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  • Millions of Americans Brace for Potentially Catastrophic Ice Storm. What to Know, by the Numbers

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    ATLANTA (AP) — Millions of Americans from New Mexico to the Carolinas are bracing for a potentially catastrophic ice storm that could crush trees and power lines and knock out power for days, while many northern states all the way to New England could see enough snow to make travel nearly impossible, forecasters say.

    An estimated 100 million people were under some type of winter weather watch, warning or advisory on Wednesday ahead of the storm, the National Weather Service said.

    The storm, expected to begin Friday and continue through the weekend, is also projected to bring heavy snow and all types of wintry precipitation, including freezing rain and sleet. An atmospheric river of moisture could be in place by the weekend, pulling precipitation across Texas and other states along the Gulf Coast and continuing across Georgia and the Carolinas, forecasters said.

    Here’s a look at the approaching storm and how people are preparing for it, by the numbers:

    The number of snowplows owned by the city of Jackson, Mississippi, where a mix of ice and sleet is possible this weekend. The city uses other heavy machinery like skid steers and small excavators to clear roads, said James Caldwell, deputy director of public works. Jackson also has three trucks that carry salt and sand to spread across roads before freezing weather.

    The amount of ice — half an inch, or 1.27 centimeters — that can lead to a crippling ice storm, toppling trees and power lines to create widespread and long-lasting power outages. The latest forecasts from the National Weather Service warn of the potential for a half-inch of ice or more for many areas, including parts of Arkansas, Louisiana, Alabama, and Tennessee.

    The number of Nashville snowplows named after country music legend and Tennessee native Dolly Parton (Dolly Plowton). Another snowplow in East Tennessee was named Snowlene after her classic hit song “Jolene” as part of a 2022 naming contest.

    The number of layers needed to keep warm in extreme cold. AP video journalist Mark Vancleave in Minnesota explains the benefits of all three — a base layer, a middle layer and an outer shell — in this video.

    The number of major U.S. hub airports in the path of the southern storm this weekend, when ice, sleet and snow could delay passengers and cargo: Dallas-Fort Worth; Atlanta; Memphis, Tennessee, and Charlotte, North Carolina. Still more major airports on the East Coast could see delays later, as the storm barrels east.

    The number of inches of snow that could fall in parts of Oklahoma.

    “You’ve got to be very weather aware, and real smart about what you’re doing,” said Charles Daniel, who drives a semitrailer across western Oklahoma.

    “One mistake can literally kill somebody, so you have to use your head,” he added.

    The number of snow and ice removal trucks operated by Memphis, Tennessee’s Division of Public Works. The city also has six trucks that spread brine, a mixture designed to melt wintry precipitation. Statewide, the Tennessee Department of Transportation has 851 salt trucks and 634 brine trucks, and most of the salt trucks double as plows.

    Parts of at least 19 states in the storm’s path were under winter storm watches by late Wednesday, with more watches and warnings expected as the system approaches. They include Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, Virginia and West Virginia. An estimated 55 million people are included in these winter storm watches, the weather service said.

    The degree in Fahrenheit when water freezes, equivalent to 0 Celsius. This is a magic number when it comes to winter weather, said Eric Guillot, a scientist at the National Weather Service. If the temperature is slightly above 32, it will be mostly liquid. But the colder it is below the mark, the more efficiently precipitation will freeze.

    The number of snowplow trucks at the ready in Nashville, Tennessee, according to the Nashville Department of Transportation and Multimodal Infrastructure.

    The windchill value — how cold it feels to a person when winds are factored in — that is expected in parts of the Northern Plains, the weather service projects. That equates to minus 45.6 Celsius and is forecast for parts of northern Minnesota and North Dakota.

    “When the weather forecast says, ‘feels like negative 34,’ it’s just a matter of covering skin and being prepared for it,” said Nils Anderson, who owns Duluth Gear Exchange, an outdoor equipment store in Duluth, Minnesota.

    The number of snowplows in the city of Chicago, where annual snowfall averages 37 to 39 inches (0.94 to 0.99 meters). The city also has 40 4×4 vehicles, and about 12 beet juice-dispensing trucks, according to Cole Stallard, Chicago’s commissioner of Streets and Sanitation. The natural sugars of beet juice lower the freezing point of water, allowing salt mixtures to work at much lower temperatures and preventing refreezing, while also helping salt stick to the road longer.

