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  • Democrats Propose State Laws to Limit ICE After Minneapolis Shooting of Renee Good

    MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Democrats across the country are proposing state law changes to rein in federal immigration officers and protect the public following the shooting death of a protester in Minneapolis and the wounding of two people in Portland, Oregon.


    Democratic bills seek to limit ICE

    Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul wants New York to allow people to sue federal officers alleging violations of their constitutional rights. Another measure aims to keep immigration agents lacking judicial warrants out of schools, hospitals and houses of worship.

    Oregon Democrats plan to introduce a bill to allow residents to sue federal agents for violating their Fourth Amendment rights against unlawful search and seizure.

    New Jersey’s Democrat-led Legislature passed three bills on Monday that immigrant rights groups have long pushed for, including a measure prohibiting state law enforcement officers from cooperating with federal immigration enforcement. Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy has until his last day in office Tuesday to sign or veto them.

    California lawmakers are proposing to ban local and state law enforcement from taking second jobs with the Department of Homeland Security and make it a violation of state law when ICE officers make “indiscriminate” arrests around court appearances. Other measures are pending.

    “Where you have government actions with no accountability, that is not true democracy,” Democratic state Sen. Scott Wiener of San Francisco said at a news conference.


    Democrats also push bills in red states

    Democrats in Georgia introduced four Senate bills designed to limit immigration enforcement — a package unlikely to become law because Georgia’s conservative upper chamber is led by Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, a close Trump ally. Democrats said it’s still important to take a stand.

    “Donald Trump has unleashed brutal aggression on our families and our communities across our country,” said state Sen. Sheikh Rahman, an immigrant from Bangladesh whose district in suburban Atlanta’s Gwinnett County is home to many immigrants.

    Democrats in New Hampshire have proposed numerous measures seeking to limit federal immigration enforcement, but the state’s Republican majorities passed a new law taking effect this month that bans “sanctuary cities.”

    In Tennessee, instead of considering a Democratic measure that would limit civil immigration enforcement at schools and churches, Republican House Speaker Cameron Sexton said he was working with the White House on a separate package of immigration-related bills. He hasn’t said what they would do.


    Trump administration sues to stop laws

    States have broad power to regulate within their borders unless the U.S. Constitution bars it, but many of these laws raise novel issues that courts will have to sort out, said Harrison Stark, senior counsel with the State Democracy Research Initiative at the University of Wisconsin Law School.

    “There’s not a super clear, concrete legal answer to a lot of these questions,” he said. “It’s almost guaranteed there will be federal litigation over a lot of these policies.”

    That’s already happening.

    California in September was the first to ban most law enforcement officers, including federal immigration agents, from covering their faces on duty. The Justice Department said its agents won’t comply and sued California, arguing that the laws threaten the safety of officers who are facing “unprecedented” harassment, doxing and violence.

    The Justice Department also sued Illinois last month, challenging a law that bars federal civil arrests near courthouses, protects medical records and regulates how universities and day care centers manage information about immigration status. The Justice Department claims the law is unconstitutional and also threatens federal officers’ safety.


    Targeted states push back

    Minnesota and Illinois, joined by their largest cities, sued the Trump administration this week. Minneapolis and Minnesota accuse the Republican administration of violating free speech rights by punishing a progressive state that favors Democrats and welcomes immigrants. Illinois and Chicago claim “Operation Midway Blitz” made residents afraid to leave their homes.

    Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin accused Minnesota officials of ignoring public safety and called the Illinois lawsuit “baseless.”

    Associated Press writers John O’Connor in Springfield, Illinois; Sophie Austin in Sacramento, California; Mike Catalini in Trenton, New Jersey; Jonathan Mattise in Nashville, Tennessee; Anthony Izaguirre in Albany, New York; Claire Rush in Portland, Oregon; and Jeff Amy in Atlanta contributed.

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

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  • Gratitude and Doubt: the Effects of the Shutdown Linger as Families Prepare for Thanksgiving

    She had it figured down to the last dollar. The looming insurance payment, balanced against the hard-earned paycheck. The cost of keeping her children fed, covered mostly with government SNAP assistance. And when Shelby Williams reviewed the family budget for November, she told herself that this month would truly be one for giving thanks.

    After living with her parents for more than two years, Williams and her two children were finally moving into an apartment of their own in her hometown of Reeds Spring, Missouri. They would celebrate with a Thanksgiving meal made by the kids, the grandparents joining them at the table.

    The funds for the needed groceries were all lined up — until the federal government shut down on Oct. 1.

    Now Washington is running again. But as Americans prepare for the Thanksgiving holiday, the relieved gratitude of families in Williams’ community, and the many others still recovering from the suspension of government paychecks and food assistance during the 43-day shutdown, is tempered by lingering stress and economic insecurity.

    “I’m thankful for my children and my job, and I’m thankful for SNAP because it supplies food,” said Williams, 32, who works as a paraprofessional in an elementary school. “But … with the way the world is, with the financial strain, it is hard to be thankful.”

    The anxiety stirred by the shutdown persists in the lines at food pantries in this southwestern Missouri county and echoes through households nationwide.


    Dealing with the shutdown’s fallout

    In South Florida, Darlene Castillo is still struggling to prop up her family’s fragile finances after working without pay for seven weeks at the U.S. Customs Service.

    To get by, she lined up at a mobile food bank, a first for her. She held off paying bills and canceled subscriptions. Family members sent money, and when one extended an invitation for Thanksgiving, she and her husband gratefully accepted, knowing that they’d be hard-pressed to host the holiday meal.

    “It’s a thankful time,” Castillo said last week. “I’ll bring a dish because hopefully this week we’ll get paid. And then we’ll worry about Jan. 30.”

    That’s when the funds just approved by Congress to reopen the government are set to run out, threatening yet another shutdown.

    During the shutdown, McNeil said he got by on the modest stipend he receives as a trainee in a culinary program run by the Trenton Area Soup Kitchen. But attending classes meant missing the hours food pantries were open. His wife, who is disabled and counts on him to bring home SNAP-funded groceries, grew distraught.

    “If it was any longer, I don’t know what I would’ve done,” said McNeil, whose relief is compounded by news that after months of radiation treatment, his prostate cancer is in remission. “I got a lot to be thankful for right now.”


    Community support for stretched resources

    In Williams’ Missouri community, a haven for retirees on modest fixed incomes, the lapse in SNAP funds has added to the pressures on families who stretch to buy daily necessities.

    In early November, a startling 428 families lined up at a drive-through food pantry run by Carrie Padilla and church volunteers, in a county with about 32,000 residents. About 12% of households in the county rely on SNAP benefits, but it is closer to 17% in rural areas.

    Though SNAP has been restored, many families registering for a Christmas toy drive run by Padilla’s nonprofit indicate that they are entering the holiday season without enough food.

    “Almost everybody is antsy,” Padilla said. “Just because the government reopened, it doesn’t mean that somebody has waved a wand and suddenly everything’s all hunky-dory.”

    That uncertainty has figured into Shirley Mease’s planning, as she prepares to host a free Thanksgiving feast at Reeds Spring High School. Mease and her family anticipate serving and delivering 700 meals, up from about 625 last year, to account for food insecurity worsened by the shutdown.

