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ATLANTA (AP) — The winning numbers in Tuesday evening’s drawing of the “Mega Millions” game were:
03-37-44-52-63, Mega Ball: 14
(three, thirty-seven, forty-four, fifty-two, sixty-three, Mega Ball: fourteen
Estimated jackpot: $395 million
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Minnesota and federal authorities are investigating the alleged beating of a Mexican citizen by immigration officers last month, seeking to identify what caused the eight skull fractures that landed the man in the intensive care unit of a Minneapolis hospital.
Investigators from the St. Paul Police Department and FBI last week canvassed the shopping center parking lot where Alberto Castañeda Mondragón says Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents wrested him from a vehicle, threw him to the ground and repeatedly struck him in the head with a steel baton.
ICE has blamed Castañeda Mondragón for his own injuries, saying he attempted to flee while handcuffed and “fell and hit his head against a concrete wall.”
But hospital staff who treated the man told The Associated Press such a fall could not plausibly account for the man’s brain hemorrhaging and fragmented memory. A CT scan showed fractures to the front, back and both sides of his skull — injuries a doctor told the AP were inconsistent with a fall.
Earlier this month, the AP published an interview with Castañeda Mondragón in which he said the arresting officers had been “racist” and “ started beating me right away when they arrested me.” His lawyers have contended ICE racially profiled him.
In separate visits to the shopping center last week, local and federal investigators requested surveillance footage from at least two businesses, whose employees told the AP their cameras either did not capture the Jan. 8 arrest or the images had been overwritten because more than a month passed before law enforcement asked for the video.
Johnny Ratana, who owns Teepwo Market, an Asian grocery store that faces the parking lot where the arrest occurred, said St. Paul police twice sent investigators to the business in recent days. The second time, he said, a data technician sought to recover images automatically overwritten after 30 days.
Ratana said he also was visited by FBI agents interested in the same footage.
The St. Paul Police Department did not respond to requests for comment. The FBI declined to comment.
The investigations come amid another federal probe into whether two ICE officers lied under oath about a shooting in Minneapolis. Federal prosecutors dropped charges against two Venezuelan men — who had been accused of attacking one of the officers with a snow shovel and broom handle — after video evidence contradicted the officers’ sworn testimony.
The FBI, meanwhile, notified Minnesota authorities last week it would not share any information or evidence it collected in the Jan. 24 fatal shooting of Alex Pretti by federal immigration officers. That killing is the subject of a Justice Department civil rights investigation.
For weeks, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security refused to discuss any aspect of Castañeda Mondragón’s injuries. It has not answered detailed questions from the AP, including whether its officers recorded body-worn camera footage of the arrest.
Agency insists man injured himself
But the agency last week doubled down on its claim that Castañeda Mondragón injured himself.
“On January 8, 2026, ICE conducted a targeted enforcement operation to arrest Alberto Castaneda Mondragon, a 31-year-old illegal alien from Mexico who overstayed his visa,” said Tricia McLaughlin, the department’s assistant secretary for public affairs “While in handcuffs, Castaneda attempted to escape custody and ran toward a main highway. While running, Castaneda fell and hit his head against a concrete wall.”
McLaughlin’s assertion that Castañeda Mondragón had been targeted for removal was contradicted by a Jan. 20 court filing in which ICE said officers only determined the man overstayed his work visa after he was in custody. McLaughlin did not respond to questions about which account was correct.
Castañeda Mondragón’s lawyers declined to comment on ICE’s statement.
Delay could affect investigations
The criminal investigations could be complicated by the amount of time it took law enforcement to look into the arrest, even as several elected officials called for answers.
St. Paul police told the AP on Feb. 5 that it was aware of “the serious allegations” surrounding the arrest but that it could not begin investigating Castañeda Mondragón’s injuries until he filed a police report — a step that was delayed weeks because of the man’s hospitalization and uncertainty over his immigration status. Police finally took his statement a week ago at the Mexican consulate.
By that point, at least one nearby business had overwritten its surveillance footage.
“It is my expectation that we will investigate past and future allegations of criminal conduct by federal agents to seek the truth and hold accountable anyone who has violated Minnesota law,” John Choi, the chief prosecutor of Ramsey County, said in a statement.
Castañeda Mondragón has been summoned to meet with ICE on Feb. 23 at its main detention facility in Minneapolis, raising the potential he could be taken back into custody and deported.
___ Biesecker reported from Washington and Brook from New Orleans. AP reporter Cedar Attanasio contributed from Seattle.
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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Excerpts from recent editorials in the United States and abroad:
The Washington Post on nuclear innovation in the age of AI
As America’s energy demands grow exponentially, the country won’t be able to keep up without more nuclear power. For decades, the climate-friendly industry has been held back by overly burdensome regulations, but that’s beginning to change.
In the 1960s, plants took about four years to build, and they cost, in today’s dollars, about $1,500 per kilowatt of electricity generated. Now the idea of building a reactor in less than a decade is unheard of, and the cost of construction is six times greater.
The Energy Department took steps this month to exempt certain advanced reactors from duplicative environmental reviews. It’s also flirting with relaxing radiation standards and eliminating some over-the-top security requirements at nuclear plants.
Defenders of the status quo try to prey on people’s fears of nuclear technology. NIMBYs and radical environmentalists pretend that overregulation is not actually the reason for the industry’s malaise and is instead necessary to instill public confidence.
This ignores the many undue burdens that federal agencies have placed on projects. Sometimes, regulators have even forced changes to designs mid-construction, as happened in 2009, when they required containment buildings for reactor developments in Georgia and South Carolina to be able to withstand direct aircraft strikes, driving up costs and delaying construction.
It’s no surprise that regulatory costs surged after the 1979 accident at Three Mile Island, but the pendulum has swung too far. Nuclear developers have a point about onerous documentation rules. The administration would do well to emphasize regulatory stability, as well as explore how technology such as artificial intelligence can help alleviate paperwork burdens.
Capital is already pouring into the nuclear industry from big firms like Meta, Microsoft and Amazon, which was founded by Post owner Jeff Bezos. Yet billions in new investment won’t mean much if the regulatory state refuses to challenge long-held norms.
Take, for example, the government’s overly stringent radiation standards. The Trump administration has indicated it will reform a decades-old rule requiring nuclear power plants to keep levels of exposure to radiation “as low as reasonably achievable.”
The rule has led hypercautious regulators to mandate that plants minimize exposure to well below levels that people experience annually from the natural world, such as from the sun. That has forced operators to incorporate concrete shields into their reactor designs, which raise costs and limit how long employees can work at a given time.
The science underpinning the radiation rule is mushy, at best. It’s based on a theory that because radiation poses a serious cancer risk at high doses, it must also pose a low risk at lower doses. But researchers have hotly debated whether this is true, which is hard to measure given how many factors contribute to cancer risk. Meanwhile, coal plants are subject to no standards on radiation, even though they release far greater levels of radioactive material to the public than nuclear plants.
No standard should be a be sacred cow, especially as new designs for advanced reactors promise greater safety. Everyone loses when bureaucrats snuff out nuclear innovation.
The New York Times says Pam Bondi’s malice, incompetence protected perpetrators and stripped victims of privacy
The hearing in the House Judiciary Committee room this week offered a grim tableau of the state of American justice. Sitting in the gallery were victims of Jeffrey Epstein, women who have waited decades for clarity and accountability. Sitting before them was Attorney General Pam Bondi. When offered the opportunity to apologize to these women for the Department of Justice’s disastrous handling of the Epstein files, Ms. Bondi didn’t just decline; she sneered. Instead, she demanded that Democrats apologize to President Trump.