    The number of miles added last year to snowplow routes in Nashville, Tennessee. That was done “to get deeper into our neighborhoods — roads that had never been plowed before,” said Alex Apple, a spokesperson for Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell.

    Texas has this number of pieces of winter weather equipment, including snowplows, motor graders and brine tankers, Texas Department of Transportation spokesperson Adam Hammons said. He said the agency also works with state partners and contractors to get more equipment when needed. In the Dallas area, “right now our main focus is treating our roadways in advance of the storm,” agency spokesperson Tony Hartzel said Wednesday.

    The number of cubic yards of salt on hand at the Arkansas Department of Transportation. The state has 121 salt houses around the Arkansas, plus 600 salt spreaders and 700 snowplows, said Dave Parker, an agency spokesperson.

    Associated Press writers Jamie Stengle in Dallas; Sophie Bates in Jackson, Mississippi; Adrian Sainz in Memphis, Tennessee; Travis Loller and Kristin M. Hall in Nashville, Tennessee; Sean Murphy in Oklahoma City; John O’Connor in Springfield, Illinois; and Rebecca Boone in Boise, Idaho, contributed.

    Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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  • Judge Orders New Alabama Senate Map After Ruling Found Racial Gerrymandering

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    MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — A federal judge has ordered Alabama to use a new state Senate map in upcoming legislative elections after ruling that districts drawn by lawmakers illegally diluted the voting power of Black residents in the state’s capital city.

    U.S. District Judge Anna Manasco, appointed by President Donald Trump during his first term, issued the ruling Monday putting a new court-selected map in place for the 2026 and 2030 elections. Manasco ruled in August that the state had violated the Voting Rights Act by “packing” Black voters into Montgomery’s Senate District 26 to limit their influence elsewhere. Manasco selected one of three proposed plans drawn by a court-appointed expert.

    “The Court orders the use of a remedial map that was prepared race-blind and affords Black voters in the Montgomery area an equal opportunity, but certainly not a guarantee, to elect Senators of their choice,” Manasco wrote.

    The order came from a 2021 lawsuit that argued the Alabama Senate district lines diluted the voting strength of Black citizens in Montgomery. The lawsuit maintained that in Montgomery, Black voters were unnecessarily packed into a single district, preventing them from influencing elections elsewhere, while white voters in the majority-Black city of Montgomery were “surgically” extracted into a neighboring district.

    The selected map adjusts two Montgomery-area districts — District 26, now represented by Democratic Sen. Kirk Hatcher, and District 25, now represented by Republican Sen. Will Barfoot. Manasco said the remedial plan “unpacks District 26 by moving some Black voters from District 26 into the adjacent District 25.”

    Court-appointed special master Richard Allen had cautioned in an earlier court filing that the plan only “weakly remedies” the Voting Rights Act violation. Manasco wrote the plan does enough to fix the violation while leaving most voters and district lines untouched.

    The civil rights groups that had filed the lawsuit that led to the redistricting order had objected to the selected plan. Lawyers for plaintiffs said the plan creates an opportunity district in Senate District 25 “at the expense of the existing opportunity in SD26.”

    “Although in Plan 3 Black-preferred candidates win around 89% of the time in SD25, such candidates win less than 50% of the time in SD26,” lawyers for plaintiffs wrote in an Oct. 31 court filing. They added that the analysis of past elections showed that Black candidates “almost never win in SD26.”

    Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen had also objected to the selected plan.

    The ruling will not change the partisan power balance in the Alabama Senate, where Republicans hold 27 of the 35 seats.

    Manasco had given Alabama lawmakers an opportunity to draw a new map, but Gov. Kay Ivey declined to call lawmakers into special session.

    Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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  • Judge’s Order Blocking Removal of Man From US Wasn’t Received Until After He Was Deported, DHS Says

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    NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Immigration authorities did not receive word of a court order blocking the removal of a man living in Alabama until after he had been deported to Laos, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said Wednesday, dismissing claims that officials violated the order.

    Chanthila “Shawn” Souvannarath, 44, was deported on Friday, according to his attorneys, a day after a federal judge in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, told U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to keep him in the country so that he could present what the judge called a “substantial claim of U.S. citizenship.”

    Souvannarath was born in a refugee camp in Thailand but has lived most of his life in the U.S. DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said the judge’s order keeping him in the country “was not served” to ICE until after Souvannarath had been deported.

    “To the media’s chagrin, there was no mistake,” McLaughlin said in a statement.

    DHS and ICE did not respond to questions from The Associated Press seeking additional details on the timeline and how officials receive federal court orders.

