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  • Trump cuts ties with ‘Wacky’ Marjorie Taylor Greene

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    President Donald Trump has publicly called it quits with one of his most stalwart MAGA-world supporters, calling Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene “’Wacky’ Marjorie” and saying he would endorse a challenger against her in next year’s midterms “if the right person runs.”

    What You Need To Know

    • President Donald Trump has publicly called it quits with one of his most stalwart MAGA-world supporters, calling Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene “’Wacky’ Marjorie” and saying he would endorse a challenger against her in next year’s midterms “if the right person runs.”

    • Greene, a three-term U.S. House member, has increasingly dissented from Republican leaders, attacking them during the just-ended federal government shutdown and saying they need a plan to help people who are losing subsidies to afford health insurance policies

    • Accusing the Georgia Republican of going “Far Left,” Trump wrote that all he had witnessed from Greene in recent months is “COMPLAIN, COMPLAIN, COMPLAIN!” adding, of Greene’s purported irritation that he doesn’t return her phone calls, “I can’t take a ranting Lunatic’s call every day.”

    • Greene’s discontent dates back at least to May, when she announced she wouldn’t run for the Senate against Democratic incumbent Jon Ossoff, while attacking GOP donors and consultants who feared she couldn’t win. In June, she publicly sided with Tucker Carlson after Trump called the commentator “kooky” in a schism that emerged between MAGA and national security hardliners over possible U.S. efforts at regime change in Iran

    The dismissal of Greene — once the epitome of “Make America Great Again,” sporting the signature red cap for President Joe Biden’s 2024 State of the Union address and acting as a go-between for Trump and other Capitol Hill Republicans — appeared to be the final break in a dispute simmering for months, as Greene has seemingly moderated her political profile. The three-term U.S. House member has increasingly dissented from Republican leaders, attacking them during the just-ended federal government shutdown and saying they need a plan to help people who are losing subsidies to afford health insurance policies.

    Accusing the Georgia Republican of going “Far Left,” Trump wrote that all he had witnessed from Greene in recent months is “COMPLAIN, COMPLAIN, COMPLAIN!” adding, of Greene’s purported irritation that he doesn’t return her phone calls, “I can’t take a ranting Lunatic’s call every day.”

    In a response on X, Greene wrote Friday that Trump had “attacked me and lied about me.” She added a screenshot of a text she said she had sent the president earlier in the day about releasing the Jeffrey Epstein files, which she said “is what sent him over the edge.”

    Greene called it “astonishing really how hard he’s fighting to stop the Epstein files from coming out that he actually goes to this level,” referencing next week’s U.S. House vote over releasing the Epstein files.

    Writing that she had supported Trump “with too much of my precious time, too much of my own money, and fought harder for him even when almost all other Republicans turned their back and denounced him,” Greene added, “I don’t worship or serve Donald Trump.”

    Trump’s post seemingly tied a bow of finality to fissures that widened following this month’s off-cycle elections, in which voters in the New Jersey and Virginia governor races flocked to Democrats in large part over concerns about the cost of living.

    Last week, Greene told NBC News that “watching the foreign leaders come to the White House through a revolving door is not helping Americans,” saying that Trump needs to focus on high prices at home rather than his recent emphasis on foreign affairs. Trump responded by saying that Greene had “lost her way.”

    Asked about Greene’s comments earlier Friday as he flew from Washington to Florida, Trump reiterated that he felt “something happened to her over the last month or two,” saying that, if he hadn’t gone to China to meet leader Xi Jinping, there would have been negative ramifications for jobs in Georgia and elsewhere because China would have kept its curbs on magnet exports.

    Saying that people have been calling him, wanting to challenge Greene, Trump added, “She’s lost a wonderful conservative reputation.”

    Greene’s discontent dates back at least to May, when she announced she wouldn’t run for the Senate against Democratic incumbent Jon Ossoff, while attacking GOP donors and consultants who feared she couldn’t win. In June, she publicly sided with Tucker Carlson after Trump called the commentator “kooky” in a schism that emerged between MAGA and national security hardliners over possible U.S. efforts at regime change in Iran.

    That only intensified in July, when Greene said she wouldn’t run for governor. Then, she attacked a political “good ole boy” system, alleging it was endangering Republican control of the state. Greene embarked on a charm offensive in recent weeks, with interviews and appearances in media aimed at people who aren’t hardcore Trump supporters. Asked on comedian Tim Dillon’s podcast if she wanted to run for president in 2028, Greene said in October, “I hate politics so much” and just wanted “to fix problems” — but didn’t give a definitive answer.

    That climaxed with an appearance on Bill Maher’s HBO show “Real Time,” followed days later by a Nov. 4 appearance on ABC’s “The View.” Some observers began pronouncing Greene as reasonable as she trashed Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana for not calling Republicans back to Washington and coming up with a health care plan.

    “I feel like I’m sitting next to a completely different Marjorie Taylor Greene,” said “The View” co-host Sunny Hostin.

    “Maybe you should become a Democrat, Marjorie,” said co-host Joy Behar.

    “I’m not a Democrat,” Greene replied. “I think both parties have failed.”

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    Associated Press

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  • Dune of Dreams: Baseball league in Dubai begins with novel rules and camels

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    UD AL-BAYDA, United Arab Emirates — Emerging from the shimmering heat in the desert outskirts of Dubai is an unfamiliar sight in the Middle East, a baseball field.

    Now that it’s built, though, one question remains: Will the fans come?

    What You Need To Know

    • Baseball United has launched its inaugural season in Dubai, aiming to bring baseball to the Middle East

    • The league featuring four teams kicked off on Friday at the new Barry Larkin Field

    • The Mumbai Cobras faced the Karachi Monarchs, drawing on the sporting rivalry between India and Pakistan and the large number of expatriates in the Emirates
    • The league introduces novel rules to speed up games and attract fans. All games will be at the stadium in Dubai’s desert, with environmental concerns leading to an artificial field. Baseball United hopes to capture interest in a region dominated by soccer and cricket

    That’s the challenge for the inaugural season of Baseball United, a four-team, monthlong contest that began Friday at the new Barry Larkin Field.

    Its named for an investor who is a former Cincinnati Reds shortstop, has the exact dimensions of the field at Yankee Stadium in New York, and is artificially turfed for the broiling sun of the United Arab Emirates.

    The professional league seeks to draw on the sporting rivalry between India and Pakistan and their large number of expatriates in the Emirates. On Friday, the Mumbai Cobras played the Karachi Monarchs. Each team has Indian and Pakistani players seeking to break into the broadcast market saturated by soccer and cricket in this part of the world.

    And while having no big-name players from Major League Baseball, the league has created some of novel rules to speed up games and put more runs on the board — and potentially generate interest for U.S. fans as the regular season there has ended.

    “People here have got to learn the rules anyway so if we get to start at a blank canvas then why don’t we introduce some new rules that we believe are going to excite them from the onset,” Baseball United CEO and co-owner Kash Shaikh told The Associated Press.

    The dune of dreams

    The season ends in mid-December and all games will be played at Baseball United’s stadium in an area known as Ud al-Bayda, some 30 kilometers (18 miles) from the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building. The stadium sits alongside The Sevens Stadium, which hosts an annual rugby sevens tournament known for hard-partying fans drinking restricted alcohol and wearing costumes.

    The field seats some 3,000 fans and will host games mostly at night, though the weather is starting to cool in the Emirates as the season changes. But environmental concerns have been kept in mind — Baseball United went for an artificial field to avoid the challenge of using more than 45 million liters (12 million gallons) of water a year to maintain a natural grass field, said John P. Miedreich, a co-founder and executive vice president at the league.

    “We had to airlift clay in from the United States, airlift clay from Pakistan” for the pitcher’s mound, he added.

    Beside the Cobras and the Monarchs, the inaugural league also features the Arabia Wolves of Dubai and the Mideast Falcons from Abu Dhabi.

    The changes to the traditional game in Baseball United put a different spin on the game similar to how Twenty20 drastically sped up traditional cricket. The baseball league has introduced a golden “moneyball” which gives managers three chances in a game to use an at bat to double the runs scored off a home run. A similar “fireball” automatically ends an inning if a pitcher strikes out a batter.

    Teams can call in “designated runners” three times during a game. And if a game is tied after nine innings the teams face off in a home run derby to decide the winner.

    “It’s entertainment, and it’s exciting, and it’s helping get new fans and young fans more engaged in the game,” Shaikh said.

    America’s pastime has limited success

    Baseball in the Middle East has had mixed success, to put a positive spin on the ball.

    American supporters launched the professional Israel Baseball League in 2007, comprised almost entirely of foreign players. However, it folded after one season. Americans spread the game in prerevolution Iran, Saudi Arabia and the UAE over the decades, though it has been dwarfed by soccer. Saudi Arabia, through the Americans at its oil company Aramco, has sent teams to the Little League World Series.

    But soccer remains a favorite in the Mideast, which hosted the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. Then there’s cricket, the biggest sporting passion in India and Pakistan. The International Cricket Council, the world governing body, has its headquarters in Dubai near the city’s cricket stadium.

    Organizers know they have their work cut out for them. At one point during a news conference Thursday they went over baseball basics — home runs, organ music and where center field sits.

    “The most important part is the experience for fans to come out, eat a hot dog, see mascots running around, to see what baseball traditions that we all grew up with back home in the U.S. — and start to fall in love with the game because we know that once they start to learn those, they will become big fans,” Shaikh said.

    Opening Night with bullpen camels

    On Friday night, attracting fans to the stadium appeared to be a challenge as laborers on buses filled one section of seats after being given a free Karachi Monarchs shirt, snacks and water.

    Still, they cheered along with other more experienced, somewhat inebriated baseball fans and filmed selfies as cheerleaders performed between innings. Beers on tap cost over $13, expensive for a laborers’ salary, which can be just a few hundred dollars a month.

    The game’s first pitch saw Monarchs batter Pavin Parks hit a home run. “Fireballs” saw the top and the bottom of the seventh and the top of the eighth end with one strikeout, speeding along a game as the crowd thinned. Parks hit a ninth inning “moneyball” home run, the game’s first. The Monarchs won 6-4.

    In a nod to its desert environs, the starting pitchers for each team came into the game on camels.

    “Thirty years in the game and I’ve never seen a camel in the bullpen,” Monarchs pitching coach Frank Gonzales said. “I kind of like it though.”

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    Spectrum News Staff, Associated Press

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  • Winning ticket for $980 million jackpot sold in Georgia, Mega Millions says

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    A Mega Millions player in Georgia won the $980 million jackpot on Friday, overcoming abysmal odds to win the huge prize.

    The numbers selected were 1, 8, 11, 12 and 57 with the gold Mega Ball 7.

    What You Need To Know

    • A Mega Millions player in Georgia won the $980 million jackpot on Friday

    • The numbers selected were 1, 8, 11, 12 and 57 with the gold Mega Ball 7

    • The next drawing will be on Tuesday

    The winner overcame Mega Millions’ astronomical odds of 1 in 290.5 million by matching all six numbers. The next drawing will be on Tuesday.

