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Tag: Public opinion

  • Exxon Mobil reports strong quarterly profit on solid production at home and abroad

    Exxon Mobil’s topped most expectations in the fourth quarter as the energy giant reported solid production in the Permian Basin and Guyana.

    For the three months ended Dec. 31, Exxon earned $6.5 billion, or $1.53 per share. It earned $7.61 billion, or $1.72 per share, a year earlier.

    Excluding one time charges and benefits earnings were $1.71 per share, topping the $1.68 per share that Wall Street was calling for, according to a poll by Zacks Investment Research. Exxon does not adjust its reported results based on one-time events such as asset sales.

    Revenue totaled $82.31 billion, which was below the $83.18 billion that analysts expected.

    Fourth-quarter net production was 5 million oil-equivalent barrels per day. That’s up slightly from 4.7 million oil-equivalent barrels per day in the third quarter. The quarterly performance included 1.8 million oil-equivalent barrels per day in the Permian and Guyana approaching 875,000 gross barrels per day.

    Exxon’s stock dropped more than 2% before the market opened Friday.

    Earlier this month President Donald Trump said that he is “inclined” to keep Exxon Mobil out of Venezuela after its top executive was skeptical about oil investment efforts in the country after the toppling of former President Nicolás Maduro.

    Getting U.S. oil companies to invest in Venezuela and help rebuild the country’s infrastructure is a top priority of the Trump administration after Maduro’s capture.

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  • The nation’s 250th anniversary arrives with a call for year-round community service

    NEW YORK — The U.S. Semiquincentennial Commission wants to turn America’s 250th birthday celebration into the country’s single biggest year for volunteering.

    But America Gives, the program unveiled Wednesday just before the U.S. begins commemorating the 1776 signing of the Declaration of Independence, will have to revitalize a culture of service that has recently waned. Declining volunteering rates still haven’t returned to pre-pandemic levels. Just 28% of Americans said they volunteered time to a religious or secular charitable organization this year, according to a December AP-NORC poll.

    Organizers don’t know how many service hours they need to set the record and aren’t targeting a specific number. The idea is to leverage nationwide reflections on the country’s direction to encourage lasting community involvement that will strengthen nonprofits’ volunteer pipelines beyond 2026. Funding comes from congressional appropriations as well as corporate sponsors including Walmart and Coca-Cola.

    Participants are invited to pledge their time and log volunteering on an online tracker. Nonprofit partners include Girl Scouts of the USA, which will offer a volunteering badge to any of its roughly 1 million youth members who complete a service project, and Keep America Beautiful, which is leading efforts to clean up 250 million pieces of trash by the Fourth of July. JustServe — a service project coordinator sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — is sending 250 semitrucks to deliver food donations to 250 food banks across the 50 states.

    “We strongly believe that this is as much about the future as it is the past,” said America250 Chair Rosie Rios, who oversees the nonpartisan commission created by Congress to organize the anniversary. “Especially this next generation, we want them to give them something to believe in.”

    That forward-focused goal requires courting a demographic that many nonprofits struggle to reach: young volunteers.

    About one-quarter of adults under 30 said they volunteered their time to charity or provided non-financial support to people in their community in the past year, according to a March AP-NORC poll, compared with 36% of those over 60.

    Rios said America Gives is working with high schools, many of which already list community service as a graduation requirement, to ensure those volunteering hours are logged and build giving habits that continue after students’ secondary education.

    “They’re very passionate. They’re very purpose driven. They do want to give back,” Rios said, adding that “inspiring them to not just visualize, but maybe fuel their own future, is a big priority for us.”

    Service could be an opportunity to meet younger generations’ desire for in-person connections. Sofia Alvarez — a cohort lead for the Youth250 Bureau, a separate effort to center Gen Z perspectives throughout next year’s programming — said young people want “third spaces.” That means somewhere outside of home, school or work that feels “safe,” she said, but doesn’t require spending money.

    “I think any sort of craft or activity that really helps people connect, where they can chit chat and bond with each other, really builds that sense of community,” Alvarez said.

    Sarah Keating, vice president of Girl and Volunteer Experience at Girl Scouts of the USA, said they’ve had to make their volunteer opportunities more manageable.

    Young people want to give back, Keating said, but they are busy and don’t know how. She said nonprofits must offer experiences “that match their lives.” Someone might not have time to lead an entire troop, for example, but they can help lead a specific badge program.

    “A campaign like this shines a light on the multitude of ways that you can volunteer — that it doesn’t have to be whatever stereotype you have in your head,” she said of America Gives. “There are small ways to volunteer. There are big ways to volunteer.”

    The patriotic appeal must also overcome extreme polarization and the slow erosion of national pride — trends that America Gives organizers believe they can counter with their call to action.

    Acknowledging political divisions, Rios said the commission’s research shows that most Americans want to bring back a spirit of volunteerism.

    “It is about one country,” she said. “I think there’s gonna be a lot of people who feel like now, more than ever, we all need to stand up.”

    Keep America Beautiful CEO Jennifer Lawson expects her nationwide nonprofit network to unify people around the bridge issue of litter. Her benchmark next year is to reach 4 million volunteers through local chapters devoted to cleaning up their communities, planting trees and making gardens.

    Lawson wants the volunteer opportunities to show people patriotism is an action — not a concept — that involves working with your neighbors.

    “It doesn’t have to be all flags and tricornered hats,” Lawson said. “Patriotism in this country is an act of giving into community.”

    America Gives will engage volunteers beyond July 4th in an attempt to build up the habit of giving back. Volunteers who register their service hours can enter a sweepstakes where 250 randomly selected winners will get to donate $4,000 to an approved nonprofit partner.

    The program also plans to rally people around the national days of service on Martin Luther King Jr. Day and 9/11. The year-round goal will be to keep things as local as possible.

    “It should be on people’s minds all the time, not just the day that they’re doing service,” Rios said. “But how do they plan ahead to keep it going?

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    Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and non-profits receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. For all of AP’s philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy.

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  • Bulgaria to become the 21st country to join the euro, deepening EU ties despite fears

    SOFIA, Bulgaria — On New Year’s Day, Bulgaria becomes the 21st country to join the euro currency union, furthering its integration into the European Union. But the historic milestone arrives amid political instability and skepticism among ordinary people fueled by fears of price rises.

    Supporters of switching to the euro from the old currency, the lev, are praising the move as one of the greatest achievements since the 1989 transition from a Soviet-style economy to democracy and free markets. They hope it will make the country more attractive for investors and strengthen its orientation toward wealthier Western Europe.

    But many people are uneasy, in a country where corruption is rife and trust in the authorities is low. One fear is that merchants will round prices up or otherwise use the changeover to worsen inflation, at a time when inflation has rebounded to 3.7%.

    An EU Eurobarometer poll from March showed that 53% of 1,017 people surveyed opposed joining the eurozone, while 45% were in favor. A separate Eurobarometer poll, taken between Oct. 9 and Nov. 3 on a similar sample, showed that about half of Bulgarians opposed the single currency while 42% were in favor. The margin of error was about plus or minus 3.1 percentage points for the March poll.

    The government successfully completed the euro adoption process by beating inflation down to 2.7% earlier this year to comply with EU rules and win approval from EU leaders. But clearing that hurdle was followed by a new chapter of political chaos. The government resigned after less than a year in office amid nationwide anti-corruption protests. This left the country without a regular budget for next year and is hampering plans for long-overdue structural reforms and decisions on use of EU support funds. A new election — the eighth in five years — is expected to be held next spring.

    Nevelin Petrov, 64, said he welcomed the euro. “Bulgaria is a full member of the European Union, and its rightful place is alongside the other developed and democratic European nations,” he said. “I am convinced that the adoption of the euro will contribute to the long-term prosperity of our country,” he said.

    Others, like Darina Vitova, who runs a pedicure salon in Sofia, said things were moving too fast although she welcomed the change “in principle.”

    “The standard of living and incomes in our country are far from those in the richest European countries, while prices here are rising and life for the average person will become more difficult,” she said. She acknowledges that when heading to the beaches in neighboring Greece, it will be more convenient to pay with the same “pocket money” she uses at home.

