CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — No one wants a weasel on their Thanksgiving table, but swapping turkeys for other animals was once surprisingly common.
Trading turkeys – for wildlife management, not dinner – was a key part of one of North America’s biggest conservation success stories. After dwindling to a few thousand birds in the late 1880s, the wild turkey population has grown to about 7 million birds in 49 states, plus more in Canada and Mexico, according to the National Wild Turkey Federation.
In many cases, restoration relied on trades. The exchange rates varied, but Oklahoma once swapped walleye and prairie chickens for turkeys from Arkansas and Missouri. Colorado traded mountain goats for turkeys from Idaho. The Canadian province of Ontario ended up with 274 turkeys from New York, New Jersey, Vermont, Michigan, Missouri and Iowa in exchange for moose, river otters, and partridge.
“Wildlife biologists don’t suffer from a lack of creativity,” said Patt Dorsey, director of conservation for the National Wild Turkey Federation’s western region.
West Virginia in particular appears to have had an abundance of turkeys to share. In 1969, it sent 26 turkeys to New Hampshire in exchange for 25 fishers, a member of the weasel family once prized for its pelt. Later trades involved otters and bobwhite quail.
“They were like our currency for all our wildlife that we restored,” said Holly Morris, furbearer and small game project leader at the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources. “It’s just a way to help out other agencies. We’re all in the same mission.”
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Wild turkeys were abundant across the U.S. until the mid-1800s, when the clearing of forestland and unregulated hunting led the population to plummet. Early restoration efforts in the 1940s and 50s involved raising turkeys on farms, but that didn’t work well, Dorsey said.
“Turkeys that had been raised in a pen didn’t do very well in the wild,” she said. “That’s when we started capturing them out of the wild and moving them around to other places to restore their population, and they really took off.”
In New Hampshire, wild turkeys hadn’t been seen for more than 100 years when the state got the West Virginia flock. Though those birds quickly succumbed to a harsh winter, another flock sent from New York in 1975 fared better. With careful management that included moving birds around the state dozens of times over the ensuing decades, the population has grown to roughly 40,000 birds, said Dan Ellingwood, a biologist with the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department. That’s likely well beyond the expectations at the time of reintroduction, he said.
“Turkeys are incredibly adaptive,” he said. “Winter severity has changed, the landscape has changed, and yet the population really took off.”
Turkeys play an important role in a healthy ecosystem as both predator and prey, he said, and are a popular draw for hunters. But the restoration effort also is important just for the sake of ensuring native species continue to persist, he said.
Dorsey, at the National Wild Turkey Federation agreed, noting that turkey restoration projects also helped states revive their populations of other species.
“A lot of good work gets done on the back of the wild turkey,” she said.
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Justin Rose made up a three-shot deficit over the last five holes against hard-luck Tommy Fleetwood, and then made two birdies in a playoff against U.S. Open champion J.J. Spaun to win the FedEx St. Jude Championship on Sunday.
Rose delivered another sterling performance, closing with a 3-under 67 for his 24th victory worldwide that puts him back into the top 10 in the world at age 45 and secures his spot in another Ryder Cup.
He birdied four straight holes, and narrowly missed a 13-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole at the TPC Southwind for a win in regulation. Rose wound up making six birdies over the last eight holes he played, the last one a 10-foot putt on the 18th on the third playoff hole.
“An amazing last 90 minutes,” Rose said. “I played unbelievable golf down the stretch. When I bring my best, I know I’m good enough to play and to compete, and to now win against the best players in the world. Very gratifying day for me.”
Spaun showed plenty of moxie on his own. He made a 20-foot birdie putt on the 17th hole to pull into a share of the lead and closed with a 65. He also made a 30-foot birdie putt on the second extra hole with Rose in tight.
“I hung in there the best I could, and he beat me to the hole first. Just wasn’t meant to be,” said Spaun, who locked up a spot in his first Ryder Cup.
Lost in his remarkable rally was another setback for Fleetwood, who has become a sympathetic figure in golf for close calls and his graciousness in defeat. This looked to be his time to add a PGA Tour title to his wins around the world, especially when his 35-foot birdie on the 12th was the first of three birdies in a four-hole stretch that gave him a two-shot lead with three to play.
But he hit pitch through the green on the par-5 16th and had to scramble for par. He was between clubs on the 17th, hit a poor shot and a worse par attempt from 7 feet for bogey. Needing birdie on the 18th to have a chance, he drove into a bunker.
Fleetwood shot 69 and finished one shot out of the playoff along with Scottie Scheffler, who grazed the edge of so many putts on the back nine and had to settle a 67.
“There’s a lot of positives to take, as much as I won’t feel like that right now. I’m just going to look at what I feel like I could have done and how close it was,” Fleetwood said.
“All these experiences and these close calls, like I say, there’s no point in allowing them to have a negative effect on what happens next. What would be the point?” he said. “It was a great week. I did a ton of good stuff, and as disappointed as I am, I have to try to find the strength to make it all a positive experience and hopefully next time go again.”
Scheffler has not finished worse than eighth place in his last 12 tournaments dating to March. He played the final round without his regular caddie, Ted Scott, who had an emergency family situation back home in Louisiana.
Rose wasn’t the only player leaving the TPC Southwind with a big smile. Bud Cauley was on the bubble for finishing in the top 50 in the FedEx Cup when he holed a bunker shot for birdie on the 17th hole and locked up his spot for the second round of the FedEx Cup playoffs next week outside Baltimore.
