Authorities in Michigan say multiple people were stabbed at a Walmart in Traverse City on Saturday, and the suspect is in custody.
Officials at Munson Medical Center in Traverse City said they had received 11 victims from the incident as of Saturday evening. The hospital did not provide their conditions.
The Walmart in Traverse City, Michigan, where authorities reported multiple people stabbed.
Courtesy Jerome Hartl
The suspect is in custody, Michigan State Police said in a statement posted on social media.
The Grand Traverse County Sheriff’s Office is investigating.
Authorities did not provide any other details including a possible motive.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said in a statement on X that she was monitoring the situation.
“I’m in touch with law enforcement about the horrible news out of Traverse City. Our thoughts are with the victims and the community reeling from this brutal act of violence,” she said.
State police asked people to avoid the area as the investigation continues.
The Walmart in Traverse City, Michigan, where authorities reported multiple people stabbed.
Courtesy Jerome Hartl
Traverse City, a city of about 16,000 people, is in northern Michigan, about 150 miles north of Grand Rapids.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
President Trump on Friday said he’s considering issuing rebate checks for Americans based on the billions in new tariff revenue collected by his administration.
“We’re thinking about a little rebate. But the big thing we want to do is pay down debt. But we’re thinking about a rebate,” Mr. Trump said in comments to reporters before he left for a four-day visit to Scotland.
Federal debt, which currently stands at more than $36 trillion, is projected to rise due to the new tax cuts and spending bill signed into law by Mr. Trump on July 4, according to forecasts from economists and public policy think tanks. The nation’s deficit could rise by $3.4 trillion over the next 10 years because of the impact of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the Bipartisan Policy Center said, citing estimates from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office and the Joint Committee on Taxation.
Mr. Trump added that the rebate could be “for people of a certain income level,” although he didn’t specify the threshold that he’s considering.
The federal government has collected about $100 billion in tariff revenue since the Trump administration instituted its higher import duties earlier this year, which could increase to $300 billion per year, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Fox Business’ “Mornings with Maria” on Tuesday.
Tariffs vary from country to country, but they’re paid by U.S. importers, such as Walmart, or manufacturers that import materials and components from other countries, like Ford Motor. So far, some companies have been swallowing the higher costs rather than passing them on to consumers, although the latest inflation report signaled that higher tariff rates may be edging into consumer prices.
Rebate checks have been floated by Mr. Trump previously, with the president saying in February he was considering using 20% of the savings from Elon Musk’s cost-cutting task force, the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, to provide direct payments to taxpayers. During the pandemic, taxpayers received three rebate checks — two under the first Trump administration, and the third under the Biden administration — aimed at offsetting the economic impact of the crisis.
Typically, such rebates are issued through the tax code, which would require Congress to pass new tax legislation authorizing the Treasury Department to issue checks.
Lawmakers earlier this month passed a massive tax and spending bill that was signed into law by Mr. Trump on July 4, which authorizes some new tax breaks, but doesn’t include a rebate based on tariffs.
Some of the bill’s new tax cuts are limited to low- and middle-income taxpayers. For instance, its new $6,000 deduction for senior citizens phases out for single taxpayers with incomes over $75,000 and married filers with earnings over $150,000.
Aimee Picchi is the associate managing editor for CBS MoneyWatch, where she covers business and personal finance. She previously worked at Bloomberg News and has written for national news outlets including USA Today and Consumer Reports.
Facebook banned a group of New York University researchers from the platform who were looking into its practices. The social media site said they violated its terms of service, but critics argue the platform is trying to sideline the review. CBSN tech reporter Dan Patterson joins CBSN AM to discuss.
Airdrops of aid will begin Saturday night in Gaza and humanitarian corridors will be established for United Nations convoys, the Israeli military said, amid increased international pressure and accounts of starvation-related deaths in the territory.
In a statement issued late Saturday, the Israeli Defense Forces said it has begun a series of actions “aimed at improving the humanitarian response” in the territory and to “refute the false claims of deliberate starvation in the Gaza Strip.”
The statement came after increasing accounts of starvation-related deaths in Gaza following months of experts’ warnings of famine. International criticism, including from close allies, has grown as several hundred Palestinians have been killed in recent weeks while trying to reach aid.
“The airdrops will include seven pallets of aid containing flour, sugar, and canned food to be provided by international organizations,” the statement said.
The IDF statement did not say when the humanitarian corridors for U.N. convoys would open, or where. The IDF also said it is prepared to implement humanitarian pauses in densely populated areas.
The statement also made clear “that combat operations have not ceased” in Gaza against Hamas. And it reiterated the IDF’s position that there is “no starvation” in the territory.
Palestinians wait in a queue to get hot meals distributed by aid organizations in Gaza City, Gaza.
Khames Alrefi/Anadolu via Getty Images
For months, the United Nations and experts have warned that Palestinians in Gaza are at risk of famine, with reports of increasing numbers of people dying from causes related to malnutrition. While Israel’s army says it’s allowing aid into the enclave with no limit on the number of trucks that can enter, the U.N. says it is hampered by Israeli military restrictions on its movements and incidents of criminal looting.
Since easing the blockade in May, Israel has allowed in around 4,500 trucks for the U.N. and other aid groups to distribute, including 2,500 tons of baby food and high-calorie special food for children, Israel’s Foreign Ministry said last week.
Israel on Saturday said over 250 trucks carrying aid from the U.N. and other organizations entered Gaza this week. About 600 trucks entered per day during the latest ceasefire that Israel ended in March.
Israel is facing increased international pressure to alleviate the catastrophic humanitarian crisis in Gaza. More than two dozen Western-aligned countries and more than 100 charity and human rights groups have called for an end to the war, harshly criticizing Israel’s blockade and a new aid delivery model it has rolled out.
For the first time in months, Israel said it is allowing airdrops, as requested by neighboring Jordan. A Jordanian official said the airdrops will mainly be food and milk formula.
Britain plans to work with partners such as Jordan to airdrop aid and evacuate children requiring medical assistance, Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s office said Saturday. His office did not give details.
“Israel must allow aid in over land to end the starvation unfolding in Gaza,” Starmer said in a post on X. “The situation is desperate. We are working with Jordan to get aid into Gaza. We are urgently accelerating efforts to evacuate children who need critical medical assistance to the UK for treatment. I am determined to find a pathway to peace.”
However, the planned airdrops won’t do much to help quench the severe food shortages, the head of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees warned.
“Airdrops will not reverse the deepening starvation,” UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini wrote on X on Saturday. “They are expensive, inefficient & can even kill starving civilians. It is a distraction & screensmoke.”
He said the “manmade hunger” can only be addressed by Israel lifting the restrictions on aid into Gaza and guaranteeing the “safe movements + dignified access to people in need.”
At least 53 Palestinians killed by Israeli gunshots and strikes
At least 53 people were killed by Israeli airstrikes and gunshots overnight and into Saturday, according to Palestinian hospital officials and the local ambulance service on Saturday, as ceasefire talks appear to have stalled.
Gunfire killed at least a dozen people waiting for aid trucks close to the Zikim crossing with Israel in the north, said staff at Shifa hospital, where bodies were taken. Israel’s military said it fired warning shots to distance a crowd “in response to an immediate threat,” and it was not aware of any casualties.
A witness, Sherif Abu Aisha, said people started running when they saw a light that they thought was from aid trucks, but as they got close, they realized it was Israel’s tanks. That’s when the army started firing, he told The Associated Press. He said his uncle was among those killed.
“We went because there is no food … and nothing was distributed,” he said.
Abdul Karim Foura, center, mourns over the body of his uncle, Mohammed Foura, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza Strip, outside the morgue of the Shifa Hospital, in Gaza City, Saturday, July 26, 2025.
Abdel Kareem Hana / AP
Elsewhere, those killed in strikes included four people in an apartment building in Gaza City, hospital staff and the ambulance service said. Another Israeli strike killed at least eight people, including four children, in the crowded tent camp of Muwasi in the city of Khan Younis in the south, according to the Nasser hospital, which received the bodies.
Also in Khan Younis, Israeli forces opened fire and killed at least nine people trying to get aid entering Gaza through the Morag corridor, according to the hospital’s morgue records. There was no immediate comment from Israel’s military.
The strikes come as ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas have hit a standstill after the U.S and Israel recalled their negotiating teams on Thursday, throwing the future of the talks into further uncertainty.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Friday his government was considering “alternative options” to ceasefire talks with Hamas. His comments came as a Hamas official said negotiations were expected to resume next week and portrayed the recall of the Israeli and American delegations as a pressure tactic.
Egypt and Qatar, which are mediating the talks alongside the United States, said the pause was only temporary and that talks would resume, though they did not say when.
For desperate Palestinians, a ceasefire can’t come soon enough.
Marwa Barakat, center, mourns during the funeral of her son Fahd Abu Hajeb, 36, who was killed while trying to reach aid trucks entering northern Gaza through the Zikim crossing with Israel, at Shifa Hospital, in Gaza City, Saturday, July 26, 2025.
Abdel Kareem Hana / AP
Latest child to starve to death weighed less than when she was born
The body of 5-month-old Zainab Abu Halib arrived at the pediatric department of Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza on Friday. She was already dead.
The girl had weighed over 3 kilograms (6.6 pounds) when she was born, her mother said. When she died, she weighed less than 2 kilograms (4.4 pounds).