    The American Civil Liberties Union, which is representing Souvannarath, asked U.S. District Judge Shelly Dick to order his immediate return to the U.S., calling the deportation “unlawful.”

    “ICE has acted in direct opposition to a federal court order, which should disturb everyone,” said Nora Ahmed, legal director of the ACLU of Louisiana.

    The deportation comes as Trump administration officials have repeatedly clashed with the courts over their attempts to deport large numbers of immigrants. There have been previous cases of U.S. citizens being deported, including U.S.-born children.

    Souvannarath most recently lived in Arab, Alabama. Court records show he was granted lawful permanent residence in the U.S. before his first birthday. His father, a native of Laos, is a naturalized U.S. citizen, and Souvannarath claims his citizenship derives from that status.

    Souvannarath was taken into ICE custody in June following an annual check-in with immigration authorities. Two of his five children were with him when he was detained, his wife told the AP.

    McLaughlin said Souvannarath “lost his green card” and was ordered to be deported in 2006 following convictions for “heinous crimes” — assault and unlawful possession of a firearm — and “had no right to be in this country.” It was not clear why Souvannarath was not previously taken into ICE custody.

    In 2004, Souvannarath was convicted of unlawful firearm possession and assault against his then-girlfriend in King County, Washington. He had also been convicted of a misdemeanor assault against the same woman several years before, court records show.

    “20 years later, he tried a Hail Mary attempt to remain in our country by claiming he was a U.S. citizen,” McLaughlin wrote in her statement. “I know its shocking to the media — but criminal illegal aliens lie all the time.”

    Souvannarath’s wife, Beatrice, described him as a hard worker and loving father who stayed out of trouble since his run-ins with the law two decades ago. He’s mostly worked installing air conditioners and heaters, she said. “He doesn’t even drink,” she said.

    His wife said she received word last week that he was being deported and, days later, that he was in custody in Laos, a country he had not previously visited.

    Representing himself in court, Souvannarath filed an emergency motion seeking to halt his deportation. The judge, appointed by President Barack Obama, cited the “irreparable harm that would be caused by immediate deportation” in issuing a temporary restraining order pausing the deportation for 14 days.

    Before his deportation, Souvannarath had been detained at a newly opened ICE facility at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola.

    __ Mustian reported from New York. Associated Press reporter Cedar Attanasio contributed from Seattle, Washington.

    Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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  • Alabama Board Seeks to Ban Books That ‘Positively’ Depict Trans Themes From Library Youth Sections

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    MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — An Alabama board is seeking to prohibit public libraries from placing books that “positively” depict transgender themes and topics in teen and children’s sections.

    The Alabama Public Library Service Board of Directors is considering a proposed rule change that expands the existing requirement for youth sections to be free of “material deemed inappropriate for children.” The new proposal said that includes any material that “positively depicts transgender procedures, gender ideology, or the concept of more than two biological genders.”

    The Alabama proposal is the latest salvo in the national fight over library content. The state board on Tuesday held a lengthy and sometimes heated and emotional public hearing ahead of next month’s expected vote.

    Opponents called the proposal blatantly discriminatory and an attempt to impose one viewpoint on all Alabamians at the expense of trans youth and their families.

    “These changes do not protect children — they police ideas,” said Matthew Layne, a past president of the Alabama Library Association.

    Supporters of the proposal said parents who want their children to read the books can get them in other places.

    “Removing trans books is not book-banning,” Julia Cleland, a member of the group Eagle Forum, told the board. Cleland said she would prefer the books be removed entirely from public libraries, not just youth sections.

    John Wahl, the chairman of the library board, said he expects the board to approve the rule change, or an amended version of it, when they meet next month. He said libraries could stock the materials in adult sections where parents could access them for their children.

    “We want parents to be confident that the children’s sections of Alabama libraries are age appropriate, that their children are not going to stumble against sexually explicit content,” Wahl said. Wahl is also chair of the Alabama Republican Party.

    Some speakers said public libraries must serve all types of families, including those with trans children and adults.

    Alyx Kim-Yohn, a librarian in north Alabama, told the board that as a queer teenager, they were isolated and bullied to the point of writing a suicide note.

    “What saved me was reading literature that had people like me in it. What saved me was finding other queer folks who had the opportunity to grow up and be queer adults, which not all of us get,” Kim-Yohn said.

    Other speakers said they didn’t want their child or grandchild to see books suggesting that gender can be changed.

