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,.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — People across the country formed long lines for free meals and groceries at food pantries and drive-through giveaways Saturday, after monthly benefits through the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, were suddenly cut off because of the ongoing government shutdown.
In the New York borough of the Bronx, about 200 more people than usual showed up at the World of Life Christian Fellowship International pantry, many bundled in winter hats and coats and pushing collapsible shopping carts as they waited in a line that spanned multiple city blocks. Some arrived as early as 4 a.m. to choose from pallets of fruits, vegetables, bread, milk, juice, dry goods and prepared sandwiches.
Mary Martin, who volunteers at the pantry, also relies on it regularly for food to supplement her SNAP payments. She said she usually splits her roughly $200 a month in SNAP benefits between herself and her two adult sons, one of whom has six children and is especially dependent on the assistance.
“If I didn’t have the pantry to come to, I don’t know how we would make it,” Martin said.
“I’m not gonna see my grandkids suffer.”
The Department of Agriculture planned to withhold payments to the food program starting Saturday until two federal judges ordered the administration to make them. However it was unclear as to when the debit cards that beneficiaries use could be reloaded after the ruling, sparking fear and confusion among many recipients.
In an apparent response to President Donald Trump, who said he would provide the money but wanted more legal direction from the court, U.S. District Judge John J. McConnell in Rhode Island ordered the government to report back by Monday on how it would fund SNAP accounts.
McConnell, who was nominated by President Barack Obama, said the Trump administration must either make a full payment by that day or, if it decides to tap $3 billion in a contingency fund, figure out how to do that by Wednesday.
The delay in SNAP payments, a major piece of the nation’s social safety net that serves about 42 million people, has highlighted the financial vulnerabilities that many face. At the Bronx food pantry, the Rev. John Udo-Okon said “people from all walks of life” are seeking help now.
“The pantry is no longer for the poor, for the elderly, for the needy. The pantry now is for the whole community, everybody,” Udo-Okon said. “You see people will drive in their car and come and park and wait to see if they can get food.”
In Austell, Georgia, people in hundreds of cars in drive-through lanes picked up nonperishable and perishable bags of food. Must Ministries said it handed out food to about 1,000 people, more than a typical bimonthly food delivery.
Families in line said they worried about not getting SNAP benefits in time for Thanksgiving.
At a drive-through food giveaway at the Calvary Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky, SNAP recipient James Jackson, 74, said he is frustrated that people are being hurt by decisions made in Washington and lawmakers should try harder to understand challenges brought by poverty and food insecurity.
“If you’ve never been poor, you don’t know what it is to be poor,” Jackson said. “I hope that it turns around. I hope that people get their SNAP benefits, and I hope we just come together where we can love each other and feed each other and help each other.”
While there is typically a long line for Calvary Baptist Church’s drive-through events, the Rev. Samuel L. Whitlow said, the walk-in food pantry has seen increased demand recently with roughly 60 additional people showing up this week.
And in Norwich, Connecticut, the St. Vincent De Paul soup kitchen and food pantry had 10 extra volunteers working Saturday to help a wave of expected newcomers, making sure they felt comfortable and understood the services available. Besides groceries and hot meals, the site was providing pet food, toiletries and blood pressure checks.
“They’re embarrassed. They have shame. So you have to deal with that as well,” director Jill Corbin said. “But we do our best to just try to welcome people.”
Haigh reported from Norwich, Connecticut. Associated Press photographer Mike Stewart in Austell, Georgia, contributed.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa is scheduled to visit Washington, D.C., on Nov. 10 and meet with President Trump at the White House, Tom Barrack, the U.S. envoy to Syria and U.S. ambassador to Turkey, confirmed to CBS News on Saturday.
This would mark the first-ever visit by a Syrian president to the White House.
CBS News has reached out to the White House for more details.
Al-Sharaa, who once led an affiliate of al Qaeda and was designated as a terrorist by the U.S. in 2013, led a surprise attack on Aleppo in November 2024. This led to the end of 54 years of the Assad family’s tyrannical rule in 11 days. Leaders of the militias appointed him as president of Syria in January.
Mr. Trump met with al-Sharaa in Saudi Arabia in May, highlighting the stunning reversal in fortunes for the former Islamist militant who spent years with a U.S. government bounty on his head. Mr. Trump called him a “young, attractive guy, tough guy, strong past,” aboard Air Force One following their meeting.
Their meeting came a day after Mr. Trump announced that his administration was lifting U.S. sanctions on Syria “to give them a chance at greatness.”
In September, al-Sharaa addressed the U.N. General Assembly — the first time a president from his country had done so in nearly six decades.
“Syria is reclaiming its rightful place among the nations of the world,” he said in his speech.
Civil war in Syria started in 2011 and ended last year — a conflict that pushed about half of Syria’s population out of their homes. Al-Sharaa is now facing questions over whether he can unify, stabilize and democratize the nation.
With no endgame in sight, the government shutdown is expected to roll on for the unforeseeable future, injecting more uncertainty into an already precarious economy.
Democrats seek an extension of expiring tax credits that have helped millions of people afford health insurance, while Republicans say they won’t negotiate until the government is reopened.
Americans, meanwhile, are divided on who’s to blame.
This is a photo gallery curated by AP photo editors.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Immigration authorities did not receive word of a court order blocking the removal of a man living in Alabama until after he had been deported to Laos, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said Wednesday, dismissing claims that officials violated the order.
Chanthila “Shawn” Souvannarath, 44, was deported on Friday, according to his attorneys, a day after a federal judge in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, told U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to keep him in the country so that he could present what the judge called a “substantial claim of U.S. citizenship.”
Souvannarath was born in a refugee camp in Thailand but has lived most of his life in the U.S. DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said the judge’s order keeping him in the country “was not served” to ICE until after Souvannarath had been deported.
“To the media’s chagrin, there was no mistake,” McLaughlin said in a statement.
DHS and ICE did not respond to questions from The Associated Press seeking additional details on the timeline and how officials receive federal court orders.
The American Civil Liberties Union, which is representing Souvannarath, asked U.S. District Judge Shelly Dick to order his immediate return to the U.S., calling the deportation “unlawful.”
“ICE has acted in direct opposition to a federal court order, which should disturb everyone,” said Nora Ahmed, legal director of the ACLU of Louisiana.
The deportation comes as Trump administration officials have repeatedly clashed with the courts over their attempts to deport large numbers of immigrants. There have been previous cases of U.S. citizens being deported, including U.S.-born children.
Souvannarath most recently lived in Arab, Alabama. Court records show he was granted lawful permanent residence in the U.S. before his first birthday. His father, a native of Laos, is a naturalized U.S. citizen, and Souvannarath claims his citizenship derives from that status.
Souvannarath was taken into ICE custody in June following an annual check-in with immigration authorities. Two of his five children were with him when he was detained, his wife told the AP.
McLaughlin said Souvannarath “lost his green card” and was ordered to be deported in 2006 following convictions for “heinous crimes” — assault and unlawful possession of a firearm — and “had no right to be in this country.” It was not clear why Souvannarath was not previously taken into ICE custody.
In 2004, Souvannarath was convicted of unlawful firearm possession and assault against his then-girlfriend in King County, Washington. He had also been convicted of a misdemeanor assault against the same woman several years before, court records show.
“20 years later, he tried a Hail Mary attempt to remain in our country by claiming he was a U.S. citizen,” McLaughlin wrote in her statement. “I know its shocking to the media — but criminal illegal aliens lie all the time.”
Souvannarath’s wife, Beatrice, described him as a hard worker and loving father who stayed out of trouble since his run-ins with the law two decades ago. He’s mostly worked installing air conditioners and heaters, she said. “He doesn’t even drink,” she said.