    Bulgaria, with its 6.4 million people, is one of the poorest members of the 27-country European union. The average monthly wage is 1,300 euros ($1,530).

    Countries that join the EU commit to the euro, but actually joining can take years and some members are in no hurry. Poland in particular has seen strong economic growth since joining the EU in 2004 without adopting the euro.

    Opponents of joining have fed fears that the changes will allegedly lead to more poverty and loss of national identity. Social media has spread disinformation such as false claims that the euro could lead to confiscation of bank accounts. Nationalist and pro-Russian groups exploit these fears.

    European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde has said that countries have experienced a slight, transient rise in prices of 0.2%-0.4% right after joining. Price rises can be more apparent than real, as cafe and hairdressers may put off printing new menus and price lists ahead of the change, so that increases are only delayed, not caused by the euro.

    Anti-euro rallies in May and September were organized by the pro-Russian Vazrazhdane party but remained smaller than the mass protests that toppled the government. While the anti-euro protests were supported by older people based on economic anxiety, the mass protests that toppled the government appeared to represent a younger electorate fed up with corruption and eager to integrate with Europe.

    Anti-euro disinformation spread by pro-Russian politicians and social media aim “to reduce support for the European Union, NATO and Ukraine,” said Dimitar Keranov, program coordinator for engaging Central Europe at the German Marshall Fund in Berlin.

    Bulgaria’s European integration “is not in Moscow’s interest at all, so if it can somehow polarize society and weaken support for the European Union that’s what it tries to achieve,” he said.

    Euro adoption is another way to combat Russian influence, he said: “The further Bulgaria advances in its European integration, the harder it becomes for Russia to influence the country.”

    Petar Ganev, an analyst at the Sofia-based Institute for Market Economics, says that that by stepping down the outgoing government has sent a signal of uncertainty to foreign investors.

    “Instead of capitalizing on euro adoption as a strong and positive signal to the international community—investors, debt holders, and those investing in Bulgarian assets and economic activity—we risk sending the opposite message,” Ganev said in an interview with the Associated Press.

    Ganev believes that eurozone membership should be regarded as an opportunity, an additional mechanism to address corruption and the rule of law, although it alone cannot resolve Bulgaria’s chronic cycle of elections and political fragmentation and instability.

    Local economists think that joining the euro will not bring dramatic changes to Bulgaria’s economy. That is because the lev has been pegged since 1999 to the euro by law, at a fixed rate of 1 lev for every 51 euro cents.

    The lev and the euro will be in dual use for cash payments for the whole month of January, but people will receive only euros in change.

    ___

    McHugh reported from Frankfurt, Germany. Valentina Petrova in Sofia contributed to this report

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  • FACT FOCUS: It is not illegal for voters to show ID in New York and California

    As the leadup to the 2026 midterm elections begins, social media users — among them billionaire X owner Elon Musk, who briefly served as a top advisor to President Donald Trump — are using false information to advocate for more voter ID laws in the U.S.

    “America should not have worse voter ID requirements than every democratic country on Earth,” Musk wrote in a recent X post, which had been liked and shared approximately 310,000 times as of Wednesday. “California and New York actually banned use of ID to vote! It is illegal to show your ID in those states. The only reason to do this is fraud.”

    But voter registration requirements and guidance for poll workers paint a different picture.

    Here’s a closer look at the facts.

    CLAIM: It is illegal for voters to show ID when casting a ballot in New York and California.

    THE FACTS: This is false. Voters in both states need to show ID when it is necessary to complete their registration, but it is not required otherwise. Poll worker guidance published by New York and California instructs workers not to ask voters for ID unless records indicate that it is needed.

    “There is nothing unlawful about that voter presenting a form of photo identification at a poll site in addition to fulfilling the signature verification requirement outlined in the state’s consitution,” Kathleen McGrath, a spokesperson for the New York State Board of Elections, said of voters whose identity has already been verified. “In fact, in some counties, voters are allowed to scan their license in an effort to expedite the looking up of their voter record on the e-pollbook, but this cannot be legally required.”

    The California secretary of state’s office similarly said that “California law does not prohibit a voter from voluntarily presenting their identification.”

    In New York, voters provide their Department of Motor Vehicles number or the last four digits of their social security number when registering to vote. They may also use another form of valid photo ID or a government document that shows their name and address, such as a utility bill or a bank statement. Voters will be asked for ID at the polls if their identify cannot be verified before Election Day, according to the state’s registration form.

    Recent guidance for New York poll workers states: “Do not ask the voter for ID unless ‘ID required’ is next to their name in their voter records.”

    California has similar identification processes. If voters do not provide a driver’s license number, a state ID number or the last four digits of their social security number when registering, another form of ID must be provided if they are voting for the first time in a federal election and registered by mail or online, according to the secretary of state’s office.

    “Poll workers must not ask a voter to provide their identification unless the voter list clearly states identification is required,” reads recent guidance for California poll workers released by the state.

    County election officials automatically mail ballots to all active registered voters. In the 2024 general election, 80.76% of voters voted by mail. Some counties in California do not offer in-person voting at all.

    Musk’s post also includes an image that lists 114 countries under the title, “Full or partially democratic countries that require ID to register to vote or cast a ballot on election day in all districts.” All of them have a green checkmark to their left except for the U.S., which has a red “x.”

    Although many countries listed in the image require ID for one or both of these actions, there are at least two exceptions — New Zealand and Australia. In New Zealand, voters can register without ID by filling out a signed enrollment form and do not need to present ID at the polls. Australian voters do not need ID to cast a ballot and may have someone who is already registered confirm their identity when submitting an enrollment form.

    Representatives for Musk did not respond to a request for comment.

    ___

    Find AP Fact Checks here: https://apnews.com/APFactCheck.

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  • New Survey Finds Rising Pessimism Among U.S. Hispanics

    As the first year of President Donald Trump’s second term comes to a close, two new polls from the Pew Research Center find that Hispanic adults are increasingly unhappy with the way his administration is handling the economy and immigration, issues that were key for voters during last year’s election.

    The surveys of more than 5,000 Hispanic adults in the U.S., conducted in October and September, found that a year after Trump eroded the Democrats’ traditional advantage with Latino voters, most Hispanic adults are feeling worse about their place in the country, and they’re more likely to be worried that they or someone close to them could be deported than they were earlier this year.


    Declining approval of Trump

    About two-thirds of Hispanic adults overall disapprove of the Trump administration’s approach to immigration, while 61% say his economic policies have made conditions worse.

    Hispanic voters shifted toward Trump in the 2024 election, though a majority still backed Democrat Kamala Harris. According to AP VoteCast, 43% of Hispanic voters nationally supported Trump, up from 35% in the 2020 presidential election, which he lost to Democrat Joe Biden.

    The vast majority of Hispanics who reported voting for Trump in 2024 — 81% — approve of the president’s job performance, although that’s declined from 93% at the start of his second term. Nearly all Hispanic Harris voters disapprove of Trump’s performance.

    The shift in opinion underscores how worried and dissatisfied many Hispanic adults feel. Although many Hispanic voters were motivated by economic concerns in last year’s election, recent polls indicate that Hispanic adults continue to feel higher financial stress than Americans overall.


    Rising anxiety about Hispanics’ place in the U.S.

    About two-thirds of Hispanic adults say the situation for Hispanics in the U.S. is worse than it was a year ago. That’s higher than in 2019, during Trump’s first term, when 39% thought U.S. Hispanics’ situation had worsened over the past year.

    Similarly, about 8 in 10 Hispanic adults say Trump’s policies harm more than help them. These views are more negative than in 2019, when about 7 in 10 said the first Trump administration’s policies were more harmful to Hispanics than helpful.

    The Hispanics who are Democrats or lean toward the Democratic Party overwhelmingly think U.S. Hispanics are worse off, as a group, than they were a year ago, but so do 43% of Hispanic Republicans and Republican-leaners.


    Broad worries about immigration enforcement

    Today, 44% of Latinos adults are immigrants, numbering 21.1 million, according to a Pew analysis of U.S. Census Bureau estimates from the 2024 American Community Survey.

