ReportWire

Tag: Washington

  • Ohtani is unanimous MVP for 4th time in winning NL honor as Judge edges Raleigh for 3rd AL accolade

    [ad_1]

    Shohei Ohtani likes winning Most Valuable Player awards. He loves winning the World Series even more.

    The two-way Japanese star did both for a second season in a row for the Los Angeles Dodgers, earning his fourth career MVP on Thursday night while unanimously earning the National League honor. He’s just the second to win four MVPs after Barry Bonds with seven and the only player to win unanimously more than once.

    Considering Ohtani is 31, overtaking Bonds doesn’t seem out of the question. Especially if it leads to more Fall Classic opportunities.

    “If I’m playing well as an individual that means I’m helping the team win, so in that sense, hopefully I can end up with a couple more MVPs,” Ohtani said through an interpreter. “But at the end of the day, it’s all about winning games.”

    In the American League, Aaron Judge became the New York Yankees’ fourth three-time winner, edging Seattle’s Cal Raleigh with 17 first-place votes to 13 for the switch-hitting catcher. The vote was the closest for an MVP since the Los Angeles Angels’ Mike Trout topped Houston’s Alex Bregman by 17-13 in 2019.

    Judge, who won the AL award in 2022 and 2024, joined Joe DiMaggio, Yogi Berra and Mickey Mantle as three-time MVPs with the Yankees. The 33-year-old outfielder led the majors with a .331 batting average and 1.144 OPS while hitting 53 homers.

    When asked about his place in MLB and Yankees lore, Judge acknowledged he’s in rare company.

    “It’s tough for me to wrap my head around,” Judge said. “It’s mind blowing from my side of things, because I play this game to win, I play this game for my teammates, my family, all the fans in New York.”

    Later he added: “You’ve got to pinch yourself every single day. It’s truly an incredible honor.”

    Ohtani won a MVP for the third straight year, his second in the NL with the Dodgers after two in the AL with the Angels. He became the first to win in each league twice after getting the AL honor in 2021 and 2023. Ohtani signed with the crosstown Dodgers the following offseason and won NL MVP in 2024 during his first season in Chavez Ravine. He’s also won the World Series in both his seasons with the Dodgers.

    Philadelphia Phillies slugger Kyle Schwarber finished second in the NL with 23 second-place votes and New York Mets outfielder Juan Soto was third with four.

    Ohtani hit .282 and led the NL with a 1.014 OPS. He also had 55 homers, 102 RBIs and 20 stolen bases.

    The right-hander returned to pitching in June after missing 1 1/2 seasons on the mound because of an elbow injury. He struck out 62 batters over 47 innings, slowly increasing his workload while preparing for the postseason.

    Ohtani continued to shine in October with arguably the greatest single game in MLB history. He hit three homers while striking out 10 over six dominant innings on Oct. 17, leading the Dodgers over Milwaukee to finish an NL Championship Series sweep.

    Schwarber, who earned a $50,000 bonus for finishing second, hit an NL-best 56 homers and led the big leagues with 132 RBIs for Philadelphia.

    Soto overcame a slow start to the season to have his typically stellar offensive output. The four-time All-Star — who signed a $765 million, 15-year deal last December — had 43 homers, 105 RBIs and an NL-best 38 stolen bases. He received a $150,000 bonus for finishing third in the MVP voting.

    Judge is the first AL player to win back-to-back MVPs since Detroit’s Miguel Cabrera it in 2012 and 2013.

    Raleigh, nicknamed “Big Dumper,” led the big leagues with 60 homers, the most for a player primarily a catcher. He started 119 games behind the plate and another 38 at designated hitter.

    The 28-year-old also had a career-high 125 RBIs, leading the Mariners to one of their best seasons in franchise history. Judge said he got to know Raleigh a little during the All-Star break and the catcher asked for some leadership tips.

    “Cal’s a special player,” Judge said. “I could sit here and talk all night about the player he is, but really the kind of leader and person he is really stuck out to me at the All-Star Game.”

    Cleveland’s José Ramírez finished third in the AL.

    Arizona’s Geraldo Perdomo was fourth in the NL voting, earning him $2.5 million annual salary increases in 2028 and 2029 along with the price of Arizona’s 2030 club option.

    ___

    AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Starbucks workers kick off 65-store US strike on company’s busy Red Cup Day

    [ad_1]

    More than 1,000 unionized Starbucks workers went on strike at 65 U.S. stores Thursday to protest a lack of progress in labor negotiations with the company.

    The strike was intended to disrupt Starbucks’ Red Cup Day, which is typically one of the company’s busiest days of the year. Since 2018, Starbucks has given out free, reusable cups on that day to customers who buy a holiday drink. Starbucks Workers United, the union organizing baristas, said Thursday morning that the strike had already closed some stores and was expected to force more to close later in the day.

    Starbucks Workers United said stores in 45 cities would be impacted, including New York, Philadelphia, Minneapolis, San Diego, St. Louis, Dallas, Columbus, Ohio, and Starbucks’ home city of Seattle. There is no date set for the strike to end, and more stores are prepared to join if Starbucks doesn’t reach a contract agreement with the union, organizers said.

    Starbucks emphasized that the vast majority of its U.S. stores would be open and operating as usual Thursday. The coffee giant has 10,000 company-owned stores in the U.S., as well as 7,000 licensed locations in places like grocery stores and airports.

    As of noon Thursday on the East Coast, Starbucks said it was on track to meet or exceed its sales expectations for the day at its company-owned stores.

    “The day is off to an incredible start,” the company said in a statement.

    Around 550 company-owned U.S. Starbucks stores are currently unionized. More have voted to unionize, but Starbucks closed 59 unionized stores in September as part of a larger reorganization campaign.

    Here’s what’s behind the strike.

    A stalled contract agreement

    Striking workers say they’re protesting because Starbucks has yet to reach a contract agreement with the union. Starbucks workers first voted to unionize at a store in Buffalo in 2021. In December 2023, Starbucks vowed to finalize an agreement by the end of 2024. But in August of last year, the company ousted Laxman Narasimhan, the CEO who made that promise. The union said progress has stalled under Brian Niccol, the company’s current chairman and CEO. The two sides haven’t been at the bargaining table since April.

    Workers want higher pay, better hours

    Workers say they’re seeking better hours and improved staffing in stores, where they say long customer wait times are routine. They also want higher pay, pointing out that executives like Niccol are making millions and the company spent $81 million in June on a conference in Las Vegas for 14,000 store managers and regional leaders.

    Dochi Spoltore, a barista from Pittsburgh, said in a union conference call Thursday that it’s hard for workers to be assigned more than 19 hours per week, which leaves them short of the 20 hours they would need to be eligible for Starbucks’ benefits. Spoltore said she makes $16 per hour.

    “I want Starbucks to succeed. My livelihood depends on it,” Spoltore said. “We’re proud of our work, but we’re tired of being treated like we’re disposable.”

    The union also wants the company to resolve hundreds of unfair labor practice charges filed by workers, who say the company has fired baristas in retaliation for unionizing and has failed to bargain over changes in policy that workers must enforce, like its decision earlier this year to limit restroom use to paying customers.

    Starbucks stands by its wages and benefits

    Starbucks says it offers the best wage and benefit package in retail, worth an average of $30 per hour. Among the company’s benefits are up to 18 weeks of paid family leave and 100% tuition coverage for a four-year college degree. In a letter to employees last week, Starbucks’ Chief Partner Officer Sara Kelly said the union walked away from the bargaining table in the spring.

    Kelly said some of the union’s proposals would significantly alter Starbucks’ operations, such as giving workers the ability to shut down mobile ordering if a store has more than five orders in the queue.

    Kelly said Starbucks remained ready to talk and “believes we can move quickly to a reasonable deal.” Kelly also said surveys showed that most employees like working for the company, and its barista turnover rates are half the industry average.

