts fighter.
There also were contested primaries in some of the 40 state Senate and 125 state House districts, and for offices in Kansas’ 105 counties. Polls remained open across the state from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. local time.
Johnson County, the state’s most populous which includes the Kansas City area, had perhaps the most notable local race.
Sheriff Calvin Hayden, seeking a third term, lost the Republican primary to one of his former undersheriffs, Doug Bedford. Hayden received national attention for embracing election conspiracies and keeping an investigation of fraud allegations open at least two years without any criminal charges resulting. In November, Bedford will face Democrat Byron Roberson, a suburban city police chief.
In the 2nd Congressional District, many Republicans saw Schmidt as the leading candidate even before Trump’s “Complete and Total” social media endorsement, thanks to Schmidt’s name recognition.
The former president called Schmidt “An America First Patriot” and added, “HE WILL NEVER LET YOU DOWN!”
Still, Kahrs boasted that Trump chose him to be a regional director at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and was a district director and senior adviser for LaTurner. Kahrs’ campaign touted him as a “conservative warrior.”
“I’m the only tested conservative in this race,” Kahrs said during a candidate forum broadcast by Topeka-area public television’s KTWU, an event Schmidt skipped.
Tiffany ran as a political outsider, often donning a cowboy hat during public appearances. In a mid-July forum on WIBW-TV in Topeka, he said the “radical left” has attacked the American dream and that “politicians — career politicians — have done nothing to stand in the gap on our behalf.”
In the Democratic race, Boyda supported LGBTQ+ rights generally but said she opposes allowing transgender girls and women to play on female sports teams. She also called on President Joe Biden to end his race for reelection the day after his disastrous debate performance, well before other Democrats.
In a KTWU-TV forum last week, Boyda defended running a center-oriented, “general election” campaign from the start. She pointed to Democrats’ 10 losses in a row since her lone 2006 victory. Eight were by 14 percentage points or more.
“Quite honestly, a lot of the 2nd District is not going to trust a Democrat going to Washington, D.C.,” she said. “They want to make sure that you are moderate and that you are independent.”
But Boyda’s stance on transgender athletes drew immediate criticism, with Kansas Young Democrats calling it “disgraceful” on X.
“I believe that Democrats deserve to have a voice,” Kleinmann, Boyda’s opponent in the primary, said during last week’s forum. “Some of the bravest people I know in Kansas are Democrats in a very red district because they’re fighting for Kansas values, and that’s the values I want to defend in Congress.”
The Department of Energy on Tuesday announced $2.2 billion in funding for eight projects across 18 states to strengthen the electrical grid against increasing extreme weather, advance the transition to cleaner electricity and meet a growing demand for power.
The money will help build more than 600 miles of new transmission lines and upgrade about 400 miles of existing lines so that they can carry more current.
Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said the funding is important because extreme weather events fueled by climate change are increasing, damaging towers and bringing down wires, causing power outages.
The investments will provide more reliable, affordable electricity for 56 million homes and businesses, according to the DOE. Granholm said the funds are the single largest direct investment ever in the nation’s grid.
“They’ll help us to meet the needs of electrified homes and businesses and new manufacturing facilities and all of these growing data centers that are placing demands on the grid,” Granholm said in a press call to announce the funding.
It’s the second round of awards through a $10.5 billion DOE program called Grid Resilience and Innovation Partnerships. It was funded through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law of 2021. More projects will be announced this fall.
Among the ones in this round, more than 100 miles of transmission line in California will be upgraded so that new renewable energy can be added quickly and as a response to a growing demand for electricity. A project in New England will upgrade onshore connection points for electricity generated by wind turbines offshore, allowing 4,800 megawatts of wind energy to be added, enough to power about 2 million homes.
The Montana Department of Commerce will get $700 million. Most of that will go toward building a 415-mile, high-voltage, direct current transmission line across Montana and North Dakota. The North Plains Connector will increase the ability to move electricity from east to west and vice versa, and help protect against extreme weather and power disruptions.
The Virginia Department of Energy will get $85 million to employ clean electricity and clean backup power at two data centers, one instate and one in South Carolina. The DOE chose this project because the data centers will be responsive to the grid in a new way: They could provide needed electricity to the local grid on a hot day, from batteries, or reduce their energy use in times of high demand. This could serve as a model for other data centers to reduce their impact on a local area, since they place such high demand on the grid, according to the department.
“These investments are certainly a step in the right direction and they are the right types of investments,” said Max Luke, director of business development and regulatory affairs at VEIR, an early-stage Massachusetts company developing transmission lines capable of carrying five times the power of conventional ones. “If you look at the scale of the challenge and the quantity of grid capacity needed for deep decarbonization and net zero, it’s a drop in the bucket.”
According to Princeton University’s “Net-Zero America” research, the United States will need to expand electricity transmission by roughly 60% by 2030 and may need to triple it by 2050.