She proceeded to subject committee members from both parties to schoolyard taunts. She called the ranking member a “washed-up, loser lawyer.” She derided Thomas Massie — a Kentucky Republican who helped force the release of the Epstein documents after Mr. Trump and Ms. Bondi had kept them hidden — as a “failed politician.” And at one point, in a bizarre non sequitur, she responded to a question she did not like by boasting that the Dow Jones industrial average had surpassed 50,000 points.
Ms. Bondi’s performance was more than just political theater. It was a final indignity in a process that has victimized Mr. Epstein’s victims all over again. Under the guise of transparency, the Justice Department has managed to expose the victims to further humiliation while shielding the powerful behind a wall of redactions.
The department’s release of these files has been dominated by incompetence. Ms. Bondi has long had the authority to make them public, but she spent months refusing and yielded only after Congress forced her hand. Her department was then tasked with a clear mandate: release the information while protecting the victims’ privacy, national security and active investigations. Instead, in a grotesque failure, the D.O.J. uploaded dozens of unredacted images to its website, including nude photographs of young women and possibly teenagers. As Annie Farmer, a survivor who testified against Ghislaine Maxwell, Mr. Epstein’s partner and associate, noted, it is “hard to imagine a more egregious way of not protecting victims.” Ms. Bondi’s department shattered the trust of women who had already been betrayed by the legal system once before.
Yet observe the Justice Department’s selective efficiency: While it was careless with the dignity of survivors, it has been more fastidious about protecting the reputations of some members of the elite. Mr. Massie and Representative Ro Khanna, the Californian who has also been central to the release of the documents, have reviewed the unredacted files, and they report that nearly 80 percent of the material remains hidden, including the identities of six wealthy, powerful men. The Justice Department has not even offered a convincing public explanation for these redactions. The Trump administration’s history of disingenuousness around the Epstein files — and its use of the Justice Department to protect political allies and investigate perceived enemies — offers ample reason to be skeptical. This appears to be a weaponized document dump disguised as a reckoning.
A close reading of the released emails suggests that what is being protected is the comfort of a class of people who believed they were untouchable. The files released reveal a merito-aristocracy that traded favors, influence and access. They depict a transactional world where Kathryn Ruemmler, a former White House counsel for Barack Obama, could joke with a registered sex offender, strategize about her career prospects and accept gifts of designer bags. Howard Lutnick, Mr. Trump’s commerce secretary, claimed he “barely had anything to do” with Mr. Epstein but in fact visited his private island. We read of elites seeking entry to golf clubs, advice on dating, introductions to celebrities and college admission for their children.
The files reveal a barter economy of powerful people who, at best, looked the other way. As Anand Giridharadas has noted, these documents show us “how the elite behave when no one is watching.” They reveal a world where character is irrelevant and connection is everything.
Mr. Trump’s role in the selective release deserves attention. While he has railed against the swamp, his administration continues to hide vast amounts of Epstein information. The president’s own history with Mr. Epstein apparently included a bizarre birthday note wishing that “every day be another wonderful secret.” And some of the redactions involved Mr. Trump. A redaction box, for example, appeared over a photograph of him delivering a speech. Representative Jamie Raskin, a Maryland Democrat, said that he also saw redacted pages that involved Mr. Epstein’s lawyers quoting Mr. Trump as saying that he never asked Mr. Epstein to leave Mar-a-Lago — a claim at odds with Mr. Trump’s descriptions.
Ms. Bondi’s refusal to look the survivors in the eye was symbolic of a broader failure. The Department of Justice had an opportunity to finally prioritize the women who were preyed upon by Mr. Epstein and his circle. Instead, through a combination of malice and incompetence, it has done the opposite. It has stripped the victims of their privacy while wrapping perpetrators in a cloak of state secrecy.
Americans should not accept vague excuses for protecting the identities of Mr. Epstein’s associates. A two-tiered justice system that coddles the powerful and revictimizes the vulnerable is a violation of American values. The survivors in that hearing room deserved an apology. More than that, they deserve the truth about Mr. Epstein and his friends, unspun and fully exposed.
The Guardian says the U.S. is in reverse regarding the climate crisis
Devastating wildfires, flooding and winter storms were among the 23 extreme weather and climate-related disasters in the US which cost more than a billion dollars last year – at an estimated total loss of $115bn. The last three years have shattered previous records for such events. Last Wednesday, scientists said that we are closer than ever to the point after which global heating cannot be stopped.
Just one day later, Donald Trump and Lee Zeldin, the head of the US Environmental Protection Agency, announced the elimination of the Obama-era endangerment finding which underpins federal climate regulations. Scrapping it is just one part of Mr Trump’s assault on environmental controls and promotion of fossil fuels. But it may be his most consequential. Any fragment of hope may lie in the fact that a president who has called global heating a “hoax” framed this primarily as about deregulation – perhaps because the science is now so widely accepted even in the US.
The administration claimed, without evidence, that Americans would save $1.3tn. Never mind insurance or healthcare costs; a recent report found that US earnings would be 12% higher without the climate crisis. The Democratic senator Sheldon Whitehouse called the decision “corruption, plain and simple”. In 2024, Mr Trump reportedly urged 20 fossil fuel tycoons to stump up $1bn for his presidential campaign – while vowing to remove controls on the industry.
In the same week as this reckless and destructive US decision, it emerged that China had recorded its 21st month of flat or slightly falling carbon emissions. As Washington tears up environmental regulations, Beijing is extending carbon reporting requirements. China remains the world’s biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, though its per capita and cumulative historical emissions are still far behind those of the US. But clean energy drove more than 90% of its investment growth last year.
The Carbon Brief website, which published the emissions analysis, says the numbers suggest that the decline in China’s carbon intensity – emissions per unit of GDP – was below the target set in the last five-year plan, making it hard to meet its commitments under the Paris agreement. The shift in emissions may not prove enduring. There is fear that China’s focus may change; the next five-year plan, due in March, will be key. Some subsidies for renewable power have already been withdrawn. The installation of huge quantities of renewable energy infrastructure has been accompanied by a surge in constructing coal-fired power plants, though the hope is that these are intended primarily as a fallback.
There are other grave concerns, including evidence of the use of forced labour of Uyghur Muslims in solar-panel production in Xinjiang. China’s chokehold on critical minerals hampers the ability of others to develop their own technology. And while its cheap renewables technology has resulted in the cheapest electricity in history, it has also hit manufacturers in other countries.
No one can compensate for the grim reversal of belated US action on emissions. There is also a vacuum in climate diplomacy that China shows no signs of filling. But Beijing has a vested interest in encouraging others to cut emissions, even if some nations now want to challenge its “green mercantilism”. In contrast, US billionaires look forward to prospering at the cost of wallets and lives – not only at home, but around the world.
The Philadelphia Inquirer on Trump’s attempt to whitewash the President’s House exhibit
A federal judge ordered the Trump administration to restore the slave exhibits that were removed last month from the President’s House on Independence Mall.
Fittingly, the legal rebuke came during Black History Month as Trump tries to rewrite America’s history of slavery, undermine voting rights and rollback civil rights efforts designed to live up to the Founders’ vision of a country where all are created equal.
Even better, the ruling came on Presidents Day, a federal holiday first set aside to honor George Washington, who voluntarily gave up power, unlike Trump who was criminally indicted for trying to overturn an election he lost.
In a poetic touch that feels conjured by Octavius Catto or William Still, the Trump administration lost in federal court on a lawsuit brought by the City of Philadelphia, which is headed by its first African American woman mayor.