    “I know (SNAP) is back in working order, but it will take time for that to really help people out,” said Mease, 73, a semi-retired school cafeteria worker who has been providing the feast since 2009, drawing on community donations and volunteers.

    “Especially in this area, the food banks are being hit very hard, so I just feel like this is a time to step it up a little bit,” she said.


    Feeling the pressure without SNAP

    The pressure of trying to get through November without SNAP weighed on Williams in the weeks leading up to the holiday.

    She had planned the move to the new apartment for months, carefully balancing income and expenses to account for the $600 rent. The math worked thanks in no small part to $450 in monthly benefits her family receives from SNAP. That covers their food bill after the two free meals served each school day.

    As the shutdown stretched on, the Trump administration announced it would suspend November SNAP payments, despite judges’ orders to use available emergency funds. With her move days away, Williams started November with just $25 left in her SNAP account.

    She used the funds to buy bread, peanut butter, jelly and milk, and a friend with chickens gave her eggs. The fixings lasted through four nights of sandwich dinners. Then her parents stepped in to help.

    Williams tried to keep her stress hidden from her 11-year-old son and 8-year-old daughter. But it was hard to avoid tearing up or getting angry.

    “What bills do I not pay so I can feed my children, because that’s the priority,” she said.


    Faced with a difficult choice

    There were other factors to consider, too. Williams said she loves her job, working with students in a special education classroom. In her off-hours she is studying to become a teacher, a pursuit that required taking out a student loan.

    The suspension of SNAP confronted her with a difficult choice. She knew she could earn more at Walmart than doing the classroom job she treasures.

    “But then I’m giving up a part of my dream,” she said.

    It never came to that. Three days after the shutdown ended, Missouri officials sent $217 to Williams’ SNAP account, just under half what she receives in an ordinary month.

    That helped refill her family’s refrigerator, but it was not enough to afford the luxury of a Thanksgiving celebration. Williams held off paying a bill for car insurance, due at month’s end, reserving the money in case it was needed for food.

    Then, last Friday morning, the remainder of the SNAP funds for November showed up in Williams’ account. Finally, she could exhale. She paid the insurance bill. Then she treated her children to ice cream.

    The anxiety that had weighed on Williams for weeks lingered. But it was still November and her family had so much to be thankful for.

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

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  • Potential Presidential Candidates Are Less Coy About 2028 Plans: ‘Of Course I’m Thinking About It’

    NEW YORK (AP) — There was a time when presidential hopefuls played coy about their ambitions, crisscrossing the country under the guise of helping other candidates and deflecting when pushed on their obvious plans.

    Not so for some Democrats considering running in 2028. With no clear party leader and Democratic voters raring for a fight, some could-be candidates are being far more transparent about their intentions, doing away with pretensions as they try to gain maximum visibility at a time when authenticity is in high demand.

    “Of course I’m thinking about it. I haven’t ruled it out,” New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker recently told Fox News during a trip to early-voting New Hampshire, even as he stressed that his focus is on 2026, when he will be up for reelection.

    To be sure, many Democrats remain circumspect.

    Of the dozen potential 2028 candidates The Associated Press requested interviews with to discuss the changing dynamic, none was immediately available. Some Democrats deflect questions and say their attention is elsewhere even as they campaign for others in early-voting states.

    On the Republican side, an entirely different dynamic is brewing under the surface. Potential candidates are keeping low profiles amid expectations that President Donald Trump will play kingmaker in choosing his would-be successor.

    Presidential campaign strategists say the Democrats’ less guarded approach makes sense given the wide-open 2028 field and sheer number of candidates competing for attention. Among the others who have said they are considering a run: Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who also was a White House chief of staff, and Hawaii Gov. Josh Green.

    “Old rules just don’t apply to anything anymore,” said Jess O’Connell, a Democratic strategist who advised Pete Buttigieg’s 2020 presidential campaign. She said the change was a good thing for the party.

    “You’ve got to be out there every single day fighting and sharing your vision,” she said. “And I think the more runway they have to talk to people in this moment and to communicate about meeting the needs of the future,” then the better.

    Alex Conant, a veteran of the presidential campaigns of Republicans Marco Rubio, a former Florida senator who is now Trump’s secretary of state, and Tim Pawlenty, a former Minnesota governor, said the dynamics of the emerging Democratic primary, with no clear front-runner, have changed the calculus for candidates.

    “I think the Democratic primary is going to be the longest primary of our life. It’s hard to recall a field that is this wide open. And the Democratic base is so hungry for someone to take on Trump and win back the White House,” he said. “The more crowded it is, the more important it is to start early.”

    Candidates, he noted, are also “immediately more relevant if you might be the next president,” adding to the incentive to say the quiet part out loud.

    Voters these days are also turned off by the kind of politician-speak that was once the norm.

    “One of the takeaways from Trump is that people want authenticity,” Conant said. “Voters are rejecting candidates who sound like politicians, so the rhetorical tricks that politicians have used for decades to avoid answering questions now just irritates voters.”

    Not everyone has embraced the approach.

    Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker played coy on stage during a recent interview with journalist Kara Swisher, repeatedly dodging her questions about his expected timeline.

    “Blah, blah,” she responded as he tried to pivot to talking about the strength of the Democratic bench.

    Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro has been equally circumspect, refusing to acknowledge any White House ambitions or even commit to running again for governor, even as the shadow of 2028 follows him everywhere he goes. But during an appearance on “The Breakfast Club” podcast last month, as he reflected on the arson attack on his official residence, he sounded like someone who is eager to remain in the arena.

    “I love public service,” he said. “You can’t walk away now, with everything that’s on the line. … This is not a time to quit.”

    His perceived national ambitions have become a frequent attack line for his potential GOP rival for governor, state Treasurer Stacy Garrity.

    “We need somebody that is more interested in Pennsylvania and not on Pennsylvania Avenue,” Garrity said recently on a conservative radio show in Philadelphia.


    There are risks for candidates

    That is one of the risks for candidates, said Mike DuHaime, a longtime GOP strategist who advised the presidential campaigns of Chris Christie, John McCain, Rudy Giuliani and George W. Bush.

    In 2013, he noted, Christie’s opponent in the New Jersey governor’s race often tried to use his national buzz as a campaign issue against him.

    Candidates, DuHaime said, also need to strike a balance and make that they are not distracting from midterm races by funneling money or attention away from candidates who need them.

    “I think it makes sense not to be so coy because people kind of get it, but they still should be careful about putting themselves in front of the country cause it could backfire,” he said. They “have to be careful that they still look a little bit like team players.”

    In other cases, candidates have genuinely not made up their minds, and may be lured by party leaders in early-voting states eager to draw rising stars to their events, DuHaime said.

    “It’s very intriguing and exciting for candidates and would-be candidates to be asked,” he said, with some deciding, “Let’s go experience it, the national circus. Let’s be part of that.”

    Along with potential legal considerations, O’Connell, the Democratic strategist, also noted that many of those expected to run have day jobs they need to balance. While picking fights with Trump certainly puts them in the spotlight, it could have ramifications for constituents if the Republican president retaliates, meaning that candidates will need to choose their moments wisely.

    “You have to fulfill your obligations to the states that you’re in,” she said. “It’s not so much that you’re playing a game, it’s that I think that there are some practical considerations.”

    “I think we’re going to see people struggling with that,” she added.

