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  • After years of fighting Iowa’s strict abortion law, clinics also prepared to follow it

    After years of fighting Iowa’s strict abortion law, clinics also prepared to follow it

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    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.

    In states with restrictions, the main abortion options are getting pills via telehealth or underground networks and traveling, vastly driving up demand in states with more access.

    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.”

    ___

    Mark Vancleave in Bloomington, Minnesota, and Geoff Mulvihill in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, contributed to this report.

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  • USDA moves to limit salmonella in raw poultry products

    USDA moves to limit salmonella in raw poultry products

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    The Agriculture Department on Monday announced plans to limit salmonella in poultry products in the U.S., a proposal that officials say will keep contaminated meat off store shelves and lead to fewer illnesses.

    Under the proposed new rule, poultry companies would have to keep salmonella levels under a certain threshold and test for the presence of six particularly sickening forms of the bacteria, three found in turkey and three in chicken. If the bacteria exceeds the proposed standard and any of those strains are found, the poultry couldn’t be sold and would be subject to recall.

    The poultry industry has made progress in reducing the amount of salmonella in its products over the past three decades, said Dr. Emilio Esteban, USDA undersecretary for food safety.

    “However, there’s not been a similar decline in people in the number of illnesses,” he said.

    The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates salmonella causes 1.35 million infections annually, most of them through food, and about 420 deaths. The Agriculture Department estimates 125,000 infections from chicken and 43,000 from turkey each year.

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    Under the proposal, poultry companies would also have to establish monitoring programs that would identify contamination throughout the slaughter system. The proposal includes guidelines for lowering the chance of salmonella spreading through flocks before harvest, including vaccinating birds against the bacteria.

    The proposed rule, three years in the making, would be finalized after a public comment period.

    In April, the department told poultry producers to reduce salmonella in certain frozen poultry products as a first step. It was the first time the agency labeled salmonella as a contaminating “adulterant” in food, alongside certain types of E. coli.

    The National Chicken Council, which lobbies for the U.S. broiler chicken industry, opposes additional requirements.

    Ashley Peterson, a senior vice president for the group, questioned if the proposal was “demonstrated to positively impact public health” and said it could significantly raise prices. She said the council is committed to further reducing salmonella and looked forward to reviewing the full USDA proposal.

    Martin Bucknavage, a Penn State food scientist, said tracking specific levels and types of the bacteria is “not an easy thing,” especially at the fast pace at which poultry hits store shelves.

    He expects the industry will need time to adjust and it would take a while to see if the new requirements actually slow food poisoning cases.

    “Certainly, lowering the level of salmonella lowers your risk of getting ill,” Bucknavage said.

    The USDA took similar action with E. coli bacteria in 1994 after deadly food poisoning outbreaks tied to ground beef, and the number of related foodborne illnesses have fallen by more than 50%.

    The agency didn’t set limits on salmonella levels until now because there weren’t good enough tools and technology to track the bacteria in this way, but now “it’s time to change our approach,” Esteban said.

    “One of my commitments to this mission, to USDA, has been that I would not do things without having science to back us up,” he said. “We have the tools. We have the technology. We have the knowledge.”

    ___

    The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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  • Takeaways from AP’s story on inefficient tech slowing efforts to get homeless people off the streets

    Takeaways from AP’s story on inefficient tech slowing efforts to get homeless people off the streets

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    LOS ANGELES (AP) — Los Angeles is the nation’s epicenter of homelessness, where more than 45,000 people live in weather-beaten tent encampments and rusting RVs. But even in the state that is home to Silicon Valley, technology has not kept up with the long-running crisis.

    Billions of dollars have been spent to get homeless people off the streets in the region, but outdated computer systems with error-filled data are all too often unable to provide even basic information.

    Better Angels United is developing a series of apps — to be donated to participating groups — that the nonprofit group hopes could revolutionize shelter and services for homeless people that includes a mobile-friendly prototype for outreach workers. It is to be followed by systems for shelter operators and a comprehensive shelter bed database the region now lacks.

    Here are some of the key findings by The Associated Press:

    What’s going on? No one really knows

    More than 1 in 5 of all homeless people in the U.S. live in Los Angeles County, or about 75,000 people on any given night. The county is the most populous in the nation, home to 10 million people, roughly the population of Michigan.

    Dozens of governments and service groups within the county use a mishmash of software to track homeless people and services that results in what might be called a tech traffic jam. Systems can’t communicate, information is outdated, data is often lost.

    A homeless person wants a shelter, but is a bed available?

    Again, it’s possible no one really knows. No system exists that provides a comprehensive listing of available shelter beds in Los Angeles County. Once a shelter bed is located, there is a 48-hour window for the spot to be claimed. But homeless case workers say that window sometimes closes before they are aware a bed is available.

    “Just seeing … the general bed availability is challenging,” said Bevin Kuhn, acting deputy chief of analytics for the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, the agency that coordinates homeless housing and services in Los Angeles County.

    Bad data in, bad data out

    One of the big challenges: There is currently no uniform practice for caseworkers to collect and enter information into databases on the homeless people they interview. Some caseworkers might scribble notes on paper, others might tap a few lines into a cellphone, others might try to remember their interactions and recall them later.

    All that information later goes into one or more databases. That leaves data vulnerable to errors, or long lag times before information recorded on the street gets entered.

    Mark Goldin, Better Angels chief technology officer, described L.A.’s technology as “systems that don’t talk to one another, lack of accurate data, nobody on the same page about what’s real and isn’t real.”

    In the home of Silicon Valley, how did tech fall behind?

    There is no single reason, but challenges from the pandemic to the county’s sprawling government structure contributed.

    With the rapidly expanding homeless numbers came “this explosion of funds, explosions of organizations and everyone was learning at the same time. And then on top of that … the pandemic hit,” Kuhn said. “Everyone across the globe was frozen.”

    Another problem: Finding consensus among the disparate government agencies, advocacy groups and elected officials in the county.

    “The size of Los Angeles makes it incredibly complex,” Kuhn added.

    In search of a fix, building the app

    Better Angels conducted over 200 interviews with caseworkers, data experts, managers and others involved in homeless programs as part of developing their software. They found startling gaps: For example, no one is measuring how effective the system is at getting people off the street and into housing and services.

    One of the biggest challenges: Getting governments and service groups to participate, even though Better Angels will donate its software to those in L.A. county.

    “Everything is safe, everything is secure, everything is uploaded, everything is available,” Goldin said.

    But “it’s very difficult to get people to do things differently,” he added. “The more people that use it, the more useful it will be.”

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  • Wisconsin Republicans ask voters to take away governor’s power to spend federal money

    Wisconsin Republicans ask voters to take away governor’s power to spend federal money

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    Wisconsin Republicans are asking voters to take away the governor’s power to unilaterally spend federal money, a reaction to the billions of dollars that flowed into the state during the COVID-19 pandemic.

    Democratic Gov. Tony Evers was free to spend most of that money as he pleased, directing most of it toward small businesses and economic development, angering Republicans who argued the Legislature should have oversight.

    That’s what would happen under a pair of related constitutional amendments up for voter approval in the Aug. 13 primary election. The changes would apply to Evers and all future governors and cover any federal money to the state that comes without specific spending requirements, often in response to disasters or other emergencies.

    Democrats and other opponents are mobilizing against the amendments, calling them a legislative power grab that would hamstring governors’ ability to quickly respond to a future natural disaster, economic crisis or health emergency.

    If the amendments pass, Wisconsin’s government “will become even more dysfunctional,” said Julie Keown-Bomar, executive director of Wisconsin Farmers Union.

    “Wisconsinites are so weary of riding the partisan crazy train, but it is crucial that we show up at the polls and vote ‘no’ on these changes as they will only make us go further off the rails,” she said in a statement.

    But Republicans and other backers say it’s a necessary check on the governor’s current power, which they say is too broad.

    The changes increase “accountability, efficiency, and transparency,” Republican state Sen. Howard Marklein, a co-sponsor of the initiative, said at a legislative hearing.

    The two questions, which were proposed as a single amendment and then separated on the ballot, passed the GOP-controlled Legislature twice as required by law. Voter approval is needed before they would be added to the state constitution. The governor has no veto power over constitutional amendments.

    Early, in-person absentee voting for the Aug. 13 election begins Tuesday across the state and goes through Aug. 11. Locations and times for early voting vary.

    Wisconsin Republicans have increasingly turned to voters to approve constitutional amendments as a way to get around Evers’ vetoes. Midway through his second term, Evers has vetoed more bills than any governor in Wisconsin history.

    In April, voters approved amendments to bar the use of private money to run elections and reaffirm that only election officials can work the polls. In November, an amendment on the ballot seeks to clarify that only U.S. citizens can vote in local elections.

    What to know about the 2024 Election

    • Democracy: American democracy has overcome big stress tests since 2020. More challenges lie ahead in 2024.
    • AP’s Role: The Associated Press is the most trusted source of information on election night, with a history of accuracy dating to 1848. Learn more.
    • Stay informed. Keep your pulse on the news with breaking news email alerts. Sign up here.

    Republicans put this question on the August primary ballot, the first time a constitutional amendment has been placed in that election where turnout is much lower than in November.