The President’s House exhibit was created to recognize the enslaved people who lived in Washington’s home in Philadelphia while he was president. Like the nearby Liberty Bell and Independence Hall, the President’s House is an essential part of American history.
Trump wants to airbrush the parts of American history that do not fit with his racist record and white supremacist messaging. But understanding how slavery shaped the economic, social and political forces across the United States is crucial to addressing the systemic racism and inequality that persists today.
U.S. District Judge Cynthia M. Rufe called out Trump’s cruel attempt to take the country backward in unsparing terms. She began her 40-page opinion by quoting directly from 1984, George Orwell’s dystopian novel about a totalitarian regime:
“All history was a palimpsest, scraped clean and reinscribed exactly as often as was necessary. In no case would it have been possible, once the deed was done, to prove that any falsification had taken place.”
She compared the Trump administration’s claim that it can unilaterally remove exhibits it does not like to Orwell’s Ministry of Truth.
“As if the Ministry of Truth in George Orwell’s 1984 now existed, with its motto ‘Ignorance is Strength,’ this Court is now asked to determine whether the federal government has the power it claims — to dissemble and disassemble historical truths when it has some domain over historical facts,” Rufe wrote. “It does not.”
Rufe, who was appointed to the federal bench by former President George W. Bush, did not buy the Trump’s administration’s authoritarian argument: “(T)he government claims it alone has the power to erase, alter, remove and hide historical accounts on taxpayer and local government-funded monuments within its control.”
She added: “The government here likewise asserts truth is no longer self-evident, but rather the property of the elected chief magistrate and his appointees and delegees, at his whim to be scraped clean, hidden, or overwritten. And why? Solely because, as Defendants state, it has the power.”
Rufe dismissed those claims and ordered the federal government to “restore the President’s House Site to its physical status as of January 21, 2026,” the day before the exhibits were removed.
But Rufe did not set a deadline to restore the displays. She should order the exhibits restored as fast as they came down.
The Trump administration will likely do everything it can to drag out a resolution.
There is no time to waste in ending this racist charade.
The country is celebrating the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. It is a national embarrassment that the President’s House exhibits are missing while the city expects 1.5 million visitors this year.
Philadelphia is the birthplace of America. It is here the Founders declared their independence from King George III. Their list of grievances against the king echo some of Trump’s abuses.
Judge Rufe’s order struck a blow for telling the truth, something Washington would appreciate.
“It is not disputed that President Washington owned slaves,” Rufe wrote. “Each person who visits the President’s House and does not learn of the realities of founding-era slavery receives a false account of this country’s history.”
Somewhere the slaves who labored at the President’s House smiled.
Say their names: Ona Judge, Hercules Posey, Moll, Giles, Austin, Richmond, Paris, Joe Richardson, Christopher Sheels, and William Lee.
The Minneapolis Star Tribune says citizens should demand the truth, accountability as Operation Metro Surge winds down
Whatever their views on immigration enforcement, Minnesotans should welcome the announcement by border czar Tom Homan on Feb. 12 that Operation Metro Surge soon will end, and that a significant drawdown of the more than 3,000 agents who had been sent to the state under federal orders is underway.
They should also welcome the vow by Gov. Tim Walz to focus state policies and legislation on recovery from the impacts of the disruption to normal life. The state’s legislative session begins Feb. 17.
But as the Department of Homeland Security declares its mission accomplished and begins its retreat, many are left wrestling with an infuriating if not incendiary question. What was the point of the bloody spectacle? Stripped of politics and posturing, a state and a nation deserve clear answers.
When Operation Metro Surge descended on Minnesota, it was described by its champions as a mission to combat fraud tied to Somali American communities and to make the Twin Cities safer. That’s not remotely close to what we witnessed over the course of the past 70 days.
Indeed, it is the stunning gap between the stated purpose of the federal invasion of Minnesota, the campaign’s actual execution and the outcomes that occurred that completely undercuts the notion of a focused federal law enforcement operation. What we witnessed was a campaign steeped in blame and punishment. The fraud-based premise of the surge was arguably never more than a Trojan horse.
Homan, who said that DHS agents will now be redeployed to other cities, lauded the Minnesota mission as a law enforcement win and said that a deeply shaken and fatigued Minneapolis is now a much safer place.
By what immediate or lasting measure, we ask? There has been little to no transparency to the spectacle we have just endured.
How many violent offenders were actually removed? If the goal was rooting out fraud or targeting dangerous individuals, why were broad sweeps conducted that netted people with little or no criminal history? If the goal was safety, why were these heavily armed and masked agents deployed in a manner that visibly destabilized neighborhoods, shuttered business and splintered families who had committed no crimes?
Both of their deaths, officially ruled homicides, deserve a full investigation by the U.S. federal government. To date, the federal government has shown little to no interest in determining whether the deaths were legally justified. Good and Pretti will not be forgotten, and an accounting for their killings is not optional.
There is no mistaking the reality that the harm that Minnesota will continue to bear goes beyond the abduction of children, the hollowing of schools, the wanton street persecution of Americans or even the two deaths. We will now be forced to grapple with “generational trauma” that goes beyond far beyond immigrant communities, as Walz aptly put it.
Trust in government — already fragile — has been further eroded. But trust can and must be rebuilt. There’s no doubt that Operation Metro Surge induced people to take sides. Which side can declare victory will be in the eye of the beholder, but the many Minnesotans who dedicated themselves to peaceful resistance to aggressive policy can be proud.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar, ever the Minnesota booster and who’s now running for governor, offered this observation with which we wholeheartedly agree:
“Our state has shown the world how to protect our democracy and take care of our neighbors. ICE withdrawing from Minnesota is just the beginning. We need accountability for the lives lost and the extraordinary abuses of power at the hands of ICE agents, and we must see a complete overhaul of the agency.”
Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Emmer, meanwhile, a Republican, laid blame on Minnesota Democrats for the unrest during the ICE surge. He called it “a direct result of radical sanctuary state and city policies in Minnesota by preventing local law enforcement from working together with federal law enforcement,” while testifying Feb. 12 in front of a Senate committee about the shootings of Good and Pretti.
There are those who undoubtedly agree with him. But as federal agents depart, the state still awaits answers — ones that will require far more than withdrawal. Minnesotans should not cease demanding truth, accountability and reckoning equal to the damage done and lives lost by an ICE surge that never needed to happen.
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department has issued new subpoenas in a Florida-based investigation into perceived adversaries of President Donald Trump and the U.S. government response to Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, according to multiple people familiar with the matter.
An initial wave of subpoenas in November asked recipients for documents related to the preparation of a U.S. intelligence community assessment that detailed a sweeping, multi-prong effort by Moscow to help Trump defeat Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election.
Though the first subpoenas requested documents from the months surrounding the January 2017 publication of the Obama administration intelligence assessment, the latest subpoenas seek any records from the years since then, said the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity to The Associated Press to discuss a non-public demand from investigators.
The Justice Department declined to comment Tuesday.
The subpoenas reflect continued investigative activity in one of several criminal inquiries the Justice Department has undertaken into Trump’s political opponents. An array of former intelligence and law enforcement officials have received subpoenas in the investigation. Lawyers for former CIA Director John Brennan, who helped oversee the drafting of the assessment and who has been called “crooked as hell” by Trump, have said they have been informed he is a target but have not been told of any “legally justifiable basis for undertaking this investigation.”
The intelligence community assessment, published in the final days of the Obama administration, found that Russia had developed a “clear preference” for Trump in the 2016 election and that Russian President Vladimir Putin had ordered an influence campaign with goals of undermining confidence in American democracy and harming Clinton’s chance for victory.