    She also urged candidates to embrace what she called a “Beyonce-Taylor Swift strategy,” referring to the pop stars’ boosting the economies of the cities where they performed on tour.

    “What I would advise anyone who wants to be president in 2028,” she said, “is to roll up your sleeves and help.”

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

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  • Woman Who Worked for Congressman Accused of Staging Politically Motivated Attack

    EGG HARBOR TOWNSHIP, N.J. (AP) — A former staffer for a congressman told authorities she was attacked by three armed men who tied her up, slashed her and scrawled an anti-Trump statement on her stomach while she was walking in a New Jersey nature preserve this summer, according to authorities. But federal prosecutors are now accusing her of staging the scene and making the whole thing up.

    The 26-year-old woman, who worked for Republican Rep. Jeff Van Drew, and a friend had reported the attack July 23 at a nature preserve in Egg Harbor Township, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New Jersey. The friend called 911 saying the attackers had a gun, knew the woman’s name and that she worked for Van Drew, a strong supporter of President Donald Trump.

    Responding police soon found the woman lying in a wooded area with her shirt pulled over her head and her hands and feet zip tied, according to prosecutors. She had several cuts on her face, neck, chest and shoulder, while slogans criticizing Trump and Van Drew were written with black marker on her stomach and back.

    The woman later repeated her claims about the attack while being interviewed by police and FBI agents, according to prosecutors. But authorities allege the story soon started to unravel when they searched the woman’s Maserati and found zip ties and duct tape inside.

    A search of her cellphone found she was following communities on Reddit for “bodymods” and “scarification” and had obtained directions to the studio of a body-modification artist in Pennsylvania, court documents say.

    The artist at the studio showed investigators messages from the woman requesting specific scar patterns on her body and photos from after the procedure, which matched the lacerations she had when she was found in the woods, prosecutors say.

    The woman was charged with conspiracy to convey false statements and hoaxes and another count of making false statements to federal law enforcement. She made her initial court appearance Wednesday.

    A statement issued by Van Drew’s office said he was “deeply saddened” about the incident and said their “thoughts and prayers” were with the woman, adding “we hope she’s getting the care she needs.” His office did not immediately respond Thursday to questions on whether she was still working for the congressman at the time of the incident.

    Louis Barbone, a lawyer representing the woman, noted she is presumed innocent of the charges.

    “At the age of 26, my client served her community working full time to serve the constituents of the Congressman with loyalty and fidelity. She did that while being a fulltime student,” Barbone said in a statement issued Thursday. ”Under the law she is presumed innocent and reserves all her defenses for a presentation in a court of law.”

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

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  • Infant Botulism in 10 US States Linked to Formula Being Recalled

    Federal and state health officials are investigating 13 cases in 10 states of infant botulism linked to baby formula that was being recalled, authorities said Saturday.

    ByHeart Inc. agreed to begin recalling two lots of the company’s Whole Nutrition Infant Formula, the Food and Drug Administration said in a statement.

    All 13 infants were hospitalized after consuming formula from two lots: 206VABP/251261P2 and 206VABP/251131P2.

    The cases occurred in Arizona, California, Illinois, Minnesota, New Jersey, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas and Washington.

    No deaths were reported. The FDA said it was investigating how the contamination happened and whether it affected any other products.

    Available online and through major retailers, the product accounted for an estimated 1% of national formula sales, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

    People who bought the recalled formula should record the lot number if possible before throwing it out or returning it to where it was purchased, the CDC said in a statement.

    They should use a dishwasher or hot, soapy water to clean items and surfaces that touched the formula. And they should seek medical care right away if an infant has consumed recalled formula and then had poor feeding, loss of head control, difficulty swallowing or decreased facial expression.

    Infant botulism is caused by a bacterium that produces toxins in the large intestine.

    Symptoms can take weeks to develop, so parents should keep vigilant, the CDC said.

    A ByHeart spokesperson did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment Saturday.

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

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  • 2 More Men Charged in FBI Investigation Related to Alleged Halloween Plot in Michigan

    The allegations against Tomas Jimenez-Guzel and Saed Mirreh, both 19, do not specifically focus on Michigan, where three people were charged, but they have a connection. Investigators said the two were poised to travel abroad and fight for the Islamic State group.

    Jimenez-Guzel and Mirreh were charged Wednesday with conspiring to provide material support to a designated terrorist organization. Jimenez-Guzel faces an additional charge of attempting to provide material support.

    The Montclair, New Jersey, man was arrested Tuesday while trying to fly to Turkey from the airport in Newark, the FBI said. Mirreh was arrested in Kent, Washington, where he lives.

    They had discussed “comprehensive plans” to travel abroad for Islamic State, the FBI said in a court filing in Newark.

    Those plans picked up speed after the Oct. 31 arrests of several people in the Detroit area with whom they had been communicating, the FBI said.

    Messages seeking comment from their attorneys were not immediately returned Friday.

    In Michigan, three young men have been charged with conspiracy and receiving and transferring guns and ammunition for an attack. Investigators said a group chat between the men indicated they were planning a Halloween attack with repeated references to pumpkins and pumpkin emojis.

    The possible targets, according to the FBI, were LGBTQ+ bars in suburban Detroit. One man also scouted Cedar Point, an amusement park in northern Ohio. Separately, The Detroit News reported Friday that a 16-year-old boy is in federal custody as part of the investigation.

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

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  • Democrats Are Hopeful Again. but Unresolved Questions Remain About Party’s Path Forward

    WASHINGTON (AP) — For a day, at least, beleaguered Democrats are hopeful again. But just beneath the party’s relief at securing its first big electoral wins since last November’s drubbing lay unresolved questions about its direction heading into next year’s midterm elections.

    The Election Day romp of Republicans stretched from deep-blue New York and California to swing states Georgia, Pennsylvania and Virginia. There were signs that key voting groups, including young people, Black voters and Hispanics who shifted toward President Donald Trump’s Republican Party just a year ago, may be shifting back. And Democratic leaders across the political spectrum coalesced behind a simple message focused on Trump’s failure to address rising costs and everyday kitchen table issues.

    The dominant performance sparked a new round of debate among the party’s establishment-minded pragmatists and fiery progressives over which approach led to Tuesday’s victories, and which path to take into the high-stakes 2026 midterm elections and beyond. The lessons Democrats learn from the victories will help determine the party’s leading message and messengers next year — when elections will decide the balance of power in Congress for the second half of Trump’s term — and potentially in the 2028 presidential race, which has already entered its earliest stages.

    “Of course, there’s a division within the Democratic Party. There’s no secret,” Sen. Bernie Sanders told reporters at a Capitol Hill press conference about the election results.

    Sanders and his chief political strategist pointed to the success of New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist, as a model for Democrats across the country. But Rep. Suzan Del Bene, who leads the House Democrats’ midterm campaign strategy, avoided saying Mamdani’s name when asked about his success.

    Del Bene instead cheered the moderate approach adopted by Democrats Abigail Spanberger and Mikie Sherrill in successful races for governor in Virginia and New Jersey as a more viable track for candidates outside of a Democratic stronghold like New York City.

    “New York is bright blue … and the path to the majority in the House is going to be through purple districts,” she told The Associated Press. “The people of Arizona, Iowa and Nebraska aren’t focused on the mayor of New York.”

    Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a likely Democratic presidential prospect who campaigned alongside Democrats in several states leading up to Tuesday’s elections, noted the candidates hit on a common issue that resonated with voters, regardless of location.

    “All of these candidates who won in these different states were focused on peoples’ everyday needs,” Shapiro said. “And you saw voters in every one of those states and cities showing up to send a clear message to Donald Trump that they’re rejecting his chaos.”

    Amid Democrats’ celebratory phone calls and news conferences, members of the party’s different wings had some sharp critiques for each other.

    While Shapiro cheered the party’s success during a Wednesday interview, he also acknowledged concerns about Mamdani in New York.

    Shapiro, one of the nation’s most prominent Jewish elected leaders, said he’s not comfortable with some of Mamdani’s comments on Israel. The New York mayor-elect, a Muslim, has described Israel’s response to the Oct. 7 attacks as “genocide” against the Palestinian people and has been slow to condemn rhetoric linked to anti-Semitism.

    “I’ve expressed that to him personally. We’ve had good private communications,” Shapiro said of his concerns. “And I hope, as he did last night in his victory speech, that he’ll be a mayor that protects all New Yorkers and tries to bring people together.”

    Meanwhile, Sanders’ political strategist, Faiz Shakir, warned Democrats against embracing “cookie cutter campaigns that say nothing and do nothing” — a reference to centrist Democrats Spanberger and Sherrill.

    Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, a Democrat who defeated democratic socialist Omar Fateh to win a third term, said at a news conference Wednesday that “we have to love our city more than our ideology.”

    “We need to be doing everything possible to push back on authoritarianism and what Donald Trump is doing,” Frey said. “And at the same time, the opposite of Donald Trump extremism is not the opposite extreme.”

    Despite potential cracks in the Democratic coalition, it’s hard to understate the extent of the party’s electoral success.

    In Georgia, two Democrats cruised to wins over Republican incumbents in elections to the state Public Service Commission, delivering the largest statewide margins of victory by Democrats in more than 20 years.

    In Pennsylvania, Democrats swept not only three state Supreme Court races, but every county seat in presidential swing counties like Bucks and Erie Counties, including sheriffs. Bucks County elected its first Democratic district attorney as Democrats there also won key school board races and county judgeships.

    Maine voters defeated a Republican-backed measure that would have mandated showing an ID at the polls. Colorado approved raising taxes on people earning more than $300,000 annually to fund school meal programs and food assistance for low-income state residents. And California voters overwhelmingly backed a charge led by Gov. Gavin Newsom to redraw its congressional map to give Democrats as many as five more House seats in upcoming elections.


    Key groups coming back to Democrats

    Trump made inroads with Black and Hispanic voters in 2024. But this week, Democrats scored strong performances with non-white voters in New Jersey and Virginia that offered promise.

    About 7 in 10 voters in New Jersey were white, according to the AP Voter Poll. And Sherrill won about half that group. But she made up for her relative weakness with whites with a strong showing among Black, Hispanic and Asian voters.

    The vast majority — about 9 in 10 — of Black voters supported Sherrill, as did about 8 in 10 Asian voters.

    Hispanic voters in New Jersey were more divided, but about two-thirds supported Sherrill; only about 3 in 10 voted for the Republican nominee, Jack Ciattarelli.

    The pattern was similar in Virginia, where Spanberger performed well among Black voters, Hispanic voters and Asian voters, even though she didn’t win a majority of white voters.


    Democrats will soon face a choice

    The debate over the party’s future is already starting to play out in key midterm elections where Democrats have just begun intra-party primary contests.

    The choice is stark in Maine’s high-stakes Senate race, where Democrats will pick from a field that features establishment favorite, Gov. Jan Mills, and Sanders-endorsed populist Graham Platner. A similar dynamic could play out in key contests across Massachusetts, New York, Texas and Michigan.

    Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, who is aligned with the progressive wing of the party, said the people he speaks to are demanding bold action to address their economic concerns.

    “Folks are so frustrated by how hard its become to afford a dignified life here in Michigan and across the country,” he said.

    “I’m sure the corporate donors don’t want us to push too hard,” El-Sayed continued. “My worry is the very same people who told us we were just fine in 2024 will miss the mandate.”

    Associated Press reporter Mike Catalini in Newark and Joey Cappelletti 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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  • California Legislation Could Lead to Better Online Privacy Nationwide

    The privacy changes web browsers will be required to make under a new California law could set the de facto standard for the entire country, changing how Americans control their data when using the internet, according to experts.

    Assembly Bill 566, recently signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom, requires companies that make web browsers to offer users an opt-out “signal” that automatically tells websites not to share or sell their personal information as they browse.

    It will likely be easier for companies to roll out the service for the entire country, rather than for users only in California.

    “It’s such a trivial implementation,” said Emory Roane, associate director of policy at Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, an organization that pushed for the legislation. “It’s really not that difficult technically.”

    The legislation, a first of its kind in the country, was sponsored by the California Privacy Protection Agency, the state’s consumer privacy watchdog, as well as several consumer advocacy and privacy rights groups.

    Under the law, browsers like Google’s Chrome and Microsoft’s Edge will have until the beginning of 2027 to create a way for consumers to select the signal. Combined with recent changes from other states, the new law could be a tipping point in how web traffic is treated in the United States.

    “We expect it to have a national impact,” Roane said.

    California already offers privacy protections under the California Consumer Privacy Act, including customers’ right to opt out from having their information sold.

    But advocates for the new law point out this still puts the burden on the consumer to navigate to web pages and individually select web pages to opt out from. The new tool will effectively automate that process, giving consumers a single toggle to keep their data protected.

    “I would argue if you have to go to every individual website and click the link saying you ‘don’t want your information sold or shared,’ that’s not really a meaningful privacy right,” said Caitriona Fitzgerald, deputy director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, another organization that pressed for AB 566.

    Already, some browser makers have voluntarily offered similar settings under a framework called the Global Privacy Control. Mozilla’s Firefox, for example, includes a setting called “tell websites not to sell or share your data.” With that setting on, the browser communicates to sites that the visitor wants the site to respect the user’s preference.

    But until now, browsers haven’t been required to offer a setting that uses the Global Privacy Control or another standard to communicate users’ preferences. “There are browser extensions but those aren’t very widely used,” said Nick Doty, senior technologist at the Center for Democracy and Technology.

    Since it would likely be burdensome for companies to carve out a way to only allow the signal to be used by Californians, according to experts, the tool will likely be available across the country. How, exactly, that will look still remains to be seen. The legislation doesn’t require browser makers to use a specific standard.

    Spokespeople for Google and Microsoft declined to comment on the companies’ plans.

    There’s still a risk that some websites may try to detect which state a visitor is from, and only respect the signal if they find the visitor is from a state that mandates it.

    This is legally risky, though, according to Roane, who points out that AB 566 applies to residents of California, regardless of whether they’re using the web from California.

    “If I’m safe saying I’m a resident and you’re assuming I’m not and you’re flagrantly not respecting my privacy wishes, that is a violation of the law,” Roane said.


    Pushback from Google and the industry

    The law didn’t get across the finish line without friction. As CalMatters reported in September, despite not being publicly against the legislation, Google organized opposition to the bill through a group it backs financially.