Esraa Abu Halib shows to journalists a photo of her 5-month-old baby, Zainab, who died from malnutrition-related causes, according to the family and the hospital, as she stands outside the Nasser Hospital, in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Saturday, July 26, 2025.
Mariam Dagga / AP
A doctor said it was a case of “severe, severe starvation.”
Zainab was one of 85 children to die of malnutrition-related causes in Gaza in the past three weeks, according to the latest toll released by the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry on Saturday. Another 42 adults died of malnutrition-related causes in the same period, the health ministry said.
“She needed a special baby formula which did not exist in Gaza,” Zainab’s father, Ahmed Abu Halib, told The Associated Press.
Her mother, who also has suffered from malnutrition, said she breastfed the girl for only six weeks before trying to feed her formula.
“With my daughter’s death, many will follow,” Esraa Abu Halib said. “Their names are on a list that no one looks at. They are just names and numbers. We are just numbers. Our children, whom we carried for nine months and then gave birth to, have become just numbers.”
More than 100 people have died in Gaza from malnutrition since the war started, UNICEF said on Thursday, and 80% were children. The charity said screening in the Palestinian enclave had found 6,000 children in a state of acute malnourishment in June alone, marking a 180% increase since February.
A UNICEF spokesperson told CBS News on Saturday that its supply in Gaza of Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food, used for treating severely acutely malnourished children, is expected to run out in mid-August if more is not allowed in.
“We are now facing a dire situation, that we are running out of therapeutic supplies,” said Salim Oweis, a spokesperson for UNICEF in Amman, Jordan, told Reuters on Thursday.
“That’s really dangerous for children as they face hunger and malnutrition at the moment,” he added.
Astronomer — the company whose CEO resigned after being caught on a KissCam at a Coldplay rock concert embracing a woman who was not his wife — is trying to move on from the drama with someone who knows the band pretty well.
Actress Gwyneth Paltrow, who was married to Coldplay’s frontman Chris Martin for 13 years, announced Friday on X that she was hired by Astronomer as a “very temporary” spokesperson.
Astronomer, a tech company based in New York, found itself in an uncomfortable spotlight when two of its executives were caught on camera in an intimate embrace at a Coldplay concert — a moment that was then flashed on a giant screen in the stadium.
CEO Andy Byron and human resource executive Kristin Cabot were caught by surprise when Martin asked the cameras to scan the crowd during a concert earlier this month.
“Either they’re having an affair or they’re just very shy,” Martin joked when the couple appeared on screen and quickly tried to hide their faces.
In a short video, the “Shakespeare in Love” and “Ironman” star said she had been hired as a “very temporary” spokesperson for Astronomer.
“Astronomer has gotten a lot of questions over the last few days and they wanted me to answer the most common ones,” Paltrow said, smiling and deftly avoiding mention of the KissCam fuss.
“We’ve been thrilled that so many people have a newfound interest in data workflow automation,” she said. “We will now be returning to what we do best — delivering game-changing results for our customers.”
Byron resigned last week after the company said it had launched a formal investigation after the video of him went viral online. Cabot has also resigned from the company, an Astronomer spokesperson confirmed to CBS News on Thursday.
When footage from the KissCam first spread online, it wasn’t immediately clear who the couple was. Soon after, the company identified the pair. The video clip resulted in a steady stream of memes, parody videos and screenshots of the pair’s shocked faces filling social media feeds.
Online streams of Coldplay’s songs jumped 20% in the days after the video went viral, according to Luminate, an industry data and analytics company.
Just four years after a record-setting 2020 general election, voter turnout across California dipped in 2024, a downturn that included Orange County.
Much of the drop-off came from one side of the political fence, as Democrats, racial minorities and younger voters who participated in 2020 were among those most likely to sit out in 2024, according to election data compiled by USC’s Center for Inclusive Democracy.
That doesn’t make California, or Orange County, unique. It also doesn’t mean the 2024 election wasn’t a high turnout election; it was one of the most popular elections of the past century.
But, according to data from the nonpartisan Pew Research Center, turnout last year was significantly lower than it was in 2020, in California and the nation, with many people who participated in the first election choosing to sit out the second.
Let’s break down the numbers:
Statewide, nearly 16 million out of 25.8 million eligible voters cast ballots in 2024, a turnout of 62%, the data showed. That ratio is well under 2020, when 71% of eligible voters (more than 17.8 million out of about 25 million eligible voters) cast ballots.
The same trend was seen in Orange County, though the drop-off was less pronounced.
Overall, more than 1.4 million of the 2.1 million people eligible to vote in the county cast a ballot last year, a turnout rate of 66.9%. In 2020, the county saw more than 1.54 million votes cast and a turnout rate of 77.3%.
Also, the total number of county residents who cast ballots in 2020 but not in 2024 — 209,000 voters — represented 15.6% of the electorate, slightly less than the statewide drop-off rate of 17.3%.
So, who skipped Election Day in Orange County last year?
“While we saw voter turnout gains in the 2020 elections, especially among California’s voters of color, this new study confirms a reversal of that progress,” said Mindy Romero, the study’s lead author and director of the Center for Inclusive Democracy, a nonpartisan research group at the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy.
“Sadly, participation in our democracy continues to be low and disparate across the board, and even more significant for voters of color and youth voters.”
Broken down by race and ethnicity, the study found 23.2% of Latino voters in Orange County who participated in 2020 stayed home in 2024. The drop-off rate was second highest for Asian American voters, at 20.1%, followed by Black voters at 15% and White voters at 10.4%.
Statewide findings were similar, though 19.6% of Black voters who cast ballots in 2020 stayed home in 2024.
Broken down by age, younger voters were more likely than older voters to skip the 2024 election after participating in 2020, a trend seen in Orange County and across the state.
In the county, when tracking results by age, the center found the drop-off rates were:
• 30% for voters between the ages of 18 and 24,
• 27.9% for voters between the ages of 25 and 34,
• 18.5% for voters between the ages of 35 and 44,
• 13.7% for voters between the ages of 45 and 54,
• 11.1% for voters between the ages of 55 and 64, and
• 9% for voters who were 65 and older.
By gender, the drop-off rates in Orange County were 16% for men and 15.2% for women.
Voters in the county who registered as Democrats, or who chose no party preference, were more likely than others to sit out 2024. The 2020-to-2024 drop-off rate for no party preference voters was about 23% and about 15.7% for registered Democrats, while Republicans saw a drop-off rate of about 11%. (The drop-off rate for voters registered in other parties was about 19.1%.)
Romero suggested the drop-off numbers are skewed, slightly, by context. Though voter turnout in ’24 was well under the record numbers seen during the pandemic-era election of 2020, it was still high when compared with many previous elections.
She added that’s small comfort for people who believe democracy and robust voter participation are linked.
“The story is still disappointing and concerning because, for most Americans, thinking about 2024, it still (was) a critical election. How could people sit it out?” Romero said.
“But I think we have to think about it the other way,” she added.
“There are barriers every election cycle. And in 2020, things came together to bring more people out, and we just lost some of those people in 2024.
“So we have to look at the consistent barriers that are always in place that 2020 was able to overcome in some way that 2024 wasn’t.”
A key takeaway, she said, is that lower turnout typically most affects historically underrepresented groups.
Even in a state where ballots are mailed directly to every registered voter and where many counties, including Orange, operate multi-service vote centers for several days prior to Election Day, Romero said “barriers to participation will affect underrepresented communities more.”
Her solution is for the state to push even harder on voter outreach.
While California has worked to boost voting access — with universal mailed ballots and online voter registration, for example — Romero said people in some groups feel disconnected to the electoral process and, because of that, they’re less likely to cast ballots.
“We need to do more to build trust and engagement in our electoral processes to reverse this trend,” Romero said.
When newly elected President Barack Obama offered Hillary Clinton the job of Secretary of State in 2008, it was contingent on the Clintons signing an ethics agreement.
They had to agree to stop accepting new contributions from foreign governments to the Clinton Foundation or Clinton Global Initiative, to disclose all their donors, and to submit all of Bill Clinton’s paid speech offers and business activities to the Obama administration for pre-approval.
They signed, Hillary Clinton was confirmed as Secretary of State, and then she set up a private email server at her home and never used a government email account or State Department server for her official communications.
This meant that if the State Department received a request for records, it could search its files for a thousand years and never find the Secretary of State’s electronic correspondence, because it was on a private email server in her closet.
Why do you suppose she did that?
That’s what the House Select Committee on Benghazi wanted to know after the New York Times reported in March 2015 that Clinton had exclusively used a private email server during her 2009-2013 tenure at the State Department.
The FBI investigated. Just before the 2016 election, Director James Comey cleared Clinton of mishandling classified information, even though a trove of her emails had been discovered on a laptop computer owned by Anthony Weiner, the ex-husband of her top aide, Huma Abedin. The FBI had the laptop because it was investigating Weiner for sending sexual text messages to a 15-year-old girl.
During the summer of 2016, Clinton cooked up a plan to distract from all that. Later, the Federal Election Commission fined her campaign for reporting the expense of that plan incorrectly. “Opposition research” can’t be reported as “legal expenses.”
The plan produced what’s known as the Steele dossier. It was written by Christopher Steele, a former British intelligence agent hired by Clinton’s opposition research firm. This was the document that contained, among other things, the ludicrous story about prostitutes peeing on the bed in Donald Trump’s hotel room in Moscow. In June 2017, FBI Director James Comey told the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence that the material in the dossier was “salacious and unverified.”