    The effort to curb the governor’s spending power also comes amid ongoing fights between Republicans and Evers over the extent of legislative authority. Evers in July won a case in the Wisconsin Supreme Court that challenged the power the GOP-controlled Legislature’s budget committee had over conservation program spending.

    Wisconsin governors were given the power to decide how to spend federal money by the Legislature in 1931, during the Great Depression, according to a report from the Legislative Reference Bureau.

    “Times have changed and the influx of federal dollars calls for a different approach,” Republican Rep. Robert Wittke, who sponsored the amendment, said at a public hearing.

    It was a power that was questioned during the Great Recession in 2008, another time when the state received a large influx of federal aid.

    But calls for change intensified during the COVID-19 pandemic when the federal government handed Wisconsin $5.7 billion in aid between March 2020 and June 2022 in federal coronavirus relief. Only $1.1 billion came with restrictions on how it could be spent.

    Most of the money was used for small business and local government recovery grants, buying emergency health supplies and paying health care providers to offset the costs of the pandemic.

    Republicans pushed for more oversight, but Evers vetoed a GOP bill in 2021 that would have required the governor to submit a plan to the Legislature’s budget committee for approval.

    Republican increased the pressure for change following the release of a nonpartisan audit in 2022 that found Evers wasn’t transparent about how he decided where to direct the money.

    One amendment specifies the Legislature can’t delegate its power to decide how money is spent. The second prohibits the governor from spending federal money without legislative approval.

    If approved, the Legislature could pass rules governing how federal money would be handled. That would give them the ability to change the rules based on who is serving as governor or the purpose of the federal money.

    For example, the Legislature could allow governors to spend disaster relief money with no approval, but require that other money go before lawmakers first.

    Opposing the measures are voting rights groups, the Wisconsin Democratic Party and a host of other liberal organizations, including those who fought to overturn Republican-drawn legislative maps, the League of Women Voters of Wisconsin and Wisconsin Faith Voices for Justice.

    Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, the state’s largest business lobbying group, and the Badger Institute, a conservative think tank, were the only groups that registered in support in the Legislature.

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  • 1 killed in Maryland mall shooting in food court area

    1 killed in Maryland mall shooting in food court area

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    COLUMBIA, Md. (AP) — One person was killed in a shooting inside a shopping mall in a suburb of Baltimore and Washington on Saturday, police said.

    Authorities received a call after gunfire in the food court area of the mall in Columbia, Maryland, at about 6:10 p.m. Officers found Angelo Little, 17, of Columbia, dead from a gunshot wound, Howard County police said.

    Police determined that the suspect left the mall following the shooting, and detectives believe the victim was targeted.

    Authorities say the investigation is ongoing.

    Officers worked to evacuate people in an orderly fashion, and the mall was fully cleared by 9:00 p.m. Saturday, police said.

    The mall also was the scene of a shooting in January 2014, when three people died after a man with a shotgun killed two people and then himself.

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  • Even on quiet summer weekends, huge news stories spread to millions more swiftly than ever before

    Even on quiet summer weekends, huge news stories spread to millions more swiftly than ever before

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    James Peeler’s phone blew up with messages as he drove home from church in Texas. Reading a book on her couch in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Wendy Schweiger spied something on Facebook. After finishing a late-night swim in the Baltic Sea off Finland, Matti Niiranen clicked on a CNN livestream.

    Each learned that President Joe Biden had abandoned his re-election bid minutes after he dropped a statement online without warning on a summer Sunday.

    Eight days after the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump, it marked the second straight July weekend that a seismic American story broke at a time most people weren’t paying attention to the news. Biden’s announcement was a startling example of how fast and how far word spreads in today’s always-connected world.

    “It seemed like a third of the nation knew it instantly,” said longtime news executive Bill Wheatley, “and they told another third.”

    News travels fast, as they say

    Wheatley, now retired and summering in Maine, had sat down to check his email and absent-mindedly refreshed the CNN.com home site on his computer. If he didn’t learn the news that way, text messages from friends would have alerted him soon after.

    At 1:46 p.m. Eastern Time, the moment Biden posted his announcement on X, an estimated 215,000 people happened to be logged on to one of 124 major U.S. news websites. Fifteen minutes later, those sites had 893,000 readers, according to Chartbeat.

    On apnews.com, 3,580 people entered the site during the 1:46 p.m. minute. Nearly an hour later, at 2:43 p.m., The Associated Press’ online news destination site hit the afternoon’s peak of 18,936 new visitors. CNN.com and its news app saw its usage quintuple within 20 minutes of the news breaking, the network said.

    Television networks broke into regular programming for the story between 1:50 and 2:04 p.m. During the relatively quiet quarter-hour before 2 p.m., a total of 2.69 million people were watching either CNN, Fox News Channel or MSNBC, the Nielsen company said. The audience on those three networks swelled to 6.84 million between 2 and 4 p.m. Eastern. Add ABC and CBS, which also had special coverage in those hours, and there were at least 9.27 million following the story on television.

    How did everybody get there so quickly? As Wheatley suggested, word of mouth played a big role. To his credit, Peeler said he didn’t open his text messages until stopping his car.

    Many people also have alerts set up on their phone.

    What to know about the 2024 Election

    • Democracy: American democracy has overcome big stress tests since 2020. More challenges lie ahead in 2024.
    • AP’s Role: The Associated Press is the most trusted source of information on election night, with a history of accuracy dating to 1848. Learn more.
    • Stay informed. Keep your pulse on the news with breaking news email alerts. Sign up here.

    “Our phones are constantly chirping at us and we have them with us all the time,” said Brian Ott, a media and communications professor at Missouri State University and author of “The Twitter Presidency: Donald J. Trump and the Politics of White Rage.”

    Ott and his wife were traveling in Belgrade, Serbia, and, with the time difference, had gone to bed on Sunday night before Biden made his announcement. Ott found out the next morning when he checked news sites online and told his wife when she woke up.

    “Oh, I already know,” she responded. She had logged on to X when she got up to use the bathroom in the middle of the night.

    Since then, as he has moved on to Italy, visiting Rome and Florence, Ott said everyone he’s run into who hears he speaks English has wanted to talk to him about Biden.

    “My sense is that the compulsion is the same for everyone,” he said. “In our digital world, information is capital, and everyone wants to demonstrate their capital.”

    Finding out in various ways

    At his summer house in Pyharanta, Finland, Niiranen has taken a keen interest in U.S. politics, which the semiretired writer said dates to his time as an exchange student in Michigan. He had gone for a swim after 10 p.m. on Sunday, since daylight lingers longer there.

    Niiranen had read speculation that Biden might drop out, so when he sat down on his deck after getting out of the water, he checked the CNN stream and found that was the case.

    “Interesting election you have there!” he said. “I’ll be watching it.”

    Visiting family in Canaan, New Hampshire, Tracy Jasnowski was having a mostly unplugged week because of spotty internet service. Once a day, adults and children alike retreated with their devices to a spot on the lawn where the service is more consistent. That’s when she found out.

    “Honestly, I thought I might vomit,” she said. “I was shocked. I was cast adrift. I had no idea that would happen.”

    Even if she hadn’t learned it then, Jasnowski said she quickly got text messages from friends. And when her father woke up from his nap, he turned on Fox News.

    A generation or two earlier, people would have to be watching TV or listening to the radio to hear a special report about momentous news, said Wheatley, a former executive at NBC News. Then people would spread it by telling friends or family. Now with social media, text alerts and websites available at a click, news moves “much, much faster.”

    “The next logical question,” he said, “is how accurate is it?”

    Get it first, but first get it right

    It’s a mantra drummed into young journalists: Get the news fast but, more importantly, get it right. A mistake on a major, breaking story can derail a career. This month’s big stories illustrated the pressure that comes with the need for speed.

    Almost immediately after Biden’s announcement, it became a major part of the story journalists were filing that he hadn’t endorsed his vice president, Kamala Harris, to succeed him. He did within a half hour, but that’s an eternity for those who want to raise questions or float conspiracy theories.

    Similarly, video of the Trump rally where shots were fired appeared instantly on television screens. But most initial news reports were extremely cautious, sticking to what was known: Trump was hurried off the stage by Secret Service agents. Blood was visible. There was a noise that sounded like gunshots.

    That, in turn, led some to criticize journalists for being too wary, too reluctant to call it an assassination attempt. Yet not all facts are quickly known; nearly two weeks later, at a congressional hearing, FBI Director Christopher Wray said it still wasn’t fully clear whether Trump had been hit by a bullet or shrapnel. The next day, the FBI announced it had concluded it was a bullet.

    In other words, it’s common that there’s more to a story than meets the eye, and the frenzy of initial breaking news requires strong adherence to the facts available at the moment, no matter what becomes clear later.

    When Peeler arrived at his destination in Texas last week and checked on what his friends had texted him about Biden, he called up the websites of local TV network affiliates. In Pennsylvania, Schweiger turned immediately to the AP and The New York Times online.

    Both were grateful they had someplace they considered reliable to learn the facts.

    “I operate under the assumption that news is 24 hours, and that you always have people that can be pressed into service for anything at any time,” Schweiger said.