    A winner can choose an annuity or the cash option — a one-time, lump-sum payment of $452.2 million before taxes. If there are multiple jackpot winners, the prize is shared.

    There were four Mega Millions jackpot wins earlier this year, but Friday’s drawing was the 40th since the last win on June 27, a game record, officials said.

    In September, two Powerball players in Missouri and Texas won a nearly $1.8 billion jackpot, one of the largest in the U.S. The current Mega Millions jackpot isn’t among the top 10 U.S. lottery jackpots but would be the eighth-largest for Mega Millions since the game began in 2002.

    Other prizes

    Mega Millions offers lesser prizes in addition to the jackpot. The odds of winning any of these is 1 in 23.

    There were more than 800,000 winners of non-jackpot prizes from the Nov. 11 drawing.

    Tickets are $5 each and are sold in 45 states, Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Half the proceeds from each Mega Millions ticket remains in the jurisdiction where the ticket was sold. Local lottery agencies run the game in each jurisdiction and how profits are spent is dictated by law.

    Gambling addictions

    Sometimes gambling can become addictive.

    The National Council on Problem Gambling defines problem gambling as “gambling behavior that is damaging to a person or their family, often disrupting their daily life and career.”

    It is sometimes called gambling addiction or gambling disorder, a recognized mental health diagnosis. The group says anyone who gambles can be at risk.

    Its National Problem Gambling Helpline, 1-800-522-4700, connects anyone seeking assistance with a gambling problem to local resources.

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    Associated Press

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  • Bondi says U.S. will investigate Epstein’s ties to Clinton, others

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    NEW YORK (AP) — Acceding to President Donald Trump’s demands, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said Friday that she has ordered a top federal prosecutor to investigate sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s ties to Trump political foes, including former President Bill Clinton.

    What You Need To Know

    • Acceding to President Donald Trump’s demands, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said Friday that she has ordered a top federal prosecutor to investigate sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s ties to Trump political foes, including former President Bill Clinton

    • Bondi posted on X that she was assigning Manhattan U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton to lead the probe, capping an eventful week in which congressional Republicans released nearly 23,000 pages of documents from Epstein’s estate and House Democrats seized on emails mentioning Trump

    • Trump, who was friends with Epstein for years, didn’t explain what supposed crimes he wanted the Justice Department to investigate

    • Trump, calling the matter “the Epstein Hoax, involving Democrats, not Republicans,” said the investigation should also include financial giant JPMorgan Chase, which provided banking services to Epstein, and “many other people and institutions.”

    Bondi posted on X that she was assigning Manhattan U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton to lead the probe, capping an eventful week in which congressional Republicans released nearly 23,000 pages of documents from Epstein’s estate and House Democrats seized on emails mentioning Trump.

    Trump, who was friends with Epstein for years, didn’t explain what supposed crimes he wanted the Justice Department to investigate. None of the men he mentioned in a social media post demanding the probe has been accused of sexual misconduct by any of Epstein’s victims.

    Hours before Bondi’s announcement, Trump posted on his Truth Social platform that he would ask her, the Justice Department and the FBI to investigate Epstein’s “involvement and relationship” with Clinton and others, including former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers and LinkedIn founder and Democratic donor Reid Hoffman.

    Trump, calling the matter “the Epstein Hoax, involving Democrats, not Republicans,” said the investigation should also include financial giant JPMorgan Chase, which provided banking services to Epstein, and “many other people and institutions.”

    “This is another Russia, Russia, Russia Scam, with all arrows pointing to the Democrats,” the Republican president wrote, referring to special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of alleged Russian interference in Trump’s 2016 election victory over Bill Clinton’s wife, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

    Asked later Friday whether he should be ordering up such investigations, Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One: “I’m the chief law enforcement officer of the country. I’m allowed to do it.”

    In a July memo regarding the Epstein investigation, the FBI said, “We did not uncover evidence that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties.”

    The president’s demand for an investigation — and Bondi’s quick acquiescence — is the latest example of the erosion of the Justice Department’s traditional independence from the White House since Trump took office.

    It is also an extraordinary attempt at deflection. For decades, Trump himself has been scrutinized for his closeness to Epstein — though like the people he now wants investigated, he has not been accused of sexual misconduct by Epstein’s victims.

    None of Trump’s proposed targets were accused of sex crimes

    A JPMorgan Chase spokesperson, Patricia Wexler, said the company regretted associating with Epstein “but did not help him commit his heinous acts.”

    “The government had damning information about his crimes and failed to share it with us or other banks,” she said. The company agreed previously to pay millions of dollars to Epstein’s victims, who had sued arguing that the bank ignored red flags about criminal activity.

    Clinton has acknowledged traveling on Epstein’s private jet but has said through a spokesperson that he had no knowledge of the late financier’s crimes. He also has never been accused of misconduct by Epstein’s known victims.

    Clinton’s deputy chief of staff Angel Ureña posted on X Friday: “These emails prove Bill Clinton did nothing and knew nothing. The rest is noise meant to distract from election losses, backfiring shutdowns, and who knows what else.”

    Epstein pleaded guilty in Florida in 2008 to soliciting prostitution from an underage girl, but was spared a long jail term when the U.S. attorney in Florida agreed not to prosecute him over allegations that he had paid many other children for sexual acts. After serving about a year in jail and a work release program, Epstein resumed his business and social life until federal prosecutors in New York revived the case in 2019. Epstein killed himself while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.

    Summers and Hoffman had nothing to do with either case, but both were friendly with Epstein and exchanged emails with him. Those messages were among the documents released this week, along with other correspondence Epstein had with friends and business associates in the years before his death.

    Nothing in the messages suggested any wrongdoing on the men’s part, other than associating with someone who had been accused of sex crimes against children.

    Summers, who served in Clinton’s cabinet and is a former Harvard University president, previously said in a statement that he has “great regrets in my life” and that “my association with Jeffrey Epstein was a major error of judgement.”

    On social media Friday night, Hoffman called for Trump to release all the Epstein files, saying they will show that “the calls for baseless investigations of me are nothing more than political persecution and slander.” He added, “I was never a client of Epstein’s and never had any engagement with him other than fundraising for MIT.” Hoffman bankrolled writer E. Jean Carroll’s sexual abuse and defamation lawsuit against Trump.

    After Epstein’s sex trafficking arrest in 2019, Hoffman said he’d only had a few interactions with Epstein, all related to his fundraising for MIT’s Media Lab. He nevertheless apologized, saying that “by agreeing to participate in any fundraising activity where Epstein was present, I helped to repair his reputation and perpetuate injustice.”

    Bondi, in her post, praised Clayton as “one of the most capable and trusted prosecutors in the country” and said the Justice Department “will pursue this with urgency and integrity to deliver answers to the American people.”

    Trump called Clayton “a great man, a great attorney,” though he said Bondi chose him for the job.

    Clayton, the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission during Trump’s first term, took over in April as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York — the same office that indicted Epstein and won a sex trafficking conviction against Epstein’s longtime confidante, Ghislaine Maxwell, in 2021.

    Trump changes course on Epstein files

    Trump suggested while campaigning last year that he’d seek to open up the government’s case files on Epstein, but changed course in recent months, blaming Democrats and painting the matter as a “hoax” amid questions about what knowledge he may have had about Epstein’s yearslong exploitation of underage girls.

    On Wednesday, Democrats on the House Oversight Committee released three Epstein email exchanges that referenced Trump, including one from 2019 in which Epstein said the president “knew about the girls” and asked Maxwell to stop.

    White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt accused Democrats of having “selectively leaked emails” to smear Trump.

    Soon after, Republicans on the committee disclosed a far bigger trove of Epstein’s email correspondence, including messages he sent to longtime Trump ally Steve Bannon and to Britain’s former Prince Andrew, now known as Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor. Andrew settled a lawsuit out of court with one of Epstein’s victims, who said she had been paid to have sex with the prince.

    The House is speeding toward a vote next week to force the Justice Department to release all files and communications related to Epstein.

    “I don’t care about it, release or not,” Trump said Friday. “If you’re going to do it, then you have to go into Epstein’s friends,” he added, naming Clinton and Hoffman.

    Still, he said: “This is a Democrat hoax. And a couple, a few Republicans have gone along with it because they’re weak and ineffective.”

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    Associated Press

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  • You can end a shutdown overnight — but you can’t reopen a government that fast

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    The longest government shutdown in U.S. history is over — on paper, at least. But the American public isn’t done with it yet: Getting everything back up and running doesn’t happen all at once.

    What You Need To Know

    • The longest government shutdown in U.S. history may be officially over, but getting everything back up and running won’t happen all at once

    • The disruption of the closure, clocking in at 43 days, ranged in the impact it had on people

    • Federal workers, who were immediately and directly affected, were expected to be back on the job Thursday

    • Flight disruptions will continue at some of the nation’s airports
    • Some states say recipients of food aid through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program should receive their full monthly benefits starting Thursday or Friday, though it could take up to a week.

    The disruption of the closure, clocking in at 43 days, varied in its impact. Some people, like unpaid federal workers, were immediately and directly affected. Others included recipients of federal funding through programs like Head Start and food aid through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

    As the shutdown progressed, effects rippled. Delays and flight cancellations started racking up for passengers as the Federal Aviation Administration ordered airlines to cut back on flights because of air traffic controller shortages. There were closures at Smithsonian museum sites and the National Zoo (although the animals still got fed).

    That’s a lot of programs, agencies and systems. Reclaiming “normal” won’t be instantaneous. Here’s a guide to what reopening looks like:

    Federal workers

    WHAT HAPPENED: About 1.25 million federal workers haven’t been paid since Oct. 1, missing about $16 billion in wages, according to official estimates. The workers were either furloughed or worked without pay in agencies across the federal government. Many struggled to make ends meet during that time, and the regional economy around Washington, D.C., took a hit.

    WHAT NOW: The Office of Personnel Management, which manages the civil service, posted on X that federal workers were expected to be back Thursday, saying that “employees are expected to begin the workday on time. Normal operating procedures are in effect.” The pay owed to the workers will come in by Nov. 19. The money will go out in four separate tranches, depending on the agency, according to a senior administration official.

    Help with heat

    WHAT HAPPENED: The shutdown coincided with the arrival of colder temperatures, and funding for the $4.1 billion Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program was halted, prompting some states to delay payments for heating bills.

    WHAT NOW: A U.S. Department of Health and Human Services spokesperson said Thursday that an agency within HHS will “work swiftly to administer annual awards,” but no timeline was given. Mark Wolfe, executive director of the National Energy Assistance Directors Association, said it could take until mid-December or longer. Wolfe said recipients should still submit applications and tell utility companies they’re waiting for the funds. It’s trickier for people who rely on oil and propane because typically there are no protections. Recipients should check with their state; Vermont backfilled funding and Connecticut has pledged to cover the cost.

    Flight disruptions

    WHAT HAPPENED: The shutdown caused significant disruptions in aviation, with more and more unpaid air traffic controllers missing work as they dealt with the financial pressures and some of them picked up side jobs. Those staff shortages, combined with some troubling safety data, prompted the government to order airlines to cut some of their flights over the past week to relieve pressure on the system.