The Clinton team also compiled phony technical data purporting to show a connection between the Trump Organization and Alfa Bank in Moscow. With Clinton’s approval, this was shared with the media, according to later testimony by her former campaign manager.
Here’s what Clinton advisor Jake Sullivan said in a news release in October 2016, one week before the election: “We can only assume that federal authorities will now explore this direct connection between Trump and Russia as part of their existing probe into Russia’s meddling in our elections.”
Federal investigators later concluded there were no improper links between Trump and Alfa Bank, but unless you were on the planet Mars for four years, it was hard to go a week without hearing someone on television talking about a “connection between Trump and Russia.” Jake Sullivan went on to become President Joe Biden’s national security advisor.
Now Donald Trump is back in the Oval Office with keys to all the file cabinets. And they’ve been opened.
On July 18, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard released newly declassified emails from December 2016, after Trump had been elected but while President Obama was still in control of the intelligence agencies and the FBI.
The emails reveal that the intelligence community had prepared a Presidential Daily Brief on December 8 with its analysis of Russian attempts to interfere in the election. It stated, “We assess that Russian and criminal actors did not impact recent U.S. election results by conducting malicious cyber activities against election infrastructure.” It noted that cyber criminals “tried to steal data and to interrupt election processes by targeting election infrastructure, but these actions did not achieve a notable disruptive effect.”
There was no assessment that Russia was trying to help Trump.
But just hours before that Presidential Daily Brief was to be published, when it would have been shared with the incoming president, the document was withdrawn due to “new guidance.”
The next day, President Obama directed his team to create a new Intelligence Community Assessment, or ICA.
Declassified reports now reveal that inside the CIA, there was sharp criticism of how this ICA was prepared, what it concluded, and the sources on which it relied for its key finding that Putin “aspired” to help Trump win the election. These sources included the discredited Steele dossier, attached as an annex to the ICA report. It had made its way from the Clinton campaign to the intelligence community.
On Dec. 9, the same day Obama ordered the new ICA, anonymously sourced stories appeared in the Washington Post, New York Times and on NBC News with these headlines:
“Secret CIA Assessment says Russia was trying to help Trump win White House.”
“Russian Hackers Acted to Aid Trump in Election, U.S. Says.”
“U.S. Officials: Putin Personally Involved in U.S. Election Hac
“The CIA has concluded in a secret assessment that Russia intervened in the 2016 election to help Donald Trump win the presidency, rather than just to undermine confidence in the U.S. electoral system, according to officials briefed on the matter,” reported the Post.
It was a vicious hoax, perpetuated for years, ruining innocent people, interfering with the governance of the nation.
Gabbard sent the declassified documents to the Department of Justice, where Attorney General Pam Bondi has assigned a “strike force” of investigators and prosecutors to review the material for possible criminal prosecutions.
You can read the documents at dni.gov. In addition, a newly declassified report on the FBI investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server is available on the website of Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, grassley.senate.gov.
Take nobody’s word for it. See for yourself.
Write Susan@SusanShelley.com and follow her on X @Susan_Shelley
Since the start of President Trump’s second term, the Department of Homeland Security’s social media team has published a stream of content worthy of a meme-slinging basement dweller on 4chan.
Grainy, distorted mug shots of immigrants. Links to butt-kissing Fox News stories about MAGA anything. Whiny slams against politicians who call out lamigra for treating the Constitution like a pee pad. Paeans to “heritage” and “homeland” worthy of Goebbels. A Thomas Kinkade painting of 1950s-era white picket fence suburbia straight out of “Leave It to Beaver,” with the caption “Protect the Homeland.”
All of this is gag-inducing, but it has a purpose — it’s revealing the racist id of this administration in real time, in case anyone was still doubtful.
In June, DHS shared a poster, originally created by the white-power scene, of a grim-faced Uncle Sam urging Americans to “report all foreign invaders” by calling Immigration and Customs Enforcement. On July 14, the DHS X account featured a painting of a young white couple cradling a baby in a covered wagon on the Great Plains with the caption, “Remember your Homeland’s Heritage.”
When my colleague Hailey Branson-Potts asked about the pioneer painting and the Trump administration’s trollish social media strategy, a White House spokesperson asked her to “explain how deporting illegal aliens is racist,” adding that haters should “stay mad.”
A blond white woman robed in — yep — white, with a gold star just above her forehead, floats in the center. She holds a book in her right hand and a loop of telegraph wire that her left hand trails across poles. Below her on the right side are miners, hunters, farmers, loggers, a stagecoach and trains. They rush westward, illuminated by puffy clouds and the soft glow of dawn.
The angelic woman is Columbia, the historic female personification of the United States. She seems to be guiding everyone forward, toward Native Americans — bare breasted women, headdress-bedecked warriors — who are fleeing in terror along with a herd of bison and a bear with its mouth agape. It’s too late, though: Covered wagon trains and a teamster wielding a whip have already encroached on their land.
The white settlers are literally in the light-bathed side of the painting, while the Native Americans are shrouded in the dusky, murky side.
It ain’t subtle, folks!
“A Heritage to be proud of, a Homeland worth Defending,” DHS wrote as a caption for “American Progress” — a mantra you may soon find printed on the $20 bill, the way this administration is going.
Gast finished his painting in 1872, when the U.S. was in the last stages of conquest. The Civil War was done. White Americans were moving into the Southwest in large numbers, dispossessing the Mexican Americans who had been there for generations through the courts, squatting or outright murder. The Army was ramping up to defeat Native Americans once and for all. In the eyes of politicians, a new menace was emerging from the Pacific: mass Asian migration, especially Chinese.
Scholars have long interpreted Gast’s infamous work as an allegory about Manifest Destiny — that the U.S. had a God-given right to seize as much of the American continent as it could. John L. O’Sullivan, the newspaperman who coined the term in 1845, openly tied this country’s expansion to white supremacy, expressing the hope that pushing Black people into Latin America, a region “already of mixed and confused blood,” would lead to “the ultimate disappearance of the negro race from our borders.”
O’Sullivan also salivated at the idea of California leaving “imbecile and distracted” Mexico and joining the U.S., adding, “The Anglo-Saxon foot is already on its borders. Already the advance guard of the irresistible army of Anglo-Saxon emigration has begun to pour down upon it, armed with the plough and the rifle.”
This is the heritage the Trump administration thinks is worth promoting.
Vice President JD Vance, center, speaks next to officials including, from left to right, HUD Regional Administrator William Spencer, U.S. Atty. for the Central District of California Bill Essayli, FBI Los Angeles Asst. Director Akil Davis, U.S. Border Patrol Sector Chief Gregory Bovino and ICE Field Office Director Ernie Santacruz at the Wilshire Federal Building in Los Angeles in June.
(Jae C. Hong / AP)
Administration officials act shocked and offended when critics accuse them of racism, but the Trump base knows exactly what’s going on.
“This is our country, and we can’t let the radical left make us ashamed of our heritage,” one X user commented on the “American Progress” post. “Manifest Destiny was an amazing thing!”
DHS seems to be vibing with the Heritage American movement, now bleeding into the conservative mainstream from its far-right beginnings. Its adherents maintain that Americans whose ancestors have been here for generations are more deserving of this nation’s riches than those whose families came over within living memory. Our values, proponents say, shouldn’t be based on antiquated concepts like liberty and equality but rather, the customs and traditions established by Anglo Protestants before mass immigration forever changed this country’s demographics.
In other words, if you’re white, you’re all right. If you’re brown or anything else, you’re probably not down.
Our own vice president, JD Vance, is espousing this pendejada. In a speech to the Claremont Institute earlier this month, Vance outlined his vision of what an American is.
“America is not just an idea,” Vance told the crowd. “We’re a particular place, with a particular people, and a particular set of beliefs and way of life.”
Weird — I learned in high school that people come here not because of how Americans live, but because they have the freedom to live however they want.
“If you stop importing millions of foreigners,” the vice president continued, “you allow social cohesion to form naturally.”
All those Southern and Eastern Europeans who came at the turn of the 20th century seem to have assimilated just fine, even as Appalachia’s Scots-Irish — Vance’s claimed ethnic affiliation — are, by his own admission, still a tribe apart after centuries of living here.
Trump, Vance added, is “ensur[ing] that the people we serve have a better life in the country their grandparents built.” I guess that excludes me, since my Mexican grandparents settled here in the autumn of their lives.
The irony of elevating so-called Heritage Americans is that many in Trumpworld would seem to be excluded.
First Lady Melania Trump was born in what’s now Slovenia. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is the child of Cuban immigrants. Vance’s wife’s parents came here from India. The Jewish immigrant ancestor of Trump’s deportation mastermind, Stephen Miller, wouldn’t be allowed in these days, after arriving at Ellis Island from czarist Russia with $8 to his name. Even Gast and O’Sullivan wouldn’t count as Heritage Americans by the strictest definition, since the former was Prussian and the latter was the son of Irish and English immigrants.
But that’s the evil genius of MAGA. Trump has proclaimed that he welcomes anyone, regardless of race, creed or sexual orientation (except for trans people), into his movement, as long as they’re committed to owning the libs.