Rickie Fowler, who missed the postseason last year, shot 69 to tie for sixth and advance to the BMW Championship. Others who moved into the top 50 were Kurt Kitayama, Jhonattan Vegas and J.T. Poston.
The top 50 are assured of being in all the $20 million signature events next year.
There was plenty of movement around the bubble. Jordan Spieth never got on track this week, finished with a shot in the water on the 18th and shot 68 to tie for 38th to finish 54th. Chris Kirk was inside the top 50 until he hit into the water on the 15th for bogey and failed to birdie the par-5 16th. A closing birdie left him at No. 51.
For all that was at stake, the best drama was at the top, particularly with Rose. He played in the final group with Fleetwood was three shots behind when Rose hit 6-iron to just inside 15 feet for birdie at the par-3 14th. He followed with two more short birdies, and then poured in a 15-footer on the 17th for his fourth in a row.
“This is going to be a fun one for us to celebrate,” Rose said.
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Hezly Rivera was the fresh face a year ago. The newcomer. The teenager on a team of 20-something Olympic gymnasts, doing her best to absorb what she could from Simone Biles, Sunisa Lee, Jade Carey and Jordan Chiles.
The one thing that stood out, even more than the sometimes otherworldly gymnastics, is the way her fellow gold-medal-winning teammates went about their business.
“They looked so confident,” Rivera said. “They’re like, ‘I’m going to go out and I’m going to hit.’ It gave me that confidence as well.”
Looks like it.
The now 17-year-old who says she’s paying no attention to the idea that she’s the leader of the women’s program in the early stages of the run-up to the 2028 Olympics certainly looks the part.
Buoyed by a polished steadiness — and a beam routine that finally looked the way it does back home at her home gym in Texas — Rivera captured her first national title Sunday night at the U.S. Championships. Her two-day total of 112.000 was good enough to fend off a challenge from Leanne Wong and put her in excellent position to lead the four-woman American delegation at the world championships in Jakarta, Indonesia, in October.
Rivera, by far the youngest member of the five-woman team that finished atop the podium in Paris a year ago, bounced back from a shaky performance at the U.S. Classic last month with the kind of measured, refined gymnastics that she attributed to simply “letting go” of whatever pressure she might feel as the lone Olympic gold medalist in a remarkably young field.
“No matter how rough the competition is, I still can get back into the gym and work hard because all those months previously that I’ve been working hard, I know it’s going to show up eventually,” she said. “So it kind of just took a weight off my shoulders.”
Rivera, at the very least, locked up a spot in the world championship selection camp next month. So did Wong, a four-time world championship medalist, budding entrepreneur and pre-med student who shows no signs of slowing down despite years of competing collegiately and at the elite level simultaneously.
Asked how she juggles it all, the 21-year-old who insists she doesn’t keep a planner said she lives by the motto “there’s time for everything.”
Joscelyn Roberson, an Olympic alternate last summer, shook off an ankle injury suffered at the end of her floor routine to finish third as the three most internationally experienced athletes in the field looked ready to lead after spending most of the last Olympic quad learning from Biles and company.
“You go from, ‘Oh you’re so young, you’re so young,’ to, ‘Oh, you are the older kid,’” the 19-year-old Roberson said. “People say, ‘How are you feeling?’ Like, I honestly don’t feel that different.”
Two summers ago, Roberson was Biles’ bouncy sidekick. Now she’s among the leaders of the next wave.
“I felt like more responsible to let the little, smaller, less experienced kids know it’s not the end of the day if you have a bad day or if you had one fall,” Roberson said. “I want to help them grow instead of think ‘I have to be perfect.’”
Roberson then walked the walk. Or maybe limped the limp. She appeared ready to make it a three-woman race for first until she turned an ankle on the final tumbling pass of her floor routine.
The rising sophomore at Arkansas gingerly continued on anyway. She gritted her way through her vault dismount, though the five-tenths (0.5) deduction for using an additional pad for her protection took her out of contention for the all-around.
Still, the victory hardly came easy for Rivera. She was pushed through four rotations by Wong, who started Sunday with a stuck Cheng vault and didn’t relent over the course of two hours.
Rivera responded each time — she posted the top scores on three of the four events — but it wasn’t until she walked off the podium following her floor routine with victory in hand that she could relax.
“Everything fell into place,” Rivera said. “I tried not to get too overwhelmed because nerves obviously can be there, especially when you know you’re in a spot to win a national title, but I just took all pressure off myself.”
Skye Blakely, who was injured at the Olympic Trials in both 2021 and 2024, was sublime on both uneven bars and balance beam to put herself in consideration to make the world team.
NEW YORK (AP) — Walmart said Friday it has reached a proposed settlement pact related to three lawsuits filed by shareholders on behalf of the company over the handling of prescription opioids.
According to the terms of the settlement that were disclosed in a regulatory filing, insurance carriers will pay Walmart $123 million, excluding any attorneys’ fees and expenses awarded by the court to the plaintiffs’ counsel. Walmart would also maintain certain corporate governance practices for at least five years, according to the filing.
The settlement doesn’t include any admission of liability by Walmart. It’s subject to court approval.