    WHAT NOW: Those cuts aren’t increasing right now, but the Federal Aviation Administration won’t lift the order until safety metrics improve. Airlines say they expect to resume normal operations quickly after that. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has said that controllers and other FAA employees should receive 70% of their back pay within 24-48 hours of the end of the shutdown, with the rest to come.

    Federal social programs: SNAP

    WHAT HAPPENED: Among the most high-profile impacts of the shutdown was on the SNAP program, which serves around 42 million people — about 1 in 8 Americans — in lower-income households. A series of court rulings and shifting policies from the Trump administration led to a patchwork distribution of November benefits. While some states had already issued full benefits, about two-thirds of states had issued only partial benefits or none at all.

    WHAT NOW: On Thursday, state officials said they were working quickly to get full benefits to the millions of people who missed their regular monthly payments. Some states said SNAP recipients should receive their full monthly benefits starting Thursday or Friday, though it could take up to a week.

    Federal social programs: Head Start

    WHAT HAPPENED: When it comes to Head Start, the shutdown had held up the distribution of federal grant payments. Some affected centers remained open by furloughing portions of their staff or tapping into emergency reserves. Others were forced to close, shutting down child care for thousands of families. Head Start serves children from birth to age 5 who come from families that qualify for federal low-income guidelines, are homeless or receive public assistance. The program provides preschool education as well as developmental screenings and free meals.

    WHAT NOW: The Office of Head Start will expedite funding and directly contact the impacted programs to share a timeline of when they can expect federal money, said Emily Hilliard, a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The office is already operating at a reduced capacity after experiencing substantial layoffs earlier this year. But even when programs receive their money, program leaders worry of staffing shortages if too many furloughed employees already found other jobs. Some advocates said it could take several weeks for some of the programs across the country to receive funding and restore operations.

    Taxes

    WHAT HAPPENED: The Internal Revenue Service had closed walk-in assistance centers.

    WHAT NOW: The centers are being reopened. The agency said all tax deadlines remain in effect but a backlog of paper correspondence developed during the shutdown, so responses will be delayed. Social Security recipients continued receiving payments throughout the shutdown. Local offices also remained open, though they had temporarily suspended a few services, including replacing Medicare cards and updating earnings records.

    Education

    WHAT HAPPENED: The Education Department laid off 466 Education Department staffers in the cross-government firings meant to pressure Democratic lawmakers over the shutdown. Those layoffs had been halted by a federal judge. The department furloughed 2,117 employees at the start of the shutdown, but some were brought back for essential work. New grants were also put on hold during the shutdown. Most school districts received the bulk of their federal funding over the summer, but some grants have been delayed.

    WHAT NOW: The department said Thursday it had brought back all furloughed staff members or those dismissed in the Trump administration’s mass firings. Recipients of Impact Aid, which boosts the budgets of districts with large amounts of federal land that can’t be taxed for local schools, were waiting to learn when their payments would be processed.

    The military

    WHAT HAPPENED: Members of the U.S. military dealt with weeks of anxiety over whether they would get paid as they continued working. The Trump administration ultimately found ways to pay troops for the two pay periods during the closure. But the process was fraught; the administration located the money just days before each paycheck. Pay arrived days later than usual for many service members with early direct deposit, disrupting their ability to pay bills and forcing some to pay late fees or rack up debt. Reimbursements for the cost of moving between bases, which affects roughly 400,000 military families each year, were paused during the shutdown, advocates said. And weekend drills for many reservists were canceled, eliminating a chunk of pay that can be several hundred dollars each month.

    WHAT NOW: Civilians in the Defense Department began returning Thursday. According to a memo provided to The Associated Press, the Air Force said civilians could take a day of administrative leave or work remotely for up to a week. Several military officials said the impacts on active-duty troops have been minimal.

    National parks

    WHAT HAPPENED: The country’s national parks largely stayed open through the shutdown with limited staffing. Outside groups and state governments had picked up the tab during the shutdown to keep visitor centers running and help with trash cleanup at many parks. And the Trump administration tapped into previously collected entrance fees to pay for cleaning restrooms and other basic services. But the efforts didn’t stop vandals from defacing rock features along Devils Garden Trail in Arches National Park in Utah and toppling a stone wall at Devil’s Den in Gettysburg National Military Park in Pennsylvania.

    WHAT NOW: National Park Service employees were ordered back to work Thursday. It will take time for rangers to fully assess parks, including backcountry areas, and more damage could yet be discovered, said Kristen Brengel with the National Parks Conservation Association. No fees were collected during the shutdown, costing parks almost $1 million a day in lost revenue.

    Museums

    WHAT HAPPENED: The Smithsonian buildings and the National Zoo were first closed Oct. 12. They are typically open every day except Christmas. The 20 sites together hosted more than 16 million people last year, and the organization has more than 3,600 federal employees. While the zoo has been closed, the popular livestream feeds capturing the famous giant pandas were offline. The normally active social media pages sharing animal updates and colorful photographs were silent. The animals continue to be fed and get care.

    WHAT NOW: Two of the Smithsonian’s museums along the National Mall – American History and Air and Space – were to reopen Friday. The organization says on its website that the rest of the Smithsonian’s sites across the Washington area and New York will reopen by Monday on a rolling basis.

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    Associated Press

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  • Emails reveal Epstein’s ties to rich and powerful despite sex offender status

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    By the time Jeffrey Epstein pleaded guilty in 2008 to soliciting prostitution from an underage girl, he had established an enormous network of wealthy and influential friends. Emails made public this week show the crime did little to diminish the desire of that network to stay connected to the billionaire financier.

    What You Need To Know

    • Emails released by the House Oversight Committee reveal how Jeffrey Epstein maintained connections with influential figures despite his 2008 conviction for soliciting prostitution from an underage girl

    • The documents, spanning at least a decade, show Epstein’s interactions with business executives, reporters, academics and political players

    • Some supported him during legal troubles, while others sought introductions or advice

    • The emails do not implicate his contacts in crimes but illustrate his influence

    Thousands of documents released by the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday offer a new glimpse into what Epstein’s relationships with business executives, reporters, academics and political players looked like over a decade.

    They start with messages he sent and received around the time he finished serving his Florida sentence in 2009 and continue until the months before his arrest on federal sex trafficking charges in 2019.

    During that time, Epstein’s network was eclectic, spanning the globe and political affiliations: from the liberal academic Noam Chomsky to Steve Bannon, the longtime ally of President Donald Trump.

    Some reached out to support Epstein amid lawsuits and prosecutions, others sought introductions or advice on everything from dating to oil prices. One consulted him on how to respond to accusations of sexual harassment.

    Epstein was charged with sex trafficking in 2019, and killed himself in jail a month later. Epstein’s crimes, high-profile connections and jailhouse suicide have made the case a magnet for conspiracy theorists and online sleuths seeking proof of a cover-up.

    The emails do not implicate his contacts in those alleged crimes. They instead paint a picture of Epstein’s influence and connections over the years he was a registered sex offender.

    Epstein kept a diverse political network

    Epstein emailed current and former political figures on all sides, sending news clips and discussing strategy or gossip often in short, choppy emails laden with spelling and grammatical errors.

    In several emails in 2018, Epstein advised Bannon on his political tour of Europe that year. Bannon first forwarded Epstein a news clip that described the German media as “underestimating” Bannon and that he was “As Dangerous as Ever.”

    “luv it,” Epstein responded.

    Epstein wrote that he’d just spoken to “one of the country leaders that we discussed” and that “we should lay out a strategy plan. . how much fun.”

    Several months later, Epstein sent some advice: “If you are going to play here , you’ll have to spend time, europe by remote doesn’t work.”

    “its doable but time consuming,” Epstein continued in a follow-up email, “there are many leaders of countries we can organize for you to have one on ones.”

    Just a few months earlier, Epstein was insulting Trump — whose movement Bannon was a representative of — in emails to Kathryn Ruemmler, the former White House counsel under President Barack Obama.

    Ruemmler sent a message to Epstein calling Trump “so gross.” A portion of that message was redacted, but Epstein replied, “worse in real life and upclose.”

    In other emails with Ruemmler, Epstein detailed a whirlwind of well-known people he appears to have been meeting, hosting or speaking with that week, including an ambassador, a tech giant, foreign business people, academics and a film director.

    “you are a welcome guest at any,” he wrote.

    Jennifer Zuccarelli, a spokesperson for Goldman Sachs, where Ruemmler now works, declined to comment.

    Epstein’s wealthy social circles

    The financier emailed often with people in the upper echelons of wealth around the world, brokering introductions and chatting about politics and foreign affairs.

    That included Silicon Valley investor Peter Thiel, who Epstein sent an email to in 2014 saying “that was fun , see you in 3 weeks.”

    Four years later, Epstein asked if Thiel was enjoying Los Angeles, and, after Thiel said he couldn’t complain, replied “Dec visit me Caribbean.” It’s unclear if Thiel ever responded.

    In emails with Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, an Emirati businessman, Epstein complimented Bannon, saying in 2018 that “We have become friends you will like him.”

    “Trump doesn’t like him,” responded Sulayem.

    A year earlier, Sulayem asked Epstein about an event where it appeared Trump would be in attendance, asking, “Do you think it will be possible to shake hand with trump.”

    “Call to discuss,” Epstein wrote back.

    In January 2010, biotech venture capitalist Boris Nikolic was attending the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, and Epstein emailed to ask, “any fun?”

    Nikolic replied that he had met “your friend” Bill Clinton, as well as then-French President Nicholas Sarkozy and “your other friend,” Prince Andrew, “as he has some questions re microsoft.”

    But then Nikolic said he was getting sick of meetings. Later, he wrote Epstein that “it would be blast that you are here.” He mentioned flirting with a 22-year-old woman.

    “It turns out she is with her husand. Did not have chance to check him out. But as we concluded, anything good is rented ;)” Nikolic wrote.

    Epstein kept in touch with academics

    The theoretical physicist and cosmologist Laurence Krauss was among them. In 2017, Krauss reached out to Epstein via email for advice on responding to a reporter writing a story about allegations of sexual harassment against him.

    “Is this a reasonable response? Should i even respond? Could use advice,” Krauss asked Epstein.

    In an explicit exchange, Epstein asked Krauss if he’d had sex with the person in question and then suggested he should not reply to the journalist.

    “No. We didn’t have sex. Decided it wasn’t a good idea,” replied Krauss.

    Krauss said in an email to The Associated Press that he never hid the fact that he knew Epstein, and interacted with him several times.

    “I sought out advice from essentially everyone I knew when false allegations about me were circulated in the press in 2018,” said Krauss. “I was as shocked as the rest of the world when he was arrested” in 2019.

    In an August 2015 email exchange, Epstein told Chomsky, the famed linguist and social scientist, to only fly to Greece if he feels well, joking he previously had to send a plane for another “lefty friend” to see a doctor in New York.

    In the same exchange, which dipped into academic arguments about warning signs on currency collapses, behavioral science models, and Big Data, Epstein offered his residences for Chomsky’s use.

    “you are of course welcome to use apt in new york with your new leisure time, or visit new Mexico again,” Epstein wrote.