His wife said she received word last week that he was being deported and, days later, that he was in custody in Laos, a country he had not previously visited.
Representing himself in court, Souvannarath filed an emergency motion seeking to halt his deportation. The judge, appointed by President Barack Obama, cited the “irreparable harm that would be caused by immediate deportation” in issuing a temporary restraining order pausing the deportation for 14 days.
Before his deportation, Souvannarath had been detained at a newly opened ICE facility at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola.
__ Mustian reported from New York. Associated Press reporter Cedar Attanasio contributed from Seattle, Washington.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Stewart McLaurin knew it was coming.
An entire wing of the White House, a building he calls “the most special, important building on the planet,” was going to be replaced to make way for a ballroom that President Donald Trump wants to add to the building.
“When the reality of things happen, they strike us a little bit differently than the theory of things happening, so it was a bit of a jarring moment,” McLaurin told The Associated Press in an exclusive interview Tuesday.
McLaurin, who has led the nonprofit, nonpartisan organization for more than a decade, did not take a position on the changes. It’s not his job. “Ours is not to make happen, or to keep from happening — but to document what does happen, what happens in this great home that we call the White House,” he said.
But he said he sees a silver lining from the “jarring” images: they have piqued public interest in White House history.
“What has happened since then is so amazing in that in the past two weeks, more people have been talking about White House history, focused on White House history, learning what is an East Wing, what is the West Wing … what are these spaces in this building that we simply call the White House,” McLaurin said.
Trump demolishes the East Wing
The general public became aware of the demolition work on Oct. 20 after photos of construction equipment ripping into the building began to circulate online, prompting an outcry from Democrats, preservationists and others.
In a matter of days, the entire two-story East Wing — the traditional base of operations for first ladies and their staffs — was gone. The demolition included a covered walkway between the White House, the family movie theater and a garden dedicated to first lady Jacqueline Kennedy.
Trump had talked about building a ballroom for years, and pushed ahead with his vision when he returned to office in January. His proposal calls for a 90,000-square-foot structure, almost twice the size of the 55,000-square-foot White House itself and able to accommodate 1,000 people. The plan also includes building a more modern East Wing, officials have said.
The Republican president ordered the demolition despite not yet having sign-off for the ballroom construction from the National Capital Planning Commission, one of several entities with a role in approving additions to federal buildings and property. The White House has yet to submit the ballroom plans for the commission’s review because it is closed during the government shutdown.
Trump appointed loyalists to the planning commission in July. On Tuesday, he also fired the six members of the Commission of Fine Arts, a group of architectural experts that advises the federal government on historic preservation and public buildings. A new slate of members who are more aligned with Trump’s policies will be named, a White House official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly on personnel decisions. The Washington Post was first to report the firings.
East Wing art and furnishings preserved
It was the job of the White House curator and their staff to carefully remove, catalogue and store the art, the official portraits of former first ladies, and furnishings from the East Wing, McLaurin said.
The White House Historical Association does not have a decision-making role in the construction. But it has been working with the White House to prepare for the changes.
“We had known since late summer that the staff of the East Wing had moved out. I actually made my last visit on the last day of tours on August the 28th,” McLaurin said.
Working with the curator and chief usher, the association used 3D scanning technology “so that every room, space, nook and cranny of the East Wing, whether it was molding or hinges or door knobs or whatever it was, was captured to the -nth degree” to be digitally recreated as an exhibit or to teach the history of that space, McLaurin said.
A photographer also documented the building as it was being taken apart.
It will be a while before any images are available, but McLaurin said items were found when flooring was pulled up and when wall coverings were pulled back that “no living person remembered were there. So those will be lessons in history.”
White House has grown over the years
Trump’s aides have responded to criticism of the demolition by arguing that other presidents have made changes to the White House, too. Trump has said the White House needs a bigger entertaining space.
McLaurin said the building continues to evolve from what it looked like when it was built in 1792.
“There is a need to modernize and to grow,” he said, noting that White House social secretaries for generations have chafed at the space limitations for entertaining. “But how it’s done and how it’s accomplished and what results is really the vision of the president who undertakes that project.”
What the White House Historical Association does
Jacqueline Kennedy created the historical association in 1961 to help preserve the museum quality of the interior of the White House and educate the public. It receives no government funding and raises money mostly through private donations and sales of retail merchandise.
It is not the mission of the association to take a position on construction, McLaurin said. Its primary mandate is preserving the State Floor and some of the historic bedrooms upstairs in the private living quarters, and teaching the history of the White House, which is an accredited museum. The State Floor is made up of the Green, Blue and Red Rooms, the East Room and State Dining Room, the Cross Hall and Grand Foyer.
“Ours is not to support — or to not support,” McLaurin said. “Our is to understand, to get the details.”
Since the demolition, McLaurin said he has seen attendance spike at a free-of-charge educational center the association opened in September 2024 a block from the White House. “The People’s House: A White House Experience” is open seven days a week — including during the current government shutdown.
The educational center saw its busiest days the weekend of Oct. 17-19, with about 1,500 daily visitors, up from a previous average of 900, he said.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Amazon will cut about 14,000 corporate jobs as the online retail giant ramps up spending on artificial intelligence while cutting costs elsewhere.
Teams and individuals impacted by the job cuts will be notified on Tuesday. Most workers will be given 90 days to look for a new position internally, Beth Galetti, Senior Vice President of People Experience and Technology at Amazon, wrote in a letter to employees on Tuesday. Those who can’t find a new role at the company or who opt not to look for one will be provided transitional support including severance pay, outplacement services and health insurance benefits.
Amazon has about 350,000 corporate employees and a total workforce of approximately 1.56 million. The cuts announced Tuesday amount to about a 4% reduction in its corporate workforce.
In June CEO Andy Jassy, who has aggressively sought to cut costs since becoming CEO in 2021, said that he anticipated generative AI would reduce Amazon’s corporate workforce in the next few years.
Jassy said at the time that Amazon had more than 1,000 generative AI services and applications in progress or built, but that figure was a “small fraction” of what it plans to build.
Amazon has announced plans to invest $10 billion building a campus in North Carolina to expand its cloud computing and artificial intelligence infrastructure.
Since 2024 started, Amazon has committed to about $10 billion apiece to data center projects in Mississippi, Indiana, Ohio and North Carolina as it builds up its infrastructure to try to keep up with other tech giants making leaps in AI. Amazon is competing with OpenAI, Google, Microsoft, Meta and others. In a conference call with industry analysts in May, Jassy said that the potential for growth in the company’s AWS business is massive.
“If you believe your mission is to make customers’ lives easier and better every day, and you believe that every customer experience will be reinvented with AI, you’re going to invest very aggressively in AI, and that’s what we’re doing. You can see that in the 1,000-plus AI applications we’re building across Amazon. You can see that with our next generation of Alexa, named Alexa+,” he said.
Amazon’s workforce doubled during the pandemic as millions stayed home and boosted online spending. In the following years, big tech and retail companies cut thousands of jobs to bring spending back in line.
The cuts announced Tuesday suggests Amazon is still trying to get the size of its workforce right and it may not be over. It was the biggest culling at Amazon since 2023, when the company cut 27,000 jobs. Those cuts came in waves, with 9,000 jobs trimmed in March of that year, and another 18,000 employees two months later. Amazon has not said if more job cuts are on the way.
Yet the jobs market which has for years been a pillar in the U.S. economy, is showing signs of weakening. Layoffs have been limited, but the same can be said for hiring.
Government hiring data is on hold during the government shut down, but earlier this month a survey by payroll company ADP showed a surprising loss of 32,000 jobs losses in the private sector in September.
