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  • Anthropic, Microsoft announce new AI data center projects as industry’s construction push continues

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    Artificial intelligence company Anthropic announced a $50 billion investment in computing infrastructure on Wednesday that will include new data centers in Texas and New York.

    Microsoft also on Wednesday announced a new data center under construction in Atlanta, Georgia, describing it as connected to another in Wisconsin to form a “massive supercomputer” running on hundreds of thousands of Nvidia chips to power AI technology.

    The latest deals show that the tech industry is moving forward on huge spending to build energy-hungry AI infrastructure, despite lingering financial concerns about a bubble, environmental considerations and the political effects of fast-rising electricity bills in the communities where the massive buildings are constructed.

    Anthropic, maker of the chatbot Claude, said it is working with London-based Fluidstack to build the new computing facilities to power its AI systems. It didn’t disclose their exact locations or what source of electricity they will need.

    Another company, cryptocurrency mining data center developer TeraWulf, has previously revealed it was working with Fluidstack on Google-backed data center projects in Texas and New York, on the shore of Lake Ontario. TeraWulf declined comment Wednesday.

    A report last month from TD Cowen said that the leading cloud computing providers leased a “staggering” amount of U.S. data center capacity in the third fiscal quarter of this year, amounting to more than 7.4 gigawatts of energy, more than all of last year combined.

    Oracle was securing the most capacity during that time, much of it supporting AI workloads for Anthropic’s chief rival OpenAI, maker of ChatGPT. Google was second and Fluidstack came in third, ahead of Meta, Amazon, CoreWeave and Microsoft.

    Anthropic said its projects will create about 800 permanent jobs and 2,400 construction jobs. It said in a statement that the “scale of this investment is necessary to meet the growing demand for Claude from hundreds of thousands of businesses while keeping our research at the frontier.”

    Microsoft has branded its two-story Atlanta data center as Fairwater 2 and said it will be connected across a “high-speed network” with the original Fairwater complex being built south of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The company said the facility’s densely packed Nvidia chips will help power Microsoft’s own AI technology, along with OpenAI’s and other AI developers.

    Microsoft was, until earlier this year, OpenAI’s exclusive cloud computing provider before the two companies amended their partnership. OpenAI has since announced more than $1 trillion in infrastructure obligations, much of it tied to its Stargate project with partners Oracle and SoftBank. Microsoft, in turn, spent nearly $35 billion in the July-September quarter on capital expenditures to support its AI and cloud demand, nearly half of that on computer chips.

    Anthropic has made its own computing partnerships with Amazon and, more recently, Google.

    The tech industry’s big spending on computing infrastructure for AI startups that aren’t yet profitable has fueled concerns about an AI investment bubble.

    Investors have closely watched a series of circular deals over recent months between AI developers and the companies building the costly chips and data centers needed to power their AI products. Anthropic said it will continue to “prioritize cost-effective, capital-efficient approaches” to scaling up its business.

    OpenAI had to backtrack last week after its chief financial officer, Sarah Friar, made comments at a tech conference suggesting the U.S. government could help in financing chips needed for data centers. The White House’s top AI official, David Sacks, responded on social media platform X that there “will be no federal bailout for AI” and if one of the leading companies fails, “others will take its place,” though he also added he didn’t think “anyone was actually asking for a bailout.”

    OpenAI CEO Sam Altman later confirmed in a lengthy statement that “we do not have or want government guarantees” for the company’s data centers and also sought to address concerns about whether it will be able to pay for all the infrastructure it has signed up for.

    “We are looking at commitments of about $1.4 trillion over the next 8 years,” Altman wrote. “Obviously this requires continued revenue growth, and each doubling is a lot of work! But we are feeling good about our prospects there.”

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  • Trump administration renews Supreme Court appeal to keep full SNAP payments frozen

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    President Donald Trump’s administration returned to the Supreme Court on Monday in a push to keep full payments in the SNAP federal food aid program frozen while the government is shut down, even as some families struggled to put food on the table.

    The request is the latest in a flurry of legal activity over how the program that helps 42 million Americans buy groceries should proceed during the historic U.S. government shutdown. Lower courts have ruled that the government must keep full payments flowing, but the Trump administration is asking the Supreme Court to keep them frozen for now.

    The high court is expected to rule Tuesday.

    The seesawing rulings so far have created a situation where beneficiaries in some states, including Hawaii and New Jersey, have received their full monthly allocations and those in others, such as Nebraska and West Virginia, have seen nothing.

    Brandi Johnson, 48, of St. Louis, said she’s struggling to make the $20 she has left in her SNAP account stretch. Johnson said she has been skipping meals the past two weeks to make sure her three teenage children have something to eat. She is also helping care for her infant granddaughter, who has food allergies, and her 80-year-old mother.

    She said food pantries have offered little help in recent days. Many require patrons to live in a certain ZIP code or are dedicated to helping the elderly first.

    “I think about it 24 hours a day, seven days a week, literally,” Johnson said. “Because you’ve got to figure out how you’re going to eat.”

    Millions receive aid while others wait

    The Trump administration argued that lower court orders requiring the full funding of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program wrongly affect ongoing negotiations in Congress about ending the shutdown. Supreme Court Solicitor General D. John Sauer called the funding lapse tragic, but said judges shouldn’t be deciding how to handle it.

    The Senate Monday passed a compromise funding package that would end the government shutdown and refill SNAP funds. It now goes to the House for consideration.

    Trump’s administration initially said SNAP benefits would not be available in November because of the shutdown. After some states and nonprofit groups sued, judges in Massachusetts and Rhode Island ruled the administration could not skip November’s benefits entirely.

    The administration then said it would use an emergency reserve fund to provide 65% of the maximum monthly benefit. On Thursday, Rhode Island-based U.S. District Judge John J. McConnell said that wasn’t good enough, and ordered full funding for SNAP benefits by Friday.

    Some states acted quickly to direct their EBT vendors to disburse full monthly benefits to SNAP recipients. Millions of people in at least a dozen states — all with Democratic governors — received the full amount to buy groceries before Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson put McConnell’s order on hold Friday night, pending further deliberation by an appeals court.

    Delays cause complications for some beneficiaries

    Millions more people still have not received SNAP payments for November, because their states were waiting on guidance from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which administers SNAP. Several states have made partial payments, including Texas, where officials said money was going on cards for some beneficiaries Monday.

    “Continued delays deepen suffering for children, seniors, and working families, and force nonprofits to shoulder an even heavier burden,” Diane Yentel, President and CEO, National Council of Nonprofits, one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, said in a statement Monday. “If basic decency and humanity don’t compel the administration to assure food security for all Americans, then multiple federal court judges finding its actions unlawful must.”

    Trump’s administration has argued that the judicial order to provide full benefits violates the Constitution by infringing on the spending power of the legislative and executive branches.

    Wisconsin, which was among the first to load full benefits after McConnell’s order, had its federal reimbursement frozen. The state’s SNAP account could be depleted as soon as Monday, leaving no money to reimburse stores that sell food to SNAP recipients, according to a court filing.

    New York Attorney General Letitia James said Monday that some cardholders have been turned away by stores concerned that they won’t be reimbursed — something she called to stop.

    New Jersey Attorney General Matt Platkin said Trump was fighting “for the right to starve Americans.”

    “It’s the most heinous thing I’ve ever seen in public life,” he said.

    The latest rulings keep payments on hold, at least for now

    States administering SNAP payments continue to face uncertainty over whether they can — and should — provide full monthly benefits during the ongoing legal battles.

    The Trump administration over the weekend demanded that states “undo” full benefits that were paid during a one-day window after a federal judge ordered full funding and before a Supreme Court justice paused that order.

    A federal appeals court in Boston left the full benefits order in place late Sunday, though the Supreme Court order ensures the government won’t have to pay out for at least 48 hours.

    “The record here shows that the government sat on its hands for nearly a month, unprepared to make partial payments, while people who rely on SNAP received no benefits a week into November and counting,” Judge Julie Rikleman of the U.S. 1st Circuit Court of Appeals wrote.

    U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani, presiding over a case filed in Boston by Democratic state officials, on Monday paused the USDA’s request from Saturday that states “immediately undo any steps taken to issue full SNAP benefits.”

    In a hearing later that Monday, Talwani said that communication to states was confusing, especially because the threat came just a day after USDA sent letters to states saying SNAP would be paid in full.

    Federal government lawyer Tyler Becker said the order was only intended for states to receive the full amount of SNAP benefits, and “had nothing to do with beneficiaries.”

    Talwani said she would issue a full order soon.

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    Associated Press writers Scott Bauer in Madison, Wisconsin; Margery Beck in Omaha, Nebraska; John Hanna in Topeka, Kansas; Kimberlee Kruesi in Providence, Rhode Island; Nicholas Riccardi in Denver; and Stephen Groves and Lindsay Whitehurst in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.

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  • Brewers turn potential grand slam by Dodgers slugger Max Muncy into wild double play in NLCS

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    MILWAUKEE (AP) — Max Muncy was inches away from hitting a grand slam for the Los Angeles Dodgers to open the scoring in the National League Championship Series.