Three Walmart shareholders filed lawsuits the Delaware Court of Chancery, alleging current and former directors and officers breached their fiduciary duties by failing to adequately oversee the company’s distribution and dispensing of prescription opioids.
In 2022, Walmart agreed to pay $3.1 billion to settle lawsuits nationwide over the impact of prescriptions its pharmacies filled for powerful prescription opioid painkillers.
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — The Arkansas Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the wording of a ballot measure that would revoke a planned casino’s license, rejecting an effort to disqualify a proposal that has led to millions of dollars in campaign ads and mailers.
In a 6-1 ruling, justices rejected a lawsuit that claimed the proposed constitutional amendment was “riddled with errors.” A state panel this year issued the license to Cherokee Nation Entertainment to build the casino in Pope County.
Cherokee Nation Entertainment and an affiliated group, the Arkansas Canvassing Compliance Committee, filed a lawsuit challenging the measure. The court on Monday rejected the first part of the lawsuit that claimed the group behind the measure violated several signature gathering laws.
In Thursday’s ruling, justices rejected arguments that there were several flaws with the measure. The lawsuit claimed that, among other things, it was misleading to voters.
“In sum, we hold that the popular name and ballot title are an intelligible, honest, and impartial means of presenting the proposed amendment to the people for their consideration,” Justice Karen Baker wrote in the majority opinion. “We hold that it is an adequate and fair representation without misleading tendencies or partisan coloring.”
The proposed amendment would revoke the license granted for a Pope County casino that has been hung up by legal challenges for the past several years. Pope County was one of four sites where casinos were allowed to be built under a constitutional amendment that voters approved in 2018. Casinos have already been set up in the other three locations.
The political fight over the casino amendment has been an expensive one that has dominated Arkansas’ airwaves. The Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma has spent more than $8.8 million on the campaign in favor of the proposed amendment. Cherokee Nation Businesses has spent $11.6 million campaigning against the measure.
Supporters of the amendment said they were pleased with the ruling.
“Issue 2 keeps casinos from being forced on communities that vote against them,” Hans Stiritz, spokesperson for Local Voters in Charge, the campaign for the amendment, said in a statement. “We’re grateful for the Arkansas Supreme Court’s final decision to affirm the certification of Issue 2, keep it on the ballot, and allow the vote of the people to be counted.”
Cherokee Nation Entertainment has said it plans to build a 50,000-square-foot (4,600-square-meter) casino northeast of Russellville, 60 miles (97 kilometers) northwest of Little Rock. Plans also call for a 200-room hotel, a conference center and an outdoor music venue. A spokesperson for Cherokee Nation Entertainment and the Legends Resort and Casino project called the amendment “sneaky.”
“It is important for voters to know that Issue 2 is the only thing standing in our way of breaking ground on the $300M Legends Resort & Casino near Russellville, an economic development super project that is licensed, county-approved, and bringing 1,000 jobs and millions in new tax revenue,” Allison Burum said in a statement.
The proposed amendment would remove the Pope County casino’s authorization from the state constitution. It would also require future casino licenses be approved by voters in the county where it would be located. The constitution currently requires casino license applicants to submit letters of support from local officials.
In a dissenting opinion, Justice Shawn Womack called the ballot measure “plainly misleading” because it doesn’t make clear to voters that the proposal would revoke Pope County’s existing license.
“Thus, voters are not able to reach an intelligent and informed decision either for or against the proposal, and thus, they are unable to understand the consequences of their votes,” Womack wrote.
ST. LOUIS (AP) — Many states have laws designed to keep children away from convicted sexual offenders on Halloween night, such as curfews for those on offender registries and requirements to keep their porch lights off.
But a Missouri law mandating a sign at the offender’s home was a step too far, a judge ruled.
A 2008 law required registered offenders in Missouri to post signs on Oct. 31 that read “No candy or treats at this residence.” U.S. District Judge John Ross ruled this month that the provision violated the First Amendment by forcing “compelled speech,” depriving those on the registry “of their freedom to speak in their own words or to not speak at all.”
The ruling lets stand other provisions of the Missouri law that require people on the registry on Halloween to remain inside their home from 5 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. and to leave their outdoor lights off.
The Missouri sign law is unique among states, but some cities and counties have tried similar laws that were either struck down in court or withdrawn as part of lawsuit settlements.
Ross’ ruling on the Missouri sign law drew a mixed response. Some said extraordinary steps are necessary on a night when children flood the streets and often knock on the doors of strangers. Others said the sign law was unnecessarily cruel — and even counterproductive.
“I feel like it’s a setback and another example of predators’ rights kind of trumping those of their victims,” said Tara Bishop, a 40-year-old mother of four from southwestern Missouri who operates a Facebook page called Child Predators Exposed with more than 10,000 followers.
But an extensive examination of crime data published in 2009 in the Sexual Abuse journal found no increased risk of sexual abuse of children on Halloween. Experts say the vast majority of child sexual abuse crimes involve someone known by the victim or the child’s family, and not strangers.
Janice Bellucci, the lawyer for the Missouri man who challenged the law, said that for those forced to place the sign, the damage is long-lasting.
“It’s not just stigmatizing you that one day, it stigmatizes you for the rest of your life, as long as you live there,” said Bellucci, who is part of the California-based Alliance for Constitutional Sex Offense Laws.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Thomas L. Sanderson of Hazelwood, Missouri, a St. Louis suburb. He was convicted of second-degree sodomy in 2006 after a 16-year-old family friend accused him of sexually touching her. Sanderson, who has maintained his innocence, was sentenced to two years in prison and required to register as a sexual offender for 25 years.