Many retailers are pulling back on seasonal hiring this year due to uncertainty over the U.S. economy and tariffs. Amazon Inc. said this month, however, that it would hire 250,000 seasonal workers, the same as last year’s holiday season.
Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData, said in a statement that the layoffs “represent a deep cleaning of Amazon’s corporate workforce.”
“Unlike the Target layoffs, Amazon is operating from a position of strength,” he said. “The company has been producing good growth, and it still has a lot of headroom for further expansion in both the U.S. and overseas.”
But Saunders noted that Amazon is not immune to outside factors, as global markets tighten and underlying costs climb.
“It needs to act if it wants to continue with a good bottom-line performance. This is especially so given the amount of investment the company is making in areas like logistics and AI. In some ways, this is a tipping point away from human capital to technological infrastructure,” he said.
Amazon will post quarterly financial results on Thursday. During its most recent quarter, the company reported 17.5% growth for its cloud computing arm Amazon Web Services.
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Two decades after a Republican-controlled Congress gave gun manufacturers immunity from being sued over crimes committed with their firearms, blue state Democrats upset about gun violence think they’ve found a way to penetrate that legal shield.
Since 2021, 10 states have passed laws intended to make it easier to sue gunmakers and sellers.
The newest such law, in Connecticut, took effect this month. It opens firearms manufacturers and retailers up to lawsuits if they don’t take steps to prevent guns from getting into the hands of people banned from owning them, or who should be suspected of intending to use them to hurt themselves or others. Other states have allowed lawsuits against companies deemed to have created a “public nuisance” through the sale or marketing of firearms.
The legislation — and flurry of lawsuits against gun companies that followed — has outraged gun rights advocates, who accuse the states of trying to skirt the 2005 Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act.
That law, which blocked a wave of similar lawsuits two decades ago, says gun companies operating legally cannot be held liable for violent acts committed by people misusing weapons.
“They know these laws are unconstitutional. They know these laws violate the PLCAA,” said Lawrence G. Keane, senior vice president for government and public affairs at the National Shooting Sports Foundation. “They don’t care,” he said, adding that the real goal of the lawsuits was to harass the industry and drain it financially.
Gun control groups say the states have simply set clearer requirements for gun companies to ensure their products aren’t sold or used illegally.
“These laws don’t just open the courthouse doors to survivors. They also force the gun industry to operate more responsibly and, most importantly, can help prevent future tragedies,” said Po Murray, chair of the Newtown Action Alliance, a gun-violence prevention group founded after the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.
Two decades of federal immunity
Congress adopted protections for the gun industry after lawsuits filed in Chicago, New York, Los Angeles and elsewhere attempted to hold the firearms industry responsible for violent crime.
Many of those suits argued that gun companies had knowingly oversupplied certain markets with cheap handguns and ignored signs that those weapons were being trafficked to places with strict gun controls.
The firearms industry and the National Rifle Association saw the lawsuits as unfair. As long as gun companies weren’t breaking rules around sales, they shouldn’t be held responsible for violence, they said.
President George W. Bush, a Republican, agreed and signed the shield law in 2005, saying it helped stem “frivolous lawsuits.”
“Our laws should punish criminals who use guns to commit crimes, not law-abiding manufacturers of lawful products,” Bush said at the time.
The legal protections Congress gave the gun industry aren’t absolute.
For example, a gunmaker that sells a faulty firearm can still be sued over dangerous defects. Another exception allows lawsuits against companies that knowingly violate laws regulating how firearms are sold and marketed.
When Congress drafted that exception, it cited the example of a shop that knowingly sold a gun to someone banned from owning one, such as a convicted felon.
The new state laws have sought to expand potential liability for gun companies by creating new rules for the industry. New York passed a law in 2021 requiring gun companies to create controls to prevent unlawful possession or use of their products. It also says they cannot knowingly or recklessly “contribute to a condition” that endangers public safety.
“Any business operating in New York must adhere to our laws — and if they don’t, they are held accountable,” said Democratic state Sen. Zellnor Myrie, the law’s chief proponent.
Many of the new laws follow legal theories from a lawsuit filed against gunmaker Remington by families of Sandy Hook victims. The suit, which was settled for $73 million in 2022, argued that Remington’s marketing violated state consumer protection law.
It’s too soon to say if courts will uphold the new state laws.
A panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in July that New York’s law wasn’t expressly barred by the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, but that decision is not expected to be the last word. One of the judges, Dennis Jacobs, made it clear he believes the law is vulnerable to future legal challenges, calling it “nothing short of an attempt to end-run PLCAA.”
The U.S. Supreme Court, which is controlled 6-3 by Republican-nominated justices, hasn’t yet considered the state liability laws, but the gun industry was encouraged when the justices unanimously agreed in June to toss out a $10 billion lawsuit Mexico filed against top firearms manufacturers claiming their business practices fuel cartel violence.
Justice Elena Kagan, a Democratic nominee, wrote in her opinion how Congress passed PLCAA to halt lawsuits similar to the one filed by Mexico. She said Mexico had made no plausible argument that the companies knowingly helped gun trafficking.
“The Court doubts Congress intended to draft such a capacious way out of PLCAA, and in fact it did not,” she wrote.
Associated Press Writer Dave Collins contributed to this report.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Washington state voters will decide whether to amend their constitution to allow funds from a long-term care insurance program to be invested in the stock market. It is the only statewide contest in a Nov. 4 election that will mostly feature mayoral and other municipal races across the state.
The proposed constitutional amendment, known as Senate Joint Resolution 8201, will shape the future of the WA Cares Fund, which the state Legislature created in 2019 to help participants defray the costs of certain long-term care services. Washington taxpayers fund the program though a 0.58% payroll tax, which began in July 2023. As of June 30, the fund had a balance of $2.5 billion.
Supporters of the proposal say that harnessing the growth potential from stock investments would secure the fund’s long-term stability. Opponents argue that private investments offer no guarantees and that market volatility could shrink the fund and result in reduced benefits or higher taxes. Stocks tumbled in April following President Donald Trump’s announcement of sweeping tariffs but rebounded by the summer.
This will be the second time in five years that this issue will appear on the ballot. About 54% of Washington voters rejected a similar ballot measure in Nov. 2020, compared to about 46% who voted in favor.
The state constitution generally bans the investment of public funds in private stocks and equities, but voters have approved several exemptions in the past, including for public pensions and retirement funds, workers’ compensation funds and a fund for individuals with developmental disabilities. Those funds are managed by the nonpartisan Washington State Investment Board, which would also oversee the WA Cares Fund if the ballot measure passes.
Since 1966, Washington voters have considered at least 10 proposed constitutional amendments to exempt certain funds from the ban on investing public funds in stocks and equities. Five of those measures passed, most recently in 2007.
Only three of Washington’s 39 counties voted in favor of the failed 2020 measure: King and Whatcom, where it received more than 58% of the vote, and Jefferson, where it received about 52%. King is home to Seattle and is the state’s most populous county. Pierce and Snohomish counties, the state’s second and third most populous located just to the north and south of King, both overwhelmingly rejected the proposal with nearly 60% of voters voting against.
In the 2024 general election, voters rejected a proposal that would have allowed workers to opt out of WA Cares, which would have hobbled the program.
The Associated Press does not make projections and will declare a winner only when it’s determined there is no scenario that would allow the trailing candidates to close the gap. If a race has not been called, the AP will continue to cover any newsworthy developments, such as candidate concessions or declarations of victory. In doing so, the AP will make clear that it has not yet declared a winner and explain why.
Machine recounts in Washington state are automatic if the vote margin between the top two candidates is less than 2,000 votes and less than 0.5% of the total votes cast for both candidates. Manual recounts are required for statewide contests if the margin is less than 1,000 votes and less 0.25% of the total votes cast for both candidates. The AP may declare a winner in a race that is eligible for a recount if it can determine the lead is too large for a recount or legal challenge to change the outcome.