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The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.
NEW YORK (AP) — Michael Bloomberg’s organization Bloomberg Philanthropies committed $600 million to the endowments of four historically Black medical schools to help secure their future economic stability.
Speaking in New York at the annual convention of the National Medical Association, an organization that advocates for African American physicians, Bloomberg, the former New York City mayor and billionaire founder of Bloomberg LP, pointed to the closure in the last century of all but four historically Black medical schools, despite the well-documented impact that Black doctors have on improving health outcomes for Black patients.
“Lack of funding and support driven probably in no small part by prejudice and racism, have forced many to close their doors,” Bloomberg said of those medical schools. “We cannot allow that to happen again, and this gift will help ensure it doesn’t.”
Black Americans fare worse in measures of health compared with white Americans, an Associated Press series reported last year. Experts believe increasing the representation among doctors is one solution that could disrupt these long-standing inequities. In 2022, only 6% of U.S. physicians were Black, even though Black Americans represent 13% of the population. Almost half of Black physicians graduate from the four historically Black medical schools, Bloomberg Philanthropies said.
The gifts are among the largest private donations to any historically Black college or university, with $175 million each going to Howard University College of Medicine, Meharry Medical College and Morehouse School of Medicine. Charles Drew University of Medicine & Science will receive $75 million. Xavier University of Louisiana, which is opening a new medical school, will also receive a $5 million grant.
The donations will more than double the size of three of the medical schools’ endowments, Bloomberg Philanthropies said. Donations to endowments are invested with the annual returns going into an organization’s budget. Endowments can reduce financial pressure and, depending on restrictions, offer nonprofits more funds for discretionary spending.
The commitment follows a $1 billion pledge Bloomberg made in July to Johns Hopkins University that will mean most medical students there will no longer pay tuition. The four historically Black medical schools are still deciding with Bloomberg Philanthropies how the latest gifts to their endowments will be used, said Garnesha Ezediaro, who leads Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Greenwood Initiative.
The initiative, named after the community that was destroyed during the race massacre in Tulsa, Oklahoma more than 100 years ago, was initially part of Bloomberg’s campaign as a Democratic candidate for president in 2020. After he withdrew from the race, he asked his philanthropy to pursue efforts to reduce the racial wealth gap and so far, it has committed $896 million, including this latest gift to the medical schools, Ezediaro said.
In 2020, Bloomberg granted the same medicals schools a total of $100 million that mostly went to reducing the debt load of enrolled students, who schools said were in serious danger of not continuing because of the financial burdens compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“When we talked about helping to secure and support the next generation of Black doctors, we meant that literally,” Ezediaro said.
Valerie Montgomery Rice, president of Morehouse School of Medicine, said that gift relieved $100,000 on average in debt for enrolled medical students. She said the gift has helped her school significantly increase its fundraising.
“But our endowment and the size of our endowment has continued to be a challenge, and we’ve been very vocal about that. And he heard us,” she said of Bloomberg and the latest donation.
In January, the Lilly Endowment gave $100 million to The United Negro College Fund toward a pooled endowment fund for 37 HBCUs. That same month, Spelman College, a historically Black women’s college in Atlanta, received a $100 million donation from Ronda Stryker and her husband, William Johnston, chairman of Greenleaf Trust.
Denise Smith, deputy director of higher education policy and a senior fellow at The Century Foundation, said the gift to Spelman was the largest single donation to an HBCU that she was aware of, speaking before Bloomberg Philanthropies announcement Tuesday.
Smith authored a 2021 report on the financial disparities between HBCUs and other higher education institutions, including the failure of many states to fulfill their promises to fund historically Black land grant schools. As a result, she said philanthropic gifts have played an important role in sustaining HBCUs, and pointed to the billionaire philanthropist and author MacKenzie Scott’s gifts to HBCUs in 2020 and 2021 as setting off a new chain reaction of support from other large donors.
“Donations that have followed are the type of momentum and support that institutions need in this moment,” Smith said.
Dr. Yolanda Lawson, president of the National Medical Association, said she felt “relief,” when she heard about the gifts to the four medical schools. With the Supreme Court’s decision striking down affirmative action last year and attacks on programs meant to support inclusion and equity at schools, she anticipates that the four schools will play an even larger role in training and increasing the number of Black physicians.
“This opportunity and this investment affects not only just those four institutions, but that affects our country. It affects the nation’s health,” she said.
Dr. William Ross, an orthopedic surgeon from Atlanta and a graduate of Meharry Medical College, has been coming to the National Medical Association conferences since he was a child with his father, who was also a physician. He said he could testify to the high quality of education at the schools, despite the bare minimum of resources and facilities.
“If we are as individuals to overcome health care disparities, it really does take in collaboration between folks who have funding and those who need funding and a willingness to share that funding,” he said in New York.