The Missouri Halloween law was adopted two years later. It is unclear how many of the state’s approximately 26,000 convicted sexual offenders have been charged for violating the statute, or how stringent enforcement has been. The law doesn’t say where the sign must be placed. People on the registry are responsible for making their own signs.
The lawsuit said Sanderson asked police if he was subject to the law because his conviction happened before its passage. He said he was told he was not, so he continued to host Halloween parties complete with animatronic figures, lights, a bonfire, music and candy, the lawsuit said.
But the lawsuit said that on Halloween night 2022, police arrived at Sanderson’s home. No sign was posted, and he was arrested. He pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor for violating the Halloween statute and received probation. He sued last year.
Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey’s office, in court filings, wrote that the state is duty-bound to protect children who can’t make adequate decisions on their own. Bailey’s office said an appeal is planned.
“I want Missouri to be the safest state in the nation for children. That includes on Halloween,” Bailey, a Republican, said in a statement.
Alison Feigh, director of Jacob Wetterling Resource Center at Zero Abuse Project, which focuses on helping institutions prevent, recognize and respond to child sexual abuse, said most assaults happen after offenders build relationships with victims and their families. Tactics like signs are not helpful in keeping children safe, she said in an email.
“These public signs may give a false sense of security to families while not actually preventing child abuse,” Feigh said.
Other Halloween sign laws also have faced setbacks.
In Georgia, the Butts County Sheriff’s Office was sued in 2019, with people on registries alleging that authorities trespassed onto their properties to post signs that caused humiliation and anxiety. The signs read: “WARNING! NO TRICK-OR-TREATING AT THIS ADDRESS!! A COMMUNITY SAFETY MESSAGE FROM BUTTS COUNTY SHERIFF GARY LONG.”
A federal appeals court panel in 2022 said the signage violated the First Amendment.
In California, Simi Valley required Halloween signs in the yards of registered sexual offenders until reaching a 2013 settlement in a lawsuit filed by the Alliance for Constitutional Sex Offense Laws on behalf of five offenders.
In January, the alliance filed suit after the sheriff’s office in Marion County, Arkansas, created and posted signs and placed them in the yards of those on the registry. The signs read: “Sorry! No Trick or Treat.” The sheriff’s office later agreed to stop posting or requiring the signs.
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — A federal appeals court has reinstated an Arkansas rule prohibiting election officials from accepting voter registration forms signed with an electronic signature.
The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday afternoon issued an administrative stay of a preliminary injunction that a federal judge issued against the rule adopted earlier this year by the State Board of Election Commissioners. An appeal of the preliminary injunction is still pending before the court.
The board in April said Arkansas’ constitution only allows certain state agencies, and not elections officials, to accept electronic signatures. Under the rule, voters will have to register by signing their name with a pen.
The rule was adopted after nonprofit group Get Loud Arkansas helped register voters using electronic signatures. Get Loud said the board’s decision conflicts with a recent attorney general’s opinion that an electronic signature is generally valid under state law. The group filed a lawsuit challenging the board’s decision.
“This rule creates an obstacle that risks disenfranchising eligible voters and disrupting the fundamental process of our elections,” Get Loud said in a statement following the 8th Circuit order. “The preliminary injunction recognized that this irreparable harm must be avoided.”
Chris Madison, director of the state Board of Election Commissioners, told county clerks on Monday that any voter registrations completed before the stay was issued Friday were eligible to have electronic signatures.
Madison asked the clerks to identify any registration applications Saturday or later that used electronic signatures and to make every effort to contact the voter as soon as possible to give them a chance to correct their application.
Madison in April said the rule was needed to create uniformity across the state. Some county clerks had previously accepted electronic signatures and others had not.
The Arkansas rule is among a wave of new voting restrictions in Republican-led states in recent years that critics say disenfranchise voters, particularly in low-income and underserved areas.
MEDFORD, Mass. (AP) — Flerentin “Flex” Jean-Baptiste missed so much school he had to repeat his freshman year at Medford High outside Boston. At school, “you do the same thing every day,” said Jean-Baptiste, who was absent 30 days his first year. “That gets very frustrating.”
Then his principal did something nearly unheard of: She let students play organized sports during lunch — if they attended all their classes. In other words, she offered high schoolers recess.
“It gave me something to look forward to,” said Jean-Baptiste, 16. The following year, he cut his absences in half. Schoolwide, the share of chronically absent students declined from 35% in March 2023 to 23% in March 2024 — one of the steepest declines among Massachusetts high schools.
Flerentin “Flex” Jean-Baptiste, 16, of Medford, Mass., poses for a photo at Medford High School, Friday, Aug. 2, 2024, in Medford. (AP Photo/Josh Reynolds)
Years after COVID-19 upended American schooling, nearly every state is still struggling with attendance, according to data collected by The Associated Press and Stanford University educational economist Thomas Dee.
Roughly one in four students in the 2022-23 school year remained chronically absent, meaning they missed at least 10% of the school year. That represents about 12 million children in the 42 states and Washington, D.C., where data is available.
Before the pandemic, only 15% of students missed that much school.