    Amid the heightened enforcement, 52% of Hispanic adults say they worry “a lot” or “some” that they, a family member or a close friend could be deported. This is up from 42% in March.

    The tough immigration environment has also affected the way some Hispanic adults live their everyday lives, with 19% saying they have recently changed their daily activities because they think they’ll be asked to prove their legal status, and 11% saying they carry documents proving their citizenship or immigration status more often than they normally would.

    The Pew Research Center survey of 8,046 U.S. adults, including 4,923 Hispanics, was conducted Oct. 6-16 using samples drawn from the probability-based American Trends Panel and SSRS Opinion Panel. A second survey of 3,445 U.S. adults, including 629 Hispanics, was conducted Sept. 22 to 28, 2025 using samples drawn from the probability-based American Trends Panel.

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

    Photos You Should See – Nov. 2025

    Associated Press

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  • Voter ID measure violates California law, appeals court says

    SANTA ANA, Calif. — A California appeals court ruled Monday that a Huntington Beach measure requiring voter identification at the polls violates state law.

    The Fourth District Court of Appeal in Santa Ana determined that the measure passed by voters in the seaside city of 200,000 people should be struck down because it conflicts with state election law, said Lee Fink, a lawyer for Huntington Beach resident Mark Bixby, who challenged the city’s measure. California Attorney General Rob Bonta also sued over the Huntington Beach law contending it would disenfranchise voters.

    “Voting is the fundamental right from which all other rights flow, and no matter where threats to that right come from — whether from Washington D.C. or from within California — we will continue holding the line,” Bonta said in a statement. “California’s elections are already fair, safe, and secure.”

    Corbin Carson, a Huntington Beach spokesperson, said the city is reviewing the appeals court’s ruling.

    Residents of Huntington Beach voted last year to let local officials require voter identification at the polls starting in 2026. The measure also allows the city to increase in-person voting sites and monitor ballot drop boxes in local elections.

    Bonta filed a lawsuit saying the measure conflicts with state law and could make it harder for poor, non-white, young, elderly and disabled voters to cast ballots. California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, then signed into state law a measure barring local governments from establishing and enforcing laws that require residents provide identification to vote in elections.

    Huntington Beach, which is known as “Surf City USA” for its scenic shoreline dotted with surfers, has a history of sparring with state officials over the measures it can take under its city charter on issues ranging from immigration to housing. The GOP is dominant in Huntington Beach with nearly 57,000 registered voters versus 41,000 Democrats, county data shows.

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  • Huntington Beach Voter ID Measure Violates California Law, Appeals Court Says

    SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) — A California appeals court ruled Monday that a Huntington Beach measure requiring voter identification at the polls violates state law.

    The Fourth District Court of Appeal in Santa Ana determined that the measure passed by voters in the seaside city of 200,000 people should be struck down because it conflicts with state election law, said Lee Fink, a lawyer for Huntington Beach resident Mark Bixby, who challenged the city’s measure. California Attorney General Rob Bonta also sued over the Huntington Beach law contending it would disenfranchise voters.

    “Voting is the fundamental right from which all other rights flow, and no matter where threats to that right come from — whether from Washington D.C. or from within California — we will continue holding the line,” Bonta said in a statement. “California’s elections are already fair, safe, and secure.”

    Corbin Carson, a Huntington Beach spokesperson, said the city is reviewing the appeals court’s ruling.

    Residents of Huntington Beach voted last year to let local officials require voter identification at the polls starting in 2026. The measure also allows the city to increase in-person voting sites and monitor ballot drop boxes in local elections.

    Bonta filed a lawsuit saying the measure conflicts with state law and could make it harder for poor, non-white, young, elderly and disabled voters to cast ballots. California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, then signed into state law a measure barring local governments from establishing and enforcing laws that require residents provide identification to vote in elections.

    Huntington Beach, which is known as “Surf City USA” for its scenic shoreline dotted with surfers, has a history of sparring with state officials over the measures it can take under its city charter on issues ranging from immigration to housing. The GOP is dominant in Huntington Beach with nearly 57,000 registered voters versus 41,000 Democrats, county data shows.

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

    Photos You Should See – Oct. 2025

    Associated Press

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  • How Americans are feeling about their chances on the job market, according to an AP-NORC poll

    WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans are growing increasingly concerned about their ability to find a good job under President Donald Trump, an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll finds, in what is a potential warning sign for Republicans as a promised economic boom has given way to hiring freezes and elevated inflation.

    High prices for groceries, housing and health care persist as a fear for many households, while rising electricity bills and the cost of gas at the pump are also sources of anxiety, according to the survey.

    Some 47% of U.S. adults are “not very” or “not at all confident” they could find a good job if they wanted to, an increase from 37% when the question was last asked in October 2023.

    Electricity bills are a “major” source of stress for 36% of U.S. adults at a time when the expected build-out of data centers for artificial intelligence could further tax the power grid. Just more than one-half said the cost of groceries are a “major” source of financial stress, about 4 in 10 said the cost of housing and health care were a serious strain and about one-third said they were feeling high stress about gasoline prices.

    The survey suggests an ongoing vulnerability for Trump, who returned to the White House in January with claims he could quickly tame the inflation that surged after the pandemic during Democratic President Joe Biden’s term. Instead, Trump’s popularity on the economy has remained low amid a mix of tariffs, federal worker layoffs and partisan sniping that has culminated in a government shutdown.

    Linda Weavil, 76, voted for Trump last year because he “seems like a smart businessman.” But she said in an interview that the Republican’s tariffs have worsened inflation, citing the chocolate-covered pecans sold for her church group fundraiser that now cost more.

    “I think he’s doing a great job on a lot of things, but I’m afraid our coffee and chocolate prices have gone up because of tariffs,” the retiree from Greensboro, North Carolina, said. “That’s a kick in the back of the American people.”

    Ioan Barsan a recruiter with the Miami Dade School Police Dept. talks to a a job seeker during a job fair Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2025, in Miami. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)

    Voters changed presidents, but they’re not feeling better about Trump’s economy

    The poll found that 36% of U.S. adults approve of how Trump is handling the economy, a figure that has held steady this year after he imposed tariffs that caused broad economic uncertainty. Among Republicans, 71% feel positive about his economic leadership. Yet that approval within Trump’s own party is relatively low in ways that could be problematic for Republicans in next month’s races for governor in New Jersey and Virginia, and perhaps even in the 2026 midterm elections.

    At roughly the same point in Biden’s term, in October 2021, an AP-NORC poll found that 41% of U.S. adults approved of how he was handling the economy, including about 73% of Democrats. That overall number was a little higher than Trump’s, primarily because of independents — 29% approved of how Biden was handling the economy, compared with the 18% who currently support Trump’s approach.

    The job market was meaningfully stronger in terms of hiring during Biden’s presidency as the United States was recovering from pandemic-related lockdowns. But hiring has slowed sharply under Trump with monthly job gains averaging less than 27,000 after the April tariff announcements.

    People see that difference.

    Four years ago, 36% of those in the survey were “extremely” or “very” confident in their ability to get a good job, but that has fallen to 21% now.

    Biden’s approval on the economy steadily deteriorated through the middle of 2022 when inflation hit a four-decade high, creating an opening for Trump’s political comeback.

    President Donald Trump walks with Air Force Col. Christopher M. Robinson, Commander of the 89th Airlift Wing, from Marine One to board Air Force One, Friday, Oct. 17, 2025, at Joint Base Andrews, Md., for a trip to Florida. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

    President Donald Trump walks with Air Force Col. Christopher M. Robinson, Commander of the 89th Airlift Wing, from Marine One to board Air Force One, Friday, Oct. 17, 2025, at Joint Base Andrews, Md., for a trip to Florida. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

    Electricity costs are an emerging worry

    In some ways, Trump has made the inflation problems harder by choosing to cancel funding for renewable energy projects and imposing tariffs on the equipment needed for factories and power plants. Those added costs are coming before the anticipated construction of data centers for AI that could further push up prices without more construction.