    ___

    David Bauder writes about media for the AP. Follow him at http://twitter.com/dbauder.

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  • California date palm ranches reap not only fruit, but a permit to host weddings and quinceañeras

    California date palm ranches reap not only fruit, but a permit to host weddings and quinceañeras

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    COACHELLA, Calif. (AP) — Claudia Lua Alvarado has staked her future on the rows of towering date palms behind the home where she lives with her husband and two children in a desert community east of Los Angeles.

    It’s not solely due to the fleshy, sweet fruit they give each year. Their ample shade and the scenic backdrop they form draw scores of families seeking an event space to host celebrations ranging from weddings to quinceañeras, traditional coming-of-age events for girls’ 15th birthdays that are observed in Latin American cultures.

    Lua Alvarado is one of several dozen owners of small ranches that produce dates and double as event venues catering to the Coachella Valley’s predominantly Latino community.

    “This is what sells our property,” said Lua Alvarado, a 42-year-old fashion designer who bought the 8-acre (3.2-hectare) plot seven years ago. “It feels like we’re in Hawaii or some other tropical place.”

    While the region is known for blistering heat and the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival that draws thousands of people each year, it’s also responsible for more than 80% of the country’s dates thanks to the arid climate and ample groundwater, according to the California Date Commission.

    Most dates are grown by large-scale producers that also pack and ship the fruit. Lua Alvarado and other small producers harvest dates from their land and sell them to big producers, but that’s not enough to make ends meet.

    Many have other jobs ranging from landscaping to horse training and run the ranches, or ranchos as they’re known in Spanish, as event venues providing large outdoor spaces for family gatherings at a more affordable price than posh hotels in the resort areas around Palm Springs.

    Ranchos have existed for decades in the Coachella Valley and have grown in number along with the region’s population and a desire by many in the Latino community and others to host more events outdoors, especially since the coronavirus pandemic.

    But the weekend parties began drawing complaints from some neighbors seeking rural quiet, which prompted local authorities to cite the venues for noise and code violations.

    Mounting fines drove rancho owners to organize and seek special rules authorizing them to host private events — much like other properties do for concertgoers to the annual music festival — and keep their date palms thriving.

    Riverside County’s board of supervisors voted in June for a plan that would allow ranchos at least 4.5 acres (1.8 hectares) in size that remain 40% dedicated to agriculture and 20% to dates to do so, and includes provisions for parking and safety.

    V. Manuel Perez, a county supervisor, compared the plan to efforts to develop wine country in a nearby community known for grapevines and hot air balloon rides. He said it’s vital in a region home to Latino farmworkers and their children who want to celebrate family milestones and their culture on a budget.

    About 70% of the area’s population is Latino and the median household income was $65,000 a year in 2022, about $20,000 less than in the county as a whole, U.S. Census Bureau data show.

    “In 10 years, the Coachella Valley will be seen as date country,” said Perez, who recalled attending parties at ranchos as a child. “We felt this would be a unique way to ensure the success and the continuance — the further expansion if you will — of having something accessible, an event space that is accessible, that is affordable for people.”

    Dates have been cultivated in the Coachella Valley for more than a century since offshoots were brought from the Middle East to see if they would grow in the Southern California desert due to similarities in climate. The valley is the top date-growing region in the country, and last year Riverside County had nearly 10,000 acres (4,046 hectares) of date palms that produced more than 38,000 tons (34,473 metric tons) of the fruit, according to the country agricultural commissioner’s office.

    Mark Tadros, who hosts educational events and grows dates at Aziz Farms, said ranchos aren’t the biggest growers but when you calculate the fruit they sell to packing houses, it makes a difference. He plans to apply for the new permit for his 10-acre (4-hectare) farm and hopes that requiring landowners to devote a set share of their properties to the trees will encourage those who may not have enough date palms to plant more of them.

    “I think the more people who have stake in this industry and in this game, the better off we’ll be,” Tadros said, adding he has seen many date growers get out of the business.

    Carlos Ulloa has come to appreciate date palms after buying land seven years ago in Thousand Palms. His vision was to create a place where he could keep his horses and have a working ranch with lambs and peacocks while hosting events where families could have ample space to invite their relatives to a celebration without going broke.

    Dates didn’t figure into the equation, so Ulloa had the prior landowner — a date farmer — take most of his 500 palms and leave only about 150 behind. Ulloa later learned that each tree sold for as much as $1,000. He enjoyed their shade so much that he’s now taking offshoots to grow more palms and repopulate his ranch with them, something he is especially eager to do since only date properties will qualify for the new permit.

    Ulloa, who previously worked as a hotel event coordinator, said the ranchos fill a niche by allowing families to pay a few thousand dollars for an event and bring their own food or make decorations to cut costs, and they do so beautifully.

    “We’re providing the opportunity to people that are not as well off to, you know, have their celebrations, and not just our celebrations, but to follow our traditions, because a quinceañera — it’s more Latino than no other,” he said.

    ___

    This story has been updated to correct that Alvarado is 42, not 49.

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  • Should you stretch before exercise? After? Never? Here’s what to know

    Should you stretch before exercise? After? Never? Here’s what to know

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    For many people of a certain age, high school gym class began with reaching for their toes. Then, over the years, we were told it was better to stretch after exercise.

    It turns out, both those things can be true, but the differing advice has created some confusion.

    Stretching can help make you more flexible, improve range of motion in your joints — and feel good. David Behm, who researches human kinetics at Memorial University of Newfoundland in St. John’s, Canada, offers this advice on when to stretch and how to do it safely:

    Warm up first

    It’s almost always good to stretch, but it’s better if you warm up first, said Behm, author of “The Science and Physiology of Flexibility and Stretching.” He recommends a light aerobic activity such as jogging, walking or cycling for five or 10 minutes.

    Follow that with some static stretching, the traditional way of reaching and holding a position (think back to that gym class). You can then do activity-specific dynamic stretching, in which you warm up the muscles with repetitive movements like leg lifts.

    Behm says one minute is “the magic number” for how long to do static stretching per muscle group without fatigue.

    Expand your definition of ‘stretching’

    Should you always stretch before exercising? If it’s traditional stretching, not necessarily.

    This article is part of AP’s Be Well coverage, focusing on wellness, fitness, diet and mental health. Read more Be Well.

    The better question, Behm says, is, “Should people increase their range of motion? Should people have better flexibility? And that is yes, because it helps prevent injuries. It helps with health. But you don’t have to stretch to achieve that.”

    Resistance training, for instance, can be an effective form of stretching, he said. Doing a chest press increases range of motion in your deltoids and pecs, whether with barbells, dumbbells or machines, so there is no need to stretch beforehand. Just make sure to start with a small amount of weight to warm up and then add more to train.

    “You probably don’t have to do extra stretching unless you’re a gymnast, a figure skater, or even a golfer who needs a great range of motion through that swing,” Behm said.

    Nor do you need to stretch first if you’re going for a leisurely run. Simply start with a slow jog to warm up and then increase the pace.

    Don’t do it if it hurts

    After exercise, “light stretching is OK, as long as you don’t reach a point where you’re feeling pain,” Behm said. Since your muscles will be warm by that point, overdoing it makes you more likely to injure yourself.

    Foam rollers can help with muscle recovery and have been shown to increases range of motion as well as stretching.

    Do some static stretching before sports

    If you’re playing a sport, Behm said, static stretching beforehand helps reduce muscle and tendon injury.

    “If you’re going to do an explosive movement, change of direction, agility, sprint, any of these explosive activities that involve your muscles and tendons,” he said, “you’re going to be stronger if you do static stretching.”

    People can especially get in trouble when they go back to a sport they used to play, whether it’s tennis, surfing or any sort of team activity.

    Also, stretch both sides equally. Lacking flexibility on one side also can lead to injury.

    Sounds simple. Why all the confusion?

    Different studies over the years have either encouraged or discouraged stretching before exercise. Behm says that partly because some studies didn’t reflect real-life conditions, or were designed with elite athletes in mind, not regular people.

    “If you’re Usain Bolt, it makes a difference,” said Behm. Not so much for the rest of us.

    ___

    Albert Stumm writes about food, travel and wellness. Find his work at https://www.albertstumm.com

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  • FACT FOCUS: Online reports falsely claim Biden suffered a ‘medical emergency’ on Air Force One

    FACT FOCUS: Online reports falsely claim Biden suffered a ‘medical emergency’ on Air Force One

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    False reports that President Joe Biden had a “medical emergency” while traveling back to Delaware on Friday after a campaign stop in Wisconsin, spread widely on social media on Friday. They were without merit.

    Here’s a look at the facts.

    ___

    CLAIM: President Joe Biden had a “medical emergency” aboard Air Force One on Friday.

    AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. There were no signs of a medical emergency on the flight, according to an Associated Press reporter who was traveling with Biden. Air Force One arrived at Delaware Air National Guard Base in New Castle, Delaware, at 7:22 p.m. The president exited the plane on his own, saluted and spoke with an officer at the base of the stairs and took a question from a reporter before leaving the airport.

    THE FACTS: As Biden returned to his home in Wilmington, Delaware, after a campaign stop in Madison, Wisconsin, on Friday social media users falsely claimed that the president had suffered a “medical emergency” aboard Air Force One.