    Limited locations with high visibility

    Unionized workers have gone on strike at Starbucks before. In 2022 and 2023, workers walked off the job on Red Cup Day. Last year, a five-day strike ahead of Christmas closed 59 U.S. stores. Each time, Starbucks said the disruption to its operations was minimal. Starbucks Workers United said the new strike is open-ended and could spread to many more unionized locations.

    The number of non-union Starbucks locations dwarfs the number of unionized ones. But Todd Vachon, a union expert at the Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations, said any strike could be highly visible and educate the public on baristas’ concerns.

    Unlike manufacturers, Vachon said, retail industries depend on the connection between their employees and their customers. That makes shaming a potentially powerful weapon in the union’s arsenal, he said.

    Improving sales

    Starbucks’ same-store sales, or sales at locations open at least a year, rose 1% in the July-September period. It was the first time in nearly two years that the company had posted an increase. In his first year at the company, Niccol set new hospitality standards, redesigned stores to be cozier and more welcoming, and adjusted staffing levels to better handle peak hours.

    Starbucks also is trying to prioritize in-store orders over mobile ones. Last week, the company’s holiday drink rollout in the U.S. was so successful that it almost immediately sold out of its glass Bearista cup. Starbucks said demand for the cup exceeded its expectations, but it wouldn’t say if the Bearista will return before the holidays are over.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Washington resident infected with different strain of bird flu, health officials say

    [ad_1]

    A Washington resident has been hospitalized with a different strain of bird flu than those seen in past cases, state health officials announced Friday.

    The person was infected with a bird flu called H5N5. State and federal health officials say it appears to be the first known human infection with the H5N5 bird flu virus.

    The individual has a mixed backyard flock that was exposed to wild birds, making either the domestic birds or the wild ones the most likely source of infection, the Washington State Department of Health said. Public health officials are continuing to investigate. 

    It is the nation’s first human case of bird flu since February. The older adult with underlying health conditions remains hospitalized. State health officials had announced the preliminary bird flu diagnosis on Thursday. On Friday, they said it had been confirmed. 

    The H5N5 version is not believed to be a greater threat to human health than the H5N1 virus behind a wave of 70 reported human infections in the U.S. in 2024 and 2025. Most of those have been mild illnesses in workers on dairy and poultry farms.

    “These viruses behave similarly,” said Richard Webby, a prominent flu researcher at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. “My gut instinct is to consider it the same as H5N1 from a human health perspective.”

    The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday issued a similar statement that said no information would suggest “the risk to public health has increased as a result of this case.”

    The agency is awaiting a specimen from Washington to conduct additional testing.

    The distinction between H5N5 and H5N1 lies in a protein involved in releasing the virus from an infected cell and promoting spread to surrounding cells.

    “Think along the lines of different brands of car tires. They both do the same job, it’s just each is better tuned for specific conditions, which we don’t fully understand,” Webby wrote in an email to The Associated Press.

    H5N5 may have a different preference for which kind of birds it most readily infects, he added.

    Bird flu has been detected in a variety of bird populations since January 2022, and in March of last year, it was found in dairy cows for the first time. 

    Bird flu can infect birds as well as mammals, including pigs, cattle and cats. People can also get infected when they come into close contact with infected animals, which is why farm workers are at high risk for infection. 

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Takeaways From the Newly Released Epstein Documents

    [ad_1]

    A House committee released 23,000 documents related to Jefferey Epstein on Wednesday, many of them emails the convicted sex offender sent to his rich or influential friends, or to reporters, over many years.

    Democrats on the House Oversight Committee initially released three emails where Epstein mentioned President Donald Trump. Republicans on the committee responded by disclosing the bigger trove of documents and accused the Democrats of cherry-picking a few messages out of context in an effort to make Trump look bad.

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

    Here’s some takeaways from the documents released Wednesday.


    Epstein said Trump ‘knew about the girls,’ but it’s unclear what he meant

    Trump and Epstein were friends for years but at some point had a falling out, even before underage girls started to come forward to accuse Epstein of sexual abuse.

    Journalists sometimes reached out to Epstein, perhaps hoping he might have dirt to spill on Trump. One of those writers was Michael Wolff, who has written extensively about Trump. In a 2019 email to Wolff, Epstein mentioned that one of his best-known accusers, Virginia Giuffre, had worked at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club.

    “She was the one who accused Prince Andrew,” Epstein wrote.

    Giuffre, who died by suicide earlier this year, had said that Epstein’s longtime companion Ghislaine Maxwell recruited her from Mar-a-Lago to give sexualized massages to Epstein. And Trump had long claimed that he banned Epstein from coming to Mar-a-Lago.

    Epstein said in an email to Wolff that Trump hadn’t asked him to resign from the club, because he hadn’t been a member.

    “Of course he knew about the girls as he asked ghislaine to stop,” Epstein added.

    In July, Trump said he had banned Epstein from Mar-a-Lago because his one-time friend was “taking people who worked for me,” including Giuffre.

    Before her death, Giuffre said that she only met Trump once and that he was not among the people who abused her. She didn’t think Trump knew of Epstein’s misconduct with underage girls.

    White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that Democrats had leaked select emails to “create a fake narrative to smear President Trump.”


    Mentions of former Prince Andrew

    In lawsuits and interviews, Giuffre accused Epstein and Maxwell of pressuring her into sexual encounters with Britain’s former Prince Andrew, starting when she was 17 years old. Those allegations eventually cost Andrew — now known as Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor — his official titles and his royal residence near Windsor Castle.

    In 2011, Epstein emailed a reporter and attacked Giuffre’s credibility.

    “Yes she was on my plane, and yes she had her picture taken with Andrew as many of my employees have,” wrote Epstein, before arguing that “this girl is a total liar.”

    Epstein wrote that he’d ask if then-Prince Andrew’s “people” would cooperate with the reporter for a story.

    Mountbatten-Windsor has always denied Giuffre’s allegations.

    That same year, Epstein, whose writing paid little heed to grammar or spelling, also mentioned Giuffre and Trump in an email that Epstein sent to Maxwell.

    “i want you to realize that that dog that hasn’t barked is trump.. virignia spent hours at my house with him,, he has never once been mentioned,” Epstein wrote.

    “I have been thinking about that,” Maxwell responded.

    In other emails, Epstein strategized how to respond to Giuffre’s stories, which included an account of meeting former President Bill Clinton on Epstein’s island in the Caribbean.

    “Presidents at dinner on caribean islands. ( clinton was never ever there, easy to confirm ). Sharing a bath with a Prince ( bathtub too small even for one adult ). sex slave being paid thousands of dollars. ( while at the exact same time, she was working as a hostess in a burger bar ).”

    Clinton has acknowledged traveling on Epstein’s private jet but has said through a spokesperson that he had no knowledge of Epstein’s crimes. Clinton has not been accused of wrongdoing by any of the women who say Epstein abused them, including Giuffre.


    Relationship with the press

    Many of the documents were email exchanges between Epstein and journalists he had longstanding relationships with, or who solicited his insights on financial markets and Trump.

    He was asked, typically off the record, to weigh in on everything from the president’s relationships with foreign leaders to the impact of oil prices on wealthy families in Saudi Arabia.

    Epstein offered to broker introductions between journalists and powerful people numerous times. He also contested the accusations against him.

    In a 2016 email to a reporter, Epstein denied ever spending time with former President Bill Clinton or Vice President Al Gore on his island.

    “You can also add, fresh politcal juice by stating that Clinton was never on the island,” Epstein wrote. “I never met Al Gore. No diners on the island either, no matter how much detail has been in the press.”

    Associated Press reporters Eric Tucker in Washington, D.C. and Michael R. Sisak in New York contributed to this report.