    Even though 36% see electricity as a major concern, there are some who have yet to feel a serious financial squeeze. In the survey, 40% identified electricity costs as a “minor” stress, while 23% said their utility bills are “not a source” of stress.

    Kevin Halsey, 58, of Normal, Illinois, said his monthly electricity bills used to be $90 during the summer because he had solar panels, but have since jumped to $300. Halsey, who works in telecommunications, voted Democratic in last year’s presidential election and described the economy right now as “crap.”

    “I’ve got to be pessimistic,” he said. “I don’t see this as getting better.”

    At a fundamental level, Trump finds himself in the same economic dilemma that bedeviled Biden. There are signs the economy remains relatively solid with a low unemployment rate, stock market gains and decent economic growth, yet the public continues to be skeptical about the economy’s health.

    Some 68% of U.S. adults describe the U.S. economy these days as “poor,” while 32% say it’s “good.” That’s largely consistent with assessments of the economy over the past year.

    In addition, 59%, say their family finances are “holding steady.” But only 12% say they’re “getting ahead,” and 28% say they are “falling behind.”

    People see plenty of expenses but few opportunities

    The sense of economic precarity is coming from many different directions, with indications that many think middle-class stability is falling out of reach.

    The vast majority of U.S. adults feel at least “minor” stress about the cost of groceries, health care, housing, the amount they pay in taxes, what they are paid at work and the cost of gas for their cars.

    In the survey, 47%, say they are “not very” or “not at all” confident they could pay an unexpected medical expense while 52% have low confidence they will have enough saved for their retirement. Also, 63%, are “not very” or “not at all” confident they could buy a new home if they wanted to.

    Young adults are much less confident about their ability to buy a house, though confidence is not especially high across the board. About 8 in 10 U.S. adults under age 30 say they are “not very confident” or “not at all confident” they would be able to buy a house, compared with about 6 in 10 adults 60 and older.

    For 54% of U.S. adults, the cost of groceries is a “major source” of stress in their life right now.

    Unique Hopkins, 36, of Youngstown, Ohio, said she is now working two jobs after her teenage daughter had a baby, leaving Hopkins with a sense that she can barely tread water as part of the “working poor.” She voted for Trump in 2016, only to switch to Democrats after she felt his ego kept him from uniting the country and solving problems.

    “It’s his way or no way,” she said. “Nobody is going to unite with Trump if it’s all about you, you, you.”

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    The AP-NORC poll of 1,289 adults was conducted Oct. 9-13, using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for adults overall is plus or minus 3.8 percentage points.

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    This story has been corrected to reflect that the name of the NORC Center is NORC Center for Public Research, not Public Affairs.

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  • Moms’ careers and personal time are hit hard by school drop-off demands, a poll finds

    CHICAGO — When Elizabeth Rivera’s phone would ring during the overnight shift, it was usually because the bus didn’t show up again and one of her three kids needed a ride to school.

    After leaving early from her job at a Houston-area Amazon warehouse several times, Rivera was devastated — but not surprised — when she was fired.

    “Right now, I’m kind of depressed about it,” said Rivera, 42. “I’m depressed because of the simple fact that it’s kind of hard to find a job, and there’s bills I have to pay. But at the same time, the kids have to go to school.”

    Rivera is far from the only parent forced to choose between their job and their kids’ education, according to a new poll conducted by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and HopSkipDrive, a company that relies on artificial intelligence and a network of drivers using their own vehicles to help school districts address transportation challenges.

    Most parents drive their children to school, the survey found, and those responsibilities can have a major impact.

    About one-third of parents say taking their kids to school has caused them to miss work, according to the poll. Roughly 3 in 10 say they’ve been prevented from seeking or taking work opportunities. And 11% say school transportation has even caused them to lose a job.

    Mothers are especially likely to say school transportation needs have interfered with their jobs and opportunities.

    The impact falls disproportionately on lower-income families.

    Around 4 in 10 parents with a household income below $100,000 a year said they’ve missed work due to pick-up needs, compared with around 3 in 10 parents with a household income of $100,000 or more.

    Meredyth Saieed and her two children, ages 7 and 10, used to live in a homeless shelter in North Carolina. Saieed said the kids’ father has been incarcerated since May.

    Although the family qualified for government-paid transportation to school, Saieed said the kids would arrive far too early or leave too late under that system. So, she decided to drop them off and pick them up herself.

    She had been working double shifts as a bartender and server at a French restaurant in Wilmington but lost that job due to repeatedly missing the dinner rush for pickups.

    “Sometimes when you’ve got kids and you don’t have a village, you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do,” said Saieed, 30. “As a mom, you just find a way around it.”

    The latest obstacle: a broken-down car. She couldn’t afford to repair it, so she sold it to a junk yard. She’s hoping this year the school will offer transportation that works better for her family.

    Although about half of parents living in rural areas and small towns say their kids still take a bus to school, that fell to about one-third of parents in urban areas.

    A separate AP-NORC/HopSkipDrive survey of school administrators found that nearly half said school bus driver shortages were a “major problem” in their district.

    Some school systems don’t offer bus service. In other cases, the available options don’t work for families.

    The community in Long Island, New York, where police Officer Dorothy Criscuolo’s two children attend school provides bus service, but she doesn’t want them riding it because they’ve been diagnosed as neurodivergent.

    “I can’t have my kids on a bus for 45 minutes, with all the screaming and yelling, and then expect them to be OK once they get to school, be regulated and learn,” said Criscuolo, 49. “I think it’s impossible.”

    So Criscuolo drops them off, and her wife picks them up. It doesn’t interfere much with their work, but it does get in the way of Criscuolo’s sleep. Because her typical shift is 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. and her children start at different times at different schools, it’s not uncommon for her to get only three hours of sleep a day during the school year.

    Mothers are most often the ones driving their children to and from school, with 68% saying they typically take on this task, compared with 57% of fathers.

    Most mothers, 55%, say they have missed work, have lost jobs or were kept from personal or professional opportunities because of school transportation needs, compared with 45% of dads.

    Syrina Franklin says she didn’t have a choice. The father of her two high school-age children is deceased, so she has to take them and a 5-year-old grandson to different schools on Chicago’s South Side.

    After she was late to work more than 10 times, she lost her job as a mail sorter at the post office and turned to driving for Uber and Instacart to make ends meet.

    “Most of the kids, they have people that help out with dropping them off and picking them up,” said Franklin, 41. “They have their father, a grandmother, somebody in the family helps.”

    When both parents are able to pitch in, school pickup and drop-off duties can be easier.

    Computer programmer Jonathan Heiner takes his three kids to school in Bellbrook, Ohio, and his wife picks them up.

    “We are definitely highly privileged because of the fact that I have a very flexible job and she’s a teacher, so she gets off when school gets out,” said Heiner, 45. “Not a lot of people have that.”

    Although the use of school buses has been declining for years across the U.S., many parents would like to see schools offer other options.

    Roughly 4 in 10 parents said getting their kids to school would be “much easier” or “somewhat easier” if there were more school bus routes, school-arranged transportation services or improved pedestrian and bike infrastructure near school. Around a third cited a desire for earlier or later start times, or centralized pick-up and drop-off locations for school buses.

    Joanna McFarland, the CEO and co-founder of HopSkipDrive, said districts need to reclaim the responsibility of making sure students have a ride to school.

    “I don’t think the way to solve this is to ask parents to look for innovative ideas,” McFarland said. “I think we really need to come up with innovative ideas systematically and institutionally.”

    In Houston, Rivera is waiting on a background check for another job. In the meantime, she’s found a new solution for her family’s school transportation needs.

    Her 25-year-old daughter, who still works at Amazon on a day shift, has moved back into the home and is handling drop-offs for her three younger siblings.

    “It’s going very well,” Rivera said.

    ___

    The AP-NORC poll of 838 U.S. adults who are parents of school-age children was conducted June 30-July 11, using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for adults overall is plus or minus 4.6 percentage points.

    ___

    Sanders reported from Washington.