    The three-hour meeting ended with pointed disagreements over the motivation for the proposal.

    “It’s politically motivated. It is taking away control from local libraries who are appointed by local governing bodies,” board member Ronald A. Snider said. Snider accused Wahl of using his position as Republican Party chairman to drum up support of the proposal.

    Wahl said the proposal was in response to concerns and that his goal was “to put parents in charge.”

    If the Alabama change is adopted, a local library could lose state funding if the board decides it is not compliant. The Alabama library board this spring voted to withhold state funding from the Fairhope Public Library because of some of the books available in the teen section of the library.

    The Alabama proposal comes amid a wave of legislation and regulations in Republican-controlled states targeting libraries.

    Kasey Meehan, the director of the Freedom to Read program at PEN America, said this is not the first time they’ve seen a state government “attempt to remove youth access to books with LGBTQ+ themes.” She noted an Idaho law that restricted access to books with content considered “harmful to minors.”

    “Policies that target LGBTQ themes in libraries are not only discriminatory but a disaster for libraries and readers,” Meehan said. “These policies feed on ignorance and fear-mongering against queer and trans people, and diminish the ability of libraries to effectively serve all within their communities.”

    Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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  • Alabama Inmate Asks to Meet With Governor Ahead of Execution

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    MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — An Alabama death row inmate set to die this week asked the state’s governor to meet with him “before an innocent man is executed.”

    Anthony Boyd, 53, is scheduled to be executed Thursday evening by nitrogen gas at the William C. Holman Correctional Facility. A jury convicted Boyd of capital murder for the 1993 burning death of Gregory Huguley in Talladega County. Prosecutors said Huguley was burned alive over a $200 drug debt.

    Boyd, who has maintained he did not commit the crime, made the request to meet with Gov. Kay Ivey, during a news conference hosted by the Execution Intervention Project and his spiritual adviser the Rev. Jeff Hood.

    “Before an innocent man is executed, come sit down with me and have a conversation with the guy you deemed one of the worst of the worst,” Boyd said in a recorded message played at the news conference.

    Boyd said if Ivey feels he is being deceptive or evasive during that meeting, “then please carry out the sentence.”

    “If not, then I ask you to stay this execution, to stop this execution to have my case fully and fairly investigated,” Boyd said.

    The governor’s press office did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment. The governor has halted just one execution since she took office in 2017.

    Huguley’s burned body was found Aug. 1, 1993 in a rural Talladega County ball field.

    Prosecutors said Boyd was one of four men who kidnapped Huguley the prior evening. A prosecution witness at the trial testified as part of a plea agreement and said that Boyd taped Huguley’s feet together before another man doused him in gasoline and set him on fire. Boyd’s attorneys said he was at a party on the night of the murder.

    A jury convicted Boyd of capital murder during a kidnapping and recommended by a vote of 10-2 that he receive a death sentence.

    Shawn Ingram, the man prosecutors accused of pouring the gasoline and then setting Huguley on fire, was also convicted of capital murder and is also on Alabama’s death row.

    Alabama last year began using nitrogen gas to carry out some executions.

    Boyd’s attorneys have urged the federal courts to halt the execution to scrutinize the new method. A federal judge rejected the request. The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday also declined a request by Boyd’s attorneys to stay the execution.

    Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall’s office previously released a statement that Boyd’s case has been litigated for three decades, and “he has yet to provide evidence to show the jury got it wrong.”

    Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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  • In AP Interview, Harris Says Democrats ‘Are Standing up for Working People’ in Government Shutdown

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    BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — As Democrats dig in for a lengthening government shutdown, former Vice President Kamala Harris is cheering them on as she travels the country touting her presidential campaign memoir amid speculation about another White House run.

    The Democratic 2024 nominee told The Associated Press in an interview Friday that she remains in contact with Democrats on Capitol Hill, encouraging them to maintain their demands that President Donald Trump and the Republican congressional majority address looming spikes in Affordable Care Act health insurance premiums.

    “The Republicans control the House. They control the Senate. They control the White House. They are in charge, and they are responsible for the shutdown,” she said.

    Democrats, she said, “are doing the right thing by standing up for working people and not allowing the Republicans to carry a tax cut for the wealthiest people in our country on the backs of working people in America.”

    It was just one example of Harris using her book tour to urge Democrats to lead a consistent, aggressive resistance to Trump while at the same time recommitting to reaching working- and middle-class voters who supported the Republican or stayed home last November.