Utibe Essien, a physician and assistant professor at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, who researches racial disparities in treatment, said more investment and investment in earlier educational support before high school and college would make a difference in the number of Black students who decide to pursue medicine.
He said he also believes the Supreme Court decision on affirmative action and the backlash against efforts to rectify historic discrimination and racial inequities does have an impact on student choices.
“It’s hard for some of the trainees who are thinking about going into this space to see some of that backlash and pursue it,” he said. “Again, I think we get into this spiral where in five to 10 years we’re going to see a concerning drop in the numbers of diverse people in our field.”
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Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. For all of AP’s philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy.
SEATTLE (AP) — Washington state’s longtime attorney general and a former sheriff known for his work hunting down the Green River Killer advanced Tuesday to November’s general election in the battle to become the next governor in a Democratic stronghold that hasn’t had an open race for the state’s top job in more than a decade.
In high profile congressional races, meanwhile, Democratic U.S. Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez advanced in the 3rd District and will face Donald Trump-endorsed Joe Kent, whom she defeated two years ago. And in the 8th District, Democratic U.S. Rep. Kim Schrier will go head-to-head against Republican Carmen Goers, a commercial banker.
A congressional race in the 4th District between U.S. Rep. Dan Newhouse, one of the last remaining House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump, and two conservative rivals endorsed by the GOP presidential nominee was too early to call.
Under the state’s primary system, the top two vote-getters in each of the contests advance to the November election, regardless of party. Because Washington is a vote-by-mail state, with ballots due to be postmarked by Election Day, it often takes days to learn final results in close races.
Here’s a look at key Washington races:
Governor’s race
Bob Ferguson, a Democrat who has served as attorney general since 2013, went up against more than two dozen candidates in the primary. He will face former U.S. Rep. Dave Reichert, a Republican, in November. The race has featured weeks of intense sparring between the two rivals.
“Washington voters have sent a message that they are ready for a change,” Reichert said in a statement. “I am thankful to all who voted for me in this primary.”
In a state with a reputation as solid Democratic territory that hasn’t had a Republican governor in nearly 40 years, any conservative candidate faces an uphill battle. But the race is considered competitive.
3rd Congressional District
Gluesenkamp Perez made it through the primary in the 3rd District, advancing to what is expected to be one of the tightest general elections in the U.S. She’ll face off again against Kent, a Republican and former Green Beret who has called for the impeachment of President Joe Biden.
“Southwest Washington rejected the divisive, extreme politics of Joe Kent two years ago,” Gluesenkamp Perez said in a statement. “We rejected them again tonight, we will reject them in November, and we will stop Joe Kent from using our seat in Congress to promote his online attention-seeking behavior and his angry, hateful, dangerous worldview.”
Two years ago, Gluesenkamp Perez came out of nowhere to win the congressional seat in a district that hadn’t been in Democratic hands for over a decade. She took over a seat held by a more moderate Republican who lost the primary in part because she voted to impeach Trump after the Jan. 6 insurrection.
Gluesenkamp Perez supports abortion access and policies to counter climate change, but also speaks openly about being a gun owner. Meanwhile, Kent says Gluesenkamp Perez only pretends to be a moderate.
During a livestream on the social platform X, Kent told enthusiastic supporters that Trump called him on election night.
What to know about the 2024 Election
“He wanted me to tell you guys thank you so much for all the hard work you did getting me here,” Kent said. “He appreciates you guys; I really appreciate all of you.”
8th Congressional District
Schrier and Goers advanced to the November general election in the 8th District race.
“The people of the Eighth District have seen how I have delivered for them and know I will continue to fight to bring down costs, ensure everyone feels safe in their community, and make Roe the law of the land,” Schrier said in a statement.
Goers is a commercial banker running to tamp down inflation and cut back on crime. Schrier, a pediatrician, has showcased the 14 bills she’s had signed into law by Trump and Biden.
“We need a change and I’m excited to work with you to bring that change to our district and state,” Goers said in a statement.
The district is a mix of wealthy Seattle exurbs populated by tech workers and central Washington farmland, and until 2019 had been held by the GOP.
4th Congressional District
Newhouse’s bid for a sixth term has meant going up against Trump-endorsed candidates Jerrod Sessler, a Navy veteran, and Tiffany Smiley, a former nurse who entered the race after losing to U.S. Sen. Patty Murray two years ago. The former president’s backing for Sessler came months ago, while his endorsement for Smiley happened three days before the primary, marking a unique, though not unprecedented, dual endorsement by the former president.
Newhouse is one of the last remaining House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump. His opponents believe that vote is a huge liability, but political experts caution it’s difficult to say whether the endorsements will sway voters who already stuck with Newhouse two years ago.
Newhouse is endorsed by the NRA and the National Right to Life, and he has mostly steered clear of the subject of Trump. He’s instead focused on agriculture and border security in a state with millions of acres of pastures, orchards and cereal grain lands where immigrant labor is extremely important.