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  • Democrats see crime as a major problem. Their party is struggling to address it

    WASHINGTON — WASHINGTON (AP) —

    Democrat Eric McWilliams doesn’t approve of Donald Trump sending National Guard troops to cities like Washington, D.C. And he’s certainly not supportive of most of the president’s policies.

    But the 63-year old retired handyman and U.S. Navy veteran does praise Trump for one thing. “When it comes to crime,” he said, “He’s alright. He’s doing pretty good. How he’s doing it is another matter.”

    “Crime is a big problem,” he went on. “At least he is doing something.”

    McWilliams’ views reflect the thinking of a lot of Democrats, according to a recent poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. It finds that while most disapprove of how Trump is handling the issue, a large majority, 68%, see crime as a “major problem” in large cities. That’s despite the fact that statistics show crime, overall, is down across the nation, with some cities reporting 30-year lows.

    The findings underscore the challenge facing Democratic leaders. They must thread the needle between criticizing Trump’s policies, which are deeply unpopular among their base, while at the same time not dismissing widespread concerns about safety, which are amplified in many news sources and in online forums like Facebook and the popular Nextdoor app.

    That could create a vulnerability for the party heading into next year’s midterm elections.

    While Trump remains unpopular overall, the new poll finds his approach to crime has earned him high marks compared to other issues like the economy and immigration. About half of U.S. adults, 53%, say they approve of his handling of crime.

    The vast majority of Americans, 81%, also see crime as a “major problem” in large cities. That includes nearly all Republicans, roughly three-quarters of independents and nearly 7 in 10 Democrats.

    The issue is complex, though, even for those who are concerned. In interviews, participants who oppose Trump’s unprecedented takeover of Washington, D.C.’s police department and threats to expand his efforts to other cities expressed alarm, calling his actions anti-American and part of what they see as an effort to distract the public from issues the White House would prefer they ignore.

    They believe resources would be better spent investing in community policing, mental health services and passing meaningful laws to get guns off city streets.

    But many also bemoaned the state of public safety in the country, even if they said they felt safe in their own neighborhoods and acknowledged that violent crime is down after a pandemic-era spike. Several noted that they or their neighbors had been the victims of serious crimes and complained about what they felt was a lackluster police response.

    Brian Cornelia, 62, a retired foreman and lifelong Democrat who lives in Michigan, near Marquette, is displeased with the performance of both parties.

    “Defund the police was nuts,” he said. “Now with Trump what he’s doing, that’s nuts too.”

    He said that crime is “not at all” an issue where he lives and “down all over,” but nonetheless appreciates that Trump is doing something.

    “Something is happening. We’ll see if it helps or not, but it’s better than not doing anything,” he said. Either way, he said Trump had backed Democrats into a corner.

    “It’s bad. How are you going to say you don’t want crime to be dealt with?” he said. “If you argue with him, what, you’re soft on crime? It’s a Catch-22.”

    Even those who give Trump credit question his tactics.

    About 8 in 10 Democrats say it’s “completely” or “somewhat” unacceptable for the president to seize control of local police departments, as he’s done in Washington. And about 6 in 10 say it’s unacceptable for the federal government to use the U.S. military and National Guard to assist local police.

    “I don’t approve of national troops having authority over fellow Americans,” said McWilliams, the Navy veteran. “You shouldn’t use our armed forces to patrol our own people. That turns it into an authoritarian state.”

    McWilliams, who lives in White Hall, Pennsylvania, said crime “is practically non-existent” in his neighborhood, where he doesn’t even lock his door. But he worries about the situation in nearby Allentown and across the nation, noting the deadly mass shooting this week at a Minneapolis church.

    “I’m glad he does want to fight crime because – well, nobody else is doing it, certainly not our mayors and governors and police department,” he said, accusing them of being “too politically correct” to pursue controversial tactics like “stop and frisk,” which he believes works.

    Others are far more skeptical.

    “I think he’s just terrible,” said Carolyn Perry, 79, a lifelong Democrat and retired nurse who lives in Philadelphia and sees Trump’s actions as an excuse to target Democratic cities that voted against him.

    “I think this National Guard thing he’s doing is ridiculous,” she said. “It’s almost like martial law. And now they’re walking around with guns.”

    Democrat Star Kaye, 59, who lives in Downey, California, near Los Angeles, agreed, slamming Trump for using the military against residents — something she said the Revolutionary War was fought, in part, against.

    “Of course living in a big city, I understand concerns about crime,” she said. “But I don’t think an authoritarian playbook is the right way to fix them.”′

    If the president really wanted to tackle the issue, she argued, he would be investing in local police departments instead of diverting resources to immigration enforcement. She sees the crackdown as part of a broader effort to bolster Republicans’ chances in next year’s midterm elections.

    “I think he’s going to want to have troops in the street to intimidate people not to vote,” she said.

    Part of the challenge for Democrats is that, historically, crime has not been a top issue for their base.

    Gallup polling from April found that only about one-third of Democrats said they worried “a great deal” about crime and violence and were more likely to be concerned about the economy, Social Security, the environment, hunger and homelessness.

    Crime has also traditionally been a stronger issue for Republicans, including in the 2024 election.

    Democrats acknowledged the gap last week at a national party gathering in Minneapolis. In a presentation to Democratic National Committee members, party strategists noted Republicans spent about three times as much on crime-related ads as Democrats in recent presidential election years.

    They urged Democrats not to mimic the “tough-on-crime” rhetoric Republicans have embraced for decades, but instead position themselves as being “serious about safety, not empty scare tactics.”

    “DON’T TAKE TRUMP’S CRIME BAIT—INSTEAD, LEAN INTO SOLUTIONS TO PREVENT CRIME, RESPOND TO CRISIS, AND STOP VIOLENCE,” they urged in a slide presentation.

    Some Democratic politicians have been trying to do just that.

    They include Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, who has been pushing back against Trump’s threats to expand his efforts to Chicago. He defended Democrats’ approach and said local efforts to tackle crime have been working.

    “We also are tough on crime,” Pritzker told The Associated Press in an interview on Wednesday. Trump, he said, “talks a good game.”

    “What the President has done, however, is to make it harder to crack down on crime,” he said.

    ___ Colvin reported from New York. Associated Press writers Sophia Tareen in Chicago and Steve Peoples in Minneapolis contributed reporting.

    ___

    The AP-NORC poll of 1,182 adults was conducted Aug. 21-25, using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for adults overall is plus or minus 3.8 percentage points.

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  • Botswana’s election decides if a party that’s been in power for 58 years gets another term

    Botswana’s election decides if a party that’s been in power for 58 years gets another term

    GABORONE, Botswana — Polls opened in a national election in Botswana on Wednesday as voters decide if one of Africa’s longest-ruling parties stays in power for another five-year term.

    The Botswana Democratic Party has governed the southern African nation for 58 years, since independence from Britain in 1966. The election will determine the makeup of Parliament and lawmakers will later elect the president.

    President Mokgweetsi Masisi, a 63-year-old former high school teacher who also previously worked for UNICEF, is seeking a second and final term.

    Botswana has been held up as one of Africa’s success stories — a peaceful and stable democracy with one of the best standards of living in the region — but is facing new economic challenges that have pushed the ruling party to concede that policy change is needed.

    That’s largely because of a global downturn in demand for diamonds, which Botswana’s economy relies on. Unemployment in the nation of some 2.5 million people has risen to 27% this year, and is significantly higher for young people.

    The ruling party says it has listened to the concerns of voters and will pursue changes that could diversify an economy where diamonds account for more than 80% of Botswana’s exports and a quarter of the GDP, according to the World Bank. One of its campaign slogans has been “Changing Together, Building Prosperity.”

    On the eve of the election, Masisi held a boisterous final campaign rally in the capital, Gaborone, wearing a bright red suit jacket — the color of his party — and dancing with supporters.

    Three other men are challenging Masisi for president: Duma Boko of the main opposition Umbrella for Democratic Change party, Dumelang Saleshando of the Botswana Congress Party and Mephato Reatile from the Botswana Patriotic Front.

    Counting is expected to start straight after polls close Wednesday evening and the results could be announced within days.