    The emails also show that Epstein kept up a friendly relationship with Larry Summers, who was the treasury secretary under President Bill Clinton and former Harvard University president, and bantered about the 2016 presidential race and Trump.

    Other emails showed a closer relationship. In 2019, Summers was discussing interactions he had with a woman, writing to Epstein that “I said what are you up to. She said ‘I’m busy’. I said awfully coy u are.”

    Epstein replied, “you reacted well.. annoyed shows caring. , no whining showed strentgh.”

    Summers issued a statement saying he has “great regrets in my life.”

    “As I have said before, my association with Jeffrey Epstein was a major error of judgement,” the statement said.

    Chomsky, Thiel, Bannon, and Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem did not immediately respond to requests for comment, which were sent through email addresses available on their own or their organizations’ websites.

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    Associated Press

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  • Trump asks DOJ to probe Epstein ties to Bill Clinton, others

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    WASHINGTON — Two days after Democrats on the House Oversight Committee released emails in which late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein discussed President Donald Trump, Trump said he will ask the Department of Justice and FBI to investigate Epstein’s relationships with several other prominent men and institutions.

    In a post on Truth Social on Friday, Trump said former President Bill Clinton, former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman and JPMorgan Chase bank should be investigated.

    What You Need To Know

    • Two days after Democrats on the House Oversight Committee released emails in which late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein discussed President Donald Trump, Trump said he will ask the Department of Justice and FBI to investigate Epstein’s relationships with several other prominent men and institutions

    • In a post on Truth Social on Friday, Trump former President Bill Clinton, former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman and JPMorgan Chase bank should be investigated

    • “This is another Russia, Russia, Russia Scam, with all arrows pointing to the Democrats,” Trump wrote. “Records show that these men, and many others, spent large portions of their life with Epstein, and on his ‘island.’ Stay tuned!!!”
    • While Trump has vociferously denied any implications that he knew about Epstein’s sexual predation, House Democrats say a trio of emails they released this week suggest otherwise


    “This is another Russia, Russia, Russia Scam, with all arrows pointing to the Democrats,” Trump wrote. “Records show that these men, and many others, spent large portions of their life with Epstein, and on his ‘island.’ Stay tuned!!!”

    In a 2019 statement, Clinton’s office denied that he traveled to Epstein’s island or knew anything about his crimes, though it acknowledged the former president traveled on the late financier’s plane accompanied by staff, supporters and his Secret Service detail. In statements to various media outlets, Hoffman, Summers and JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon have all said they regret their association with Epstein, who died by suicide in 2019 in a federal prison.

    Epstein served about a year in jail after pleading guilty in 2008 to soliciting prostitution from someone under age 18 but went on to renew relationships with many influential figures in business, academics and politics.

    In response to Trump’s post, Attorney General Pam Bondi posted on X, “As with all matters, the Department will pursue this with urgency and integrity to deliver answers to the American people.”

    She said U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Jay Clayton will take the lead on the case, calling him “one of the most capable and trusted prosecutors in the country.”

    In July, the president said his relationship with Epstein ended after he “stole” some young female employees from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club in Florida. Epstein accuser Virginia Giuffre, who died by suicide in April, was a teenager when she began working as a locker-room attendant at the club in the summer of 2000. She said she left Mar-a-Lago after being recruited by Epstein’s former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell, who is now serving a 20-year prison sentence for sex trafficking minors.

    While Trump has vociferously denied any implications that he knew about Epstein’s sexual predation, House Democrats say a trio of emails they released this week suggest otherwise. A 2011 email said Trump had spent hours at Epstein’s house with a sex trafficking victim, who the White House later revealed was Guiffre. In a 2019 email with author Michael Wolff, Epstein said Trump “knew about the girls as he asked Ghislaine to stop,” and called Trump the “dog that hasn’t barked.”

    In an earlier Truth Social post on Friday, Trump said, “The Democrats are doing everything in their withering power to push the Epstein Hoax again, despite the DOJ releasing 50,000 pages of documents, in order to deflect from all of their bad policies and losses, especially the SHUTDOWN EMBARASSMENT, where their party is in total disarray, and has no idea what to do,” he wrote, two days after he signed legislation to end the government’s 43-day funding fight.

    Responding to the Democrats’ release of the Epstein emails, the GOP-led Oversight Committee made 23,000 pages of Epstein files available to the public Wednesday. The same day, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., swore in Rep. Adelita Grijalva, D-Ariz., who provided the final signature needed on a discharge petition that enables a House vote to compel the Justice Department’s release of the Epstein files. Johnson said that vote will take place next week. All 214 House Democrats and four Republicans signed on to the petition.

    “Some Weak Republicans have fallen into their clutches because they are soft and foolish,” Trump wrote Friday. “Epstein was a Democrat, and he is the Democrat’s problem, not the Republican’s problem! Ask Bill Clinton, Reid Hoffman, and Larry Summers about Epstein, they know all about him, don’t waste your time with Trump. I have a Country to run!”

    In an interview with MSNBC on Thursday night, California Rep. Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the Oversight Committee said: “It’s clear that there’s a lot of questions about the relationship between Jeffrey Epstein and Donald Trump, and those have got to be answered.”

    Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., one of the Republicans who signed the discharge petition, told “CBS Mornings” on Friday that the Epstein files have “needed to come out for a very long time, and the American people have demanded it.”

    “The American people deserve to see transparency from their government. Rich, powerful people should not be protected. And it’s a message to victims everywhere … that the government will not protect the predators,” said Greene, who added that she has talked to Epstein victims who said Trump did nothing wrong.

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    Susan Carpenter

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  • States scramble to send full SNAP food benefits after government shutdown ends

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    With the longest U.S. government shutdown over, state officials said Thursday that they are working quickly to get full SNAP food benefits to millions of people, though it still could take up to a week for some to receive their delayed aid.

    What You Need To Know

    • State officials are working to restore full SNAP benefits to millions of people after the long U.S. government shutdown has finally ended

    • Some state officials said Thursday that they are working quickly, but it still could take up to a week for some recipients to get their delayed aid

    • A series of court rulings and shifting policies from the Trump administration have led to inconsistent distribution of November benefits

    • About two-thirds of states had issued only partial or no benefits before the shutdown ended Wednesday night

    A back-and-forth series of court rulings and shifting policies from President Donald Trump’s administration has led to a patchwork distribution of November benefits under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. While some states already had issued full SNAP benefits, about two-thirds of states had issued only partial benefits or none at all before the government shutdown ended late Wednesday, according to an Associated Press tally.

    The federal food program serves about 42 million people, about 1 in 8 Americans, in lower-income households. They receive an average of around $190 monthly per person, though that doesn’t necessarily cover the full cost of groceries for a regular month.

    A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which runs the program, said in an email Wednesday that funds could be available “upon the government reopening, within 24 hours for most states.” But the agency didn’t say whether that timeline applies to when the money is available to states or when it could be loaded onto debit cards used by beneficiaries.

    West Virginia, which hadn’t issued SNAP benefits, should have full November benefits for all recipients by Friday, Gov. Patrick Morrisey said Thursday.

    The Illinois Department of Human Services, which previously issued partial November benefits, said Thursday that it is “working to restore full SNAP benefits.” But it won’t happen instantly.

    “We anticipate that the remaining benefit payments will be made over several days, starting tomorrow,” the department said in a statement, and that “all SNAP recipients will receive their full November benefits by November 20th.”

    Colorado said late Wednesday that it is switching from delivering partial payments to full SNAP benefits. Funds could be loaded onto electronic benefit transfer cards starting as soon as Thursday, Gov. Jared Polis and the state’s Human Services Department said.

    Missouri’s Department of Social Services, which issued partial SNAP payments Tuesday, said Thursday that it is waiting for further guidance from the USDA about how to issue the remaining November SNAP benefits but would move quickly once it gets that.

    Paused SNAP payments stirred stress for some families

    The delayed SNAP payments posed another complication for Lee Harris’ family since his spouse was laid off a few months ago.

    Harris, 34, said the North Little Rock, Arkansas, family got help from his temple and received food left by someone who was moving. With that assistance — and the knowledge that other families have greater needs — they skipped stopping by the food pantry they had sometimes used.

    They and their three daughters have been able to keep meals fairly close to normal despite missing a SNAP payment this week. But they still have experienced stress and uncertainty.

    “Not knowing a definite end,” Harris said, “I don’t know how much I need to stretch what I have in our pantry.”

    Federal legislation funds SNAP for a year

    The USDA told states Oct. 24 that it would not fund SNAP benefits for November amid the government shutdown. Many Democratic-led states sued to have the funding restored.

    After judges ruled the Trump administration must tap into reserves to fund SNAP, the administration said it would fund up to 65% of its regular allocations. When a judge subsequently ordered full benefits, some states scrambled to quickly load SNAP benefits onto debit cards during a one-day window before the Supreme Court put that order on hold Friday.

    Meanwhile, other states went forward with partial benefits, and still others issued nothing while waiting for further USDA guidance about the situation.

    Amid the uncertainty over federal SNAP funding, some states tapped into their own funds to provide direct aid to SNAP recipients or additional money for nonprofit food banks.

    The legislation to reopen the U.S. government provides full SNAP benefits not only for November but also for the remainder of the federal fiscal year, which runs through next September.

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    Associated Press

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  • U.S. Mint in Philadelphia to press final penny as the 1-cent coin gets canceled

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    PHILADELPHIA — The U.S. Mint in Philadelphia is set to strike its last circulating penny on Wednesday as the president has canceled the 1-cent coin.

    What You Need To Know

    • The U.S. Mint in Philadelphia is set to strike its last circulating penny as the president has canceled the 1-cent coin

    • President Donald Trump has ordered its demise as costs climb to nearly 4 cents per penny and the 1-cent valuation becomes somewhat obsolete

    • The U.S. Mint has been making pennies in Philadelphia, the nation’s birthplace, since 1793

    • There are billions of pennies in circulation, but they are rarely essential to carrying out financial transactions
    • Still, many people have a nostalgia for the copper-plated coins, seeing them as lucky or fun to collect

    President Donald Trump has ordered its demise as costs climb to nearly 4 cents per penny and the 1-cent valuation becomes somewhat obsolete.

    The U.S. Mint has been making pennies in Philadelphia, the nation’s birthplace, since 1793, a year after Congress passed the Coinage Act. Today, there are billions of them in circulation, but they are rarely essential for financial transactions in the modern economy or the digital age.

    “For far too long the United States has minted pennies which literally cost us more than 2 cents,” Trump wrote in an online post in February, as costs continued to climb. “This is so wasteful!”

    Still, many people have a nostalgia for them, seeing them as lucky or fun to collect. And some retailers have voiced concerns in recent weeks as supplies ran low and the last production neared. They said the phase-out was abrupt and came with no guidance from the federal government on how to handle customer transactions.

    Some rounded prices down to avoid shortchanging people, others pleaded with customers to bring exact change and the more creative among them gave out prizes, such as a free drink, in exchange for a pile of pennies.

    “We have been advocating abolition of the penny for 30 years. But this is not the way we wanted it to go,” Jeff Lenard of the National Association of Convenience Stores said last month.

