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  • Government Shutdown Threatens Food Aid Program Relied on by Millions of Families

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    WASHINGTON (AP) — A food aid program that helps more than 6 million low-income mothers and young children will run out of federal money within two weeks unless the government shutdown ends, forcing states to use their own money to keep it afloat or risk it shutting down, experts say.

    The $8 billion Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children, also known as WIC, provides vouchers to buy infant formula as well as fresh fruits and vegetables, low-fat milk and other healthy staples that are often out of financial reach for low-income households.

    The shutdown, which began Wednesday, coincided with the beginning of a new fiscal year, meaning programs like WIC, which rely on annual infusions from the federal government, are nearly out of money. Currently, the program is being kept afloat by an $150 million contingency fund, but experts say it could run dry quickly.

    After that, states could step in to pay for the program and seek reimbursement when a budget finally passes, but not all states say they can afford to do so.

    “We feel good about one to two weeks,” said Ali Hard, policy director for the National WIC Association. “After that, we are very worried.”


    WIC helps families buy more nutritious food

    Taylor Moyer, a mother of three who recently separated from her husband, has been receiving WIC since her first son was born nine years ago. She said the program allowed her to feed her children nutritious food that tends to be pricier than calorie-dense, processed options. It also provided guidance when she struggled to breastfeed and counseled her on how to handle her son’s picky eating stage.

    “There’s been times where I have sat back in my house and really wondered how I was going to feed my family,” said Moyer, who works at the LGBT Life Center in Virginia Beach, Virginia. “And I went to the store with my WIC card … I get rice, I got avocados, I got eggs, and I made a balanced meal that was actually good.”

    The shutdown came as Democrats and Republicans failed to pass a new spending plan. Democratic lawmakers want to extend tax credits that make health care cheaper for millions of Americans, and they want to reverse deep cuts to Medicaid that were passed earlier this year. They refused to sign on to any spending plan that did not include those provisions.

    House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican from Louisiana, blamed Democrats for the shutdown and called them hypocritical because failing to fund the federal government endangers so many health programs.

    The WIC program, which has long had bipartisan support, aids those who are pregnant, mothers and children under age 5. Research has tied it to lower infant mortality, healthier birth weights, higher immunization rates and better academic outcomes for children who participate. Nearly half of those who are eligible don’t enroll, often because they believe they don’t qualify or they can’t reach a WIC office.

    Some Republican lawmakers want to cut WIC, which is targeted for elimination in Project 2025, the influential policy blueprint authored by the man who’s now President Donald Trump’s budget chief. Trump’s budget request and the spending plan backed by House Republicans would not fully fund the program. They also want to cut funding for families to buy fresh fruits and vegetables.


    Some states pledge to plug gaps in food aid

    In the event of an extended shutdown, several states have sought to reassure WIC recipients that they will continue to receive benefits. Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont, a Democrat, said the state will pick up the tab if federal funding runs out.

    “I want those young families, those moms, to know that your WIC card will continue to be good for the foreseeable future,” Lamont said. “We’re making sure that the government does not take that away from you.”

    But in Washington state, where a third of babies receive WIC benefits, officials say they do not have the money to keep the program open.

    “Washington WIC may be able to sustain benefits for one to two weeks before a federal shutdown would force a full closure of the program,” said Raechel Sims, a spokesperson for the state’s Department of Health. “If the shutdown lasts longer than that, DOH does not have the ability to backfill WIC funding.”

    Moyer, the mother from Virginia Beach, warned that ending the program could be catastrophic for recipients.

    “There is going to be infants skipping feeds. There is going to be pregnant women skipping meals so that they can feed their toddlers,” she said. “And it means that people are not going to have a balanced and healthy diet.”

    Associated Press writer Susan Haigh in Hartford, Conn., contributed to this report.

    The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Find the AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

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

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  • US Health Secretary Kennedy Speeds Autism Drug With GSK Help

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    By Patrick Wingrove, Maggie Fick and Julie Steenhuysen

    (Reuters) -U.S. Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr. could deliver a policy win for the Trump administration in just a few months after the Food and Drug Administration enlisted GSK to help it fast-track approval of a decades-old drug to treat an autism-related disorder.

    The FDA’s unusual move will allow it to bypass a lengthy label update for generic versions of the drug, leucovorin, or new clinical trials, a tactic academics, lawyers and doctors questioned.

    A GSK spokesperson told Reuters it plans to complete the new use application for the branded version of leucovorin “as quickly as possible.”

    Once the British drugmaker does that work, the FDA would normally take about four to six months but could process the request even faster, said Giuseppe Randazzo of the Association for Accessible Medicines, a generic medicines lobby group.

    The accelerated process will give doctors additional justification to prescribe the drug for cerebral folate deficiency, a metabolic disorder that can lead to a range of neurological symptoms including some associated with autism, delivering on Kennedy’s promise to President Donald Trump and the “Make America Healthy Again” movement with which he is aligned.

    Without robust evidence, the label change represents at most a hollow bureaucratic victory, said Ameet Sarpatwari, a pharmaceutical policy researcher at Harvard Medical School.

    However, the drug, which is used to mitigate toxic effects of certain cancer treatments and sells for $34.14 for a bottle of 30 high-dose pills on Cost Plus Drugs, would more likely be covered for the condition by insurance plans with the label change. 

    An HHS spokesperson said the evidence clearly supports leucovorin’s ability to address the causes of cerebral folate deficiency and improve patient outcomes.

    DEMAND RISES AFTER TRUMP PROMOTES DRUG

    Demand for the drug has increased, first after a February CBS story about its use in a nonverbal five-year-old boy, and more recently after Trump promoted its use.

    “My nurses have been saying the phone is ringing off the hook,” said Dr. Larry Gray, an expert in developmental and behavioral pediatrics, who sees patients with autism at Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago.

    Because the treatment is not approved for autism, the institution’s policy has been to only offer it in clinical trials, which are rare. The drug is FDA-approved, however, so doctors can prescribe it off-label.

    Kennedy has declared the rising rates of autism in the U.S., now estimated at 1 in 31 children by age 8, to be an epidemic and had pledged to find some answers behind its cause as well as cures by September.

    At a White House event on September 22, Kennedy, Trump and other health officials backed leucovorin as an autism treatment. They also warned against the use of Tylenol by pregnant women, saying studies suggested a link to autism. Health experts and medical groups called that warning dangerous and without sound scientific basis.

    The FDA was able to speed the process by using an obscure rule to reinstate GSK’s approval application and request a label update adding cerebral folate deficiency, based on the agency’s own analysis of 40 patient cases found in a review of literature from 2009 to 2024.

    GSK sold the drug as Wellcovorin until 1997. A generic version, which is also called folinic acid and is a form of folate or vitamin B9, is now made by U.K.-based Hikma.

    Once GSK’s application is approved, U.S. law requires generic drugmakers to match the change.

    The more commonly used label update process for generic drugs, which requires consultation with generic drugmakers, typically takes up to a year and a half, according to Skadden lawyer Rachel Turow. It is typically used for cancer drugs after new uses are proven in clinical trials, she and several other lawyers said.

    Aaron Kesselheim, professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, described the process being used as “very atypical,” and said that without the FDA sharing its data or trials, it is hard to know if the agency is following the normal standard of evidence.

    LIMITED AVAILABLE EVIDENCE

    Dr. Andy Shih, chief science officer at the advocacy organization Autism Speaks, said the evidence for leucovorin’s use was limited and potentially suggestive of benefit for a small subgroup of autistic children. Larger trials are needed, he said.

    The evidence is based on four studies, each of which involved 50 to 60 patients, with three of them done by the same author, said Dr. Karam Radwan, director of the Neurodevelopmental Disorders Program at the University of Chicago, who uses the drug in his practice.

    “You want to replicate that with a different lab, in a different setting, to make sure we have enough support” for the change, he said.

    Three mid-stage trials are underway studying a new, liquid version of leucovorin as an early language impairment treatment for children with autism, according to the government clinical trials site. The earliest data is expected around December.