    Air Force One landed in New Castle, Delaware, at 7:22 p.m. about the same time posts started spreading about Biden’s alleged medical emergency.

    “I just received a tip from an anonymous source,” reads one X post. “My source says that Joe Biden is currently experiencing a medical emergency on Air Force One as I type this. No further details are known.”

    Another X post states: “Joe Biden is reportedly having a medical emergency on Air Force One right now. Press access has been removed.” It had received approximately 15,000 likes and 10,900 shares as of Saturday morning.

    The posts presented no evidence that such an event occurred. Press access was not removed.

    Video shows Biden walking down the steps of Air Force One in Delaware, speaking with an officer, answering a reporter’s question about whether he would watch a highly anticipated interview he did with ABC News’ George Stephanopolous and getting into a car, all without issue.

    There were no signs of an emergency aboard Air Force One and the press was not denied access to the plane at any point, according to an AP reporter who was traveling on Air Force One with Biden during the flight from Wisconsin to Delaware. The reporter added that press was able to move about the plane as usual and that a door separating press from Biden’s top staff was open for most of the flight.

    White House spokesperson Andrew Bates called the claim “100% false” in an X post on Friday night.

    Other posts claimed that the press did not see Biden when the presidential motorcade arrived at his home Friday night and that his campaign had canceled upcoming events as a result of the supposed emergency.

    What to know about the 2024 Election

    • Democracy: American democracy has overcome big stress tests since 2020. More challenges lie ahead in 2024.
    • AP’s Role: The Associated Press is the most trusted source of information on election night, with a history of accuracy dating to 1848. Learn more.
    • Stay informed. Keep your pulse on the news with breaking news email alerts. Sign up here.

    A press pool was in Biden’s motorcade when he was dropped off at his Wilmington home, according to the AP reporter who was traveling with the president. The reporter said journalists did not see him enter the house, but they routinely do not see him enter his Wilmington home because it is set back from the street and it is typical to only see the motorcade going through the gates leading to the house.

    Biden had no public events planned for Saturday. He was scheduled to speak at a National Education Association convention on Sunday, but canceled after the union’s staff announced a strike on Friday.

    “President Biden is a fierce supporter of unions and he won’t cross a picket line,” his campaign said in a statement. “The President is still planning to travel to Pennsylvania this weekend.”

    ___

    Associated Press reporters Colleen Long and Zeke Miller contributed to this report.

    ___

    Find AP Fact Checks here: https://apnews.com/APFactCheck.

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  • Here’s a look at some of the false claims made during Biden and Trump’s first debate

    Here’s a look at some of the false claims made during Biden and Trump’s first debate

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    President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump traded barbs and a variety of false and misleading information as they faced off in their first debate of the 2024 election.

    Trump falsely represented the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol as a relatively small number of people who were ushered in by police and misstated the strength of the economy during his administration.

    The latest on the Biden-Trump debate

    • The debate was a critical moment in Joe Biden and Donald Trump’s presidential rematch to make their cases before a national television audience.
    • Take a look at the facts around false and misleading claims frequently made by the two candidates.
    • Both candidates wasted no time sparring over policy during their 90-minute faceoff. These are the takeaways.

    Biden, who tends to lean more on exaggerations and embellishments rather than outright lies, misrepresented the cost of insulin and overstated what Trump said about using disinfectant to address COVID. Here’s a look at the false and misleading claims on Thursday night by the two candidates.

    ___

    JAN. 6

    TRUMP: “They talk about a relatively small number of people that went to the Capitol and in many cases were ushered in by the police.”

    THE FACTS: That’s false. The attack on the U.S. Capitol was the deadliest assault on the seat of American power in over 200 years. As thoroughly documented by video, photographs and people who were there, thousands of people descended on Capitol Hill in what became a brutal scene of hand-to-hand combat with police.

    In an internal memo on March 7, 2023, U.S. Capitol Police Chief J. Thomas Manger said that the allegation that “our officers helped the rioters and acted as ‘tour guides’” is “outrageous and false.” A Capitol Police spokesperson confirmed the memo’s authenticity to The Associated Press. More than 1,400 people have been charged with federal crimes stemming from the riot. More than 850 people have pleaded guilty to crimes, and 200 others have been convicted at trial.

    ___

    TRUMP, on then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s actions on Jan. 6: “Because I offered her 10,000 soldiers or National Guard and she turned them down.”

    THE FACTS: Pelosi did not direct the National Guard. Further, as the Capitol came under attack, she and then-Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell called for military assistance, including from the National Guard.

    The Capitol Police Board makes the decision on whether to call National Guard troops to the Capitol. It is made up of the House Sergeant at Arms, the Senate Sergeant at Arms and the Architect of the Capitol. The board decided not to call the guard ahead of the insurrection but did eventually request assistance after the rioting had already begun, and the troops arrived several hours later.

    The House Sergeant at Arms reported to Pelosi and the Senate Sergeant at Arms reported to McConnell. There is no evidence that either Pelosi or McConnell directed the security officials not to call the guard beforehand. Drew Hammill, a then-spokesperson for Pelosi, said after the insurrection that Pelosi was never informed of such a request.

    ___

    TAXES AND REGULATIONS

    TRUMP, on Biden: “He wants to raise your taxes by four times.”

    THE FACTS: That’s not accurate.

    Trump has used that line at rallies, but it has no basis in fact. Biden actually wants to prevent tax increases on anyone making less than $400,000, which is the vast majority of taxpayers.

    More importantly, Biden’s budget proposal does not increase taxes as much as Trump claims, though the increases are focused on corporations and the wealthy. Trump’s 2017 tax cuts for individuals are set to expire after 2025, because they were not fully funded when they became law.

    ___

    TRUMP, referring to Jan. 6, 2021, the day a mob of his supporters stormed the Capitol in an effort to stop the certification of Biden’s victory: “On January 6th we had the lowest taxes ever. We had the lowest regulations ever on January 6th.”

    THE FACTS: The current federal income tax was only instituted in 1913, and tax rates have fluctuated significantly in the decades since. Rates were lower in the 1920s, just prior to the Great Depression. Trump did cut taxes during his time in the White House, but the rates weren’t the lowest in history.

    Government regulations have also ebbed and flowed in the country’s history, but there’s been an overall increase in regulations as the country modernized and its population grew. There are now many more regulations covering the environment, employment, financial transactions and other aspects of daily life. While Trump slashed some regulations, he didn’t take the country back to the less regulated days of its past.

    ___

    INSULIN

    BIDEN: “It’s $15 for an insulin shot, as opposed to $400.”

    THE FACTS: No, that’s not exactly right. Out-of-pocket insulin costs for older Americans on Medicare were capped at $35 in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act that President Joe Biden signed into law. The cap took effect last year, when many drugmakers announced they would lower the price of the drug to $35 for most users on private insurance. But Biden regularly overstates that many people used to pay up to $400 monthly. People with diabetes who have Medicare or private insurance paid about $450 yearly prior to the law, a Department of Health and Human Services study released in December 2022 found.

    ___

    CLIMATE CHANGE

    TRUMP, touting his environmental record, said that “during my four years, I had the best environmental numbers ever” and that he supports “immaculate” air and water.

    THE FACTS: That’s far from the whole story. During his presidency, Trump rolled back some provisions of the Clean Water Act, eased regulations on coal, oil and gas companies and pulled the U.S. out of the Paris climate accord. When wildfires struck California in 2020, Trump dismissed the scientific consensus that climate change had played a role. Trump also dismissed scientists’ warnings about climate change and routinely proposed deep cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency. Those reductions were blocked by Democratic and Republican lawmakers.

    ___

    ABORTION

    TRUMP: “The problem they have is they’re radical because they will take the life of a child in the eighth month, the ninth month, and even after birth, after birth.”

    THE FACTS: Trump inaccurately referred to abortions after birth. Infanticide is criminalized in every state, and no state has passed a law that allows killing a baby after birth.

    Abortion rights advocates say terms like this and “late-term abortions” attempt to stigmatize abortions later in pregnancy. Abortions later in pregnancy are exceedingly rare. In 2020, less than 1% of abortions in the United States were performed at or after 21 weeks, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

    Abortions later in pregnancy also are usually the result of serious complications, such as fetal anomalies, that put the life of the woman or fetus at risk, medical experts say. In most cases, these are also wanted pregnancies, experts say.

    ___

    RUSSIA

    TRUMP on Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who was detained in Russia: “He should have had him out a long time ago, but Putin’s probably asking for billions and billions of dollars because this guy pays it every time.”

    THE FACTS: Trump is wrong to say that Biden pays any sort of fee “every time” to secure the release of hostages and wrongfully detained Americans. There’s also zero evidence that Putin is asking for any money in order to free Gershkovich. Just like in the Trump administration, the deals during the Biden administration that have brought home hostages and detainees involved prisoner swaps — not money transfers.

    Trump’s reference to money appeared to be about the 2023 deal in which the U.S. secured the release of five detained Americans in Iran after billions of dollars in frozen Iranian assets were transferred from banks in South Korea to Qatar. The U.S. has said that that the money would be held in restricted accounts and will only be able to be used for humanitarian goods, such as medicine and food.