    “We are concerned about issues of employment and wage structures,” said Karabo Manguba, a 29-year-old sales executive at a radio station who voted early in the morning. “Voting is a patriotic effort … and our voices need to be heard.”

    While the Botswana Democratic Party has dominated the country’s politics since independence, recent economic uncertainty has closed the gap between the BDP and the opposition, analysts say.

    Botswana is the second biggest producer of diamonds, behind Russia, and has been responsible for all the biggest rough gems found in the past decade.

    But sales of rough diamonds at Debswana, the company that Botswana’s government jointly owns with the De Beers Group and a critical source of state revenue, were down nearly 50% in the first half of 2024, according to authorities. That has put a dent in the public purse and raised criticism of Masisi and the BDP for not taking steps to diversify the economy.

    Government employees have received their salaries late as a result of the tight financial situation, taking the shine off of Botswana’s reputation for efficient government.

    Ahead of the election, the BDP said it would now put emphasis on processing mineral resources for new revenue streams, while also building the agriculture and tourism sectors.

    Just over a million people have registered to vote, according to the Independent Electoral Commission. Botswana is larger than France but has a small population, with the Kalahari Desert covering large portions of the landlocked country that borders South Africa. Drought and desertification threaten Botswana’s development and the livelihoods of many of its people.

    The election could also revive Masisi’s feud with former President Ian Khama, the man he succeeded as Botswana’s leader and then fell out with.

    Khama, the son of Botswana’s founding president, quit the BDP and went into exile in South Africa in 2021, accusing Masisi of taking an authoritarian approach to criticism. Khama was charged with illegal possession of a firearm and receiving stolen property in a criminal case he said was politically motivated to silence him.

    Khama returned to Botswana in September to attend a court hearing and has campaigned for the Botswana Patriotic Front in an attempt to oust Masisi.

    ___

    AP Africa news: https://apnews.com/hub/africa

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  • Voters concerned about post-election violence, efforts to overturn the results: Poll

    Voters concerned about post-election violence, efforts to overturn the results: Poll

    WASHINGTON — American voters are approaching the presidential election with deep unease about what could follow, including the potential for political violence, attempts to overturn the election results and its broader implications for democracy, according to a new poll.

    The findings of the survey, conducted by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, speak to persistent concerns about the fragility of the world’s oldest democracy, nearly four years after former President Donald Trump’s refusal to accept the 2020 election results inspired a mob of his supporters to storm the U.S. Capitol in a violent attempt to stop the peaceful transfer of power.

    About 4 in 10 registered voters say they are “extremely” or “very” concerned about violent attempts to overturn the results after the November election. A similar share is worried about legal efforts to do so. And about 1 in 3 voters say they are “extremely” or “very” concerned about attempts by local or state election officials to stop the results from being finalized.

    Relatively few voters — about one-third or less — are “not very” or “not at all” concerned about any of that happening.

    Trump has continued to lie about fraud costing him reelection four years ago and is again forecasting that he can lose this time only if the election is rigged against him, a strategy he has deployed since his first run for office. His allies and the Republican National Committee, which he reshaped, have filed lawsuits around the country that are a potential prelude to post-election legal challenges should he lose.

    “I thought after Jan. 6 of 2021, the GOP would have the sense to reject him as a candidate,” Aostara Kaye, of Downey, California, said of Trump. “And since they didn’t, I think it just emboldened him to think he can do anything, and they will still stick with him.”

    Trump’s wide-ranging attempts to reject the will of the voters and remain in power after his 2020 loss have led to concerns that he will again fail to concede should he lose to Vice President Kamala Harris.

    Nearly 9 in 10 voters said the loser of the presidential election is obligated to concede once every state has finished counting its votes and legal challenges are resolved, including about 8 in 10 Republicans. But only about one-third of voters expect Trump to accept the results and concede if he loses.

    Democrats and Republicans have widely divergent views on the matter: About two-thirds of Republican voters think Trump would concede, compared to only about 1 in 10 Democrats.

    The same concern does not apply to Harris. Nearly 8 in 10 voters said Harris will accept the results and concede if she loses the election, including a solid majority of Republican voters.

    Members of both parties have broad concerns about how American democracy might fare depending on the outcome of the November election.

    Overall, about half of voters believe Trump would weaken democracy in the U.S. “a lot” or “somewhat” if he wins, while about 4 in 10 said the same of Harris.

    Not surprisingly, Americans were deeply divided along ideological lines. About 8 in 10 Republicans said another term for Trump would strengthen democracy “a lot” or “somewhat,” while a similar share of Democrats said the same of a Harris presidency.

    About 9 in 10 voters in each party said the opposing party’s candidate would be likely to weaken democracy at least “somewhat” if elected.

    Kaye, a retired health care system worker, called Trump an “existential threat to the Constitution.” One prospect she said frightens her is that if Trump wins, he likely will not have the guardrails in his new administration that were in place in the last one.

    Republican voter Debra Apodaca, 60, from Tucson, Arizona, said it’s Harris who is a greater threat to democracy. She said President Joe Biden’s administration has placed too great a priority on foreign aid and shown a lack of concern for its own people.

    “Our tax dollars, we’re just sending it everywhere. It’s not staying here. Why aren’t we taking care of America?” she said. “Why should we pay taxes if we’re just sending it away?”

    That lack of concern also includes the border, she said, adding that a Harris win would be “the end to the Border Patrol.”

    Part of what divides voters on their views of American democracy is the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol and who is to blame. Democrats and independents are much more likely than Republican voters to place “a great deal” or “quite a bit” of responsibility on Trump.

    Susan Ohde, an independent voter from Chicago and a retiree from the financial sector, said she’s concerned that “crazy people will buy the misinformation that they’re given,” leading to another such attack.

    Giovanna Elizabeth Minardi of Yucaipa, California, said other issues are more important in this year’s election. She said her chief concern is the economy and feels that high prices, especially in her home state, are chasing off businesses and creating a dependency on government. It’s a dependency Harris wants to continue, said Minardi, a children and family services advocate.

    Views about the Jan. 6 attack are not the only ones where voters split along ideological lines. Following Trump’s lead, a majority of Republicans maintain that Biden was not legitimately elected. Nearly all Democrats and about 7 in 10 independents believe Biden was legitimately elected.

    This year’s presidential campaign has highlighted one aspect of the American political system that some believe is undemocratic — the use of the Electoral College to elect the president rather than the popular vote. Trump and Harris have concentrated their campaign events and advertising in seven battleground states that represent just 18% of the country’s population.

    About half of voters think the possibility that a candidate could become president by winning the Electoral College but losing the popular vote is a “major problem” in U.S. elections. As with many other issues, the question also reveals a partisan divide: About two-thirds of Democrats say the potential for an Electoral College-popular vote split is a major problem, compared to about one-third of Republicans.

    Debra Christensen, 54, a home health nurse and Democrat from Watertown, Wisconsin, is opposed to the Electoral College that could give Trump the White House even if he loses the popular vote for the third time.

    “In this day and age with technology what it is, why can’t we have one person one vote?” she said.

    ___

    The poll of 1,072 adults was conducted Oct. 11-14, 2024, using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for registered voters is plus or minus 4.2 percentage points.

    ___

    The Associated Press receives support from several private foundations to enhance its explanatory coverage of elections and democracy. See more about AP’s democracy initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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  • Mass. voters flock to polls ahead of election

    Mass. voters flock to polls ahead of election

    BOSTON — Massachusetts voters are flocking to the early polls, and sending and dropping off mail ballots at local election offices ahead of the presidential election Nov. 5.

    Hundreds of thousands have already voted through the mail and during the two-week early voting period that got underway Saturday, according to Secretary of State Bill Galvin’s office, which said it sent more than 1.3 million ballots to registered voters who requested them.

    As of Wednesday, at least 818,904 ballots had been cast, or roughly 16.2% of the state’s 4.9 million registered voters, Galvin’s office said. That included 154,684 in-person early voting ballots.