Americans are so myopic about their own history, if not downright ignorant, that some minorities think they’re being welcomed into the Heritage Americans fold by Vance and his ilk. No wonder a record number of voters of color, especially Latinos, jumped on the Trump train in 2024.
“American Progress” might as well replace red hats as the ultimate MAGA symbol. To them, it’s not a shameful artifact; it’s a road map for Americans hell-bent on turning back the clock to the era of eradication.
Like I said, not a subtle message at all — if your eyes aren’t shut.
Craig J. Charron, who broke into his estranged girlfriend’s Huntington Beach apartment and fatally stabbed her on the day she changed the locks to keep him out, was sentenced Friday to 26 years to life in prison.
Laura Sardinha, 25, had been pursuing an online psychology degree with the hope of counseling women in abusive relationships. She had been trying to escape her relationship with Charron, who had perforated her eardrum in an earlier attack, and she had taken out a restraining order against him.
On Friday, three months after a jury convicted Charron of first-degree murder for her September 2020 death, Orange County Superior Court Judge Michael Cassidy called it a “senseless and brutal” crime and gave him the maximum sentence allowed by law.
“All Laura wanted was to be free of the abuse and the torment,” the victim’s mother, Marie Sardinha, told the judge. “This man should not be out in society. He should never be let out.”
The victim’s brother, Shawn Sardinha, said he had struggled to find reasons to live after his sister’s death.
“I now give updates of my life to a blue vase,” he said.
At trial, Charron, 39, described himself as an Air Force veteran and former combat medic with a 100% disability rating. He was receiving psychiatric treatment at the VA.
At the sentencing, Charron wore the green camouflage scrubs afforded to inmates who served in the military, and his lawyer said Charron had been participating in veterans programs at the county jail.
The victim’s father said he was a Vietnam veteran himself and hated any suggestion that Charron might get any leniency as a vet.
“It just makes me sick,” Manuel Sardinha told the judge. He recalled how she would play “The Twelve Days of Christmas” on the piano at the family home during the holidays. He said injuries from a 2019 motorcycle accident had derailed her ambition of culinary school, but she was planning to use the financial settlement to open a therapy practice.
Charron had been dating Sardinha just a few months. She had given him nearly $100,000 of the $750,000 she won in the accident settlement.
Two weeks before he killed her, she texted him to say that she could not hear because he had broken her eardrum. She complained that he kept hitting her. He told police her injuries were the result of “rough sex” and pressured her into dropping charges.
On the morning of her death, she recorded herself begging him to get out of her apartment, saying, “You terrify me, because you don’t leave.”
When he finally left, he bombarded her with calls and texts, which she ignored. Early that afternoon, at her request, a maintenance worker changed her locks, to keep him out.
Nevertheless, Charron somehow slipped back inside around 1:15 p.m. — it is not clear how — while she was on a three-way call with her mom and her best friend. They heard her cry, “Oh my God, he’s here.”
The friend hung up to call 911. Sardinha called her back and left a chilling 37-second voicemail, screaming, “He’s gonna kill me!”
His voice was eerily absent from the voicemail, which the prosecutor suggested was a function of his calculated, unhurried mindset in killing her.
She was dead when police arrived, with stab wounds to the chest and head. He had nearly sliced off her nose. Police found Charron with knife wounds to his chest and neck, which authorities suggested he inflicted on himself to create the fiction that she had attacked him.
Deputy District. Atty. Janine Madera said it did not matter whether he faked the wounds or she inflicted them on him in self-defense, since he was the clear aggressor, muscular and towering over her by 9 inches.
Three of Charron’s ex-girlfriends, who took out restraining orders against him, testified that he had assaulted them. One said he had choked her, a second that he slapped her, a third that he pinned her to a wall.
Charron claimed that his confrontation with Sardinha was “hazy” in his memory but that he acted in self-defense. Defense attorney Michael Guisti said his client’s violent history consisted of “non-murderous violence,” and that he may have acted in the heat of passion when he killed Sardinha.
Charron made no statement at Friday’s sentencing, and gave no apology.
Elon Musk may be bringing his robotaxis to the Bay Area soon to compete head-to-head with the other leaders in the driverless vehicle market.
Tesla plans to launch an invite-only service in the Bay Area as soon as this weekend, according to a Business Insider report citing an internal company memo.
The move comes about a month after Tesla robotaxis hit the roads in Austin, Texas. The vehicles, which are still being tested using human co-pilots to monitor their movements and help them get out of tough traffic situations, have drawn scrutiny for behaving oddly.
Musk has touted the abilities and potential of his company’s self-driving technology for years. The pressure to deliver on his promises has risen as Tesla’s electric vehicle sales decline.
The chief executive has increasingly banked the future of the company on a successful robotaxi service and developing other robotics, including the humanoid robot Optimus.
On Thursday, Musk shared a post on his social media platform X, discussing how Tesla’s latest self-driving software is able to take into account 10 times more parameters as it guides cars. In theory this should give vehicles more awareness of their surroundings to drive better.
On Wednesday, the company reported a 16% year-over-year decline in automotive sales for the second quarter. Total revenue fell 12% to $22.5 billion.
Musk faces a crowded field of competitors in the robotaxi space, including Waymo, which has operated in San Francisco since 2022 and began service in Los Angeles late last year. Waymo is owned by Google’s parent company Alphabet. Amazon is testing its own robotaxi effort, Zoox, in several cities.
In the U.S., Waymo is well ahead of the competition, having already completed millions of driverless rides. Its vehicles are operating without backup human co-pilots.
As Tesla scrambles to catch up, the company also faces a lawsuit from the Department of Motor Vehicles accusing Tesla of leading buyers to believe that its vehicles can operate autonomously. A semi-autonomous feature known as Full Self-Drive mode is widely available in Tesla vehicles, but it cannot be used without a human in the driver’s seat.
Several incidents have been reported by Tesla drivers using FSD, leading to a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration investigation that began last year.
Musk has lofty ambitions for the feature, claiming that one day customers will be able to sleep in the back of their Tesla as it drives across the country. Musk has also advertised an Uber-like service in which Tesla owners can earn money by deploying their autonomous vehicle as a taxi.
Last October, Musk unveiled a prototype for the Cybercab, a self-driving vehicle that lacks a steering wheel and pedals. Although he made promises that a fleet of Cybercabs would soon transport customers in several cities, the robotaxis currently operating in Austin are Model Y Teslas. Musk has not updated his timeline for launching the Cybercab.
Tesla shares have fallen more than 16% this year following a series of setbacks for the company, including brand damage and plateauing interest in electric vehicles.
Tesla fell out of favor with many potential buyers while Musk served a prominent role in the Trump administration earlier this year. His subsequent feuds with the president have further alienated customers, especially those who are liberal-leaning.
On an earnings call this week, Musk warned that the company could have “a few rough quarters,” partially in response to an expiring electric vehicle tax credit that makes it more affordable to purchase a new or used EV. The $7,500 credit will be eliminated at the end of September as dictated in President Trump’s recent megabill.
Tesla bull Dan Ives predicted that autonomous technology could be a $1 trillion venture for Tesla. Musk aims to have robotaxi services available to half the U.S. population by the end of 2025, Ives said in a note.
LOS ANGELES — Hopes for a big push from the Los Angeles Football Club heading into the Leagues Cup were dashed by an old friend on Friday night.
For the second time in a month and the third time this season, LAFC dropped three points at BMO Stadium, losing 1-0 to a Western Conference rival.
Angling to put some daylight between themselves and the visiting Portland Timbers, the Black & Gold instead fell flat against former teammate Maxime Crépeau and endured their second loss in a six-game stretch coming out of the FIFA Club World Cup.
Rather than vaulting toward the top of the table, LAFC (10-6-6, 36 points) has gone 3-2-1 since June 29, when it fell to Vancouver at home, and sits sixth in the West, a point behind the Timbers (10-7-7, 37 points) and 10 back of first-place San Diego (14-7-4, 46 points).
Capitalizing on a corner kick after a diving save by Hugo Lloris on a shot by David Ayala, Portland midfielder Cristhian Paredes slid into the middle of LAFC’s box and drilled a header that caromed off the far post for the Paraguayan’s first goal of the season and eventual game winner.
With Eddie Segura serving a one-match ban due to a red card he received against the Galaxy, and workhorse fullback Sergi Palencia back home in Spain as part of the process to receive his green card, LAFC’s makeshift defensive unit included Ryan Hollingshead, Artem Smoliakov, Nkosi Tafari and MLS debutant Kenny Nielsen.
A 5-foot-10 center back from Irvine who was drafted with the 57th overall pick out of Georgetown in the 2024 MLS SuperDraft, Nielsen signed with the first team in March from LAFC2, where he started 11 games this year.
Mobile and calm on the ball, Nielsen, 23, fit in well and played through the final whistle, completing 93% of his game-high 98 passes.
“Just to get thrown in like that is not easy,” LAFC head coach Steve Cherundolo said. “Kenny’s not 17 or 18 years old, but he certainly doesn’t have a whole lot of experience in MLS. So we were proud of the effort. He learned a lot this week in training in preparation for this game.”
Though the concern coming in for LAFC was along the backline, the offense struggled to create moments and did not put a shot on target in the first half.
Making his last appearance as an LAFC player, winger Javairô Dilrosun’s short-term loan from Club América ended quietly. Following the 27-year-old Dutchman’s seventh consecutive start for LAFC after arriving prior to the Club World Cup, Dilrosun heads back to Liga MX with two MLS goals.