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

    Photos You Should See – Oct. 2025

    [ad_2]

    Associated Press

    Source link

  • House returns, set to end record-breaking government shutdown

    [ad_1]

    Right now the process is underway to reach that final vote in the House to end this longest government shutdown ever. We also wanted to lay out how it’s currently set to work. Over the last 2 days, House lawmakers have been flying in from across the country as they’ve been on recess during the entire shutdown. Some potentially face shutdown-related flight delays, but they are on their way back to the Capitol. The House agenda today was very specific, swearing in *** new congresswoman from Arizona when the House resumed this. Afternoon then debate and an initial procedural vote scheduled for around 5 p.m. Eastern today. If that passes, the House would debate again and is currently scheduled to hold *** final vote around 7 p.m. Eastern. That vote does not include healthcare subsidies, which started the whole shutdown in the first place. Of course we want to reopen the government. But that we need to decisively address the Republican healthcare crisis, and that begins with extending the Affordable Care Act tax credits. We believe the long national nightmare will be over tonight. It was completely and utterly foolish and pointless in the end, as we said all along. Democrats are largely expected to vote no on this. Republicans who hold *** majority in the House can only afford to lose 2 votes in order to pass this bill. And if that happens, the bill then heads over to President Donald Trump for his signature before the very likely long process of getting the government back up and running again. Reporting on Capitol Hill, I’m Amy Lou.

    House returns, set to end record-breaking government shutdown

    House lawmakers reconvened in Washington on Wednesday to vote on a bill that would end the longest government shutdown in U.S. history.

    Updated: 2:05 PM PST Nov 12, 2025

    Editorial Standards ⓘ

    House lawmakers raced back to Washington on Wednesday to vote on a bill that could end the 43-day government shutdown, making it the longest in U.S. history. Over the last two days, lawmakers have been flying in from across the country, some facing their own potential shutdown-related delays, to get to Wednesday’s expected final vote. The House’s agenda included swearing in a new congresswoman from Arizona, followed by debate and an initial procedural vote scheduled for early evening. If that passes, the House debates again before holding a final vote on the bill, expected around 7 p.m. ET. The bill currently does not include Affordable Care Act subsidies, which started the shutdown in the first place.Democrats, who are largely expected to vote “no” on the bill, expressed disappointment.”Of course, we want to reopen the government, but we need to decisively address the Republican health care crisis,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said. “That begins with extending the Affordable Care Act tax credits.”House Republicans, who hold a majority in the chamber, were largely expected to pass the measure despite Democrats’ objections, but can only afford to lose two votes for the bill to pass. “We believe the long national nightmare will be over tonight,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said. “It was completely and utterly foolish and pointless in the end, as we said all along.”If the bill clears the House, it will require President Donald Trump’s signature before beginning the likely lengthy process of getting the government back up and running again.However, full Republican support is not clear-cut ahead of the final vote. The bill includes a controversial provision that would ban most hemp products in the U.S. Supporters say it would close a dangerous loophole on unregulated products, but others argue it would destroy the hemp industry for many farmers. In the Senate, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., for example, voted against the bill. Similar action in the House on Wednesday could hold up its passage.Watch the latest coverage on the government shutdown:

    WASHINGTON —

    House lawmakers raced back to Washington on Wednesday to vote on a bill that could end the 43-day government shutdown, making it the longest in U.S. history.

    Over the last two days, lawmakers have been flying in from across the country, some facing their own potential shutdown-related delays, to get to Wednesday’s expected final vote.

    The House’s agenda included swearing in a new congresswoman from Arizona, followed by debate and an initial procedural vote scheduled for early evening. If that passes, the House debates again before holding a final vote on the bill, expected around 7 p.m. ET. The bill currently does not include Affordable Care Act subsidies, which started the shutdown in the first place.

    Democrats, who are largely expected to vote “no” on the bill, expressed disappointment.

    “Of course, we want to reopen the government, but we need to decisively address the Republican health care crisis,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said. “That begins with extending the Affordable Care Act tax credits.”

    House Republicans, who hold a majority in the chamber, were largely expected to pass the measure despite Democrats’ objections, but can only afford to lose two votes for the bill to pass.

    “We believe the long national nightmare will be over tonight,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said. “It was completely and utterly foolish and pointless in the end, as we said all along.”

    If the bill clears the House, it will require President Donald Trump’s signature before beginning the likely lengthy process of getting the government back up and running again.

    However, full Republican support is not clear-cut ahead of the final vote. The bill includes a controversial provision that would ban most hemp products in the U.S.

    Supporters say it would close a dangerous loophole on unregulated products, but others argue it would destroy the hemp industry for many farmers.

    In the Senate, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., for example, voted against the bill. Similar action in the House on Wednesday could hold up its passage.

    Watch the latest coverage on the government shutdown:

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • More Than 80 Nonprofits Receive $250M for Global Women’s Health From Melinda French Gates

    [ad_1]

    More than 80 organizations that provide health care for women all over the world received grants Wednesday totaling $250 million from Melinda French Gates after a year-long application process.

    “It will be instructive for the world to see what it looks like when organizations like this aren’t so chronically underfunded,” French Gates said in written responses to The Associated Press, which receives funding from Pivotal for news coverage.

    The grants, which range between $1 million and $5 million, were awarded through a competition that was open to nonprofit organizations from most countries. French Gates said the point of holding such an open call is to learn about organizations that aren’t already known to major funders. The Chicago-based nonprofit Lever for Change ran the application process and said more than 4,000 organizations from 119 countries applied.

    “This seems to be a topic that resonates,” said Cecilia Conrad, CEO of Lever for Change, of global women’s health. “So I’m excited about helping to uplift and elevate the profile of these organizations with other funders.” Her organization often provides donors, both large and small, with advice about what organizations to support, drawing from the list of finalists who have applied to the grant competitions they run.

    This is the second largest funding competition that Lever for Change has hosted, after MacKenzie Scott gave $640 million to community-based nonprofits in the U.S. in March 2024.

    For the Likhaan Center for Women’s Health based in the Philippines, the $5 million grant represents 10 years of funding at their current annual budget.

    “I could not contain the joy of people in the room,” said executive director Junice Melgar when she and her staff learned they had been selected.

    For 30 years, Likhaan has provided primary care to very poor communities and advocated for policy changes to reflect community needs. Beyond the money, Melgar said the recognition affirms the effectiveness and sustainability of their community-based model.

    The investment in global women’s health organizations is part of a $1 billion commitment that French Gates made to support women’s rights over two years. She also gave $20 million each to 12 individuals to distribute to nonprofits of their choice and has pledged $150 million to boost gender equity in workplaces.

    Lisel Lifshitz, the executive director of the small nonprofit Mujeres Aliadas, which also received a grant, said her organization makes “magic” with every dollar they receive. Located in Michoacán, Mexico, Mujeres Aliadas trains midwives and provides education to women and teens about sexual and reproductive health.

    “You don’t know what it takes to be very creative in more rural and complicated contexts, talking about security, about poverty, about the many, many things that are missing here,” she said.

    For 16 years, her organization has advocated for greater recognition and acceptance of midwives, who blend traditional knowledge and local beliefs with professional training. The funding comes at a critical moment. In 2025, she said two grants they were expecting did not come through because of foreign aid cuts and other policy changes.

    “Having this kind of trust-based and unrestricted funding means the world to us,” Lifshitz said.

    Since 2000, many gains have been made globally in reducing the number of women who die in child birth, increasing access to contraception and decreasing cases of HIV among women, according to a 2024 report about sexual and reproductive health from the United Nations Population Fund. But the report also found that profound inequalities in health outcomes for women remain within countries and between countries.

    Rahel Nardos, director of Global Women’s Health at the Center for Global Health and Social Responsibility, University of Minnesota, said the historic exclusion of women from medical research and a lack of research into issues that impact women specifically, like menopause, contribute to women’s poor health.