    Little did he know his 404-foot drive instead would end the top of the fourth inning Monday night in one of the most incredible plays of this or any postseason.

    “It’s definitely the worst fielder’s choice/double play I’ve ever hit in my life,” Muncy said after the Dodgers’ 2-1 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers in Game 1.

    Here’s how Muncy’s potential grand slam turned into an unusual 8-6-2 double play:

    With the bases loaded and one out, Muncy hit a long drive to center field, where Sal Frelick jumped and reached over the wall in an attempt to make the catch.

    The ball popped out of Frelick’s glove and hit the top of the fence before Frelick caught it in the air. Muncy wasn’t ruled out because the ball hit the wall — but the Dodgers’ runners scrambled back to their bases thinking the ball was caught on a fly.

    “I didn’t see it hit the wall,” said Will Smith, who was on second base. “I just thought he kind of brought it back in and caught it.”

    Frelick fired to shortstop Joey Ortiz, who quickly relayed a strike to catcher William Contreras. Aware a force was still in effect, Contreras alertly stretched for the throw with his right foot on home plate, rather than position himself for a tag that would have been necessary if the ball hadn’t hit the wall.

    Contreras caught the ball before Teoscar Hernández slid across the plate, forcing out Hernández after he had hesitated at third base.

    “Teo knows the rule. I think right there he had just a little bit of a brain fart, appreciating that when it does hit the glove, you can tag (up) there,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “But then he tagged, did it correctly, then saw he didn’t catch it, (and) he went back. That was the mistake. But he owned it. And after that, there’s nothing else you can do about it.”

    After the forceout at home plate, Contreras smartly got up and jogged to third to force out Smith, too.

    Smith had gone back to second when he thought Frelick made a clean catch.

    “From home plate, I had a pretty good view of it,” Contreras said through an interpreter. “I could tell pretty much right away it hit off the wall. Right away once it hits off the wall, you know that ball is played live. Tremendous job by the guys there just doing what we needed to do to finish that play off.”

    As all of it was developing, Frelick had his arms out with a quizzical look on his face, wondering what exactly had just happened — not unlike many fans.

    The Dodgers challenged the call, but a replay review confirmed the forceouts at home and third for a most unusual inning-ending 8-6-2 double play.

    Umpires called it correctly in real time all the way through the play.

    “Honestly, I didn’t know they ruled it a no-catch,” Roberts said. “I just wanted clarity on the whole situation. And then kind of making sure that they got a couple of forceouts, which they did. And ultimately, those guys and replay, the guys on the field got it right. They nailed it.”

    At 404 feet, it was the second-longest projected distance on a batted ball resulting in a double play since Statcast tracking began in 2015 — regular-season games included. For Muncy, it goes down as a grounded-into-double play, even though the ball didn’t touch the ground.

    There had not been an 8-6-2 double play in the postseason over the last 35 years, the Elias Sports Bureau said. Those type of official scoring details are not always clear in records going back any further.

    The most recent 8-6-2 double play in the regular season involved a ball hit by Cubs slugger Sammy Sosa to Cincinnati center fielder Ken Griffey Jr. in April 2004 — though that one ended with a tag at the plate.

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

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  • Wisconsin and Iowa meet with bowl eligibility on the line; Hawkeyes to start Brendan Sullivan at QB

    Wisconsin and Iowa meet with bowl eligibility on the line; Hawkeyes to start Brendan Sullivan at QB

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    Wisconsin (5-3, 3-2 Big Ten) at Iowa (5-3, 3-2), Saturday, 7:30 p.m. ET (NBC)

    BetMGM College Football Odds: Iowa by 3 1/2.

    Series record: Wisconsin leads 49-46-2.

    WHAT’S AT STAKE?

    Both teams enter November looking to enhance their bowl positions. The winner is bowl eligible, and the loser has three more chances to get a sixth win. The Badgers had their three-game win streak end with their home loss to Penn State. Iowa is coming off a home win over Northwestern but is yet to win consecutive Big Ten games.

    KEY MATCHUP

    Wisconsin run defense vs. Iowa run game. The Badgers have been uncharacteristically soft against the run, allowing 144 yards per game to rank 14th in the Big Ten and 4.45 yards per carry to rank 15th. Iowa’s Kaleb Johnson is running for 143 yards per game to lead the conference and 7.84 yards per carry. The Badgers like their chances if Iowa has to lean on its dismal passing game.

    PLAYERS TO WATCH

    Wisconsin: The Badgers would like to get RB Tawee Walker going again. He amassed 418 yards in three straight wins (Purdue, Rutgers, Northwestern) before Penn State limited him to 59 yards on 22 carries.

    Iowa: QB Brendan Sullivan. Cade McNamara has started every game, but he got pulled against Northwestern in the second quarter because of a concussion. This will be Sullivan’s first start since he transferred from Northwestern. He gave the Hawkeyes a spark last week, completing 9 of 14 passes for 79 yards and running eight times for 41 yards and a TD against his old team.

    FACTS & FIGURES

    This is the third straight year neither team is ranked when they play. That’s the longest stretch since three meetings between 1992-96. … Iowa’s Johnson has scored at least one touchdown in eight straight games for the longest streak by a player in the Kirk Ferentz’s 26 seasons. … Wisconsin PK haniel Vakos kicked a 50-yard field goal against Penn State, making him the first in program history to have four 50-plus-yard makes in a career. … Iowa has scored 40 points against two Big Ten opponents for the first time since 2020. The Hawkeyes’ three 40-point games are their most since 2017. … The teams have played for the Heartland Trophy since 2004.

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    Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here. AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-football

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  • Texans’ Stefon Diggs gets into pregame scuffle with Packers’ Jaire Alexander and Keisean Nixon

    Texans’ Stefon Diggs gets into pregame scuffle with Packers’ Jaire Alexander and Keisean Nixon

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    GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) — Houston Texans wide receiver Stefon Diggs and Green Bay Packers cornerbacks Jaire Alexander and Keisean Nixon exchanged words and shoves during an altercation before their respective teams faced off Sunday.

    Diggs said after the Texans’ 24-22 loss that the incident started when he “heard somebody chirping.”

    Television cameras showed Diggs jawing with Alexander and Nixon as an official separated them. As officials tried getting Diggs away from the sideline, more Packers converged onto the area and Alexander approached the receiver. Diggs and Alexander then appeared to shove each other as well before they were separated.

    “You know, it’s intensity,” Nixon said after the game. “It’s what it is. We don’t take disrespect, and anybody starts anything, we’re going to finish it. As top-flight DBs, that’s what we do.”

    Diggs and Alexander have a longstanding rivalry dating to Diggs’ years with the Minnesota Vikings, the Packers’ NFC North rival. Diggs played for the Vikings from 2015-19. Alexander, a 2018 first-round pick, has spent his entire NFL career with the Packers.

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

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  • Another study points to correlation between helmet use on motorcycles and odds of survival

    Another study points to correlation between helmet use on motorcycles and odds of survival

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    A new study compiling decades of fatal motorcycle crashes is being released by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, which is pushing for stricter state road safety laws.

    The study suggests that 20,000 motorcyclists who died in crashes in the U.S. since the mid-1970s would have survived if stronger helmet laws had been in place, according to the nonprofit group that seeks to reduce the harm from motor vehicle crashes

    The organization said that 22,058 motorcyclists’ lives could have been saved if every state had required all riders to wear helmets from 1976 to 2022. The figure represents 11% of all rider fatalities over those years.

    Only 17 states and the District of Columbia that have such laws in place.

    The IIHS said that more than 6,000 motorcyclists were killed in both 2021 and 2022, the most recent years for which such data is available. The organization says that the death toll could be cut by as much as 10% if more states enacted all-rider helmet laws.

    “We understand that requiring helmets for all riders everywhere would be unpopular with some motorcyclists, but this could save hundreds of lives each year,” said Eric Teoh, IIHS director of statistical services and the author of the paper. “Those aren’t just numbers. They’re friends, parents and children.”

    The rate of helmet use has increased both in places with and without mandatory helmet laws, according to the institute. Yet use rates in states with mandatory helmet laws were generally two to three times as high as in states without them over the study period.

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  • MLB will air local games for Guardians, Brewers and Twins next season

    MLB will air local games for Guardians, Brewers and Twins next season

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    Major League Baseball announced Tuesday it will produce and distribute local broadcasts for the Cleveland Guardians, Milwaukee Brewers and Minnesota Twins next year. All three teams had contracts with Diamond Sports Group that expired at the end of the regular season.

    The Texas Rangers, whose deal also expired last month, also announced they will no longer be partnering with Diamond. They are assessing their options for next season.

    The addition of the Guardians, Brewers and Twins means MLB will be handling the production and distribution of at least six teams going into 2025.

    MLB took over broadcasts of the San Diego Padres and Arizona Diamondbacks during the 2023 season and the Colorado Rockies this year.

    Rick Schlesinger, the president of business operations for the Brewers, said he expects more teams could be partnering with MLB by the opening of next season.