Here’s a look at what to expect on Nov. 4:
Polls close at 11 p.m. ET.
The AP will provide vote results and declare a winner in the statewide ballot measure. Other elections will be held across the state, including mayoral and municipal elections in Seattle and a handful of state legislative districts, but those contests will not be included in the AP’s vote tabulation.
Any registered voter in Washington state may cast a ballot on the proposed constitutional amendment.
What do turnout and advance vote look like?
There were about 5.1 million active registered voters in Washington state as of Oct. 1. Voters do not register by party.
Roughly 79% of registered voters cast valid ballots in the 2024 general election. Washington state conducts its elections almost entirely by mail. About 66% of voters delivered their ballots via drop box, 33% sent their ballots by mail and the remainder, less than 1%, used other methods, such as in-person voting.
In the 2021 general election, only about 39% of registered voters cast valid ballots. About 56% of voters used drop boxes, 43% sent their ballots by mail and 0.3% used other methods.
As of Thursday, about 244,000 absentee ballots had been received and accepted before Election Day. See the AP Early Vote Tracker for the latest update.
How long does vote-counting usually take?
In the 2024 presidential election in Washington state, the AP first reported results at 11:07 p.m. ET, or seven minutes after polls closed. The election night tabulation ended just after midnight at 12:07 a.m. ET with about 66% of total votes counted. It took about three weeks for all counties to finish counting votes.
As of Nov. 4, there will be 364 days until the 2026 midterm elections and 1,099 days until the 2028 general election.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
PORTLAND, OR – The Oregon Health Authority reports that an Oregon resident is one of three people who tested positive for E. Coli bacteria after eating unpasteurized aged cheese produced at the Twin Sisters Creamery Farmhouse in Washington state.
Samples of leftover cheese obtained from the Oregon resident were tested at a laboratory, and those tests confirmed the presence of the same E. coli pathogen that was found in two Washington state residents who had indirect exposure to cheese from the same company. All three people experienced symptoms of E.coli infection between September 5th and September 16th.
All sizes of Whatcom Blue, Farmhouse, Peppercorn and Mustard Seed varieties of aged cheese from Twin Sisters Creamery produced on or after May 27, 2025, are being recalled.
#450 Made on 5/27/2025 – Batch Code 250527B Whatcom Blue
#452 Made on 6/10/2025 – Batch Code 250610B Whatcom Blue
#454 Made on 6/18/2025 – Batch Code 250618B Whatcom Blue
#455 Made on 6/24/2025 – Batch Code 250625B Whatcom Blue
#451 Made on 6/03/2025 – Batch Code 250603F Farmhouse
#453 Made on 6/16/2025 – Batch Code 250616B Farmhouse
#451 Made on 6/03/2025 – Batch Code 250603P Peppercorn
#453 Made on 6/16/2025 – Batch Code 250616 Mustard Seed
Some cheese products were repackaged by grocery stores and markets, so the original label may not be present. In these instances, the grocery store label should say the brand of cheese.
For additional information about the investigation of these E. coli infections, read the Washington State Department of Health’s announcement.
WASHINGTON — Twenty-two days into the government shutdown, California Rep. Kevin Kiley spent an hour of his morning in Washington guiding a group of middle school students from Grass Valley through the empty corridors of the U.S. Capitol.
Normally, one of his staff members would have led the tour. But the Capitol is closed to all tours during the shutdown, unless the elected member is present. So the schoolchildren from Lyman Gilmore Middle School ended up with Kiley, a Republican from Rocklin, as their personal tour guide.
“I would have visited with these kids anyway,” Kiley said in his office after the event. “But I actually got to go on the whole tour of the Capitol with them as well.”
Kiley’s impromptu tour is an example of how members of California’s congressional delegation are improvising their routines as the shutdown drags on and most of Washington remains at a standstill.
Some are in Washington in case negotiations resume, others are back at home in their districts meeting with federal workers who are furloughed or working without pay, giving interviews or visiting community health centers that rely on tax credits central to the budget negotiations. One member attended the groundbreaking of a flood control project in their district. Others are traveling back and forth.
“I’ve had to fly back to Washington for caucus meetings, while the opposition, the Republicans, don’t even convene and meet,” Rep. Maxine Waters, a longtime Los Angeles Democrat, said in an interview. “We will meet anytime, anyplace, anywhere, with [House Speaker Mike] Johnson, with the president, with the Senate, to do everything that we can to open up the government. We are absolutely unified on that.”
The shutdown is being felt across California, which has the most federal workers outside the District of Columbia. Food assistance benefits for millions of low-income Californians could soon be delayed. And millions of Californians could see their healthcare premiums rise sharply if Affordable Care Act subsidies are allowed to expire.
For the California delegation, the fallout at home has become impossible to ignore. Yet the shutdown is in its fourth week with no end in sight.
In the House, Johnson has refused to call members back into session and prevented them from doing legislative work. Many California lawmakers — including Kiley, one of the few GOP lawmakers to openly criticize him — have been dismayed by the deadlock.
“I have certainly emphasized the point that the House needs to be in session, and that canceling a month’s worth of session is not a good thing for the House or the country,” Kiley said, noting that he had privately met with Johnson.
Kiley, who represented parts of the Sacramento suburbs and Lake Tahoe, is facing political uncertainty as California voters weigh whether to approve Proposition 50 on Nov. 4. The measure would redraw the state’s congressional districts to better favor Democrats, leaving Kiley at risk, even though the Republican says he believes he could still win if his right-leaning district is redrawn.
The Senate has been more active, holding a series of votes on the floor and congressional hearings with Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi and CIA Director John Ratcliffe. The chamber, however, has been unable to reach a deal to reopen the government. On Thursday, the 23rd day of the shutdown, the Senate failed to advance competing measures that would have paid federal employees who have been working without compensation.
The Republicans’ plan would have paid active-duty members of the military and some federal workers during the shutdown. Democrats backed a bill that would have paid all federal workers and barred the Trump administration from laying off any more federal employees.
“California has one of the largest federal workforces in the country, and no federal worker or service member should miss their paychecks because Donald Trump and Republicans refused to come to the table to protect Americans’ health care,” Sen. Alex Padilla said in a statement.
Working conditions get harder
The strain on federal employees — including those who work for California’s 54 delegation members — are starting to become more apparent.
Dozens of them have been working full time without pay. Their jobs include answering phone calls and requests from constituents, setting the schedules for elected officials, writing policy memos and handling messaging for their offices.
House Speaker Mike Johnson speaks about the shutdown at a news conference Thursday with other Republican House members.
(Eric Lee / Getty Images)
At the end of October, House staffers — who are paid on a monthly basis — are expected to miss their first paycheck.
Some have been quietly told to consider borrowing money from the U.S. Senate Federal Credit Union, which is offering a “government shutdown relief loan program” that includes a no-interest loan of up to $5,000 to be repaid in full after 90 days.
The mundane has also been disrupted. Some of the cafeterias and coffee carts that are usually open to staffers are closed. The lines to enter office buildings are long because fewer entrances are open.
The hallways leading to the offices of California’s elected officials are quiet, except for the faint sound of occasional elevator dings. Many of their doors are adorned with signs that show who they blame for the government shutdown.
“Trump and Republicans shut down the government,” reads a sign posted on the door that leads into Rep. Norma Torres’ (D-Pomona) office. “Our office is OPEN — WORKING for the American people.”
Rep. Ted Lieu, a Democrat from Torrance, posted a similar sign outside his office.
A sign is posted outside of the office of Rep. Ted Lieu, a California Democrat, in Washington on Wednesday.