That conclusion, and a related investigation into whether the 2016 Trump campaign colluded with Russia to sway the outcome of the election, have long been among the Republican president’s chief grievances and he has vowed retribution against the government officials involved in the inquiries. Former FBI Director James Comey was indicted by the Trump administration Justice Department last year on false statement and obstruction charges, but the case was later dismissed.
Multiple government reports, including bipartisan congressional reviews and a criminal investigation by former special counsel Robert Mueller, have found that Russia interfered in Trump’s favor through a hack-and-leak operation of Democratic emails as well as a covert social media campaign aimed at sowing discord and swaying American public opinion. Mueller’s report found that the Trump campaign actively welcomed the Russian help, but it did not establish that Russian operatives and Trump or his associates conspired to tip the election in his favor.
The Trump administration has freshly scrutinized the intelligence community assessment in part because a classified version of it incorporated in its annex a summary of the “Steele dossier,” a compilation of Democratic-funded opposition research that was assembled by former British spy Christopher Steele and was later turned over to the FBI. That research into Trump’s potential links to Russia included uncorroborated rumors and salacious gossip, and Trump has long held up its weaknesses in an effort to discredit the entire Russia investigation.
A declassified CIA tradecraft review ordered by current Director John Ratcliffe and released last July faults Brennan’s oversight of the assessment.
The review does not challenge the conclusion of Russian election interference but chides Brennan for the fact that the classified version referenced the Steele dossier.
Brennan testified to Congress, and also wrote in his memoir, that he was opposed to citing the dossier in the intelligence assessment since neither its substance nor sources had been validated, and he has said the dossier did not inform the judgments of the assessment. He maintains the FBI pushed for its inclusion.
The new CIA review seeks to cast Brennan’s views in a different light, asserting that he “showed a preference for narrative consistency over analytical soundness” and brushed aside concerns over the dossier because he believed it conformed “with existing theories.” It quotes him, without context, as having stated in writing that “my bottomline is that I believe that the information warrants inclusion in the report.”
In a letter last December addressed to the chief judge of the Southern District of Florida, where the investigation is based, Brennan’s lawyers challenged the underpinnings of the investigation, questioning what basis prosecutors had for opening the inquiry in Florida and saying they had received no clarity from prosecutors about what potential crimes were even being investigated.
“While it is mystifying how the prosecutors could possibly believe there is any legally justifiable basis for undertaking this investigation, they have done nothing to explain that mystery,” the lawyers said.
Associated Press writer Alanna Durkin Richer contributed to this report.
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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Thomas Pritzker will retire as the executive chairman of Hyatt Hotels after details of his affiliation with Jeffrey Epstein were revealed in documents related to the burgeoning investigation of ties the notorious sex trafficker had to the elite and powerful.
Pritzker, in a prepared statement, said he deeply regrets his association with Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, a long time associate of Epstein. .
“I exercised terrible judgment in maintaining contact with them, and there is no excuse for failing to distance myself sooner,” Pritzker said in a statement. “I condemn the actions and the harm caused by Epstein and Maxwell and I feel deep sorrow for the pain they inflicted on their victims.”
Epstein died by suicide while incarcerated in 2019 after he was charged with sex trafficking.
Pritzker served as executive chairman of Hyatt for more than 20 years. His retirement is effective immediately.
Pritzker, 75, also will not stand for reelection to Hyatt’s board at its annual shareholders meeting.
The news of Pritzker’s retirement as executive chairman of Hyatt comes days after Dubai announced a new chairman for logistics company DP World, replacing the outgoing head who was named in the Epstein documents.
The announcement by the government’s Dubai Media Office did not specifically name Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem. However, it said that Essa Kazim was named DP World’s chairman and Yuvraj Narayan was named group CEO. Those were positions held by bin Sulayem.
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) — Alex Condon had 20 points and 10 rebounds, Rueben Chinyelu also notched a double-double and No. 12 Florida handled South Carolina for the second time in three weeks, 76-62 on Tuesday night.
Chinyelu finished with 15 points and 17 boards for his 16th double-double of the season. The Gators won their sixth consecutive game and improved to 11-1 since losing at Missouri to open Southeastern Conference play.
This one was much closer than the previous meeting, a 47-point blowout in Columbia, South Carolina, in late January.
Still, the Gamecocks (11-14, 2-11 SEC) trailed by 10 points early and never mounted much of a threat in Gainesville, where Florida improved to 12-1 this season.
It was lopsided enough that 7-foot-9 walk-on center Olivier Rioux played the final minute after the home crowd chanted for him.
The best rebounding team in the country dominated inside, with Florida (20-6, 11-2) mounting a 47-30 rebounding advantage and outscoring South Carolina 44-28 in the paint.
Thomas Haugh added 10 points for Florida, which is trying to win the SEC’s regular season for the first time since 2014 and stay in the Sunshine State to open the NCAA Tournament in Tampa.
South Carolina leading scorer Meechie Johnson, who had 10 points in the first meeting, led the Gamecocks with 22 this time around.
Florida held a moment of silence before the game for Bill Donovan, the father of former Gators coach Billy Donovan who died Saturday following a heart attack. Florida’s court is named after Billy Donovan.
Up next:
South Carolina hosts Mississippi State on Saturday.
Florida plays at Ole Miss on Saturday.
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CHICAGO — The Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, a protege of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and two-time presidential candidate who led the Civil Rights Movement for decades after the revered leader’s assassination, died Tuesday. He was 84.
As a young organizer in Chicago, Jackson was called to meet with King at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, shortly before King was killed, and he publicly positioned himself thereafter as King’s successor.
Jackson led a lifetime of crusades in the United States and abroad, advocating for the poor and underrepresented on issues from voting rights and job opportunities to education and health care. He scored diplomatic victories with world leaders, and through his Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, he channeled cries for Black pride and self-determination into corporate boardrooms, pressuring executives to make America a more open and equitable society.
And when he declared, “I am Somebody,” in a poem he often repeated, he sought to reach people of all colors. “I may be poor, but I am Somebody; I may be young; but I am Somebody; I may be on welfare, but I am Somebody,” Jackson intoned.
It was a message he took literally and personally, having risen from obscurity in the segregated South to become America’s best-known civil rights activist since King.
Santita Jackson confirmed that her father died at home in Chicago, surrounded by family.
“Our father was a servant leader — not only to our family, but to the oppressed, the voiceless, and the overlooked around the world,” the Jackson family said in a statement posted online. “We shared him with the world, and in return, the world became part of our extended family.”
Fellow civil rights activist the Rev. Al Sharpton said his mentor “was not simply a civil rights leader; he was a movement unto himself.”
“He taught me that protest must have purpose, that faith must have feet, and that justice is not seasonal, it is daily work,” Sharpton wrote in a statement, adding that Jackson taught “trying is as important as triumph. That you do not wait for the dream to come true; you work to make it real.”
Despite profound health challenges in his final years including a rare neurological disorder that affected his ability to move and speak, Jackson continued protesting against racial injustice into the era of Black Lives Matter. In 2024, he appeared at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago and at a City Council meeting to show support for a resolution backing a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war.
“Even if we win,” he told marchers in Minneapolis before the officer whose knee kept George Floyd from breathing was convicted of murder, “it’s relief, not victory. They’re still killing our people. Stop the violence, save the children. Keep hope alive.”