    “This has been a long process. It’s a very deliberative process,” he said. “We’ve done this through a lot of work, a lot of analysis. I think this is going to be a huge game changer for us, for our content.”

    By taking over the broadcasts, MLB expects to increase the market reach of its teams by at least 2 million households in each market. The Diamondbacks went from being available in 930,000 households on a regional sports network to 5.6 million homes through a combination of being on local cable systems, satellite and direct-to-consumer streaming.

    “With the media landscape continuing to evolve, Major League Baseball is committed to serving our fans by ensuring they can see their favorite clubs, removing blackouts where we can, and ultimately growing the reach of our games,” Noah Garden, MLB deputy commissioner for business and media, said in a statement.

    The Twins took a public relations hit in Minnesota for cutting their 2024 player payroll coming off a division title and their first postseason series win in 22 years, in light of the reduced rights fee coming from Diamond. They will lose the rights fee altogether with this MLB-produced model, but team president Dave St. Peter said this announcement would not have an effect on player spending for the upcoming season.

    “We’ve spent a tremendous amount of time with Major League Baseball trying to better understand this marketplace, trying to better understand what a model like this will ultimately provide to the team. We also have studied closely what’s happened in San Diego, in Arizona and in Colorado. We’ve gotten comfortable in those economics. They are where they are,” St. Peter said.

    “We do expect that there will be a reduction in local revenue coming to the Twins in 2025. I think that’s a fact. That said, over the long haul we have tremendous confidence in our content and believe, while maybe we’ll take a dip for ’25, that over time the viewership and those economics related to that viewership will increase.”

    Cleveland games were available on approximately 1.45 million households on its regional sports network. That reach is expected to increase 235% to 4.86 million households. Minnesota’s will go up 307% from 1.08 million homes to 4.4 million.

    Schlesinger said the Brewers had 800,000 households that could receive games this past season, but he also expects to see significant growth with the new model.

    “From a fan perspective, it’s great because you’re going to have total access and no blackouts,” he said. “There’s a lot of staffing, a lot of infrastructure, a lot of decisions have to be made, a lot of people to be hired, a lot of sponsors to contact. This is the right time to do this. It’s a good jumping point, platform to make sure when the calendar turns to 2025, we’re already fully immersed in this and that we know when the first game starts, that we’re ready to go and the product’s going to be outstanding.”

    MLB could be taking over more teams as Diamond Sports Group continues to go through bankruptcy proceedings. The nation’s largest owner of regional sports networks could be down to doing only Atlanta Braves games in 2025.

    The operator of the Bally Sports regional networks presented its reorganization plan in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Houston last week. As part of the reorganization, Diamond plans to void the contracts of the Detroit Tigers and Tampa Bay Rays and to attempt to rework the deals of the five franchises that are partial owners of their regional sports networks — the Cincinnati Reds, Kansas City Royals, Los Angeles Angels, Miami Marlins and St. Louis Cardinals.

    St. Peter said he expects more teams to sign onto the model in the future.

    “Starting to build that direct-to-consumer foundation, which clearly is the future of the way our games will be distributed — it’s time to get on with that and we’re excited about that,” St. Peters said. “Our ownership understands the consequences of that, but I think over time there’s way more upside than short-term downside.”

    A final hearing on Diamond’s reorganization plan is scheduled for Nov. 14. Diamond also has the rights to 13 NBA and eight NHL teams.

    Diamond Sports Group and Sinclair Broadcast Group bought the regional sports networks from The Walt Disney Co. for nearly $10 billion in 2019. Disney was required by the Department of Justice to sell the networks for its acquisition of 21st Century Fox’s film and television assets to be approved.

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    AP sports writers Dave Campbell in Minneapolis and Steve Megargee in Milwaukee contributed to this story.

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

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  • How important is Wisconsin? Trump’s now visited 4 times in 8 days

    How important is Wisconsin? Trump’s now visited 4 times in 8 days

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    JUNEAU, Wis. (AP) — Donald Trump on Sunday visited Wisconsin for the fourth time in eight days as his campaign showers attention on a pivotal state where Republicans fret about his ability to match Democrats’ enthusiasm and turnout machine.

    “They say that Wisconsin is probably the toughest of the swing states to win,” Trump said in his opening remarks at an airplane hangar in a rural Juneau where the overflow crowd spilled out on to the tarmac. “I don’t think so.”

    Voters in Wisconsin are already casting absentee ballots and in-person early voting begins Oct. 22. Trump stood on stage for nearly two hours, touching the third rail of Wisconsin politics by overlapping with a Green Bay Packers game, drawing derision from Democrats. But that didn’t stop thousands of people from sticking with Trump as he urged supporters to begin to vote by mail and early, when the time comes, so they turn out “in record numbers.”

    “If we win Wisconsin, we win the presidency,” Trump said.

    Wisconsin is perennially tight in presidential elections but has gone for the Republicans just once in the past 40 years, when Trump won the state in 2016. A win in November could make it impossible for Democratic nominee Kamala Harris to take the White House.

    “In the political chatter class, they’re worried,” said Brandon Scholz, a retired Republican strategist and longtime political observer in Wisconsin who voted for Trump in 2020 but said he is not voting for Trump or Harris this year. “I think Republicans are right to be concerned.”

    Trump won the state in 2016 over Democrat Hillary Clinton by fewer than 23,000 votes and lost to Democrat Joe Biden in 2020 by just under 21,000 votes.

    On Tuesday, Trump made his first-ever visit to Dane County, home to the liberal capital city of Madison, in an effort to turn out the Republican vote even in the state’s Democratic strongholds. Dane is Wisconsin’s second most-populous and fastest-growing county; Biden received more than 75% of the vote four years ago.

    “To win statewide you’ve got to have a 72-county strategy,” former Gov. Scott Walker, a Republican, said at that event.

    Juneau is a a town of 2,000 about 50 miles north of Madison in Dodge County, which Trump won in 2020 with 65% of the vote.

    Early arrivals filled the hangar, far exceeding the available seating. One large banner behind the bleachers inside said “Vote Early.”

    “Make sure we turn out because guess what, I’ve been to Madison,” said U.S. Rep. Scott Fitzgerald, who is from Juneau, at the event. “I’ve been to liberal Madison and they’re going to show up. We need to do the same thing because we are the firewall to keep this country independent and free.”

    Jack Yuds, chairman of the county Republican Party, said support for Trump is stronger in this part of the state than it was in 2016 or 2020.

    “I can’t keep signs in,” Yuds said. “They want everything he’s got. If it says Trump on it, you can sell it.”

    Trump’s campaign and outside groups supporting his candidacy have outspent Harris and her allies on advertising in Wisconsin, $35 million to $31 million, from when she became a candidate on July 23 through Oct. 1, according to the media-tracking firm AdImpact.

    Harris and outside groups supporting her candidacy had more advertising time reserved in Wisconsin from Oct. 1 through Nov. 5, more than $25 million compared with $20 million for Trump and his allies.

    What to know about the 2024 Election

    The Harris campaign has 50 offices across 43 counties with more than 250 staff members in Wisconsin, said her spokesperson Timothy White. The Trump campaign said it has 40 offices in the state and dozens of staffers.

    Harris rallied supporters in Madison in September at an event that drew more than 10,000 people. On Thursday, she made an appeal to moderate and disgruntled conservatives by holding an event in Ripon, the birthplace of the Republican Party, along with former U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, one of Trump’s most prominent Republican antagonists.

    Harris and Trump are focusing on Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, the “blue wall” states that went for Trump in 2016 and flipped to Biden in the next election.

    While Trump’s campaign is bullish on its chances in Pennsylvania as well as the Sunbelt states, Wisconsin is seen as more of a challenge.

    “Wisconsin, tough state,” said Trump campaign senior adviser Chris LaCivita, who worked on Republican Sen. Ron Johnson’s winning reelection campaign in 2022.

    “I mean, look, that’s going to be a very tight — very, very tight, all the way to the end. But where we are organizationally now, comparative to where we were organizationally four years ago, I mean, it’s completely different,” LaCivita said.

    He also cited Michigan as more of a challenge. “But again, these are states that Biden won and carried and so they’re going to be brawls all the way until the end and we’re not ceding any of that ground.”

    The candidates are about even in Wisconsin, based on a series of polls that have shown little movement since Biden dropped out in late July. Those same polls also show high enthusiasm among both parties.

    Mark Graul, who ran then-President George W. Bush’s 2004 campaign in Wisconsin, said the number of campaign visits speaks to Wisconsin’s decisive election role.

    The key for both sides, he said, is persuading infrequent voters to turn out.

    “Much more important, in my opinion, than rallies,” Graul said.

    Mark Seelman, from Watertown, said the energy and size of the crowd sends a message that Trump is strong in Wisconsin.

    “Everybody’s into it,” he said during Trump’s speech. “It’s time for a change.”

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    Gomez Licon reported from Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Associated Press writers Thomas Beaumont in Des Moines, Iowa, and Jill Colvin in Butler, Pennsylvania, contributed to this report.

