LOS ANGELES (AP) — California tenants who held Section 8 housing vouchers were refused rental contracts by more than 200 landlords, including major real estate firms, according to an undercover investigation that found widespread discrimination in the state.
The investigative nonprofit Housing Rights Initiative announced Tuesday that it has filed complaints with the California Civil Rights Department, alleging landlords violated a state law against denying leases to renters who pay with vouchers. It seeks penalties against 203 companies and individuals.
The nonprofit is also pushing for more state funding to adequately enforce the law, which Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom signed in 2019.
“This historic filing serves as an opportunity for the Governor and his housing enforcement agency to enforce the very bill he signed into law and hold violators accountable,” the Housing Rights Initiative said in a statement.
Newsom’s office referred comment on the filing to the state Civil Rights Department. Rishi Khalsa, a department spokesperson, said the agency is “deeply committed to using the tools at its disposal to combat discrimination in housing.” The department has reached more than 200 settlements related to similar discrimination in recent years, Khalsa said.
“We always welcome additional support to strengthen enforcement of civil rights and we continue to work with a range of partners in those efforts,” he said in an email Tuesday.
The goal of the Section 8 program, named for a component of the federal Housing Act, is to keep rental properties affordable and prevent homelessness, which has reached crisis levels in California. Under the program, which has a long waiting list, tenants typically pay about 30% of their income on rent, with the voucher covering the rest.
Over the course of a year, undercover investigators posing as prospective tenants reached out via text messages to landlords, property managers and real estate agents to determine compliance with California’s fair housing laws. The investigation found voucher holders were explicitly discriminated against 44% of the time in San Francisco. Voucher denials took place in 53% of cases in Oakland, 58% in San Jose, and 70% in Los Angeles.
In one text message exchange, an agent with EXP Realty, a national brokerage firm, tells an investigator posing as a prospective tenant that utilities are included in the monthly rate for a rental unit. When informed that the tenant has a Section 8 voucher, the agent responds, “I don’t work with that program,” according to the investigation.
In another exchange, a broker with Sotheby’s International Realty replies to an investigator posing as a hopeful renter, “Oh sorry, owner not accepting Section 8.”
Representatives for EXP and Sotheby’s didn’t immediately respond Tuesday to emails seeking comment on the claims.
Kate Liggett, program director of Housing Rights Initiative, estimates the filing represents just a fraction of discrimination against Section 8 tenants in California.
“By exposing this widespread and harmful practice, we call on the State to provide agencies like the California Civil Rights Department with the resources they need to eradicate voucher discrimination once and for all,” Liggett said in a statement.
NUTLEY, N.J. (AP) — Democratic Rep. Andy Kim and Republican Curtis Bashaw clashed over abortion and immigration Sunday in their first debate for New Jersey’s Senate seat, open this year after Bob Menendez’s conviction on bribery charges and resignation.
Kim, a three-term representative from the 3rd District, hammered Bashaw for his support of former President Donald Trump and expressed skepticism about Bashaw’s position as an abortion rights supporter. Bashaw, a hotel developer from southern New Jersey and first-time candidate, sought to cast himself as a moderate and Kim as a Washington insider.
The debate was briefly derailed at the start when Bashaw stopped speaking mid-sentence and stared ahead, nonresponsive. He was helped from the stage and left the room for roughly 10 minutes.
“I got so worked up about this affordability issue that I realized I hadn’t eaten so much food today,” Bashaw said when he returned. “So I appreciate your indulgence.”
Among the most pointed exchanges was over abortion. Both candidates support abortion rights, but Bashaw has said he supported the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision that ended Roe v. Wade. New Jersey has enshrined abortion protections in state law.
“I just fundamentally have a problem with using the term ‘pro-choice’ to describe yourself when you have talked about the important of the Dobbs decision being correctly decided,” Kim said.
He also hammered Bashaw for his support of Trump, who has twice lost New Jersey’s electoral votes.
“The one endorsement that he has made is for Donald Trump to be president of the United States,” Kim said. “And I guess we get a sense of his judgment from that.”
Bashaw, who defeated a Trump-endorsed rival in the primary, didn’t defend the former president explicitly.
“Elections are binary choices, and we all have to make a decision,” he said.
He touted his own candidacy based on his credentials as a businessperson and resisted being typecast as a traditional Republican, pointing out that he backs abortion rights and is a married gay man.
“I am pro-choice, congressman. I am for freedom in the home,” Bashaw said. “I don’t think government should tell me who I can marry. I don’t think it should tell a woman what she can do with her reproductive health choices.”
Bashaw hammered on immigration repeatedly throughout, saying it’s “a crisis in New Jersey” and is costing the state.
In a reflection of how Democratic-leaning New Jersey has been in Senate races, which Republicans haven’t won in more than five decades, Bashaw addressed his closing statements to women and moms of New Jersey.
“I am a moderate, common-sense person that will work to be a voice for New Jersey,” he said.
Kim declared his candidacy a day after Menendez’s indictment last year, saying it was time for the state to turn the page on the longtime legislator. It looked as if the Democratic primary in a must-win state for the party would be contentious when first lady Tammy Murphy entered the race, winning support from influential party leaders.
But Kim challenged the state’s unique ballot-drawing system widely viewed as favoring the candidates backed by party leaders. A federal judge sided with Kim in his legal challenge, putting the system on hold for this election. Murphy dropped out of the race, saying she wanted to avoid a divisive primary, leaving a clear path to Kim’s nomination.
What to know about the 2024 Election
Kim first won office to the House in 2018, defeating Republican Rep. Tom MacArthur. He got national attention after the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection when he was photographed picking up trash in the building.
Bashaw won a contested primary in June, defeating a Trump-backed opponent. The hotel developer from Cape May is running for office for the first time.
Menendez was convicted this summer on federal charges of accepting bribes of gold and cash from three New Jersey businesspeople and acting as an agent for the Egyptian government. He has vowed to appeal the conviction.
He resigned in August, capping a career in politics that spanned roughly five decades. Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy appointed George Helmy as interim senator. Helmy said he’ll resign after the election is certified so Murphy can appoint whoever wins the election to the seat for the remainder of Menendez’s term, which expires in January.
Putting grant money into action is routine for Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, but an effort to provide weather alerts to people who are deaf or hard of hearing is tugging at his heart.
The grant-backed campaign to distribute 700 specially adapted weather alert radios to the deaf and hard of hearing is named in honor of his friend Virginia Moore, who died last year. She was the governor’s sidekick as the sign language interpreter for his briefings during the height of COVID-19. The updates became a staple for Kentuckians, and Moore gained celebrity status. She even got her own bobblehead of her likeness.
Beshear tapped the bobblehead displayed on his podium as he announced the “Moore Safe Nights” program, which will distribute the radios at no cost to eligible Kentuckians who apply. It is an effort to ensure all Kentuckians have equal access to information that can keep them safe, he said Thursday.
“I think Virginia would have loved this program,” Beshear said, his voice shaking with emotion. “Virginia has a legacy for service that is living on with new programs.”
The weather radios were purchased with funding from an emergency preparedness grant and other funds, Beshear said. The state will seek additional funds with a goal of eventually providing the radios to every Kentuckian who needs one, he said.
The radios are equipped with pillow-shaker and strobe-light attachments to alert people who are deaf and hard of hearing of severe weather warnings issued by the National Weather Service. The radios also have text displays that light up, so they know the type of weather warning issued.
“As Kentuckians know all too well, severe weather can strike at any hour,” Beshear said. “And the most dangerous time is when people are sleeping.”
No matter how vigilant deaf and hard-of-hearing people are in monitoring weather alerts, their vulnerability increases once they fall asleep because they are unable to hear alarms and sirens, said Anita Dowd, executive director of the Kentucky Commission on the Deaf and Hard of Hearing.
“This equipment will allow users to rest easier knowing that they now have access to this important and often life-saving information,” Dowd said.
Kentucky has more than 700,000 deaf and hard-of-hearing residents, the governor said.
Moore, who died at age 61, was known as a tireless champion for the deaf and hard of hearing and served as executive director of the state commission that advocates for them.
On Thursday, Beshear spoke about their bond. At the end of each long day of work during the height of the pandemic, he said, he would see her on his way home to his family at the governor’s mansion.
“She’d look at me and say, ‘I hope you’re OK and take care of yourself,’ ” he recalled. “That’s pretty special. That’s who she was, looking out for everybody else, including me.”