    Locally, many communities have already seen thousands of votes cast with 13 days until the election. As of Wednesday, voters in Beverly cast nearly 1,100 ballots while North Andover voters had cast 770 ballots, according to a tally provided by Galvin’s office.

    Salem voters had cast 756 mail ballots by Friday while Gloucester voters had turned in 428 ballots, according to the data. Newburyport voters had cast 716 votes as of Wednesday, Galvin’s office said.

    Topping the statewide ballot is the historic race for the White House between former Republican President Donald Trump and Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris, who will be on the ballot with their running mates, Ohio Republican Sen. J.D. Vance and Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.

    Recent polls show Harris with a wide lead over Trump in deep-blue Massachusetts, but the race is tight nationally – especially in battleground states such as Georgia, Pennsylvania and Arizona, where the candidates and their running mates have been campaigning to rally their supporters and win over undecided voters.

    Besides picking a new president and deciding a handful of contested legislative and local races, voters will consider ballot questions to audit the Legislature, scrap the MCAS graduation mandate, allow ride-hailing drivers to form unions, legalize psychedelic mushrooms, and boost the wages of tipped workers.

    More than half of the state’s voters are registered as independent – not affiliated with a major party – with their ranks swelling in the months leading up to the election. Those who aren’t registered can do so until Oct. 26, Galvin’s office said.

    Galvin is urging voters to check that they are still registered and if not, make sure that they do so before the deadline Saturday to register ahead of the election. Under Massachusetts law, there is a 10-day cutoff to register before a statewide election.

    “If you want to vote for president, any other office on the ballot, or these ballot questions, you need to be registered to vote,” Galvin said in a statement. “Even if you are already a voter, if you’ve moved since the last time you voted, I urge you to check that your address is up to date before it’s too late.”

    Voters can see a full list of candidates, register to vote, and look up early voting locations and times on the secretary of state’s website: www.VoteInMA.com.

    Christian M. Wade covers the Massachusetts Statehouse for North of Boston Media Group’s newspapers and websites. Email him at cwade@cnhinews.com.

    By Christian M. Wade | Statehouse Reporter

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  • Republicans want voters to think Walz lied about his dog. False GOP claims could cause real damage

    Republicans want voters to think Walz lied about his dog. False GOP claims could cause real damage

    Republicans turned Tim Walz’s outing at a dog park nearly three years ago into an attack on the Democratic vice presidential nominee this week, working on a false online narrative to paint Walz as a liar.

    The intended takeaway was that Walz somehow lied about the identity of his dog, Scout, by describing two different dogs as his beloved pet in separate X posts. Social media users shared screenshots of the posts as alleged proof that the Minnesota governor exhibits a pattern of deceit, garnering thousands of likes, shares and reactions across platforms.

    In one post, from June 2022, Walz is pictured hugging a black dog. The caption reads, “Sending a special birthday shoutout to our favorite pup, Scout.” The other, posted in October 2022, showed Walz beside a brown and white dog with the caption: “Couldn’t think of a better way to spend a beautiful fall day than at the dog park. I know Scout enjoyed it.”

    In response, Walz supporters shared posts on social media showing that Walz was simply playing with someone else’s dog while mentioning Scout in the caption.

    The seemingly innocuous post was not the only fodder that has been used against Walz in recent days. A joke he cracked in a campaign video with Vice President Kamala Harris about eating “white guy tacos” was used to accuse him of lying about how much he seasons his food. Opponents have also taken issue with Walz describing himself as a former high school football coach, pointing out that he was the defensive coordinator.

    False and misleading claims of such a trivial nature might not seem particularly harmful, but a deluge of them could easily add up to real damage at the polls, according to experts. This is especially true when they go after a figure such as Walz, who is still relatively unknown on the national stage, though the fact that he is not at the top of the ticket could lessen the impact on the Harris-Walz campaign.

    “It might seem trivial, and in some cases they really truly are, but they’re trying to make a larger attack about character that fits in a bigger narrative that is being created around this persona,” Emily Vraga, a professor at the University of Minnesota who studies political misinformation, said of the recent attacks on Walz. “This becomes kind of a piece of the puzzle they’re trying to assemble.”

    She added that “the sheer amount” of false claims can create the perception that there is some truth to them, even if voters don’t believe every single one.

    Nathan Walter, an associate professor at Northwestern University who also studies misinformation, agreed that any one piece of misinformation doesn’t have to be significant in order to be damaging.

    “The idea is to attack someone’s personality, and then these attacks become really almost like the canary in the coal mine, right?” he said. “So if he lies about his dog, if he lies about his illustrious career as a coach, he probably lies about many other things.”

    Democrats have recently deployed a similarly shallow line of attack on the Republican ticket, Ohio Sen. JD Vance and former President Donald Trump, branding the pair as “weird.”

    Mixed in with the frivolous attacks on Walz is criticism about other inconsistencies. For example, earlier this month Walz went after Vance by saying, “If it was up to him, I wouldn’t have a family because of IVF.” But his wife Gwen Walz issued a statement last week that disclosed they had relied on a different fertility treatment known as intrauterine insemination, or IUI.

    What to know about the 2024 Election

    Walz’s military record has also faced intense scrutiny from the right. One such concern is that he portrayed himself as someone who spent time in a combat zone when speaking out about gun violence in 2018. “We can make sure that those weapons of war, that I carried in war, is the only place where those weapons are at,” he said at the time.

    Walz never served in a combat zone during 24 years in the Army National Guard, but held many other roles. They included work as an infantryman and field artillery cannoneer, as well as a deployment to Italy in a support position of active military forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.

    Vraga described the more superficial attacks as a “spaghetti approach,” in which Republicans are throwing out a lot of claims to see if they stick in place of a meatier narrative, dominating online discourse in the meantime. Plus, the idea that Walz is a liar “plays into this established worldview that we have about politicians as untrustworthy,” according to Walter.

    Even in the polarized political climate of 2024, where many people on all sides hold strong beliefs unlikely to be changed by online name-calling, negative campaigning has the potential to repel potential voters altogether.

    Such attacks could be used to demobilize voters, especially those who are not deeply engaged. “You might just start feeling like, why bother with politics at all?” Vraga said. “It’s just nasty.”

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  • Harris calls out Trump for hurricane misinformation

    Harris calls out Trump for hurricane misinformation

    GREENVILLE, N.C. — Kamala Harris used an appearance Sunday before a largely Black church audience in battleground North Carolina to call out Donald Trump for spreading misinformation about the government’s hurricane response. President Joe Biden visited Florida for the second time this month to survey storm damage.

    Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, did not speak Trump’s name, but he is most prominent among those promoting false claims about the Biden administration’s response to Hurricanes Milton and Helene. Florida was in the path of both storms, with Helene also hitting North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia, while Milton headed for the open Atlantic.

    The vice president spoke at the Koinonia Christian Center about the “heroes” all around who are helping residents without regard to political affiliation.

    “Yet, church, there are some who are not acting in the spirit of community, and I am speaking of these who have been literally not telling the truth, lying about people who are working hard to help the folks in need, spreading disinformation when the truth and facts are required,” Harris said.

    “The problem with this, beyond the obvious, is it’s making it harder, then, to get people life-saving information if they’re led to believe they cannot trust,” she said. “And that’s the pain of it all, which is the idea that those who are in need have somehow been convinced that the forces are working against them in a way that they would not seek aid.”

    Harris said they are trying “to gain some advantage for themselves, to play politics with other people’s heart break, and it is unconscionable,” she said. “Now is not a time to incite fear. It is not right to make people feel alone.”

    “That is not what leaders, as we know, do in crisis,” she said.

    Trump made a series of false claims after Helene struck in late September, including saying that Washington was intentionally withholding aid from Republicans in need across the Southeast. The former president falsely claimed the Federal Emergency Management Agency had run out of money to help them because it was spent on programs to help immigrants who are in the United States illegally.

    He pressed that argument on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures,” saying the White House response was “absolutely terrible” and repeating the claim about FEMA’s dollars. “It came out from there and everybody knew it,” Trump said in an interview that was taped Thursday and broadcast Sunday.