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  • QB Love can’t dig the Packers all the way out of an early hole in his return from a knee injury

    QB Love can’t dig the Packers all the way out of an early hole in his return from a knee injury

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    GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) — Jordan Love arrived at Lambeau Field wearing a Brett Favre Packers jersey.

    Then he went out and produced the kind of performance that Favre once made a habit of delivering at home.

    Love went 32 of 54 for 389 yards and nearly helped Green Bay come all the way back from a 28-point deficit Sunday in his return after missing two games with an injured left medial collateral ligament.

    But he also was picked off three times in Green Bay’s 31-29 loss to the Minnesota Vikings. Love ended up setting career highs in completions, yards passing, touchdown passes and interceptions.

    “I think ball placement was a little all over the place today, kind of throughout the whole game,” Love said. “I think it picked up later, but yeah, I think early on I just missed a couple throws and was a little bit off and made it hard on some of the receivers on some of those plays.”

    Love acknowledged after the game the knee continued to bother him at times.

    “I hope it’ll continue to heal and get better, but at this moment, yeah, it’s definitely something that’s there,” Love said. “It’s one of those things. It’s football. We play a physical sport and there’s injuries and you got to fight through some stuff.”

    Love hadn’t played since getting injured in the final series of the Packers’ 34-29 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles on Sept. 6 in Brazil. Malik Willis filled in for Love the past two weeks and led Green Bay to victories over the Indianapolis Colts and Tennessee Titans as the Packers used a more run-oriented approach.

    The rust was apparent early on as Green Bay fell way behind early, forcing Love to throw time and time again.

    Love went 10 of 22 for 101 yards with two interceptions over the first 29-plus minutes of the game as the Packers fell behind 28-0. Each of the two interceptions led to Minnesota touchdowns.

    Green Bay (2-2) finally got on the scoreboard in the final minute of the first half when a fumbled punt by the Vikings (4-0) led to Love’s 15-yard touchdown pass to Jayden Reed.

    And in the fourth quarter, Love finally started to showcase the ability late last season while leading the Packers on a surprising playoff run.

    “We knew he was out for a couple weeks, so we were going to put some pressure on him,” said Shaq Griffin, who had one of the Vikings’ three interceptions. “He also did a good job just kind of figuring it around the kind of defense that we were in. A lot of quarterbacks haven’t done that yet, so he did. I definitely tip my hat off to him.”

    In that final quarter, Love went 13 of 17 for 202 yards with three touchdown passes and one interception.

    After the Packers stopped Minnesota’s Jalen Nailor for no gain on fourth-and-1 from the Green Bay 4 with less than 2 1/2 minutes left, Love led a five-play, 96-yard drive. His 17-yard touchdown pass to Dontayvion Wicks cut Minnesota’s lead to 31-29 with 56 seconds left before the Vikings could seal the victory.

    That fourth-quarter effort exemplified why the Packers believe he can eventually lead them to a title.

    “Jordan is Jordan, man,” Reed said. “He’s ‘him,’ in my opinion. I’ve never had a different opinion.”

    Love’s teammates remember how he threw 21 touchdown passes with only one interception during a nine-game stretch last season that culminated with a 48-32 upset of the Dallas Cowboys in a wild-card playoff game. The Packers showed their faith in him by signing Love to a four-year, $220 million contract extension last summer.

    “I think he’s a hell of a competitor,” Packers coach Matt LaFleur said. “We’ve got a lot of trust, belief and faith in him, and I love how he battles. That’s one of the things that you absolutely love about him is his composure. He’s never too high, never too low and he keeps competing and he keeps battling. I’m super-proud of his effort.”

    Even after Love’s big fourth quarter, the Packers still fell short. They’re already two games behind the surprising Vikings in the NFC North.

    Now that the Packers are facing some early adversity again, Love can draw upon last season’s run for confidence as his knee gradually gets better.

    “We started off in a hole last year as well, so it’s one of those things, we’re going to come back next week, keep working, learn, watch the tape, grow from this game and we’ll see these guys again later on the year,” Love said. “So just learn from it, keep going. But it’s definitely a long season, and I definitely like where we’re at as a team. You know, we didn’t make plays, but (with) the playmakers we have and team we have, I definitely like where we’re at.”

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

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  • Judge rejects former Trump aide Mark Meadows’ bid to move Arizona election case to federal court

    Judge rejects former Trump aide Mark Meadows’ bid to move Arizona election case to federal court

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    PHOENIX (AP) — A judge has rejected a bid by Mark Meadows, former chief of staff to President Donald Trump, to move his charges in Arizona’s fake elector case to federal court, marking the second time he has failed in trying to get his charges out of state court.

    In a decision Monday, U.S. District Judge John Tuchi said Meadows missed a deadline for asking for his charges to be moved to federal court, didn’t offer a good reason for doing so and failed to show that the allegations against him related to his official duties as chief of staff to the president.

    Meadows faces charges in Arizona and Georgia in what authorities allege was an illegal scheme to overturn the 2020 election results in Trump’s favor. He had unsuccessfully tried to move charges in the Georgia case last year. It’s unknown whether Meadows will appeal the decision. The Associated Press left phone and email messages for two of Meadows’ attorneys.

    While not a fake elector in Arizona, prosecutors said Meadows worked with other Trump campaign members to submit names of fake electors from Arizona and other states to Congress in a bid to keep Trump in office despite his November 2020 defeat. Meadows has pleaded not guilty to the charges in Arizona and Georgia.

    In 2020, Democrat Joe Biden won Arizona by 10,457 votes.

    The decision sends Meadows’ case back down to Maricopa County Superior Court.

    In both Arizona and Georgia, Meadows argued his charges should be moved to federal court because his actions were taken when he was a federal official working as Trump’s chief of staff and that he has immunity under the supremacy clause of the U.S. Constitution, which says federal law trumps state law.

    Arizona prosecutors said Meadows’ electioneering efforts weren’t part of his official duties at the White House.

    Meadows last year tried to get his Georgia charges moved but his request was rejected by a judge whose ruling was later affirmed by an appeals court. Meadows has since asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review the ruling.

    The Arizona indictment says Meadows confided to a White House staff member in early November 2020 that Trump had lost the election. Prosecutors say Meadows also had arranged meetings and calls with state officials to discuss the fake elector conspiracy.

    Meadows and other defendants are seeking a dismissal of the Arizona case.

    Meadows’ attorneys said nothing their client is alleged to have done in Arizona was criminal. They said the indictment consists of allegations that he received messages from people trying to get ideas in front of Trump — or “seeking to inform Mr. Meadows about the strategy and status of various legal efforts by the president’s campaign.”

    In denying the former chief of staff’s request, Tuchi said Meadows wasn’t indicted for facilitating communications to and from the president or staying updated on what was going on in Trump’s campaign.

    “Instead, the State has indicted Mr. Meadows for allegedly orchestrating and participating in an illegal electioneering scheme,” the judge wrote. “Few, if any, of the State’s factual allegations even resemble the secretarial duties that Mr. Meadows maintains are the subject of the indictment.”

    In all, 18 Republicans were charged in late April in Arizona’s fake electors case. The defendants include 11 Republicans who had submitted a document falsely claiming Trump had won Arizona, another Trump aide and five lawyers connected to the former president.

    In August, Trump’s campaign attorney Jenna Ellis, who worked closely with former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, signed a cooperation agreement with prosecutors that led to the dismissal of her charges. Republican activist Loraine Pellegrino became the first person to be convicted in the Arizona case when she pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge and was sentenced to probation.

    The remaining defendants have pleaded not guilty to the forgery, fraud and conspiracy charges in Arizona.

    Trump wasn’t charged in Arizona, but the indictment refers to him as an unindicted coconspirator.

    The 11 people who were nominated to be Arizona’s Republican electors met in Phoenix on Dec. 14, 2020, to sign a certificate saying they were “duly elected and qualified” electors and claimed Trump had carried the state.

    A one-minute video of the signing ceremony was posted on social media by the Arizona Republican Party at the time. The document was later sent to Congress and the National Archives, where it was ignored.

    Prosecutors in Michigan, Nevada, Georgia and Wisconsin have also filed criminal charges related to the fake electors scheme.

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  • Biden says rural electrification and internet improvements underscore ‘American comeback’

    Biden says rural electrification and internet improvements underscore ‘American comeback’

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    WESTBY, Wisconsin (AP) — President Joe Biden traveled to rural southwest Wisconsin on Thursday to champion new investments in electrification and expanded high-speed internet, proclaiming that “all these investments mean family farms can stay in the family.”

    In the town of Westby, Biden announced $7.3 billion in investments for 16 cooperatives that will provide electricity for millions of families in rural areas across 23 states, with the goal of lowering the cost of badly needed electricity connections in hard-to-reach areas.

    Funding for the project comes from the Democrats’ Inflation Reduction Act, signed into law in August 2022 and passed in Congress along party lines. The law invests roughly $13 billion in rural electrification across multiple programs and will create 4,500 permanent jobs and 16,000 construction jobs, according to the White House, which called the effort the largest investment in rural electrification since the New Deal in the 1930s.