U.S. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-NY, U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., Rev. Al Sharpton, Rev. Jesse Jackson and NAACP President Derrick Johnson march across the Edmund Pettus bridge during the 60th anniversary of the march to ensure that African Americans could exercise their constitutional right to vote, March 9, 2025, in Selma, Ala. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart, File)
Jackson’s voice, infused with the stirring cadences and powerful insistence of the Black church, demanded attention. On the campaign trail and elsewhere, he used rhyming and slogans such as: “Hope not dope” and “If my mind can conceive it and my heart can believe it, then I can achieve it,” to deliver his messages.
Jackson had his share of critics, both within and outside of the Black community. Some considered him a grandstander, too eager to seek out the spotlight. Looking back on his life and legacy, Jackson told The Associated Press in 2011 that he felt blessed to be able to continue the service of other leaders before him and to lay a foundation for those to come.
“A part of our life’s work was to tear down walls and build bridges, and in a half century of work, we’ve basically torn down walls,” Jackson said. “Sometimes when you tear down walls, you’re scarred by falling debris, but your mission is to open up holes so others behind you can run through.”
In his final months, as he received 24-hour care, he lost his ability to speak, communicating with family and visitors by holding their hands and squeezing.
“I get very emotional knowing that these speeches belong to the ages now,” his son, Jesse Jackson Jr., told the AP in October.
Jesse Louis Jackson was born on Oct. 8, 1941, in Greenville, South Carolina, the son of high school student Helen Burns and Noah Louis Robinson, a married man who lived next door. Jackson was later adopted by Charles Henry Jackson, who married his mother.
Jackson was a star quarterback on the football team at Sterling High School in Greenville, and accepted a football scholarship from the University of Illinois. But after he reportedly was told Black people couldn’t play quarterback, he transferred to North Carolina A&T in Greensboro, where he became the first-string quarterback, an honor student in sociology and economics, and student body president.
Arriving on the historically Black campus in 1960 just months after students there launched sit-ins at a whites-only diner, Jackson immersed himself in the blossoming Civil Rights Movement.
By 1965, he joined the voting rights march King led from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama. King dispatched him to Chicago to launch Operation Breadbasket, a Southern Christian Leadership Conference effort to pressure companies to hire Black workers.
Jackson called his time with King “a phenomenal four years of work.”
Jackson was with King on April 4, 1968, when the civil rights leader was slain. Jackson’s account of the assassination was that King died in his arms.
With his flair for the dramatic, Jackson wore a turtleneck he said was soaked with King’s blood for two days, including at a King memorial service held by the Chicago City Council, where he said: “I come here with a heavy heart because on my chest is the stain of blood from Dr. King’s head.”
However, several King aides, including speechwriter Alfred Duckett, questioned whether Jackson could have gotten King’s blood on his clothing. There are no images of Jackson in pictures taken shortly after the assassination.
In 1971, Jackson broke with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference to form Operation PUSH, originally named People United to Save Humanity. The organization based on Chicago’s South Side declared a sweeping mission, from diversifying workforces to registering voters in communities of color nationwide. Using lawsuits and threats of boycotts, Jackson pressured top corporations to spend millions and publicly commit to diversifying their workforces.
The constant campaigns often left his wife, Jacqueline Lavinia Brown, the college sweetheart he married in 1963, taking the lead in raising their five children: Santita Jackson, Yusef DuBois Jackson, Jacqueline Lavinia Jackson Jr., and two future members of Congress, U.S. Rep. Jonathan Luther Jackson and Jesse L. Jackson Jr., who resigned in 2012 but is seeking reelection in the 2026 midterms.
The elder Jackson, who was ordained as a Baptist minister in 1968 and earned his Master of Divinity in 2000, also acknowledged fathering a child, Ashley Jackson, with one of his employees at Rainbow/PUSH, Karen L. Stanford. He said he understood what it means to be born out of wedlock and supported her emotionally and financially.
Despite once telling a Black audience he would not run for president “because white people are incapable of appreciating me,” Jackson ran twice and did better than any Black politician had before President Barack Obama, winning 13 primaries and caucuses for the Democratic nomination in 1988, four years after his first failed attempt.
Democratic presidential primary candidate Jesse Jackson speaks to a group of his supporters at a rally held at a Baptist Church in Dayton, Ohio, April 14, 1984. (AP Photo/Rob Burns, File)
His successes left supporters chanting another Jackson slogan, “Keep Hope Alive.”
“I was able to run for the presidency twice and redefine what was possible; it raised the lid for women and other people of color,” he told the AP. “Part of my job was to sow seeds of the possibilities.”
U.S. Rep. John Lewis said during a 1988 C-SPAN interview that Jackson’s two runs for the Democratic nomination “opened some doors that some minority person will be able to walk through and become president.”
Jackson also pushed for cultural change, joining calls by NAACP members and other movement leaders in the late 1980s to identify Black people in the United States as African Americans.
“To be called African Americans has cultural integrity — it puts us in our proper historical context,” Jackson said at the time. “Every ethnic group in this country has a reference to some base, some historical cultural base. African Americans have hit that level of cultural maturity.”
Jackson’s words sometimes got him in trouble.
In 1984, he apologized for what he thought were private comments to a reporter, calling New York City “Hymietown,” a derogatory reference to its large Jewish population. And in 2008, he made headlines when he complained that Obama was “talking down to Black people” in comments captured by a microphone he didn’t know was on during a break in a television taping.
Still, when Jackson joined the jubilant crowd in Chicago’s Grant Park to greet Obama that election night, he had tears streaming down his face.
“I wish for a moment that Dr. King or (slain civil rights leader) Medgar Evers … could’ve just been there for 30 seconds to see the fruits of their labor,” he told the AP years later. “I became overwhelmed. It was the joy and the journey.”
Jackson also had influence abroad, meeting world leaders and scoring diplomatic victories, including the release of Navy Lt. Robert Goodman from Syria in 1984, as well as the 1990 release of more than 700 foreign women and children held after Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait. In 1999, he won the freedom of three Americans imprisoned by Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic.
In 2000, President Bill Clinton awarded Jackson the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the country’s highest civilian honor.
“Citizens have the right to do something or do nothing,” Jackson said, before heading to Syria. “We choose to do something.”
In 2021, Jackson joined the parents of Ahmaud Arbery inside the Georgia courtroom where three white men were convicted of killing the young Black jogger. In 2022, he hand-delivered a letter to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Chicago, calling for federal charges against former Chicago Police Officer Jason Van Dyke in the 2014 killing of Black teenager Laquan McDonald.
Jackson, who stepped down as president of Rainbow/PUSH in July 2023, disclosed in 2017 that he had sought treatment for Parkinson’s, but he continued to make public appearances even as the disease made it more difficult for listeners to understand him. Earlier this year doctors confirmed a diagnosis of progressive supranuclear palsy, a life-threatening neurological disorder. He was admitted to a hospital in November for nearly two weeks.
During the coronavirus pandemic, he and his wife survived being hospitalized with COVID-19. Jackson was vaccinated early, urging Black people in particular to get protected, given their higher risks for bad outcomes.
“It’s America’s unfinished business — we’re free, but not equal,” Jackson told the AP. “There’s a reality check that has been brought by the coronavirus, that exposes the weakness and the opportunity.”
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WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — President Donald Trump on Monday lashed out at Maryland Gov. Wes Moore over what he says is a lagging response to a January pipe rupture that sent sewage flowing into the Potomac River northwest of Washington.
Trump took aim at Moore even though a District of Columbia-based water authority and the federal government have jurisdiction over the busted pipe.