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Eligible Kentuckians can go to https://www.kcdhh.ky.gov/msn/ or call 800-372-2907 or 502-416-0607 to apply for a radio, Radios will be distributed on a first-come, first-served basis.
BOSTON (AP) — A Massachusetts woman accused of operating a high-end brothel network with wealthy and prominent clients in that state and the Washington, D.C., suburbs pleaded guilty in federal court Friday.
Han Lee and two others were indicted earlier this year on one count of conspiracy to persuade, entice, and coerce one or more individuals to travel in interstate or foreign commerce to engage in prostitution and one count of money laundering, according to prosecutors.
James Lee of Torrance, California, and Junmyung Lee of Dedham, Massachusetts, also were indicted.
Han Lee initially had entered a not guilty plea before changing her plea. She remained in custody and faces up to 25 years in prison for the two felonies.
Han Lee, 42, entered court dressed in an orange shirt and orange pants, her black hair tied in the back. She also relied on the help of a Korean translator. Lee said she was not a U.S. citizen and had gone as far as high school in her education.
She was told that by pleading guilty she could be deported from the country.
Scott Lauer, a lawyer for Han Lee, said she would remain in custody after the hearing but declined to comment further. A lawyer for James Lee declined to comment. A lawyer representing Junmyung Lee said his next court appearance has been rescheduled.
Authorities said the commercial sex ring in Massachusetts and northern Virginia catered to politicians, company executives, military officers, lawyers, professors and other well-connected clients.
Prosecutors have not publicly named any of the buyers and they have not been charged. Acting Massachusetts U.S. Attorney Josh Levy has said prosecutors are committed to holding accountable both those who ran the scheme and those who fueled the demand.
Some of the buyers have appealed to the highest court in Massachusetts in a bid to have their names remain private.
At one point through a translator, Han Lee said that she didn’t control the women, but agreed that she had persuaded them to engage in interstate travel to take part in prostitution.
The women who worked in the brothels were not identified or criminally charged and were considered victims, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors said their evidence included witness testimony from women who worked at the brothels, sex buyers who made appointments or received services, physical surveillance and electronic evidence.
Han Lee maintained the operation from 2020 to November 2023. The money made at the brothels was sometimes kept in the freezer to be picked up, prosecutors said. They said she also helped train Junmyung Lee to help vet sex buyers.
The brothel operation used websites that falsely claimed to advertise nude models for professional photography, prosecutors allege. The operators rented high-end apartments to use as brothels in Watertown and Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Tysons and Fairfax, Virginia, prosecutors said. Brothels were maintained at four locations in Massachusetts and two in Virginia.
Han Lee recruited women and maintained the websites and brothels, according to authorities, who said she paid Junmyung Lee, who was one of her employees, between $6,000 and $8,000 in cash per month in exchange for his work booking appointments for the buyers and bringing women to the brothels.
The operators raked in hundreds of thousands of dollars through the network, where men paid from approximately $350 to upwards of $600 per hour depending on the services, according to prosecutors.
Officials say Han Lee concealed more than $1 million in proceeds from the ring by converting the cash into money orders, among other things, to make it look legitimate.
According to court documents, the defendants established house rules for the women during their stays in a given city to protect and maintain the secrecy of the business and ensure the women did not draw attention to the prostitution work inside apartment buildings.
Authorities seized cash, ledgers detailing the activities of the brothels and phones believed to be used to communicate with the sex customers from their apartments, according to court papers.
Each website described a verification process that interested sex buyers undertook to be eligible for appointment bookings, including requiring clients to complete a form providing their full names, email addresses, phone numbers, employers and references if they had one, authorities said.
The defendants also kept local brothel phone numbers to communicate with customers; sent them a “menu” of available options at the brothel, including the women and sexual services available and the hourly rate; and texted customers directions to the brothel’s location, investigators said.
She is next due in court for sentencing on Dec. 20.
NEW YORK (AP) — Caroline Ellison, a former top executive in Sam Bankman-Fried ’s fallen FTX cryptocurrency empire, was sentenced to two years in prison on Tuesday after she apologized to everyone hurt by a fraud that stole billions of dollars from investors, lenders and customers.
Ellison, 29, could have faced a much tougher sentence, but both the judge and prosecutors said she deserved credit for talking extensively with federal investigators, pleading guilty and ultimately testifying against Bankman-Fried for three days at his trial last November.
U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan said Ellison’s cooperation was “very, very substantial” and “remarkable.”
But he said a prison sentence was necessary because she had participated in what might be the “greatest financial fraud ever perpetrated in this country and probably anywhere else” or at least close to it.
Ellison was ordered to report to prison Nov. 7.
FTX was one of the world’s most popular cryptocurrency exchanges, known for its Superbowl TV ad and its extensive lobbying campaign in Washington, before it collapsed in 2022.
U.S. prosecutors accused Bankman-Fried and other top executives of looting customer accounts on the exchange to make risky investments, make millions of dollars of illegal political donations, bribe Chinese officials and buy luxury real estate in the Caribbean.
Ellison was chief executive at Alameda Research, a cryptocurrency hedge fund controlled by Bankman-Fried.
“I’m deeply ashamed with what I’ve done,” she said at the sentencing hearing, fighting through tears to say she was “so so sorry” to everyone she had harmed directly or indirectly.
She did not speak as she left Manhattan federal court, surrounded by lawyers.
In court Tuesday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Danielle Sassoon called for leniency, saying Ellison’s testimony was “devastating and powerful proof” against Bankman-Fried, 32, who was found guilty of fraud and sentenced to 25 years in prison.
Attorney Anjan Sahni asked the judge to spare his client from prison, citing “unusual circumstances,” including her off-and-on romantic relationship with Bankman-Fried and the damage caused when her “whole professional and personal life came to revolve” around him.
Judge Kaplan agreed that Ellison’s willingness to work with prosecutors was extraordinary.
“I’ve seen a lot of cooperators in 30 years here. I’ve never seen one quite like Ms. Ellison,” he said.
But he said that in such a serious case, he could not let cooperation be a get-out-of-jail-free card, even when it was clear that Bankman-Fried had become “your kryptonite.”
Bankman-Fried also testified at the trial, portraying himself to the jury as inexperienced and bumbling but not a criminal. He acknowledged making mistakes, but said he didn’t defraud anyone and wasn’t aware that Alameda Research had amassed billions of dollars in debt.
Sassoon, the prosecutor, described that testimony in court Tuesday as “evasive, even contemptuous.”
As the business began to falter, Ellison divulged the massive fraud to employees who worked for her even before FTX filed for bankruptcy, trial evidence showed.
Ultimately, she also spoke extensively with criminal and civil U.S. investigators.
Sassoon said prosecutors were impressed that Ellison did not “jump into the lifeboat” to escape her crimes but instead spent nearly two years fully cooperating.
Since testifying at Bankman-Fried’s trial, Ellison has engaged in extensive charity work, written a novel and worked with her parents on a math enrichment textbook for advanced high school students, according to her lawyers.
They said she also now has a healthy romantic relationship and has reconnected with high school friends she had lost touch with while she worked for and sometimes dated Bankman-Fried from 2017 until late 2022.
The judge presiding over a defamation lawsuit pitting an electronic voting machine manufacturer targeted by allies of former President Donald Trump against a conservative news outlet that aired accusations of vote manipulation in the 2020 election set several parameters for an impending trial Monday.
Superior Court Judge Eric Davis also told attorneys for Florida-based Smartmatic and cable network Newsmax to narrow their list of potential witnesses ahead of a trial that is set to begin Sept. 26 with jury selection and could last up to four weeks.
Smartmatic claims that Newsmax program hosts and guests made false and defamatory statements in November and December 2020 implying that Smartmatic participated in rigging the results and that its software was used to switch votes.
Newsmax, also based in Florida, argues that it was simply reporting on serious and newsworthy allegations being made by Trump and his supporters, including former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and conservative attorney Sidney Powell.
During a daylong pretrial conference on Monday, Davis considered several motions by each side asking him to limit or prohibit evidence the opposing side sought to present.
The judge, for example, narrowly granted Smartmatic’s motion to limit evidence by Newsmax regarding a federal criminal investigation that led to indictments last month against three current and former Smartmatic executives. The charges involve an alleged scheme to pay more than $1 million in bribes to put Smartmatic voting machines in the Philippines. Newsmax argued that the investigation and indictment should be presented to jurors as alternative reasons for any purported reputational harm or economic loss that Smartmatic blames on Newsmax.