    The trials are being led by one autism researcher in partnership with the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Defense, and Autism Speaks, and involve up to 80 children each.

    Larger, more conclusive trials would take years. The FDA’s approach does not require new trials.

    This change should be based on scientific evidence, and so far, studies supporting its use are not robust, Radwan said.

    (Reporting by Patrick Wingrove in New York, Maggie Fick in London and Julie Steenhuysen in Chicago; Additional reporting by Robin Respaut in San Francisco; Editing by Caroline Humer and Bill Berkrot)

    Copyright 2025 Thomson Reuters.

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  • UNESCO Is Choosing a New Director Who Will Face a Big Funding Shortage After US Exit

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    PARIS (AP) — An Egyptian antiquities professor and ex-tourism minister is facing off against a Congolese economist who promoted schooling in refugee camps in a race to become the new director of UNESCO.

    Whoever wins will inherit a world body reeling from the Trump administration’s recent decision to pull the United States out of UNESCO, portending a big budget shortfall at the agency best known for its World Heritage sites around the globe.

    UNESCO’s executive board begins voting Monday to recommend either Khaled el-Enany or Firmin Édouard Matoko for the position of director-general. The decision by the board, which represents 58 of the agency’s 194 member states, is expected to be finalized by UNESCO’s general assembly next month.


    Noble ambitions and persistent problems

    In addition to choosing and protecting World Heritage sites and traditions, the Paris-based United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization works to ensure education for girls, promotes Holocaust awareness and funds scientific research in developing countries, among other activities. Outgoing UNESCO chief Audrey Azoulay notably led a high-profile effort to rebuild the ancient Iraqi city of Mosul after it was devastated under the Islamic State group.

    UNESCO has also long been plagued by accusations of mismanagement and waste.

    Trump argues that the agency, which voted in 2011 to admit Palestine as a member, is too politicized and anti-Israel. U.S. supporters of UNESCO, meanwhile, say withdrawing Washington’s support allows China to play an outsized role in the world body.

    Meanwhile the vote comes at a time when the whole 80-year-old U.N. system is facing financial challenges and deepening divisions over the wars in Gaza and Ukraine.


    Frontrunner wants to be UNESCO’s first Arab leader

    El-Enany worked as a tour guide through ancient Egyptian sites, earned a doctorate in France and served as Egypt’s tourism minister and antiquities minister.

    Arab countries have long wanted to lead UNESCO, and el-Enany is seen as having a good chance of making that happen. The African Union and Arab League are among those that have expressed support for his bid.

    He would be expected to focus on UNESCO’s cultural programs if chosen, and has pledged to continue UNESCO’s work to fight antisemitism and religious intolerance. Israel left UNESCO at the end of 2018.

    While he has no U.N. experience, his backers say that could help him make tough reform decisions.


    Challenger wants to calm tensions

    Republic of Congo’s candidate Firmin Matoko, 69, spent most of his career working for UNESCO, including stints in Rwanda soon after the genocide, during peace negotiations in El Salvador and beyond.

    He says he wants UNESCO to move away from political tensions and focus on technical solutions. He described helping train teachers at a refugee camp in Somalia in the 1990s, and meeting one of them years later after she became education minister. That, he says, is one reason UNESCO matters.

    He says he is ready to cut jobs or programs if needed, and pledges “budgetary rigor.”

    Like el-Enany, he wants to tap more private sector money to make up for the loss of U.S. and other funding, notably from BRICS countries.

    At the same time, he said, “I will do everything so that the United States comes back, while taking into account what they reproach UNESCO for.”

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

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  • Voting Is Underway in California on New Maps That Could Swing US House Control, Check Trump’s Power

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    LOS ANGELES (AP) — The midterm elections might be a year away, but the fight for control of the U.S. House is underway in California.

    The outcome of the 70-word, “yes” or “no” question could determine which party wins control of the closely divided House, and whether Democrats will be able to blunt Trump’s power in the second half of his term on issues from immigration to reproductive rights.

    The proposal is “a starting point for the 2026 race,” said Democratic consultant Roger Salazar.

    “2026 is the whole ball game,” he said.

    The national implications of California’s ballot measure are clear in both the money it has attracted and the figures getting involved. Tens of millions of dollars are flowing into the race — including a $5 million donation to opponents from the Congressional Leadership Fund, the super PAC tied to House Speaker Mike Johnson. Former action-movie star and Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has spoken out to oppose it, while former President Barack Obama is in favor, calling it a “smart” approach to counter Republican maneuverings aimed at safeguarding House control.

    The election that concludes Nov. 4 will also color the emerging 2028 presidential contest in which Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom — the face of the campaign for the new, jiggered districts — is widely seen as a likely contender.

    So goes California, so goes the nation?

    “Heaven help us if we lose,” Newsom wrote in a recent fundraising pitch to supporters. “This is an all-hands-on-deck moment for Democrats.”


    An election gamble that could check Trump’s power

    The unusual special election amounts to a Democratic gambit to blunt Trump’s attempt in Texas to gain five Republican districts ahead of the midterms, a move intended to pad the GOP’s tenuous grip on the House.

    The duel between the nation’s two most populous states has spread nationally, with Missouri redrawing House maps that are crafted state by state. Other states could soon follow, while the dispute also has become entangled in the courts.

    A major question mark has emerged in Texas, where a panel of federal judges is considering whether the state can use a redrawn congressional map that boosts Republicans.

    If the Texas map is blocked even temporarily, it’s not clear how that decision would influence California — if at all — where voting is underway. Newsom has previously indicated that California could keep its current map if other states pull back efforts to remake districts for partisan advantage, but that language was not included in the final version of what’s officially known as Proposition 50.


    GOP could be left with just four House seats in California

    If approved in California, it’s possible the new political map could slash five Republican-held House seats while bolstering Democratic incumbents in other battleground districts. That could boost the Democratic margin to 48 of California’s 52 congressional seats, up from the 43 seats the party now holds.

    Liberal-tilting California has long been a quirk in House elections — the state is heavily Democratic but also is home to a string of some of the most hotly contested congressional districts in the country, a rarity at a time when truly competitive House elections have been dwindling in number across the U.S.

    The contours of the race have taken shape, with Newsom framing the contest as a battle to save democracy against all things Trump, while Republicans and their supporters decry the proposal as a blatant power grab intended to make the state’s dominant Democrats even more powerful while discarding House maps developed by an independent commission. Democrats crafted the proposed lines behind closed doors.

    Republicans hold a 219-213 majority in the U.S. House, with three vacancies.

    New maps are typically drawn once a decade after the census is conducted. Many states, including Texas, give legislators the power to draw maps. California is among states that rely on an independent commission that is supposed to be nonpartisan — the Democratic ballot proposal would shelve that group’s work and postpone its operation until the next census.


    Creative boundary lines create districts to favor Democrats

    In some cases, the recast districts would slice across California, in one case uniting rural, conservative-leaning northern California with Marin County, a famously liberal coastal stronghold north of San Francisco. In others, district lines are left unchanged or have only minor adjustments.

    With rural and farming areas in some cases being combined in new districts with populous cities, there is “worry about us losing our voice,” said John Chandler, a partner in almond-and-peach grower Chandler Farms in the state’s Central Valley farm belt. “It hurts us,” Chandler said during an online event organized by proposition opponents.


    Who will show up and vote?

    Democrats come to the contest with significant advantages — they outnumber registered Republicans in the state by a nearly 2-to-1 margin, and a Republican candidate hasn’t won a statewide election in nearly two decades.

    Still, ballot questions can be unpredictable. Voters are in a grumpy mood nationally and hold mixed views of both political parties.

    It’s difficult to determine precisely who might show up in an election with no candidate on the statewide ballot — only a question involving a constitutional amendment on the arcane subject of redistricting, or the realignment of House district boundaries. And campaigns are competing for attention in a nation of nonstop distraction, from wars abroad to the political stalemate in Washington.

    Supporters and opponents are running a cascade of ads in the state’s big media markets. Trump is trying to “steal congressional seats and rig the 2026 election,” one ad from supporters warns. Opponents are spotlighting a recent appearance by Schwarzenegger, who in one ad clenches his fist and says, “Democracy — we’ve got to protect it and we’ve got to go and fight for it.”