    Biden also championed 2021’s infrastructure law, which was approved with some support from congressional Republicans and which he said had provided 72,000 additional Wisconsin homes and small businesses with high-speed internet.

    “Just like we’re making the most significant investment in rural electrification since FDR, we’re also making the most significant investment ever in affordable, high-speed internet because affordable high-speed internet is just as essential today as electricity was a century ago,” Biden said, referring to New Deal architect and President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

    Biden said “all of these investments mean family farms can stay in the family, rural entrepreneurs can build their dreams, your children and grandchildren won’t have to leave home to make a living.”

    “That’s stopping now because we’re spreading opportunities to benefit everyone,” he added.

    Before talking policy, Biden addressed Wednesday’s school shooting in Georgia, where a 14-year-old student fatally shot four people. The president lamented that, during a back-to-school season that should have been a “joyous and exciting,” another community in America was instead left “absolutely shattered” by gun violence.

    Biden endorsed calls for stricter requirements for owners to lock up and better secure their firearms — leaning into the fact that he himself is a gun owner.

    “There are too many people who are able to access guns that shouldn’t be able to,” he said. “So let’s require safe storage of firearms. I know I’ve mine locked up.”

    Biden also praised Vice President Kamala Harris, whom he endorsed after dropping his reelection bid in July. And he sharply criticized her opponent in November, former President Donald Trump, for failing to keep promises to spur public works and instead running up towering federal deficits by passing tax cuts that Biden argued primarily benefited the rich.

    “In thousands of cities and towns across the country and across Wisconsin, we’re seeing the great American comeback story,” Biden said, contrasting that with Trump and top Republicans who he said talk “about how bad off we are.”

    “Today’s announcement is about far more than just giving rural America the power to turn on the lights. It’s about giving the power to shape our own future,” Biden said.

    Democrats consider Wisconsin to be one of the must-win states in November’s presidential election between Trump and Harris. Biden won the state in 2020 by about 20,000 votes, flipping Wisconsin to the Democratic column after Trump narrowly won it in 2016.

    Thursday was also personal for Biden, who returned to Wisconsin to revisit a promise he made early in his presidency to provide, among other infrastructure improvements, better internet to rural areas.

    “It isn’t a luxury; it’s now a necessity, like water and electricity,” Biden said at the La Crosse Municipal Transit Utility in June 2021. White House deputy chief of staff Natalie Quillian said the latest visit means Biden has “delivered on so many of those promises.”

    ___

    This story has been corrected to reflect that the goal is to bring down the cost of electricity connections, not internet connections, in hard-to-reach areas.

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  • Sensors can read your sweat and predict overheating. Here’s why privacy advocates care

    Sensors can read your sweat and predict overheating. Here’s why privacy advocates care

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    On a hot summer day in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, dozens of men removed pipes, asbestos and hazardous waste while working to decontaminate a nuclear facility and prepare it for demolition.

    Dressed in head-to-toe coveralls and fitted with respirators, the crew members toiling in a building without power had no obvious respite from the heat. Instead, they wore armbands that recorded their heart rates, movements and exertion levels for signs of heat stress.

    Stephanie Miller, a safety and health manager for a U.S. government contractor doing cleanup work at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, watched a computer screen nearby. A color-coding system with little bubbles showing each worker’s physiological data alerted her if anyone was in danger of overheating.

    “Heat is one of the greatest risks that we have in this work, even though we deal with high radiation, hazardous chemicals and heavy metals,” Miller said.

    As the world experiences more record high temperatures, employers are exploring wearable technologies to keep workers safe. New devices collect biometric data to estimate core body temperature – an elevated one is a symptom of heat exhaustion – and prompt workers to take cool-down breaks.

    The devices, which were originally developed for athletes, firefighters and military personnel, are getting adopted at a time when the Atlantic Council estimates heat-induced losses in labor productivity could cost the U.S. approximately $100 billion annually.

    This article is part of AP’s Be Well coverage, focusing on wellness, fitness, diet and mental health. Read more Be Well.

    But there are concerns about how the medical information collected on employees will be safeguarded. Some labor groups worry managers could use it to penalize people for taking needed breaks.

    “Any time you put any device on a worker, they’re very concerned about tracking, privacy, and how are you going to use this against me,” said Travis Parsons, director of occupational safety and health at the Laborers’ Health and Safety Fund of North America. “There’s a lot of exciting stuff out there, but there’s no guardrails around it.”

    VULNERABLE TO HEAT

    Wyatt Fischer, a furnace mason employee at Cardinal Glass, sits on an excavator while wearing a SlateSafety armband, Thursday, Aug. 22, 2024, in Menomonie, Wis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)

    Image

    FILE – Construction worker Fernando Padilla wipes his face as he works in the heat on June 30, 2023 in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV, File)

    At the Tennessee cleanup site, the workers wearing heat stress monitors made by Atlanta company SlateSafety are employed by United Cleanup Oak Ridge. The company is a contractor of the U.S. Department of Energy, which has rules to prevent on-the-job overheating.

    But most U.S. workers lack protections from extreme heat because there are no federal regulations requiring them, and many vulnerable workers don’t speak up or seek medical attention. In July, the Biden administration proposed a rule to protect 36 million workers from heat-related illnesses.

    From 1992 to 2022, 986 workers died from heat exposure in the U.S., according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Experts suspect the number is higher because a coroner might not list heat as the cause of death if a sweltering roofer takes a fatal fall.

    Setting occupational safety standards can be tricky because individuals respond differently to heat. That’s where the makers of wearable devices hope to come in.

    HOW WEARABLE HEAT TECH WORKS

    Employers have observed workers for heat-related distress by checking their temperatures with thermometers, sometimes rectally. More recently, firefighters and military personnel swallowed thermometer capsules.

    “That just was not going to work in our work environment,” Rob Somers, global environment, health and safety director at consumer product company Perrigo, said.

    Instead, more than 100 employees at the company’s infant formula plants were outfitted with SlateSafety armbands. The devices estimate a wearer’s core body temperature, and a reading of 101.3 degrees triggers an alert.

    Another SlateSafety customer is a Cardinal Glass factory in Wisconsin, where four masons maintain a furnace that reaches 3000 degrees Fahrenheit.

    “They’re right up against the face of the wall. So it’s them and fire,” Jeff Bechel, the company’s safety manager, said.

    Cardinal Glass paid $5,000 for five armbands, software and air-monitoring hardware. Bechel thinks the investment will pay off; an employee’s two heat-related emergency room visits cost the company $15,000.

    Another wearable, made by Massachusetts company Epicore Biosystems, analyzes sweat to determine when workers are at risk of dehydration and overheating.

    “Until a few years ago, you just sort of wiped (sweat) off with a towel,” CEO Rooz Ghaffari said. “Turns out there’s all this information packed away that we’ve been missing.”

    Research has shown some devices successfully predict core body temperature in controlled environments, but their accuracy remains unproven in dynamic workplaces, according to experts. A 2022 research review said factors such as age, gender and ambient humidity make it challenging to reliably gauge body temperature with the technology.

    The United Cleanup Oak Ridge workers swathed in protective gear can get sweaty even before they begin demolition. Managers see dozens of sensor alerts daily.

    Laborer Xavier Allison, 33, was removing heavy pieces of ductwork during a recent heat wave when his device vibrated. Since he was working with radioactive materials and asbestos, he couldn’t walk outside to rest without going through a decontamination process, so he spent about 15 minutes in a nearby room which was just as hot.

    “You just sit by yourself and do your best to cool off,” Allison said.

    The armband notifies workers when they’ve cooled down enough to resume work.

    “Ever since we implemented it, we have seen a significant decrease in the number of people who need to get medical attention,” Miller said.

    COLLECTING PERSONAL DATA

    United Cleanup Oak Ridge uses the sensor data and an annual medical exam to determine work assignments, Miller said. After noticing patterns, the company sent a few employees to see their personal physicians, who found heart issues the employees hadn’t known about, she said.

    At Perrigo, managers analyze the data to find people with multiple alerts and speak to them to see if there’s “a reason why they’re not able to work in the environment,” Somers said. The information is organized by identification numbers, not names, when it goes into the company’s software system, he said.

    Companies keeping years of medical data raises concerns about privacy and whether bosses may use the information to kick an employee off a health plan or fire them, said Adam Schwartz, privacy litigation director at the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

    “The device could hurt, frankly, because you could raise your hand and say ‘I need a break,’ and the boss could say, ‘No, your heart rate is not elevated, go back to work,’” Schwartz said.

    To minimize such risks, employers should allow workers to opt in or out of wearing monitoring devices, only process strictly necessary data and delete the information within 24 hours, he said.

    Wearing such devices also may expose workers to unwanted marketing, Ikusei Misaka, a professor at Tokyo’s Musashino University, said.

    A PARTIAL SOLUTION

    The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health advises employers to institute a plan to help workers adjust to hot conditions and to train them to recognize signs of heat-related illness and to administer first aid. Wearable devices can be part of efforts to reduce heat stress, but more work needs to be done to determine their accuracy, said Doug Trout, the agency’s medical officer.