“What government procurement official is going to continue to do business with a company that is under indictment?” asked Newsmax attorney Howard Cooper. Cooper also suggested that Smartmatic’s purported damages were calculated by a small cadre of executives who “pulled numbers from thin air.” Smartmatic initially pegged its damages at $1.7 billion, a number that has since been adjusted to about $370 million, according to statements during Monday’s conference.
The judge denied Smartmatic’s motion to prohibit Newsmax from mentioning evidence regarding Smartmatic witnesses who have invoked their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. Davis said that issue will have to be decided on a “question-to-question” basis at trial.
Davis sided with Smartmatic in ruling that Newsmax could not defend itself by pointing to statements about the 2020 election being published by other media outlets at the time. The judge also said non-expert witness testimony about the scope of the First Amendment would be prohibited.
In a ruling for Newsmax, Davis said he would not allow Smartmatic to bolster its presentation to the jury by suggesting that policy changes made at Newsmax in January 2021 after being notified about the allegedly defamatory statements are evidence of previous wrongdoing. Similarly, evidence regarding attorney disciplinary investigations of Trump allies Powell and Giuliani also may be inadmissible, the judge said.
“I don’t think I’ve see the evidence that Newsmax caused Jan. 6,” Davis added, referring to the storming of the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters in 2021. “It’s only inflammatory.”
As far as Smartmatic trying to prove that Newsmax violated journalism standards or guidelines, Davis said any such testimony would have to come from expert witnesses, unless Smartmatic can show that individual Newsmax officials were presented with guidelines relevant to their specific jobs and chose to ignore them.
The judge also indicated that he will closely scrutinize the alleged defamatory statements published by Newsmax to determine whether some are clearly opinions or speculation, versus factual assertions.
“If it’s just opinion, I may take it away from the jury,” he said. “I have some concerns that they’re not all going to make it through.”
The Delaware lawsuit, which takes issue with Newsmax reports over a five-week period in late 2020, is one of several stemming from reports by conservative news outlets following the election. Smartmatic also is suing Fox News for defamation in New York and recently settled a lawsuit in the District of Columbia against the One America News Network, another conservative outlet.
Dominion Voting Systems similarly filed several defamation lawsuits against those who spread conspiracy theories blaming its election equipment for Trump’s loss. Last year, in a case presided over by Davis, Fox News settled with Dominion for $787 million.
On Monday, Davis granted a motion by Newsmax to exclude any reference to the Dominion-Fox settlement, noting that the motion was not contested by Smartmatic.
NEW YORK (AP) — A mural honoring ancient and modern figures in medicine that has hung in the lobby of Pfizer’s original New York City headquarters for more than 60 years could soon end up in pieces if conservationists can’t find a new home for it in the next few weeks.
“Medical Research Through the Ages,” a massive metal and tile mosaic depicting scientists and lab equipment, has been visible through the high glass-windowed lobby of the pharmaceutical giant’s midtown Manhattan office since the 1960s.
But the building is being gutted and converted into residential apartments, and the new owners have given the mural a move-out date of as soon as Sept. 10.
Art conservationists and the late artist’s daughters are now scrambling to find a patron who is able to cover the tens of thousands of dollars they estimate it will take to move and remount it, as well as an institution that can display it.
“I would ideally like to see it as part of an educational future, whether it’s on a hospital campus as part of a school or a college. Or part of a larger public art program for the citizens of New York City,” said art historian and urban planner Andrew Cronson, one of the people trying to find a new home for the piece.
The 40-foot-wide and 18-foot-high (12 meters by 5.5 meters) mural by Greek American artist Nikos Bel-Jon was the main showpiece of Pfizer’s world headquarters when the building opened a few blocks from Grand Central Terminal in 1961, at a time when flashy buildings and grand corporate art projects were a symbol of business success. He died in 1966, leaving behind dozens of large brushed-metal works commissioned by companies and private institutions, many of which have now been lost or destroyed.
In recent years, Pfizer sold the building — and last year moved its headquarters to a shared office space in a newer property. The company said in an emailed statement that it decided the money needed to deconstruct, relocate and reinstall the mural elsewhere would be better spent on “patient-related priorities.”
The developer now turning the building into apartments, Metro Loft, doesn’t want to keep the artwork either, though it has been working with those trying to save the piece with help like letting art appraisers in. The company declined to comment further, but Jack Berman, its director of operations, confirmed in an email that it needs to get the mural out.
Bel-Jon’s youngest daughter, Rhea Bel-Jon Calkins, said they’ve gotten some interest from universities who could take the piece, and a Greek cultural organization that could help fundraise for the move. But the removal alone could cost between $20,00 and $50,000, according to estimates cited by Cronson.
If they can’t immediately find a taker, the mural won’t end up in landfill, Bel-Jon Calkins said. But it would have to be broken up into pieces — nine metal sections and eight mosaic sections — and moved into storage, likely with some of her relatives.
Time is ticking away. Workers gutting the building have been carrying out ripped-up carpeting, drab office chairs and piles of scrap wood and loading them into garbage trucks.
For the past few decades, the artwork’s metal — brushed tin and aluminum panels in the shape of laboratory beakers, funnels and flasks, surrounded by symbols, alchemists and scientists — has been a dull gray and white. But Bel-Jon Calkins remembers its original, multicolored lighting scheme.
“As you moved, the color moved with you and changed. So there was a constant dynamic to the mural that no one really has ever been able to achieve,” she said.
Richard McCoy, director of the Indiana nonprofit Landmark Columbus Foundation, which cares for local buildings and landscapes, said the piece might lack commercial value, describing Bel-Jon as “extraordinary, but not super well-known.”
“But then you realize 20 or 30 years from then how great it was,” he said, adding that it might merit preservation for its historical value.
Bel-Jon Calkins tracks her father’s 42 large-scale metal murals in a spreadsheet and on the artist’s website. She said only about a dozen are confirmed to exist.
A 12-foot (3.6-meter) metal mosaic depicting saints and commissioned by a Greek Orthodox church in San Francisco was destroyed in the Loma Prieta earthquake of 1989. General Motors commissioned a hubcap-shaped metal mural that was larger than a car for a trade show, but she confirmed it was later melted down into scrap.
“It’s the corporations that have lost them,” she said in a phone conversation from her home in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. “They valued them enough to commission them but not enough to preserve them.”
HONOLULU (AP) — Hawaii can enforce a law banning firearms on its world-famous beaches, a U.S. appeals court panel ruled Friday.
Three Maui residents sued to block a 2023 state law prohibiting carrying a firearm on the sand and in other places deemed sensitive, including banks, bars and restaurants that serve alcohol. They argued that Hawaii went too far with its wide-ranging ban.
A U.S. district court judge in Honolulu granted a preliminary injunction against the rule last year and Hawaii appealed. On Friday, a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals published an opinion reversing the lower court ruling on beaches, parks, bars and restaurants that serve alcohol. The panel affirmed the ruling for banks and certain parking lots.
“The record supports the conclusion that modern-day beaches in Hawaii, particularly in urban or resort areas, often resemble modern-day parks,” more so than beaches at the founding of the nation, the unanimous ruling said.
Hawaii, which has long had some of the nation’s toughest firearm restrictions and lowest rates of gun violence, has been wrestling with how to square its gun laws with a 2022 U.S. Supreme Court ruling expanding the right to bear arms. The high court found that people have a constitutional right to carry weapons in public and that measures to restrict that right must be consistent with the nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation.
“I’m disappointed that the 9th Circuit did not look at our … challenge to rural parks and beaches,” which can be dangerous and require people to protect themselves, said Alan Beck, an attorney representing the Maui residents and the Hawaii Firearms Coalition. He plans to ask for a review by a fuller panel of judges, he said.
The Hawaii attorney general’s office issued a statement noting that the 9th Circuit also upheld a rule prohibiting the carrying of firearms on private property owned by another without their consent.
“This is a significant decision recognizing that the state’s public safety measures are consistent with our nation’s historical tradition,” Hawaii Solicitor General Kalikoʻonālani Fernandes said in the statement.