    From her own practice as a specialist in treating pelvic floor conditions, Nardos said she also sees women prioritizing family members and delaying care for themselves, despite living with extreme health problems. Additionally, violence and instability have contributed to stalling progress on maternal mortality, she said, even as it is well-known what combination of treatments and approaches work to prevent these deaths.

    Some recipients of Pivotal’s funding are developing new tools to reach women who have been left behind. Sabine Bolonhini and Adriana Mallet, cofounders of SAS Brasil, use telemedicine and mobile clinics to provide specialized care to patients in Brazil, who otherwise would have to travel long distances.

    For example, in partnership with a university, they have been training an artificial intelligence model to identify likely cases of cervical cancer from images. Bolonhini said that she hopes French Gates’ giving will inspire wealthy families in Brazil to also give more to organizations like hers.

    “For us, it’s also using (the funding) responsibly and being a good role model for how this money can find solutions that no one else has found yet,” Bolonhini said.

    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.

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

    Photos You Should See – Oct. 2025

    [ad_2]

    Associated Press

    Source link

  • The City Of Vancouver To Soon Fly A New Flag – KXL

    [ad_1]

    Photo Courtesy City of Vancouver

    VANCOUVER, Wash. – The Vancouver City Council on Monday unanimously approved a new city flag following months of community input and design collaboration.

    The decision came after the city’s volunteer Flag Selection Committee presented its recommendation to the council during its meeting.

    The design combines elements from submissions by Brooke Nugent and Nathan Hunter, whose work was selected from among 138 entries reviewed by the committee. The process included public feedback from more than 1,400 residents.

    The new flag features a green field representing Vancouver’s forests, parks and commitment to sustainability. A white chevron in the shape of a “V” connects land and water, symbolizing progress and unity. The blue section represents the Columbia River, while the central emblem draws inspiration from landmarks including Fort Vancouver, the Salmon Run Bell Tower and the Grant Street Pier.

    The flag will be formally raised for the first time at 3 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 28, at Vancouver City Hall, followed by a community introduction and prize presentation during the city’s annual tree lighting celebration.

    More about:

    [ad_2]

    Grant McHill

    Source link

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

    [ad_1]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Photos You Should See – Oct. 2025

    [ad_2]

    Associated Press

    Source link

  • DUI, assault, theft lead nearly 80,000 visa revocations under Trump

    [ad_1]

    WASHINGTON, D.C.: A senior State Department official said this week that President Donald Trump’s administration has revoked roughly 80,000 non-immigrant visas since taking office on January 20, citing offenses such as driving under the influence, assault, and theft.

    The Washington Examiner first reported the scale of these revocations, which illustrate a wide-ranging immigration crackdown undertaken after Trump assumed the presidency, resulting in the deportation of unprecedented numbers of migrants, including individuals who held valid visas.

    The administration has also implemented more demanding standards for visa issuance, introducing stricter social media vetting and expanding its screening measures. Of the visas revoked, approximately 16,000 were linked to DUI cases, around 12,000 to assault, and another 8,000 to theft. “These three offenses accounted for nearly half of the revocations this year,” the senior official said, speaking anonymously.

    In August, a State Department spokesperson confirmed that more than 6,000 student visas had been canceled for overstaying or violating U.S. laws, with a small portion tied to allegations of “support for terrorism.” The department also said last month that at least six visas were withdrawn due to social media posts referencing the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

    U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated in May that he has revoked the visas of hundreds — possibly thousands — of individuals, including students, for involvement in activities he described as conflicting with U.S. foreign policy priorities.

    Recent State Department guidance instructed U.S. diplomats overseas to maintain heightened scrutiny of applicants who may be considered hostile to the United States or have a record of political activism.

    Officials in the Trump administration have asserted that holders of student visas and green cards could face deportation for expressing support for Palestinians or for criticizing Israel’s actions in the Gaza conflict, arguing that such positions threaten U.S. foreign policy and amount to pro-Hamas sentiment.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

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

    [ad_1]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Photos You Should See – Oct. 2025

    [ad_2]

    Associated Press

    Source link

  • Trump signals shift on Iran

    [ad_1]

    President Donald Trump has said Iran has asked whether U.S. sanctions could be lifted, calling the current measures “very heavy” and noting he is “open to hearing that, and we’ll see what happens.”

    Speaking at the White House late Thursday, Trump offered no timeline or conditions for engagement but signalled a potential opening for dialogue between the longtime rivals.

    Newsweek has reached out to the State Department and Iran’s Foreign Ministry for comment.

    Why It Matters

    Any easing of U.S. sanctions would mark a significant shift in American foreign policy toward Tehran. Trump’s administration has pursued a “maximum pressure” campaign, including strikes on Iranian nuclear sites and tight economic restrictions.

    Negotiations between the U.S. and Iran stalled after a 12-day war sparked by a surprise Israeli attack earlier this year. Any change in policy could influence the balance of power in the Middle East, affect global oil markets, and reshape relations with U.S. allies in the region.

    What to Know

    Trump told reporters: “Iran has been asking if the sanctions could be lifted. Iran has got very heavy U.S. sanctions and it makes it really hard for them to do what they’d like to be able to do. And I’m open to hearing that, and we’ll see what happens, but I would be open to it.”

    The president has not committed to any specific steps, but his openness indicates a potential recalibration of U.S. strategy toward Tehran.

    The “maximum pressure” strategy, reinstated early in his second term, was designed to curb Iran’s nuclear ambitions and limit its regional influence. Previous negotiations, including the 2015 nuclear deal, collapsed after the U.S. withdrew, citing inadequate oversight.

    Trump on Israel-Iran Conflict

    Trump also addressed the recent conflict between Israel and Iran, providing new details on U.S. involvement.

    “Israel attacked first. That attack was very, very powerful. I was very much in charge of that,” he said. “When Israel attacked Iran first, that was a great day for Israel because that attack did more damage than the rest of them put together.”

    The Israeli assault on June 13 killed several top Iranian generals and nuclear scientists, along with numerous civilians. Iran responded with hundreds of missile strikes against Israel, after which the U.S. joined the conflict by bombing Iran’s three major nuclear facilities.

    Iran’s Stance

    Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei speaking in Tehran on Monday ruled out cooperation with Washington as long as the U.S. maintains military forces in the region and supports Israel.

    Iran has also resisted international demands to limit uranium enrichment, a key sticking point that has derailed past nuclear negotiations. Any movement toward easing sanctions would likely require verifiable guarantees from Tehran—a condition it has so far refused to meet.

    What People Are Saying

    Supreme Leader of Iran Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, speaking in Tehran on Monday: “Only if the United States completely cuts its backing for the Zionist regime, removes its military bases from the region, and ceases interfering in its affairs, their request for cooperation with Iran, not in the near future but much later, could be examined.”

    What Happens Next

    While Trump’s remarks open the door for dialogue, progress will depend on Tehran providing concrete assurances about its nuclear program. Negotiations are expected to proceed slowly, with extensive diplomatic maneuvering before any tangible change in U.S. sanctions policy.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Jayden Daniels leaves game after Washington QB’s nonthrowing arm bends gruesomely

    [ad_1]

    WASHINGTON (AP) — Jayden Daniels was being dragged down by a defender when he stuck his left arm out and put his hand on the ground.

    That’s when a dismal night for the Washington Commanders turned downright horrifying.

    Daniels’ nonthrowing arm bent gruesomely, and the star quarterback had to leave Washington’s 38-14 loss to Seattle on Sunday night with 7:29 remaining in the fourth quarter. It’s the third — and perhaps the most significant — injury of the season for Daniels, who was in his first game back from a hamstring issue.

    “It’s really tough to see him go down. You just want him to stay positive,” Commanders linebacker Bobby Wagner said. “You don’t know what the result is. You just speak a lot of positivity into existence. He’s a very positive person so we’re just praying for the best.”