    In the state’s Central Valley, Kelsey Hinton is working to mobilize infrequent Latino voters hitched to hectic jobs and child care who are often overlooked by major campaigns. Her group, the Community Water Center Action Fund, dispatches canvassers to knock on doors to explain the stakes in the election.

    Operating separately from Newsom’s campaign, and backed by funding from a left-leaning political group known as the Progressive Era Issues Committee, they hope to boost voter participation in an area where turnout can be among the sparsest in the state.

    What are they finding? “People don’t even know there is an election,” Hinton said.

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

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  • Bitcoin Hits All-Time High Above $125,000

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    (Reuters) -Bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency by market value, hit an all-time on Sunday and was up by around 2.68% at $125,245.57 at 0512 GMT.

    (Reporting by Anusha Shah in Bengaluru; editing by Lincoln Feast)

    Copyright 2025 Thomson Reuters.

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  • Judge Temporarily Blocks Trump Administration From Deploying Troops in Portland, Oregon

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    PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A federal judge in Oregon temporarily blocked President Donald Trump’s administration from deploying the National Guard in Portland, ruling Saturday in a lawsuit brought by the state and city.

    U.S. District Judge Karin Immergut issued the order pending further arguments in the suit. She said the relatively small protests the city has seen did not justify the use of federalized forces and allowing the deployment could harm Oregon’s state sovereignty.

    “This country has a longstanding and foundational tradition of resistance to government overreach, especially in the form of military intrusion into civil affairs,” Immergut wrote. She later continued, “This historical tradition boils down to a simple proposition: this is a nation of Constitutional law, not martial law.”

    State and city officials sued to stop the deployment last week, one day after the Trump administration announced that 200 Oregon National Guard troops would be federalized to protect federal buildings. The president called the city “war-ravaged.”

    Oregon officials said that characterization was ludicrous. The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement building in the city has been the site of nightly protests that typically drew a couple dozen people in recent weeks before the deployment was announced.


    Judge: The federal response didn’t match the facts

    Generally speaking the president is allowed “a great level of deference” to federalize National Guard troops in situations where regular law enforcement forces are not able to execute the laws of the United States, the judge said, but that has not been the case in Portland.

    Plaintiffs were able to show that the demonstrations at the immigration building were not significantly violent or disruptive ahead of the president’s order, the judge wrote, and “overall, the protests were small and uneventful.”

    “The President’s determination was simply untethered to the facts,” Immergut wrote.


    White House suggests an appeal is coming

    Following the ruling, White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said that “President Trump exercised his lawful authority to protect federal assets and personnel in Portland following violent riots and attacks on law enforcement — we expect to be vindicated by a higher court.”

    Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield called the ruling “a healthy check on the president.”

    “It reaffirms what we already knew: Portland is not the president’s war-torn fantasy. Our city is not ravaged, and there is no rebellion,” Rayfield said in a statement. He added: “Members of the Oregon National Guard are not a tool for him to use in his political theater.”

    Trump has deployed or threatened to deploy troops in several U.S. cities, particularly ones led by Democrats, including Los Angeles, Washington, Chicago and Memphis. Speaking Tuesday to U.S. military leaders in Virginia, he proposed using cities as training grounds for the armed forces.

    Last month a federal judge ruled that the president’s deployment of some 4,700 National Guard soldiers and Marines in Los Angeles this year was illegal, but he allowed the 300 who remain in the city to stay as long as they do not enforce civilian laws. The Trump administration appealed, and an appellate panel has put the lower court’s block on hold while it moves forward.


    Portland protests were small, but grew after deployment was announced

    The Portland protests have been limited to a one-block area in a city that covers about 145 square miles (375 square km) and has about 636,000 residents.

    They grew somewhat following the Sept. 28 announcement of the guard deployment. The Portland Police Bureau, which has said it does not participate in immigration enforcement and only intervenes in the protests if there is vandalism or criminal activity, arrested two people on assault charges. A peaceful march earlier that day drew thousands to downtown and saw no arrests, police said.

    On Saturday, before the ruling was released, roughly 400 people marched to the ICE facility. The crowd included people of all ages and races, families with children and older people using walkers. Federal agents responded with chemical crowd control munitions, including tear gas canisters and less-lethal guns that sprayed pepper balls. At least six people were arrested as the protesters reached the ICE facility.

    Trump sent federal officers to Portland over the objections of local and state leaders in 2020 during long-running racial justice protests following George Floyd’s killing by Minneapolis police. The administration sent hundreds of agents for the stated purpose of protecting the federal courthouse and other federal property from vandalism.

    That deployment antagonized demonstrators and prompted nightly clashes. Federal officers fired rubber bulled and used tear gas.

    Viral videos captured federal officers arresting people and hustling them into unmarked vehicles. A report by the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general found that while the federal government had legal authority to deploy the officers, many of them lacked the training and equipment necessary for the mission.

    The government agreed this year to settle an excessive force lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union by paying compensating several plaintiffs for their injuries.

    Boone reported from Boise, Idaho. Associated Press writer Josh Boak in Washington contributed.

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

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  • Democrat in Virginia Attorney General Race Apologizes for 2022 Texts Depicting Political Violence

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    RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Virginia’s Democratic candidate for attorney general has apologized for widely condemned text messages from 2022 that revealed him suggesting that a prominent Republican get “two bullets to the head.”

    The texts put the Democratic challenger, Jay Jones, on the defensive in what has been a hard-hitting campaign. Early voting is well underway in Virginia ahead of the November general election.

    Jones’ campaign didn’t challenge the accuracy of the texts, first reported by The National Review, and he offered a public apology to Todd Gilbert, the target of the messages. Jones said he took “full responsibility for my actions.” Gilbert was speaker of Virginia’s House of Delegates at the time of the text messages but is no longer a legislator.

    Jones has faced a torrent of bipartisan criticism since the messages surfaced. Jones is challenging Republican incumbent Jason Miyares for the job as Virginia’s top prosecutor.

    Miyares ripped into Jones on Saturday, questioning his challenger’s fitness for the job.

    “You have to be coming from an incredibly dark place to say what you said,” Miyares told reporters. “Not by a stranger. By a colleague. Somebody you had served with. Someone you have worked with.”

    Jones and Republican House Delegate Carrie Coyner spoke in a phone conversation following the text exchange, in which Jones described Gilbert’s children dying in the arms of their mother, according to the National Review’s report.

    “I have been a prosecutor, and I have been obviously serving as attorney general,” Miyares said. “I have met quietly one-on-one with victims. There is no cry like the cry of a mother that lost her child. None.”

    A spokesperson for the Virginia House Republican caucus, contacted on Saturday by The Associated Press, said Gilbert was not commenting on the text messages. Gilbert stepped down as a legislator to become a federal prosecutor this year but resigned a month later.

    The revelation about the text messages shook up the campaign and comes as both parties seek advantage in statewide races being closely watched for trends heading into next year’s midterm elections, when control of Congress is at stake. And it comes amid an escalating threat of political violence in the country following the shooting deaths of conservative activist Charlie Kirk and former Minnesota Democratic House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband.

    In Virginia, other Democrats running for statewide office didn’t mince words in criticizing Jones.

    Abigail Spanberger, the Democratic gubernatorial candidate, said in a statement Friday that she “spoke frankly with Jay about my disgust with what he had said and texted. I made clear to Jay that he must fully take responsibility for his words.” She vowed to ”always condemn violent language in our politics.”

    Ghazala Hashmi, the Democrat running for lieutenant governor, said “political violence has no place in our country and I condemn it at every turn.” Hashmi added that “we must demand better of our leaders and of each other.” Candidates for governor and lieutenant governor run separately in Virginia.

    The Republican Attorneys General Association said Jones should withdraw from the campaign for his “abhorrent” text messages. The group’s chairman, Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach, said the messages were unacceptable “from someone who wants to represent law enforcement.”

    “There is no place for political violence, including joking about it – especially from an elected official,” Kobach said.