The ruling also applies to a similar challenge to a California ban on carrying guns in certain public places, upholding an injunction on enforcing restrictions on firearms at hospitals, similar medical facilities, public transit, gatherings that require a permit, places of worship, financial institutions, parking areas and similar areas connected to those places.
As in Hawaii, the ruling allows California to enforce bans in bars and restaurants that serve alcohol, and in parks. It also allows California bans for other places including casinos, stadiums and amusement parks.
The California attorney general’s office said it was reviewing the decision.
Residents carrying guns in public is still fairly new to Hawaii. Before the 2022 U.S. Supreme Court decision expanded gun rights nationwide, Hawaii’s county police chiefs made it virtually impossible to carry a gun by rarely issuing permits to do so — either for open carry or concealed carry. Gun owners were only allowed to keep firearms in their homes or to bring them — unloaded and locked up — to shooting ranges, hunting areas and places such as repair shops.
That ruling prompted the state to retool its gun laws, with Democratic Gov. Josh Green signing legislation to allow more people to carry concealed firearms.
It also prompted Hawaii and California to pass laws restricting guns in places that are deemed sensitive.
LAS VEGAS (AP) — A jury began deliberating Monday in the trial of a former Las Vegas-area Democratic politician accused of killing an investigative journalist who prosecutors said the official blamed for writing stories that destroyed his career, ruined his reputation and threatened his marriage.
“And he did it because Jeff wasn’t done writing,” prosecutor Christopher Hamner said during closing arguments of defendant Robert Telles and the reporter, Jeff German. “It’s like connecting the dots.”
Jurors deliberated for about four hours before breaking for the evening, to return Tuesday.
Earlier, they sent the judge a note seeking more note paper and a court technician to show them how to zoom in on laptop video while in the jury room. They remained an hour past the court’s usual 5 p.m. end time.
Telles lost his Democratic primary for a second term after German’s first stories for the Las Vegas Review-Journal in May 2022 about Telles’ conduct heading an obscure county office that handles unclaimed estates. The reports described turmoil and bullying in Telles’ workplace and a romantic relationship between Telles and a female employee.
The day before German was stabbed to death, Telles learned that Clark County officials were about to provide German with email and text messages that Telles and the woman shared, in response to the reporter’s request for public records. Another story was in the offing, Hamner said.
“The murder is the very next day … about 15 hours later,” prosecutor Pamela Weckerly said as she presented to the jury a timeline and videos of Telles’ maroon SUV leaving the neighborhood near his home a little after 9 a.m. on Sept. 2, 2022, and driving on streets near German’s home a short time later.
The SUV driver was seen wearing a bright orange outfit similar to one worn by a person captured on camera walking to German’s home and slipping into a side yard.
“That person stays, lying in wait,” Weckerly said, playing again a video from a neighbor’s home showing German’s garage door rise and German walk into the side yard where he was attacked just after 11:15 a.m.
A little more than two minutes elapse, then the figure in orange emerges and walks down a sidewalk. German does not reappear.
The prosecutor said the killing was first-degree murder because evidence showed it was willful, deliberate and premeditated. While prosecutors did not have the murder weapon, she said evidence was clear that one was used.
Weckerly also focused on a text message from Telles’ wife, which he failed to answer, asking, “Where are you?” about 45 minutes before evidence showed German was killed.
Hamner and Weckerly told the jury they believe Telles didn’t respond because he left his cellphone — and its ability to track him — at home.
German’s body was found the next day, and Telles’ DNA was found beneath German’s fingernails. When asked about the DNA, Telles said he believed it was planted.
None of German’s blood or DNA was found on Telles, in his vehicle or at his home, defense attorney Robert Draskovich said Monday, urging the jury to, “Ask yourself what is missing.”
Draskovich introduced a new clip of video for the first time, zeroing in on a view of a maroon SUV like Telles,’ seen through the passenger window with the shadowed silhouette of a driver at the wheel. The image was prosecution evidence that had not been shown to the jury.
That driver was not Telles, the lawyer said, noting that his client is completely bald.
The jury heard again about cut-up pieces of a broad straw hat and a gray athletic shoe found at Telles’ house that looked like ones worn by the person wearing the orange shirt, which was never found.
“You are the sole judges of the facts,” Draskovich told the jury during his closing arguments before the panel was pared to 12, broke for lunch and began just before 2 p.m. to deliberate whether they all believe Telles murdered German.
“I’m not crazy. I’m not trying to avoid responsibility,” Telles told the jury on Friday to end his second and final round of self-guided testimony in his defense. “I didn’t kill Mr. German, and I’m innocent.”
Telles, 47, is an attorney who practiced civil law before he was elected in 2018. His law license was suspended following his arrest several days after German was killed. He faces up to life in prison if he is found guilty.
Jurors have been attentive throughout the trial, watching Telles in the witness box and the defense table. He sat Monday with his brow creased and his eyes slightly squinted at computer images in front of him as Weckerly and Hamner spoke.
In his testimony, he had named office colleagues, real estate agents, business owners and police he accused of “framing” him for German’s killing. He said it was retaliation for his crusading effort to root out corruption he saw in his office of about eight employees handling probate property cases.
“I am not the kind of person who would stab someone. I didn’t kill Mr. German,” Telles said Thursday. “And that’s my testimony.”
Where Telles was when German was killed remained a central focus during the trial, as Weckerly and Hamner presented 28 witnesses and hundreds of pages of photos, police reports and video.
Telles and five other people testified during trial for the defense. No Telles family members were called to the stand or identified in the trial gallery.
About a dozen German family members sat silently together in the hushed courtroom on Monday. They declined as a group to comment to The Associated Press.
The killing drew widespread attention. German was the only journalist killed in the U.S. in 2022, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists. The nonprofit has records of 17 media workers killed in the U.S. since 1992.
GRAND HAVEN, Mich. (AP) — The Shark is back in the water, trying to repeat his 1998 feat of swimming across Lake Michigan.
Jim Dreyer entered the lake at Grand Haven, Michigan, on Tuesday and began swimming to Wisconsin. The route to Milwaukee is expected to cover roughly 83 miles (134 kilometers), though it could be more, depending on lake conditions.
“Even with all the extensive training and planning, I understand the inherent dangers of this self-sufficient swim,” Dreyer, who nicknamed himself The Shark before his first historic swim, said last month.
Dreyer, 60, is towing supplies in an inflatable boat attached to him. Satellite communications will allow him to contact a crew for help if necessary.
“I hope this calculated risk captures the imaginations of adventurous souls everywhere as I find my way across the seemingly endless expanse of Lake Michigan,” said Dreyer, who is also trying to raise money for the nonprofit U.S. Coast Guard Chief Petty Officers Association.
Dreyer swam across Lake Michigan, from Two Rivers, Wisconsin, to Michigan’s Ludington State Park, in 1998, a grueling feat that lasted nearly 41 hours.
He tried last year to cross the lake but gave up after 10 hours because of bad weather.
Markets on Wall Street and in Asia are stabilizing Tuesday following a mini-panic caused by an assortment of factors that stretched from late last week through Monday.
The S&P 500 and Nasdaq each rose 1.3% in morning trading and were on track to break a brutal three-day losing streak. The S&P 500 had tumbled more than 6% after several weaker-than-expected reports raised concerns that the Federal Reserve had pumped the brakes too much on the U.S. economy through high interest rates.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.7%.
Elsewhere, Japan’s Nikkei 225 jumped 10.2% Tuesday, following its 12.4% sell-off the day before, which was its worst since 1987. Stocks in Tokyo rebounded as the value of the Japanese yen stabilized a bit against the U.S. dollar following several days of sharp gains.
A rate hike last week by the Bank of Japan contributed to the turmoil by upending trades where investors had borrowed Japanese yen at low cost and invested it elsewhere around the world. The resulting exits from those investments may have helped accelerate the declines in global markets.
Starting Thursday, investors grew worried about a slowing U.S. economy. They pointed fingers at the Fed for waiting too long to cut rates and sold shares of technology companies that had ridden a frenzy around artificial intelligence to lofty stock market valuations.
Calmer voices that claimed the sell-off was a good thing because stock prices had risen too high seemed to prevail Tuesday. Some of Tuesday’s gainers were those same technology companies investors had fled from. Chipmaker Nvidia was up 3.8% Tuesday morning, following a drop of 6.4% on Monday.
For individual investors, experts say it’s not time for rash decisions, but a moment to make sure their investments are properly diversified.