    AP AUDIO: Jayden Daniels leaves game after Washington QB’s nonthrowing arm bends gruesomely

    The NFL’s reigning Offensive Rookie of the Year exited with a significant injury late during a lopsided defeat. Correspondent Gethin Coolbaugh reports.

    Commanders coach Dan Quinn said Daniels injured his elbow. That was about the extent of the postgame update. Quinn didn’t have much of an explanation for why Daniels was still in the game. Washington was trailing 38-7 at the time.

    “Obviously like the hindsight, you don’t want to think that way, where an injury could take place,” Quinn said. “Obviously we’re more conservative in that spot to run and hand off and not have reads to go, but just the end result — obviously, I’m bummed.”

    In addition to the hamstring injury, Daniels also missed two games earlier this season with knee issues.

    Although an injury to Daniels’ non-throwing arm isn’t necessarily career altering, Commanders fans could hardly be blamed for immediately fearing the worst. It was on this same field about 13 years ago — against the same opponent — that Robert Griffin III went down with a severe knee injury at the end of his sensational rookie season for Washington. He never reached those heights again.

    The Commanders fell behind early Sunday and trailed 31-7 at halftime, and Daniels had to do plenty of scrambling. He ended up running for 51 yards on 10 carries, and the injury underscored the risk in doing that.

    “I think that’s his nature. He wants to be aggressive and make plays,” Quinn said. “He’s got confidence in the other players. I do know that. So it’s not like, ‘I have to do more, I have to do things that are outside of playing in that way.’ We also have to have everybody. Injuries happen and you hate it.”

    As a rookie last season, Daniels led Washington to the NFC championship game — its best season since 1991. Now the Commanders are 3-6 after four straight losses. If the season can be salvaged, it may have to be with Marcus Mariota at quarterback.

    During those moments when Daniels was slow to get up, however, it was the long-term future that seemed like the bigger issue.

    “I didn’t see what happened exactly. I just heard a pause and I kind of put my head down and prayed for him,” Commanders guard Sam Cosmi said. “You just don’t want to see that happen.”

    ___

    AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Factbox-Ten US House Races to Watch in 2026

    [ad_1]

    (Reuters) -Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives will defend a narrow majority in the November 2026 elections a year from now. Below are some of the races to watch as Republicans and Democrats battle for control of the chamber.

    ANOTHER CLOSE CALL IN IOWA?

    Representative Mariannette Miller-Meeks, a Republican, was elected to Congress in 2020 by the thinnest of margins. Her six-vote victory in 2020 swelled into a 20,000-vote advantage over Democratic state Representative Christina Bohannan in 2022. Bohannan closed the gap in a 2024 rematch but still lost by about 800 votes.

    Bohannan is running yet again to unseat Miller-Meeks, but other Democrats are also eager to try to flip one of the most competitive districts in the country. The field for the June 2 Democratic primary includes former state Representative Bob Krause, who served in the Iowa Legislature in the 1970s, healthcare worker Travis Terrell and attorney Taylor Wettach.

    Bohannan outraised Miller-Meeks and her Democratic challengers in the third quarter, which covers July through September, but Miller-Meeks began October with $2.6 million in the bank, and she notably performed better in the lower-turnout 2022 midterms than she did in 2020 and 2024, when President Donald Trump was also on the ballot.

    A GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY IN MAINE

    Representative Jared Golden, the lone Democrat to back House Republicans’ stopgap funding bill to avert the ongoing government shutdown, is the most vulnerable House Democrat seeking reelection. Trump won Golden’s district last year by nearly 10 points.

    State Auditor Matt Dunlap, a progressive Democrat, is challenging Golden in the June 9 primary. Former Maine Governor Paul LePage, a Republican, is also running for the seat. The moderate-progressive battle among Maine Democrats is also playing out in a high-profile Senate primary between Governor Janet Mills and oysterman Graham Platner.

    NO INCUMBENT IN NEBRASKA’S SECOND DISTRICT

    Representative Don Bacon is one of just three House Republicans who were reelected in districts that Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris won last year. The difficulty for Republicans to retain that seat is twofold: Harris won it by more than 4 points, and Bacon is retiring, leaving Republicans without an incumbent in Democrats’ top target.

    Harris also won the districts of Republican Representatives Mike Lawler of New York and Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, but her margins were a fraction of a percentage, and both are running for reelection.

    Brinker Harding, an Omaha city councilman, and former state Senator Brett Lindstrom are Republicans contesting the May 12 primary. Democratic primary candidates include Kishla Askins, former deputy assistant secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs, state Senator John Cavanaugh, former Representative Steny Hoyer of Maryland’s policy director James Leuschen, small business owner Denise Powell and Crystal Rhoades, a district court county clerk.

    CAN REPUBLICANS CAPTURE KAPTUR’S DISTRICT?

    Ohio’s redistricting commission approved a compromise map that will make two Democratic seats more competitive for Republicans. The delegation has 10 Republicans and five Democrats. Representatives Marcy Kaptur, Emilia Sykes and Greg Landsman are the most vulnerable Democrats in the state. Sykes’ district will be slightly less competitive for Republicans.

    Trump won Kaptur’s district by nearly 7 points in 2024. Kaptur won reelection by less than 1 point. A Libertarian candidate won 4% of the vote, an indication that Republicans may have flipped the seat had it been a two-person race. Sykes won by 2 points, and Landsman won by almost 9 points. The compromise avoids a worst-case scenario for Democrats, as Republican lawmakers could have drawn a more partisan map to try to unseat Kaptur, Sykes and Landsman. 

    Representative David Schweikert, a Republican, is vacating his battleground seat to run for governor of Arizona. Schweikert defeated former state Representative Amish Shah by fewer than 4 points in 2024. Shah is seeking the Democratic nomination again in a crowded field for the August 4 primary that includes former journalist Marlene Galán-Woods, who finished a close third in last year’s primary. 

    The Republican field includes Arizona Republican Party Chair Gina Swoboda and former federal prosecutor Jason Duey. Schweikert’s district was the most competitive in Arizona, a politically divided state that Trump and Democratic Senator Ruben Gallego both won last year.

    TEXAS DEMOCRATS REACH FOR A STAR

    Democrats are excited about the candidacy of Bobby Pulido, a Tejano music star hoping to oust Republican Representative Monica De La Cruz. Though Texas state lawmakers drew a new congressional map to net Republicans as many as five new seats, De La Cruz’s South Texas district remains largely intact. 

    De La Cruz defeated Democrat Michelle Vallejo by 8.5 percentage points in 2022 and 14 points in 2024. House Democrats’ campaign arm has the seat on its target list of districts in play, but Trump won it by 18 points last year, giving Republicans optimism that Democrats risk wasting resources chasing victory in an unwinnable seat. 

    Pulido is not running uncontested for the Democratic nomination in the March 3 primary. Ada Cuellar, an emergency room doctor, is also in the race. De La Cruz has reported raising nearly $2.6 million through September, and she entered October with $1.7 million in the bank, giving her a sizable financial advantage over her opponents with several months to go before the general election matchup is set.

    WILL A WASHINGTON STATE DISTRICT RETURN TO REPUBLICANS?

    Washington’s 3rd Congressional District had been in Republican hands for 12 years until Democratic Representative Marie Gluesenkamp Perez won it in 2022, narrowly defeating Republican Joe Kent. The longtime incumbent, Republican Jaime Herrera Beutler, finished third in the state’s open nonpartisan primary, a system in which the top two vote-getters advance to the general election. 

    Gluesenkamp Perez defeated Kent by a larger margin in their 2024 rematch, but Republicans believe a stronger candidate can return the district to their column. Trump carried it by 3 points last year, and Perez won it by nearly 4 points. State Senate Minority Leader John Braun, a Republican, is running for the seat.

    MASSIE’S MESSY MAGA PRIMARY

    Trump pre-endorsed Ed Gallrein over Republican Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky in an October social media post, urging the retired Navy SEAL officer to challenge the incumbent with the president’s “Complete and Total Endorsement.” Gallrein announced his candidacy to take on Massie in the May 19 primary days later.