I’d long forgotten the enlightening words I heard from the depths of my mind on an lsd trip as a young man. I was upon a sailing ship in the vacuum of space when a tidal wave of cosmos crashed down and pitched the boat around. The words, “your greatest joy will be furthest from shore” rang out.
Each week on Polygon, we round up the most notable new releases to streaming and VOD, highlighting the biggest and best new movies for you to watch at home.
This week, A Quiet Place: Day One, starring Lupita Nyong’o and Joseph Quinn, arrives on VOD along with Maxxxine, the third installment in Ti West’s horror series starring Mia Goth. That’s not all there is to watch this weekend. The long-awaited director’s cut of Zack Snyder’s sci-fi epic Rebel Moon finally come to Netflix alongside the “Minus Color” version of Godzilla Minus One, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes struts onto Hulu, and Luca Guadagnino’s Challengers makes its streaming debut on MGM Plus.
Here’s everything new that’s available to watch this weekend!
New on Netflix
Rebel Moon director’s cut
Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix
Image: Netflix
Genre: Sci-fi epic Run time: 3h 21m (Chapter 1); 2h 53m (Chapter 2) Director: Zack Snyder Cast: Sofia Boutella, Djimon Hounsou, Ed Skrein
Zack Snyder is back, this time with the “true” version of his critically-panned sci-fi epic Rebel Moon. Set in a galaxy ruled by a tyrannical empire known as the Motherworld Imperium, the film follows Kora (Sofia Boutella), a former Imperium soldier who recruits a band of warriors to defend a small lunar farming colony from an oncoming invasion.
The question is: Will these versions be it any better than the ones released last year? Only one way to find out!
Godzilla Minus One/Minus Color
Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix
Image: Toho
Genre: Kaiju drama Run time: 2h 4m Director: Takashi Yamazaki Cast: Ryunosuke Kamiki, Minami Hamabe, Yuki Yamada
Godzilla Minus One, the Oscar-winning kaiju drama from director Takashi Yamazaki, was surprise added to Netflix back in June. Now, the “Minus Color” version of the film, which screened for a limited time in theaters early this year, is now available to stream on Netflix starting this weekend. Having seen both in theaters, I can confidently say that no matter which version you happen to choose, the film itself is phenomenal.
Tarot
Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix
Image: Screen Gems/Sony Pictures Releasing
Genre: Horror Run time: 1h 32m Directors: Spenser Cohen, Anna Halberg Cast: Harriet Slater, Adain Bradley, Avantika, Jacob Batalon
From the screenwriter of Moonfall, Tarot follows a group of friends who find a mysterious cursed tarot deck… and after using it, the figures from the cards that they drew all start to manifest and brutally murder them. They must race to figure out the secret of the tarot deck before they all get picked off one by one. All to say — maybe don’t use creepy tarot decks while in a strange mansion.
Saving Bikini Bottom: The Sandy Cheeks Movie
Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix
Image: Netflix
Genre: Adventure comedy Run time: 1h 22m Director: Liza Johnson Cast: Carolyn Lawrence, Tom Kenny, Clancy Brown
Sandy, the Texan squirrel, takes the lead in the new SpongeBob movie. And this time, the underwater denizens venture to the surface — Sandy finally gets to visit home and see her whole family! But they all have to join forces to save Bikini Bottom from an evil CEO.
Genre: Post-apocalyptic sci-fi Run time: 2h 25m Director: Wes Ball Cast: Owen Teague, Freya Allan, Kevin Durand
Picking up 300 years after the events of Matt Reeves’ War of the Planet of the Apes, this new installment in the franchise follows Noa (Owen Teague), a young ape who embarks on a journey to rescue his tribe from Proximus Caesar (Kevin Durand), a maniacal ape who has twisted Caesar’s legacy to create an empire built on conquest and slavery.
As a story, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes rarely reaches above narrative competence. But because of its almost single-minded focus on the apes, its technical prowess in their rendering is always front and center. It is frankly incredible what the team at Wētā FX has done in conjunction with all of the film’s other effects artists to bring the apes to life, to give them all distinct body language, and to faithfully transpose actors’ every tic and subtle expression onto their faces. These are some of the most soulful digital creations ever seen in a blockbuster action movie, and it’s incredible to see them in a film that is so pedestrian.
New on MGM Plus
Challengers
Where to watch: Available to stream on MGM Plus
Image: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures/YouTube
Genre: Sports drama Run time: 2h 11m Director: Luca Guadagnino Cast: Zendaya, Josh O’Connor, Mike Faist
Luca Guadagnino’s sensual sports drama, about a love triangle in professional tennis, has set certain circles of the world on fire since its release in late April and is one of the best movies of the year. Now, you can enjoy it at home.