    Before Harris spoke in church, Biden was surveying hurricane damage on a helicopter flight between Tampa and St. Pete Beach on the Gulf Coast. From the air, he saw the torn-up roof of Tropicana Field, home of the Tampa Bay Rays baseball team. On the ground, the president saw waterlogged household furnishings piled up outside flooded homes. Some houses had collapsed.

    The president said he was thankful that Milton was not as bad as officials had anticipated, but that it still was a “cataclysmic” event for many people, including those who lost irreplaceable personal items. He also praised the first responders, some of whom had come from Canada.

    “It’s in moments like this we come together to take care of each other, not as Democrats or Republicans, but as Americans,” Biden said after he was briefed by federal, state and local officials, and met some residents and responders. “We are one United States, one United States.”

    Harris opened her second day in North Carolina by speaking at the Christian center in Greenville, part of her campaign’s “Souls to the Polls” effort to help turn out Black churchgoers before the Nov. 5 election.

    The vice president later spoke to roughly 7,000 supporters at a Sunday afternoon rally at East Carolina University’s arena, suggesting that Trump’s team has stopped him from releasing medical records or debating her again because they might be “afraid that people will see that he is too weak and unstable.”

    The North Carolina appearances mark the start of a week that will find Harris working to shore up support among Black voters, a key constituency for the Democratic Party. She is counting on Black turnout in competitive states such as North Carolina to help her defeat Trump, who has focused on energizing men of all races and has tried to make inroads with Black men in particular.

    On Tuesday, she will appear in Detroit for a live conversation with Charlamagne tha God, a prominent Black media personality.

    Black registered voters have overwhelmingly favorable views of Harris and negative views of Trump despite his attempts to appeal to nonwhite voters, according to a recent poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. But the poll also shows that many Black voters aren’t sure whether Harris would improve the country overall or better their own lives.

    In Florida, which Biden had visited the Big Bend region on Oct. 3 after Helene struck, the president announced $612 million for six Department of Energy projects in hurricane-affected areas to bolster the region’s electric grid. The money includes $47 million for Gainesville Regional Utilities and $47 million for Switched Source to partner with Florida Power and Light.

    With a little more than three weeks before the election, the hurricanes have added another dimension to the closely contested presidential race.

    Trump has said the Biden administration’s storm response was lacking, particularly in western North Carolina after Helene. Biden and Harris have hammered Trump for promoting falsehoods about the federal response.

    Biden said Trump was “not singularly” to blame for the spread of misinformation but that he has the “biggest mouth.”

    “They blame me for everything. It’s OK,” Trump told Fox.

    Biden has pressed for Congress to act quickly to make sure the Small Business Administration and FEMA have the money they need to get through hurricane season, which ends Nov. 30 in the Atlantic. He said Friday that Milton alone had caused an estimated $50 billion in damages.

    Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, whose department oversees FEMA, said the hurricane season is far from over and there are other natural disasters for which the agency must ready.

    “We don’t know what’s coming tomorrow, whether it’s another hurricane, a tornado, a fire, an earthquake. We have to be ready. and it is not good government to be dependent on a day-to-day existence as opposed to appropriate planning,” Mayorkas said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”

    House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said there was plenty of time and that lawmakers would address the funding issue when Congress comes back into session after the Nov. 5 election.

    “We’ll provide the additional resources,” Johnson told CBS.

    Milton made landfall in Florida as a Category 3 storm on Wednesday evening. At least 10 people were killed and hundreds of thousands of residents remain without power. Officials say the toll could have been worse if not for widespread evacuations. ee.

    By JOSH BOAK, AAMER MADHANI and DARLENE SUPERVILLE – Associated Press

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  • Fed’s favored inflation gauge shows cooling price pressures, clearing way for more rate cuts

    Fed’s favored inflation gauge shows cooling price pressures, clearing way for more rate cuts

    WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation measure on Friday provided the latest sign that price pressures are easing, a trend that is expected to fuel further Fed interest rate cuts this year and next.

    Prices rose just 0.1% from July to August, the Commerce Department said, down from the previous month’s 0.2% increase. Compared with a year earlier, inflation fell to 2.2%, down from 2.5% in July and barely above the Fed’s 2% inflation target.

    The cooling of inflation might be eroding former President Donald Trump’s polling advantage on the economy. In a survey last week by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, respondents were nearly equally split on whether Trump or Vice President Kamala Harris would do a better job on the economy. That is a significant shift from when President Joe Biden was still in the race, when about six in 10 Americans disapproved of his handling of the economy. The shift suggests that Harris could be shedding some of Biden’s baggage on the economy as sentiment among consumers begins to brighten.

    Grocery costs barely rose last month, according to Friday’s report, and energy costs dropped 0.8%, led by cheaper gasoline.

    Excluding volatile food and energy costs, so-called core prices rose just 0.1% from July to August, also down from the previous month’s 0.2% increase. It was the fourth straight time that monthly price increases have fallen below an annual rate of 2%, the Fed’s target. Compared with 12 months earlier, core prices rose 2.7% in August, slightly higher than in July.

    “Sticky inflation is yesterday’s problem,” Samuel Tombs, chief U.S. economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, said in a research note.

    With inflation having tumbled from its 2022 peak to barely above the Fed’s 2% target, the central bank last week cut its benchmark interest rate by an unusually large half-point, a dramatic shift after more than two years of high rates. The policymakers also signaled that they expect to reduce their key rate by an additional half-point in November and in December. And they envision four more rate cuts in 2025 and two in 2026.

    The ongoing decline in inflation makes it even more likely that the Fed will cut its key benchmark rate further in the coming months.

    On Thursday, Tom Barkin, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, expressed support for a cautious approach to rate cuts. In an interview with The Associated Press, he said he favors reducing the Fed’s key rate “somewhat.” But Barkin said he wants to ensure that inflation keeps cooling before cutting the benchmark rate to a level that would no longer restrain the economy.

    Friday’s report also showed that Americans’ incomes and spending ticked up only slightly last month, with both rising just 0.2%. Still, those tepid increases coincide with upward revisions this week for income and spending figures from last year. Those revisions showed that consumers were in better financial shape, on average, than had been previously reported.

    Americans also saved more of their incomes in recent months, according to the revisions, leaving the savings rate at 4.8% in September, after previous figures had shown it falling below 3%.

    The government reported Thursday that the economy expanded at a healthy 3% annual pace in the April-June quarter. And it said economic growth was higher than it had previously estimated for most of the 2018-through-2023 period.

    The Fed tends to favor the inflation gauge that the government issued Friday — the personal consumption expenditures price index — over the better-known consumer price index. The PCE index tries to account for changes in how people shop when inflation jumps. It can capture, for example, when consumers switch from pricier national brands to cheaper store brands.

    In general, the PCE index tends to show a lower inflation rate than CPI. In part, that’s because rents, which have been high, carry double the weight in the CPI that they do in the index released Friday.

    Recent reports suggest that the economy is still expanding at a healthy pace. On Thursday, the government confirmed its previous estimate that the U.S. economy grew at a healthy 3% annual pace from April through June, boosted by strong consumer spending and business investment.

    Several individual barometers of the economy have been reassuring as well. Last week, the number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits fell to its lowest level in four months.

    And last month, Americans increased their spending at retailers, suggesting that consumers are still able and willing to spend more despite the cumulative impact of three years of excess inflation and high borrowing rates.

    The nation’s industrial production rebounded, too. The pace of single-family-home construction rose sharply from the pace a year earlier. And this month, consumer sentiment rose for a third straight month, according to preliminary figures from the University of Michigan. The brighter outlook was driven by “more favorable prices as perceived by consumers” for cars, appliances, furniture and other long-lasting goods.

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  • Mayor Adams’ Bed-Stuy neighbors back resignation calls amid indictment drama • Brooklyn Paper

    Mayor Adams’ Bed-Stuy neighbors back resignation calls amid indictment drama • Brooklyn Paper

    The Lafayette Avenue brownstone owned by Mayor Eric Adams in Bedford-Stuyvesant, outside of which neighbors voiced their gripes on Thursday amid corruption allegations.

    Photo by Adam Daly