    ___

    COVID-19

    BIDEN: Trump told Americans to “inject bleach” into their arms to treat COVID-19.

    THE FACTS: That’s overstating it. Rather, Trump asked whether it would be possible to inject disinfectant into the lungs.

    “And then I see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out in one minute,” he said at an April 2020 press conference. “And is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning, because you see it gets in the lungs and it does a tremendous number on the lungs, so it’d be interesting to check that, so that you’re going to have to use medical doctors with, but it sounds interesting to me. So, we’ll see, but the whole concept of the light, the way it kills it in one minute. That’s pretty powerful.”

    ___

    SUPER PREDATORS

    TRUMP: “What he’s done to the Black population is horrible, including the fact that for 10 years he called them ‘super predators.’ … We can’t forget that – super predators … And they’ve taken great offense at it.”

    THE FACTS: This oft-repeated claim by Trump dating back to the 2020 campaign is untrue. It was Hillary Clinton, then the first lady, who used the term “super predator” to advocate for the 1994 crime bill that Biden co-authored more than thirty years ago. Biden did warn of “predators” in a floor speech in support of his bill.

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    MIGRANTS

    TRUMP, referring to Biden: “He’s the one that killed people with a bad border and flooding hundreds of thousands of people dying and also killing our citizens when they come in.”

    THE FACTS: A mass influx of migrants coming into the U.S. illegally across the southern border has led to a number of false and misleading claims by Trump. For example, he regularly claims other countries are emptying their prisons and mental institutions to send to the U.S. There is no evidence to support that.

    Trump has also argued the influx of immigrants is causing a crime surge in the U.S., although statistics actually show violent crime is on the way down.

    There have been recent high-profile and heinous crimes allegedly committed by people in the country illegally. But FBI statistics do not separate out crimes by the immigration status of the assailant, nor is there any evidence of a spike in crime perpetrated by migrants, either along the U.S.-Mexico border or in cities seeing the greatest influx of migrants, like New York. Studies have found that people living in the country illegally are less likely than native-born Americans to have been arrested for violent, drug and property crimes. For more than a century, critics of immigration have sought to link new arrivals to crime. In 1931, the Wickersham Commission did not find any evidence supporting a connection between immigration and increased crime, and many studies since then have reached similar conclusions.

    Texas is the only state that tracks crimes by immigration status. A 2020 study published by the National Academy of Sciences found “considerably lower felony arrest rates” among people in the United States illegally than legal immigrants or native-born.

    Some crime is expected given the large population of immigrants. There were an estimated 10.5 million people in the country illegally in 2021, according to the latest estimate by Pew Research Center, a figure that has almost certainly risen with large influxes at the border. In 2022, the Census Bureau estimated the foreign-born population at 46.2 million, or nearly 14% of the total, with most states seeing double-digit percentage increases in the last dozen years.

    ___

    CHARLOTTESVILLE

    BIDEN, referring to Trump after the deadly white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017: “The one who said I think they’re fine people on both sides.”

    THE FACTS: Trump did use those words to describe attendees of the deadly rally, which was planned by white nationalists. But as Trump supporters have pointed out, he also said that day that he wasn’t talking about the neo-Nazis and white nationalists in attendance.

    “You had some very bad people in that group,” Trump said during a news conference a few days after the rally, “But you also had people that were very fine people, on both sides.”

    He then added that he wasn’t talking about “the neo-Nazis and the white nationalists, because they should be condemned totally.” Instead, he said, the press had been unfair in its treatment of protesters who were there to innocently and legally protest the removal of a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.

    The gathering planned by white nationalists shocked the nation when it exploded into chaos: violent brawling in the streets, racist and antisemitic chants, smoke bombs, and finally, a car speeding into a crowd of counter-protesters, killing one and injuring dozens more.

    ___

    ECONOMY

    TRUMP: We had the greatest economy in history.”

    THE FACTS: That’s not accurate. First of all, the pandemic triggered a massive recession during his presidency. The government borrowed $3.1 trillion in 2020 to stabilize the economy. Trump had the ignominy of leaving the White House with fewer jobs than when he entered.

    But even if you take out issues caused by the pandemic, economic growth averaged 2.67% during Trump’s first three years. That’s pretty solid. But it’s nowhere near the 4% averaged during Bill Clinton’s two terms from 1993 to 2001, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. In fact, growth has been stronger so far under Biden than under Trump.

    Trump did have the unemployment rate get as low as 3.5% before the pandemic. But again, the labor force participation rate for people 25 to 54 — the core of the U.S. working population — was higher under Clinton. The participation rate has also been higher under Biden than Trump.

    Trump also likes to talk about how low inflation was under him. Gasoline fell as low as $1.77 a gallon. But, of course, that price dip happened during pandemic lockdowns when few people were driving. The low prices were due to a global health crisis, not Trump’s policies.

    What to know about the 2024 Election

    • Democracy: American democracy has overcome big stress tests since 2020. More challenges lie ahead in 2024.
    • AP’s Role: The Associated Press is the most trusted source of information on election night, with a history of accuracy dating to 1848. Learn more.
    • Stay informed. Keep your pulse on the news with breaking news email alerts. Sign up here.

    Similarly, average 30-year mortgage rates dipped to 2.65% during the pandemic. Those low rates were a byproduct of Federal Reserve efforts to prop up a weak economy, rather than the sign of strength that Trump now suggests it was.

    ___

    MILITARY DEATHS

    BIDEN: “The truth is, I’m the only president this century that doesn’t have any — this decade — any troops dying anywhere in the world like he did.”

    ”THE FACTS: At least 16 service members have been killed in hostile action since Biden took office in January 2021. On Aug. 26, 2021, 13 died during a suicide bombing at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, as U.S. troops withdrew from the country. An enemy drone killed three U.S. service members at a desert base in Jordan on Jan. 28 of this year.

    ___

    PRESIDENTIAL RECORD

    BIDEN: “159, or 58, don’t know an exact number, presidential historians, they’ve had meetings and they voted, who is the worst president in American history … They said he was the worst in all American history. That’s a fact. That’s not conjecture.”

    THE FACTS: That’s almost right, but not quite. The survey in question, a project from professors at the University of Houston and Coastal Carolina University, included 154 usable responses, from 525 respondents invited to participate.

    ___

    GEORGE FLOYD PROTESTS

    TRUMP, on Minneapolis protests after the killing of George Floyd: “If I didn’t bring in the National Guard, that city would have been destroyed.”

    THE FACTS: Trump didn’t call the National Guard into Minneapolis during the unrest following the death of George Floyd. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz deployed the National Guard to the city.

    ___

    Associated Press writers Josh Boak, Elliot Spagat, Eric Tucker, Ali Swenson, Christina Cassidy, Amanda Seitz, Stephen Groves, David Klepper, Melissa Goldin and Hope Yen contributed to this report.

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    Find AP Fact Checks here: https://apnews.com/APFactCheck.

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  • FACT FOCUS: Trump wasn’t exonerated by the presidential immunity ruling, even though he says he was

    FACT FOCUS: Trump wasn’t exonerated by the presidential immunity ruling, even though he says he was

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    Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday misrepresented in a social media post what the U.S. Supreme Court’s Monday ruling on presidential immunity means for his civil and criminal cases.

    “TOTAL EXONERATION!” he wrote in the post on his Truth Social platform. “It is clear that the Supreme Court’s Brilliantly Written and Historic Decision ENDS all of Crooked Joe Biden’s Witch Hunts against me, including the WHITE HOUSE AND DOJ INSPIRED CIVIL HOAXES in New York.”

    But none of Trump’s pending cases have been dismissed as a result of the ruling, nor have the verdicts already reached against him been overturned. The ruling does amount to a major victory for the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, whose legal strategy has focused on delaying court proceedings until after the 2024 election.

    Here’s a closer look at the facts.

    CLAIM: The Supreme Court’s ruling that former presidents have broad immunity from prosecution means “total exoneration” for former President Donald Trump.

    THE FACTS: Although the historic 6-3 ruling is a win for Trump, he has not been exonerated and his legal troubles are far from over. A delay of his Washington trial on charges of election interference has been indefinitely extended as a result. Also, he still faces charges in two other criminal cases, and the verdicts already reached against him in a criminal and a civil case have not been overturned.

    Barbara McQuade, a law professor at the University of Michigan and former U.S. attorney for the state’s Eastern District, told The Associated Press that Trump’s claim is “inaccurate for a number of reasons.”

    “The court found immunity from prosecution, not exoneration,” she wrote in an email. “The court did not say that Trump’s conduct did not amount to criminal behavior. Just that prosecutors are not allowed to prosecute him for it because of the special role of a president and the need to permit him to make ‘bold’ and ‘fearless’ decisions without concern for criminal consequences.”

    McQuade wrote that Trump’s case over classified documents found at his Mar-a-Lago estate won’t be affected, as it arose from conduct committed after he left the White House. She added that any impact on his New York hush money trial “seems unlikely” since the crimes were committed in a personal capacity.

    “In addition, the Court’s opinion is solely focused on immunity for criminal conduct,” McQuade continued, explaining that it will not protect him from civil liability in his cases regarding defamatory statements about advice columnist E. Jean Carroll or fraudulent business practices conducted at the Trump Organization.