That script is a terrific three-course meal for Faist and O’Connor. They get to trade off face and heel roles from scene to scene and era to era, as Art and Patrick help and hurt each other in equal measure. But it’s an absolute smorgasbord for Zendaya, who even in starring roles has never been given this much room to stretch. Tashi is a gratifyingly rich character, both righteously angry over the thwarting of her ambitions and cruelly angry at all the men who have the nerve to keep on playing the game that was taken away from her. She’s hungry for affection and withholding it at the same time, by turns sensually curious and coldly dispassionate, ambitious and exhausted, conflicted and confident. She’s the kind of character that media master’s theses are made of, and unpicking Tashi’s conflicting motives and how she integrates them is likely to become a pop culture obsession in the months to come.
This quirky independent romcom follows a bickering couple as they attempt to navigate their relationship, and retain their sanity, in the midst of a global pandemic. Shot on a Hi8 camcorder, New Strains is an authentic slice-of-life story from the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
New to rent
Maxxxine
Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu
Photo: Justin Lubin/A24
Genre: Horror Run time: 1h 41m Director: Ti West Cast: Mia Goth, Elizabeth Debicki, Moses Sumney
The third installment in Ti West’s trilogy of period-specific horror films stars Mia Goth, this time reprising her role as Maxine Minx from 2022’s X. Set six years after surviving the terrifying ordeal that transpired in rural Texas, Maxine now lives and works in Los Angeles as an adult film star and erotic performer on the verge of her first big break in an upcoming horror film. But when a mysterious stalker and an unscrupulous private investigator begin to hound her around town, and harm those closest to her, Maxine will have to summon every ounce of her cunning in order to come out on top.
Maxxxine is sharper, slicker, faster-paced, and more direct than the other two films in the series, and it’s certainly entertaining, for those who can stomach its purposefully challenging, envelope-pushing gore. But this time around, it feels like West has, as Kurt Vonnegut would put it, become what he was formerly just pretending to be. That isn’t just a matter of taxonomy, irrelevant to everyone but nitpickers and librarians trying to figure out which shelf Maxxxine goes on. It winds up affecting the story in some frustrating ways.
A Quiet Place: Day One
Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu
Image: Paramount Pictures
Genre: Horror Run time: 1h 39m Director: Michael Sarnoski Cast: Lupita Nyong’o, Joseph Quinn, Alex Wolff
Lupita Nyong’o stars in the prequel to 2018’s A Quiet Place as Samira, a cancer patient living in New York who witnesses first-hand the arrival of the blind extraterrestrial creatures who overtake the planet. With the help of Eric (Joseph Quinn), a law student, and Henri (Djimon Hounsou), a fellow survivor, Samira must find a way to escape the city alive.
A Quiet Place: Day One isn’t so much a spinoff and prequel of John Krasinski’s 2018 horror movie as it is a riveting drama that plays in the series’ sandbox. You can spot the odd bit of new world-building here or there, about just how and why there are so many damn echolocating aliens, but these tidbits are just background noise (shh, not so loud!) to a much more interesting human story. A Quiet Place and A Quiet Place Part II are rural sci-fi horror, but Day One — from Pig director Michael Sarnoski — moves the setting to New York City and crafts its story in the vein of large-scale disaster cinema. It’s likely the best Manhattan mayhem film since Cloverfield, and it’s also a downright excellent Hollywood blockbuster, if an entirely unexpected one.
The People’s Joker
Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu
Image: TIFF
Genre: Parody comedy Run time: 1h 32m Director: Vera Drew Cast: Vera Drew, Nathan Faustyn, Kane Distler
This DC Comics parody follows the story of Vera, a trans woman from Smallville who moves to Gotham City to break into stand-up comedy under the name “Joker the Harlequin.” Together with her friend The Penguin (Nathan Faustyn), Vera forms an anti-comedy troupe and goes head to head with her abusive partner Mr. J (Kane Distler) and a tyrannical vigilante known as the Batman (Phil Braun).
The film isn’t entirely a comedy in-joke, however — which is good, because the story of Vera/Joker’s “anti-comedy” career is the most straightforward and least memorable aspect of the film. Lengthy discussions about the role of comedians as truth-tellers between Joker and the Penguin are standard stuff for podcasts and documentaries about the art form. Comedic first-person trans coming-of-age narratives, particularly ones where the transition is accomplished by falling into a vat of feminizing hormones, are more rare. Dedicated “to mom and Joel Schumacher,” The People’s Joker is also a sincere exploration of Vera’s journey toward self-realization, beginning with her childhood as a “miserable little girl” trapped in a boy’s body in Smallville.
Daddio
Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu
Image: Phedon Papamichael/Sony Pictures Classics
Genre: Drama Run time: 1h 40m Director: Christy Hall Cast: Sean Penn, Dakota Johnson
Remember Locke, that 2013 chamber piece starring Tom Hardy as a construction foreman who talks to himself and several off-screen characters while driving on the freeway? Well, Daddio is kinda like that, but there’s a crucial difference: Instead of one, there are two on-screen characters talking to each other! Dakota Johnson stars as a woman who has a frank conversation with Clark (Sean Pean), a cab driver who gives her a ride to her apartment in Manhattan from JFK International Airport. What do they talk about? Oh y’know, life and love and vulnerability and stuff like that.