    Over the course of the day, Harris sat down for an hourlong conversation with five Black college students, spoke to the AP and held two book discussions in Alabama‘s largest city. Paid ticketholders filled downtown Birmingham’s Alabama Theatre, where Harris discussed her campaign, the Democratic Party and the course of the nation with radio host Charlamagne tha God.

    Through it all, Harris projected the aura of party elder and future candidate. She expressed concern for the country’s direction and outright incredulity over many of Trump’s actions. When VIP ticketholders told her in a photo line how disappointed they had been by her loss, she played it forward.

    “We’ve got work to do,” she said repeatedly. “Keep fighting.”

    On stage and to the AP, she praised her party’s “deep and wide bench” and even called for lowering the nation’s voting age to 16 to bring more young people into the political process.


    Harris signals she’s not done

    Harris, 60, maintained she has made no decision about her own political future. But she made clear that running again in 2028 is still on the table and that she sees herself as a player in the party and a voice in the national discourse.

    “I am a leader of the party,” she told the AP. “I take seriously that responsibility and duty that I feel” as the previous nominee. That “includes traveling the country talking and mostly listening with folks,” she said, and “getting folks ready to fight in the midterms” in 2026.

    Harris aides confirmed she will help Democratic gubernatorial candidates Mikie Sherrill in New Jersey and Abigail Spanberger in Virginia with virtual events, fundraising appeals and robocalls. She also recently headlined a fundraiser for North Carolina Senate candidate Roy Cooper, a former governor and Harris’ longtime friend.

    Later this month, she plans to campaign for California’s “Yes on Prop 50,” the ballot measure that would allow a Democratic-led redraw of the state’s congressional districts to counter Republican gerrymandering in Texas and other Republican-controlled states.


    Authenticity will be key for Democratic candidates

    Harris, who was unusually blunt in her book “107 Days” about her opinions on a range of political figures, was more circumspect Friday when asked to assess other leading Democrats.

    “We have to get away from this idea of ‘Who is the one?’ There are many ways that I think will be effective when people are authentic unto themselves,” she said when asked about her fellow Californian, Gov. Gavin Newsom, and his recent social media mockery of Trump.

    She named U.S. Reps. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, and Brittany Petterson, D-Colo., but did not elaborate. “Every voice and every perspective” can resonate with certain voters, she said.

    Harris rejected conventional political wisdom that she lost in part because of Republicans’ sustained attacks on cultural and social issues, especially transgender issues. She said economics, notably inflation, was the bigger factor.

    “There are a fair number of people who voted for Donald Trump because they believed what he said, which is that he was going to bring down prices,” she told the AP. “Sadly, he lied to them.”


    Economic arguments matter most

    With prices still high and wealth gaps growing, Harris said, “We’ve got to do a better job of dealing with the immediate needs of the American people.”

    She praised the Biden administration’s legislative accomplishments but said household-level policies such as child tax credits, family leave and first-time homebuyer credits should have come before a sweeping infrastructure program and the CHIPS semiconductor manufacturing law.

    Even with a sharper economic message, Harris acknowledged structural challenges for Democrats: the proliferation of false information and what she described as conservatives’ assault on democracy.

    She rejected the idea of “low-information voters,” saying the problem is actually an abundance of misinformation and disinformation that makes it harder to reach many voters. She said Democrats must penetrate those silos rather than presume anyone is a lost cause.

    “They deserve to be heard,” she said.


    Backsliding on civil rights

    Onstage, Harris described a “reversal” of the Civil Rights Movement. She lamented that the Supreme Court could eliminate Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which protects political district boundaries drawn to ensure minority communities can elect candidates of their choice.

    Without that law, nonwhite representation –- especially Black representation in the South –- could diminish considerably, from Congress to local school boards and municipal councils.

    “How can we say at this moment in time that the Voting Rights Act and Section 2 has no purpose?” Harris said to the AP.

    The issue carried special resonance given the venue. The Voting Rights Act passed in 1965 after Martin Luther King Jr. and civil rights leaders marched from Selma, Alabama, to Montgomery. A later Supreme Court case out of Mobile led Congress to clarify its intent with Section 2 of the law. And it was a Shelby County, Alabama, case that the Supreme Court used in 2013 to gut the law’s requirement that the U.S. Justice Department approve election procedures in local jurisdictions with a demonstrated history of discrimination.