The 1960s-era pipe, called the Potomac Interceptor, is part of DC Water, a utility based in Washington that’s federally regulated and under the oversight of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Still, Trump, while spending the holiday weekend at his home in Florida, took to social media to say he “cannot allow incompetent Local ‘Leadership’” to turn the Potomac “into a Disaster Zone.” He said he has ordered federal authorities to step in to coordinate the response.
“There is a massive Ecological Disaster unfolding in the Potomac River as a result of the Gross Mismanagement of Local Democrat Leaders, particularly, Governor Wes Moore, of Maryland,” Trump added in his social media post.
But Ammar Moussa, a spokesman for Moore, said EPA officials did not participate in a recent legislative hearing about the cleanup and said the Trump administration has been broadly “shirking its responsibility” on the repair and cleanup of what University of Maryland researchers say is one of the largest sewage spills in U.S. history.
“The President has his facts wrong — again,” Moussa said. He added, “Apparently the Trump administration hadn’t gotten the memo that they’re actually supposed to be in charge here.”
DC Water CEO and General Manager David L. Gadis said in a statement Monday, “We have been coordinating with U.S. EPA since the Potomac Interceptor collapsed.”
Asked why Trump was placing blame on Moore outside of Maryland’s jurisdiction, a White House official, who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity, said Maryland was slow to coordinate with federal entities on the ruptured pipe and has not kept up with needed updates of the state’s water and wastewater infrastructure.
The partial government shutdown began Saturday after congressional Democrats and Trump’s team failed to reach a deal on legislation to fund DHS through September. The impasse affects agencies such as the Transportation Security Administration, U.S. Coast Guard, the Secret Service, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and FEMA.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt pointed to the sewage spill on social media, posting, “Add this to the long list of reasons Democrats need to get serious and fund the Department of Homeland Security.”
The spill was caused by a 72-inch (183-centimeter) diameter sewer pipe that collapsed last month, leading to millions of gallons of wastewater shooting out of the ground and into the river.
DC Water says fixing the pipe in the aftermath of the Jan. 19 rupture has been complicated.
A video inspection of the pipeline earlier this month revealed the blockage inside the collapsed sewer line is “far more significant” than originally thought. The agency said it discovered a large rock dam about 30 feet (9 meters) from the breach in the sewage line, which requires treatment before the current spill can be addressed.
The emergency repair is expected to take another four to six weeks. The work will address the immediate repairs to the damaged section of the pipe and several other issues, including environmental restoration.
Washington, D.C.’s Department of Energy and Environment says the drinking water remains safe, but has urged people to avoid unnecessary contact with water from the Potomac River, avoid fishing and keep pets away.
An ongoing fight between Trump and Moore
The president and Moore, a Democrat viewed as potential 2028 presidential contender, have frequently sparred since Trump’s return to the White House last year.
Trump says he’s excluding Moore and Democrat Colorado Gov. Jared Polis from a White House dinner for governors set for Saturday as state leaders gather in Washington for the National Governors Association meeting.
The president and aides have also criticized Moore and other Maryland officials for violence in the state’s biggest city, Baltimore, with Trump threatening to send National Guard troops as he has elsewhere around the country.
Moore and other Democratic officials in Maryland pushed back that homicides in Baltimore have reached historic lows with sustained declines starting in 2023, and said the state did not need National Guard troops.
The Trump administration has also questioned Moore about “DEI contracting practices” and “ballooning project costs” for the rebuilding of Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge. The crucial bridge collapsed in March 2024 after a massive container ship crashed into it.
The president told reporters that his dissatisfaction with Moore’s handling of reconstruction of the bridge and the sewage spill are why he’s not including him in next weekend’s White House dinner for governors.
“He can’t fix anything,” Trump told reporters as he flew back to Washington from his home in Florida on Monday evening.
Moussa, the governor’s spokesman, said Maryland stands ready to work with federal officials.
“The Potomac isn’t a talking point, and the people of the region deserve serious leadership that meets the moment,” Moussa said.
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Investigators working on the disappearance of “Today” show host Savannah Guthrie’s mother are consulting with Walmart management to develop leads because a backpack the suspect was wearing is sold exclusively at the stores, the Pima County, Arizona, sheriff said Monday.
Nancy Guthrie, 84, was last seen at her Arizona home on Jan. 31 and was reported missing the following day. Authorities say her blood was found on the front porch. Purported ransom notes were sent to news outlets, but two deadlines for paying have passed.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation released surveillance videos of a masked person wearing a handgun holster outside Guthrie’s front door in Tucson the night she vanished. A porch camera recorded video of a person with a backpack who was wearing a ski mask, long pants, a jacket and gloves.
Pima Count Sheriff Chris Nanos said in a text message to The Associated Press on Monday that the 25-liter “Ozark Trail Hiker Pack” backpack was the only clothing item that has been “definitively identified.”
“This backpack is exclusive to Walmart and we are working with Walmart management to develop further leads,” Nanos said.
The suspect’s clothing “may have been purchased from Walmart but is not exclusively available at Walmart,” the Pima County Sheriff’s Department said in a statement Monday. “This remains a possibility only.”
Investigators on Sunday announced that a glove discovered near the Guthrie home has been sent for DNA testing. The FBI said that it received preliminary results Saturday and was awaiting official confirmation. The development comes as law enforcement gathers more potential evidence and as the search for Guthrie’s mother heads into its third week. Authorities previously said they had not identified a suspect.
The FBI said the suspect in the surveillance footage is a man about 5 feet, 9 inches tall with a medium build.
Authorities have expressed concern about Nancy Guthrie’s health because she needs vital daily medicine. She is said to have a pacemaker and have dealt with high blood pressure and heart issues, according to sheriff’s dispatcher audio on broadcastify.com.
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NEW YORK (AP) — Logan Paul has set a new world’s record — for the auction price of a trading card.
The wrestling and social media star’s rare Pickachu Illustrator Pokémon card, a “Holy Grail” for collectors, sold for $16.5 million Monday at Goldin Auctions after 41 days of bidding. Paul had purchased the card in 2021 for $5.275 million, a Guinness record at the time for a Pokémon card. He had added a diamond necklace and custom case and wore the card at WrestleMania 38 in 2022.
Guinness World Records adjudicator Sarah Casson was on hand Monday for the auction’s closure, which was livestreamed on YouTube, and confirmed the price was a record not just for a Pokémon card, but for any trading card sold at auction.
“Oh my gosh, this is crazy,” said Paul, who placed the card around the neck of winning bidder A.J. Scaramucci, a venture capitalist and son of former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci.
The card was designed by Atsuko Nishida for a 1998 contest. Only a few dozen are believed to exist, and Paul’s card is believed the only with a quality rating of 10.
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BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio was in the Hungarian capital on Monday for meetings with Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and his government during which they plan to sign a civilian-nuclear cooperation agreement heralded by U.S. President Donald Trump.
Trump has been outspoken in his support for the nationalist Orbán in the Hungarian leader’s bid for reelection in two months. Orbán and his Fidesz party are facing their most serious challenge in the April 12 vote since the right-wing populist retook power in 2010.
Led by Euroskeptic populists who oppose support for Ukraine and vocally back Trump, Slovakia and Hungary represent friendly territory for Rubio as he pushes to shore up energy agreements with both Central European countries.
Widely considered Russian President Vladimir Putin’s most reliable advocate in the European Union, Orbán has maintained warm relations with the Kremlin despite its war against Ukraine while currying favor with Trump and his MAGA — short for the 2016 Trump campaign slogan “Make America Great Again” — movement.
Many in MAGA and the broader conservative world view Hungary as a shining example of successful conservative nationalism, despite the erosion of its democratic institutions and its status as one of the EU’s poorest countries.