Dilrosun’s departure means LAFC has two Designated Player slots to fill. With the MLS secondary transfer window lasting through Aug. 21, reinforcements can’t come quick enough.
“At some point the batteries are empty,” Cherundolo said of his short-handed group, which has shed available options due to departures and injury concerns in recent weeks.
Two nights after starting and recording an assist in the MLS All-Star Game in Austin, Texas, star forward Denis Bouanga, the lone remaining DP on the roster, experienced one of his quietest nights of the year.
The MLS leader in total shots played 90 minutes but, with fatigue bogging him down, did not put either of his two attempts on frame.
On the few occasions when LAFC was dangerous, however, Timbers goalkeeper Crépeau, who famously broke his leg with the Black & Gold in the triumphant 2022 MLS Cup final, stood tall.
Timbers head coach Phil Neville felt that Crépeau won the game for the visitors, but the 31-year-old Canadian international pointed to the entire team. “Everybody put in a shift,” he said, “and that’s why we won.” Reticent as Crépeau was to take the credit, Neville did have a point.
In the 56th minute, Crépeau defused LAFC’s best moment during the run of play when Smoliakov broke free down the left to deliver a hard pass across the face of goal. Nathan Ordaz struck it first time at point-blank range, however Crépeau laid out to deny the equalizer.
Twenty-two minutes later, Nielsen nearly stole the show when he lined up a bicycle kick inside the box that glanced off a defender’s face before Crépeau’s pure reaction save redirected the hopeful shot off the crossbar.
“In training I bring it out when I can, especially with the second team,” said Nielsen, who is the first player drafted by LAFC to start a match since Tristan Blackmon in 2021. “In games with them I’ve tried it a few times. Even at Georgetown I tried it. I wish it would have gone in tonight.”
The sequence preserved a third shutout for Portland in 19 all-time meetings against LAFC.
On the other end, Lloris, who assumed LAFC’s goalkeeping role after Crépeau and John McCarthy departed after 2023, kept his team in the game until the final whistle with a pair of strong saves in the second half. That wasn’t enough to prevent Portland’s first win at BMO Stadium in four years.
Portland Timbers goalkeeper Maxime Crépeau dives to make a save during an MLS match against LAFC on Friday night at BMO Stadium. Crépeau helped Portland to a 1-0 win against his former team. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)
There’s more than spiritual good news at a downtown Riverside church.
About twice a month, UC Riverside medical students run a free clinic from the site, bringing medical attention to those who need it.
The Riverside Free Clinic, which began 21 years ago, takes place at First Congregational Church, down the street from the Mission Inn.
Every other Wednesday evening, students oversee the clinic that sees patients, giving them the medical attention they need while providing experience to future physicians and medical professionals, a UCR news release states.
The clinic, a nonprofit organization, operates on donations and grants.
Eljohn Geoffrey Dela Cruz, a UC Riverside medical student, writes up his findings of a patient in the pews at First Congregational Church, where the clinic is held every other week, in Riverside on Wednesday, July 23, 2025. The free clinic is in its 21st year. (Photo by Terry Pierson, The Press-Enterprise)
UC Riverside medical student Alexis Perez, standing, talks with a patient during the biweekly Riverside Free Clinic on Wednesday, July 23, 2025, at First Congregational Church in Riverside. (Photo by Terry Pierson, The Press-Enterprise)
UC Riverside biology student Katie Yin prepares to serve food to patients on Wednesday, July 23, 2025, during the Riverside Free Clinic at First Congregational Church in Riverside. (Photo by Terry Pierson, The Press-Enterprise)
People wait outside to see doctors on Wednesday, July 23, 2025, during the Riverside Free Clinic at First Congregational Church in Riverside. The clinic has been helping the underinsured and unemployed in the community for 21 years. (Photo by Terry Pierson, The Press-Enterprise)
UC Riverside medical student Sanya Dhama, center, talks with a patient on Wednesday, July 23, 2025, during the biweekly Riverside Free Clinic at First Congregational Church in Riverside. (Photo by Terry Pierson, The Press-Enterprise)
UC Riverside medical student Eljohn Geoffrey Dela Cruz talks with a patient on Wednesday, July 23, 2025, during the biweekly Riverside Free Clinic at First Congregational Church in Riverside. (Photo by Terry Pierson, The Press-Enterprise)
UC Riverside biology students Katie Yin, left, and Kianna Le prepare food for patients on Wednesday, July 23, 2025, during the biweekly Riverside Free Clinic at First Congregational Church in Riverside. (Photo by Terry Pierson, The Press-Enterprise)
UC Riverside medical student Eljohn Geoffrey Dela Cruz, left, consults with Ryan Penaflor, a resident physician and surgeon, after seeing a patient on Wednesday, July 23, 2025, during the Riverside Free Clinic at First Congregational Church in Riverside. (Photo by Terry Pierson, The Press-Enterprise)
Riverside City College nursing students Joy Abousiaf, left, and Kaitlynn Veca talk while seeing a patient on Wednesday, July 23, 2025, during the Riverside Free Clinic at First Congregational Church in Riverside. (Photo by Terry Pierson, The Press-Enterprise)
UC Riverside students Diana Vargas Hope, left, and George Maida help a patient register on Wednesday, July 23, 2025, during the biweekly Riverside Free Clinic at First Congregational Church in Riverside. (Photo by Terry Pierson, The Press-Enterprise)
UC Riverside medical student Alexis Perez, standing, talks with a patient on Wednesday, July 23, 2025, during the biweekly Riverside Free Clinic at First Congregational Church in Riverside. (Photo by Terry Pierson, The Press-Enterprise)
1 of 11
Eljohn Geoffrey Dela Cruz, a UC Riverside medical student, writes up his findings of a patient in the pews at First Congregational Church, where the clinic is held every other week, in Riverside on Wednesday, July 23, 2025. The free clinic is in its 21st year. (Photo by Terry Pierson, The Press-Enterprise)
It offers free care that includes lab work, pharmacy, social services and health resources such as hygiene kits and lung health supplies. The clinic treats conditions such as arthritis, asthma, diabetes, hypertension, urinary tract problems. It also offers dental care.
The clinic uses doctors from UCR and elsewhere, as well as pharmacy and dental students from the Western University of Health Sciences in Pomona and nursing students from Riverside City College, the release states.
The Riverside Free Clinic is for patients who don’t have insurance, are underinsured or are unemployed and their children.
The next session is set for Wednesday, Aug. 6. Check-in begins at 5 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. for dental work. Patients are seen on a first-come, first-served basis.
ISLAMABAD — ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan on Friday urged global social media companies to take action to block hundreds of accounts allegedly run by outlawed militant groups that Islamabad claims spread propaganda and glorify insurgents in the South Asian country.
According to Pakistan’s Deputy Interior Minister Talal Chaudhry, groups such as the Pakistani Taliban and the separatist Balochistan Liberation Army — banned by the Pakistani authorities and also designated as terrorist groups by the United States — have been using X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, and Telegram to promote violence in Pakistan.
Chaudhry, who spoke to reporters at a news conference, urged the tech companies to remove or disable these accounts, as well as those run by supporters of the militant groups.
Deputy Law Minister Aqeel Malik, who also spoke at the new conference, said Pakistani investigators have identified 481 accounts associated with the Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan or TTP, and the Balochistan Liberation Army, or BLA.
The accounts were being used to incite violence and spread hate speech, Malik said.
There was no immediate response from any of the social media platforms to Pakistan’s request. Pakistan itself has in recent years blocked access to X, primarily to curb criticism from supporters of imprisoned former Prime Minister Imran Khan but also voices of other dissenters.
The plea comes amid a surge in violence across Pakistan, much of it blamed on the two militant groups, as well as the Islamic State group.
The Pakistani Taliban are allies but a separate militant group from the Afghan Taliban. However, the Taliban takeover of neighboring Afghanistan in 2021 has emboldened the TTP.
Militant groups also heavily rely on social media platforms to claim responsibility for attacks against security forces and civilians in Pakistan.
GREEN BAY, Wis. — Ed Policy began his tenure as the Green Bay Packers’ president/CEO by paying tribute to his predecessor.
Policy officially took over for Mark Murphy on Friday as the NFL’s only publicly owned franchise held its annual shareholders meeting. During Murphy’s 17 seasons on the job, the Packers made 13 playoff appearances, with the 2010 team winning a Super Bowl.
“I assure you that going forward I’m going to lean heavily on your example and your pearls of wisdom as I move the organization into the future,” Policy said.
Murphy is stepping down because he reached the franchise’s mandatory retirement age of 70 earlier this month. Murphy said he felt he could continue meeting the demands of this position but added that he agrees with the Packers’ retirement policy.
“In my career – business and with the league and others – you see examples where maybe people stay on a little too long, so I think this serves the Packers well,” Murphy said.
Policy, 54, didn’t focus much on his own plans during the shareholders meeting, which instead pretty much served as a testimonial for Murphy.
There were plenty of shouts of “Thank you, Mark,” among the 6,529 shareholders in the Lambeau Field stands. On a hot afternoon, many shareholders tried to cool themselves off by waving fans that featured Murphy’s face. A tribute video included messages from NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and former commissioner Paul Tagliabue among others.
Murphy signed autographs and greeted fans after the Packers’ Friday morning practice and again after the shareholders meeting.