    AB 566 also wasn’t the first attempt at such legislation. Newsom vetoed a similar, but slightly more expansive, version of the bill in 2024.

    But now that the door is open, some advocates say they are going to continue to push to further expand privacy preferences.

    Roane notes that legislation could be drafted that requires connected smart devices to offer an opt-out preference, or for vehicles that gather data on drivers to respect opt-out preference requests.

    “We are finally, finally starting to have real privacy rights,” Roane said, “but we’re far away from them being really easy to exercise across the country and across the border and even in states like California where we have these rights.”

    This story was originally published by CalMatters and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.

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

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  • Photos of the First General Election Since Trump’s Return

    Millions of voters are casting ballots Tuesday in U.S. state and local elections. The biggest contests are in Virginia and New Jersey, the only states electing governors this year. Read what to watch for on Election Day.

    This is a photo gallery curated by AP photo editors.

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

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  • AP Has Declared Winners in Elections for Nearly 180 Years. This Is Why and How Race Calls Are Made

    Those are among the questions The Associated Press will answer when the news organization tabulates votes and declares winners in hundreds of races that are on ballots nationwide Tuesday.

    It’s a role the AP has filled for nearly 180 years, since shortly after its founding.

    Determining a winner involves a careful and thorough analysis of the latest available vote tallies and a variety of other election data. The ultimate goal is to answer this question: Is there any circumstance in which the trailing candidate can catch up to the candidate who is leading the race. If the answer is no, then the leading candidate has won.

    Here’s a look at the AP’s role and its process for determining the outcome of elections, also known as calling a race:

    The United States does not have a nationwide body that collects and releases election results. Elections are administered locally, by thousands of offices, following standards set by the states. In many cases, the states themselves do not even offer up-to-date tracking of election results.

    The AP fills this gap by compiling vote results and declaring winners in elections, providing critical information in the period between Election Day and the official certification of results, which typically takes weeks.

    The AP’s vote count brings together information that otherwise might not be available online for days or weeks after an election or is scattered across hundreds of local websites. Without national standards or consistent expectations across states, it also ensures the data is in a standard format, uses standard terms and undergoes rigorous quality control.

    The AP hires vote count reporters who work with local election officials to collect results directly from counties or precincts where votes are first counted. These reporters submit them, by phone or electronically, as soon as the results are available. If any of the results are available from state or county websites, the AP will gather the results from there, too.

    In many cases, counties will update vote totals as they count ballots throughout the night. The AP is continuously updating its count as these results are released. In a general election, the AP will make as many as 21,000 vote updates per hour.

    As votes are coming in, the AP will analyze races to determine the winners.

    One key piece that the AP considers is how many ballots are uncounted and from what areas. In cases where official or exact tallies of the outstanding vote are unavailable, the AP estimates the turnout in every race based on several factors and uses that estimate to track how much of the vote has been counted and how much remains.

    The AP also tries to determine how ballots counted so far were cast and the types of vote, such as mail ballots or ballots cast in person on Election Day, that remain.

    That is because the method that voters choose can be correlated to the party they voted for. Since voting by mail became highly politicized in the 2020 election, Democrats have been more likely to vote by mail, while Republicans have been more likely to vote in-person on Election Day.

    In many states, it is possible to know which votes will be counted first, based on past elections or plans announced by election officials. In others, votes are clearly marked by type when released.

    This helps to determine if an early lead is expected to shrink or grow. For example, if a state first counts votes cast in person on Election Day, followed by mail-in votes, that suggests that an early Republican lead may narrow as more mail ballots are tabulated. But if the reverse is true and mail ballots are counted first, an early Republican lead could be the first sign of a comfortable victory.

    In almost all cases, races can be called well before all votes have been counted. The AP’s team of election journalists and analysts will call a race as soon as a clear winner can be determined.

    In competitive races, AP analysts may need to wait until additional votes are tallied or to confirm specific information about how many ballots are left to count.

    Competitive races where votes are actively being tabulated — for example, in states that count a large number of votes after election night — might be considered “too early to call.” A race may be “too close to call” if a race is so close that there is no clear winner even once all ballots except for provisional and late-arriving absentee ballots have been counted.

    The AP’s race calls are not predictions and are not based on speculation. They are declarations based on an analysis of vote results and other election data that one candidate has emerged as the winner and that no other candidate in the race will be able to overtake the winner once all the votes have been counted.

    Follow along as AP tabulates votes and calls races beginning Tuesday night. Check out results pages and notes from the decision team here.

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

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  • Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Transferred to New Jersey Prison to Serve 4-Year Prostitution-Related Sentence

    NEW YORK (AP) — Sean “Diddy” Combs has been transferred to a prison in New Jersey to serve out the remainder of his four-year prison sentence on prostitution-related charges.

    The hip-hop mogul is currently incarcerated at the Fort Dix Federal Correctional Institute, located about 34 miles (55 kilometers) east of Philadelphia on the grounds of the joint military base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, according to his listing in the federal Bureau of Prisons inmate database as of Friday.

    It’s not immediately clear when Combs was moved from the troubled Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, where he had been held since his arrest last September.

    Lawyers for Combs and spokespersons for the agency didn’t immediately respond to emails seeking comment Friday.

    Combs’ lawyers had asked a judge earlier this month to “strongly recommend” transferring him to the low-security male prison so that he could take part in the facility’s drug treatment program.

    FCI Fort Dix, one of several dozen federal prisons with a residential drug treatment program, would best allow Combs “to address drug abuse issues and to maximize family visitation and rehabilitative efforts,” Teny Geragos, his lawyer, wrote in a letter.

    Combs has already served about 14 months of his 50-month sentence and is set to be released from prison on May 8, 2028, though he can earn reductions in his time behind bars through his participation in substance abuse treatment and other prison programs.

    Earlier this week, Combs’ lawyers asked a federal appeals court to quickly consider the legality of his conviction and sentence. The 55-year-old wants his appeal to be considered soon enough that he can benefit from a reduction of time spent in prison if the appeals court reverses his conviction, his lawyers said.

    President Donald Trump has also said Combs had asked him for a pardon, though the Republican did not say if he would grant the request.

    The founder of Bad Boy Records was convicted in July of flying his girlfriends and male sex workers around the country to engage in drug-fueled sexual encounters in multiple places over many years. However, he was acquitted of sex trafficking and racketeering charges that could have put him behind bars for life.

    In a letter to the judge before he was sentenced, Combs said he has gone through a “spiritual reset” in jail and was “committed to the journey of remaining a drug free, non-violent and peaceful person.”

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

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  • Jim McGreevey Is Back on the Ballot, 21 Years After Scandal Led Him to Resign as New Jersey Governor

    JERSEY CITY, N.J. (AP) — Two decades after resigning as New Jersey’s governor and stunning the political world as he declared “I am a gay American,” Jim McGreevey is back on the campaign trail, running for mayor of the state’s second-largest city.

    McGreevey, a Democrat, is one of seven candidates in a nonpartisan race to replace Steven Fulop as mayor of Jersey City, just across the Hudson River from Manhattan.

    He’s running, he said, because he’s concerned that the city of his birth is at a “tipping point,” with pricy downtown high-rises raising housing costs, young people struggling to find employment and what he says are underperforming schools.