The Vourdalak
Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu
Image: Oscilloscope
Genre: Horror fantasy Run time: 1h 31m Director: Adrien Beau Cast: Kacey Mottet Klein, Ariane Labed, Grégoire Colin
If you, like me, are chomping at the bit to see Robert Eggers’ Nosferatuwhen it premieres later this year, you might consider sinking your teeth into this new supernatural horror movie from director Adrien Beau.
Kacey Mottet Klein stars as the Marquis Jacques Antoine Saturnin d’Urfe, an emissary of the King of France in 18th-century Europe, who is welcomed to stay at the home of a man named Gorcha, who has left to fight against the Turks. When Gorcha fails to return after six days, his family fears that he has been transformed into a Vourdalak — a breed of vampire that feeds on the blood of their family members.
It’s not like celebrated international chef Richard Sandoval planned to open two Chicago restaurants back-to-back. But when the opportunity to launch Toro Chicago inside Streeterville’s Fairmont Chicago, Millennium Park came about, he couldn’t refuse.
In May, Sandoval opened Casa Chi in the InterContinental Chicago Magnificent Mile. It replaced Eno Wine Bar with a focus on Nikkei cuisine that interprets Peruvian ingredients through a Japanese lens — a reflection of the Japanese immigrants who moved to the South American country.
Set to open this fall, Toro Chicago will take a pan-Latin approach to its food and beverage, drawing inspiration from Central and South American countries including Colombia, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Peru, and Venezuela.
“You take off running and you never know what’s going to happen,” says Sandoval of the dual restaurant timelines.
There are some 60 restaurants, including several Toro locations, under the Richard Sandoval Hospitality umbrella around the world. While there is plenty of overlap between the menus there are differences too.
“With this brand, we always leave about 30 percent of the menu to localize it,” says Sandoval, adding that everybody looks at Latin American cuisine differently depending on their location. “For example, Mexican food in New York is different than Mexican food in LA It’s understanding these things and creating menu items that reflect that.” At Toro Chicago, that will involve a strong meat component, he says.
Toro Chicago will draw on the cuisines of countries like Colombia, Argentina, Peru, and Venezuela. KTGY/Toro Chicago
Signature Toro dishes that will be on the Chicago menu include Nikkei-inspired angry scorpion Toro roll (crab, cucumber, avocado, and spicy tuna topped with eel sauce), corn- and ají amarillo-filled empanadas garnished with a chimichurri sauce, and lomo saltado, a Peruvian-style dish of beef tenderloin served on a bed of creamy rice topped with crispy potato and spicy rocoto pepper aioli.
Cocktails at Toro Chicago will follow a similar Latin approach. “It’s a lot of playing with South and Central American ingredients,” says Sandoval. “Our mixologists are very creative, so you can expect a cocktail program that is very engaging and visual.” Toro’s Mercado Margarita includes jalapeño-infused El Jimador Blanco tequila topped with a pink hibiscus rosemary foam that slowly melts into the yellow passion fruit in the cocktail.
Like other Toro locations, the Chicago restaurant’s interior design will be colorful with a mix of bold Latin American textiles. The space will seat about 260 guests with two private rooms for 14 and 50.
“I really enjoyed being in Chicago, so when I got the opportunity to come back, I jumped at it,” he says. “I like big cities, but Chicago, to me, is a little calmer. Plus, I think there’s a great food scene here that over the last 15 years or so has really come around.”
Juliet and Callie are back to cover Episode 4 of The Bachelorette! First, they discuss Jenn’s ex flying from Colombia to try to win her back (04:25). They bond over their mutual distaste for Sam N. (08:48) and talk about the entertaining rugby date (12:28). They discuss Devin’s social media presence not being what they would expect (16:55) and pity Jenn for the torturous dates they are making her go on (22:44). Finally, they give predictions on the show before sharing Love Island USA updates and Olympic documentaries they like (46:04).
Earlier in July, a vague Instagram post from Fares “Freddy” Zeideia brought joy to Chicagoans familiar with Zeideia’s famous New York restaurant, King of Falafel & Shawarma. Zeideia announced he was opening his first restaurant outside of the Empire State. He’s picked the suburban locale of Chicago Ridge and hopes to open in mid-September.
Zeideia’s legend has grown since he opened his first food cart in 2002 in Astoria, New York. While Chicagoans may be familiar with halal street food carts — Halal Guys arrived in Chicago in 2018) — Zeideia says he declined expansion overtures. He objected to greedy investors taking control of what he built. “The Falafel King of Astoria,” as the New York Times called him in 2016, has built a kingdom of two food trucks and one restaurant.