In a post on his Truth Social site earlier this month, Trump endorsed Orbán for the coming elections and called him a “truly strong and powerful Leader” and “a true friend, fighter, and WINNER.”
Trump has praised Orbán’s firm opposition to immigration, exemplified by a fence his government erected on Hungary’s southern border in 2015 as hundreds of thousands of refugees fled Syria and other countries in the Middle East and Africa.
Other U.S. conservatives admire Orbán’s hostility to LGBTQ+ rights. His government last year banned the popular Budapest Pride celebration and allowed facial recognition technology to be used to identify anyone participating despite the ban. It has also effectively banned same-sex adoption and same-sex marriage, and disallowed transgender individuals from changing their sex in official documents.
Orbán has remained firmly committed to purchasing Russian energy despite efforts by the EU to wean off such supplies, and received an exemption from U.S. sanctions on Russian energy after a November meeting in the White House with Trump.
Apparently trusting that his political and personal affinity with the U.S. leader could pay even greater dividends, Orbán and his government have sought to woo Trump to Hungary before the pivotal April 12 elections — hoping such a high-profile visit and endorsement would push Orbán, who is trailing in most polls, over the finish line.
Budapest has hosted several annual iterations of the Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC, and another was hastily rescheduled this year to fall in March, just before Hungary’s elections.
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MANHATTAN, Kan. (AP) — Kansas State fired basketball coach Jerome Tang on Sunday night, four days after many Wildcats fans showed up with bags over their heads for a home blowout.
“This was a decision that was made in the best interest of our university and men’s basketball program,” Taylor said. “Recent public comments and conduct, in addition to the program’s overall direction, have not aligned with K-State’s standards for supporting student-athletes and representing the university. We wish Coach Tang and his family all the best moving forward.”
The school said an interim head coach will be announced soon, and that a national search for a replacement has started.
“I am deeply disappointed with the university’s decision and strongly disagree with the characterization of my termination,” Tang told ESPN in a statement. “I have always acted with integrity and faithfully fulfilled my responsibilities as head coach.”
“This was embarrassing,” Tang said after that game. “These dudes do not deserve to wear this uniform. There will be very few of them in it next year. I’m embarrassed for the university, I’m embarrassed for our fans, our student section. It is just ridiculous. We’ve got practice at 6 a.m. tomorrow morning, and we will get this thing right. I have no answer and no words.”
Kansas State (10-15, 1-11 Big 12) fell 78-64 on Saturday at No. 3 Houston, the Wildcats’ sixth straight loss. In four seasons at the school, the 59-year-old Tang was 71-57 overall and 29-39 in the conference. He led the Wildcats to a 26-10 mark in his first season.
The Wildcats’ next game is Tuesday night at home against Baylor, where Tang was an assistant coach for 19 seasons with Scott Drew, including the Bears’ national title in 2021.
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PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. (AP) — Collin Morikawa went 45 starts over more than two years to finally win again on the PGA Tour, and he faced a wait that felt just as long on the final hole Sunday in the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. He kept his poise, hit a 4-iron to the collar of the green and made birdie for a one-shot victory.
In a wild final round of wind and lead changes, Morikawa had the right response for Scottie Scheffler’s bold charge by making two straight birdies down the stretch, and then making the one that mattered the most — after a 20-minute wait — for a 5-under 67.
Scheffler began the final day eight shots behind and was 7 under through seven holes before the wind began whipping. He had three eagles in his round of 63, the last one a 6-iron to 30 inches on the final hole that allowed him to tie Morikawa for the lead.
He didn’t think it would be enough, and it wasn’t.
Moments later, Morikawa holed a 30-foot birdie putt on the 15th to take the lead. He followed with a 6-iron into 8 feet for another birdie. But a bogey on the par-3 17th — his tee shot was dangerously close to the ocean left of the green — and Lee finishing birdie-birdie for a 65, created another tie.
For all the drama, it was particularly tense on the par-5 18th.
In the group ahead, Jacob Bridgeman needed eagle to have any chance of a playoff and he sent his second shot over the bunker and down to the beach. He finally decided to play off the pebbles and that bounced off the rocks and into the ocean. Then, he moved back to where his ball last crossed the hazard. All the while, Morikawa waited.
It was 20 minutes from hitting his tee shot to hitting his 4-iron, a wait made longer considering what was at stake and the biting cold of the Pacific wind roaring off the ocean.
“I paced all the way to the ocean 10 times. I just had to keep moving,” Morikawa said. “These long breaks, they’re not good for anyone to stand still. I was able to pull off a great 4-iron, and man, I need a drink.”
His 4-iron started over a portion of the water and the wind sent it to the right collar. Morikawa putted that down to a foot. Straka made a 10-foot eagle putt for a 68 before Morikawa tapped in.
Akshay Bhatia, the 54-hole leader by two shots, made only two birdies over his last 29 holes. He fell out of the lead after four holes and never caught up, closing with a 72 to finish three back.
Scheffler was 10 shots behind after the first day when he shot 72. He was 13 shots back at one point on Friday. He still managed to be a major threat. He wound up in a tie for fourth with Tommy Fleetwood (66), extending his streak to 18 straight PGA Tour starts in the top 10.
“I had to do something special to give myself a chance,” Scheffler said. “The back nine, I felt like I had to get to 21 or 22 (under). I played a bit more aggressive than I normally am. It was a fun day overall. These are the weeks I’m proud of. I felt like I was battling to give myself a chance.”
Among his regrets was a wedge to a back pin on the 15th that was a foot away from spinning back to close range. It hopped hard over the green. He chipped to 6 feet and missed the par putt.
Morikawa charged his way into the mix with a 62 on Saturday to get within two shots of Bhatia, and he did enough right to stay close — six players had a share of the lead at some point during the final round — until delivering the goods at the end.
The Cal alum won for the seventh time on the PGA Tour since turning pro a week before the 2019 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach. Winning at Pebble moves him back into the top 10 in the world.
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A glove containing DNA found about two miles from the house of “Today” show host Savannah Guthrie’s mother appears to match those worn by a masked person outside her front door in Tucson the night she vanished, the FBI said Sunday.
The glove, found in a field near the side of a road, was sent off for DNA testing. The FBI said in a statement that it received preliminary results Saturday and was awaiting official confirmation.
Nancy Guthrie, 84, was last seen at her Arizona home on Jan. 31 and was reported missing the following day. Authorities say her blood was found on the front porch. Purported ransom notes were sent to news outlets, but two deadlines for paying have passed.
The discovery was revealed days after investigators had released surveillance videos of the masked person outside Guthrie’s front door. A porch camera recorded video of a person with a backpack who was wearing a ski mask, long pants, jacket and gloves.
On Thursday, the FBI called the person a suspect. It described him as a man about 5 feet, 9 inches tall with a medium build. The agency said he was carrying a 25-liter “Ozark Trail Hiker Pack” backpack.
Late Friday night, law enforcement agents sealed off a road about two miles (3.2 kilometers) from Guthrie’s home as part of their investigation. A series of sheriff’s and FBI vehicles, including forensics vehicles, passed through the roadblock.
The investigators also tagged and towed a Range Rover SUV from a nearby restaurant parking lot late Friday. The sheriff’s department later said the activity was part of the Guthrie investigation but no arrests were made.
On Tuesday, sheriff deputies detained a person for questioning during a traffic stop south of Tucson. Authorities didn’t say what led them to stop the man but confirmed he was released. The same day, deputies and FBI agents conducted a court-authorized search in Rio Rico, about an hour’s drive south of the city.