    “This is not a cathartic exercise,” McGreevey told The Associated Press in an interview ahead of Tuesday’s election. “I’ve done that long ago. That was done 20-plus years ago. This is to make Jersey City better. To improve services. To balance the budget. To be responsive to familial needs.”

    McGreevey’s opponents include two city council members, a Hudson County commissioner, a city police officer and the former president of the city’s board of education. Fulop isn’t seeking a fourth term.

    If no candidate receives more than 50% of the vote, a runoff election will be held Dec. 2.


    Opponent: I never had to ‘resign in disgrace’

    McGreevey’s resignation is etched in New Jersey political lore.

    In a televised speech on Aug. 12, 2004, McGreevey said, as his wife and parents looked on, that he was quitting because he had engaged in an extramarital affair with another man. With that revelation, he became the country’s first openly gay governor.

    The circumstances of McGreevey’s exit were more complicated than his merely coming out. The man McGreevey had been involved with was Golan Cipel, a former Israeli naval officer he had appointed as the state’s homeland security adviser in 2002.

    Cipel, who met McGreevey in Israel and worked for his campaign as a Jewish community liaison, was not qualified for the $110,000-per-year position, in part because, as an Israeli citizen, he couldn’t obtain the necessary U.S. security clearances.

    Cipel quit a few months into his tenure and threatened to sue McGreevey for sexual harassment, hastening the governor’s resignation. Cipel has denied that any affair occurred, saying he was the victim of McGreevey’s “repeated sexual advances.”

    Some of McGreevey’s opponents in the mayoral race have argued that his conduct as governor should disqualify him with voters. One rival, city council member James Solomon, argued that McGreevey’s run is an extension of corruption that he claimed infected his time as governor.

    Another rival, former school board president Mussab Ali, said at a recent debate: “I have never had the experience of having to resign in disgrace.”

    “My opponents may care about what happened 20 years ago,” McGreevey said. “Folks in Jersey City are worried about their rent today, worried about the children’s individual education plan today. They’re concerned about the fact that the street is dirty or that there’s a sewer break on Montgomery (Street).”


    McGreevey: ‘This would be a great closing act’

    Jersey City is where McGreevey’s grandfather moved after leaving Northern Ireland, and where his father took him for meals at the VIP Diner — a time capsule where the pay phones still work.

    And it’s where McGreevey, 68, who now runs a prison reentry nonprofit, would like to finish his once-promising political career by managing a city of nearly 303,000 residents with a municipal budget of about $700 million.

    “This would be a great closing act,” McGreevey said, an American flag pin on his lapel. “And candidly, to get the city in the right place, it’ll require some time.”

    McGreevey said he’d long ago made peace with being out of politics. He got divorced, attended an Episcopal seminary, earned a Master of Divinity degree, volunteered at a Harlem ministry and took steps to become a priest before pivoting to nonprofit work.

    As executive director of the Jersey City-based New Jersey Reentry Corporation, he said he has seen the difficulty formerly incarcerated people and veterans have finding housing and employment.

    McGreevey launched his campaign on Halloween in 2023 and posted a video soon after acknowledging his past. The title: “Second chances are central to who I am.”

    His run has drawn parallels to another ex-governor looking for a second chance. Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who resigned after being accused of sexual harassment, is running for mayor of neighboring New York City.


    McGreevey: ‘I enjoy people more. I enjoy politics a lot less’

    McGreevey said his absence from public life has given him a perspective on how politics has changed and become more polarized.

    A former prosecutor and head of the state parole board, McGreevey entered politics in 1990 as a member of the state assembly. Before becoming governor in 2002, he was mayor of Woodbridge Township, a suburb of about 103,000 residents.

    “When I was a young Assemblyman, we would campaign hard on the Democratic ticket, but then, after I was elected, you would work with Democrats and Republicans on committees, on legislation,” McGreevey said. “My sense is today, whether it’s the city or the state or the nation, almost everything is viewed through a political lens as opposed to a governmental lens.”

    Twenty years away has also changed McGreevey, he says.

    “I enjoy people more. I enjoy politics a lot less,” he said.

    Whether enough people like McGreevey and his politics enough to give him that second chance will become clearer in the weeks ahead.

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

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  • From Beaches to Ski Slopes, Photos Show How Cameras Keep Watch All Over China

    The Chinese government has blanketed the country with the world’s largest network of surveillance cameras.

    Some cameras swivel, ensuring sweeping views of public squares. Others scan license plates of passing cars, allowing police to track vehicles in real-time. At night, cameras light up across China’s cities, shining lights down alleys and corners.

    Over the past few decades, the Chinese government has rolled out a series of high-tech surveillance projects aimed at bringing the entire country under watch, including “Sky Net” and the “Golden Shield”.

    The latest such project is called the “Xueliang Project,” or Sharp Eyes, a reference to a quote from Communist China’s founder, Mao Zedong, who once said “the people have sharp eyes” when urging them to root out neighbors opposed to socialist values.

    The cameras studding China are knitted together in policing systems that allow authorities to track and control virtually anyone in the country, often targeting perceived threats to the state like dissidents, religious believers or ethnic minorities. Following directives from Beijing to ensure “100 percent coverage” in key public areas, authorities have installed facial-recognition cameras across the country, including in unlikely locations:

    A slew of cameras greets visitors to Beijing, with a screen underneath announcing: “Amazing China travel starts here!”

    At times, entire neighborhoods have been demolished and rebuilt in part to make it easier for cameras to keep watch. The historic quarter of Xinjiang’s ancient silk road city of Kashgar, once a maze-like warren of twisting alleys, was demolished and rebuilt with wider avenues and thousands of camera that light up at night.

    China’s cities, roads and villages are now studded with more cameras than the rest of the world combined, analysts say — roughly one for every two people.

    The goal is clear, according to authorities: Total surveillance in every corner of the country, with “no blind spots” to be found.

    This is a photo gallery curated by AP photo editors.

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  • Congress Shielded Gun Companies From Lawsuits. Some Blue States Think They’ve Found a Loophole

    HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Two decades after a Republican-controlled Congress gave gun manufacturers immunity from being sued over crimes committed with their firearms, blue state Democrats upset about gun violence think they’ve found a way to penetrate that legal shield.

    Since 2021, 10 states have passed laws intended to make it easier to sue gunmakers and sellers.

    The newest such law, in Connecticut, took effect this month. It opens firearms manufacturers and retailers up to lawsuits if they don’t take steps to prevent guns from getting into the hands of people banned from owning them, or who should be suspected of intending to use them to hurt themselves or others. Other states have allowed lawsuits against companies deemed to have created a “public nuisance” through the sale or marketing of firearms.

    The legislation — and flurry of lawsuits against gun companies that followed — has outraged gun rights advocates, who accuse the states of trying to skirt the 2005 Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act.

    That law, which blocked a wave of similar lawsuits two decades ago, says gun companies operating legally cannot be held liable for violent acts committed by people misusing weapons.

    “They know these laws are unconstitutional. They know these laws violate the PLCAA,” said Lawrence G. Keane, senior vice president for government and public affairs at the National Shooting Sports Foundation. “They don’t care,” he said, adding that the real goal of the lawsuits was to harass the industry and drain it financially.

    Gun control groups say the states have simply set clearer requirements for gun companies to ensure their products aren’t sold or used illegally.