    The technology also needs to be paired with access to breaks, shade and cool water, since many workers, especially in agriculture, fear retaliation for pausing to cool off or hydrate.

    “If they don’t have water to drink, and the time to do it, it doesn’t mean much,” Juanita Constible, senior advocate at the Natural Resources Defense Council, said. “It’s just something extra they have to carry when they’re in the hot fields.”

    ___

    This story corrects the spelling of Natural Resources Defense Council in last paragraph.

    ___

    Yuri Kageyama in Tokyo contributed to this report.

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  • Harris campaign reserves $370M in ads after Labor Day, including battleground state push

    Harris campaign reserves $370M in ads after Labor Day, including battleground state push

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    WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris ‘ campaign says it is reserving $370 million in advertising to run between Labor Day and Election Day.

    In a memo Saturday, the Harris-Walz campaign said the fall advertising push will include $170 million in television reservations running for nine weeks, starting Sept. 3, in battleground states. It also includes more than $200 million in digital reservations on platforms such as Hulu, Roku and YouTube.

    That does not include spending on ads on social media or search services.

    Former President Donald Trump ‘s campaign has only reserved advertising time after Labor Day in two states, the battlegrounds of Pennsylvania and Georgia, according to data from the media tracking firm AdImpact.

    Quentin Fulks and Rob Flaherty, deputy campaign manager for the Democratic candidates, said in their memo that the television ads they were reserving included spots around high-viewership moments such as major sporting events and season premieres.

    It also included daytime reservations on Fox News Channel, where the campaign believes they can reach an audience of conservative-leaning independents who had supported former GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley over Trump in the Republican presidential primary.

    Ad reservations can allow candidates and campaigns to lock in rates before they go up as dates come closer.

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  • Election officials keep Green Party presidential candidate on Wisconsin ballot

    Election officials keep Green Party presidential candidate on Wisconsin ballot

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    MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin elections officials dismissed a Democratic National Committee employee’s demands Friday to remove the Green Party’s presidential candidate from the ballot in the key swing state.

    DNC employee David Strange filed a complaint with the Wisconsin Elections Commission on Wednesday asking the commission to remove Jill Stein from the presidential ballot. The election commission’s attorney, Angela O’Brien Sharpe, wrote to Strange on Friday saying she had dismissed the complaint because it names commissioners as respondents and they can’t ethically decide a matter brought against them.

    DNC spokesperson Adrienne Watson said late Friday afternoon that the committee plans to file a lawsuit seeking a court ruling that Stein’s name can’t appear on the ballot. The Stein campaign didn’t immediately respond to a message sent to their media email inbox.

    The bipartisan elections commission unanimously approved ballot access for Stein in February because the Green Party won more than 1% of the vote in a statewide race in 2022. Sheryl McFarland got nearly 1.6% of the vote while finishing last in a four-way race for secretary of state.

    Strange argued in his complaint that the Green Party can’t nominate presidential electors in Wisconsin because no one in the party is a state officer, defined as legislators, judges and others. Without any presidential electors, the party can’t have a presidential candidate on the ballot, Strange contended.

    Stein’s appearance on the ballot could make a difference in battleground Wisconsin, where four of the past six presidential elections have been decided by between 5,700 votes and about 23,000 votes.

    Stein last appeared on the Wisconsin ballot 2016, when she won just over 31,000 votes — more than Donald Trump’s winning margin in the state. Some Democrats have blamed her for helping Trump win the state and the presidency that year.

    The Wisconsin Supreme Court kept Green Party presidential candidate Howie Hawkins off the ballot in 2020 after the elections commission deadlocked on whether he filed proper nominating signatures.

    The latest Marquette University Law School poll conducted July 24 through Aug. 1 showed the presidential contest in Wisconsin between Democrat Kamala Harris and Trump to be about even among likely voters. Democrats fear third-party candidates could siphon votes from Harris and tilt the race toward Trump.

    The elections commission plans to meet Aug. 27 to determine whether four independent presidential candidates, including Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Cornel West, have met the prerequisites to appear on the ballot.

    Strange filed a separate complaint last week with the commission seeking to keep West off the ballot, alleging his declaration of candidacy wasn’t properly notarized. Cornel’s campaign manager countered in a written response any notarization shortcomings shouldn’t be enough to keep him off the ballot. That complaint is still pending.

    Michigan election officials tossed West off that state’s ballot Friday over similar notary issues.

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  • Marathon swimmer who crossed Lake Michigan in 1998 is trying it again

    Marathon swimmer who crossed Lake Michigan in 1998 is trying it again

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    GRAND HAVEN, Mich. (AP) — The Shark is back in the water, trying to repeat his 1998 feat of swimming across Lake Michigan.

    Jim Dreyer entered the lake at Grand Haven, Michigan, on Tuesday and began swimming to Wisconsin. The route to Milwaukee is expected to cover roughly 83 miles (134 kilometers), though it could be more, depending on lake conditions.

    “Even with all the extensive training and planning, I understand the inherent dangers of this self-sufficient swim,” Dreyer, who nicknamed himself The Shark before his first historic swim, said last month.

    Dreyer, 60, is towing supplies in an inflatable boat attached to him. Satellite communications will allow him to contact a crew for help if necessary.

    “I hope this calculated risk captures the imaginations of adventurous souls everywhere as I find my way across the seemingly endless expanse of Lake Michigan,” said Dreyer, who is also trying to raise money for the nonprofit U.S. Coast Guard Chief Petty Officers Association.

    Dreyer swam across Lake Michigan, from Two Rivers, Wisconsin, to Michigan’s Ludington State Park, in 1998, a grueling feat that lasted nearly 41 hours.

    He tried last year to cross the lake but gave up after 10 hours because of bad weather.

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  • Wisconsin believes production will increase in its second year running Phil Longo’s offense

    Wisconsin believes production will increase in its second year running Phil Longo’s offense

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    MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin’s first season with Air Raid disciple Phil Longo as offensive coordinator didn’t work out quite according to plan, as the Badgers posted their lowest scoring average in nearly two decades.

    After having a year to adapt to Longo’s fast-paced system, the Badgers are optimistic about matching the success his offense had in his previous stops.

    “It was humbling in a sense, for sure,” tight end Riley Nowakowski said Monday during Wisconsin’s Media Day event. “But I think we really used that to grow and hopefully prepare for this year.”

    Plenty of fanfare accompanied the arrival of Longo, who joined Wisconsin coach Luke Fickell’s staff after coaching NFL quarterbacks Sam Howell and Drake Maye at North Carolina.

    Wisconsin backers had grown accustomed to watching the Badgers run the ball as often as just about any major-conference team in the country. They savored the opportunity to watch the Badgers throw the ball a little more often, and they figured higher point totals naturally would follow.

    Longo’s offense was as balanced as advertised, as the Badgers threw the ball on 50.8% of their snaps. That’s the first time they had attempted more passes than runs since at least 1946, which is as far back as Wisconsin’s records on the subject go.

    But the production was lacking. Wisconsin finished 7-6 and scored just 23.5 points per game for its lowest average since 2004, when the Badgers went 9-3 despite compiling just 20.8 points per game.

    They expect things to be different in the upcoming season, which opens Aug. 30 against Western Michigan.

    “We still had coaches learning (last year),” Longo said. “I didn’t know where the restroom was until April, you know what I mean? And I had not worked with Fick on a day-to-day basis. And so this year, there’s none of that. This year, there’s a lot of familiarity.”

    Wisconsin could offer plenty of excuses for last year’s struggles.

    Running back Chez Mellusi played just four games before suffering a season-ending leg injury. Quarterback Tanner Mordecai missed three games with a broken right hand. A foot injury sidelined projected starting center Jake Renfro until the bowl game.

    Wisconsin’s offense finally started humming late in the season. The Badgers beat Nebraska and Minnesota before Mordecai closed his college career by throwing for 378 yards and three touchdowns in a 35-31 ReliaQuest Bowl loss to LSU.

    “It was the three games and the three weeks where I felt like I saw our guys playing instinctively,” Longo said. “I say that and I use that word all the time, and I truly believe that’s where they need to be. They’ve got to be able to grab a signal and line up and not have to do a whole lot of thinking.”

    The offense will try to build on that momentum with a new quarterback, as Tyler Van Dyke transferred from Miami to compete with Braedyn Locke. They’ll be throwing to a deeper receiving corps headed by Will Pauling, who caught 74 passes for 837 yards and six touchdowns last year.

    Fickell emphasized the need to spread the ball around more by saying that “I think we’re in trouble” if Pauling catches the same number of passes that he did last season.

    In the running game, Mellusi returns for a sixth season to share carries with Oklahoma transfer Tawee Walker, though the departure of New York Jets fourth-round pick Braelon Allen and his 3,494 career yards rushing leaves a major void. Four of Wisconsin’s likely first-team offensive linemen have made at least 19 starts.

    That line’s experience could prove critical. When Fickell was asked why he’s confident the offense will improve this year, he started his answer by citing the progress of tackles Jack Nelson and Riley Mahlman.