    Besides the pending Supreme Court case, Harris said she has followed Trump’s rhetoric on immigrants, along with statements from top Trump adviser Stephen Miller and other Republicans suggesting the U.S. owes its identity to white European settlers.

    “Just looking at it in terms of their words, they’re race baiting, they’re scapegoating,” she said. But she stopped short of saying the administration is being driven by a white nationalist ideology: “I can’t pretend to know what is in their head.”

    Harris said Friday that she never doubted former President Joe Biden’s ability to serve, even when he ended his reelection bid because of concerns about his age. That’s different, she explained, than discussions about whether the 82-year-old could have served another term.

    “He and I have been playing phone tag actually in the last couple of days,” Harris told the AP when asked whether she still talks to Biden, who is undergoing prostate cancer treatment. “I’d invite everyone to say a prayer if that’s what you do for his well-being and health right now.”

    Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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  • Third Suspect Charged in Deadly Alabama Shooting That Killed 2, Injured 12

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    MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — A third person was arrested and charged Thursday in connection with a shooting that killed two people and injured 12 others in a crowded downtown nightlife district in Alabama’s capital city in early October, police said.

    Javorick Whiting, 19, is charged with attempted murder, according to Montgomery police.

    Whiting is the third suspect charged for his alleged role in the Oct. 4 shooting that unfolded just before midnight in a crowded section of the city’s downtown filled with bars, hotels and restaurants. Police also arrested an unnamed juvenile last Friday and 19-year-old Dantavious McGhee on Monday on capital murder charges.

    It was not immediately known if Whiting had a lawyer who could comment for him.

    A 43-year-old woman and a 17-year-old boy were killed, police said. Investigators said they determined that multiple people fired weapons in a crowd just after the Tuskegee-Morehouse College football game had ended blocks away, after a day celebrating the two historically Black schools’ longstanding rivalry. At the time, five of the wounded had life-threatening injuries and seven had non-life-threatening injuries.

    Investigators have not said what led to the shooting, but that they believed the initial gunfire targeted one of the 14 victims, prompting multiple people to pull their own weapons and start firing back. Seven of the 14 victims were under 20, and the youngest was 16. At least two of the victims were armed.

    Multiple weapons and shell cases were recovered from the scene, and more arrests are expected, police said.

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  • Troops Will Miss Paychecks Next Week Without Action on the Government Shutdown

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    WASHINGTON (AP) — Heather Campbell lost her job working for a food bank over the summer because of federal funding cuts. Her husband serves as an officer in the Air Force, but now he’s facing the prospect of missing his next paycheck because of the government shutdown.

    If lawmakers in Washington don’t step in, Campbell’s husband won’t get paid on Wednesday. Because the couple lacks the savings to cover all their expenses, they expect to survive on credit cards to pay the mortgage and feed their three children, racking up debt as the political stalemate drags on.

    “You’re asking us to put our lives on the line or the people we love to put their lives on the line,” said Campbell, 39, who lives outside Montgomery, Alabama, near Maxwell Air Force Base. “And you’re not even going to give us our paycheck. What? There is a lot of broken trust there.”

    The nation’s third shutdown in 12 years is once again raising anxiety levels among service members and their families because those in uniform are working without pay. While they would receive back pay once the impasse ends, many military families live paycheck to paycheck. During previous shutdowns, Congress passed legislation to ensure that troops kept earning their salaries, but time is running out before they miss their first paycheck in less than a week.

    “There are so many things that Congress can’t agree on right now,” said Kate Horrell, the wife of a Navy veteran whose Washington, D.C., company provides financial advice to military families. “I don’t want to assume that they’re going to be able to agree on this.”


    Paying the troops has support, but it’s unclear when a deal might pass

    When asked if he would support a bill to pay the troops, President Donald Trump said, “that probably will happen.”

    “We’ll take care of it,” Trump said Wednesday. “Our military is always going to be taken care of.”

    Rep. Jen Kiggans, a Virginia Republican and former Navy helicopter pilot, has introduced a measure to maintain military and Coast Guard salaries, and it has bipartisan co-sponsors.

    Amanda Scott, whose husband is an Air Force officer in Colorado, said the uncertainty goes beyond the stress of just getting by — it chips away at the military’s ability to retain the best people and their readiness to fight.

    “How ready and lethal are you if you don’t know if you can feed your family?” said Scott, 33, of Colorado Springs, who works for a defense contractor and volunteers as an advocate for military families. “A lot of these service members are highly skilled and can go out and make much more money in the civilian sector.”