    “These laws don’t just open the courthouse doors to survivors. They also force the gun industry to operate more responsibly and, most importantly, can help prevent future tragedies,” said Po Murray, chair of the Newtown Action Alliance, a gun-violence prevention group founded after the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.


    Two decades of federal immunity

    Congress adopted protections for the gun industry after lawsuits filed in Chicago, New York, Los Angeles and elsewhere attempted to hold the firearms industry responsible for violent crime.

    Many of those suits argued that gun companies had knowingly oversupplied certain markets with cheap handguns and ignored signs that those weapons were being trafficked to places with strict gun controls.

    The firearms industry and the National Rifle Association saw the lawsuits as unfair. As long as gun companies weren’t breaking rules around sales, they shouldn’t be held responsible for violence, they said.

    President George W. Bush, a Republican, agreed and signed the shield law in 2005, saying it helped stem “frivolous lawsuits.”

    “Our laws should punish criminals who use guns to commit crimes, not law-abiding manufacturers of lawful products,” Bush said at the time.

    The legal protections Congress gave the gun industry aren’t absolute.

    For example, a gunmaker that sells a faulty firearm can still be sued over dangerous defects. Another exception allows lawsuits against companies that knowingly violate laws regulating how firearms are sold and marketed.

    When Congress drafted that exception, it cited the example of a shop that knowingly sold a gun to someone banned from owning one, such as a convicted felon.

    The new state laws have sought to expand potential liability for gun companies by creating new rules for the industry. New York passed a law in 2021 requiring gun companies to create controls to prevent unlawful possession or use of their products. It also says they cannot knowingly or recklessly “contribute to a condition” that endangers public safety.

    “Any business operating in New York must adhere to our laws — and if they don’t, they are held accountable,” said Democratic state Sen. Zellnor Myrie, the law’s chief proponent.

    Many of the new laws follow legal theories from a lawsuit filed against gunmaker Remington by families of Sandy Hook victims. The suit, which was settled for $73 million in 2022, argued that Remington’s marketing violated state consumer protection law.

    It’s too soon to say if courts will uphold the new state laws.

    A panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in July that New York’s law wasn’t expressly barred by the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, but that decision is not expected to be the last word. One of the judges, Dennis Jacobs, made it clear he believes the law is vulnerable to future legal challenges, calling it “nothing short of an attempt to end-run PLCAA.”

    The U.S. Supreme Court, which is controlled 6-3 by Republican-nominated justices, hasn’t yet considered the state liability laws, but the gun industry was encouraged when the justices unanimously agreed in June to toss out a $10 billion lawsuit Mexico filed against top firearms manufacturers claiming their business practices fuel cartel violence.

    Justice Elena Kagan, a Democratic nominee, wrote in her opinion how Congress passed PLCAA to halt lawsuits similar to the one filed by Mexico. She said Mexico had made no plausible argument that the companies knowingly helped gun trafficking.

    “The Court doubts Congress intended to draft such a capacious way out of PLCAA, and in fact it did not,” she wrote.

    Associated Press Writer Dave Collins contributed to this report.

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  • Bon Jovi Is Hitting the Road. Band Announces First Tour Since Jon Bon Jovi’s Vocal Cord Surgery

    NEW YORK (AP) — Decades into his career and the unthinkable happened. It was 2022, and Jon Bon Jovi began struggling through his songs. He saw a doctor who said one of his vocal cords was atrophying. He needed major surgery.

    Bon Jovi had the procedure, and in the years since, has undergone extensive rehab, leading to the current moment: Next summer his band, Bon Jovi, will embark on their first tour in four years.

    The “Forever Tour” kicks off with four nights at New York’s Madison Square Garden before the band heads to Edinburgh, Scotland; Dublin and London.

    “There is a lot of joy in this announcement — joy that we can share these nights together with our amazing fans and joy that the band can be together,” Bon Jovi said in a statement. “I’ve spoken extensively on my gratitude but I will say it again, I’m deeply grateful that the fans and the brotherhood of this band have been patient and allowed me the time needed to get healthy and prepare for touring. I’m ready and excited!”

    Bon Jovi’s last concert was held on April 30, 2022, in Nashville — as seen in the 2024 Hulu documentary, “Thank You, Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story.”

    An artist presale begins Tuesday at 10 a.m. Eastern. General sales launch Oct. 31, also at 10 a.m. Eastern, via bonjovi.com.

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  • New Jersey Republicans Ask for Federal Monitors in Critical County Ahead of Governor’s Election

    The U.S. Department of Justice is reviewing a request from New Jersey Republicans to send election monitors to oversee the handling of mail ballots in a key county that will help settle the state’s Nov. 4 governor’s race.

    The New Jersey Republican State Committee told Harmeet Dhillon, who leads the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department, in a letter that federal intervention is necessary to ensure an accurate vote count in Passaic County.

    The suburban county has been a Democratic stronghold. But it shifted to President Donald Trump’s column in 2024 and may be critical to GOP gubernatorial nominee Jack Ciattarelli’s hopes against Democratic nominee Mikie Sherrill.

    New Jersey Republicans asked specifically for federal monitors to “oversee the receipt and processing of vote-by-mail ballots” and “take steps to monitor access to the Board of Elections around the clock.”

    Justice Department spokesman Gates McGavick said in a statement that the agency “is committed to upholding the integrity of our electoral system and is reviewing this request to ensure all elections remain free, fair, and transparent.”

    The New Jersey GOP request cited previous voter fraud cases in the county, alleging a “long and sordid history” of vote-by-mail shenanigans and asserting that state officials have not done enough in response.

    New Jersey Attorney General Matt Platkin’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

    While voter fraud does occur nationally, it is rare and there are safeguards in place to prevent it. But Passaic County drew Trump’s attention in 2020 as a case study in what could happen in an election conducted mostly by mail.

    A judge ordered a new election for a city council seat in Paterson — the largest city in Passaic County — after the apparent winner and others were charged with voter fraud. The Passaic County Board of Elections decided not to count 800 ballots cast in the race after the U.S. Postal Service’s law enforcement arm said hundreds of mail-in ballots were located in a mailbox in Paterson, along with more found in nearby Haledon.

    In 2024, Trump became the first Republican presidential nominee to win Passaic County in more than 30 years. He carried the heavily Latino city of Passaic and significantly increased his support in Paterson, the state’s third-largest city, which is majority Latino and has a large Muslim community.

    That performance was part of Trump dramatically improving his statewide performance in New Jersey. In 2020, he lost the state by nearly 16 percentage points to Demcorat Joe Biden. Trump narrowed that margin to 6 percentage points last year in his matchup against Democrat Kamala Harris.

    Trump has for years questioned mail voting as part of his repeated false claims that Biden’s national victory in 2020 was rigged. Trump has suggested that mail balloting is riddled with fraud, despite analyses that show no widespread fraud in U.S. elections. Earlier this year, Trump pledged to ban vote-by-mail across the country, something he has no power to do under the U.S. Constitution.

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

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  • Thousands of Orthodox Jews Rally in New York to Protest Change in Israel’s Military Draft Rules

    NEW YORK (AP) — Thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews packed the streets and sidewalks for blocks around the Israeli consulate in New York City on Sunday to protest issues including a potential end of an exemption for religious students from compulsory service in Israel’s military.