The Palestinian immigrant has family in the Chicago area, and Zeideia’s business partner lives there, too. Zeideia spoke about how Chicago is the Palestinian capital of America with the largest community in the country — it’s mostly focused in the Southwest Suburbs along Harlem Avenue through Bridgeview. That’s why he’s opening the first King of Falafel outside of New York in the suburbs, about 35 minutes from Downtown Chicago near that Palestinian enclave. The location will be for takeout and drive-thru only. Any upcoming locations would have dining rooms. Zeideia says he wants to open three or four in the Chicago area, including in the city proper.
“Everyone over the years has been telling me to come to Chicago, come to Chicago,” Zeideia says during a mid-July interview. He apologizes for not immediately returning a message. He underwent open-heart surgery the week before.
Blissfully unaware of Chicago’s restrictive food truck and mobile food cart laws, Zeideia says he also wants to open a food truck in town. After that, he’ll turn his attention to opening restaurants in Dallas. The New York operation has nothing to do with a similarly named San Francisco restaurant that closed in 2015. Zeideia also wants folks who have visited the New York restaurant to experience the same feel.
“I’m not going to change anything,” he says. “It’s going to be the same, old Freddy; the same attitude, same personality.”
That includes the restaurant’s branding, which now includes the phrase “Free Palestine.” Zeideia has celebrated his Palestinian pride more overtly in recent months as the war in Gaza continues. He’s plastered a cast of politicians — from President Joe Biden to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — on the floor for customers to step on; Zeideia calls them war criminals and blames them for the death toll overseas. He’s encountered backlash. Those disagreeing with his views have led a campaign to have Google erroneously list his restaurants as closed.
However, Zeideia has found more supporters thanks to how social media spreads his exploits. He says random folks will approach him and ask, “Aren’t you the guy with the things on the floor?”
Chicagoans know the type of restaurant owner Zeideia represents. He’s someone who connects with customers and shows up daily to build strong rapport with his customers. He was back at the restaurant a day after heart surgery. Zeideia says he didn’t want to be bored away from the restaurant. While he is excited to be in Chicago to see his six grandchildren more, he’s still a New Yorker to the core. Zeideia says he craves the city’s manic pace which other cities can’t match: “In Chicago, you can sit on a light and nobody honks their horn,” he says.
King of Falafel and Shawarma, 6085 W. 111th Street in suburban Chicago Ridge, planned for a mid-September opening.
New York City’s mayor issued an emergency order Saturday suspending parts of a new law intended to ban solitary confinement in local jails a day before it was to take effect, citing concerns for the safety of staff and detainees.
Mayor Eric Adams declared a state of emergency and signed an order that suspended parts of the law that set a four-hour time limit on holding prisoners who pose safety concerns in “de-escalation confinement” and limit the use of restraints on prisoners while they are transported to courts or within jails.
The four-hour limit could only be exceeded only in “exceptional circumstances.” In those circumstances, prisoners would be released from de-escalation confinement “as soon as practicable” and when they no longer pose an imminent risk of serious injury to themselves or others, according to the mayor’s order.
Adams also suspended a part of the law that prohibited jail officials from placing a prisoner in longer-term “restrictive housing” for more than a total of 60 days in any 12-month period. His order says jail officials must review a prisoner’s placement in restrictive housing every 15 days.
“It is of the utmost importance to protect the health and safety of all persons in the custody of the Department of Correction and of all officers and persons who work in the City of New York jails and who transport persons in custody to court and other facilities, and the public,” Adams wrote in his state of emergency declaration.
City Council leaders did not immediately return messages seeking comment Saturday.
But council spokesperson Shirley Limongi issued a statement sharply criticizing Adams.
“Each day Mayor Adams’ Administration shows how little respect it has for the laws and democracy, it sets more hypocritical double standards for complying with the law that leave New Yorkers worse off. In this case, our city and everyone in its dysfunctional and dangerous jail system, including staff, are left less safe. The reality is that the law already included broad safety exemptions that make this ‘emergency order’ unnecessary and another example of Mayor Adams overusing executive orders without justification,” the statement said.
The bill had been introduced by New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, who argued solitary confinement amounts to torture for those subjected to lengthy hours in isolation in small jail cells.
Williams and other supporters of the new law, including prominent members of New York’s congressional delegation, have pointed to research showing solitary confinement, even only for a few days, increases the likelihood an inmate will die by suicide, violence or overdose. It also leads to acute anxiety, depression, psychosis and other impairments that may reduce an inmate’s ability to reintegrate into society when they are released, they said.
Adams has insisted there has been no solitary confinement in jails since it was eliminated in 2019. He said solitary confinement is defined as “22 hours or more per day in a locked cell and without meaningful human contact.” He said de-escalation confinement and longer-term restrictive housing are needed to keep violent prisoners from harming other prisoners and staff.
Jail officials, the guards’ union and a federal monitor appointed to evaluate operations at city jails objected to parts of the new law, also citing safety concerns.