Here’s a look at the reasons for the turbulence in markets:
Inflation and central banks
Starting in 2022, the Fed rapidly raised interest rates to combat a spike in inflation. It’s maintained its key rate at 5.4% for about a year. As part of its inflation fight, the Fed also aimed to cool down a red-hot labor market.
Investors thought the Fed and other central banks were on track, even though inflation remained somewhat above their targets — in the Fed’s case, 2%. The European Central Bank and the Bank of England cut rates once and the Fed signaled it was prepared to start cutting rates in September.
Anxiety over the U.S. economy
Despite some signs of cooling, the U.S. economy kept chugging along even with higher rates, outpacing Europe and Asia. Then came last week’s economic reports.
Weak readings on the job market, manufacturing and construction sparked worries about a U.S. economic slowdown and criticism that the Federal Reserve waited too long to cut rates.
Traders in the U.S. are now betting the Federal Reserve will lower rates by half a percentage point in September instead of the usual quarter point. Some were calling for an emergency rate cut.
Big Tech
A handful of Big Tech stocks drove the market’s double-digit gains into July. But their momentum turned last month on worries investors had taken their prices too high and expectations for their profit gains had grown too difficult to meet — a notion that gained credence when the group’s latest earnings reports were mostly underwhelming.
Apple fell more than 5% Monday after Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway disclosed that it had slashed its ownership stake in the iPhone maker. Nvidia lost more than $420 billion in market value Thursday through Monday. Overall, the tech sector of the S&P 500 was the biggest drag on the market Monday.
Japan’s rollercoaster
The Nikkei suffered its worst two-day decline ever, dropping 18.2% on Friday and Monday combined. One catalyst for the outsized move has been an interest rate hike by the Bank of Japan last week.
The BoJ’s rate increase affected what are known as carry trades. That’s when investors borrow money from a country with low interest rates and a relatively weak currency, like Japan, and invest those funds in places that will yield a high return. The higher interest rates caused the Japanese yen to strengthen, likely forcing investors to sell stocks to repay those loans.
Stocks in Tokyo rebounded as the value of the Japanese yen stabilized against the U.S. dollar.
What should investors do?
The prevailing wisdom is: Hold steady.
Experts and analysts encourage taking a long view, especially for investors concerned about retirement savings,.
“More often than not, panic selling on a red day is generally a great way to lose more money than you save,” said Jacob Channel, senior economist for LendingTree, who reminds investors that markets have recovered from worse sell-offs than the current one.
Bitcoin claws back some losses
Bitcoin was back up to $56,490 Monday morning after the price of the world’s largest cryptocurrency fell to just above $54,000 during Monday’s rout. That’s still down from nearly $68,000 one week ago, per data from CoinMarketCap.
While bitcoin did serve as a safe haven of sorts during the worst of the pandemic, it mostly acts like any another risky asset that investors steer clear from during market downturns.
Sell-offs are normal
Greg McBride, financial analyst for Bankrate, points out that a 10% pullback in markets happens on average once every 12 months.
Quincy Krosby, chief global strategist for LPL Financial, says investors should try to wait out the current wave of turbulence.
“Pockets of volatility are expected to continue as August and September give way to a calmer seasonal period; however, it’s important to remember pockets of opportunity are always on the other side of the storm,” she said.
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Cora Lewis and Wyatte Grantham-Philips in New York contributed to this report.
BUTLER, Pa. (AP) — Gene Puskar has been with The Associated Press for 45 years. Based in Pittsburgh, his career has spanned a wide range of events including the nuclear accident at Three Mile Island, the Sept. 11 attack that downed Flight 93, Stanley Cups and World Series, many presidential and campaign events and, his favorite, the Little League World Series. Here’s what he had to say about making this extraordinary photo.
Why this photo
It was a political rally assignment like hundreds before that I’ve covered over 45 years with The Associated Press – until it wasn’t.
I arrived at the Butler Farm Show at 8 a.m. for hopefully – most don’t start on time – a 5:30 p.m. appearance by former President Donald Trump and the traffic was already backed up to get into the parking lot.
A fairway of Trump merchandise tents were in place and business was boomin’. At 8 a.m.!
The Secret Service designated 10:30 a.m. as the pre-set time for photographers to stake out their spot on the back riser camera stand. I was to be stationed right in the center, 100 feet from the podium. We marked our spots with a tripod or ladder, mine with a giant AP in bright green tape on it.
By 11:30 the pre-set was over, and the Secret Service locked down the site for a security sweep. We were allowed to return, this time through security, at 1 p.m.
A steady stream of local, state and federal politicians riled up the crowd from 1-6 p.m. as they waited for Trump. I stood shoulder to shoulder with three other photographers and cameramen, hot, dehydrated, hungry – waiting for the main attraction to appear at center stage.
How I made this photo
Finally – shortly after 6 p.m. – Trump made his entrance. He stopped every few feet to point to folks in the audience and pump his first and smile. This is often the time photographers have a chance to make a picture, with the candidate or president gesturing and interacting with supporters. The end of remarks is a good time, too, when the subject also works the crowd.
I had my trusty Sony A1 attached to a Sony 400mm f2.8, with a 1.4x telextender on it, sitting on a carbon fiber mono-pod resting on my shoulder. I also had a Sony A9 III with a 28-200mm lens on it.
After turning to supporters who lined the grandstand behind the podium, Trump began his comments.
The microphone on the podium was too high. I was right in his face. So, unless he looked up or to the side, making a worthwhile photo was impossible. After an initial frenzy of shooting photos once he started speaking, I settled down to look for expressive gestures.
These speeches can go on a long time, sometimes over an hour and a half.
Relatively early into Trump’s remarks, he was explaining a graph that showed the number of illegal immigrants who have entered the U.S., he looked to his right, my left, at the giant screen projection when …
a CRACK! CRACK! rang out. I knew it wasn’t a firecracker.
I knelt down on the riser, which still left me about 5 feet in the air, and I looked to the Secret Service snipers on the roof to the right of the stage, my left, whom I had photographed taking their positions nearly four hours earlier.
A few more reports of gunfire. Trump ducked out of frame, then there was a scramble of Secret Service. The agents swarmed the downed candidate, who was still hidden behind the podium.
This image is one of the first I shot once the Secret Service deemed it safe to move Trump after being assured the shooter was down.
It was a few frames later when Trump insisted that his Secret Security detail allow him to pump his fist and yell “fight!” to the crowd, captured by colleague Evan Vucci.
I then followed Trump as he was assisted in a swarm of Secret Service to his SUV.
Why this photo works
The photo speaks for itself. The old saying goes; Question: What does it take to make a great picture? Answer: F11 and be there.
I was there because the AP assigned me there. This is a great responsibility. To those who much is given, much is expected. I simply did what was expected of me as a AP photographer. What tells me I got the shot are the many people at the AP who tell me that I got it. And what makes me feel good/proud is that the AP feels good about the job I did that day.
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For more extraordinary AP photography, click here.
Manipulated video from an Associated Press report circulated on the eve of the match between Slovakia and Ukraine at this year’s European Championship, with the false claim that Slovak flags had been banned from all games because of their similarity to the Russian flag.
“UEFA has banned the Russian flag from being carried to all matches of the Ukrainian national team at Euro 2024 after some of them were hung in the stands in other matches,” says the voiceover made to sound like an AP reporter. “Security staff will seize Russian flags from all fans, regardless of the country of the rival. It also became known that the ban will also apply to the flags of Slovakia at the upcoming match with Ukraine. The organizers claim that the Slovak flag is very similar to the Russian one, which can cause provocations against Ukrainians.”
No such video exists and the AP has not reported that there is a ban of Slovak flags at the soccer tournament.
Here are the facts.
CLAIM: A video shows an AP report that says Slovak flags will be banned at Euro 2024 games because of how similar they are to the Russian flag.
THE FACTS: The 33-second video was created using fabricated audio combined with an actual AP video about a Tesla shareholder vote.
In the video, footage from Euro 2024 is shown over what is a voiceover purportedly by AP reporter Tom Krisher. After about 28 seconds, Krisher appears on screen. The voiceover claims that given the flags’ similarities, Slovak flags will not be permitted at the tournament.
Both flags have white, blue and red horizontal stripes positioned in the same order. Slovakia’s flag also includes the country’s coat of arms on its left side.