(Ana Ceballos / Los Angeles Times)
Rep. Vince Fong, a Republican who represents the Central Valley, has been traveling between Washington and his district. Two weeks into the shutdown, he met with veterans from the Central Valley Honor Flight and Kern County Honor Flight to make sure that their planned tour of the Capitol was not disrupted by the shutdown. Like Kiley’s tour with the schoolchildren, an elected member needed to be present for the tour to go on.
“His presence ensured the tour could continue as planned,” Fong’s office said.
During the tour, veterans were able to see Johnson as well, his office said.
Shutdown highlights deep divisions
California’s congressional delegation mirrors the broader stalemate in Washington, where entrenched positions have kept both parties at a negotiation impasse.
Democrats are steadfast in their position that they will not agree to a deal unless Republicans extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits expiring at the end of the year, while Republicans are accusing Democrats of failing to reopen the government for political gain.
Kiley is one of the few Republicans who has called on Johnson to negotiate with Democrats on healthcare. Kiley said he thinks there is a “a lot of room to negotiate” because there is concern on both sides of the aisle if the tax credits expire.
“If people see a massive increase in their premiums … that’s not a good thing,” he said. “Especially in California, where the cost of living is already so high, and you’re suddenly having to pay a lot more for healthcare.”
Rep. Robert Garcia, the chair of the House Democratic Caucus, in a press event Wednesday with five other California Democrats talked about the need to fight for the healthcare credits.
Garcia, of Long Beach, said he recently visited a healthcare center in San Bernardino County that serves seniors with disabilities. He said the cuts would be “devastating” and would prompt the center to close.
“That’s why we are doing everything in our power to negotiate a deal that reopens the federal government and saves healthcare,” he said.
As the shutdown continues, many Democrats are digging their heels on the issue.
At an Oct. 3 event outside of Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center, for instance, Rep. Laura Friedman held a news conference with nurses and hospital staff and said she would not vote for a bill to reopen the government unless there is a deal on healthcare.
Last week, the Glendale Democrat said her position hasn’t changed.
“I will not support a shutdown deal that strips healthcare from tens of thousands of my constituents,” she said.
The Octagon might not be the best-known home in Washington, D.C., but it’s one of the city’s oldest residences — and rumor has it that former occupants may still be haunting the halls. Take a look inside the historic site this Halloween season.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — A commercial truck driver who is charged with killing three people in a deadly crash in Florida in August had failed a commercial driver’s license test 10 times in the span of two months in 2023 in Washington state, before he was ultimately issued a license, according to a senior official in the Florida Attorney General’s Office.
Florida is using the case of Harjinder Singh, who is accused of being in the country illegally, to urge the nation’s highest court to permanently bar some states from issuing commercial driver’s licenses or CDLs to people who are not U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents.
Driver in Florida crash failed driving test repeatedly
Florida’s investigation of Harjinder Singh has revealed that the trucker failed a written test to receive a CDL in Washington state 10 times between March 10, 2023, and April 5, 2023, a senior official for Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier who was briefed on the investigation told The Associated Press. The official is not authorized to comment publicly about an ongoing investigation and provided the information on the condition of not being identified.
Singh, who is from India, lived in California and was originally issued a CDL in Washington before California also issued him one. He was carrying a valid California CDL at the time of the crash, according to court filings.
A spokesperson for Washington’s Department of Licensing said no one was immediately able to respond to questions Friday. In California, all commercial truck drivers must pass a written test but may be allowed to skip the driving test if they have an out-of-state license with equivalent classification, according to the California Department of Motor Vehicle’s website. State officials didn’t immediately respond to requests for more information.
He is accused of attempting an illegal U-turn from the northbound lanes of Florida’s Turnpike near Fort Pierce on Aug. 12. A minivan that was behind Singh’s big rig couldn’t stop and crashed into the truck, killing its driver and two passengers. Singh and a passenger in the truck were not injured.
Singh is currently being held without bond in the St. Lucie County Jail, not far from where the crash occurred. His next court date is scheduled for Nov. 13.
Florida goes to the Supreme Court
Florida is now petitioning the U.S. Supreme Court to take up its case against the states of California and Washington, and urging the high court to bar states from issuing CDLs to people who are in the country illegally.
Florida’s petition filed this month argues the Western states have demonstrated “open defiance of federal immigration laws” and a failure to enforce public safety, which Florida is urging the court to declare a “public nuisance.” That’s a type of legal claim that’s typically used to address local concerns like blighted homes, illegal drug-dealing or dangerous animals, but has also been directed at pharmacies for their role in the opioid crisis.
If the court accepts the case, Florida officials hope it could lead to a new legal precedent for states’ abilities to issue CDLs to people who are not citizens or legal permanent residents. A ruling could also have a downstream effect on how or if conventional driver’s licenses are issued to immigrants, the senior Florida official said.
A deadly crash in California
In a separate case, Jashanpreet Singh was arrested and jailed after Tuesday’s eight-vehicle crash in Ontario, California, that killed three people and left four others injured.
Singh, who also is from India, is accused of being under the influence of drugs and causing the fiery crash. According to the California Highway Patrol, westbound traffic on Interstate 10 near San Bernardino had slowed Tuesday afternoon when a tractor-trailer failed to stop, struck other vehicles and caused a chain-reaction crash.
Singh, of Yuba City, entered the U.S. illegally in 2022 across the southern border, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said Thursday in a post on X.
Trump administration cracks down
The U.S. Transportation Department took steps to tighten CDL requirements for noncitizens in September, following a series of fatal crashes this year that officials say were caused by immigrant truck drivers.
This week’s deadly crash in California and the assertion that Jashanpreet Singh entered the country illegally has renewed Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy’s concerns about who should be able to obtain CDLs.
Duffy and President Donald Trump have been pressing the issue and criticizing California ever since the deadly Florida crash in August.
Speaking to Fox News on Friday, Duffy said there were “multiple failures” that allowed Harjinder Singh to obtain his commercial driver’s license.
“The truth is I think we have a lot of abuse in the commercial driver’s license issuing space,” Duffy said. He noted that Singh didn’t speak English and maintained that he couldn’t read road signs.
“So the question becomes … how in the heck can you ever pass a test for a commercial driver’s license? You can’t do it but for fraud,” Duffy said.
The new rules announced last month make getting commercial driver’s licenses extremely hard for immigrants because only three specific classes of visa holders will be eligible. States will also have to verify an applicant’s immigration status in a federal database. These licenses will be valid for up to one year unless the applicant’s visa expires sooner than that.
Frisaro reported from Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Kate Payne is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
One of the members of Congress most impacted by North Carolina’s new congressional map has made a decision about his political future while the other is debating what congressional district to run in.
What You Need To Know
U.S. Reps. Don Davis and Greg Murphy are most affected by North Carolina’s new congressional map
Murphy, a Republican, is going to run in District 3, but Davis, a Democrat, hasn’t decided whether he’ll run in the District 1 or District 3
North Carolina GOP lawmakers who redrew the map in the middle of the decade say they aim to to gain another House seat for Republicans
The two members most impacted are Democrat Rep. Don Davis, who represents District 1, and Rep. Greg Murphy, a Republican who represents District 3. Both districts are in eastern North Carolina.
The new map swaps a number of counties, resulting in District 1 becoming much more Republican and harder for Davis to win and District 3 losing some of its Republican counties but still remaining a pretty solid Republican district.
On Wednesday Murphy announced that, despite major changes to the district, he will run for reelection in District 3.
“This has been very hard. I’ll be very open about that because literally the new state maps split the district right in half,” Murphy told Spectrum News 1. “I’m a data person. We went down and did the data and looked at a lot of this stuff and I’m going to run as the incumbent in District 3.”