    Massie voted against Trump’s signature One Big Beautiful Bill Act and teamed up with Democratic Representative Ro Khanna of California on legislation to require the Justice Department to publicly release all unclassified materials related to the federal government’s investigation into the late convicted sex offender and financier Jeffrey Epstein. Massie has also joined Democrats in an effort to circumvent House Republican leadership and force a floor vote on the proposal.

    Trump has called Massie a “Third Rate Congressman” and “Weak and Pathetic RINO” — a party slur  meaning “Republican in name only” — who “must be thrown out of office, ASAP!” Massie has raised $1.8 million this year, more than he has ever raised during any two-year cycle. He entered October with more than $2 million cash on hand.

    DEMOCRATS LINE UP TO OUST LAWLER

    While Republican Representatives John James of Michigan and David Schweikert of Arizona sacrificed their battleground districts to run for governor of their respective states, Republican Representative Mike Lawler did the opposite, avoiding a potential gubernatorial primary against fellow New York Representative Elise Stefanik, a likely candidate, to help House Republicans preserve their majority.

    Lawler is one of three Republicans representing a district Harris won in 2024. Harris won the district by more than half a point, though Lawler defeated former Democratic Representative Mondaire Jones by 6 percentage points. A long line of well-funded Democrats has launched campaigns for the June 23 primary seeking their party’s nomination to unseat Lawler, including Village of Briarcliff Manor Deputy Mayor Peter Chatzky, Army combat veteran and national security expert Cait Conley, Rockland County legislator Beth Davidson, nonprofit leader Jessica Reinmann and former FBI intelligence analyst John Sullivan.

    Lawler has raised more than $4 million this year and has $2.8 million in the bank.

    A SURPRISE IN SAN FRANCISCO?

    Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, 85, is expected to announce whether she’ll seek reelection to her San Francisco seat after the 2025 election.

    Pelosi stepped down from her leadership role after the 2022 midterms, but she continues to serve in Congress. Her potential departure from the House after nearly 40 years in office could pressure her former deputies, Representatives Steny Hoyer, 86, of Maryland and Jim Clyburn, 85, of South Carolina, to retire as well.

    But Democrats aren’t necessarily waiting for Pelosi to step aside. Saikat Chakrabarti, New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s former chief of staff, and state Senator Scott Wiener have already entered the field for the June 2 primary. Other Democrats could also enter the race if Pelosi retires. The seat is safely Democratic.

    (Reporting by Nolan D. McCaskill; editing by Scott Malone and Howard Goller)

    Copyright 2025 Thomson Reuters.

    [ad_2]

    Reuters

    Source link

  • Commentary: Proposition 50 is a short-term victory against Trump. But at what cost?

    [ad_1]

    One of the great conceits of California is its place on the cutting edge — of fashion, culture, technology, politics and other facets of the ways we live and thrive.

    Not so with Proposition 50.

    The redistricting measure, which passed resoundingly Tuesday, doesn’t break any ground, chart a fresh course or shed any light on a better pathway forward.

    It is, to use a favorite word of California’s governor, merely the latest iteration of what has come to define today’s politics of fractiousness and division.

    In fact, the redistricting measure and the partisan passions it stirred offer a perfect reflection of where we stand as a splintered country: Democrats overwhelming supported it. Republicans were overwhelmingly opposed.

    Nothing new or novel about that.

    And if Proposition 50 plays out as intended, it could make things worse, heightening the country’s polarization and increasing the animosity in Washington that is rotting our government and politics from the inside out.

    You’re welcome.

    The argument in favor of Proposition 50 — and it’s a strong one — is that California was merely responding to the scheming and underhanded actions of a rogue chief executive who desperately needs to be checked and balanced.

    The only apparent restraint on President Trump’s authoritarian impulse is whether he thinks he can get away with something, as congressional Republicans and a supine Supreme Court look the other way.

    With GOP control of the House hanging by the merest of threads, Trump set out to boost his party’s prospects in the midterm election by browbeating Texas Republicans into redrawing the state’s congressional lines long before it was time. Trump’s hope next year is to gain as many as five of the state’s House seats.

    Gov. Gavin Newson responded with Proposition 50, which scraps the work of a voter-created, nonpartisan redistricting commission and changes the political map to help Democrats flip five of California’s seats.

    And with that the redistricting battle was joined, as states across the country looked to rejigger their congressional boundaries to benefit one party or the other.

    The upshot is that even more politicians now have the luxury of picking their voters, instead of the other way around, and if that doesn’t bother you maybe you’re not all that big a fan of representative democracy or the will of the people.

    Was it necessary for Newsom, eyes fixed on the White House, to escalate the red-versus-blue battle? Did California have to jump in and be a part of the political race to the bottom? We won’t know until November 2026.

    History and Trump’s sagging approval ratings — especially regarding the economy — suggest that Democrats are well positioned to gain at least the handful of seats needed to take control of the House, even without resorting to the machinations of Proposition 50.

    There is, of course, no guarantee.

    Gerrymandering aside, a pending Supreme Court decision that could gut the Voting Rights Act might deliver Republicans well over a dozen seats, greatly increasing the odds of the GOP maintaining power.

    What is certain is that Proposition 50 will in effect disenfranchise millions of California Republicans and Republican-leaning voters who already feel overlooked and irrelevant to the workings of their home state.

    Too bad for them, you might say. But that feeling of neglect frays faith in our political system and can breed a kind of to-hell-with-it cynicism that makes electing and cheering on a “disruptor” like Trump seem like a reasonable and appealing response.

    (And, yes, disenfranchisement is just as bad when it targets Democratic voters who’ve been nullified in Texas, North Carolina, Missouri and other GOP-run states.)

    Worse, slanting political lines so that one party or the other is guaranteed victory only widens the gulf that has helped turn Washington’s into its current slough of dysfunction.

    The lack of competition means the greatest fear many lawmakers have is not the prospect of losing to the other party in a general election but rather being snuffed out in a primary by a more ideological and extreme challenger.

    That makes cooperation and cross-party compromise, an essential lubricant to the way Washington is supposed to work, all the more difficult to achieve.

    Witness the government shutdown, now in its record 36th day. Then imagine a Congress seated in January 2027 with even more lawmakers guaranteed reelection and concerned mainly with appeasing their party’s activist base.

    The animating impulse behind Proposition 50 is understandable.

    Trump is running the most brazenly corrupt administration in modern history. He’s gone beyond transgressing political and presidential norms to openly trampling on the Constitution.

    He’s made it plain he cares only about those who support him, which excludes the majority of Americans who did not wish to see Trump’s return to the White House.

    As if anyone needed reminding, his (patently false) bleating about a “rigged” California election, issued just minutes after the polls opened Tuesday, showed how reckless, misguided and profoundly irresponsible the president is.

    With the midterm election still nearly a year off — and the 2028 presidential contest eons away — many of those angry or despondent over the benighted state of our union desperately wanted to do something to push back.

    Proposition 50, however, was a shortsighted solution.

    Newsom and other proponents said the retaliatory ballot measure was a way of fighting fire with fire. But that smell in the air today isn’t victory.

    It’s ashes.

    [ad_2]

    Mark Z. Barabak

    Source link

  • Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell Faces a Hard Reelection Fight Against Progressive Activist Katie Wilson

    [ad_1]

    SEATTLE (AP) — Democratic Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell faces a tough reelection fight against progressive activist Katie Wilson as voters in the liberal city recoil from President Donald Trump’s second term and question whether the incumbent has done enough to address public safety, homelessness and affordability.

    Harrell, an attorney who previously served three terms on the City Council, was elected mayor in 2021 following the chaos of the COVID-19 pandemic and racial justice protests over George Floyd’s murder by Minneapolis police.