“It’s a little bittersweet,” Murphy said. “Obviously, I’m a very appreciative and I also feel honored, too, that the fans have been so supportive of me and the organization. But (I’m) really excited too for the future of the organization and for Ed in particular.”
The Packers say Murphy, who played defensive back for Washington from 1977-84, is believed to be the only person to earn a Super Bowl ring both as a player and as a team’s chief executive. He was on Washington’s 1982 championship team.
His stint as Green Bay’s president/CEO included the construction of Titletown, a 45-acre development adjacent to Lambeau Field that features shops, restaurants and apartments.
He capped his tenure earlier this year by welcoming the NFL Draft to Green Bay, an event that drew an announced three-day total attendance of 600,000. Murphy also presided over multiple renovations to Lambeau Field, including the opening of a new home locker room this week.
“He’s been tremendous for us,” wide receiver Jayden Reed said. “I thanked him today, knowing this was his last day here, so I went up to him and I thanked him for everything. Without him, we wouldn’t be standing in this locker room right now. He’s been a tremendous help to all of us, very supportive. He gets this thing done. I appreciate him for that.”
Murphy said he hopes to stay involved in the game and noted that he’s talked to Goodell about things he’d like to do on a league level. He also mentioned spending more time with his family and increasing his involvement in his charity work and in the golf course he owns at Baileys Harbor, Wisconsin.
The Packers’ board of directors unanimously selected Policy as Murphy’s replacement after a search committee recommended him last year. Policy, the son of former San Francisco 49ers and Cleveland Browns president, joined the Packers as vice president and general counsel in August 2012 and was promoted to chief operating officer in January 2018.
“I want to thank you, our owners, for investing so much in me over the past 13 years,” Policy told the shareholders. “It’s been really special, and I intend to pay it back with results both on and off the field.”
Packers coach Matt LaFleur, general manager Brian Gutekunst and executive vice president/director of player operations Russ Ball report to the president/CEO under the team’s leadership structure. All three of them have two years remaining on their contracts.
Policy said earlier this year he has no plans to extend those contracts before this season, though he praised all three men and noted his long working relationships with them.
“(I’m) certainly going to miss Mark and everything that he’s done for this place, but feel like we’re in great hands with a guy like Ed Policy,” LaFleur said.
Murphy was asked what advice he had for Policy.
“The one thing I told him is he’s got to be himself,” Murphy said. “I’ve seen him grow quite a bit as a leader. The search ended up with him. They did a great job. There’s no question he’s positioned and ready to have success.
“He and I have talked about it. Don’t be afraid to change things. Follow your instincts. He’s got really good business sense. Hopefully we put him in a position where he can have success not only in the short term but the long term of the organization.”
NOTES: LaFleur said OL Aaron Banks is “day to day” with a back issue. … Rookie WR Savion Williams didn’t practice Friday due to a concussion.
For female state lawmakers in Kentucky, choosing when to go to the bathroom has long required careful calculation.
There are only two bathroom stalls for women on the third floor of the Kentucky Statehouse, where the House and Senate chambers are located. Female legislators — 41 of the 138 member Legislature — needing a reprieve during a lengthy floor session have to weigh the risk of missing an important debate or a critical vote.
None of their male colleagues face the same dilemma because, of course, multiple men’s bathrooms are available. The Legislature even installed speakers in the men’s bathrooms to broadcast the chamber’s events so they don’t miss anything important.
In a pinch, House Speaker David Osborne allows women to use his single stall bathroom in the chamber, but even that attracts long lines.
“You get the message very quickly: This place was not really built for us,” said Rep. Lisa Willner, a Democrat from Louisville, reflecting on the photos of former lawmakers, predominantly male, that line her office.
The issue of potty parity may seem comic, but its impact runs deeper than uncomfortably full bladders, said Kathryn Anthony, professor emerita at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign’s School of Architecture.
“It’s absolutely critical because the built environment reflects our culture and reflects our population,” said Anthony, who has testified on the issue before Congress. “And if you have an environment that is designed for half the population but forgets about the other half, you have a group of disenfranchised people and disadvantaged people.”
There is hope for Kentucky’s lady legislators seeking more chamber potties.
A $300 million renovation of the 155-year-old Capitol — scheduled for completion by 2028 at the soonest — aims to create more women’s restrooms and end Kentucky’s bathroom disparity.
The Bluegrass State is among the last to add bathrooms to aging statehouses that were built when female legislators were not a consideration.
In the $392 million renovation of the Georgia Capitol, expanding bathroom access is a priority, said Gerald Pilgrim, chief of staff with the state’s Building Authority. It will introduce female facilities on the building’s fourth floor, where the public galleries are located, and will add more bathrooms throughout to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
“We know there are not enough bathrooms,” he said.
There’s no federal law requiring bathroom access for all genders in public buildings. Some 20 states have statutes prescribing how many washrooms buildings must have, but historical buildings — such as statehouses — are often exempt.
Over the years, as the makeup of state governments has changed, statehouses have added bathrooms for women.
When Tennessee’s Capitol opened in 1859, the architects designed only one restroom — for men only — situated on the ground floor. According to legislative librarian Eddie Weeks, the toilet could only be “flushed” when enough rainwater had been collected.
“The room was famously described as ‘a stench in the nostrils of decency,’” Weeks said in an email.
Today, Tennessee’s Capitol has a female bathroom located between the Senate and House chambers. It’s in a cramped hall under a staircase, sparking comparisons to Harry Potter’s cupboard bedroom, and it contains just two stalls. The men also just have one bathroom on the same floor, but it has three urinals and three stalls.
Democratic Rep. Aftyn Behn, who was elected in 2023, said she wasn’t aware of the disparity in facilities until contacted by The Associated Press.
“I’ve apparently accepted that waiting in line for a two-stall closet under the Senate balcony is just part of the job,” she said.
“I had to fight to get elected to a legislature that ranks dead last for female representation, and now I get to squeeze into a space that feels like it was designed by someone who thought women didn’t exist — or at least didn’t have bladders,” Behn said.
The Maryland State House is the country’s oldest state capitol in continuous legislative use, operational since the late 1700s. Archivists say its bathroom facilities were initially intended for white men only because desegregation laws were still in place. Women’s restrooms were added after 1922, but they were insufficient for the rising number of women elected to office.
Delegate Pauline Menes complained about the issue so much that House Speaker Thomas Lowe appointed her chair of the “Ladies Rest Room Committee,” and presented her with a fur covered toilet seat in front of her colleagues in 1972. She launched the women’s caucus the following year.
It wasn’t until 2019 that House Speaker Adrienne A. Jones, the first woman to secure the top position, ordered the addition of more women’s restrooms along with a gender-neutral bathroom and a nursing room for mothers in the Lowe House Office Building.
As more women were elected nationwide in the 20th century, some found creative workarounds.
In Nebraska’s unicameral Legislature, female senators didn’t get a dedicated restroom until 1988, when a facility was added in the chamber’s cloakroom. There had previously been a single restroom in the senate lounge, and Sen. Shirley Marsh, who served for some 16 years, would ask a State Patrol trooper to guard the door while she used it, said Brandon Metzler, the Legislature’s clerk.
In Colorado, female House representatives and staff were so happy to have a restroom added in the chamber’s hallway in 1987 that they hung a plaque to honor then-state Rep. Arie Taylor, the state’s first Black woman legislator, who pushed for the facility.
The plaque, now inside a women’s bathroom in the Capitol, reads: “Once here beneath the golden dome if nature made a call, we’d have to scramble from our seats and dash across the hall … Then Arie took the mike once more to push an urge organic, no longer do we fret and squirm or cross our legs in panic.”
The poem concludes: “In mem’ry of you, Arie (may you never be forgot), from this day forth we’ll call that room the Taylor Chamber Pot.”
New Mexico Democratic state Rep. Liz Thomson recalled missing votes in the House during her first year in office in 2013 because there was no women’s restroom in the chamber’s lounge. An increase in female lawmakers — New Mexico elected the largest female majority Legislature in U.S. history in 2024 — helped raise awareness of the issue, she said.
“It seems kind of like fluff, but it really isn’t,” she said. “To me, it really talks about respect and inclusion.”
The issue is not exclusive to statehouses. In the U.S. Capitol, the first restroom for congresswomen didn’t open until 1962. While a facility was made available for female U.S. Senators in 1992, it wasn’t until 2011 that the House chamber opened a bathroom to women lawmakers.
Jeannette Rankin of Montana was the first woman elected to a congressional seat. That happened in 1916.
Willner insists that knowing the Kentucky Capitol wasn’t designed for women gives her extra impetus to stand up and make herself heard.
“This building was not designed for me,” she said. “Well, guess what? I’m here.”
___
Associated Press writer Brian Witte in Annapolis, Maryland, contributed.
____
The Associated Press’ women in the workforce and state government coverage receives financial support from Pivotal Ventures. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.
LONDON — The European Medicines Agency has recommended authorizing a twice-yearly injectable drug aimed at preventing HIV, which scientists say could help end the virus’ transmission.
In a statement on Friday, the EU drug regulator said its evaluations of lenacapavir, sold as Yeytuo in Europe by Gilead Sciences, showed the drug is “highly effective” and “considered to be of major public health interest.” Once the regulator’s guidance is accepted by the European Commission, the authorization is valid in all 27 EU member countries as well as Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein.