Murphy said he was disappointed there were so many changes to his current district resulting in the coastal counties moving into District 1. Beaufort, Carteret, Craven, Dare, Hyde, Pamlico and Onslow counties move from District 3 to District 1.
“I wasn’t happy about it. I’ll be very transparent about that. These are interests I’ve represented for a very long time,” Murphy said. “This is kind of like many times you’re all of a sudden with somebody, with all these groups and then arbitrary lines change it the other way.”
Murphy said the White House didn’t have influence on what district he decided to run in.
“They came and gave us an idea this was going to be redistricted,” Murphy said. “But they were going to support me regardless of where I went. They’re supporting me as the individual, not as a district person, which I appreciate tremendously. And so they had no undue influence on as to where I was going to pick.”
Davis is also debating his political future. In an interview with Spectrum News 1 he said he hasn’t decided what district he will run in.
“We’re going to look at both districts, which we’re in the process of beginning to do,” Davis said. “We’re going to look at all kinds of factors, analysis.”
Under the new map the 1st District doesn’t include Wilson, Lenoir or Wayne counties. It also doesn’t include Green County, where Davis lives.
Davis said he hopes to make a decision in the “near future.”
In a statement after the General Assembly’s vote on Wednesday, Davis called it “one of the darkest moments of our state’s history.”
“This is not what people want. People want us to stay focused on their issues,” Davis told Spectrum News 1.
The Republican-controlled General Assembly took up mid-decade redistricting following similar actions by other states. Texas started the process after urging from President Donald Trump.
The new North Carolina map results in 11 districts heavily favored for Republicans and three for Democrats. That’s despite many political analysts who label the state as a toss-up or lean Republican.
If Davis decides to run in District 3 it would result in a matchup between two incumbents: Davis and Murphy.
“This decision was made solely upon what I believe, what my team believed was best for us. If there is a big matchup, I think it’s unfortunate. Don and I are on friendly terms, but you know it is what it is. That’s what politics is all about,” Murphy said.
“I would say that Rep. Murphy, he’s been in tune and we’ve actually worked on issues together,” Davis said. “But at the end of the day, this is now about looking at the map and allowing a route that we believe best represents the voice of the people of eastern North Carolina and so everyone can be heard. To me all options are on the table.”
The constant redrawing of district lines can leave voters confused about who represents them in Congress.
Dennis Mersereau has called the Greensboro area home for 15 years and in that time he’s had a lot of different people representing him in Congress.
“I think I’ve had five or six different representatives. It’s hard to keep track of them because they keep shifting us around so much,” Mersereau said.
He lives in Reidsville outside Greensboro, a city that’s been ground zero in the state’s shifting congressional district lines.
North Carolina has had five maps used in elections over the past 15 years and that’s not counting two that were struck down before they could be used. This week the Republican-controlled General Assembly pushed through a sixth map.
“Reidsville shouldn’t be in the same district as Greensboro because Greensboro is its own distinct community,” Mersereau said.
Former Democratic Rep. Kathy Manning used to represent Greensboro before Republican state lawmakers approved a map that carved up the heavily Democratic city into three districts, each with more Republican voters than Democrats.
“We have three different people in Congress who are supposed to represent Guilford County and Greensboro and they don’t represent the values that the vast majority of people in my former district hold,” Manning said.
Both Republicans and Democrats are guilty of gerrymandering in North Carolina and around the country. But with so many different maps in North Carolina in recent years, with changes to the congressional delegation, there are concerns voters may not even know who their member of Congress is.
“Every time they do a round of redistricting, I have to learn who our representative is and it’s a pain in the butt,” Mersereau said.
The shifting maps are also a challenge for lawmakers and their offices, which spend lots of time focused on district-specific issues.
“I think it’s very difficult on the representatives themselves. They want to know the districts they represent. They want to represent the people in the best way they can,” Manning said.
“Surely this is dizzying for not only the voters but also the representatives,” said Princeton Gerrymandering Project Director Sam Wang. “That bond between voters and their representatives breaks in a situation like North Carolina where the map gets redrawn every two years.”
Spectrum News found people on both sides of the aisle who say the current system where maps are drawn by elected officials isn’t working.
“The independent redistricting question is something I think we should have,” Sen. Thom Tillis, a Republican, told Spectrum News. “I do believe it should be subject to a political vote by the legislature.”
“The founding fathers envisioned that there would be a political decision process in redistricting, but that’s not going to happen in this political environment,” Tillis said.
Many states have independent redistricting commissions that are supposed to take politics out of the process. But in California and Virginia, Democrats are moving to take control of the process to counter President Donald Trump urging Republican states to redraw district lines to benefit the GOP.
In North Carolina, it would fall to the General Assembly to create a commission, something not likely to happen.
“I don’t care who started it, you know it’s wrong. Both parties are going to have to decide, in the long run this is not good for the country, and we need to stop the political, the partisan gerrymandering,” Manning said.
Some mornings, it feels like the news is designed to make us lose faith.
Another headline about dysfunction in Washington. Another reminder that systems built to serve people are too tangled in partisanship to help them. It’s exhausting and it’s easy to start believing that nothing we do matters.
But lately, I’ve been finding hope in smaller places.
In a Saturday morning park clean-up where neighbors laugh more than they complain. In a school board meeting where parents debate passionately because they care.
In a quiet moment at my community garden, where greens push through soil that once felt hard and dry.
That’s where real politics lives. Not in the Capitol or the news crawl, but in the spaces where people still believe they can change something. When federal politics feels like chaos, turning local isn’t giving up, it’s coming home.
We talk about politics like it’s something distant. Something that happens “up there.”
But the truth is, most of the decisions that shape our everyday lives are made right here, at home.
Who decides whether the lot down the street becomes a park or a parking deck?
Who decides if our public schools get new playgrounds, or if our neighborhoods have sidewalks and trees? Who decides if housing stays aJordable, or if our water stays clean?
Not Congress. Not the President. Not anyone you’ll see on a debate stage.
Those decisions belong to local governments. These are our city councils, county commissions, school boards, zoning committees. And yet, most of us barely know their names.
According to the Center for Civic Innovation’s “VoteATL: Voter Analysis Report”, voter turnout for local elections in Atlanta is alarmingly low compared to state and federal elections. In 2021, Atlanta’s municipal election had a 25% turnout rate. That means in a
room of four people, one person decided how our neighborhoods grow, what our kids
learn, and how our tax dollars are spent. The rest of us are living with decisions we didn’t even know were being made.
And that’s exactly what those in power count on, our distraction. The sense that local politics is too small to matter. But that’s the biggest myth of all. The smaller it feels, the closer the power actually is.
Atlanta has always been a city of motion. From the civil rights marches on Auburn Avenue to the organizing happening now in community centers, classrooms, and church basements, this is a city that has never stopped pushing. But even here, where movement is in our DNA, local engagement is quietly slipping away.
This moment matters.
With major development projects and the 2026 World Cup on the horizon, Atlanta is at a crossroads. We can either continue to let these changes happen tous or we can shape what happens for us.
That starts with local politics.
It’s not glamorous. It won’t trend. But it’s where justice begins to take form.
When national politics feels too heavy to hold, there’s something healing about turning to what’s near. Tending to the things we can touch like soil, getting a street sign, or painting a mural becomes a form of resistance. It’s not just civic engagement. It’s a kind of care work. Because when you focus on what’s nearest to you, you get to see progress in real time. You get to see the sidewalk repaired, the park cleaned, the student succeed. You get to feel the impact of your own hands and voice.
In a world where national politics often feels like watching a storm you can’t stop, local engagement gives you back the feeling of control and that’s powerful for our wellbeing and our mental health.
It reminds us that hope isn’t naive. Hope is a practice. And it begins right outside our front door.