    Aid is available for service members, but it’s not enough for some families

    Support is available for military families through nonprofits and charities. For example, some financial institutions are offering zero-interest loans, while each military branch has a relief organization.

    But Campbell said she and her husband in Alabama can’t apply for a payday loan because they’re refinancing their house. They lack a substantial emergency fund because they were paying off student loans and moved several times in the last few years to military posts. It was often challenging for her to find steady work and child care.

    “The opportunity to build up savings is really difficult on just one income,” Campbell said. “I don’t know many military families that have a month’s worth of income set aside just in case, let alone multiple months’ worth.”

    Jen Cluff, whose husband recently left the Air Force, said her family was on a food aid program during the 2019 shutdown. But even the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children, also known as WIC, which helps more than 6 million low-income mothers and young children, would run out of federal money within two weeks unless the shutdown ends, experts say.

    “We made so little and had three young children,” said Cluff, 42, of San Antonio. “We were definitely a family that had very little buffer.”

    If Congress had not passed legislation to pay troops during the last shutdown, missing more than two paychecks “would have been catastrophic for us,” she said.

    “Resentment can grow quickly,” Cluff said of the shutdown, adding that “the general public, and many in government, truly don’t understand the daily sacrifices our military members and their families make for our country.”


    Wider effects feared in military-heavy areas

    The economic impact will ripple through regions with large military footprints, like coastal Virginia, home to the nation’s largest Navy base and several other installations. The area’s 88,000 active duty service members and their families likely have pulled back significantly on spending, said Rick Dwyer, executive director of the Hampton Roads Military and Federal Facilities Alliance, an advocacy group.

    “Think about service members who are deployed right now around the world,” said Dwyer, who served in the Air Force during previous shutdowns. “They’re having to wonder if their families are going to be able to pay the rent, the child care bills, the car payments.”

    A shutdown contingency plan posted on the Pentagon’s website cites the use of funds to continue military operations from Trump’s big tax and spending cut bill. The Congressional Budget Office has said money appropriated to the Defense Department under the new law could be used to pay active duty personnel.

    It was not clear if the funding would be used for that. The Pentagon said Thursday that it could not provide information “at this time.”

    Its contingency plan says it will “continue to defend the nation and conduct ongoing military operations” as well as activities “necessary for the safety of human life and the protection of property.”

    Listed among the highest priorities are securing the U.S.-Mexico border, operations in the Middle East and the future Golden Dome missile defense program. The plan also noted that “child care activities required for readiness” would continue.

    Raleigh Smith Duttweiler, chief impact officer for the National Military Family Association, said most child development centers on military bases are still operating. But she said most service members pay for child care off base.

    “Last I checked, my kids’ babysitter doesn’t take an IOU from the federal government,” said Duttweiler, whose husband is a Marine.

    Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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  • Trump Is Reviving Large Sales of Coal From Public Lands. Will Anyone Want It?

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    BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — U.S. officials in the coming days are set to hold the government’s biggest coal sales in more than a decade, offering 600 million tons from publicly owned reserves next to strip mines in Montana and Wyoming.

    The sales are a signature piece of President Donald Trump’s ambitions for companies to dig more coal from federal lands and burn it for electricity. Yet most power plants served by those mines plan to quit burning coal altogether within 10 years, an Associated Press data analysis shows.

    Three other mines poised for expansions or new leases under Trump also face declining demand as power plants use less of their coal and in some cases shut down, according to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration and the nonprofit Global Energy Monitor.

    Those market realities raise a fundamental question about the Republican administration’s push to revive a heavily polluting industry that long has been in decline: Who’s going to buy all that coal?

    The question looms over the administration’s enthusiastic embrace of coal, a leading contributor to climate change. It also shows the uncertainty inherent in inserting those policies into markets where energy-producing customers make long-term decisions with massive implications, not just for their own viability but for the future of the planet, in an ever-shifting political landscape.


    Rushing to approve projects

    The upcoming lease sales in Montana and Wyoming are in the Powder River Basin, home to the most productive U.S. coal fields.

    Officials say they will go forward beginning Monday despite the government shutdown. The administration exempted from furlough those workers who process fossil fuel permits and leases.

    Democratic President Joe Biden last year acted to block future coal leases in the region, citing their potential to make climate change worse. Burning the coal from the two leases being sold in coming days would generate more than 1 billion tons of planet-warming carbon dioxide, according to a Department of Energy formula.