The law places a four-hour limit on isolating inmates who pose an immediate risk of violence to others or themselves in de-escalation units. Only those involved in violent incidents could be placed in longer-term restrictive housing, and they would need to be allowed out of their cells for 14 hours each day and get access to the same programming available to other inmates.
Adams’ state of emergency declaration will remain in effect for up to 30 days or until it is rescinded, whichever is earlier, with 30-day extensions possible. The order suspending parts of the new law will be in effect for five days unless terminated or modified earlier.
AMES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa’s law banning most abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy goes into effect Monday, a drastic change that enrages — but doesn’t surprise — Sarah Traxler.
When Traxler, an OB-GYN based in Minnesota and the chief medical officer of Planned Parenthood North Central States, went to high school in a conservative Louisiana town in the 1990s, she saw abortion rights losing ground even then, decades before the U.S. Supreme Court and Iowa’s high court would say there isn’t a constitutional right to abortion.
“The protections of Roe have just been chipped away at slowly through time,” she told The Associated Press.
At 8 a.m. Monday in Iowa, the state will join more than a dozen others where abortion access has been sharply curbed in the roughly two years since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
It’s an outcome Iowa’s abortion providers have been fighting but still prepared for, shoring up abortion access in neighboring states and drawing on the lessons learned where bans went into effect more swiftly.
States with restrictive laws are “glimpses of our future,” Traxler said. Even with the ability to prepare, she told reporters Friday, “this transition is devastating and tragic for the people of Iowa.”
Iowa’s Republican-controlled Legislature approved the law last year, but a judge blocked it from being enforced shortly after the measure went into effect because of a lawsuit from the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa, Planned Parenthood and the Emma Goldman Clinic in Iowa City.
The Iowa Supreme Court reiterated in June that there is no constitutional right to an abortion in the state and ordered the hold to be lifted. The district court judge’s July 22 orders set July 29 as the first day of enforcement.
The law prohibits abortions after cardiac activity can be detected, which is roughly at six weeks of pregnancy and before many know they are pregnant. There are limited exceptions in cases of rape, incest, fetal abnormality or when the life of the mother is in danger. Previously, abortion in Iowa was legal up to 20 weeks of pregnancy.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found 44% of the 3,761 total abortions in Iowa in 2021 occurred at or before six weeks. Only six abortions were at the 21-week mark or later.
Alex Sharp, senior health center manager who runs the Planned Parenthood abortion clinic closest to Des Moines, said staff members overbooked schedules this week, moving up appointments for people seeking abortions who likely would be past the legal limit as of Monday.
Still, that wasn’t an option for everyone. Almost a third of the people Sharp spoke to said they couldn’t get off work or find daycare before next week. Those patients could work with staff members to find appointments out of state, she said.
Across the country, the status of abortion has changed constantly since the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, with trigger laws immediately going into effect, states passing new restrictions or expansions of access and court battles putting those on hold.
The Guttmacher Institute, which supports abortion rights, projected last month that about 20,000 abortions were performed in Kansas in 2023, or 152% more than in 2020. Near Iowa, Illinois saw a 71% increase and Minnesota went up 49%. Providers there expect to see more influx after Monday.
When the first restrictive laws went into effect, like in Texas, providers had to essentially “figure it out as we went,” said Amy Hagstrom Miller, founder of Whole Woman’s Health. And even though providers across the country have learned how to work within the limits, “I don’t ever want us to have this seem normal.”
Hagstrom Miller has been talking with leaders at the independent Emma Goldman Clinic about accepting referrals at the Whole Woman’s Health clinic in Minnesota, where 20% of abortion appointments go to out-of-state travelers, she said. That percentage is expected to increase under Iowa’s new law.
The region’s Planned Parenthood affiliate also has been making investments for over a year to prepare for Monday. A location added last year in Mankato, Minnesota, is only an hour’s drive from Iowa and recently began providing medication abortion. Just over the state line in Omaha, Nebraska, a facility is quadrupling exam rooms and adding staff.
Maggie DeWitte, who has worked for decades to advocate against abortion access in Iowa, said it’s to be expected after Dobbs that while some states work to regulate or even eliminate abortion, others are going to be less restrictive.
“We certainly hope that women would not travel out of state, but we know that that is going to happen,” she said. “So that just has to continue our education efforts to those women to let them know that there are other options out there.”
Many people don’t know the law was passed or is going into effect, making those conservations even more sensitive. Staff members have had to tell patients they are too far along and it’s too late unless they travel and miss more work, Planned Parenthood’s Sharp said.
It’s been difficult, she said, even though clinics are as ready as they can be for Monday.
“We are prepared operationally for it,” Sharp said, “but not emotionally or mentally for it, at all.”
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Mark Vancleave in Bloomington, Minnesota, and Geoff Mulvihill in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, contributed to this report.