    Jones did not hold elected office when he sent the text messages about Gilbert to Coyner, who is seeking reelection in a competitive House district. Jones had formerly served as a state legislator, and stepped down in 2021.

    In his texts, Jones wrote: “Three people two bullets … Gilbert, hitler, and pol pot … Gilbert gets two bullets to the head.” Pol Pot was the leader of the murderous Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia.

    Conyer replied: “Jay … Please stop.” Jones responded: “Lol … Ok, ok.”

    In his statement Friday, Jones said: “Reading back those words made me sick to my stomach. I am embarrassed, ashamed and sorry.”

    “I have reached out to Speaker Gilbert to apologize directly to him, his wife Jennifer, and their children,” he added. “I cannot take back what I said; I can only take full accountability and offer my sincere apology.”

    Schreiner reported from Shelbyville, Kentucky.

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  • AP Reader Question: How Does the Shutdown Affect National Guard Troops?

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    Here’s a question about the shutdown submitted by an Associated Press reader, Christian P.:


    How does the shutdown affect National Guard troops?

    National Guard troops will not be paid on time during the shutdown, just like the thousands of other employees deemed “essential.”

    All active-duty military members, including those in the deployed Guard, must remain on duty, but they will not receive pay until funding is restored.

    In years past, Congress has passed a stopgap measure preventing this pause in military pay. Days before government funding lapsed in 2013, lawmakers approved the Pay Our Military Act, which kept military paychecks going during the shutdown.

    Before this shutdown happened, a similar bill was introduced, but it was not voted on before lawmakers adjourned and the shutdown went into effect.

    We’ll be showcasing a different reader question about the shutdown each day for the coming several days.

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

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  • Georgia Man Indicted After Fishing Tournament Boat Crash Killed 3 in Alabama

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    CULLMAN, Ala. (AP) — A Georgia man has been indicted on manslaughter charges in Alabama after an April boat wreck during a professional fishing tournament killed three people and injured two others.

    Flint Andrew Davis, 22, was indicted Thursday in Cullman County on three counts of reckless manslaughter and two counts of first degree assault, all felonies. Davis, a Leesburg, Georgia, resident, was also indicted on three misdemeanors, including reckless operation of a vessel, failing to follow boating rules and boating without a boater safety certification.

    Video shows Davis’ boat speeding across Lewis Smith Lake, a popular recreational destination about 70 miles (113 kilometers) north of Birmingham, striking another boat, and launching into the air. Officials say Joey M. Broom, 58, of Snead, Alabama, was fatally injured in the collision. John K. Clark, 44, of Cullman, Alabama, and Jeffrey C. Little, 62, of Brandon, Mississippi, were thrown overboard and drowned, officials have said. Two other men were seriously injured, Cullman County District Attorney Champ Crocker said at a Friday news conference.

    The crash happened while Davis was fishing in the second day of the Tackle Warehouse Invitational, a bass fishing tournament put on by Major League Fishing. The others weren’t part of the tournament, but taking part in a company-sponsored fishing trip.

    Although investigators determined Davis’ boat was traveling at 67 mph (108 kph) at the time of the crash, Alabama Marine Patrol Chief Matt Brooks said at the news conference that speed was not a factor in the crash. Instead, he said the wreck was caused by “operator inattention, distraction, not paying attention, failing to keep a proper lookout.”

    Brooks said investigators found that “Mr. Davis clearly did not see” the other boat. He also said that Davis didn’t have the required license to operate a motorized boat in either Georgia or Alabama.

    Attorney Tommy Spina, representing Davis, said Davis expresses “his deepest remorse and contrition” to the families of those who died, as well as to those who were injured.

    Spina said that Davis wasn’t under the influence of alcohol or drugs and was not otherwise distracted.

    “He simply did not see the other boat until the moment of impact,” Spina said. “There are many possible explanations for why this tragic collision occurred, but those matters will be fully addressed, in due course, in the courtroom and not in the press.”

    Davis is free on bail after his arrest.

    Multiple wrongful death lawsuits have been filed seeking civil damages. The accident has also sparked calls for legislation to more closely regulate boating and fishing tournaments in Alabama. Clark said grand jurors recommended that all fishing tournaments require proof-of-boating licenses and that fishing tournaments do more to promote safety.

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

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  • Journalists Work in Dire Conditions to Tell Gaza’s Story, Knowing That Could Make Them Targets

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    BEIRUT (AP) — Minutes after journalists gathered outside a Gaza hospital to survey the damage of an Israeli strike, Ibrahim Qannan pointed his camera up at the battered building as the others climbed its external stairs. Then Qannan watched in horror — while broadcasting live — as a second strike killed the friends and colleagues he knew so well.

    “We live side by side with death,” Qannan, a correspondent for the Cairo-based Al-Ghad TV said in an interview.

    “I still cannot believe that five of our colleagues were struck in front of me on camera and I try to hold up and look strong to carry the message. May no one feel such feelings. They are painful feelings.”

    Like the vast majority of Gaza’s population, most of its journalists have seen their homes destroyed or damaged during the war and have been repeatedly displaced after evacuation orders by Israel’s military. Many have mourned the deaths of family members.

    But journalists and advocates say the trials go well beyond. Every workday, they say, is shadowed by an awareness that covering the news in Gaza makes them singularly visible in the conflict, putting them at extraordinary risk.

    For journalists in Gaza, “it’s about dying or living, escaping violence or not. It’s something we cannot compare (to other wartime journalism) at any level,” said Mohamed Salama, a former reporter in Egypt who is now an academic, researching the life of news workers in the Strip.


    Israel calls strikes ‘a tragic mishap’ but also levels accusations

    After the August strikes, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted that the military was not deliberately targeting journalists and called the killings a “tragic mishap.” After a preliminary review, the military said the attack had targeted what it believed to be a Hamas surveillance camera and that six of the people killed were militants, but offered no evidence.

    Late last month, the AP and Reuters — which lost a cameraman and a freelancer in the attack on the hospital — demanded that Israel provide a full account of what happened and “take every step to protect those who continue to cover this conflict.” The news organizations issued their statement on the one-month anniversary of the strikes.

    Israeli officials have previously accused some journalists in Gaza of being current or former militants. They include Anas al-Sharif, a well-known correspondent for Al Jazeera who was killed in an early August strike on a media tent outside another Gaza hospital. Four other journalists were also killed in the attack.

    The Israeli military, citing documents it purportedly found in Gaza, as well as other intelligence, had long claimed that al-Sharif was a member of Hamas. He was killed after what press advocates said was an Israeli “smear campaign” stepped up when al-Sharif cried on air over starvation in the territory.

    There is a long, sometimes tragic history of journalists risking personal safety to cover conflicts. But the risks, trials and toll of doing so have never been higher than they are in Gaza right now, experts say.

    Since the war was ignited by the Hamas attack on Israel nearly two years ago, 195 Palestinian media workers have been killed by Israeli forces in Gaza, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

    The toll recently prompted Brown University’s Costs of War project to label Gaza a “news graveyard.” Journalist deaths in Gaza have now surpassed the combined number killed during the U.S. Civil War, World Wars I and II, the Vietnam and Korean wars, the war in Yugoslavia that ended in 2001 and the Afghanistan War, the project said in a report issued earlier this year.

    In a separate survey of Gaza news workers last year by Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism, nine in 10 said their homes had been destroyed in the war. About one in five said they had been injured and about the same number had lost family members. That was before Israel resumed fighting in March after a brief ceasefire.

    One Gaza journalist, Nour Swirki, told the AP in an interview that since her home was destroyed early in the war she has been displaced seven times. Swirki and her husband, who is also a journalist, arranged for their son and daughter to exit Gaza in 2024 and stay with family in Egypt while the couple continued to work.

    “I preferred their safety to my motherhood,” said Swirki, who works for the Saudi-based Asharq News and was a friend of Dagga’s.

    “Death is there (in Gaza) every moment, every second and everywhere,” Swirki said. She is reminded of that reality whenever she skims through photos and videos stored on her phone and is met by the faces and voices of the many colleagues and friends who have been killed in the war.