    Trump’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

    The Supreme Court’s conservative majority said former presidents have absolute immunity from prosecution for official acts that fall within their “exclusive sphere of constitutional authority” and are presumptively entitled to immunity for all official acts. Unofficial, or private, actions are exempt from such immunity.

    This means that special counsel Jack Smith cannot proceed with significant allegations in his indictment accusing Trump of plotting to overturn his 2020 presidential election loss, or he must at least defend their use in future proceedings before the trial judge.

    The case has not been dismissed. It was instead sent back to U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, who must now “carefully analyze” whether other allegations involve official conduct for which the president would be immune from prosecution. The trial was supposed to have begun in March, but has been on hold since December to allow Trump to pursue his Supreme Court appeal.

    However, the justices did knock out one aspect of the indictment, finding that Trump is “absolutely immune” from prosecution for alleged conduct involving discussions with the Justice Department.

    The opinion also stated that Trump is “at least presumptively immune” from allegations that he tried to pressure Vice President Mike Pence on Jan. 6, 2021, to reject certification of Democrat Joe Biden’s electoral vote win. But prosecutors can try to make the case that Trump’s pressure on Pence can still be part of the case against him, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote.

    It is all but certain that the ruling means Trump will not face trial in Washington ahead of the 2024 election, as the need for further analysis is expected to tie up the case for months with legal wrangling over whether actions in the indictment were official or unofficial, the AP has reported.

    Trump is facing charges in two other criminal cases, one over his alleged interference in Georgia’s 2020 election and the other over classified documents found at his Mar-a-Lago estate after he left the White House. Trump’s lawyers have asserted presidential immunity in both cases, but a ruling on the matter has not been made in either.

    The former president was convicted in May of 34 felony counts in his hush money trial in New York. After Monday’s ruling, the New York judge who presided over that trial postponed Trump’s sentencing until at least September and agreed to weigh the impact of the presidential immunity decision.

    Trump was ordered in February to pay a $454 million penalty as part of a civil fraud lawsuit, for lying about his wealth for years as he built the real estate empire that vaulted him to stardom and the White House. It is still under appeal.

    In May 2023, a jury found Trump liable for sexually abusing Carroll in 1996 and for defaming her over the allegations, awarding her $5 million. Carroll was awarded an additional $83.3 million in January by a separate jury for Trump’s continued social media attacks against her. An appeal of the former decision was rejected in April. The latter case is still being appealed.

    ___

    Find AP Fact Checks here: https://apnews.com/APFactCheck.

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  • Justin Timberlake’s lawyer says pop singer wasn’t intoxicated, argues DUI charges should be dropped

    Justin Timberlake’s lawyer says pop singer wasn’t intoxicated, argues DUI charges should be dropped

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    Justin Timberlake ’s lawyer said Friday that the pop singer wasn’t intoxicated during a traffic stop last month, as he seeks to get his drunken driving charge in New York’s Hamptons dismissed, citing errors in documents submitted by police.

    But Sag Harbor Village Justice Justice Carl Irace ordered Timberlake to be re-arraigned Aug. 2 with the corrected paperwork.

    He also agreed the former NSYNC member, who is currently on tour in Europe, could appear virtually for the proceeding. Timberlake didn’t attend Friday’s hearing as his appearance was waived in advance.

    Timberlake’s lawyer, Edward Burke, said after the hearing that police made “very significant errors” and expects the charge to be dismissed. He also maintained that Timberlake didn’t drive drunk.

    “He was not intoxicated,” Burke told reporters outside court. “I’ll say it again. Justin Timberlake was not intoxicated.”

    Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney’s office, which is prosecuting the case, described the paperwork issue as a “ministerial error” and that an amended charging document was filed July 2.

    “The facts and circumstance of the case have not been changed or amended,” spokesperson Emily O’Neil said in an email.

    Burke, in a follow-up statement, suggested there were other problems with the arrest documents but didn’t elaborate.

    “The police made a number of very significant errors in this case,” he said. “In court today, you heard the district attorney try to fix one of those errors. But that’s just one and there are many others. Sometimes the police make mistakes and this is just one of those instances.”

    Timberlake respects law enforcement and the judicial process and cooperated with officers and treated them with respect throughout his arrest last month, Burke added.

    Tierney’s office declined to respond to Burke’s comments.

    “We stand ready to litigate the underlying facts of this case in court, rather than in the press,” O’Neil said.

    Timberlake was charged with the misdemeanor on June 18 after police said he ran a stop sign and veered out of his lane in Sag Harbor, a onetime whaling village mentioned in Herman Melville’s classic novel “Moby-Dick” that’s nestled amid the Hamptons, around 100 miles (160 kilometers) east of New York City.

    The boy band singer-turned-solo star and actor was driving a 2025 BMW around 12:30 a.m. when an officer stopped him and determined he was intoxicated, according to a court document.

    “His eyes were bloodshot and glassy, a strong odor of an alcoholic beverage was emanating from his breath, he was unable to divide attention, he had slowed speech, he was unsteady afoot and he performed poorly on all standardized field sobriety tests,” the court papers said.

    Timberlake, 43, told the officer at the time that he had one martini and was following some friends home, according to the documents. After being arrested and taken to a police station in nearby East Hampton, he refused a breath test.

    The 10-time Grammy winner began performing as a young Disney Mouseketeer, rose to fame as part of the boy band NSYNC and embarked on a solo recording career in the early 2000s.

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    Associated Press reporter Karen Matthews in New York contributed to this story.

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  • Warner Bros. Discovery sues NBA for not accepting its matching offer

    Warner Bros. Discovery sues NBA for not accepting its matching offer

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    Warner Bros. Discovery has sued the NBA after the league did not accept the company’s matching offer for one of the packages in its upcoming 11-year media rights deal.

    The lawsuit was filed on Friday in New York state court in Manhattan.

    WBD, the parent company of TNT Sports, is seeking a judgement that it matched Amazon Prime Video’s offer and an order seeking to delay the new media rights deal from taking effect beginning with the 2025-26 season.

    The NBA signed its deals with Disney, NBCUniversal and Amazon Prime Video on Wednesday after saying it was not accepting Warner Bros. Discovery’s $1.8 billion per year offer. The deals will bring the league around $76 billion over 11 years.

    “Given the NBA’s unjustified rejection of our matching of a third-party offer, we have taken legal action to enforce our rights,” TNT Sports said in a statement. “We strongly believe this is not just our contractual right, but also in the best interest of fans who want to keep watching our industry-leading NBA content with the choice and flexibility we offer them through our widely distributed WBD video-first distribution platforms – including TNT and Max.”

    NBA spokesman Mike Bass said in a statement that “Warner Bros. Discovery’s claims are without merit and our lawyers will address them.”

    WBD says in the lawsuit that “TBS properly matched the Amazon Offer by agreeing to telecast the games on both TNT and Max. The Amazon Offer provides for Cable Rights, including TNT Rights, because the offer is for games that TBS currently has the right to distribute on TNT via Non-Broadcast Television, which includes both cable and Internet distribution.”

    WBD also claims under its contract it “has the right to ‘Match a Third Party Offer that provides for the exercise of (NBA games) via any form of combined audio and video distribution.’”

    The lawsuit is another chapter in a deteriorating relationship between the league and Turner Sports that has gone on nearly 40 years. Turner has had an NBA package since 1984 and games have been on TNT since the network launched in 1988.

    TNT’s iconic “Inside the NBA” show has won numerous Sports Emmy Awards and has been a model for studio shows.

    However, the relationship started to become strained when Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav said during an RBC Investor Conference in November 2022 that Turner and WBD “don’t have to have the NBA.”

    Warner Bros. Discovery and the league were unable to reach a deal during the exclusive negotiating period, which expired in April. Zaslav and TNT Sports Chairman/CEO Luis Silberwasser said throughout the process, though, that it intended to match one of the deals.

    WBD had five days to match a part of those deals after the NBA’s Board of Governors approved the rights deals on July 17.

    WBD received all of the contracts the next day and informed the league on Monday that it was matching Amazon Prime Videos offer.

    The NBA announced on Wednesday that it was not considered a true match.

    “Throughout these negotiations, our primary objective has been to maximize the reach and accessibility of our games for our fans,” the league said when it did not accept the WBD deal. “Our new arrangement with Amazon supports this goal by complementing the broadcast, cable and streaming packages that are already part of our new Disney and NBCUniversal arrangements. All three partners have also committed substantial resources to promote the league and enhance the fan experience.”

    ___

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

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  • Kevin Spacey’s waterfront Baltimore condo sold at auction after foreclosure

    Kevin Spacey’s waterfront Baltimore condo sold at auction after foreclosure

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    BALTIMORE (AP) — Kevin Spacey’s $5.6 million waterfront condominium in Baltimore has been sold at auction amid the disgraced actor’s financial struggles following a slew of sexual misconduct allegations.

    Last summer, a London jury acquitted Spacey on sexual assault charges stemming from allegations by four men dating back 20 years. That was his second court victory since he saw off a $40 million lawsuit in 2022 in New York brought by “Star Trek: Discovery” actor Anthony Rapp.