Authorities have expressed concern about Nancy Guthrie’s health because she needs vital daily medicine. She is said to have a pacemaker and have dealt with high blood pressure and heart issues, according to sheriff’s dispatcher audio on broadcastify.com.
Earlier in the investigation, authorities had said they had collected DNA from Nancy Guthrie’s property which doesn’t belong to Guthrie or those in close contact with her. Investigators were working to identify who it belongs to.
The FBI also has said approximately 16 gloves were found in various spots near the house, most of which were searchers’ gloves that had been discarded.
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ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — The federal agency that provides health care to Native Americans and Alaska Natives has announced it will phase out the use of dental fillings containing mercury.
The Indian Health Service has used fillings, known as dental amalgams, that contain elemental mercury to treat decayed and otherwise damaged teeth for decades. Native American rights and industry advocates have called for an end to the practice, arguing it exposes patients who may not have access to private dentistry to a harmful neurotoxin.
The use of mercury-containing amalgams, also known as “silver fillings” due to their appearance, has declined sharply since 2009 when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration reclassified the devices from low to moderate risk. The industry has largely abandoned them in favor of plastic resin alternatives, which are also preferred for aesthetic reasons.
The Indian Health Service says it will fully implement the move to mercury-free alternatives by 2027. Already, the percentage of the Indian Health Service’s roughly 2.8 million patient user population receiving them has declined from 12% in 2005 to 2% in 2023, the latest year of available data, agency documents show.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees IHS, said growing environmental and health concerns about mercury exposure, and global efforts to reduce materials containing the hazardous heavy metal prompted the change announced this month.
“This is a commonsense step that protects patients and prevents harm before it starts,” Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., said in a statement.
The agency’s switch to mercury-free alternatives also upholds legal responsibilities the U.S. government has to the 575 federally recognized tribes, he said.
According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, dental amalgam fillings can release small amounts of mercury vapor during placement, removal, teeth grinding and gum chewing. It recommends that certain people at high risk for adverse effects of mercury exposure, including pregnant women, children under 6, and those with existing neurological conditions avoid the fillings. But the administration, along with the American Dental Association, says available evidence does not link mercury-containing fillings to long-term negative health outcomes.
The World Health Organization has created a plan to encourage countries around the world to phase out the use of dental amalgams, citing potential for mercury exposure. In 2013 several countries, including the U.S., signed onto the Minamata Convention, a global agreement targeting the adverse health and the environment effects of mercury. In November, signatories to the convention agreed to phase out the use of mercury-containing dental amalgams by the year 2034.
While Kennedy’s decision to stop its use within the IHS by 2027 puts the U.S. ahead of the global schedule, the country is still behind many other developed nations that have already banned the practice.
“The rest of the world is light years ahead of us,” said Rochelle Diver, the U.N. environmental treaties coordinator for the International Indian Treaty Council, adding that IHS patients should not receive treatment that is considered antiquated by many dentists.
In a statement, the American Dental Association acknowledged declining use of mercury-containing fillings, but said they remain a “safe, durable and affordable material.”
The use of mercury in other medical devices, including thermometers and blood pressure devices, has also declined sharply in recent decades. While mercury-containing amalgams have fallen out of favor in the U.S. private dental sector, patients relying on government services may not have a say, according to Charles G. Brown, president of the World Alliance for Mercury-Free Dentistry.
Many state-administered Medicaid programs continue to cover mercury-containing fillings as a treatment for tooth decay, Brown said.
“If you’re on Medicaid, if you are stuck in the Indian Health Service, if you were stuck in a prison or other institution, you just don’t have any choice,” Brown said.
Brewer reported from Oklahoma City.
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ATLANTA (AP) — A storm system sweeping across the Southeast late Saturday and Sunday brought tornado warnings to Mississippi and Louisiana, and then took aim at parts of Georgia and Florida, as people in the Northeast were finally getting a reprieve from weeks of bitterly cold temperatures.
Some of the fiercest storms in the South were reported near Lake Charles, Louisiana, where high winds from a thunderstorm overturned a horse trailer and a Mardi Gras float, damaged an airport jet bridge and flung the metal awning from a house into power lines. The damage was documented by National Weather Service employees who surveyed the area.
Power poles were snapped and toppled near the Louisiana towns of Jena, Cheneyville and Donaldsonville, the weather service reported.
No deaths or serious injuries were reported, but the damage reports came as the storm system continued its path into parts of south Georgia and the Florida Panhandle, which were under tornado watches on Sunday.
Boston was running nearly 7 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 14 Celsius) below average for February by midweek, and the city was on pace for its coldest winter in more than a decade. Boston remained cold on Sunday, but the week’s forecast called for temperatures climbing into the high 30s and low 40s, which is closer to the seasonal average.
Elsewhere in the U.S., parts of California were bracing for showers, thunderstorms and snow showers. Jacob Spender, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Sacramento, said a storm system was moving on shore in California throughout Sunday and through the week.
Heavy snow was forecast for elevated areas, Spender said.
“As we get up into the mountains and the foothills, we’re going to be looking at some snowfall,” Spender said. “So there will be snowfall all the way down into the foothills as well.”
Spender said people should heed travel advisories in the coming days.
“So if they are traveling, packing winter safety kits. Anything to be prepared. This is a bigger system, and a major system,” Spender said.
Associated Press journalists Julie Walker in New York City; Patrick Whittle in Portland, Maine; and Jeff Martin in Atlanta contributed.
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. military forces boarded another sanctioned tanker in the Indian Ocean after tracking the vessel from the Caribbean Sea in an effort to target illicit oil connected to Venezuela, the Pentagon said Sunday.
Venezuela had faced U.S. sanctions on its oil for several years, relying on a shadow fleet of falsely flagged tankers to smuggle crude into global supply chains. President Donald Trump ordered a quarantine of sanctioned tankers in December to pressure then-President Nicolás Maduro before Maduro was apprehended in January during an American military operation.
Several tankers fled the Venezuelan coast in the wake of the raid, including the ship that was boarded in the Indian Ocean overnight. The Defense Department said in a post on X that U.S. forces boarded the Veronica III, conducting “a right-of-visit, maritime interdiction and boarding.”
“The vessel tried to defy President Trump’s quarantine — hoping to slip away,” the Pentagon said. “We tracked it from the Caribbean to the Indian Ocean, closed the distance, and shut it down.”
Video posted by the Pentagon shows U.S. troops boarding the tanker.
The Veronica III is a Panamanian-flagged vessel under U.S. sanctions related to Iran, according to the website of the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control.
The Veronica III left Venezuela on Jan. 3, the same day as Maduro’s capture, with nearly 2 million barrels of crude and fuel oil, TankerTrackers.com posted Sunday on X.
“Since 2023, she’s been involved with Russian, Iranian and Venezuelan oil,” the organization said.
Samir Madani, co-founder of TankerTrackers.com, told The Associated Press in January that his organization used satellite imagery and surface-level photos to document that at least 16 tankers left the Venezuelan coast in contravention of the quarantine.
The Trump administration has been seizing tankers as part of its broader efforts to take control of the Venezuela’s oil. The Pentagon did not say in the post whether the Veronica III was formally seized and placed under U.S. control, and later told the AP in an email that it had no additional information to provide beyond that post.
Last week, the U.S. military boarded a different tanker in the Indian Ocean, the Aquila II. The ship was being held while its ultimate fate was decided by the United States, according to a defense official who spoke last week on condition of anonymity to discuss ongoing decision-making.
Associated Press writer Konstantin Toropin contributed to this report.
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