    “Both have made incredible strides,” Fickell said. “Jack was up and down last year. He had an incredible expectation for himself, just like we had for him, and he at times early on didn’t play up to the potential that he believed he had. I think it hurt him mentally in some ways. To see how those two guys have grown just in the last eight months makes me feel really good about where we’re starting.”

    And they feel good about this offense. Last season’s struggles haven’t lowered their faith in Longo’s scheme.

    “We’ve got a year under our belt to work out the kinks,” Nelson said. “Now it’s time to really hammer it. I’d say I’m even more confident now.”

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    AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/college-football

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  • Wisconsin Republicans ask voters to take away governor’s power to spend federal money

    Wisconsin Republicans ask voters to take away governor’s power to spend federal money

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    Wisconsin Republicans are asking voters to take away the governor’s power to unilaterally spend federal money, a reaction to the billions of dollars that flowed into the state during the COVID-19 pandemic.

    Democratic Gov. Tony Evers was free to spend most of that money as he pleased, directing most of it toward small businesses and economic development, angering Republicans who argued the Legislature should have oversight.

    That’s what would happen under a pair of related constitutional amendments up for voter approval in the Aug. 13 primary election. The changes would apply to Evers and all future governors and cover any federal money to the state that comes without specific spending requirements, often in response to disasters or other emergencies.

    Democrats and other opponents are mobilizing against the amendments, calling them a legislative power grab that would hamstring governors’ ability to quickly respond to a future natural disaster, economic crisis or health emergency.

    If the amendments pass, Wisconsin’s government “will become even more dysfunctional,” said Julie Keown-Bomar, executive director of Wisconsin Farmers Union.

    “Wisconsinites are so weary of riding the partisan crazy train, but it is crucial that we show up at the polls and vote ‘no’ on these changes as they will only make us go further off the rails,” she said in a statement.

    But Republicans and other backers say it’s a necessary check on the governor’s current power, which they say is too broad.

    The changes increase “accountability, efficiency, and transparency,” Republican state Sen. Howard Marklein, a co-sponsor of the initiative, said at a legislative hearing.

    The two questions, which were proposed as a single amendment and then separated on the ballot, passed the GOP-controlled Legislature twice as required by law. Voter approval is needed before they would be added to the state constitution. The governor has no veto power over constitutional amendments.

    Early, in-person absentee voting for the Aug. 13 election begins Tuesday across the state and goes through Aug. 11. Locations and times for early voting vary.

    Wisconsin Republicans have increasingly turned to voters to approve constitutional amendments as a way to get around Evers’ vetoes. Midway through his second term, Evers has vetoed more bills than any governor in Wisconsin history.

    In April, voters approved amendments to bar the use of private money to run elections and reaffirm that only election officials can work the polls. In November, an amendment on the ballot seeks to clarify that only U.S. citizens can vote in local elections.

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    Republicans put this question on the August primary ballot, the first time a constitutional amendment has been placed in that election where turnout is much lower than in November.

    The effort to curb the governor’s spending power also comes amid ongoing fights between Republicans and Evers over the extent of legislative authority. Evers in July won a case in the Wisconsin Supreme Court that challenged the power the GOP-controlled Legislature’s budget committee had over conservation program spending.

    Wisconsin governors were given the power to decide how to spend federal money by the Legislature in 1931, during the Great Depression, according to a report from the Legislative Reference Bureau.

    “Times have changed and the influx of federal dollars calls for a different approach,” Republican Rep. Robert Wittke, who sponsored the amendment, said at a public hearing.

    It was a power that was questioned during the Great Recession in 2008, another time when the state received a large influx of federal aid.

    But calls for change intensified during the COVID-19 pandemic when the federal government handed Wisconsin $5.7 billion in aid between March 2020 and June 2022 in federal coronavirus relief. Only $1.1 billion came with restrictions on how it could be spent.

    Most of the money was used for small business and local government recovery grants, buying emergency health supplies and paying health care providers to offset the costs of the pandemic.

    Republicans pushed for more oversight, but Evers vetoed a GOP bill in 2021 that would have required the governor to submit a plan to the Legislature’s budget committee for approval.

    Republican increased the pressure for change following the release of a nonpartisan audit in 2022 that found Evers wasn’t transparent about how he decided where to direct the money.

    One amendment specifies the Legislature can’t delegate its power to decide how money is spent. The second prohibits the governor from spending federal money without legislative approval.

    If approved, the Legislature could pass rules governing how federal money would be handled. That would give them the ability to change the rules based on who is serving as governor or the purpose of the federal money.

    For example, the Legislature could allow governors to spend disaster relief money with no approval, but require that other money go before lawmakers first.

    Opposing the measures are voting rights groups, the Wisconsin Democratic Party and a host of other liberal organizations, including those who fought to overturn Republican-drawn legislative maps, the League of Women Voters of Wisconsin and Wisconsin Faith Voices for Justice.

    Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, the state’s largest business lobbying group, and the Badger Institute, a conservative think tank, were the only groups that registered in support in the Legislature.

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  • What to watch as the Republican National Convention kicks off days after Trump assassination attempt

    What to watch as the Republican National Convention kicks off days after Trump assassination attempt

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    MILWAUKEE (AP) — The Republican National Convention starts Monday in Milwaukee, two days after Donald Trump was injured in an assassination attempt, with the violent scene at his campaign rally horrifying the country and amplifying already intense political divisions.

    Trump and his advisers are pledging resilience in the face of the attack, with plans going forward for the event to showcase the former president and his platform as his party formally chooses him to be its nominee.

    It was not immediately clear if and how Saturday’s attack would alter the four-day event, which normally has a celebratory atmosphere. Republican officials have said they want to defy the threat Trump has faced and stick to their plans and their schedule. But at the very least, the event is expected to include a heightened focus on security and a grim recognition of how stunningly close the presumptive Republican nominee came to losing his life.

    AP correspondent Jackie Quinn reports on the opening day of the Republican National Convention, just days after an apparent assassination attempt against Donald Trump.

    Here’s what to watch for on the first day of the Republican National Convention:

    How the attack impacts the tone of speeches

    The shooting has drawn bipartisan condemnation and bipartisan calls for unity. But it has also led to some Republicans blaming President Joe Biden, pointing to his words casting Trump as a threat to democracy. Some have demanded that prosecutors now drop the criminal cases Trump faces, including one in which he’s been convicted. Two other cases are pending and one was dismissed by a judge Monday.

    As elected officials, politicians and a few regular Americans address the conference, the question is which tone will prevail in the aftermath of the attack: Will it make speeches even more fiery or will calls for calm prevail?

    A show of GOP unity

    Even before the attempt on Trump’s life Saturday, Republicans were largely firmly aligned with him and planned to show party unity at the convention. But that message is expected to be even more pronounced as the former president and GOP officials look to project resolve, with Trump saying Sunday that “it is more important than ever that we stand United, and show our True Character as Americans, remaining Strong and Determined, and not allowing Evil to Win.”

    The show of unity is a departure from the party’s recent history. In 2016, the first time Republicans formally crowned Trump as their nominee, the opening day of their convention was marked by angry dissent from anti-Trump delegates on the floor of the event. After his turbulent presidency concluded with an insurrection at the U.S. Capitol by his supporters, his political standing seemed weaker than ever when he launched his third White House campaign in 2022. But Trump flattened a field of GOP challengers and his legal problems have galvanized his supporters.

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    Trump has still not named a running mate, and an announcement could come as soon as Monday. His top three contenders, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, are scheduled to speak to Republican delegates at some point this week, according to event organizers. And per tradition, the person Trump selects as his vice-presidential running mate is expected to give an address Wednesday night.

    Trump has compared his search for a new vice president to his former reality TV show, “The Apprentice,” leading to speculation that the showman might opt for an onstage reveal of his pick at the convention. He could also make the announcement on social media, as he did in 2016 when he selected Mike Pence to be his running mate.

    Greater focus on Harris as questions surround Biden

    Before the shooting, the 2024 race was rocked by upheaval among Democrats after Biden’s shaky debate performance last month led members of his party to start staging a public intervention calling for him to bow out as their nominee and raising the real possibility that Trump may be running against someone else.

    Republicans have long sought to paint Biden as incompetent, but since Biden’s campaign has become seriously questioned, Trump and the GOP have stepped up their criticisms of Vice President Kamala Harris. That’s expected to continue as the convention kicks off, with more references to “the Biden-Harris administration.”

    Economic policies to get spotlight

    The theme for Monday’s program is “Make America Wealthy Once Again,” according to Trump’s campaign and the Republican National Committee. Focusing on economics not only makes sense because it can be a key issue for swing voters, but it’s an area where Trump might have an edge over Biden when it comes to voter views on job creation and cost of living.

    Look for Republicans to focus on Trump’s proposals to impose higher tariffs on foreign-made goods along with extending the tax cuts he signed into law in 2017, which expire next year. Biden wants to extend the middle-class tax cuts while raising taxes on highly profitable companies and the richest Americans.