    Some banks, meanwhile, began rationing supplies, a somewhat paradoxical result of the effort to address what many see as a glut of the coins. Over the last century, about half of the coins made at U.S. Mints in Philadelphia and Denver have been pennies.

    U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Treasurer Brandon Beach were expected to be in Philadelphia on Wednesday afternoon for the final production run. The Treasury Department expects to save $56 million per year on materials by ceasing to make them.

    But they still have a better production-cost-to-value ratio than the nickel, which costs nearly 14 cents to make. The diminutive dime, by comparison, costs less than 6 cents to produce and the quarter nearly 15 cents.

    Back in 1793, a penny could get you a biscuit, a candle or a piece of candy. These days, many sit in drawers or glass jars and are basically cast aside or collected as lucky keepsakes.

    No matter their face value, collectors and historians consider them an important record of society, one that can be traced back for more than 200 years. Frank Holt, an emeritus professor at the University of Houston who has studied the history of coins, laments the loss of that through line when it comes to the penny.

    “We put mottos on them and self-identifiers and we decide — in the case of the United States — which dead persons are most important to us and should be commemorated,” he said. “They reflect our politics, our religion, our art, our sense of ourselves, our ideals, our aspirations.”

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    Associated Press

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  • Here are the 2025 holiday shipping deadlines for USPS, UPS, FedEx

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    With Christmas not too far away, millions of people are making headway on their holiday shopping lists.

    The three largest carriers in the U.S. — The United States Postal Service, UPS and FedEx — released their deadlines for shipping this year to make sure people get their gifts on time.

    Here are dates to keep in mind to get gifts by Christmas Day:

    For the lower 48 states:

    • USPS ground advantage service: Dec. 17
    • First-class mail service: Dec. 17
    • Priority mail service: Dec. 18
    • Priority mail express service: Dec. 20

    For Alaska and Hawaii:

    • USPS ground advantage service: Dec. 16
    • First-class mail service: Dec. 17
    • Priority mail service: Dec. 18
    • Priority mail express service: Dec. 20
    • UPS ground: Use this calculator
    • UPS three-day select: Dec. 19
    • UPS second-day air: Dec. 22
    • UPS next-day air: Dec. 23
    • FedEx express saver: Dec. 20
    • FedEx 2Day and FedEx 2Day AM: Dec. 22
    • FedEx 3Day: Dec. 18
    • FedEx first overnight, FedEx priority overnight, FedEx standard overnight: Dec. 23
    • FedEx SameDay: Dec. 24

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    Lydia Taylor, Aly Prouty

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  • Supreme Court expected to say whether full SNAP food payments can resume

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    It’s up to the U.S. Supreme Court and Congress to decide when full payments will resume under the SNAP food aid program that helps 1 in 8 Americans buy groceries, as some wonder how they will feed their families without government assistance.

    What You Need To Know

    • The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to announce whether the Trump administration must start complying with lower court orders that require full payments in the SNAP food program

    • The administration accepted a pair of earlier rulings that said it must provide at least partial benefits, but there has been an intense court battle underway since last week after a judge ruled that full funding was required

    • SNAP helps about 1 in 8 American buy groceries.

    • For many of them, November’s payments are already delayed

    The Supreme Court is expected to rule Tuesday on a request from President Donald Trump’s administration to keep blocking states from providing full Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, arguing the money might be needed elsewhere.

    The seesawing rulings mean that beneficiaries in some states, including Hawaii and New Jersey, have received their full monthly allocations while in others, such as Nebraska and West Virginia, they have received nothing.

    The legal wrangling could be moot if the U.S. House adopts and Trump signs legislation to quickly end the federal government shutdown.

    An urgent need for beneficiaries

    The cascading legal rulings — plus the varying responses of each state to the shutoff — means people who rely on SNAP are in vastly different situations. Some have all their benefits, some have none. In states including North Carolina and Texas, beneficiaries have received partial amounts.

    In Pennsylvania, full November benefits went out to some people on Friday. But Jim Malliard, 41, of Franklin, said he had not received anything by Monday.

    Malliard is a full-time caretaker for his wife, who is blind and has had several strokes this year, and his teenage daughter, who suffered severe medical complications from surgery last year.

    That stress has only been compounded by the pause in the $350 monthly SNAP payment he previously received for himself, his wife and daughter. He said he is down to $10 in his account and is relying on what’s left in the pantry — mostly rice and ramen.

    “It’s kind of been a lot of late nights, making sure I had everything down to the penny to make sure I was right,” Malliard said. “To say anxiety has been my issue for the past two weeks is putting it mildly.”

    The political wrangling in Washington has shocked many Americans, and some have been moved to help.

    “I figure that I’ve spent money on dumber stuff than trying to feed other people during a manufactured famine,” said Ashley Oxenford, a teacher who set out a “little food pantry” in her front yard this week for vulnerable neighbors in Carthage, New York.

    SNAP has been the center of an intense fight in court

    The Trump administration chose to cut off SNAP funding after October due to the shutdown. That decision sparked lawsuits and a string of swift and contradictory judicial rulings that deal with government power — and impact food access for some 42 million Americans.

    The administration went along with two rulings on Oct. 31 by judges who said the government must provide at least partial funding for SNAP. It eventually said recipients would get up to 65% of their regular benefits. But it balked last week when one of the judges said it must fund the program fully for November, even if that means digging into funds the government said need to be maintained in case of emergencies elsewhere.

    The U.S. Supreme Court agreed to pause that order.

    An appeals court said Monday that full funding should resume, and that requirement is set to kick in Tuesday night unless the top court takes action again.

    Congressional talks about reopening government

    The U.S. Senate on Monday passed legislation to reopen the federal government with a plan that would include replenishing SNAP funds.

    Speaker Mike Johnson told members of the House to return to Washington to consider the deal a small group of Senate Democrats made with Republicans.

    Trump has not said whether he would sign it if it reaches his desk, but told reporters at the White House on Sunday that it “looks like we’re getting close to the shutdown ending.”

    If the deal is finalized, it’s not clear how quickly SNAP benefits might start flowing.

    Still, the Trump administration said in a Supreme Court filing Monday that it shouldn’t be up to the courts.

    “The answer to this crisis is not for federal courts to reallocate resources without lawful authority,” Solicitor General D. John Sauer said in the papers. “The only way to end this crisis — which the Executive is adamant to end — is for Congress to reopen the government.”

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    Associated Press

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  • Rock & Roll Hall of Fame ceremony will induct Outkast, Cyndi Lauper and others

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    LOS ANGELES — Outkast, Cyndi Lauper, Salt-N-Pepa and Soundgarden will be among the newly minted members of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame at Saturday night’s induction ceremony.

    What You Need To Know

    • Outkast, Cyndi Lauper, Salt-N-Pepa, Soundgarden and many other music stars are set to join the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame during Saturday night’s induction ceremony

    • Artists from every decade, from the 1950s to the 2000s, will be honored as part of the 2025 class

    • Chappell Roan is set to induct Lauper, with Avril Lavigne performing alongside her. Donald Glover will induct Outkast, and Elton John will pay tribute to Brian Wilson

    From Chubby Checker to the White Stripes, artists representing every decade from the 1950s to the 2000s will be inducted as part of the hall’s class of 2025.

    Chappell Roan is set to induct Lauper, and Avril Lavigne is set to take the stage with her. Donald Glover has been tapped to induct Outkast, and Elton John is scheduled to pay musical tribute to hall member Brian Wilson, who died earlier this year.

    But the role played by the many other announced guest stars, including Missy Elliot, Olivia Rodrigo and Twenty One Pilots, remains a mystery on a night that is always defined by its surprises. Fans of the bands are also wondering which guests might join the living members of Bad Company and Soundgarden on stage.

    Among the big questions this year are whether Outkast and the White Stripes will reunite to perform, or at least to accept their honor. Artists — or guests celebrating them — generally play a set of their essential songs as part of their induction.

    How to watch the Rock Hall induction show

    This year’s ceremony returns to the Peacock Theater in downtown Los Angeles in the city’s three-year rotation with New York and Cleveland, the home of the hall itself.

    Fans who’ve bought tickets will see it live, and so can fans at home in a livestream on Disney+, a new development since 2023. The show begins at 8 p.m. Eastern, 5 p.m. Pacific.

    It will be available to stream on Hulu starting Sunday. And it will get its traditional edited telecast on ABC on Jan. 1.

    Who will be inducted

    Here’s a look at the full class of 2025 and a few of their defining songs.

    • Outkast: American rap duo that began in the 1990s. Key songs: “Hey Ya,” “Ms. Jackson” and “Roses”
    • Salt-N-Pepa: American rap group formed in the 1980s. Key songs: “Push It,” “Let’s Talk About Sex” and “Shoop”
    • Bad Company: English rock band formed in the 1970s. Key songs: “Feel Like Makin’ Love,” “Can’t Get Enough,” “Bad Company”
    • Chubby Checker: American singer who began releasing records in the 1950s. Key songs: “The Twist,” “Limbo Rock,” “Let’s Twist Again”
    • Joe Cocker: English singer who began releasing records in the 1960s and died in 2014. Key songs: “You Are So Beautiful,” “Up Where We Belong,” “With a Little Help From My Friends”
    • Cyndi Lauper: American singer and songwriter whose solo career began in the early 1980s. Key songs: “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun,” “Time After Time,” “True Colors”
    • Soundgarden: American rock band formed in 1984. Key songs: “Black Hole Sun,” “Fell on Black Days,” and “Outshined.”
    • Warren Zevon: American singer-songwriter who began releasing solo records in the early 1970s and died in 2003. Key songs: “Lawyers, Guns and Money,” “Werewolves of London,” “Keep Me in Your Heart”
    • Thom Bell: American music producer and songwriter starting in the 1960s who died in 2022. Key songs: the Delfonics’ “La-La (Means I Love You),” the Spinners’ “The Rubberband Man,” the Stylistics’ “You Make Me Feel Brand New.”
    • The White Stripes: American rock band that began in the 1990s. Key songs: “Seven Nation Army,” “We’re Going to Be Friends,” “Doorbell.”
    • Carole Kaye: American session musician who played on scores of hits starting in the 1950s, primarily on bass. Key songs: The Beach Boys’ “Good Vibrations,” Nancy Sinatra’s “These Boots are Made for Walkin’,” Barbra Streisand’s “The Way We Were”
    • Nicky Hopkins: English session musician who played keyboards on dozens of hits starting in the 1960s and died in 1994. Key songs: the Beatles’ “Revolution,” the Rolling Stones’ “Sympathy for the Devil,” Cocker’s “You Are So Beautiful”
    • Lenny Waronker: American music producer and executive starting in the 1970s. Key songs from artists he produced or signed: Rickie Lee Jones’ “Chuck E’s in Love,” Prince’s “Purple Rain,” R.E.M.’s “Losing My Religion”

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    Spectrum News Staff, Associated Press

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  • Supreme Court issues emergency order to block full SNAP food aid payments

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    BOSTON — The Supreme Court on Friday granted the Trump administration’s emergency appeal to temporarily block a court order to fully fund SNAP food aid payments amid the government shutdown, even though residents in some states already have received the funds.