Society may have largely moved on from COVID, but schools say they’re still battling the effects of pandemic school closures. After as much as a year at home, school for many kids has felt overwhelming, boring or socially stressful. More than ever, kids and parents are deciding it’s OK to stay home, which makes catching up even harder.
In all but one state, Arkansas, absence rates remain higher than pre-pandemic. Still, the problem appears to have passed its peak; almost every state saw absenteeism improve at least slightly from 2021-22 to 2022-23.
Schools are working to identify students with slipping attendance, then providing help. They’re working to close communication gaps with parents, who often aren’t aware their child is missing so much school or why it’s problematic.
So far, the solutions that appear to be helping are simple — like letters to parents that compare a child’s attendance with peers. But to make more progress, experts say, schools must get creative to address their students’ needs.
Caring adults — and incentives
In Oakland, California, chronic absenteeism skyrocketed from 29% pre-pandemic to 53% in 2022-23 across district and charter schools. Officials asked students what would convince them to come to class.
Money, they replied, and a mentor.
A grant-funded program launched in spring 2023 paid 45 students $50 weekly for perfect attendance. Students also checked in daily with an assigned adult and completed weekly mental health assessments.
Paying students isn’t a permanent or sustainable fix, said Zaia Vera, the district’s head of social-emotional learning.
But many absent students lacked stable housing or were helping to support their families. “The money is the hook that got them in the door,” Vera said.
More than 60% improved their attendance after taking part, Vera said. The program is expected to continue, along with district-wide efforts aimed at creating a sense of belonging. Oakland’s African American Male Achievement project, for example, pairs Black students with Black teachers who offer support.
Kids who identify with their educators are more likely to attend school, said Michael Gottfried, a University of Pennsylvania professor. According to one study led by Gottfried, California students felt “it’s important for me to see someone who’s like me early on, first thing in the day,” he said.
A caring teacher made a difference for Golden Tachiquin, 18, who graduated from Oakland’s Skyline High School this spring. When she started 10th grade after a remote freshman year, she felt lost and anxious. She later realized these feelings caused the nausea and dizziness that kept her home sick. She was absent at least 25 days that year.
But she bonded with an Afro-Latina teacher who understood her culturally and made Tachiquin, a straight-A student, feel her poor attendance didn’t define her.
“I didn’t dread going to her class,” Tachiquin said.
Another teacher had the opposite effect. “She would say, ‘Wow, guess who decided to come today?’ ” Tachiquin recalled. “I started skipping her class even more.”
In Massachusetts, Medford High School requires administrators to greet and talk with students each morning, especially those with a history of missing school.
But the lunchtime gym sessions have been the biggest driver of improved attendance, Principal Marta Cabral said. High schoolers need freedom and an opportunity to move their bodies, she said. “They’re here for seven hours a day. They should have a little fun.”
Flerentin “Flex” Jean-Baptiste, 16, poses for a photo at Medford High School, Aug. 2, 2024, in Medford. (AP Photo/Josh Reynolds)
Flerentin “Flex” Jean-Baptiste, 16, poses at Medford High School, Aug. 2, 2024, in Medford. (AP Photo/Josh Reynolds)
Flerentin “Flex” Jean-Baptiste, 16, works on an assignment at Medford High School, Aug. 2, 2024, in Medford. (AP Photo/Josh Reynolds)
Stubborn circumstances
Chronically absent students are at higher risk of illiteracy and eventually dropping out. They also miss the meals, counseling and socialization provided at school.
In Alaska, 45% of students missed significant school last year. In Amy Lloyd’s high school classes in Juneau, some families now treat attendance as optional. Last term, several of her English students missed school for vacations.
“I don’t really know how to reset the expectation that was crushed when we sat in front of the computer for that year,” Lloyd said.
Emotional and behavioral problems also have kept kids home from school. Research shared exclusively with AP found absenteeism and poor mental health are “interconnected,” said University of Southern California professor Morgan Polikoff.
For example, in the USC study, almost a quarter of chronically absent kids had high levels of emotional or behavioral problems, according to a parent questionnaire, compared with just 7% of kids with good attendance. Emotional symptoms among teen girls were especially linked with missing school.
How sick is too sick?
When chronic absence surged to around 50% in Fresno, California, officials realized they had to remedy pandemic-era mindsets about keeping kids home sick.
“Unless your student has a fever or threw up in the last 24 hours, you are coming to school. That’s what we want,” said Abigail Arii, director of student support services.
Often, said Noreida Perez, who oversees attendance, parents aren’t aware physical symptoms can point to mental health struggles — such as when a child doesn’t feel up to leaving their bedroom.
More than a dozen states now let students take mental health days as excused absences. But staying home can become a vicious cycle, said Hedy Chang, of Attendance Works, which works with schools on absenteeism.
“If you continue to stay home from school, you feel more disengaged,” she said. “You get farther behind.”
Changing the culture around sick days is only part of the problem.
Melinda Gonzalez, 14, in Fresno, Calif., Aug. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Gary Kazanjian)
Melinda Gonzalez, 14, shown in her home getting ready to start her day in Fresno, Calif., Aug. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Gary Kazanjian)
At Fresno’s Fort Miller Middle School, where half the students were chronically absent, two reasons kept coming up: dirty laundry and no transportation. The school bought a washer and dryer for families’ use, along with a Chevy Suburban to pick up students who missed the bus. Overall, Fresno’s chronic absenteeism improved to 35% in 2022-23.