But the video was fabricated. The AP has not reported that there is any such ban.
“The video circulating on social media is not an AP video and features a false and manipulated clip of an AP staffer,” AP spokesperson Nicole Meir wrote in an email. “The AP did not report on a UEFA ban of Slovak flags.”
The footage of Krisher was taken from an AP video published on June 13 about a Tesla shareholder vote to restore CEO Elon Musk’s $44.9 billion pay package that was thrown out by a Delaware judge earlier this year. Krisher covers the auto industry for the AP, Meir confirmed.
After Russian flags were displayed in the stands at other matches, the UEFA said that security staff would try to intercept and remove Russian flags from being displayed at the Munich stadium where Ukraine played Romania on Monday afternoon in its first Euro 2024 match, the AP has reported.
German authorities previously said they only wanted to allow flags of the participating teams to be brought to stadiums and official fan zones broadcasting games on big screens in the 10 host cities.
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This is part of the AP’s effort to address widely shared false and misleading information that is circulating online. Learn more about fact-checking at AP.
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — The federal Justice Department is defending the legal right to challenge robocalls sent to New Hampshire voters that used artificial intelligence to mimic President Joe Biden’s voice.
Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke and U.S. Attorney Jane Young filed a statement of interest Thursday in the lawsuit brought by the League of Women Voters against Steve Kramer — the political consultant behind the calls — and the three companies involved in transmitting them.
Kramer, who is facing separate criminal charges related to the calls, has yet to respond to the lawsuit filed in March, but the companies filed a motion to dismiss last month. Among other arguments, they said robocalls don’t violate the section of the Voting Rights Act that prohibits attempting to or actually intimidating, threatening or coercing voters and that there is no private right of action under the law.
The Justice Department countered that the law clearly allows aggrieved individuals and organizations representing them to enforce their rights under the law. And it said the companies were incorrect in arguing that the law doesn’t apply to robocalls because they are merely “deceptive” and not intimidating, threatening or coercive.
“Robocalls in particular can violate voting rights by incentivizing voters to remain away from the polls, deceive voters into believing false information and provoke fear among the targeted individuals,” Young said in a statement. “The U.S. Attorney’s Office commends any private citizen willing to stand up against these aggressive tactics and exercise their rights to participate in the enforcement process for the Voting Rights Act.”
At issue is a message sent to thousands of New Hampshire voters on Jan. 21 that featured a voice similar to Biden’s falsely suggesting that voting in the state’s first-in-the-nation presidential primary two days later would preclude them from casting ballots in November. Kramer, who paid a magician and self-described “digital nomad” who does technology consulting $150 to create the recording, has said he orchestrated the call to publicize the potential dangers of AI and spur action from lawmakers.
He faces 26 criminal charges in New Hampshire, along with a proposed $6 million fine from the Federal Communications Commission, which has taken multiple steps in recent months to combat the growing use of AI tools in political communications.
On Thursday, it advanced a proposal that would require political advertisers to disclose their use of artificial intelligence in broadcast television and radio ads, though it is unclear whether new regulations may be in place before the November presidential election.
GLOSTER, Miss. (AP) — This southern Mississippi town’s expansive wood pellet plant was so close to Shelia Mae Dobbins’ home that she sometimes heard company loudspeakers. She says industrial residues coated her truck and she no longer enjoys spending time in the air outdoors.
Dobbins feels her life — and health — were better before 2016, when United Kingdom energy giant Drax opened a facility able to compress 450,000 tons of wood chips annually in the majority Black town of Gloster, Mississippi. To her, it’s no coincidence federal regulators find residents are exposed to unwanted air particles and they experience asthma more than most of the country.
Her asthma and diabetes were once under control, but since a 2017 diagnosis of heart and lung disease, Dobbins has frequently lived at the end of a breathing tube connected to an oxygen cannister.
“Something is going on. And it’s all around the plant,” said the 59-year-old widow who raised two children here. “Nobody asked us could they bring that plant there.”
Shelia Mae Dobbins holds part of her oxygen tube inside her home in Gloster, Miss., Wednesday, May 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Shelia Mae Dobbins walks with her oxygen tube inside her home in Gloster, Miss., Wednesday, May 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Wood pellet production skyrocketed across the U.S. South. It helped feed demand in the European Union for renewable energy, as those coutries sought to replace fossil fuels such as coal. But many residents near plants — often African Americans in poor, rural swaths — find the process left their air dustier and people sicker.
Billions of dollars are available for these projects under President Joe Biden’s signature law combating climate change. The administration is weighing whether to open up tax credits for companies to burn wood pellets for energy.
Shelia Mae Dobbins cries as she talks about her health inside her home in Gloster, Miss., Wednesday, May 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
As producers expand west, environmentalists want the government to stop incentivizing what they call a misguided attempt to curb carbon emissions that pollute communities of color while presently warming the atmosphere.
Despite hefty pollution fines against industry players and one major producer’s recent bankruptcy, supporters say the multibillion-dollar market is experiencing growing pains. In wood pellets, they see an innovative long-term solution to the climate crisis that brings revenue necessary for forest owners to maintain plantations.
Birds fly past a pile of wood used to make pellets during a tour of a Drax facility in Gloster, Miss., Monday, May 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Biomass boom
After the European Union classified biomass as renewable energy in 2009, the Southeast’s annual wood pellet capacity increased from about 300,000 tons to more than 7.3 million tons by 2017, according to research led by a University of Missouri team.
Federal energy statistics show about three dozen southern wood pellet manufacturing facilities account for nearly 80% of annual U.S. capacity. Most pellets are used for commercial-scale energy overseas.
The market brought hope for revitalization to small, disadvantaged communities. But interviews with residents of towns with large Black populations, from Gaston, North Carolina, to Uniontown, Alabama, surfaced complaints of truck traffic, air pollution and noise from pellet plants.
Dan Caston, an employee of Drax leads a tour of their plant in Gloster, Miss., Monday, May 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Dan Caston, an employee of Drax, shows some of the wood pellets their plant produces in Gloster, Miss., Monday, May 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Gloster has become the poster child for such tensions. In 2020, Mississippi’s environmental agency fined Drax $2.5 million for violating air emissions limits. Gloster is exposed to more particulate matter than much of the U.S. and adults have higher asthma rates than 80% of the country, according to an Environmental Protection Agency mapping tool. Median household income is about $22,000; the poverty rate is triple the national level.
Spokesperson Michelli Martin said Drax in 2021 installed pollution controls, including incinerators to decrease carbon emissions. An environmental consulting firm found “no adverse effects to human health” and that “no modeled pollutant from the facility exceeded” acceptable levels, Martin said.
The company recently committed to annual town halls and announced a $250,000 Gloster Community Fund to “improve quality of life.”
But critics aren’t swayed by showings of corporate goodwill they say don’t account for poor air. Krystal Martin, of the Greater Greener Gloster Project, returned to her hometown after her 75-year-old mother was diagnosed with lung and heart problems.
“You don’t really know you’re dealing with air pollution until most people have breathed and inhaled it for so long that they end up sick,” she said.
Krystal Martin, a Gloster native, shows pamphlets to residents Myrtis Woodard and Shelia Mae Dobbins, right, during a community meeting she organized regarding health complaints against the Drax facility in Gloster, Miss., Thursday, May 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Krystal Martin, a Gloster native, shows pamphlets during a community meeting she organized regarding health complaints against the Drax facility in Gloster, Miss., Thursday, May 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Brown University assistant epidemiology professor Erica Walker is studying health impacts of industrial pollutants on Gloster residents. Walker said fine particulate matter can travel deep into lungs and reach the bloodstream.
“It can also circulate to other parts of our body, leading to body-wide inflammation,” she said.
A man crosses the street in downtown Gloster, Miss., Thursday, May 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Subsidies for an upstart industry
Environmentalists are calling on Biden to stop aiding an industry they believe runs counter to his green energy goals. At the annual United Nations climate conference, The Dogwood Alliance urged attendees to phase out wood pellets.
Enviva — the world’s largest wood pellet producer — had already received subsidies through the 2018 farm bill signed by former President Donald Trump, according to Sheila Korth, a former policy analyst with nonpartisan watchdog Taxpayers for Common Sense.
But Korth said the Biden-era Inflation Reduction Act made tax credits available to companies that create pellets for countries in Europe and Asia.