    “We get afraid and terrified and we work under the harshest conditions,” she said, “but we still stand up and work.”


    Journalists are pressured by violence, hunger

    Qannan, who saw his colleagues killed in the August strike, said Israel’s refusal to let foreign reporters enter Gaza puts tremendous pressure on local journalists, many of whom see their work as a duty to their fellow Palestinians.

    He recounted working without a break since the war’s start, grabbing sleep between live broadcasts. His family has been displaced seven times. Now he and other journalists struggle to find food. In a recent social media post, he and fellow journalists gathered to cook a kilogram (2.2 pounds) of pasta that had cost them the equivalent of $60.

    Yet when he goes on camera, Qannan said he makes an effort to appear strong in hopes of reassuring viewers. In fact, he and others journalists are exhausted and scared, he said.

    Qannan says his fears have increased since he aired video of his colleagues being killed in the hospital attack, because it could draw the attention of the Israeli military. “The situation is terrifying more than the human brain can imagine,” he said. “The fear that we are living and fear of being targeted are worse than is being described.”

    Another Gaza journalist, Mohammed Subeh, said the Israeli strike that killed the Al Jazeera reporter earlier in August left him with shrapnel lodged in his back and an injury to his foot. But hospitals are so overwhelmed with critical cases that he’s been unable to get treatment.

    “A journalist in Gaza lives between covering the war on the ground, following the news and at the same time trying to take care of his safety and the safety of his family,” said Subeh, who reports for Al-Ekhbariya, a Saudi Arabian news channel.

    Salama, who together with colleagues interviewed more than 20 Gaza journalists for their academic research, said that unlike foreign correspondents covering a war, Palestinian reporters have experienced decades of conflict firsthand. That experience makes them uniquely capable of telling Gaza’s story, he said — but they can never step away from it.

    “You don’t have the luxury to break your soul away from what is happening on the ground,” said Salama, now a doctoral student at the University of Maryland.

    Subeh, who works for the Saudi news channel, said he’d thought repeatedly of quitting and trying to flee. But, despite the extreme difficulties and dangers, he can’t bring himself to do it.

    “I feel that my presence here is important and that the voice of Gaza should be sent to the world from its own residents,” he said. “Journalism is not only a job for me, but a mission.”

    Mroue reported from Beirut and Geller from New York.

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  • Abrego Garcia Wins Request for Hearing on Whether Smuggling Charges Are Illegally ‘Vindictive’

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    HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A federal judge has concluded that the Department of Justice’s prosecution of Kilmar Abrego Garcia on human smuggling charges may be an illegal retaliation after he successfully sued the Trump administration over his deportation to El Salvador.

    The case of Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran national who was a construction worker in Maryland, has become a proxy for the partisan struggle over President Donald Trump’s sweeping immigration policy and mass deportation agenda.

    U.S. District Court Judge Waverly Crenshaw late Friday granted a request by lawyers for Abrego Garcia and ordered discovery and an evidentiary hearing in Abrego Garcia’s effort to show that the federal human smuggling case against him in Tennessee is illegally retaliatory.

    Crenshaw said Abrego Garcia had shown that there is “some evidence that the prosecution against him may be indictive.” That evidence included statements by various Trump administration officials and the timeline of the charges being filed.

    The departments of Justice and Homeland Security did not immediately respond to inquiries about the case Saturday.

    In his 16-page ruling, Crenshaw said many statements by Trump administration officials “raise cause for concern,” but one stood out.

    That statement by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, on a Fox News program after Abrego Garcia was charged in June, seemed to suggest that the Department of Justice charged Abrego Garcia because he won his wrongful deportation case, Crenshaw wrote.

    Blanche’s ”remarkable statements could directly establish that the motivations for Abrego’s criminal charges stem from his exercise of his constitutional and statutory rights” to sue over his deportation “rather than a genuine desire to prosecute him for alleged criminal misconduct,” Crenshaw wrote.

    Likewise, Crenshaw noted that the Department of Homeland Security reopened an investigation into Abrego Garcia days after the U.S. Supreme Court said in April that the Trump administration must work to bring back Abrego Garcia.

    If convicted in the Tennessee case, Abrego Garcia will be deported, federal officials have said. A U.S. immigration judge has denied Abrego Garcia’s bid for asylum, although he can appeal.

    In 2019, he was arrested by immigration agents. He requested asylum but was not eligible because he had been in the U.S. for more than a year. But the judge ruled he could not be deported to El Salvador, where he faced danger from a gang that targeted his family.

    The human smuggling charges in Tennessee stem from a 2022 traffic stop. He was not charged at the time.

    Trump administration officials have waged a relentless public relations campaign against Abrego Garcia, repeatedly referring to him as a member of the MS-13 gang, among other things, despite the fact he has not been convicted of any crimes.

    Abrego Garcia’s attorneys have denounced the criminal charges and the deportation efforts, saying they are an attempt to punish him for standing up to the administration.

    Abrego Garcia contends that, while imprisoned in El Salvador, he suffered beatings, sleep deprivation and psychological torture. El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, has denied those allegations.

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  • Nectar’s, the Vermont Venue That Launched Phish, Closes on a Quiet Note After 50 Years

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    BURLINGTON, Vt. (AP) — As a Greek immigrant who came to the United States in 1956, Nectar Rorris never imagined the Vermont restaurant and music club he opened 50 years ago would become synonymous with Phish, but he credits the jam band with giving Nectar’s a national spotlight and making it a place sought out by local and traveling musicians alike.

    “Phish made Nectar’s,” the 86-year-old Rorris said recently.

    Phish meanwhile credits Rorris with their early success, giving them a stage to experiment on when they were starting out in the early ’80s.

    But now, the iconic Burlington venue that fostered a community of diverse artists has closed its doors, despite negotiations to keep the music going.

    Nectar’s announced it was taking a pause in June, citing “immense challenges affecting both downtown Burlington and the local live music and entertainment scene.” Several weeks later, the venue announced on social media that it was closing for good. The post immediately drew hundreds of comments and tributes from musicians, former employees and fans.

    “As a musician, you want to move up. You get a few fans; you go to a bigger club. That’s what Nectar’s was,” said Chris Farnsworth, who covers Burlington’s music scene for the Vermont newspaper Seven Days.

    Farnsworth noted that the venue — a brick building with a neon sign — “holds a very important place” in Phish lore. The band’s 1992 record was titled “A Picture of Nectar” as a tribute to the venue and to Rorris, who gave the fledgling band a residency for nearly two years.

    “The guys from Phish were very good to us,” said Alex Budney, who started at Nectar’s in 2001 as a cook when he was 19, making their famous gravy fries and later working almost every job in the building over 20 years.

    “My college band would play there on Monday nights and it would be like nobody there. But the keyboard player from Phish would come down in a snowstorm and sit at the bar and watch us play and talk to us,” Budney said.

    Phish bassist Mike Gordon, who still lives in the area, even popped in during singer-songwriter Maggie Rose’s sound check last September and joined her band for two songs that night. Rose had rerouted her tour just to be able to play at Nectar’s.

    “It was the perfect excuse to go to this legendary venue in this amazing, creative, artistic town,” said Rose. “The lore of Nectar’s did not disappoint. It truly was just one of those surreal moments.”

    Phish declined to comment on the venue’s closing, as did the current owner.

    Rorris opened Nectar’s in 1975 with two partners.

    “They borrowed money from their parents. I did the same and we closed the deal,” he said.

    In the beginning, Rorris focused solely on the restaurant, leaving the music booking and finances to his partners. Eventually, his partners wanted to move on, so the three sold the business to a new owner who only lasted six months. Rorris decided to buy the business back and ran it by himself until 2003, when he decided to sell for personal reasons.

    “The bands were real thrilled to see that I was taking it back and that I was going to hire them back,” he said. “From then, it took off.”