    What You Need To Know

    •  Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson issued an order late Friday pausing the requirement to distribute full SNAP payments until the appeals court rules on whether to issue a more lasting pause

    • Jackson handles emergency matters from Massachusetts
    • Her order will remain in place until 48 hours after the appeals court rules, giving the administration time to return to the Supreme Court if the appeals court refuses to step in

    • The food program serves about 1 in 8 Americans, mostly with lower incomes

    A judge had given the Republican administration until Friday to make the payments through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. But the administration asked an appeals court to suspend any court orders requiring it to spend more money than is available in a contingency fund, and instead allow it to continue with planned partial SNAP payments for the month.

    After a Boston appeals court declined to immediately intervene, Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson issued an order late Friday pausing the requirement to distribute full SNAP payments until the appeals court rules on whether to issue a more lasting pause. Jackson handles emergency matters from Massachusetts.

    Her order will remain in place until 48 hours after the appeals court rules, giving the administration time to return to the Supreme Court if the appeals court refuses to step in.

    The food program serves about 1 in 8 Americans, mostly with lower incomes.

    Officials in more than a half-dozen states confirmed that some SNAP recipients already were issued full November payments on Friday. But Jackson’s order could prevent other states from initiating the payments.

    Which states issued SNAP payments

    “Food benefits are now beginning to flow back to California families,” Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a statement.

    In Wisconsin, more than $104 million of monthly food benefits became available at midnight on electronic cards for about 337,000 households, a spokesperson for Democratic Gov. Tony Evers said. The state was able to access the federal money so quickly by submitting a request to its electronic benefit card vendor to process the SNAP payments within hours of a Thursday court order to provide full benefits.

    Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek, a Democrat, said state employees “worked through the night” to issue full November benefits “to make sure every Oregon family relying on SNAP could buy groceries” by Friday.

    Officials in Kansas, New Jersey and Pennsylvania also said they moved quickly to issue full SNAP benefits Friday, while other states said they expected full benefits to arrive over the weekend or early next week. Still others said they were waiting for further federal guidance.

    Many SNAP recipients face uncertainty

    The court wrangling prolonged weeks of uncertainty for Americans with lower incomes.

    An individual can receive a monthly maximum food benefit of nearly $300 and a family of four up to nearly $1,000, although many receive less than that under a formula that takes into consideration their income.

    For some SNAP participants, it remained unclear when they would receive their benefits.

    Jasmen Youngbey of Newark, New Jersey, waited in line Friday at a food pantry in the state’s largest city. As a single mom attending college, Youngbey said she relies on SNAP to help feed her 7-month-old and 4-year-old sons. But she said her account balance was at $0.

    “Not everybody has cash to pull out and say, ‘OK, I’m going to go and get this,’ especially with the cost of food right now,” she said.

    Later Friday, Youngbey said, she received her monthly SNAP benefits.

    Tihinna Franklin, a school bus guard who was waiting in the same line outside the United Community Corporation food pantry, said her SNAP account balance was at 9 cents and she was down to three items in her freezer. She typically relies on the roughly $290 a month in SNAP benefits to help feed her grandchildren.

    “If I don’t get it, I won’t be eating,” she said. “My money I get paid for, that goes to the bills, rent, electricity, personal items. That is not fair to us as mothers and caregivers.”

    Franklin said later Friday that she had received at least some of her normal SNAP benefits.

    The legal battle over SNAP takes another twist

    Because of the federal government shutdown, the Trump administration originally had said SNAP benefits would not be available in November. However, two judges ruled last week that the administration could not skip November’s benefits entirely because of the shutdown. One of those judges was U.S. District Judge John J. McConnell Jr., who ordered the full payments Thursday.

    In both cases, the judges ordered the government to use one emergency reserve fund containing more than $4.6 billion to pay for SNAP for November but gave it leeway to tap other money to make the full payments, which cost between $8.5 billion and $9 billion each month.

    On Monday, the administration said it would not use additional money, saying it was up to Congress to appropriate the funds for the program and that the other money was needed to shore up other child hunger programs.

    Thursday’s federal court order rejected the Trump administration’s decision to cover only 65% of the maximum monthly benefit, a decision that could have left some recipients getting nothing for this month.

    In its court filing Friday, Trump’s administration contended that Thursday’s directive to fund full SNAP benefits runs afoul of the U.S. Constitution.

    “This unprecedented injunction makes a mockery of the separation of powers. Courts hold neither the power to appropriate nor the power to spend,” the U.S. Department of Justice wrote in its request to the court.

    In response, attorneys for the cities and nonprofits challenging Trump’s administration said the government has plenty of available money and the court should “not allow them to further delay getting vital food assistance to individuals and families who need it now.”

    States are taking different approaches to food aid

    Some states said they stood ready to distribute SNAP money as quickly as possible.

    Massachusetts said SNAP recipients should receive their full November payments as soon as Saturday. New York said access to full SNAP benefits should begin by Sunday. New Hampshire said full benefits should be available by this weekend. And Connecticut said full benefits should be accessible in the next several days.

    Officials in North Carolina said they distributed partial SNAP payments Friday and full benefits could be available by this weekend. Officials in Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana and North Dakota also said they distributed partial November payments.

    Amid the federal uncertainty, Delaware’s Democratic Gov. Matt Meyer said the state used its own funds Friday to provide the first of what could be a weekly relief payment to SNAP recipients.

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  • Criminal case against Boeing over deadly 737 Max crashes dismissed by judge

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    In a written decision issued Thursday, U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor approved the federal government’s request to dismiss its case against Boeing as part of a deal that requires the aircraft maker to pay or invest an additional $1.1 billion in fines, compensation for the crash victims’ families, and internal safety and quality measures.

    What You Need To Know

    • A federal judge in Texas has dismissed a criminal conspiracy charge against Boeing related to two 737 Max crashes that killed 346 people

    • U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor approved the federal government’s request on Thursday

    • The deal requires Boeing to pay or invest an additional $1.1 billion in fines, compensation for victims’ families, and internal safety measures

    • The ruling follows a September hearing where victims’ relatives urged the judge to appoint a special prosecutor

    The ruling came after an emotional hearing in early September when relatives of some of the victims urged O’Connor to reject the deal and instead appoint a special prosecutor to take over the case.

    All passengers and crew members died when the planes went down off the coast of Indonesia and in Ethiopia less than five months apart in 2018 and 2019. Prosecutors had alleged that Boeing deceived government regulators about a flight-control system that was later implicated in the fatal flights.

    The long-running case has taken many twists and turns since the Justice Department first charged the American aerospace company in January 2021 with defrauding the U.S. government, including a failed deal that would have required Boeing to plead guilty. That plea agreement fell through after O’Connor did not approve it.

    Airlines began flying the Max in 2017. After the Ethiopia crash, the planes were grounded worldwide for 20 months while the company redesigned the flight-control software.

    The Justice Department had said it believed the latest agreement served the public interest more effectively than taking the case to trial and risking a jury verdict that might spare the company further punishment. It also said the families of 110 crash victims either support resolving the case before it reaches trial or did not oppose the deal.

    Meanwhile, more than a dozen relatives spoke at the Sept. 3 hearing, some of whom traveled to Texas from as far as Europe and Africa. They are among nearly 100 families who opposed the agreement.

    Catherine Berthet, who traveled from France, had asked the judge to send the case to trial.

    “Do not allow Boeing to buy its freedom,” she said. Her daughter, Camille Geoffroy, died when a 737 Max crashed shortly after takeoff from Ethiopia’s Addis Ababa Bole International Airport.

    The yearslong case centers around a software system that Boeing developed for the 737 Max, which began flying in 2017.

    In both of the deadly crashes, that software pitched the nose of the plane down repeatedly based on faulty readings from a single sensor, and pilots flying for Lion Air and Ethiopian Airlines were unable to regain control. After the Ethiopia crash, the planes were grounded worldwide for 20 months.

    Investigators found that Boeing did not inform key Federal Aviation Administration personnel about changes it had made to the software before regulators set pilot training requirements for the Max and certified the airliner for flight.

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  • Democrats demand meeting with Trump, who again calls for end to filibuster

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    WASHINGTON — As the government shutdown entered its 36th day and became the longest in U.S. history Wednesday, President Donald Trump dug in on his demand that Republican Senators end the filibuster while Democrats called for the president to meet with them.

    “It’s time for Republicans to do what they have to do, and that’s terminate the filibuster,” Trump said during a breakfast meeting with Republican senators Wednesday. “It’s time to have a really good talk. If I thought they weren’t going to pass the filibuster, I wouldn’t even bring it up.”

    What You Need To Know

    • The federal government shutdown entered its 36th day on Wednesday

    • It is now the longest shutdown in U.S. history

    • “It’s time for Republicans to do what they have to do and that’s terminate the filibuster,” President Trump said during a breakfast meeting with Republican Senators Wednesday

    • Jeffries wrote on X Wednesday: “Donald Trump and Republicans are meeting at the White House this morning. The extremists want to make your life more expensive, take away healthcare and keep the government shut down. Have they learned nothing from being wiped out last night? #BlueWave”


    Senate Democrats have repeatedly blocked a Republican bill to temporarily fund the government through Nov. 21 over demands that it includes an extension of Affordable Care Act subsidies that will otherwise expire at the end of the year. The bill failed for a 15th time in the Senate on Tuesday in a vote that requires 60 to pass.

    Since Friday, Trump has repeatedly urged Senate Republicans to end the filibuster, which would allow the stopgap funding bill and future Republican legislation to pass with a simple majority. Currently, legislation needs 60 votes to advance past a filibuster.

    House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., wrote on X on Wednesday: “Donald Trump and Republicans are meeting at the White House this morning. The extremists want to make your life more expensive, take away healthcare and keep the government shut down. Have they learned nothing from being wiped out last night? #BlueWave.”

    One day after an election that saw democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani win the New York City mayoral race, and Democratic governors claim victories in Virginia and New Jersey, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., dismissed the idea that it was a referendum on Republican leadership or Trump.

    “What happened last night was blue states and blue cities voted blue,” Johnson said during his daily briefing at the Capitol on Wednesday morning. “We all saw that coming, and no one should read too much into last night’s results.”

    Johnson said Tuesday’s election only proved what he has been saying for weeks: that Democratic leaders in the House and Senate are kowtowing to the most left-leaning elements of their party.

    “The old guard is desperately trying to use this shutdown to show the radical Marxist wing of their party that they look tough to President Trump,” he said. “That’s because the new power center of the left isn’t the moderates. It’s the activists who believe capitalism is evil, who disdain the founding principles of their own country.”

    At his breakfast meeting Wednesday, Trump said he would have a closed-door meeting with Senate Republicans “about what last night represented and what we should do about it and also about the shutdown and how that relates to last night.”

    Prior to his comments, Jeffries and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., wrote a letter Wednesday “to demand a bipartisan meeting of legislative leaders to end the GOP shutdown of the federal government and decisively address the Republican health care crisis. Democrats stand ready to meet with you face to face, anytime and anyplace.”

    The White House did not immediately respond to a request for a comment about whether Trump will agree to a meeting.