Elizabeth Woodworth, interim executive director of the US Industrial Pellet Association, said the money is a small part of lRA allocations and noted emerging technologies require government subsidies. The industry argues that replanting of trees will eventually absorb carbon produced by burning pellets.
“We need every single technology we can get our hands on to mitigate climate change,” Woodworth said. “Bioenergy is a part of that.”
Scientific studies have found firing wood pellets puts more carbon immediately into the atmosphere than coal. Pollution from biomass-based facilities is nearly three times higher than that of other energy sectors, according to a 2023 paper in the journal Renewable Energy.
In a 2018 letter, hundreds of scientists warned the EU that the “additional carbon load” from burning wood pellets means “permanent damages” including glacial melting.
A resident crosses the street for a community meeting regarding health complaints against Drax in Gloster, Miss., Thursday, May 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Expansion plans and more burning?
Drax — with plants operating in Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi — is heading west.
The corporation signed an agreement in February with Golden State Natural Resources to identify biomass from California’s forests. The public-private venture hopes to build two plants by year’s end and produce up to 1 million tons of wood pellets annually. Another Drax project in Washington would produce 500,000 tons a year.
The Natural Resources Defense Council’s Rita Frost, who fought plants in the South, said the deal will endanger California’s low-income Latino communities much like she says the industry threatened Black southern towns.
“It’s an environmental justice problem that should not be repeated in California,” Frost said.
An employee walks toward a pile of lumber to be used during a tour of a Drax facility in Gloster, Miss., Monday, May 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
But a key federal decision could draw more companies into pellet combustion — not just production.
The White House is looking into whether biomass facilities should receive tax credits meant for zero-emission electricity generators. The Treasury Department is weighing whether biomass’ potential long-term carbon neutrality is sufficient even if its production increases emissions in the short term.
Spokesperson Michael Martinez said they are “carefully considering public comments” and “working to issue final rules that will increase energy security and clean energy supply as effectively as possible.”
Some environmentalists doubt the energy alternative is ultimately carbon neutral. The Southern Environmental Law Center fears the credits could be the incentive needed for the U.S. to join Europe in scaling up the burning of pellets.
“The threat here is really the growth of biomass energy production in the U.S. itself,” said senior attorney Heather Hillaker. “Which obviously will add to the total carbon and climate harms of this industry globally.”
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Pollard reported from Columbia, South Carolina. Watson reported from San Diego. Contributing were video journalist Terry Chea from San Francisco and reporter Matthew Daly from Washington, D.C.
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The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Another chancellor in North Carolina’s public university system has announced plans to step down — this time at the state’s largest university by enrollment.
North Carolina State University Chancellor Randy Woodson declared his retirement plans at the university’s trustees meeting Thursday, capping off nearly 15 years in his role. His term will officially end June 30, 2025, Woodson said.
His departure marks yet another chancellor vacancy in the University of North Carolina system that is in the process of filling three other openings, including the state’s flagship campus, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Seventeen schools are members of the system.
“I feel good about leaving the institution better than I found it, but I also feel good that the next leader has plenty to do at NC State,” Woodson said during the meeting. “This is a great place.”
With his contract ending next June, Woodson told reporters it was “just a good time” for him to step away from being chancellor. Retirement was something the 67-year-old said he considered for a while.
“When I think about where NC State was 15 years and where NC State is now, it’s an extraordinary testament to this man’s leadership and the team he has built around him,” Hans told reporters after the meeting.
Woodson started in his role as NC State chancellor in 2010. He previously came from Purdue University, where he served as provost, dean of the agriculture college and in various other leadership positions.
Under his long tenure at NC State, Woodson led the university in increasing graduation and retention rates and research funding. The university’s enrollment also has grown to more than 37,000 students as of Fall 2023.
His term included radical changes in the college athletics landscape, including the Atlantic Coast Conference adding the University of Pittsburgh and Syracuse University in all sports, adding the University of Notre Dame in all non-football league sports, as well as the league’s move to add Stanford University, the University of California, Berkeley, and Southern Methodist University this year.
He is the university’s third longest-serving chancellor and one of the longest currently serving in the university system.
Although he doesn’t have immediate plans for what’s next after his chancellorship, Woodson said he intends to stay in Raleigh.
Woodson’s announcement means yet another chancellor search for the UNC system to embark on after filling four openings in the last year. Those new chancellors now lead four universities: James Martin at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, Karrie Dixon at North Carolina Central University, Bonita Brown at Winston-Salem State University and Kimberly van Noort at UNC-Asheville.
Three other universities currently have chancellor openings: Appalachian State University, Elizabeth City State University and UNC-Chapel Hill. Appalachian State’s former Chancellor Sheri Everts was the most recent chancellor to step down in April.
The search for UNC-Chapel Hill’s new chancellor — a position opened after former Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz left in January — progressed further on Wednesday when search committee members started considering candidates. The chancellorship is currently held by Interim Chancellor Lee Roberts, who GOP legislative leaders have signaled support in becoming the next chancellor.
The search committee has been “aggressively in the market” for several weeks to find suitable candidates, but competition with other universities conducting chancellor searches has presented challenges, said Laurie Wilder, head of search firm Parker Executive Search, during the meeting.
Hans told reporters after the meeting that he thought the high turnover of chancellors could be partly attributed to university leaders postponing their departures to ensure administrations ran smoothly during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Associated Press writer Aaron Beard in Raleigh contributed to this report.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen has announced a broad tax plan for an upcoming special legislative session that would cut property taxes on average in half — including for his own home and family farm in eastern Nebraska valued at more than $6 million.
Pillen announced the plan Thursday with the backing of several fellow Republicans in the officially nonpartisan Nebraska Legislature. But not all Republicans are on board, and it remains to be seen if he can get the 33 votes needed to break a filibuster to get it passed.
The proposal, which could be debated after the special session begins July 25, would vastly expand the number of goods and services subject to the state’s 5.5% sales tax to items such as candy, soda and CBD products, and to services like pet grooming, veterinary care and auto repairs. Most groceries and medicine would remain exempt.
Another portion of the plan would see the state foot the estimated $2.6 billion cost of operating K-12 public schools, which are now largely funded through local property taxes. It would also cap the growth of property tax revenue.
Opponents say the plan would shift the tax burden from wealthy home and landowners to low-income residents who can least afford to pay more for the goods and services they need. Pillen countered that “they have choices on what they buy and how much they’ll pay for that.”
OpenSky Policy Institute, a Nebraska tax spending watchdog group, said it’s still trying to gather details but worried the proposal will amount to a disproportionate tax shift to the working class.
“The plan proposes a significant re-invention of the way we fund public schools, and we believe that should merit the time, deliberation and collaboration necessary to get it right,” said Dr. Rebecca Firestone, executive director of OpenSky. “We don’t believe that a special session is the appropriate vehicle for initiating such a fundamental change.”
But Pillen reiterated Thursday that annual revenue from property taxes has risen dramatically in the last 20 years — from about $2 billion in 2003 to more than $5 billion last year. The last five years alone saw a $1 billion jump in property tax revenue. For comparison, revenue collected last year from individual and corporate income taxes was $3.6 billion and from sales tax was $2.3 billion. Pillen said his shift to sales taxes would “better balance Nebraska’s three-legged tax stool.”
If not addressed soon, Pillen said the rapidly increasing property taxes could force elderly people who’ve already paid off their mortgage out of their homes.
“It’s running ranchers off the ranch and running people out of their homes,” he said.
The governor has been crisscrossing the state holding townhalls to try to bolster support. On Thursday, he announced an online dashboard that allows residents to type in their address and receive an estimate of how much their property tax bill would decrease under his plan.
The dashboard showed Pillen’s home and farm in Columbus is valued at about $6.2 million and that his taxes on the property would drop from about $113,400 logged last year to $59,580.
Real estate taxes have skyrocketed across the country as U.S. home prices have jumped more than 50% in the past five years, leading a bevy of states to pass or propose measures to reign in property taxes.
Nebraska has one of the highest average property tax rates in the nation at 1.46% — tied with New York and behind Connecticut, Illinois and New Jersey, according to Bankrate.
A person’s property tax can vary greatly, even within the same county, based on local school and government subdivision tax levies. But in 2023, the average annual tax bill on a Nebraska home worth about $420,000 was more than $6,100.