    Though Phish made Nectar’s famous, the venue also hosted such artists as Vermont’s own Grace Potter and Anais Mitchell, B.B. King, Spacehog, Blind Melon and the Decemberists. And it was known for regular music series including Metal Mondays; Dead Set Tuesdays — a tribute to The Grateful Dead; blues, jazz and reggae nights; comedy shows and Sunday Night Mass, a production showcasing electronic artists from around the world.

    Nectar’s ownership and management changed repeatedly, but it remained a place to discover new music. Budney said Nectar’s supported emerging artists with residency opportunities to play weekly for a month or more and build a fan base.

    “We’d provide tools for bands to make it,” he said.

    The venue itself ultimately couldn’t make it as costs rose and construction in downtown Burlington reduced foot traffic and turned away business. It’s unclear what will happen to it next.

    But those who played a role in the club’s history say its legacy is undeniable.

    “Fifty years is an amazing run for a nightclub,” said Justin Remillard, who booked artists for Nectar’s electronic music series for 25 years. “The only constant is change, and what has happened with Nectar’s and the building closing, we have to figure out what’s next.”

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

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

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

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

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

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


    Rushing to approve projects

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


    Aging plants and optimism

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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  • Israel’s Army Says It Will Advance Preparations for the First Phase of Trump’s Plan

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    TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Israel’s army said Saturday that it would advance preparations for the first phase of U.S. President Donald Trump’s plan to end the war in Gaza and return all the remaining hostages, after Hamas said it accepted parts of the deal while others still needed to be negotiated.

    The army said it was instructed by Israel’s leaders to “advance readiness” for the implementation of the plan. An official who was not authorized to speak to the media on the record said that Israel has moved to a defensive-only position in Gaza and will not actively strike. The official said no forces have been removed from the strip.

    This announcement came hours after Trump ordered Israel to stop bombing Gaza once Hamas said it had accepted some elements of his plan. Trump welcomed the Hamas statement, saying: “I believe they are ready for a lasting PEACE.”

    Trump appears keen to deliver on pledges to end the war and return dozens of hostages ahead of the second anniversary of the attack on Tuesday. His proposal unveiled earlier this week has widespread international support and was also endorsed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

    On Friday, Netanyahu’s office said Israel was committed to ending the war that began when Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, without addressing potential gaps with the militant group. Netanyahu has come under increasing pressure from the international community and Trump to end the conflict. The official told the AP that Netanyahu put out the rare late-night statement on the sabbath saying that Israel has started to prepare for Trump’s plan due to pressure from the U.S. administration.

    The official also said that a negotiating team was getting ready to travel, but there was no date specified.

    A senior Egyptian official says talks are underway for the release of hostages, as well as hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli detention. The official, who is involved in the ceasefire negotiations, also said Arab mediators are preparing for a comprehensive dialogue among Palestinians. The talks are aimed at unifying the Palestinian position towards Gaza’s future.

    On Saturday, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the second most powerful militant group in Gaza, said it accepted Hamas’ response to the Trump plan. The group had previously rejected the proposal days earlier.


    Progress, but uncertainty ahead

    Yet, despite the momentum, a lot of questions remain.

    Under the plan, Hamas would release the remaining 48 hostages — around 20 of them believed to be alive — within three days. It would also give up power and disarm.

    In return, Israel would halt its offensive and withdraw from much of the territory, release hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and allow an influx of humanitarian aid and eventual reconstruction.

    Hamas said it was willing to release the hostages and hand over power to other Palestinians, but that other aspects of the plan require further consultations among Palestinians. Its official statement also didn’t address the issue of Hamas demilitarizing, a key part of the deal.

    Amir Avivi, a retired Israeli general and chairman of Israel’s Defense and Security Forum, said while Israel can afford to stop firing for a few days in Gaza so the hostages can be released, it will resume its offensive if Hamas doesn’t lay down its arms.

    Others say that while Hamas suggests a willingness to negotiate, its position fundamentally remains unchanged.

    This “yes, but” rhetoric “simply repackages old demands in softer language,” said Oded Ailam, a researcher at the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs. The gap between appearance and action is as wide as ever and the rhetorical shift serves more as a smokescreen than a signal of true movement toward resolution, he said.


    Unclear what it means for Palestinians suffering in Gaza

    The next steps are also unclear for Palestinians in Gaza who are trying to piece together what it means in practical terms.

    Israeli troops are still laying siege to Gaza City, which is the focus of its latest offensive. On Saturday Israel’s army warned Palestinians against trying to return to the city calling it a “dangerous combat zone”.

    Experts determined that Gaza City had slid into famine shortly before Israel launched its major offensive there aimed at occupying it. An estimated 400,000 people have fled the city in recent weeks, but hundreds of thousands more have stayed behind.

    Families of the hostages are also cautious about being hopeful.

    There are concerns from all sides, said Yehuda Cohen, whose son Nimrod is held in Gaza. Hamas and Netanyahu could sabotage the deal or Trump could lose interest, he said. Still, he says, if it’s going to happen it will be because of Trump.

    “We’re putting our trust in Trump, because he’s the only one who’s doing it. … And we want to see him with us until the last step,” he said.

    Magdy reported from Cairo

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  • Japan’s First Female Governing-Party Leader Is an Ultra-Conservative Star in a Male-Dominated Group

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    TOKYO (AP) — In a country that ranks poorly internationally for gender equality, the new president of Japan’s long-governing Liberal Democrats, and likely next prime minister, is an ultra-conservative star of a male-dominated party that critics call an obstacle to women’s advancement.

    Takaichi is the first female president of Japan’s predominantly male ruling party that has dominated Japan’s postwar politics almost without interruption.

    First elected to parliament from her hometown of Nara in 1993, she has served in key party and government posts, including minister of economic security, internal affairs and gender equality.

    Female lawmakers in the conservative Liberal Democratic Party who were given limited ministerial posts have often been shunned as soon as they spoke up about diversity and gender equality. Takaichi has stuck with old-fashioned views favored by male party heavyweights.

    Women comprise only about 15% of Japan’s lower house, the more powerful of the two parliamentary chambers. Only two of Japan’s 47 prefectural governors are women.

    A drummer in a heavy-metal band and a motorbike rider as a student, Takaichi has called for a stronger military, more fiscal spending for growth, promotion of nuclear fusion, cybersecurity and tougher policies on immigration.

    She vowed to drastically increase female ministers in her government. But experts say she might actually set back women’s advancement because as leader she would have to show loyalty to influential male heavyweights. If not she risks a short-lived leadership.

    Takaichi has backed the LDP policy of having women serve in their traditional roles of being good mothers and wives. But she also recently acknowledged her struggles with menopausal symptoms and stressed the need to educate men about female health to help women at school and work.

    Takaichi supports the imperial family’s male-only succession, opposes same-sex marriage and a revision to the 19th century civil law that would allow separate surnames for married couples so that women don’t get pressured into abandoning theirs.

    She is a wartime history revisionist and China hawk. She regularly visits Yasukuni Shrine, which Japan’s neighbors consider a symbol of militarism, though she has declined to say what she would do as prime minister.

    Political watchers say her revisionist views of Japan’s wartime history may complicate ties with Beijing and Seoul.

    Her hawkish stance is also a worry for the LDP’s longtime partnership with Komeito, a Buddhist-backed moderate party. While she has said the current coalition is crucial for her party, she says she is open to working with far-right groups.

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  • Hungary Clings to Russian Oil and Gas as EU and NATO Push to Cut Supplies

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    BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — As the European Union pushes to fully sever its reliance on Russian energy and the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump urges NATO members to abandon Russian oil, one country’s populist government stands firm.

    Hungary and its leader, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, have long argued Russian energy imports are indispensable for the country’s economy and switching to fossil fuels sourced from elsewhere would cause an immediate economic collapse.

    Orbán, who has long had the friendliest ties to the Kremlin of any EU leader, has vigorously opposed the bloc’s efforts to sanction Moscow after its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and blasted attempts to hit Russia’s energy revenues that help finance the war.

    As the rest of Europe has weaned off Russian energy, Hungary has maintained, and even increased, its Russian imports, insisting no viable alternative exists.

    But some energy experts — as well as Orbán’s critics, who see his commitment to Russian energy as a symptom of his affinity for President Vladimir Putin — say the Hungarian leader’s position is more about politics than pipelines.