Last year, studies suggested that lenacapavir, already used to treat people with HIV, was nearly 100% effective in stopping transmission in both women and men.
Winnie Byanyima, executive director of the U.N. AIDS agency, has said the drug “could change the trajectory of the HIV epidemic” if it is made available to everyone who needs it.
In June, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration authorized lenacapavir to prevent HIV. Earlier this month, the World Health Organization recommended countries offer the drug as an additional option to people at risk of the virus.
Condoms help guard against HIV infection if used properly. Other medication aimed at preventing HIV include daily pills that people can take and another injectable drug called cabotegravir, which is given every two months. Lenacapavir’s six-month protection makes it the longest-lasting type, an option that could attract people wary of more visits to health clinics or stigma from taking daily pills.
Critics have raised concerns, however, that lenacapavir may not be made widely enough available to stop global outbreaks of HIV. Drugmaker Gilead has said it will allow cheap, generic versions to be sold in 120 poor countries with high HIV rates — mostly in Africa, Southeast Asia and the Caribbean.
But it has excluded nearly all of Latin America, where rates are far lower but increasing, sparking concern the world is missing a critical opportunity to stop the disease.
Last year, there were about 630,000 AIDS deaths worldwide and more than 40 million people are estimated to have HIV, according to UNAIDS.
UNAIDS chief Byanyima has previously suggested that President Donald Trump make a deal with Gilead to produce and license its “magical” prevention drug lenacapavir across the world to the millions of people who need it.
___
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
President Donald Trump took questions about the Epstein probe as he landed in Scotland for his four-day trip.
When asked directly whether he was ever briefed about his name appearing in the Epstein files, Trump said, “No,” adding that he was “never briefed.”
President Donald Trump speaks to members of the media on his arrival at Glasgow Prestwick Airport, in Prestwick, Scotland, Britain, July 25, 2025.
Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters
According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, Attorney General Pam Bondi and her deputy Todd Blanche informed Trump in May that his name appeared multiple times in the Epstein files that the Department of Justice and the FBI reviewed.
Trump was also informed that the names of many other high-profile individuals appeared in the documents, which the Journal reported was not evidence of wrongdoing.
The president, according to the Journal, said he would defer to the Justice Department’s decision not to release additional files.
Last week, Trump told ABC News that Bondi gave his team “just a very quick briefing.”
-ABC News’ Lalee Ibssa, Michelle Stoddart and Katherine Faulders
The new normal for U.S. tariffs on foreign goods starts at 15%. Even as President Trump seeks to forge new terms of trade with Japan, the European Union and other global economic partners, he is raising the floor for tariffs to their highest level in decades.
Speaking at an AI summit on Wednesday, Mr. Trump said “we’ll have a straight, simple tariff of anywhere between 15% and 50%,” conditioning the lower rate on countries opening their economies to the U.S.
The White House has said sharply higher tariffs could take effect on dozens of countries as soon as Aug. 1 unless they ink new trade deals. The Trump administration has a separate negotiating timeline with China, which faces an Aug. 12 deadline for an agreement.
As these new rules of international commerce take shape, companies across a range of industries are emphasizing that higher tariffs translate into higher operational costs — and higher prices for consumers.
For example, Nestlé on Thursday said it was considering hiking prices for candy bars and other products as tariffs threaten to eat into the food company’s profit margins. The same day, Italian fashion brand Moncler said it has already hiked prices for its apparel to offset additional tariff-related costs. And General Electric said this week that proposed U.S. tariffs, should they take effect, would cost the company around $500 million in 2025, noting that it would move to offset those taxes through “cost controls and pricing actions.”
Orange juice importer Johanna Foods has gone a step further, this week filing a lawsuit against the Trump administration over its proposed 50% tariff on Brazil, which the New Jersey company said would seriously hurt its business and force it to hike product prices by up to 25%.
The White House disputes that higher U.S. tariffs will drive up costs for businesses and consumers.
“The administration has consistently maintained that the cost of tariffs will be borne by foreign exporters who rely on access to the American economy, the world’s biggest and best consumer market,” White House spokesman Kush Desai told CBS MoneyWatch in a statement.
Desai also pointed to a recent analysis by the White House’s Council of Economic Advisers that he said shows import prices falling this year.
Price hikes not “instantaneous”
Economists warn that consumers should brace for higher prices on a range of goods, from leather products and clothing to electronics and automobiles, later this year.
“Up to now there has been only limited passthrough from tariffs into final consumer prices, but we still expect the impact to gradually mount in the second half of this year,” Paul Ashworth, chief North America economist with Capital Economics, told investors in a research note. “Now that the Trump administration is concluding deals that would see the tariff rate facing most trading partners settling at between 15% and 20%, with even higher rates levied on Chinese imports, we suspect retailers will be forced to finally raise the prices paid by consumers.”
Inflation in the early part of 2025 remained fairly contained. That’s because many companies and consumers accelerated their purchases of imported goods to avoid the risk of paying more if, or when, steep new tariffs take effect.
Meanwhile, in the short-term, sharply higher prices are unlikely across the board, according to trade experts.
“When you open up the hood of that, it’s not going to be even across all categories of spending,” Ernie Tedeschi, director of economics at the Budget Lab at Yale, told CBS MoneyWatch. “It’s categories of spending where we import more that are going to be more sensitive to tariffs.”
But over the longer term, an increased baseline tariff, coupled wtih higher levies on individual countries, is projected to drive up U.S. prices by 2% over the next two years, according to an analysis from the Yale Budget Lab.
“This isn’t an instantaneous, ‘We wake up the next morning and the world is different,'” Tedeschi added.
But as the new U.S. tariff regime becomes embedded in global supply chains, some import-heavy product categories could see especially sharp price increases, he said. Specifically, foreign-made leather shoes and handbags, along with apparel, could see prices spike by at least 40%, while the cost of electronics could jump more than 20%, according to the Yale Budget Lab.
Megan Cerullo is a New York-based reporter for CBS MoneyWatch covering small business, workplace, health care, consumer spending and personal finance topics. She regularly appears on CBS News 24/7 to discuss her reporting.
The most downloaded free app on Apple’s App Store currently isn’t ChatGPT, Threads or Google. It’s Tea, a dating advice app that lets women review men they’ve gone out with, as well as warn other single women about dates they claim went awry.
Tea Dating Advice, an app for helping women vet their dates, is also a top app on the Google Play Store, where it’s been downloaded more than 100,000 times.
The app’s maker says it offers a measure of security for users that traditional dating apps don’t. Tea doesn’t match singles with potential dates; rather, it’s a place for women to share information about men they’ve dated. Tea lets users run background checks on potential matches, check to see if they have criminal records or appear on sex offender databases, and more, all through the app.
The app also ensures that users who sign up are women by requesting that they submit a selfie for verification. That’s aimed at protecting users against so-called catfishing schemes, in which people create fake online personas, often as part of a scheme to defraud others.
Tea declined to comment for this article.
Safety in numbers
To be sure, most of the features that Tea offers already exist. Social media forums, such as the Facebook group called “Are we dating the same guy?,” also let women compare notes about their dates in a community forum. The main difference: scale. Tea has more than 1.6 million users, according to its website.
“What this app seems to be doing is centralizing all that into one very large community,” Doug Zytko, an associate professor at the University of Michigan-Flint who researches human-computer interactions for safety, told CBS MoneyWatch.
Zytko, who has extensively studied dating app designs, said that safety “has not been prioritized” for most such tools in the market, which he said helps explain why Tea has struck a chord with women.
“The dating app safety features that exist are largely reactive in nature. They’re not about keeping people safe, but are punitive actions one can take after something has occurred,” he added.
Zytko also acknowledged the concerns of some men, voiced on forums like Reddit, that Tea users could share false information about them.
“If inaccurate information about a man is being shared, that damages his dating prospects and social reputation,” Zytko said. “That’s scary, but it’s not a reason to discount the app.”
Another potential risk is one common to all social media platform, and digital information more broadly. Tea confirmed to CBS News that its app was hacked Friday morning, with bad actors accessing a data storage system containing information, including selfies, that members had uploaded prior to February 2024.
Additionally, hackers accessed almost 60,000 images from posts, plus comments and direct messages, the company said.
“Tea has engaged third-party cybersecurity experts and are working around the clock to secure its systems,” the company said in a statement, noting that it is investigating the incident. “At this time, there is no evidence to suggest that additional user data was affected.”
Megan Cerullo is a New York-based reporter for CBS MoneyWatch covering small business, workplace, health care, consumer spending and personal finance topics. She regularly appears on CBS News 24/7 to discuss her reporting.
George Santos, the disgraced former congressman from New York, surrendered himself to a federal prison on Friday to start serving his more than seven-year sentence for fraud.
Santos reported to the Federal Bureau of Prisons at the Federal Correctional Institution in Fairton, New Jersey.
The Federal Bureau of Prisons did not disclose where Santos would serve his sentence before it started. The bureau says locations are determined based on the level of supervision, medical or programming needs, security measures and proximity to a person’s residence.
Santos told his followers he planned to request solitary confinement in prison prior to his sentencing.
Federal prosecutors said in their sentencing memo that he “made a mockery of our election system” and used a “wholly fictitious biography to enrich himself and capture one of the highest offices.”