All state lawmakers and most residents agree the state’s property taxes are too high, said state Sen. Ray Aguilar of Grand Island. Aguilar is a Republican who usually supports Pillen’s agenda, but not in this case.
“The governor is telling me he has the votes for this, but I don’t think so,” Aguilar said Thursday. “The people I’ve been talking to don’t think so, either.”
Aguilar’s main criticism is that the plan represents little more than a tax shift and doesn’t do enough to cut taxes.
“It’s a problem for working people and for manufacturers. I just don’t think this is the solution,” he said.
GALVESTON, Texas (AP) — Vacuums sucked the water out of the seaside inn run by Nick Gaido’s family in Galveston since 1911 as power was still spotty nearly one week after a resurgent Hurricane Beryl swept into Texas. Blue tarp covered much of the torn off roof. Gaido scheduled cleanup shifts for the hotel and restaurant staff who couldn’t afford to lose shifts to the enduring outages.
The July Fourth weekend was supposed to kickstart a lucrative tourism season for this popular getaway’s hospitality industry. But just dozens dotted the typically crowded beaches a week later. Gaido felt an urgent need to send the message that Galveston, Texas, is back open.
“We’ve dealt with storms in late August or in September,” Gaido said. “But when you have a storm that hits in the beginning of July, that’s different.”
Galveston, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) southeast of Houston, has certainly weathered its share of natural disasters. Etched into its collective memory is the fury of a 1900 hurricane that killed thousands back when the island was emerging as a crown jewel for the state. More recently, Hurricane Ike’s 2008 wrath flooded its historic downtown with storm surge as high as 20 feet (6 meters) and caused more than $29 billion in damage.
Yet even Greater Houston’s storm-seasoned neighbors got taken off guard by Beryl’s sudden arrival. Crashing unusually early in the calendar, the Category 1 hurricane brought the island’s tourism-based economy to a halt during a time when local restaurants rely on an influx of beachgoers to lift revenues. Despite the widespread power outage, businesses and residents are buckling down.
In the harder-hit west side of Jamaica Beach, Way West Grill and Pizzeria was still without electricity on Saturday afternoon. Owner Jake Vincent felt stuck in limbo: he had heard power would return by July 19 but had hope that it might come sooner.
The loss ruined his entire inventory. He said enough mozzarella cheese to fill the back of his truck had gone to waste. Also spoiled was an 8-foot chest full of fries and an estimated 300 pounds (130 kg) of pepperoni.
Vincent no longer expects much from a year he had anticipated would finally bring “daylight” for his family-run restaurant founded in 2018. He said most of their annual sales come during the three summer months and that “this tourism season is probably done for.”
“It complicates things,” he said. “You bank all your summer money to get through the winter.”
Downed cables and orange construction cones could be found along the road linking the touristy strand’s seafood shacks to the west end’s colorful short-term rentals. Crews from Houston-area utility CenterPoint stood atop lifts, sweating as they restored line after line.
Still without power Saturday morning, Greg Alexander raked debris to the edge of the street in his Jamaica Beach neighborhood. Despite sleeping in a balcony-level room in a house already raised high off the ground, he said water poured into the windows. Beryl’s horizontal winds blew rain right onto his bed.
It’s just a part of life here for Alexander. His family moved full-time to Galveston in 2017 after he said Hurricane Harvey dumped 38 inches (nearly 1 meter) of water into their Lake City home. Without power, he said they’ve been “appreciating our car’s air conditioning more than ever.”
He doesn’t plan to leave. He said trials only strengthen the community.
“People on the west end aren’t like everybody else,” he said.
Steve Broom and Debra Pease still lacked power on Saturday but had been beating the heat elsewhere. Broom said they’d already booked a hotel in Houston this week so his daughter could use the Galveston beach house where they’ve lived full-time for about five years. They spent only the first night in Galveston and opted to sleep the rest of the week in their nonrefundable room.
Broom, 72, said he had never seen a hurricane come as early or increase as quickly as Beryl. Still, he joked that just one factor could force him to move off the island where he grew up.
“If they wipe out all these houses, then we’ll be front row and our property value will probably double or triple,” he said, before clarifying: “No, I hope that doesn’t happen.”
Anne Beem and her husband come every July from San Antonio to celebrate their birthdays. For her, the aftermath has been far worse than the hurricane itself.
They enjoyed a nice breeze with the windows open after the storm passed Monday. But she said Tuesday night brought “mosquitogeddon.” Hundreds of bugs filled the house so they slept in their car with the air conditioning blasting.
She said they also bought a kiddie pool to cool off before the power came back Thursday night.
“We just tried to look at it as an adventure,” she said. “Each day was some fresh hell.”
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This story has been updated to correct the estimated amount of spoiled pepperoni at Way West Grill and Pizzeria to 300 pounds, not 3,000 pounds.
SEATTLE (AP) — A Washington state judge said Friday that Attorney General Bob Ferguson is not entitled to enforce a subpoena seeking decades of records from the Seattle Archdiocese, despite his assertion that the records are needed to learn whether the Catholic church used charitable trust funds to cover up sexual abuse by priests.
Judge Michael Scott sided with the archdiocese, which argued that under the state’s law governing charitable trusts, Ferguson did not have authority to enforce the subpoena. The law contains an exemption designed to ensure the state does not meddle in religious practices.
Nevertheless, Seattle Archbishop Paul D. Etienne said in a written statement after Friday’s decision that the church is willing to provide the state with relevant records and collaborate with Ferguson on the investigation “in a lawful manner.”
“Sexual abuse in the Church is a heart-wrenching part of our history, and I am deeply sorry for the pain caused to victim survivors, their families and all Catholics,” Etienne said. “We remain focused on the need for healing and proper governance in these matters. … Because we are committed to preventing abuse, promoting transparency and continuously improving our processes, my offer to collaborate with the attorney general still stands.”
Ferguson, himself a Catholic, said his office would appeal. The state argued that the exemption in the law does protect religious practices — but that using charitable trust money to conceal or facilitate sex abuse was not a religious practice.
“Our fight for survivors of clergy abuse is not over,” Ferguson said in a news release. “Washingtonians deserve a full public accounting of the Church’s involvement in and responsibility for the child sexual abuse crisis.”
Ferguson filed the case in May, saying the church was stonewalling its investigation by refusing to comply with the subpoena.
At the time, the archdiocese called his allegations a surprise, saying it welcomed the investigation and shares the state’s goals — “preventing abuse and helping victim survivors on their path to healing and peace.”
Church officials said the records sought by the state were excessive and irrelevant — including every receipt going back to 1940, in an archdiocese with more than 170 pastoral locations and 72 schools.
Some 23 states have conducted investigations of the Catholic church, and so far at least nine have issued reports detailing their findings. In some cases, those findings have gone far beyond what church officials had voluntarily disclosed.
For example, the six Catholic dioceses in Illinois had reported publicly that there had been 103 clerics and religious brothers credibly accused of child sex abuse. But in a scathing report last year, the Illinois attorney general’s office said it had uncovered detailed information on 451 who had sexually abused at least 1,997 children.
Similarly, Maryland last year reported staggering evidence of just how widespread the abuse was: More than 150 Catholic priests and others associated with the Archdiocese of Baltimore sexually abused over 600 children and often escaped accountability. In 2018, a Pennsylvania grand jury found that more than 300 Catholic clerics had abused more than 1,000 children in that state over the prior 70 years.
The Seattle Archdiocese has published a list of 83 clerics it says were credibly accused, and it says that beginning in the 1980s it was one of the first in the nation to begin adopting policies to address and prevent sexual abuse by priests. Sexual abuse by church personnel peaked in 1975, and there have been no reports since 2007, the archdiocese said.
MAMMOTH, Wyo. (AP) — Five people were able to escape a hot, acidic pond in Yellowstone National Park after the sport utility vehicle they were riding in went off the road and into an inactive geyser, park officials said Friday.
The passengers were able to get out of the 105 degree Fahrenheit (41 degrees Celsius) water on their own after the crash Thursday morning and were taken to the hospital for treatment of non-life-threatening injuries, park spokesperson Morgan Warthin said in a statement.
The road was closed for about two hours Friday while the SUV was extracted from 9 feet of water, Warthin said.
The Semi-Centennial Geyser has been inactive since a major eruption in 1922. It is located near Roaring Mountain between Mammoth Hot Springs and Norris Junction.
Park officials did not release the names of those involved and said the incident is still being investigated.