    Expect Republicans to also focus on inflation, even though the worst price spike in four decades is steadily fading, according to a new report from the Labor Department. Biden claims Trump’s tariffs would only aggravate the problem.

    Appeal beyond the base to moderates

    As Trump tries to win over undecided and middle-of-the-road voters, one of the key questions is to what degree he’ll feature some of the far-right characters in his orbit, his lies about his loss in the 2020 election, his calls for retribution against his opponents and his embrace of those who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

    Key messages of Trump’s third campaign for the White House have included venting his grievances from the past election and decrying his legal problems. He has said that if he’s elected president, he expects to pardon many of those arrested or convicted for their roles in the violent siege on the Capitol and has even played a song at his rallies that he recorded with some of the jailed defendants.

    Though candidates typically try to moderate their message as they move into the general election, Trump has rarely been typical — or moderate — and some of the messages he’s featured in his campaign could be jarring to the voters he’s looking to sway.

    Biden gets back to counterprogramming

    Biden is getting his own slice of the prime-time spotlight Monday when he appears in an interview on NBC with Lester Holt as he continues to try to reassure members of his party about his candidacy.

    He canceled a planned Monday trip to Texas and his reelection campaign temporarily suspended its television ads after Saturday’s shooting. But the pause in Democratic counterprograming to the Republican convention won’t last.

    After the NBC interview, he’ll fly later Monday to Nevada, where he will address the NAACP convention in Las Vegas on Tuesday and do an interview with the BET network.

    The president has made decrying Trump as a threat to democracy and the nation’s founding values a centerpiece of his campaign. He had to soften that message in the shooting’s immediate aftermath, but plans to use the trip to highlight what his campaign calls stark contrasts between himself and Trump.

    In addition to hoping to defuse some of the GOP criticism coming from Milwaukee, the campaign hopes the trip could help Biden reclaim standing with some Democrats who are still skeptical he’s up to the rigors of the campaign.

    ___

    Associated Press writer Will Weissert contributed to this report.

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  • Wisconsin’s top elections official for 2024 uncertain as incumbent’s term nears end

    Wisconsin’s top elections official for 2024 uncertain as incumbent’s term nears end

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    MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Who will oversee the 2024 presidential election in the critical battleground state of Wisconsin remains clouded with uncertainty just weeks before the state’s nonpartisan top elections official reaches the end of her term.

    Republicans who control the state Legislature could finally have a chance to oust the elections head they’ve sparred with over conspiracy theories and install their own appointee. But a recent state Supreme Court ruling appears to offer her an avenue to get around Republicans and stay in office.

    And that’s if Meagan Wolfe, administrator of the Wisconsin Elections Commission and one of the most respected election leaders in the nation, even wants to keep the job when her term ends on July 1. All across the country, election officials have left the profession after an unrelenting 2020 election cycle that brought unprecedented challenges related to the coronavirus pandemic but also an onslaught of harassment and death threats triggered by false claims about voting and elections.

    Wolfe has declined to comment on whether she plans to seek reappointment.

    The situation plays out as both parties are looking for every advantage they can get in Wisconsin, where the presidential winner has been determined by less than 1 percentage point in four of the last six elections. The outcome of the 2020 election in Wisconsin has withstood two partial recounts, a nonpartisan audit, a conservative law firm’s review, numerous state and federal lawsuits, and a Republican-ordered review that found no evidence of widespread fraud before the investigator was fired. The GOP-controlled Legislature has rejected attempts to decertify the results.

    Unlike most states, where partisan secretaries of state run elections, Wisconsin’s top elections official is the nonpartisan administrator of the statewide elections commission. This person plays a crucial role in carrying out decisions from a panel of six partisan commissioners and giving guidance to the more than 1,800 local clerks who actually run the state’s elections.

    The administrator can’t single-handedly reverse election results, or decide not to certify results, but a partisan appointee who embraces conspiracy theories about elections could cause significant trouble. Such an appointee could publicly promote election lies, push the limits of their freedom to interpret instructions from commissioners and hire partisan staff and legal counsel within the commission.

    Wolfe got the job in 2018 after her predecessor was rejected by the Senate. How she handled the 2020 election angered Republicans, who had voted unanimously in 2019 to confirm her. If she seeks reappointment when her term ends, “there’s no way” she will be confirmed by the state Senate, said Senate President Chris Kapenga, a Republican. Senate rejection of her confirmation carries the effect of firing her.

    “I will do everything I can to keep her from being reappointed,” Kapenga said. “I would be extremely surprised if she had any votes in the caucus.”

    If Wolfe’s position becomes vacant, election commissioners can recommend a new administrator for Senate approval. If 45 days pass without a nomination, a legislative committee controlled by Republicans can appoint a temporary administrator for up to a year.

    But for lawmakers to stall the process in order to install a partisan administrator is “extraordinarily hypothetical,” according to Kathy Bernier, a former Republican state senator and county election official who chaired the Senate elections committee during the 2020 election and was outspoken against claims of election fraud.

    “I don’t see that happening,” she said. “I think cooler heads prevail in the Legislature.”

    Republican Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu did not respond to an email asking about Wolfe’s reappointment. He also walked away from reporters after a Senate session last week without taking questions.

    In a statement, Wolfe called it “deeply disappointing that a small minority of lawmakers continue to misrepresent my work.”

    “Lawmakers should assess my performance on the facts, not on tired, false claims,” Wolfe said.

    If Wolfe wants to avoid the possibility of Senate Republicans rejecting her confirmation, she could decide to simply stay in office without asking for reappointment.

    A conservative majority on the state Supreme Court ruled last year that lawmakers can’t replace an appointed official until their position is vacant and that the end of a term is not a vacancy. The sweeping 4-3 decision allowed Republicans to maintain conservative control of policy boards by delaying votes for Democratic Gov. Tony Evers’ nominations.

    That path would raise unexplored legal questions, but the ruling appears to imply that Wolfe could only be removed by impeachment or a vote by a majority of the elections commissioners. Senate Republicans in April gained the two-thirds supermajority they need to convict an office holder at an impeachment trial.

    In addition to her more than 10 years working at the elections commission and its predecessor, Wolfe has served as president of the National Association of State Election Directors and chair of the bipartisan Electronic Registration Information Center, which helps states maintain accurate voter rolls and has been targeted by conspiracy theories.

    “Administrator Wolfe has done an outstanding job,” said Democratic Commissioner Ann Jacobs. “Wisconsin has been lucky to have her in this position for our recent elections.”

    Jacobs did not say whether she planned to vote for Wolfe’s reappointment.

    Following President Joe Biden’s victory in 2020, Republicans called on Wolfe to resign for carrying out a commission decision to send absentee ballots to voters in nursing homes, instead of sending special voting deputies to assist them as state law requires. Nursing homes were not allowing visitors at that time because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

    “I think in some ways that they think I’m an easy target — I’m not,” Wolfe said in response.

    Commissioner Bob Spindell, a Republican appointed by LeMahieu, said he would not be voting to reappoint Wolfe, even though “she’s been accused of a lot of things that were really not her doing.” Spindell, who served as a fake elector for Trump in 2020, came under fire earlier this year for bragging about decreased turnout among Black and Hispanic voters in the Democratic stronghold of Milwaukee.

    All four Republican candidates for governor last year supported either abolishing or overhauling the elections commission, saying it had failed as an agency. The Legislature’s powerful budget-writing committee last month killed a bipartisan plan to create a new office under the elections commission tasked with addressing voter complaints and building confidence in elections. Republicans instead signaled support for directing elections funding to local clerks.

    ___

    Harm Venhuizen 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. Follow Harm on Twitter.

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  • Wisconsin’s GOP-led Legislature to block meningitis vaccine requirement for students

    Wisconsin’s GOP-led Legislature to block meningitis vaccine requirement for students

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    MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The Republican-controlled Wisconsin Legislature on Wednesday plans to take the final step needed to stop Democratic Gov. Tony Evers’ administration from requiring 7th graders to be vaccinated against meningitis.

    The state Senate and Assembly plan to take action that would block the proposal. There is no current meningitis vaccination requirement for Wisconsin students.

    The Legislature’s vote would also make it easier for parents to get an exemption from a chicken pox vaccine requirement that is in place for all K-6 students. Evers’ administration wanted to require parents seeking a chicken pox vaccination exemption to provide proof that their child has previously been infected.

    The Advisory Council on Immunization Practices — experts who advise the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — has recommended that students get vaccinated against meningitis since 2005.

    However, some parents complained at a public hearing that the proposed requirements violated their liberties. Health officials said they were trying to protect students’ health.

    Meningitis is an infection of the brain and spinal cord that can also cause blood infections. It can be deadly or cause lifelong disability. Rates of the disease have declined in the United States since the 1990s and remain low in Wisconsin and across the country, according to the CDC.

    Vaccines for both meningitis and chicken pox are widely used and have been proven to be safe and effective.

    In March, a Republican-led legislative committee voted to block the proposed policy changes, just as it did two years ago and despite the objections of Democrats and health officials. The Legislature’s vote Wednesday is the final step needed to stop enactment of the policy.

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