    But Spacey said in an emotional interview with British broadcast host Piers Morgan last month that he was millions of dollars in debt, largely because of unpaid legal bills, and facing foreclosure on the Baltimore property.

    Spacey moved to the Baltimore area when he started shooting the hugely popular political thriller “House of Cards” there in 2012. Speaking through tears during the interview, Spacey said he would have to go back to Baltimore and put all his things in storage. He said he nearly had to file for bankruptcy a couple times but managed to dodge it.

    His luxury condo on Baltimore’s Inner Harbor sold at auction Thursday morning for $3.24 million, according to the auctioneer’s website. It sits on a floating pier and boasts six bedrooms, seven full baths, an elevator, sauna, home theater, rooftop terrace, multiple verandas and a four-car garage.

    A small group of potential buyers gathered on the steps of the downtown Baltimore Circuit Court building and made their bids, according to local media reports. The suggested opening bid was $1.5 million.

    The winning bidder was acting as proxy for a real estate developer and local businessman whose identity hasn’t been disclosed, The Baltimore Sun reported.

    During tearful testimony in a London courtroom last summer, Spacey denied the allegations against him and told the jury how they had destroyed his acting career as the #MeToo movement gained momentum in the U.S.

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  • A wind turbine is damaged off Nantucket Island. Searchers are combing beaches for debris

    A wind turbine is damaged off Nantucket Island. Searchers are combing beaches for debris

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    NANTUCKET, Mass. (AP) — Offshore wind developers have sent teams to search for debris on the beaches of Nantucket Island, a popular summer tourist destination, after one of their turbine blades suffered damage.

    Vineyard Wind said Tuesday it is mobilizing teams on Nantucket to recover debris on south-facing beaches. The development said a “blade damage incident” took place Saturday.

    Vineyard Wind said it’s also working with the U.S. Coast Guard to maintain a safety zone of 500 meters (1,640 feet) around the affected offshore turbine. It said that the debris consists of nontoxic fiberglass fragments and that any washing ashore will be pieces of one square foot or less.

    “Vineyard Wind is fully committed to a swift and safe recovery of all debris, with an unwavering focus on community safety and environmental protection,” it said in a statement.

    Vineyard Wind is a joint venture between Avangrid and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners and said no personnel or third parties were near the turbine when the damage occurred. It said in a statement that blade manufacturer and installation contractor GE “will now be conducting the analysis into the root cause of the incident.”

    The development’s massive wind turbines began sending electricity to the grid this past winter. It said it will deploy trained individuals to collect the debris for the next several days.

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  • Discovery of musket balls brings alive one of the first battles in the American Revolution

    Discovery of musket balls brings alive one of the first battles in the American Revolution

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    CONCORD, Mass. (AP) — Nearly 250 years ago, hundreds of militiamen lined a hillside in Massachusetts and started firing a barrage of musket balls toward retreating British troops, marking the first major battle in the Revolutionary War.

    The latest evidence of that firefight is five musket balls dug up last year near the North Bridge site in the Minute Man National Historical Park in Concord. Early analysis of the balls — gray with sizes ranging from a pea to a marble — indicates colonial militia members fired them at British forces on April 19, 1775.

    “As soon as they pulled one of them out of the ground, there was kind of a ‘look what I have,’” said Minute Man park ranger and historic weapons specialist Jarrad Fuoss, who was there the day the musket balls were discovered.

    “And of course, everybody goes flocking to them like, ‘Oh, my gosh.’ We’re looking at them, and then the excitement continued to grow because it wasn’t just one,” he continued. “And the fact that we found five of them, which is incredible all these years later.”

    Musket balls were previously found in the historic park of about a thousand acres outside Boston, which marks a series of opening battles of the American Revolution. About a decade ago, about 30 musket balls were found at the site known as Parker’s Revenge, where the Lexington militia company led by Capt. John Parker ambushed British troops. In the early 19th century, Henry David Thoreau was walking in the area and found a few musket balls from what is believed to be the North Bridge fight.

    The latest discoveries are the most ever found from that fight when militia leaders ordered their men to fire on government troops. The event led to the conflict escalating and was later dubbed the “shot heard round the world” by Ralph Waldo Emerson in his 1837 “Concord Hymn.”

    About 800 British soldiers had started the day marching from Boston to Concord to destroy military supplies they believed that colony rebels had gathered. It ended with an eight-hour battle that stretched to the Charlestown neighborhood of Boston — covering 16 miles (26 kilometers) and leaving 273 British troops and 96 militiamen dead and wounded.

    It prompted the militia to create an 11-month siege of Boston, leading to the Battle of Bunker Hill in June 1775, one of the bloodiest battles of the American Revolution.

    “This is where everything kind of changes in an instant because that moment is treason. There is no turning back,” Fuoss said. “To be able to pull that out of the ground and know that we’re the first ones to touch that since somebody else was ramming it down the muzzle of their gun 250 years ago is one of those things that sends shivers all over your body.”

    Joel Bohy, who was also on the dig site and is researching bullet strikes and bullet-struck objects from that day for a book, said the discovery helps “validate the historical record, as well as the types of arms that the provincial minute and militia companies carried that day.”

    “Based upon the caliber of the balls and studying them, the general location, as well as the context of the site, it made the hair stand up on the back of my neck,” Bohy said, adding that he had “been fascinated with April 19 and the material culture since I was a 7-year-old — 51 years ago. So for me, it was a great day.”

    The war continued for seven years after those first shots were fired, even past the July 4, 1776, adoption of the Declaration of Independence.

    Nikki Walsh, the museum curator at the park, also said there was plenty to learn from the lead-cast musket balls that ranged in size from .40-caliber to .70-caliber. Given their various sizes, Walsh said, archeologists concluded they were from the militia. Those men brought their own weapons and ammunition to the fight, with some being imported, and others captured or purchased by the town or province from British or Dutch merchants, according to the National Park Service. On the other hand, the British had standardized all their ammunition.

    And the fact that the musket balls were intact indicates fighters likely missed their mark.

    “Since that lead is so malleable, you can see marks on them that indicate whether they’ve been fired, whether they were unfired and dropped,” she said. “If they had been fired and hit something, they would have likely smushed like a pancake.”

    The musket balls have attracted intense interest from history buffs and tourists, with about 800 journeying to the park’s visitor center over the weekend to get a first glimpse. The interest has also prompted the National Park Service to keep the exact location of the find under wraps, hoping to dissuade treasure hunters with metal detectors from showing up in search of more artifacts.

    They are willing to disclose the general area of the find, a field just over a wooden bridge of the Concord River and just beyond two monuments — a 25-foot stone obelisk marking the 50th anniversary of the North Bridge fight and the Minute Man statue built to commemorate its 100th anniversary. Nearby, a smaller marker with British flags indicates where the first two British soldiers died in that battle.

    Among those recently checking out the site was Jennifer Ayvaz, who came to the park with her husband, Tim, and their two children after her father heard about the discovery of the musket balls. As they passed Walsh, she offered to show the family the musket balls. Opening a tiny box, the family snapped photos and moved closer for a better look at the balls lined up in a row.

    “It’s incredible,” said Jennifer Ayvaz, who came from Castle Rock, Colorado, adding that her father would love to see the musket balls. “I wish he could be here with us. It’s very neat. He is a huge history buff, and he is kind of living vicariously through us.”

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  • Group says photos of reclusive tribe on Peru beach show logging concessions are ‘dangerously close’

    Group says photos of reclusive tribe on Peru beach show logging concessions are ‘dangerously close’

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    An advocacy group for Indigenous peoples has released photographs of a reclusive tribe’s members searching for food on a beach in the Peruvian Amazon, calling it evidence that logging concessions are “dangerously close” to the tribe’s territory.

    Survival International said the photos and video it posted this week show members of the Mashco Piro looking for plantains and cassava near the community of Monte Salvado, on the Las Piedras River in Madre de Dios province.

    Several logging companies hold timber concessions inside territory inhabited by the tribe, according to Survival International, which has long sought to protect what it says is the largest “uncontacted” tribe in the world. The proximity raises fears of conflict between logging workers and tribal members, as well as the possibility that loggers could bring dangerous disease to the Mashco Piro, the advocacy group said.

    Two loggers were shot with arrows while fishing in 2022, one fatally, in a reported encounter with tribal members.

    An advocacy group for Indigenous peoples has released images of a reclusive tribe’s members searching for food on a beach in the Peruvian Amazon, calling it evidence that logging is moving “dangerously close” to the tribe’s territory.

    Cesar Ipenza, a lawyer who specializes in environmental law in Peru and is not affiliated with the advocacy group, said the new images “show us a very alarming and also worrying situation because we do not know exactly what is the reason for their departure (from the rainforest) to the beaches.”

    Isolated Indigenous tribes may migrate in August to collect turtle eggs to eat, he said.

    “But we also see with great concern that some illegal activity may be taking place in the areas where they live and lead them to leave and be under pressure,” he said. “We cannot deny the presence of a logging concession kilometers away from where they live.”

    Survival International called for the Forest Stewardship Council, a group that verifies sustainable forestry, to revoke its certification of the timber operations of one of those companies, Peru-based Canales Tahuamanu. The FSC responded in a statement Wednesday that it would “conduct a comprehensive review” of the company’s operations to ensure it’s protecting the rights of Indigenous peoples.