    Trump rejected climate change as a “con job” during a Sept. 23 speech to the U.N. General Assembly, an assessment that puts him at odds with scientists. He praised coal as “beautiful” and boasted about the abundance of U.S. supplies while deriding solar and wind power. Administration officials said Wednesday that they were canceling $8 billion in grants for clean energy projects in 16 states won by Democrat Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election.

    In response to an order from Trump on his first day in office in January, coal lease sales that had been shelved or stalled were revived and rushed to approval, with considerations of greenhouse gas emissions dismissed. Administration officials have advanced coal mine expansions and lease sales in Utah, North Dakota, Tennessee and Alabama, in addition to Montana and Wyoming.

    Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said Monday that the administration is opening more than 20,000 square miles (52,000 square kilometers) of federal lands to mining. That is an area bigger than New Hampshire and Vermont combined.

    The administration also sharply reduced royalty rates for coal from federal lands, ordered a coal-fired power plant in Michigan to stay open past planned retirement dates and pledged $625 million to recommission or modernize coal plants amid growing electricity demand from artificial intelligence and data centers.

    “We’re putting American miners back to work,” Burgum said, flanked by coal miners and Republican politicians. “We’ve got a demand curve coming at us in terms of the demand for electricity that is literally going through the roof.”

    The AP’s finding that power plants served by mines on public lands are burning less coal reflects an industrywide decline that began in 2007.

    Energy experts and economists were not surprised. They expressed doubt that coal would ever reclaim dominance in the power sector. Interior Department officials did not respond to questions about future demand for coal from public lands.

    But it will take time for more electricity from planned natural gas and solar projects to come online. That means Trump’s actions could give a short-term bump to coal, said Umed Paliwal, an expert in electricity markets at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

    “Eventually coal will get pushed out of the market,” Paliwal said. “The economics will just eat the coal generation over time.”

    The coal sales in Montana and Wyoming were requested by Navajo Nation-owned company. The Navajo Transitional Energy Co. (NTEC) has been one of the largest industry players since buying several major mines in the Powder River Basin during a 2019 bankruptcy auction. Those mines supply 34 power plants in 19 states.

    Twenty-one of the plants are scheduled to stop burning coal in the next decade. They include all five plants using coal from NTEC’s Spring Creek mine in Montana.

    In filings with federal officials, the company said the fair market value of 167 million tons of federal coal next to the Spring Creek mine was just over $126,000.

    That is less than one-tenth of a penny per ton, a fraction of what coal brought in its heyday. By comparison, the last large-scale lease sale in the Powder River Basin, also for 167 million tons of coal, drew a bid of $35 million in 2013. Federal officials rejected that as too low.

    NTEC said the low value was supported by prior government reviews predicting fewer buyers for coal. The company said taxpayers would benefit in future years from royalties on any coal mined.

    “The market for coal will decline significantly over the next two decades. There are fewer coal mines expanding their reserves, there are fewer buyers of thermal coal and there are more regulatory constraints,” the company said.

    In central Wyoming on Wednesday, the government will sell 440 million tons of coal next to NTEC’s Antelope Mine. Just over half of the 29 power plants served by the mine are scheduled to stop burning coal by 2035.

    Among them is the Rawhide plant in northern Colorado. It is due to quit coal in 2029 but will keep making electricity with natural gas and 30 megawatts of solar panels.


    Aging plants and optimism

    The largest U.S. coal company has offered a more optimistic take on coal’s future. Because new nuclear and gas plants are years away, Peabody Energy suggested in September that demand for coal in the U.S. could increase 250 million tons annually — up almost 50% from current volumes.

    Peabody’s projection was based on the premise that existing power plants can burn more coal. That amount, known as plant capacity, dropped by about half in recent years.

    “U.S. coal is clearly in comeback mode,” Peabody’s president, James Grech, said in a recent conference call with analysts. “The U.S. has more energy in its coal reserves than any nation has in any one energy source.”

    No large coal power plants have come online in the U.S. since 2013. Most existing plants are 40 years old or older. Money pledged by the administration to refurbish older plants will not go very far given that a single boiler component at a plant can cost $25 million to replace, said Nikhil Kumar with GridLab, an energy consulting group.

    That leads back to the question of who will buy the coal.

    “I don’t see where you get all this coal consumed at remaining facilities,” Kumar said.

    Gruver reported from Wellington, Colorado. Associated Press writer Susan Montoya Bryan in Albuquerque, New Mexico, contributed to this report.

    Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

    Photos You Should See – Sept. 2025

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