Melinda Gonzalez, 14, missed the school bus about once a week and would call for rides in the Suburban.
“I don’t have a car; my parents couldn’t drive me to school,” Gonzalez said. “Getting that ride made a big difference.”
Melinda Gonzalez, 14, poses at Fresno High School where she’ll be a freshman in Fresno, Calif., Wednesday, Aug. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Gary Kazanjian)
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Becky Bohrer contributed reporting from Juneau, Alaska.
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GLOSTER, Miss. (AP) — This southern Mississippi town’s expansive wood pellet plant was so close to Shelia Mae Dobbins’ home that she sometimes heard company loudspeakers. She says industrial residues coated her truck and she no longer enjoys spending time in the air outdoors.
Dobbins feels her life — and health — were better before 2016, when United Kingdom energy giant Drax opened a facility able to compress 450,000 tons of wood chips annually in the majority Black town of Gloster, Mississippi. To her, it’s no coincidence federal regulators find residents are exposed to unwanted air particles and they experience asthma more than most of the country.
Her asthma and diabetes were once under control, but since a 2017 diagnosis of heart and lung disease, Dobbins has frequently lived at the end of a breathing tube connected to an oxygen cannister.
“Something is going on. And it’s all around the plant,” said the 59-year-old widow who raised two children here. “Nobody asked us could they bring that plant there.”
Shelia Mae Dobbins holds part of her oxygen tube inside her home in Gloster, Miss., Wednesday, May 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Shelia Mae Dobbins walks with her oxygen tube inside her home in Gloster, Miss., Wednesday, May 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Wood pellet production skyrocketed across the U.S. South. It helped feed demand in the European Union for renewable energy, as those coutries sought to replace fossil fuels such as coal. But many residents near plants — often African Americans in poor, rural swaths — find the process left their air dustier and people sicker.
Billions of dollars are available for these projects under President Joe Biden’s signature law combating climate change. The administration is weighing whether to open up tax credits for companies to burn wood pellets for energy.
Shelia Mae Dobbins cries as she talks about her health inside her home in Gloster, Miss., Wednesday, May 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
As producers expand west, environmentalists want the government to stop incentivizing what they call a misguided attempt to curb carbon emissions that pollute communities of color while presently warming the atmosphere.
Despite hefty pollution fines against industry players and one major producer’s recent bankruptcy, supporters say the multibillion-dollar market is experiencing growing pains. In wood pellets, they see an innovative long-term solution to the climate crisis that brings revenue necessary for forest owners to maintain plantations.
Birds fly past a pile of wood used to make pellets during a tour of a Drax facility in Gloster, Miss., Monday, May 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Biomass boom
After the European Union classified biomass as renewable energy in 2009, the Southeast’s annual wood pellet capacity increased from about 300,000 tons to more than 7.3 million tons by 2017, according to research led by a University of Missouri team.
Federal energy statistics show about three dozen southern wood pellet manufacturing facilities account for nearly 80% of annual U.S. capacity. Most pellets are used for commercial-scale energy overseas.
The market brought hope for revitalization to small, disadvantaged communities. But interviews with residents of towns with large Black populations, from Gaston, North Carolina, to Uniontown, Alabama, surfaced complaints of truck traffic, air pollution and noise from pellet plants.
Dan Caston, an employee of Drax leads a tour of their plant in Gloster, Miss., Monday, May 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Dan Caston, an employee of Drax, shows some of the wood pellets their plant produces in Gloster, Miss., Monday, May 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Gloster has become the poster child for such tensions. In 2020, Mississippi’s environmental agency fined Drax $2.5 million for violating air emissions limits. Gloster is exposed to more particulate matter than much of the U.S. and adults have higher asthma rates than 80% of the country, according to an Environmental Protection Agency mapping tool. Median household income is about $22,000; the poverty rate is triple the national level.
Spokesperson Michelli Martin said Drax in 2021 installed pollution controls, including incinerators to decrease carbon emissions. An environmental consulting firm found “no adverse effects to human health” and that “no modeled pollutant from the facility exceeded” acceptable levels, Martin said.
The company recently committed to annual town halls and announced a $250,000 Gloster Community Fund to “improve quality of life.”
But critics aren’t swayed by showings of corporate goodwill they say don’t account for poor air. Krystal Martin, of the Greater Greener Gloster Project, returned to her hometown after her 75-year-old mother was diagnosed with lung and heart problems.
“You don’t really know you’re dealing with air pollution until most people have breathed and inhaled it for so long that they end up sick,” she said.
Krystal Martin, a Gloster native, shows pamphlets to residents Myrtis Woodard and Shelia Mae Dobbins, right, during a community meeting she organized regarding health complaints against the Drax facility in Gloster, Miss., Thursday, May 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Krystal Martin, a Gloster native, shows pamphlets during a community meeting she organized regarding health complaints against the Drax facility in Gloster, Miss., Thursday, May 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Brown University assistant epidemiology professor Erica Walker is studying health impacts of industrial pollutants on Gloster residents. Walker said fine particulate matter can travel deep into lungs and reach the bloodstream.
“It can also circulate to other parts of our body, leading to body-wide inflammation,” she said.
A man crosses the street in downtown Gloster, Miss., Thursday, May 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Subsidies for an upstart industry
Environmentalists are calling on Biden to stop aiding an industry they believe runs counter to his green energy goals. At the annual United Nations climate conference, The Dogwood Alliance urged attendees to phase out wood pellets.