    The protest at the consulate, a block from the United Nations campus in Manhattan, illustrated the complex relationship between Israel and segments of the large population of very religious Jews in New York and its suburbs.

    The two influential, and often rival, grand rebbes of the Satmar community both called on adherents to participate in the demonstration. The Central Rabbinical Congress of the U.S.A. and Canada, a consortium of Orthodox Jewish groups, said it helped organize the protest.

    It comes after Israel’s Supreme Court last year ordered the government to begin drafting ultra-Orthodox Jewish men into the military. There had been a longstanding enlistment exemption — dating to the founding of Israel in 1948.

    The ultra-Orthodox worry that mandatory enlistment will impact adherents’ ties to their faith. But many Jewish Israelis have argued that an exemption is unfair. Rifts over the issue have deepened since the start of the war in Gaza.

    Rabbi Moishe Indig, a Satmar community leader, said he’s not sure organizers expected so many people to show up but he said he felt urgency building around the issue.

    He said he was appreciative of the governments in New York and the U.S. “for giving us the freedom and liberty to be able to live free and have our children go to school and study and learn the Torah.”

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  • George Santos Says He’s Humbled but Dismisses ‘Pearl Clutching’ Critics

    NEW YORK (AP) — Freed from the prison where he had been serving time for ripping off his campaign donors, former U.S. Rep. George Santos says he’s humbled by his experience behind bars but unconcerned about the “pearl clutching” of critics upset that President Donald Trump granted him clemency.

    “I’m pretty confident if President Trump had pardoned Jesus Christ off the cross, he would have had critics,” Santos said Sunday in an interview on CNN.

    Santos, who won office after inventing a bogus persona as a Wall Street dealmaker, pleaded guilty to fraud and identity theft last year and began serving a 7-year sentence in July at a prison in New Jersey. But Trump ordered him released him Friday after he’d served just 84 days. Trump called Santos a “rogue,” but said he didn’t deserve a harsh sentence and should get credit for voting Republican.

    Speaking on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Santos said he had “learned a great deal” and had “a very large slice of humble pie, if not the whole pie” while in prison.

    He also apologized to former constituents in his New York congressional district, saying he was “in a chaotic ball of flame” when he committed his crimes. Santos admitted last year to deceiving donors and stealing the identities of 11 people — including his own family members.

    But when asked about fellow Republicans unhappy that Trump freed him so soon, Santos said other presidential acts of clemency had been worse, citing President Joe Biden’s decision to pardon his son, Hunter, for gun and tax crimes.

    “So pardon me if I’m not paying too much attention to the pearl-clutching of the outrage of my critics,” Santos said.

    As part of his guilty plea, Santos had agreed to pay restitution of $373,750 and forfeiture of $205,003. But Trump’s clemency order appeared to clear him of paying any further fines or restitution.

    Santos said he has been granted a second chance and intended to “make amends,” but when asked if he intended to pay back the campaign donors he had defrauded, he said only if he had to.

    “If it’s required of me by the law, yes. If it’s not, then no,” Santos said.

    Santos had appealed to Trump directly for help, citing his loyalty to the president’s agenda and to the Republican Party in a letter published Oct. 13 in The South Shore Press. But he said Sunday that he had no expectations and learned of his commutation from fellow inmates who saw the news on television.

    Revelations that Santos invented much of his life story surfaced just weeks after he became the first openly gay Republican to elected to Congress in 2022.

    Santos had said while campaigning that he was a successful business consultant with a sizable real estate portfolio. But he ultimately admitted to embellishing his biography. He had never graduated from Baruch College, where he had claimed to be a standout player on the Manhattan college’s volleyball team. He had never worked at Citigroup and Goldman Sachs. He didn’t own property.

    In truth, he struggling financially, had drifted through several jobs, including one for a company accused of running a Ponzi scheme, and even faced eviction.

    After becoming just the sixth person to be expelled from Congress, Santos made hundreds of thousands of dollars selling personalized videos to the public on Cameo. He returned to the service Sunday.

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  • Learn About Diwali, the Festival of Lights

    It is celebrated across faiths by more than a billion people in the world’s most populous nation and the diaspora. Over five days, people take part in festive gatherings, fireworks displays, feasts and prayer.

    Diwali is derived from the word “Deepavali,” which means “a row of lights.” Celebrants light rows of traditional clay oil lamps outside their homes to symbolize the victory of light over darkness and knowledge over ignorance.


    Diwali’s date is based on Hindu lunar calendar

    The dates of the festival are based on the Hindu lunar calendar, typically falling in late October or early November.

    This year, the holiday is being celebrated on Oct. 20.


    Diwali’s underlying theme

    While Diwali is a major religious festival for Hindus, it is also observed by Sikhs, Jains and Buddhists. The origin story of Diwali varies depending on the region. All these stories have one underlying theme — the victory of good over evil.

    In southern India, Diwali celebrates the victory of Lord Krishna’s destruction of the demon Naraka who is said to have imprisoned women and tormented his subjects. In northern India, Diwali honors the triumphant return of Lord Rama, his wife Sita, and brother Lakshmana, from a 14-year exile in the forest.


    The celebrations feature lights, fireworks, feasting

    The festival brings with it a number of unique traditions, which also vary by the region. What all celebrations have in common are the lights, fireworks, feasting, new clothes and praying.

    —In southern India, many have an early morning warm oil bath to symbolize bathing in the holy River Ganges as a form of physical and spiritual purification.

    —In the north, worshipping the Goddess Lakshmi, who symbolizes wealth and prosperity, is the norm.

    Gambling is a popular tradition because of the belief whoever gambled on Diwali night would prosper throughout the year. Many people buy gold on the first day of Diwali, known as Dhanteras — an act they believe will bring them good luck.

    Setting off firecrackers is a cherished tradition, as is exchanging sweets and gifts among friends and family. Diwali celebrations typically feature rangoli, which are geometric, floral patterns drawn on the floor using colorful powders. While several northern states had instituted partial or total bans to combat rising air pollution levels during the festival, India’s Supreme Court recently ruled allowing the sale of “green fireworks” believed to be less polluting.


    Some other faiths have their own Diwali stories

    Buddhists, Jains and Sikhs have their own Diwali stories:

    —Jains observe Diwali as the day the Lord Mahavira, the last of the great teachers, attained nirvana, which is liberation from the cycle of birth, death and rebirth.

    —Sikhs celebrate Bandi Chhor Divas — a day that overlaps with Diwali — to commemorate the release of Guru Hargobind, a revered figure in the faith, who had been imprisoned by the Mughal emperor Jahangir.

    —Buddhists observe the day as one when the Hindu Emperor Ashoka, who ruled in the third century B.C., converted to Buddhism.


    New in 2025:
    California makes Diwali an official state holiday

    The law, which will go into effect on Jan. 1, would authorize public schools and community colleges to close on Diwali. State employees could elect to take the day off and public school students will get an excused absence to celebrate the holiday. The new law recognizes that Diwali is also celebrated by Sikhs, Jains and Buddhists.

    Pennsylvania was the first U.S. state to make Diwali a statewide holiday in 2024, followed by Connecticut earlier this year. In June 2023, New York City officially declared Diwali as a public school holiday. Several school districts in New Jersey also observe the holiday with a day off.

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