    Canales Tahuamanu, also known as Catahua, has said in the past that it is operating with official authorizations. The company did not immediately respond to a message Thursday seeking comment on its operations and the tribe.

    A 2023 report by the United Nations’ special reporter on the rights of Indigenous peoples said Peru’s government had recognized in 2016 that the Mashco Piro and other isolated tribes were using territories that had been opened to logging. The report expressed concern for the overlap, and that the territory of Indigenous peoples hadn’t been marked out “despite reasonable evidence of their presence since 1999.”

    Survival International said the photos were taken June 26-27 and show about 53 male Mashco Piro on the beach. The group estimated as many as 100 to 150 tribal members would have been in the area with women and children nearby.

    “It is very unusual that you see such a large group together,” Survival International researcher Teresa Mayo said in an interview with The Associated Press. Ipenza, the attorney, said Indigenous people usually mobilize in smaller groups, and a larger group might be a “situation of alarm” even in the case of legal logging.

    In January, Peru loosened restrictions on deforestation, which critics dubbed the “anti-forest law.” Researchers have since warned of the rise in deforestation for agriculture and how it is making it easier for illicit logging and mining.

    The government has said management of the forests will include identifying areas that need special treatment to ensure sustainability, among other things.

    Ipenza also noted a pending bill that would facilitate export of timber from areas where species such as the Dipteryx micrantha, a tropical flowering plant, have been protected.

    “At present, there are setbacks in forestry and conservation matters. With an alliance between the government and Congress that facilitates the destruction of forests and the Amazon,” he said.

    ___

    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.

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  • Small stocks are about to take over? Wall Street has heard that before.

    Small stocks are about to take over? Wall Street has heard that before.

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    NEW YORK (AP) — Suddenly, smaller stocks seem to be making bigger noise on Wall Street.

    After getting trounced by their larger rivals for years, some of the smallest stocks on Wall Street have shown much more life recently. Hopes for coming cuts to interest rates have pushed investors to look at smaller stocks through a different lens.

    Smaller companies, which often carry heavy debt burdens, can feel more relief from lower borrowing costs than huge multinationals. Plus, critics said the Big Tech stocks that had been carrying the market for years were looking expensive after their meteoric rises.

    The small stocks in the Russell 2000 index leaped a stunning 11.5% over five days, beginning on July 11. The surge looked even more eye-popping when compared with the tepid gain of 1.6% for the big stocks in the S&P 500 over the same span. Investors pumped $9.9 billion into funds focused on small U.S. stocks last week, the largest amount since 2007, according to strategists at Deutsche Bank.

    They were all encouraging signals to analysts, who say a market with many stocks rising is healthier than one dependent on just a handful of stars.

    If this all sounds familiar, it should. Hope for a broadening out of the market has sprung up periodically on Wall Street, including late last year. Each time, it ended up fizzling, and Big Tech resumed its dominance.

    Of course, this time looks different in some ways. Some of the boost for small stocks may have come from rising expectations for a Republican sweep in November’s elections, following President Joe Biden’s disastrous debate performance last month. That pushed up U.S. stocks seen as benefiting from a White House that could be hostile to international trade, among other things.

    Traders are also thinking cuts to interest rates are much more imminent than before, with expectations recently running at 95% confidence that the Fed will make a move as soon as September, according to data from CME Group

    But some professional investors still aren’t fully convinced yet.

    “Fade the chase in small caps, which is likely unsustainable,” according to Lisa Shalett, chief investment officer at Morgan Stanley Wealth Management.

    She points to how 60% of the companies in the small-cap index struggle with profitability, in part because private-equity firms have already taken many money-making ones out of the stock market. Smaller stocks also tend to be more dependent on spending by consumers than larger companies, and consumers at the lower end of the income spectrum are already showing the strain of still-high prices.

    Cuts to interest rates do look more likely after Federal Reserve officials talked about the danger of keeping rates too high for too long. But the Fed may not pull rates down as quickly or as deeply as it has in past cycles if inflation stays higher for longer, as some investors suspect.

    Small stocks, which have struggled through five quarters of shrinking earnings due to higher rates, also are less likely to get a boost in profits delivered by the artificial-intelligence wave sweeping the economy, according to strategists at BlackRock Investment Institute.

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  • Company says manufacturing problem was behind wind turbine blade breaking off Nantucket Island

    Company says manufacturing problem was behind wind turbine blade breaking off Nantucket Island

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    NANTUCKET, Mass. (AP) — The maker of a massive wind turbine blade that broke apart off Nantucket Island and washed up on the beaches says a manufacturing problem was responsible.

    GE Vernova CEO Scott Strazik said on an earnings call Wednesday that insufficient bonding at one of its factories in Canada was responsible for the blade coming apart and that there was no indication of a design flaw. As a result, the company will reinspect all 150 blades that had been made at the factory.

    “To identify deviations, we are going to go and do this on every blade. Prudent, thorough process,” he told the call. “We’re not going to talk about the timeline today. We have work to do. But I have a high degree of confidence that we can do this.”

    Parts of the blade, which is more than 100 meters (109 yards) long, began to fall into the ocean July 13 at the Vineyard Wind project and crews in boats and on beaches have been collecting truckloads of debris ever since. The company said that the debris consists of nontoxic fiberglass fragments and that any washing ashore are pieces of one square foot or less.

    The federal Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement said last week that operations at Vineyard Wind have been suspended until it can be determined whether the “blade failure” impacts other turbine blades on the development.

    “As GE Vernova continues the investigation into the root cause of the damage to its blade, Vineyard Wind 1 remains focused on coordinating with the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, assisting in the recovery of debris, and prioritizing the safety of personnel, local communities, and the environment,” Craig Gilvarg, a company spokesman, said in a statement.

    Vineyard Wind is a joint venture between Avangrid and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners and said no personnel or third parties were near the turbine when the damage occurred. It said in a statement that blade manufacturer and installation contractor GE “will now be conducting the analysis into the root cause of the incident.”

    The development’s massive wind turbines began sending electricity to the grid this past winter. It said it will deploy trained individuals to collect the debris for the next several days

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  • Senators call on Federal Trade Commission to investigate automakers’ sale of driving data to brokers

    Senators call on Federal Trade Commission to investigate automakers’ sale of driving data to brokers

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    DETROIT (AP) — Two U.S. senators are calling on the Federal Trade Commission to investigate automakers selling customers’ driving data to brokers who package it and then sell it to insurance companies.

    In a letter to FTC Chairwoman Linda Khan, Democrats Ron Wyden of Oregon, and Edward Markey of Massachusetts allege that General Motors, Hyundai, Honda and perhaps others are sharing drivers’ data, such as sudden braking and acceleration.

    The automakers, the senators said in a statement Friday, used deceptive tactics to manipulate customers into signing up for disclosure of the data to brokers.

    After reading a report in The New York Times, Wyden’s office looked into the three automakers and found that they shared data with broker Verisk Analytics. In the letter to Khan, the senators wrote that all three automakers confirmed disclosure of the data. GM also confirmed that it disclosed customer location data to two other companies that the automaker would not name, the letter said.

    Verisk used the data to prepare reports on driving-behavior history and sold them to insurance companies, the letter said. Some automakers may have deceived customers by advertising data disclosures as a way to reduce insurance bills, without telling them that some insurers could charge more, the senators wrote.

    “If the FTC determines that these companies violated the law, we urge you to hold the companies and their senior executives accountable,” the senators wrote to Khan.

    GM wouldn’t say how many cars’ data was sent to brokers or what it was paid, according to the letter. Wyden’s office found that Hyundai shared data from 1.7 million vehicles and was paid just over $1 million, while Honda got just under $26,000 for data from 97,000 vehicles, the senators said.

    A message was left Friday after business hours seeking comment from the FTC.

    In an email, GM denied that it deceived customers into enrolling in the data-sharing program with Verisk. Data-sharing partnerships with Verisk and LexisNexis were canceled in March, and its data-sharing program called “Smart Driver” ended in June, GM said.

    “Data was only shared with an insurer if a customer initiated a quote directly with their chosen carrier and provided a separate consent to that carrier,” the email said.

    The company said it does share “de-identified” data with partners to aid city infrastructure and make roads safer.

    In a statement, Hyundai said the senators’ letter mischaracterizes its data policies and that it has safeguards to make sure customers agree to sharing driving information with insurers.

    Customers, it said, had the option to connect driving scores to their insurers through Verisk for possible benefits such as good-driving discounts.

    “It is important to note that Verisk was not authorized by Hyundai or the customer to share the Drive Score data with insurers until the customer affirmatively consented to this on an insurer’s website or app,” Hyundai said.

    Honda also said that customers had to opt into the program with Verisk. Some customers with good driving scores were given the chance to agree to discount offers from insurers. “Without that clear second opt-in by the customer, no identifiable consumer information was shared with any insurance company,” Honda said.

    Verisk also disagreed with Wyden and Markey and said in a statement that it “acts to ensure data is accessed and used appropriately.” The company said using data responsibly “is the cornerstone of our business.”

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