If you’ve ever felt burned out by politics, you’re not alone.
But here’s what I know: disengagement is exactly what systems of power depend on. If we turn away, they get to move quietly. So instead of tuning out, what if we tuned in? Closer, smaller, and deeper?
If you’re not sure where to start, try this:
Look up who represents your district on the city council, school board, and county commission.
Attend one local meeting, just one, and listen.
Join a park clean-up, a PTA, a voter drive, or a neighborhood association.
Ask your neighbors what they care about and how you can help.
VoteintheNovember4thelection.
Those might seem like small acts, but they’re actually the most radical kind of politics. They remind us that democracy isn’t a performance, it’s a practice.
Federal politics may always feel out of reach, but the closest kind of change and sometimes the most powerful thing we can do for ourselves is to start where we stand.
Thousands of sea cucumbers have washed up on the beach in the Oregon coastal town of Seaside thanks to a combination of heavy surf and low tide.
The partially translucent gelatinous creatures are called skin breathing sea cucumbers. They normally burrow into the sand along the low tideline and farther out. But on Tuesday, they were scattered across more than 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) of Seaside Beach, said Tiffany Boothe, the assistant manager of the Seaside Aquarium.
“They are literally littering the tideline,” Boothe said. They’re about a half-inch (1.3 centimeter) long but can grow to about 6 inches (15 centimeters.)
The phenomenon can occur whenever surf and tide conditions coincide, which can mean a few times a year or once in a few years. Sometimes a few will be scattered here and there on the shore but there were large groupings on the beach during this latest episode.
The sea cucumbers aren’t capable of returning to their natural habitat on their own so they will dry up and die, Boothe said. They’ll provide nutrients for the beach hoppers, beach fleas and other invertebrates living along the tideline that will feast on them. Birds don’t eat them.
Whatever remains will likely dry up quickly and blend in with the sand. Booth suspects they’ll be gone by Wednesday or Thursday.
The scientific name for the cucumbers is Leptosynapta clarki. They live along the coast from northern California to the Gulf of Alaska.
Seaside is about 80 miles (129 kilometers) northwest of Portland, Oregon.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
State crisis managers say severe cuts to federal security grants, restrictions on money intended for preparedness and funding delays tied to litigation are posing a growing risk to their ability to respond to emergencies.
“Every day we remain in this grant purgatory reduces the time available to responsibly and effectively spend these critical funds,” said Kiele Amundson, communications director at the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency.
The uncertainty has led some emergency management agencies to hold off on filling vacant positions and make rushed decisions on important training and purchases.
Experts say the developments complicate state-led emergency efforts, undermining the Republican administration’s stated goals of shifting more responsibility to states and local governments for disaster response.
In an emailed statement, the Department of Homeland Security said the new requirements were necessary because of “recent population shifts” and that changes to security grants were made “to be responsive to new and urgent threats facing our nation.”
A new wrinkle tied to immigration raids
Several DHS and FEMA grants help states, tribes and territories prepare for climate disasters and deter a variety of threats. The money pays for salaries and training, and such things as vehicles, communications equipment and software.
FEMA, a part of DHS, divided a $320 million Emergency Management Performance Grant among states on Sept. 29. But the next day, it told states the money was on hold until they submitted new population counts. The directive demanded that they omit people “removed from the State pursuant to the immigration laws of the United States” and to explain their methodology.
The amount of money distributed to the states is based on U.S. census population data. The new requirement forcing states to submit revised counts “is something we have never seen before,” said Trina Sheets, executive director of the National Emergency Management Association, a group representing emergency managers. “It’s certainly not the responsibility of emergency management to certify population.”
With no guidance on how to calculate the numbers, Hawaii’s Amundson said staff scrambled to gather data from the 2020 census and other sources, then subtracted he number of “noncitizens” based on estimates from an advocacy group.
They are not sure the methodology will be accepted. But with their FEMA contacts furloughed and the grant portal down during the federal shutdown, they cannot find out. Other states said they were assessing the request or awaiting further guidance.
In its statement, DHS said FEMA needs to be certain of its funding levels before awarding grant money, and that includes updates to a state’s population due to deportations.
Experts said delays caused by the request could most affect local governments and agencies that receive grant money passed down by states because their budgets and staffs are smaller. At the same time, FEMA also reduced the time frame that recipients have to spend the money, from three years to one. That could prevent agencies from taking on longer-term projects.
Bryan Koon, president and CEO of the consulting firm IEM and a former Florida emergency management chief, said state governments and local agencies need time to adjust their budgets to any kind of changes.
“An interruption in those services could place American lives in jeopardy,” he said.
Grant programs tied up by litigation
In another move that has caused uncertainty, FEMA in September drastically cut some states’ allocations from another source of funding. The $1 billion Homeland Security Grant Program is supposed to be based on assessed risks, and states pass most of the money to police and fire departments.
New York received $100 million less than it expected, a 79% reduction, while Illinois saw a 69% reduction. Both states are politically controlled by Democrats. Meanwhile, some territories received unexpected windfalls, including the U.S. Virgin Islands, which got more than twice its expected allocation.
The National Emergency Management Association said the grants are meant to be distributed based on risk and that it “remains unclear what risk methodology was used” to determine the new funding allocation.
After a group of Democratic states challenged the cuts in court, a federal judge in Rhode Island issued a temporary restraining order on Sept. 30. That forced FEMA to rescind award notifications and refrain from making payments until a further court order.
The freeze “underscores the uncertainty and political volatility surrounding these awards,” said Frank Pace, administrator of the Hawaii Office of Homeland Security. The Democratic-controlled state received more money than expected, but anticipates the bonus being taken away with the lawsuit.
In Hawaii, where a 2023 wildfire devastated the Maui town of Lahaina and killed more than 100 people, the state, counties and nonprofits “face the real possibility” of delays in paying contractors, completing projects and “even staff furloughs or layoffs” if the grant freeze and government shutdown continue, he said.
The myriad setbacks prompted Washington state’s Emergency Management Division to pause filling some positions “out of an abundance of caution,” communications director Karina Shagren said.
A series of delays and cuts disrupts state-federal partnership
Emergency management experts said the moves have created uncertainty for those in charge of preparedness.
Other lawsuits also are complicating decision-making. A Manhattan federal judge last week ordered DHS and FEMA to restore $34 million in transit security grants it had withheld from New York City because of its immigration policies.
Taken together, the turbulence surrounding what was once a reliable partner is prompting some states to prepare for a different relationship with FEMA.
“Given all of the uncertainties,” said Sheets, of the National Emergency Management Association, states are trying to find ways to be “less reliant on federal funding.”
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
A young woman mourns her uncle’s murder … and questions whether the convicted killer was the only one involved. “48 Hours” contributor Nikki Battiste reports.