    Orbán warns economy would be ‘on its knees’

    Hungary’s leaders argue its landlocked geography in the heart of Central Europe make it dependent on Russian fossil fuels delivered by pipelines built while Hungary was under Soviet dominance.

    With no alternative sources and infrastructure to bring oil and gas to Hungary, officials say, the country’s economy would cease to function without Russian supplies.

    “If Hungary is cut off from Russian oil and natural gas, then immediately, within a minute, Hungarian economic performance will drop by 4%,” Orbán told state radio in September. “This would be catastrophic, the Hungarian economy would be on its knees.”

    But László Miklós, a chemical engineer and energy industry analyst, told The Associated Press there was “no rational explanation” for Orbán’s government’s reluctance to seek alternative fuel sources and ample infrastructure is already in place to supply Hungary with affordable, non-Russian oil and gas.

    “Disconnection from Russian energy in an integrated European market should not be a problem, all conditions are there. It’s the intention that is missing,” Miklós said.


    Cutting off Russian imports

    Yet as the EU sought to deprive Putin of revenue that helps fuel the war, it also granted a temporary exemption for supplies delivered by pipeline to three landlocked countries: the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia.

    That carve out, Miklós said, has allowed the Hungarian government and the national oil and gas conglomerate MOL to take in major windfall profits and deliver billions of dollars to Russia’s budget.

    “People think that Hungary purchases Russian energy for economic benefit. This is wrong,” said Miklós, who previously served as MOL’s director of corporate relations. “Hungary buys Russian energy because the Hungarian government wants to help Russia arm itself … MOL and the Hungarian government’s significant profits are a side effect of that.”


    Transitioning to a western route

    The EU’s push to cut Russia off from energy revenues has sparked fury from Hungary’s leaders, who portray the steps as misguided and ideologically motivated.

    “It is quite astonishing that the leaders of European countries … are unable to see that each country’s geographical location determines where it can purchase energy sources,” Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said in a September social media post. “We can dream about buying gas and oil from places that are not connected by pipelines, but we cannot heat our homes, boil water or run factories with dreams.”

    Despite insistence that a lack of infrastructure precludes a transition to non-Russian energy sources, other countries in the region, similarly landlocked, have brought Russian oil first to a trickle, then to a stop.

    Earlier this year, leaders of the Czech Republic, which previously received about half its oil from Russia via the Druzhba pipeline, celebrated the country’s “oil independence day” after doubling the capacity of an Italian pipeline, the last infrastructural development necessary to end Russian oil imports.

    Hungary, which currently receives the vast majority of its crude from Russia via the Druzhba pipeline, already has a second pipeline in place: the Adria, which runs from Croatia’s Adriatic Sea.

    MOL says it requires around 14 million tons (12.7 million metric tons) of crude per year, but recent tests on the Adria pipeline showed it is incapable of reliably delivering such a quantity.

    The Croatian oil transport company Janaf disputes that claim, saying it is prepared to cover both Hungary and neighboring Slovakia’s total annual demands for crude oil.

    Miklós said even if Adria were incapable of providing for all of Hungary’s oil needs, it can still play a major role in decreasing imports from Russia.

    “It is possible to bring oil from elsewhere, the Adria pipeline has been available for several decades,” he said. “If what they say is true and they need 14 to 15 million tons (per year), it would still be logical to take 10 million tons from the Adria and bring the rest on Druzhba.”


    The cost of finding alternatives

    Hungary’s government has portrayed EU efforts to cease Russian energy imports as an existential threat to a popular, government-backed household utility reduction program. In May, Orbán claimed in a video that household electricity bills would double and gas bills would nearly triple if Russian supplies were eliminated.

    Yet according to Borbála Takácsné Tóth, a gas industry research analyst, the price Hungary pays for Russian gas is based on European benchmark prices and is not substantially cheaper than what other countries pay for non-Russian gas.

    Tóth, who works at the Regional Centre for Energy Policy Research, an independent institute affiliated with Corvinus University of Budapest, said her group’s modeling shows breaking with Russian gas would likely cause “a temporary increase of 1.5 to 2 euros per megawatt hour,” a price hike she called “minimal, below 5%.”

    Despite the rhetorical commitment to Russian energy from Hungary’s politicians, national energy company MOL has undertaken investments in recent years to diversify its supplies and outfit its refineries in Hungary and Slovakia to process non-Russian crude.

    The company said in an email that due to a multiyear, $500 million investment, “we will be (in) a much better position to have a more diverse crude oil sourcing capability” by the end of 2026.

    Miklós said that despite the Hungarian government’s determination to continue purchasing Russian energy, EU regulations will soon bring that to an end.

    “Things will clearly never be the same again, because the European Union has learned that, to put it simply, Russia cannot be trusted,” he said. “It is a matter of political will to break away from Russian energy sources. There is a small price to pay for this, which every other European country is paying.”

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

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  • New Mexico Governor Signs Bills to Counter Federal Cuts, Support Health Care and Food Assistance

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    SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham signed a package of bills Friday aimed at shoring up food assistance, rural health care and public broadcasting in response to recently enacted federal cuts.

    The new legislation responds to President Donald Trump’s big bill as well as fear that health insurance rates will rise with the expiration of COVID-era subsidies to the Affordable Care Act exchange in New Mexico. Exchange subsidies are a major point of contention in the Washington budget standoff and related federal government shutdown.

    New Mexico would set aside $17 million to backfill the federal credits if they are not renewed, under legislation signed by the governor.

    The Democratic-led Legislature met on Wednesday and Thursday to approved $162 million in state spending on rural health care, food assistance, restocking food banks, public broadcast and more.

    Starting this year, New Mexico expects to lose about $200 million annually because of new federal tax cuts. But the state still has a large budget surplus thanks to booming oil production.

    “When federal support falls short, New Mexico steps up,” Lujan Grisham said in a statement.

    Many federal health care changes under Trump’s big bill don’t kick in until 2027 or later, and Democratic legislators in New Mexico acknowledged that their bills are only a temporary bandage.

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

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  • Embattled Figure in Native American Politics Resigns as Chairman of Pueblo Governors Coalition

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    SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — An embattled figure in Native American politics has resigned as chairman of the All Pueblo Council of Governors and ended his outside consulting work for the state of New Mexico days after he was arrested on suspicion of driving while intoxicated.

    Records obtained by The Associated Press show James Mountain submitted his resignation letter Tuesday to the council, a prominent advocacy group for 19 Native American communities in New Mexico and another in Texas. He noted it was effective immediately.

    Also on Tuesday, Mountain terminated his work as a contract adviser to the state Indian Affairs Department, said Jodi McGinnis Porter, a spokesperson for New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham.

    Pojoaque Pueblo police arrested Mountain a week ago on suspicion of driving while intoxicated at a tribal casino. He was held over the weekend at a Santa Fe County jail after declining a field sobriety test, according to an online booking log and the Pojoaque Pueblo Tribal Court.

    The Associated Press left email and phone messages for Mountain on Friday seeking comment. The AP also left messages with the All Pueblo Council of Governors. The council’s website still listed Mountain as chairman Friday.

    It was unclear Friday whether Mountain has been formally charged, though the Pojoaque Pueblo court says an arraignment has been scheduled next week. The AP submitted a request for detailed judicial records to the court for a judge to consider.

    Mountain’s 2023 appointment as cabinet secretary to the New Mexico Department of Indian Affairs under Lujan Grisham angered Native American advocates who work to address violence and missing persons cases within their communities.

    They pointed to past sexual assault charges against Mountain, while Lujan Grisham’s office emphasized that charges against Mountain were dismissed in 2010 after prosecutors said they didn’t have enough evidence to go to trial — and urged those raising concerns about his past to “respect the judicial process.”

    Lujan Grisham also had highlighted Mountain’s leadership at San Ildefonso Pueblo as the tribe’s governor, and his expertise in state and tribal relations. But the state Senate confirmation process for Mountain stalled, and he left the cabinet post after serving less than a year to work as Lujan Grisham’s senior policy adviser for tribal affairs.