Enviva — the world’s largest wood pellet producer — had already received subsidies through the 2018 farm bill signed by former President Donald Trump, according to Sheila Korth, a former policy analyst with nonpartisan watchdog Taxpayers for Common Sense.
But Korth said the Biden-era Inflation Reduction Act made tax credits available to companies that create pellets for countries in Europe and Asia.
Elizabeth Woodworth, interim executive director of the US Industrial Pellet Association, said the money is a small part of lRA allocations and noted emerging technologies require government subsidies. The industry argues that replanting of trees will eventually absorb carbon produced by burning pellets.
“We need every single technology we can get our hands on to mitigate climate change,” Woodworth said. “Bioenergy is a part of that.”
Scientific studies have found firing wood pellets puts more carbon immediately into the atmosphere than coal. Pollution from biomass-based facilities is nearly three times higher than that of other energy sectors, according to a 2023 paper in the journal Renewable Energy.
In a 2018 letter, hundreds of scientists warned the EU that the “additional carbon load” from burning wood pellets means “permanent damages” including glacial melting.
A resident crosses the street for a community meeting regarding health complaints against Drax in Gloster, Miss., Thursday, May 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Expansion plans and more burning?
Drax — with plants operating in Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi — is heading west.
The corporation signed an agreement in February with Golden State Natural Resources to identify biomass from California’s forests. The public-private venture hopes to build two plants by year’s end and produce up to 1 million tons of wood pellets annually. Another Drax project in Washington would produce 500,000 tons a year.
The Natural Resources Defense Council’s Rita Frost, who fought plants in the South, said the deal will endanger California’s low-income Latino communities much like she says the industry threatened Black southern towns.
“It’s an environmental justice problem that should not be repeated in California,” Frost said.
An employee walks toward a pile of lumber to be used during a tour of a Drax facility in Gloster, Miss., Monday, May 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
But a key federal decision could draw more companies into pellet combustion — not just production.
The White House is looking into whether biomass facilities should receive tax credits meant for zero-emission electricity generators. The Treasury Department is weighing whether biomass’ potential long-term carbon neutrality is sufficient even if its production increases emissions in the short term.
Spokesperson Michael Martinez said they are “carefully considering public comments” and “working to issue final rules that will increase energy security and clean energy supply as effectively as possible.”
Some environmentalists doubt the energy alternative is ultimately carbon neutral. The Southern Environmental Law Center fears the credits could be the incentive needed for the U.S. to join Europe in scaling up the burning of pellets.
“The threat here is really the growth of biomass energy production in the U.S. itself,” said senior attorney Heather Hillaker. “Which obviously will add to the total carbon and climate harms of this industry globally.”
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Pollard reported from Columbia, South Carolina. Watson reported from San Diego. Contributing were video journalist Terry Chea from San Francisco and reporter Matthew Daly from Washington, D.C.
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NEW YORK (AP) — Walmart has spent three years overhauling its mix of adult apparel to make it stylish as well as sensible for middle America. Now, the nation’s largest retailer is seizing the back-to-school shopping season to take another shot at fashion respectability.
The company plans to relaunch its 30-year-old brand for teenagers and young adults on Tuesday with a new 130-piece fall collection aimed at Generation Z. The retooling of the No Boundaries label is part of a strategy to get customers to think of Walmart as a place to buy cool clothes along with groceries.
The new collection includes of-the-moment styles like baggy jeans, cropped T-shirts, faux leather corsets and bomber jackets. Most items cost $15 or less. Some pieces are made from recycled fabrics to appeal to a generation that values sustainability. The size range was expanded to run from XXS to 5X to be more inclusive.
The Bentonville, Arkansas-based company is marketing the revamped No Boundaries on TikTok, YouTube, Pinterest and the online gaming site Roblox. It plans to test new prototypes in stores located in major college towns.
The intended audience is noticing.
“It’s basic, but cute,” Za’Kryra Davis, 16, said while looking at the camouflage pants and denim rompers at a Walmart store in Secaucus, New Jersey, where the new No Boundaries was getting rolled out last week.
Davis, who shops at chains like Rue21 and Forever 21 and gets inspired by trends popping up on social media, said she’s been more open to buying clothes at Walmart in the past few months because she says they look more modern.
Walmart previously relied on a variety of suppliers with separate design teams to build the No Boundaries line, which focused largely on everyday basics like T-shirts and denim. The company hired a dedicated design team to create the relaunch collection, a sign of the brand’s importance to Walmart’s broader fashion strategy.
Still, winning over customers born between 1997 and 2012 will be challenging given Walmart’s heavy competition. The generation of digital natives is known to be price conscious and willing to shop around, frequenting everything from second-hand shops and ultra-fast-fashion online retailer Shein to discounters like Target, and mall-based stores like American Eagle Outfitters.
Olivia Meyer, 22, who lives in Riverview, Florida, gets inspired by trends on the internet and makes most of her fashion purchases online, typically from Amazon, to ensure quick delivery. She approved of the cargo pants and strappy tops she saw while checking out the fall No Boundaries collection on Walmart’s website.
“I’m not loyal to one place,” Meyer said. But she added, “I think Walmart has a shot at targeting Gen Z and getting our dollars.”