    The worsening stalemate comes as 42 million low-income Americans miss their nutrition assistance payments and as hundreds of thousands of federal workers go without pay, including air traffic controllers, who are calling in sick and causing flight delays across the country.

    Trump, along with Republican leaders in the House and Senate, has insisted for weeks that GOP lawmakers will only negotiate with Democrats about health care subsidies once the shutdown has ended.

    But that remains out of reach, as both sides continue to dig in on their positions.

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  • Former Vice President Dick Cheney dies at 84

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    WASHINGTON — Dick Cheney, the hard-charging conservative who became one of the most powerful and polarizing vice presidents in U.S. history and a leading advocate for the invasion of Iraq, has died at age 84.

    What You Need To Know

    • Former Vice President Dick Cheney has died at age 84

    • Cheney’s family says he died Monday of complications of pneumonia and cardiac and vascular disease

    • The hard-charging conservative became one of the most powerful and polarizing vice presidents and a leading advocate for the invasion of Iraq

    • Cheney led the armed forces as defense chief during the Persian Gulf War under President George H.W. Bush before returning to public life as vice president under his son George W. Bush

    Cheney died Monday due to complications of pneumonia and cardiac and vascular disease, his family said in a statement.

    “For decades, Dick Cheney served our nation, including as White House Chief of Staff, Wyoming’s Congressman, Secretary of Defense, and Vice President of the United States,” the statement said. “Dick Cheney was a great and good man who taught his children and grandchildren to love our country, and to live lives of courage, honor, love, kindness, and fly fishing. We are grateful beyond measure for all Dick Cheney did for our country. And we are blessed beyond measure to have loved and been loved by this noble giant of a man.”

    The quietly forceful Cheney served father and son presidents, leading the armed forces as defense chief during the Persian Gulf War under President George H.W. Bush before returning to public life as vice president under Bush’s son George W. Bush.

    Cheney was, in effect, the chief operating officer of the younger Bush’s presidency. He had a hand, often a commanding one, in implementing decisions most important to the president and some of surpassing interest to himself — all while living with decades of heart disease and, post-administration, a heart transplant. Cheney consistently defended the extraordinary tools of surveillance, detention and inquisition employed in response to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

    Years after leaving office, he became a target of President Donald Trump, especially after his daughter Liz Cheney became the leading Republican critic and examiner of Trump’s attempts to stay in power after his 2020 election defeat and his actions in the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the Capitol.

    “In our nation’s 246-year history, there has never been an individual who was a greater threat to our republic than Donald Trump,” Cheney said in a television ad for his daughter. “He tried to steal the last election using lies and violence to keep himself in power after the voters had rejected him. He is a coward.”

    In a twist the Democrats of his era could never have imagined, Cheney said last year he was voting for their candidate, Kamala Harris, for president against Trump.

    A survivor of five heart attacks, Cheney long thought he was living on borrowed time and declared in 2013 he awoke each morning “with a smile on my face, thankful for the gift of another day,” an odd image for a figure who always seemed to be manning the ramparts.

    In his time in office, no longer was the vice presidency merely a ceremonial afterthought. Instead, Cheney made it a network of back channels from which to influence policy on Iraq, terrorism, presidential powers, energy and other cornerstones of a conservative agenda.

    Fixed with a seemingly permanent half-smile — detractors called it a smirk — Cheney joked about his outsize reputation as a stealthy manipulator.

    “Am I the evil genius in the corner that nobody ever sees come out of his hole?” he asked. “It’s a nice way to operate, actually.”

    FILE – President George H.W. Bush gestures during a news conference at the White House on Friday, March 10, 1989, where he announced his selection of Rep. Richard Cheney, R-Wyo., left, to become Defense Secretary replacing his last choice of John Tower, whose nomination was turned down by the senate Thursday. (AP Photo/Charles Tasnadi, file)

    The Iraq War

    A hard-liner on Iraq who was increasingly isolated as other hawks left government, Cheney was proved wrong on point after point in the Iraq War, without losing the conviction he was essentially right.

    He alleged links between the 2001 attacks against the United States and prewar Iraq that didn’t exist. He said U.S. troops would be welcomed as liberators; they weren’t.

    He declared the Iraqi insurgency in its last throes in May 2005, back when 1,661 U.S. service members had been killed, not even half the toll by war’s end.

    For admirers, he kept the faith in a shaky time, resolute even as the nation turned against the war and the leaders waging it.

    But well into Bush’s second term, Cheney’s clout waned, checked by courts or shifting political realities.

    Courts ruled against efforts he championed to broaden presidential authority and accord special harsh treatment to suspected terrorists. His hawkish positions on Iran and North Korea were not fully embraced by Bush.

    Cheney operated much of the time from undisclosed locations in the months after the 2001 attacks, kept apart from Bush to ensure one or the other would survive any follow-up assault on the country’s leadership.

    With Bush out of town on that fateful day, Cheney was a steady presence in the White House, at least until Secret Service agents lifted him off his feet and carried him away, in a scene the vice president later described to comical effect.

    U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney waves to U.S. forces in Japan before his address aboard the USS Kitty Hawk aircraft carrier, at Yokosuka Naval Base, home to the U.S. Navy's 7th Fleet, in Yokosuka, south of Tokyo, Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2007. Cheney reaffirmed the Bush administration's commitment to the increasingly unpopular war in Iraq during a visit to the U.S. aircraft carrier Wednesday, saying "the American people will not support a policy of retreat." (AP Photo/Shuji Kajiyama)

    U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney waves to U.S. forces in Japan before his address aboard the USS Kitty Hawk aircraft carrier, at Yokosuka Naval Base, home to the U.S. Navy’s 7th Fleet, in Yokosuka, south of Tokyo, Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2007. Cheney reaffirmed the Bush administration’s commitment to the increasingly unpopular war in Iraq during a visit to the U.S. aircraft carrier Wednesday, saying “the American people will not support a policy of retreat.” (AP Photo/Shuji Kajiyama)

    Cheney’s relationship with Bush

    From the beginning, Cheney and Bush struck an odd bargain, unspoken but well understood. Shelving any ambitions he might have had to succeed Bush, Cheney was accorded power comparable in some ways to the presidency itself.

    That bargain largely held up.

    As Cheney put it: “I made the decision when I signed on with the president that the only agenda I would have would be his agenda, that I was not going to be like most vice presidents — and that was angling, trying to figure out how I was going to be elected president when his term was over with.”

    His penchant for secrecy and backstage maneuvering had a price. He came to be seen as a thin-skinned Machiavelli orchestrating a bungled response to criticism of the Iraq War. And when he shot a hunting companion in the torso, neck and face with an errant shotgun blast in 2006, he and his coterie were slow to disclose that extraordinary turn of events.

    The vice president called it “one of the worst days of my life.” The victim, his friend Harry Whittington, recovered and quickly forgave him. Comedians were relentless about it for months. Whittington died in 2023.

    When Bush began his presidential quest, he sought help from Cheney, a Washington insider who had retreated to the oil business. Cheney led the team to find a vice presidential candidate.

    Bush decided the best choice was the man picked to help with the choosing.

    Together, the pair faced a protracted 2000 postelection battle before they could claim victory. A series of recounts and court challenges left the nation in limbo for weeks.

    Cheney took charge of the presidential transition before victory was clear and helped give the Republican administration a smooth launch despite the lost time. In office, disputes among departments vying for a bigger piece of Bush’s constrained budget came to his desk and often were settled there.

    On Capitol Hill, Cheney lobbied for the president’s programs in halls he had walked as a deeply conservative member of Congress and the No. 2 Republican House leader.

    Jokes abounded about how Cheney was the real No. 1 in town; Bush didn’t seem to mind and cracked a few himself. But such comments became less apt later in Bush’s presidency as he clearly came into his own.

    Cheney’s political rise

    Politics first lured Dick Cheney to Washington in 1968, when he was a congressional fellow. He became a protégé of Rep. Donald Rumsfeld, R-Ill., serving under him in two agencies and in Gerald Ford’s White House before he was elevated to chief of staff, the youngest ever, at age 34.

    Cheney held the post for 14 months, then returned to Casper, Wyoming, where he had been raised, and ran for the state’s lone congressional seat.

    In that first race for the House, Cheney suffered a mild heart attack, prompting him to crack he was forming a group called “Cardiacs for Cheney.” He still managed a decisive victory and went on to win five more terms.

    In 1989, Cheney became defense secretary under the first President Bush and led the Pentagon during the 1990-91 Persian Gulf War, which drove Iraq’s troops from Kuwait. Between the two Bush administrations, Cheney led Dallas-based Halliburton Corp., a large engineering and construction company for the oil industry.

    Cheney was born in Lincoln, Nebraska, son of a longtime Agriculture Department worker. Senior class president and football co-captain in Casper, he went to Yale on a full scholarship for a year but left with failing grades.

    He moved back to Wyoming, eventually enrolled at the University of Wyoming and renewed a relationship with high school sweetheart Lynne Anne Vincent, marrying her in 1964. He is survived by his wife, by Liz and by a second daughter, Mary.

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  • Trump taps Jared Isaacman for NASA administrator again

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    WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump announced Tuesday he has decided to nominate Jared Isaacman to serve as his NASA administrator, months after withdrawing the tech billionaire’s nomination because of concerns about his political leanings.

    What You Need To Know

    • President Donald Trump announced Tuesday he has decided to nominate Jared Isaacman to serve as his NASA administrator, months after withdrawing the tech billionaire’s nomination because of concerns about his political leanings

    • Trump announced in late May he had decided to withdraw Isaacman after a “thorough review” of his “prior associations”; At the time, Trump acknowledged that he thought Isaacman “was very good,” but had become “surprised to learn” that Isaacman was a ” blue-blooded Democrat“

    • Isaacman had the endorsement of Trump’s former DOGE adviser and tech entrepreneur Elon Musk; The president and Musk had a very public falling out earlier this year but are now on better terms

    Trump announced in late May he had decided to withdraw Isaacman after a “thorough review” of his “prior associations.” Weeks after the withdrawal, Trump went further in expressing his concerns about Isaacman’s Republican credentials.

    At the time, Trump acknowledged that he thought Isaacman “was very good,” but had become “surprised to learn” that Isaacman was a ” blue-blooded Democrat, who had never contributed to a Republican before.”

    Isaacman had the endorsement of Trump’s former DOGE adviser and tech entrepreneur Elon Musk. The president and Musk had a very public falling out earlier this year but are now on better terms.

    Last week, Trump told reporters he and Musk have spoken “on and off” since sitting together at conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s funeral last month in Arizona and that their relationship is “good.”

    Trump made no mention of his previous decision to nominate and then withdraw Isaacman in his Tuesday evening announcement of the re-nomination on his Truth Social platform. And the White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Trump’s decision to reverse course.

    “This evening, I am pleased to nominate Jared Isaacman, an accomplished business leader, philanthropist, pilot, and astronaut, as Administrator of NASA,” Trump posted. “Jared’s passion for Space, astronaut experience, and dedication to pushing the boundaries of exploration, unlocking the mysteries of the universe, and advancing the new Space economy, make him ideally suited to lead NASA into a bold new Era.”

    Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has also been serving as interim NASA administrator. The president on Tuesday praised Duffy for doing an “incredible job.”

    Isaacman, CEO and founder of credit card-processing company Shift4, has been a close collaborator with Musk ever since buying his first chartered flight with SpaceX.

    He also bought a series of spaceflights from SpaceX and conducted the first private spacewalk. SpaceX has extensive contracts with NASA.

    The Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee approved Isaacman’s nomination in late April and a vote by the full Senate had been expected when Trump announced he was yanking the nomination.

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  • Trump administration says SNAP will be partially funded in November

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    President Donald Trump’s administration said Monday that it will partially fund SNAP for November, after two judges issued rulings requiring the government to keep the nation’s largest food aid program running.

    What You Need To Know

    • President Donald Trump’s administration says it will partially fund the SNAP food aid program in November after two federal judges required the payments to continue
    • That means grocery aid will resume for 1 in 8 Americans, though it has been delayed for millions already and the amount beneficiaries receive will be reduced
    • The U.S. Department of Agriculture earlier said it would not continue the funding in November due to the government shutdown
    • Two federal judges ruled last week that the government was required to keep the program running. But both gave the administration leeway to pay for it entirely or partially
    • It can take up to two weeks to load beneficiaries’ debit cards

    The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, had planned to freeze payments starting Nov. 1 because it said it could no longer keep funding it during the federal government shutdown. The program serves about 1 in 8 Americans and is a major piece of the nation’s social safety net. It costs more than $8 billion per month nationally. The government says an emergency fund it will use has $4.65 billion — enough to cover about half the normal benefits.

    Exhausting the fund potentially sets the stage for a similar situation in December if the shutdown isn’t resolved by then.

    It’s not clear exactly how much beneficiaries will receive, nor how quickly they will see value show up on the debit cards they use to buy groceries. November payments have already been delayed for millions of people.

    “The Trump Administration has the means to fund this program in full, and their decision not to will leave millions of Americans hungry and waiting even longer for relief as government takes the additional steps needed to partially fund this program,” Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell, who led a coalition of Democratic state officials in one of the lawsuits that forced the funding, said in a statement.

    How will SNAP beneficiaries manage?

    People who receive the benefits are trying to figure out how to stretch their grocery money further.

    Corina Betancourt, who’s 40 and lives in Glendale, Arizona, already uses a food bank sometimes to get groceries for herself and her three kids, ages 8 through 11. With her SNAP benefits reduced and delayed, she’s expecting to use the food bank more and find ways to stretch what she has further.

    But she is worried that there won’t be enough for her children to eat with about $400 this month instead of around $800. “We always make things work somehow, some way,” she said.

    In Camden, New Jersey, 41-year-old Jamal Brown, who is paralyzed after a series of strokes and on a fixed income, said family members asked him for a list of groceries he needs so they can stock him up.

    But not everyone has that help.

    “How did you expect to live a healthy life if you’re not eating the right stuff?” he asked. “If you don’t have the access to the food stamps, you’re going to go to the cheapest thing that you can afford.”

    Details on how payments will roll out are still to come

    The administration said it would provide details to states on Monday on calculating the per-household partial benefit. The process of loading the SNAP cards, which involves steps by state and federal government agencies and vendors, can take up to two weeks in some states. But the USDA warned in a court filing that it could take weeks or even months for states to make all the system changes to send out reduced benefits. The average monthly benefit is usually about $190 per person.

    California Attorney General Rob Bonta said at a news conference that it would take his state about a week to load benefit cards once the funding is made available.

    “These are folks who are hungry, and every day matters,” Bonta said.

    The USDA said last month that benefits for November wouldn’t be paid due to the federal government shutdown. That set off a scramble by food banks, state governments and the nearly 42 million Americans who receive the aid to find ways to ensure access to groceries.

    The liberal group Democracy Forward, which represented plaintiffs in one of the lawsuits, said it was considering legal options to force full SNAP funding.

    Other high-profile Democrats are calling for the government to do that on its own.

    “USDA has the authority to fully fund SNAP and needs to do so immediately. Anything else is unacceptable,” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said on social media.

    State governments step in

    Most states have boosted aid to food banks, and some are setting up systems to reload benefit cards with state taxpayer dollars. The threat of a delay also spurred lawsuits.

    Federal judges in Massachusetts and Rhode Island ruled separately but similarly Friday, telling the government in response to lawsuits filed by Democratic state officials, cities and non-profits that it was required to use one emergency fund to pay for the program, at least in part. They gave the government the option to use additional money to fully fund the program and a deadline of Monday to decide.

    Patrick Penn, Deputy Under Secretary Food Nutrition and Consumer Services for USDA, said in a court filing Monday that the department chose not to tap other emergency funds to ensure there’s not a gap in child nutrition programs for the rest of this fiscal year, which runs through September 2026.

    Advocates and beneficiaries say halting the food aid would force people to choose between buying groceries and paying other bills. The majority of states have announced more or expedited funding for food banks or novel ways to load at least some benefits onto the SNAP debit cards.

    New Mexico and Rhode Island officials said Monday that some SNAP beneficiaries received funds over the weekend from their emergency programs. Officials in Delaware are telling recipients that their benefits won’t be available until at least Nov. 7.

    To qualify for SNAP in 2025, a household’s net income after certain expenses can’t exceed the federal poverty line. For a family of four, that’s about $32,000 per year.

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  • Trump doubts U.S.-Venezuela war, won’t comment on land strikes

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    WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump dismissed the idea of the U.S. going to war against Venezuela, even as his administration’s strikes against vessels in the region and decision to move a carrier strike group to the area have raised speculation. 

    At the same time, Trump did not rule out land strikes in the Latin American country, declining to detail any plans, but said he believed Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro could soon be out of power. 

    What You Need To Know

    • President Donald Trump dismissed the idea of the U.S. going to war against Venezuela, even as his administration’s strikes against vessels in the region and decision to move a carrier strike group to the area have raised speculation

    • At the same time, Trump did not rule out land strikes in the Latin American country, declining to detail any plans, but said he believed Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro could soon be out of power

    • Over the last two months the Trump administration has carried out more than a dozen strikes against vessels at sea it says are smuggling drugs from places such as Venezuela as part of Trump’s declared war on cartels and the U.S. has built up a large presence in the region

    • The repeated strikes have raised some concern on Capitol Hill about the administration’s authority to wage them without Congress’ involvement as well as whether it has sufficient intelligence about who it is targeting and evidence that the boats are carrying drugs

    “I doubt it, I don’t think so,” Trump said when asked in an interview on CBS News’ “60 Minutes” that was conducted Friday and aired Sunday if the U.S. was going to war with Venezuela.

    He went on to reiterate his frequently expressed criticisms of the Venezuela, including that it has “emptied their prisons into our country” — for which there is no evidence to support — and is facilitating the flow of drugs into the U.S.

    Asked then if his moves in the region were about stopping the flow of drugs or ousting Maduro, the president said they were about “many things,” not rejecting the idea that getting rid of the Venezuelan leader — whom the U.S. has brought narcoterrorism charges against — was involved. He responded affirmatively when asked if Maduro’s days as Venezuela’s leader are numbered.

    “I would say yeah, I think so, yeah,” Trump said. 

    Trump would not say, however, whether he would escalate the strikes his administration has been carrying out against vessels in the region to target land in Venezuela but suggested his answer shouldn’t be taken as a signal of where he is leaning either way. 

    “I’m not saying it’s true or untrue,” Trump said before stressing that he wouldn’t talk to a reporter about such a potential move. 

    Over the last two months the Trump administration has carried out more than a dozen strikes against vessels at sea that it says were smuggling drugs from places such as Venezuela, with the latest announcement of another boat being hit coming just this weekend. The strikes began mostly on ships in the Caribbean near Venezuela but have expanded recently to the eastern Pacific. 

    The attacks have killed more than 60 people, according to figures shared by the administration when announcing each hit, and has been presented as a key part of Trump’s declared war on cartels. The president in the interview stressed his belief that Venezuela in particular has “been treating us very badly” when it comes to drugs and noted the role of Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.

    The repeated strikes have raised some concern on Capitol Hill about the administration’s authority to wage them without Congress’ involvement as well as whether it has sufficient intelligence about who it is targeting and evidence that the boats are carrying drugs. Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., who blasted the administration last week for what he said was Democrats being left out of a briefing on the strikes given to Republican senators, encouraged it in an interview over the weekend to “come clean” about the legal basis and justifications for the attacks.

    “And the fact is, if, as the administration says, these are all bad guys, and yeah, they’re all drugs on these boats, interdict these boats and show the world,” Warner said Sunday on CBS News’ “Face the Nation.”

    House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., meanwhile, argued in an interview on Fox News on Sunday that the administration has briefed top lawmakers of both parties, known as the “Gang of Eight,” and has “exquisite intelligence” about the strikes that is “reliable.” He said, however, that he could not get into classified information. 

    Along with the strikes, the administration’s move to build a robust U.S. military presence in the Caribbean and off the coast of Venezuela in recent weeks, including its decision to deploy the Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group to the Latin American region, has stirred up talks about whether Trump is preparing to escalate efforts. Asked about the moves last week, a close ally of the president, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., called U.S. land strikes in Venezuela a “real possibility” and said he believes Trump has made a decision regarding Maduro that it’s “time for him to go.” 

    Trump has also said he authorized the CIA to carry out covert operations inside Venezuela.

     

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    Maddie Gannon

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  • How to reuse your pumpkins after Halloween

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    Halloween was a few days ago, but don’t throw out those pumpkins. There are lots ways to reuse your pumpkins or jack-o’-lanterns now that the trick-or-treating is done. 

    What You Need To Know

    • There are several ways to recycle your pumpkins

    • Leftover pumpkins can make tasty dishes

    • Pumpkin scraps are also an excellent fertilizer for your garden.

    Turn pumpkins into food

    If you didn’t carve the pumpkins yet, consider using it for food. You can scoop out the guts of the pumpkin and turn it into a puree.

    To make a puree, you need to cut up the pumpkin and roast the halves. After they’ve roasted, scoop out the flesh and blend it to turn into a puree.

    The puree could then be used to make pies, soups and sauces.

    (Pexels)

    You can also the roast the pumpkin seeds too after taking out the guts and rinsing them. One cup of pumpkin seeds is equivalent to approximately 12 grams of protein. 

    Pumpkin for animals

    Leftover pumpkins can also become bird feeders.

    You just have to cut off the top third of the pumpkin, empty the cavity, fill it with bird seeds and hang it in the yard for the birds.

    Check with your local zoo. Some will take donated pumpkin scraps and use them as feed for animals. Polar bears enjoy them as a snack.

    Composting pumpkins

    Pumpkins are also good for composting. You can use the pumpkin scraps to help fertilize your garden.

    You can even make it a game for kids to smash leftover pumpkins and use it as compost.

    Our team of meteorologists dives deep into the science of weather and breaks down timely weather data and information. To view more weather and climate stories, check out our weather blogs section.

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    Spectrum News Staff, Meteorologist Keith Bryant

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