    With crime falling, more police being hired, less visible drug use and many homeless encampments removed from city parks, the business-backed Harrell seemed likely to cruise to re-election at this time last year. He’s been endorsed by Democratic Gov. Bob Ferguson, Attorney General Nick Brown and former U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.

    But Trump’s return to office has helped reawaken Seattle’s progressive voters. The lesser-known Wilson, a democratic socialist running a campaign that echoes some of the themes of progressive mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani in New York, trounced Harrell by nearly 10 percentage points in the August primary.

    “Voters in places like Seattle are frustrated with the status quo, particularly in the context of Trump’s attacks on blue cities,” said Sandeep Kaushik, a Seattle political consultant who is not involved in the race. “They’re kind of moving back into their progressive bunker and are much more inclined to say, ‘Yeah, we should go our own way with our own bold progressive solutions.’ That all that plays into Katie’s hands.”

    Wilson, 43, studied at Oxford College but did not graduate. She founded the small nonprofit Transit Riders Union in 2011 and has led campaigns for better public transportation, higher minimum wages, stronger renter protections and more affordable housing. She herself is a renter, living in a one-bedroom apartment in the city’s Capitol Hill neighborhood, and says that has shaped her understanding of Seattle’s affordability crisis.

    Wilson has criticized Harrell as doing too little to provide more shelter and said his encampment sweeps have been cosmetic, merely pushing unhoused people around the city. Wilson also paints him as a city hall fixture who bears responsibility for the status quo.

    She has been endorsed by several Democratic organizations as well as by U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal, the former chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.

    Harrell, 67, played on the Rose Bowl champion University of Washington football team in 1978 before going to law school. His father, who was Black, came to Seattle from the segregated Jim Crow South, and his mother, a Japanese American, was incarcerated at an internment camp in Minidoka, Idaho, during World War II after officials seized her family’s Seattle flower shop — experiences that fostered his understanding of the importance of civil rights and inclusivity.

    Harrell has said Wilson, who has no traditional management experience, isn’t ready to lead a city with more than 13,000 employees and a budget of nearly $9 billion. He also has criticized her for supporting efforts to slash the city’s police budget amid the 2020 racial justice protests.

    Wilson has said that proposal was based on some fundamental misunderstandings and that she since has learned a lot about how the police department works. She says she supports having a department that is adequately staffed, responsive and accountable to the community.

    Both Harrell and Wilson have touted plans for affordable housing, combatting crime and attempting to Trump-proof the city, which receives about $150 million a year in federal funding. Both want to protect Seattle’s sanctuary city status.

    Wilson has proposed a city-level capital gains tax to help offset federal funding the city might lose and to pay for housing; Harrell says that’s ineffective because a city capital gains tax could easily be avoided by those who would be required to pay it.

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

    Photos You Should See – Oct. 2025

    [ad_2]

    Associated Press

    Source link

  • Sen. Alex Padilla says he won’t run for California governor

    [ad_1]

    WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla announced Tuesday that he will not run for California governor next year, ending months of speculation about the possibility of the Democrat vying to succeed Gov. Gavin Newsom.

    “It is with a full heart and even more commitment than ever that I am choosing to not run for governor of California next year,” Padilla told reporters outside his Senate office in Washington.

    Padilla instead said he will focus on countering President Trump’s agenda in Congress, where Democrats are currently in the minority in both the House and Senate, but hope to regain some political clout after the 2026 midterm elections.

    “I choose not just to stay in the Senate. I choose to stay in this fight because the Constitution is worth fighting for. Our fundamental rights are worth fighting for. Our core values are worth fighting for. The American dream is worth fighting for,” he said.

    Padilla said his decision was influenced by his belief that under President Trump, “these are not normal times.”

    “We deserve better than this,” he said.

    Many contenders, no clear favorite

    Padilla’s decision to bow out of the 2026 governor’s race will leave a prominent name out of an already crowded contest with many contenders but not a clear favorite.

    For much of the year, the field was essentially frozen in place as former Vice President Kamala Harris pondered whether she would run, with many donors and major endorsers staying out of the game. Harris said at the end of July that she wouldn’t run. But another potential candidate — billionaire developer Rick Caruso — remains a question mark.

    Caruso said Monday night that he was still considering running for either governor or Los Angeles mayor, and will decide in the next few weeks.

    “It’s a really tough decision,” Caruso said. “Within a few weeks or so, or something like that, I’ll probably have a decision made. It’s a big topic of discussion in the house with my kids and my wife.”

    Major Democratic candidates include former Orange County Rep. Katie Porter, former U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, current California Supt. of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond, former state Controller Betty Yee and wealthy businessman Stephen Cloobeck. Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco and conservative commentator Steve Hilton are the most prominent Republicans running.

    Amid fire recovery aftermath, immigration raids and a high-octane redistricting battle, California voters have yet to turn their attention to next year’s gubernatorial matchup, despite the vast power that Newsom’s successor will wield. California is now the world’s fourth-largest economy, and policy decisions in the Golden State often have global repercussions. Newsom is nearing the end of his second and final term.

    Recent polling shows the contest as wide open, with nearly 4 in 10 voters surveyed saying they are undecided, though Porter had a slight edge as the top choice in the poll. She and Bianco were the only candidates whose support cracked the double digits.

    Candidates still have months to file their paperwork before the June 2 primary to replace Newsom.

    June incident brought attention

    Known for soft-spoken confidence and a lack of bombast, Padilla’s public profile soared in June after he found himself cuffed by federal agents, at the center of a staggering viral moment during a news conference by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

    Despite identifying himself, Padilla was tackled after trying to interrupt Noem with a question. The manhandling of California’s senior senator was filmed by a staffer and broadcast around the world, provoking searing and widespread condemnation.

    Days later, Vice President JD Vance joked about the incident and referred to Padilla — his former Senate colleague — as “Jose Padilla,” a misnaming that Padilla suggested was intentional and others characterized as racist.

    The event put Padilla on the national spotlight and rumors of Padilla’s interest in the gubernatorial race ignited in late August.

    Padilla told reporters Tuesday that he received an “outpouring of encouragement and offers of support for the idea” of his candidacy and that he had “taken it to heart”

    Alongside his wife, Angela, the senator said he also heard from many people urging him to keep his fight going in Washington.

    “Countless Californians have urged me to do everything I could to protect California and the American Dream from a vindictive president who seems hell-bent on raising costs for working families, rolling back environmental protections, cutting access to healthcare, jeopardizing reproductive rights and more,” he said.

    Padilla said he had listened.

    “I will continue to thank them and honor their support by continuing to work together for a better future,” he said.

    Ceballos reported from Washington and Wick from Los Angeles. Times staff writer Noah Goldberg in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

    [ad_2]

    Ana Ceballos, Julia Wick

    Source link

  • Remains of Indigenous woman missing since 2020 found in Washington state; $60,000 reward offered for info

    [ad_1]

    An Indigenous woman’s remains were discovered last week in a remote part of Washington state, five years after she went missing, authorities said. An investigation into Mary Johnson-Davis’ death is still ongoing, and her tribe as well as the FBI have offered a $60,000 reward to anyone with information that leads to the identification, arrest and conviction of the person, or people, responsible.

    Johnson-Davis, 44, was last seen on November 25, 2020, walking to a friend’s house on the Tulalip Reservation, about 40 miles north of Seattle, according to the FBI. She was reported missing on Dec. 9 of that year.

    The FBI’s Seattle field office announced Friday that DNA tests had recently identified human remains that were discovered in June in Snohomish County, between Seattle and the Tulalip Reservation, and matched them to Johnson-Davis. 

    “With deep respect for the family and Tulalip community, the Tulalip Police Department is heartbroken to confirm that human remains have been positively identified as Mary Johnson-Davis, a member of the Tulalip Tribes of Washington,” said Shawn Ledford, the Tulalip Police Chief, in a statement. “This case remains an active and ongoing investigation, and the Tulalip Police Department will continue to work in partnership with the family and the FBI.”