    Mountain left direct state government employment at the end of March, but he settled into similar role as a contract adviser — until Tuesday’s contract termination, McGinnis Porter said.

    Mountain served as governor at San Ildefonso Pueblo from 2006 to 2007 and again from 2015 to 2017. He oversaw the completion of the Aamodt Water Settlement, concerning the pueblo’s water rights, and the Indian Land Claims Settlement in 2006. He also ran his own state-tribal affairs consulting firm in recent years.

    Associated Press writer Susan Montoya Bryan in Albuquerque, New Mexico, contributed to this report.

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

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  • A Black Champion Boxer Was Held by Police at Gunpoint. the Police Chief Says He Gets the Outrage

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    OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The police chief of Nebraska’s largest city acknowledged Friday that police nationwide are more likely to pull Black people out of their cars at gunpoint than other racial groups as Omaha grapples with growing outrage over champion boxer Terence “Bud” Crawford being ordered out of his car at gunpoint only hours after the city held a downtown celebration in his honor.

    “Quite frankly, that is generally a true statement. The number of stops are disproportionate. That is nationwide,” Police Chief Tobb Schmaderer said at a news conference to address an internal investigation into Crawford’s traffic stop.

    The police confrontation with Crawford, who is Black, has reignited long-simmering tensions between Omaha’s Black community and its police force. Omaha Sen. Terrell McKinney, one of three Black state lawmakers in the Nebraska Legislature and a vocal critic of Omaha police and the state’s justice system, said he was disappointed — but not surprised — by the police stop.

    “I urge the people to keep speaking out and demanding real change boldly and unapologetically,” McKinney said in a Facebook post earlier this week. “Our lives are at risk, and we have endured oppression for far too long.”

    According to a U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics’ special report released in 2022, Black and Hispanic people were more likely than white people to experience the threat or use of force by police in 2020. Black people were also more likely to be shouted at by police than white people.


    Police chief long an advocate for community policing

    Schmaderer has long been an advocate of community policing that aims to build trust between officers and the public they patrol. He said Friday that he understands there is a lot of anger in the community over the treatment of Crawford — a favorite son of Omaha after making history by becoming the first male boxer to capture three unified division titles.

    “We understand the importance of this traffic stop to our community, and the implications and the impression it has given out,” he said.

    But he said a nearly completed internal investigation into the traffic stop shows the officers involved did not violate department policy.

    According to their reports, the officers spotted a high-performance sedan without license plates pull out of a downtown parking garage around 1:30 a.m. Sunday and quickly accelerate to more than twice the 25 mph (40 kph) speed limit. The officers did not know Crawford was driving the car, Schmaderer said, before they pulled it over. Two officers approached it — one on the passenger side and another on the driver’s side.

    Schmaderer said the initial interaction was cordial, which he assessed through body camera footage. Crawford, who was driving, told the officer at his window that the car was new and “had gotten away from him.”

    At that point, a member of Crawford’s security team who was in the passenger seat told the officer at his window that he was carrying a legal handgun, Schmaderer said. Crawford, who was leaning over the car’s console, told that officer he also had a legal firearm, but the officer at the driver’s side window didn’t hear that exchange, Schmaderer said.

    That is when the officer on the driver’s side spotted Crawford’s gun on the floorboard by his feet, pulled his service weapon and ordered Crawford and three other people out. Schmaderer said Crawford and the others were handcuffed for about 10 minutes. Police confirmed all occupants of the vehicle were legally permitted to carry firearms and let them go after about 30 minutes, ticketing Crawford on suspicion of reckless driving.

    Crawford’s spokesperson said Friday that the boxer had no comment.


    Video of incident won’t be released, chief says

    Schmaderer said he will not be sharing police video of the stop unless Crawford agrees to it.

    “We don’t have a fatality here. We don’t have an officer-involved shooting, and it’s generally not our protocol to release that footage under those circumstances,” he said.

    Crawford’s stop by police came after the city held a parade through downtown streets in Crawford’s honor, followed by a party to celebrate his 38th birthday at a live music venue near where the stop occurred.

    Associated Press Race And Ethnicity News Editor Aaron Morrison contributed to this report from New York.

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

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  • A Hurricane Sank a Spanish Fleet in 1715. This Summer, Salvagers Found $1M in Coins

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    A team of excavators has uncovered a load of long-lost Spanish coins buried for centuries under the surf and sand along a stretch of Florida known as the “Treasure Coast.”

    This week, shipwreck salvage company 1715 Fleet – Queens Jewels LLC announced that its divers had found more than 1,000 silver and gold coins thought to be minted centuries ago in the Spanish colonies of Bolivia, Mexico and Peru. They estimate the coins are worth $1 million.

    Over the years, millions of dollars in coins have been found — and stolen — by salvagers in a stretch of Atlantic coast from Melbourne to Fort Pierce.

    Ultimately, the recent finds from this summer’s salvage season will be split between the salvage company, its subcontractors and the state of Florida, as required by state law.

    Here’s what to know about Florida’s tradition of state-sanctioned treasure hunting.


    A hurricane sunk the 1715 Fleet

    The 1715 Fleet was a convoy of Spanish ships laden with silver, gold and jewels taken from the New World. The flotilla was sailing back to Spain when a hurricane struck it on July 31, 1715, spilling the treasures into the sea.

    The Spanish recovered some of the gold and silver coins, but many of the doomed fleet’s treasures were considered lost to the ages.

    For generations, divers have combed the “Treasure Coast,” looking for the gold bars and pieces of eight lost beneath the waves. Over the years, the site has yielded a trove of, well, treasure and has helped sustain a local industry of professional treasure hunters.


    The treasure actually belongs to Florida

    Under Florida law, any “treasure trove” or archaeological artifacts that have been “abandoned” on state-owned lands or in state waters belong to the state. But the state can issue permits to qualified individuals or companies for the survey and recovery of offshore cultural resources.

    The salvagers get to walk away with most of the artifacts, following negotiations with state officials.

    State law requires that up to roughly 20% of the recovered archaeological materials be retained by the state for research collections or public display. The other 80% can be split among the salvagers.


    Each coin will be cleaned and documented

    The company 1715 Fleet – Queens Jewels LLC was awarded the exclusive salvage rights for the 1715 Fleet shipwrecks by a federal court, which oversees its finds and distributions each year.

    Sal Guttuso, the company’s operations director, says staff make a detailed inventory of the finds before starting the conservation process in the company’s archaeological lab, in which small batches of the coins are placed in a reverse electrolysis tank. That’s a process of running a current of electricity through the water solution to gently remove salt, metal oxides and marine growth that may have encrusted the coins over the centuries.

    Then, staffers will use magnification and high resolution photography to document the nuances of each coin, including any markings showing the date, monarch and minter associated with it, along with the weight and location where it was found. Those metrics are used to assess the coins on a point-based grade system.

    State officials then review the detailed inventory and request which artifacts they want to keep for the public, once a federal judge signs off.


    Not just anyone can go treasure hunting in Florida

    It’s against Florida law to disturb or dig publicly-owned sites without permission from the Florida Division of Historical Resources, and violations can warrant felony charges. Florida officials can issue an exploration or recovery permit to applicants that have met “stringent archaeological requirements.”

    The state does encourage residents and visitors to explore Florida’s many underwater archaeological preserves, and to help identify, record and report underwater sites — just not disturb them.

    “A shipwreck’s true ‘treasure’ is derived through public participation and interpretation,” reads an explainer on the Division of Historical Resources’ website.


    Does anyone make money doing this?

    Guttuso says running the shipwreck salvaging company is a part-time job for him. And the subcontractors who dive the site treat it as a summer job while working as a mechanic or property manager during the offseason, he said.

    Some of the divers use one season’s finds to finance next season’s hunt, Guttuso said. Others keep the coins for private collections.

    But there are some years when the hunters see a major payout, he said. In 2015, the company’s divers found more than 350 gold coins, the most precious of which sold for $250,000 a piece.

    ___ Kate Payne is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

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

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