Protesting the direction of the country under President Donald Trump, people gathered Saturday in the nation’s capital and communities across the U.S. for “ No Kings ” demonstrations — what the president’s Republican Party is calling “Hate America” rallies.(Video player above: Coverage of the “No Kings” protest in June) With signs such as “Nothing is more patriotic than protesting” or “Resist Fascism,” in many places the events looked more like a street party. There were marching bands, a huge banner with the U.S. Constitution’s “We The People,” preamble that people could sign, and protesters wearing inflatable costumes, particularly frogs, which have emerged as a sign of resistance in Portland, Oregon.This is the third mass mobilization since Trump’s return to the White House and comes against the backdrop of a government shutdown that not only has closed federal programs and services, but is testing the core balance of power as an aggressive executive confronts Congress and the courts in ways that organizers warn are a slide toward American authoritarianism.Trump himself is spending the weekend at his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida.“They say they’re referring to me as a king. I’m not a king,” Trump said in a Fox News interview airing early Friday, before he departed for a $1 million-per-plate MAGA Inc. fundraiser at his club. Protests are expected nearby Saturday.Nationwide protests plannedDemonstrators packed New York City’s Times Square, Boston Common, Chicago’s Grant Park and hundreds of smaller public spaces. More than 2,600 rallies were planned for Saturday, organizers said.Many protesters were angered by attacks on their motives. In Washington, Brian Reymann said being called a terrorist all week by Republicans was “pathetic.”“This is America. I disagree with their politics, but I don’t believe that they don’t love this country,” Reymann said, carrying a large American flag. “I believe they are misguided. I think they are power hungry.”More than 1,500 people gathered in Birmingham, Alabama, evoking and openly citing the city’s history of protests and the critical role it played in the U.S. Civil Rights Movement two generations ago.“It just feels like we’re living in an America that I don’t recognize,” said Jessica Yother, a mother of four. She and other protesters said they felt camaraderie by gathering in a state where Trump won nearly 65% of the vote last November.“It was so encouraging,” Yother said. “I walked in and thought, ‘Here are my people.’”Organizers hope to build opposition movement“Big rallies like this give confidence to people who have been sitting on the sidelines but are ready to speak up,” Democratic U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy said in an interview with The Associated Press.While protests earlier this year — against Elon Musk’s cuts and Trump’s military parade — drew crowds, organizers say this one is uniting the opposition. Top Democrats such as Senate Leader Chuck Schumer and Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders are joining what organizers view as an antidote to Trump’s actions, from the administration’s clampdown on free speech to its military-style immigration raids.“We’re here because we love America,” Sanders said, addressing the crowd from a stage in Washington. He said the American experiment is “in danger” under Trump but insisted “We the people will rule.”The national march against Trump and Musk this spring had 1,300 registered locations, while the first “No Kings” day in June registered 2,100 locations.Republicans denounce ‘Hate America’ ralliesRepublicans sought to portray Saturday’s protesters as far outside the mainstream and a prime reason for the government shutdown, now in its 18th day.From the White House to Capitol Hill, GOP leaders disparaged the rallygoers as “communists” and “Marxists.” They say Democratic leaders, including Schumer, are beholden to the far-left flank and willing to keep the government shut to appease those liberal forces.“I encourage you to watch — we call it the Hate America rally — that will happen Saturday,” said House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana.“Let’s see who shows up for that,” Johnson said, listing groups including “antifa types,” people who “hate capitalism” and “Marxists in full display.”Many demonstrators, in turn, said they were responding such hyperbole with humor, noting that Trump often leans heavily on theatrics such as claiming U.S. cities he sends troops to are war zones.“So much of what we’ve seen from this administration has been so unserious and silly that we have to respond with the same energy,” said Glen Kalbaugh, a Washington protester who wore a wizard hat and held a sign with a frog on it.Democrats try to regain their footing amid shutdownDemocrats have refused to vote on legislation that would reopen the government as they demand funding for health care. Republicans say they are willing to discuss the issue later, only after the government reopens.The situation is a potential turnaround from just six months ago, when Democrats and their allies were divided and despondent. Schumer in particular was berated by his party for allowing an earlier government funding bill to sail through the Senate without using it to challenge Trump.“What we are seeing from the Democrats is some spine,” said Ezra Levin, a co-founder of Indivisible, a key organizing group. “The worst thing the Democrats could do right now is surrender.”
Protesting the direction of the country under President Donald Trump, people gathered Saturday in the nation’s capital and communities across the U.S. for “ No Kings ” demonstrations — what the president’s Republican Party is calling “Hate America” rallies.
(Video player above: Coverage of the “No Kings” protest in June)
With signs such as “Nothing is more patriotic than protesting” or “Resist Fascism,” in many places the events looked more like a street party. There were marching bands, a huge banner with the U.S. Constitution’s “We The People,” preamble that people could sign, and protesters wearing inflatable costumes, particularly frogs, which have emerged as a sign of resistance in Portland, Oregon.
This is the third mass mobilization since Trump’s return to the White House and comes against the backdrop of a government shutdown that not only has closed federal programs and services, but is testing the core balance of power as an aggressive executive confronts Congress and the courts in ways that organizers warn are a slide toward American authoritarianism.
Trump himself is spending the weekend at his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida.
“They say they’re referring to me as a king. I’m not a king,” Trump said in a Fox News interview airing early Friday, before he departed for a $1 million-per-plate MAGA Inc. fundraiser at his club. Protests are expected nearby Saturday.
Nationwide protests planned
Demonstrators packed New York City’s Times Square, Boston Common, Chicago’s Grant Park and hundreds of smaller public spaces. More than 2,600 rallies were planned for Saturday, organizers said.
Many protesters were angered by attacks on their motives. In Washington, Brian Reymann said being called a terrorist all week by Republicans was “pathetic.”
“This is America. I disagree with their politics, but I don’t believe that they don’t love this country,” Reymann said, carrying a large American flag. “I believe they are misguided. I think they are power hungry.”
More than 1,500 people gathered in Birmingham, Alabama, evoking and openly citing the city’s history of protests and the critical role it played in the U.S. Civil Rights Movement two generations ago.
“It just feels like we’re living in an America that I don’t recognize,” said Jessica Yother, a mother of four. She and other protesters said they felt camaraderie by gathering in a state where Trump won nearly 65% of the vote last November.
“It was so encouraging,” Yother said. “I walked in and thought, ‘Here are my people.’”
Organizers hope to build opposition movement
“Big rallies like this give confidence to people who have been sitting on the sidelines but are ready to speak up,” Democratic U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy said in an interview with The Associated Press.
While protests earlier this year — against Elon Musk’s cuts and Trump’s military parade — drew crowds, organizers say this one is uniting the opposition. Top Democrats such as Senate Leader Chuck Schumer and Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders are joining what organizers view as an antidote to Trump’s actions, from the administration’s clampdown on free speech to its military-style immigration raids.
“We’re here because we love America,” Sanders said, addressing the crowd from a stage in Washington. He said the American experiment is “in danger” under Trump but insisted “We the people will rule.”
The national march against Trump and Musk this spring had 1,300 registered locations, while the first “No Kings” day in June registered 2,100 locations.
Republicans denounce ‘Hate America’ rallies
Republicans sought to portray Saturday’s protesters as far outside the mainstream and a prime reason for the government shutdown, now in its 18th day.
From the White House to Capitol Hill, GOP leaders disparaged the rallygoers as “communists” and “Marxists.” They say Democratic leaders, including Schumer, are beholden to the far-left flank and willing to keep the government shut to appease those liberal forces.
“I encourage you to watch — we call it the Hate America rally — that will happen Saturday,” said House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana.
“Let’s see who shows up for that,” Johnson said, listing groups including “antifa types,” people who “hate capitalism” and “Marxists in full display.”
Many demonstrators, in turn, said they were responding such hyperbole with humor, noting that Trump often leans heavily on theatrics such as claiming U.S. cities he sends troops to are war zones.
“So much of what we’ve seen from this administration has been so unserious and silly that we have to respond with the same energy,” said Glen Kalbaugh, a Washington protester who wore a wizard hat and held a sign with a frog on it.
Democrats have refused to vote on legislation that would reopen the government as they demand funding for health care. Republicans say they are willing to discuss the issue later, only after the government reopens.
The situation is a potential turnaround from just six months ago, when Democrats and their allies were divided and despondent. Schumer in particular was berated by his party for allowing an earlier government funding bill to sail through the Senate without using it to challenge Trump.
“What we are seeing from the Democrats is some spine,” said Ezra Levin, a co-founder of Indivisible, a key organizing group. “The worst thing the Democrats could do right now is surrender.”