    Mary Johnson-Davis

    FBI


    Johnson-Davis’ family said they were “saddened by the news” in a statement sent via text message by the woman’s estranged husband  to KING-TV. He sent the statement on behalf of her family and the family’s attorney, according to the station.

    “Our hearts are heavy, also because so many loving people are feeling sadness for our sister and our family. We are in disbelief that we will never see Mary again. We all wanted her to come home. She is now being brought back to us, but not like we hoped,” the statement said. “At the same time, our family finally has closure. We are at peace and now we can rest, knowing our sister has been found and will be brought home, where she is loved and will always be remembered.”

    Indigenous women go missing and are murdered at disproportionately high rates in the U.S. and Canada, compared with other groups, and experts say the crisis is rooted in historical wrongs. 

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • OpenAI and Amazon sign $38 billion deal for AI computing power

    [ad_1]

    SEATTLE (AP) — OpenAI and Amazon have signed a $38 billion deal that enables the ChatGPT maker to run its artificial intelligence systems on Amazon’s data centers in the U.S.

    OpenAI will be able to power its AI tools using “hundreds of thousands” of Nvidia’s specialized AI chips through Amazon Web Services as part of the deal announced Monday.

    Amazon shares increased 4% after the announcement.

    The agreement comes less than a week after OpenAI altered its partnership with its longtime backer Microsoft, which until early this year was the startup’s exclusive cloud computing provider.

    California and Delaware regulators also last week allowed San Francisco-based OpenAI, which was founded as a nonprofit, to move forward on its plan to form a new business structure to more easily raise capital and make a profit.

    “The rapid advancement of AI technology has created unprecedented demand for computing power,” Amazon said in a statement Monday. It said OpenAI “will immediately start utilizing AWS compute as part of this partnership, with all capacity targeted to be deployed before the end of 2026, and the ability to expand further into 2027 and beyond.”

    AI requires huge amounts of energy and computing power and OpenAI has long signaled that it needs more capacity, both to develop new AI systems and keep existing products like ChatGPT answering the questions of its hundreds of millions of users. It’s recently made more than $1 trillion worth of financial obligations in spending for AI infrastructure, including data center projects with Oracle and SoftBank and semiconductor supply deals with chipmakers Nvidia, AMD and Broadcom.

    Some of the deals have raised investor concerns about their “circular” nature, since OpenAI doesn’t make a profit and can’t yet afford to pay for the infrastructure that its cloud backers are providing on the expectations of future returns on their investments. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman last week dismissed doubters he says have aired “breathless concern” about the deals.

    “Revenue is growing steeply. We are taking a forward bet that it’s going to continue to grow,” Altman said on a podcast where he appeared with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.

    Amazon is already the primary cloud provider to AI startup Anthropic, an OpenAI rival that makes the Claude chatbot.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Microsoft $9.7 billion deal with IREN will give it access to Nvidia chips

    [ad_1]

    Microsoft has entered into a $9.7 billion cloud services contract with artificial intelligence cloud service provider IREN that will give it access to some of Nvidia’s chips.

    The five-year deal, which includes a 20% prepayment, will help Microsoft as it looks to keep up with AI demand. Last week the software maker reported its quarterly sales grew 18% to $77.7 billion, beating Wall Street expectations while also surprising some investors with the huge amounts of money it is spending to expand its cloud computing infrastructure and address the growing need for AI tools.

    Microsoft spent nearly $35 billion in the July-September quarter on capital expenditures to support AI and cloud demand, nearly half of that on computer chips and much of the rest related to data center real estate.

    “IREN’s expertise in building and operating a fully integrated AI cloud — from data centers to GPU stack — combined with their secured power capacity makes them a strategic partner,” Jonathan Tinter, president of business development and ventures at Microsoft, said in a statement. “This collaboration unlocks new growth opportunities for both companies and the customers we serve.”

    Microsoft also announced new deal with OpenAI last week that pushed the Redmond, Washington, company to $4 trillion in valuation for the second time this year. The agreement gives the software giant a roughly 27% stake in OpenAI’s new for-profit corporation but changes some of the details of their close partnership. Microsoft’s $135 billion stake will be just ahead of the OpenAI nonprofit’s $130 billion stake in the for-profit company.

    IREN also said Monday that it signed a deal with Dell Technologies to buy the chips and ancillary equipment for about $5.8 billion. The Australian company anticipates the chips being deployed in phases through next year at its Childress, Texas campus.

    Shares of IREN jumped 22% before the opening bell in the U.S. Shares of Microsoft rose slightly,.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Trial Starts for Assault Case Against DC Man Who Tossed Sandwich at Federal Agent on Viral Video

    [ad_1]

    WASHINGTON (AP) — Throwing a sandwich at a federal agent turned Sean Charles Dunn into a symbol of resistance against President Donald Trump’s law-enforcement surge in the nation’s capital. This week, federal prosecutors are trying to persuade a jury of fellow Washington, D.C., residents that Dunn simply broke the law.

    That could be a tough sell for the government in a city that has chafed against Trump’s federal takeover, which is entering its third month. A grand jury refused to indict Dunn on a felony assault count before U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro’s office opted to charge him instead with a misdemeanor.

    Securing a trial conviction could prove to be equally challenging for Justice Department prosecutors in Washington, where murals glorifying Dunn’s sandwich toss popped up virtually overnight.

    Before jury selection started Monday, the judge presiding over Dunn’s trial seemed to acknowledge how unusual it is for a case like this to be heard in federal court. U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols, who was nominated to the bench by Trump, said he expects the trial to last no more than two days “because it’s the simplest case in the world.”

    A video that went viral on social media captured Dunn hurling his subway-style sandwich at a Customs and Border Protection agent outside a nightclub on the night of Aug. 10. That same weekend, Trump announced his deployment of hundreds of National Guard troops and federal agents to assist with police patrols in Washington.

    When Dunn approached a group of CBP agents who were in front of a club hosting a “Latin Night,” he called them “fascists” and “racists” and chanted “shame” toward them. An observer’s video captured Dunn throwing a sandwich at an agent’s chest.

    “Why are you here? I don’t want you in my city!” Dunn shouted, according to police.

    Dunn ran away but was apprehended. He was released from custody but rearrested when a team of armed federal agents in riot gear raided his home. The White House posted a highly produced “propaganda” video of the raid on its official X account, Dunn’s lawyers said. They noted that Dunn had offered to surrender to police before the raid.

    Dunn worked as an international affairs specialist in the Justice Department’s criminal division. After Dunn’s arrest, Attorney General Pam Bondi announced his firing in a social media post that referred to him as “an example of the Deep State.”

    Before trial, Dunn’s lawyers urged the judge to dismiss the case for what they allege is a vindictive and selective prosecution. They argued that the posts by Bondi and the White House prove Dunn was impermissibly targeted for his political speech.

    Julia Gatto, one of Dunn’s lawyers, questioned why Trump’s Justice Department is prosecuting Dunn after the Republican president issued pardons and ordered the dismissal of assault cases stemming from a mob’s attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

    “It’s an obvious answer,” Gatto said during a hearing last Thursday. “The answer is they have different politics. And that’s selective prosecution.”

    Prosecutors countered that Dunn’s political expressions don’t make him immune from prosecution for assaulting the agent.

    “The defendant is being prosecuted for the obvious reason that he was recorded throwing a sandwich at a federal officer at point-blank range,” they wrote.

    Dunn is charged with assaulting, resisting, opposing, impeding, intimidating and interfering with a federal officer. Dozens of Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol were convicted of felonies for assaulting or interfering with police during the Jan. 6 attack. Trump pardoned or ordered the dismissal of charges for all of them.

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

    Photos You Should See – Oct. 2025

    [ad_2]

    Associated Press

    Source link