While Gen Z spends the least amount on fashion of any demographic cohort except the so-called Silent Generation, retailers are eager to court young consumers because they represent the future, said Neil Saunders, managing director of research firm GlobalData.
“If you don’t capture them today, you run the risk of them going to a rival,” he said. “Traditionally, Walmart has not been appealing to this kind of younger demographic, which is why it’s trying to change.”
Walmart said No Boundaries generates annual sales of $2 billion, but Saunders thinks the numbers have been stagnant for a few years. He said the retailer needs to overcome the perception that its fashion aspirations end at floral prints, pull-on pants and other styles more typically worn by older adults.
Walmart signaled just how much it wants to get taken seriously as a fashion destination three years ago when it hired Brandon Maxwell, an American designer who has dressed celebrities such as Lady Gaga, as the creative director for its “elevated” fashion brands, Free Assembly and Scoop.
In February, the company hosted social media influencers who focus on trendy but affordable style at a fashion show that featured Maxwell’s designer collection, which is sold at high-end Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus.
“It’s always about the women in my life who define what I do, and it’s no different at Walmart,” said Maxwell, who mingled with the Walmart guests during a luncheon after the show.
To boost its legitimacy as a one-stop shop for fashionistas, Walmart has added store mannequins and colorful displays of its clothing. Under the stewardship of Denise Incandela, executive vice president of apparel and private-label brands, the company has featured more than 1,000 brands and partnered with celebrities like Sofia Vergara.
Incandela said at a recent industry conference in New York that Walmart’s scale — it operates more than 4,600 stores in the U.S. — can help drive quality and low prices. But the big growth opportunity in clothing is with the Gen Z customer who “cares about style,” she said.
“We have created a brand that is more modern, has better quality, has silhouettes that are more relevant to the Gen Z customer,” Incandela said. “We’re improving the shopping experience, but we have to change that perception.”
At the Walmart in Secaucus, Elizabeth Fernandez, 58, and her daughter, Destiny Fernandez, 38, said they found the women’s clothing more appealing than in the past. They were also drawn to the overhauled No Boundaries line. Their shopping cart brimmed with pants, shorts, tops and skirts drawn from throughout the store.
Citing the cropped puffer jackets and different denim washes on the racks, Destiny Fernandez judged Walmart to be on the mark in the way it had recycled and refreshed earlier trends.
“It’s all stuff that is coming back,” she said. “So I am going to take a look.”
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Biden administration on Monday urged states to slow down their purge of Medicaid rolls, citing concerns that large numbers of lower-income people are losing health care coverage due to administrative reasons.
The nation’s Medicaid rolls swelled during the coronavirus pandemic as states were prohibited from ending people’s coverage. But that came to a halt in April, and states now must re-evaluate recipients’ eligibility — just as they had been regularly required to do before the pandemic.
In some states, about half of those whose Medicaid renewal cases were decided in April or May have lost their coverage, according to data submitted to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and obtained by The Associated Press. The primary cause is what CMS describes as “procedural reasons,” such as the failure to return forms.
“I am deeply concerned with the number of people unnecessarily losing coverage, especially those who appear to have lost coverage for avoidable reasons that State Medicaid offices have the power to prevent or mitigate,” Health and Human Services Secretary Secretary Xavier Becerra wrote in a letter Monday to governors.
Instead of immediately dropping people who haven’t responded by a deadline, federal officials are encouraging state Medicaid agencies to delay procedural terminations for one month while conducting additional targeted outreach to Medicaid recipients. Among other things, they’re also encouraging states to allow providers of managed health care plans to help people submit Medicaid renewal forms.
Nobody “should lose coverage simply because they changed addresses, didn’t receive a form, or didn’t have enough information about the renewal process,” Becerra said in a statement.
States are moving at different paces to conduct Medicaid eligibility determinations. Some haven’t dropped anyone from their rolls yet while others already have removed tens of thousands of people.
Among 18 states that reported preliminary data to CMS, about 45% of those whose renewals were due in April kept their Medicaid coverage, about 31% lost coverage and about 24% were still being processed. Of those that lost coverage, 4-out-of-5 were for procedural reasons, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
In Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, New Hampshire and Oklahoma, about half or more of those whose eligibility cases were completed in April or May lost their Medicaid coverage, according data reviewed by the AP. Those figures may appear high because some states frontloaded the process, starting with people already deemed unlikely to remain eligible.
CMS officials have specifically highlighted concerns about Arkansas, which has dropped well over 100,000 Medicaid recipients, mostly for not returning renewal forms or requested information.
Arkansas officials said they are following a timeline under a 2021 law that requires the state to complete its redeterminations within six months of the end of the public health emergency. They said Medicaid recipients receive multiple notices — as well as texts, emails and phone calls, when possible — before being dropped. Some people probably don’t respond because they know they are no longer eligible, the state Department of Human Services said.
Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders has dismissed criticism of the state’s redetermination process, saying Arkansas is merely getting the program back to its pre-pandemic coverage intentions.
But health care advocates said it’s particularly concerning when states have large numbers of people removed from Medicaid for not responding to re-enrollment notices.
“People who are procedurally disenrolled often are not going to realize they’ve lost coverage until they show up for a medical appointment or they go to fill their prescription and are told you no longer have insurance coverage,” said Allie Gardner, a senior research associate at the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families.
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Associated Press writer Andrew DeMillo contributed from Little Rock, Arkansas.