His offenses ranged from getting a vendor to forge a Baruch College diploma to presenting false financial disclosures to Congress claiming he was a multi-millionaire. He was also accused of faking donations in the names of relatives, creating a fake nonprofit to solicit donations and running a credit card fraud scheme to steal from elderly and cognitively impaired donors.
Santos then spent those donations on luxury items from Hermès and Ferragamo, Botox, a rent payment and other accommodations in Atlantic City and the Hamptons, according to campaign files, bank records and other documents released by the House Ethics Committee.
“From the moment he declared his candidacy for congress, Santos leveraged his campaign for his own enrichment and financial benefit,” U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York John Durham said after the sentencing. “He did this by targeting specific supporters and constituents. He saw them as easy marks and he made them victims of his fraud.”
After the sentencing, he posted a lengthy statement on X, which read in part, “I believe that 7 years is an over the top politically influenced sentence and I implore that President Trump gives me a chance to prove I’m more than the mistakes I’ve made. Respectfully, George Santos.”
The White House said this week it “will not comment on the existence or nonexistence” of any clemency request.
Who is George Santos? Fast rise and fall in the Republican party
The first charges were filed against him in May 2023, with more to follow that October. The House Ethics Committee then released a scathing 56-page report detailing the extent of his misconduct.
Renee Anderson is a digital producer at CBS New York, where she covers breaking news and other local stories. Before joining the team in 2016, Renee worked at WMUR-TV.
It’s time to retire the outdated image of the typical college student: fresh out of high school, moving into a dorm and late-night study sessions. Today’s college classroom looks very different, and increasingly, it doesn’t involve a classroom at all.
Across the country, a revolution is underway. More than 7.8 million college students in the U.S. are 25 years old or older, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. That’s roughly one in three undergraduates. These adult learners are parents who are putting their kids through school while pursuing their own education, workers pivoting their careers and first-generation students seeking economic mobility.
Yet many traditional institutions still aren’t meeting them where they are.
The problem: A system that leaves adults behind
Community colleges have long served as a gateway to higher education for working adults. However, data from the 2025 National Student Clearinghouse Research Center indicate that the “some college, no credential” (SCNC) population has grown to 43.1 million adults.
For these learners, life doesn’t pause for college. Yet, too often, traditional college models ask them to stop everything else to pursue a degree.
The nonprofit Jobs for the Future (JFF) outlines the structural barriers that adult learners face, including inflexible class schedules, poor recognition of prior learning and financial strain that leads to debt without a degree. These barriers contribute to lower retention and completion rates among older students.
The adult learner population isn’t just growing; it’s essential to the future of the U.S. economy. There’s also substantial interest in adult workers wanting to increase their skills. According to a study, “State of Higher Education 2024 Report” by the Lumina Foundation and Gallup, 94% of adults surveyed say at least one form of postsecondary credential is very valuable. Meanwhile, the percentage of adults not enrolled in a postsecondary program who are considering enrolling has increased from 44% in 2021 to 59% in 2024.
Likewise, 46% of Americans believe they need additional education to advance their careers, and 53% of adults without degrees say they are likely or very likely to pursue more education in the next five years.
Many of these adults are in jobs threatened by automation or economic shifts. Helping them reskill or upskill is critical for filling talent gaps in healthcare, cybersecurity, teaching and other high-demand sectors.
Western Governors University’s (WGU) flexible, workforce-aligned model helps close this gap. With more than 386,600 graduates and 191,000 currently enrolled students, it’s one of the largest graduating universities in the U.S.
Built for today’s learners
This is where WGU is changing the game. Founded in 1997 by a bipartisan group of U.S. governors, WGU is a nonprofit, accredited online university specifically designed for working adults.
Its model is competency-based. Students progress by demonstrating mastery of the subject matter, not by sitting in class for a set number of weeks. That allows them to move quickly through content they already know from work, certifications or military experience.
“We’re focused on measuring learning, not time,” says Rick Benbow, WGU’s Regional Vice President in the West. “That’s a fundamental shift from how most institutions operate, and it puts the student in control of their success.”
Benbow has spent his career working to expand access to education. For him, the shift in who college serves is personal and urgent.
“Adult learners have always been here,” says Benbow. “What’s changed is that we’re finally recognizing their value, not just as students, but as workers, parents and leaders.”
Benbow points to prior learning assessments (PLAs) as a turning point. “Valuing mastery gained outside the classroom reduces delays and cuts education costs, offering a meaningful step toward equity.”
As higher ed rethinks its purpose, Benbow believes WGU is part of a broader movement. “The students who come to us are doing the hard work of transformation. We owe it to them to meet that effort with a system that works.”
According to WGU’s 2023 Annual Report, more than 70% of WGU students come from underserved backgrounds, including first-generation college students, people of color and low-income adults. The university also awards credit for industry certifications, on-the-job training, military service and prior college coursework.
Most WGU bachelor’s degree graduates finish in under 2.5 years while working full-time. Tuition is paid by a six-month term, not by credit. You pay one low price for as many courses as you complete in a term toward a single degree program.
“It’s about honoring the skills people already have,” says Benbow. “When we recognize prior learning, we’re not just saving time and money. We’re validating experience. That builds confidence and creates opportunity.”
Workforce-aligned, career-focused
WGU doesn’t ask students to take a leap of faith. Its programs are developed in close partnership with employers and focus on high-demand fields such as IT, healthcare, business and education.
And the results speak for themselves: according to a 2024 WGU Gallup Alumni Survey conducted for WGU, alumni saw a median income increase of nearly $15,000, from about $75,000 while enrolled at WGU, to $90,000–affirming that their education was worth the cost.
Notable employers hiring WGU alums include Apple, Deloitte, Facebook (Meta), the American Red Cross and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
A blueprint for the future of college
As more adult learners seek alternatives to the traditional path, WGU is proving that another way is not only possible, it’s working.
“Institutions that don’t adapt to this demographic shift are going to get left behind,” says Benbow. “We’re seeing a profound change in who the college is for, and we have to meet that moment.”
For millions of adults across California and beyond, WGU offers a flexible, affordable and career-focused pathway built with them in mind.
As the higher education landscape continues to evolve, WGU stands as a blueprint for what’s next: a college experience that finally fits the lives and ambitions of today’s learners and prepares them for the future.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The House Ethics Committee on Friday told Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to make additional payments for her attendance at the 2021 Met Fashion Gala, where she drew attention for wearing a dress adorned with the message “tax the rich.”
The ethics panel, which found the New York Democrat had underpaid for some of the services and clothing for the event, also issued reports Friday on unrelated ethics allegations against Reps. Mike Kelly of Pennsylvania, Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick or Florida and Henry Cuellar of Texas.
In a 31-page report on the allegations against Ocasio-Cortez, the Ethics Committee said she had tried to comply with House rules on accepting gifts but failed by “impermissibly accepting a gift of free admission to the 2021 Met Gala for her partner and by failing to pay full fair market value for some of the items worn to the event.”
As a guest of Vogue, Ocasio-Cortez and her partner received tickets to the gala valued at $35,000, as well as customized clothing, hair and makeup styling and a hotel room to prepare for the high-society event.
The congresswoman worked with an attorney to comply with House ethics rules and paid for most of the goods and services with personal funds, but the ethics panel found “the payments were significantly delayed and some payments fell short of fair market value.”
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – SEPTEMBER 13: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Aurora James attend The 2021 Met Gala Celebrating In America: A Lexicon Of Fashion at Metropolitan Museum of Art on September 13, 2021 in New York City. (Photo by Mike Coppola/Getty Images)
In a statement, Ocasio-Cortez’s chief of staff, Mike Casca, said: “The Congresswoman appreciates the Committee finding that she made efforts to ensure her compliance with House Rules and sought to act consistently with her ethical requirements as a Member of the House. She accepts the ruling and will remedy the remaining amounts, as she’s done at each step in this process.”
Rep. Mike Kelly
The House Ethics Committee issued a formal reproval Friday of Rep. Mike Kelly, R-Pa., following a yearslong investigation into an insider-trading allegation over his wife’s purchase of stock in a steel company in his Butler-area congressional district.
The panel also said Kelly and his wife, Victoria Kelly, should divest of any stock in the company, Cleveland-Cliffs, before the congressman takes any further official actions related to it.
FILE – Rep. Mike Kelly, R-Pa., speaks during a hearing on the Secret Service’s security failures regarding the assassination attempts on President-elect Donald Trump, Dec. 5, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)
While the committee said it “did not find evidence” that Kelly “knowingly or intentionally caused his spouse to trade based on insider information,” its report also said it “did not receive full cooperation from Mrs. Kelly and was therefore unable to determine whether her stock purchase was improper.”
However, the report said, “Representative Kelly’s failure to acknowledge the seriousness of the alleged misconduct” and of the investigation itself was a violation of the code of official conduct. The committee did “not find a clear violation” of conflict of interest.
The congressman said in a statement Friday, “My family and I look forward to putting this distraction behind us.”
Kelly noted the investigation has “unnecessarily” lasted for nearly five years, and in the time since the Cleveland Cliffs Butler Works plant faced an uncertain future.
“Throughout this process, I have fought for the 1,400 workers at the plant, I’ve spoken with these workers, and they appreciate the hard work we have done to fight for those jobs and for Butler,” Kelly said.
The investigation was launched after a July 2021 referral regarding allegations the congressman’s wife may have purchased stock based on confidential or nonpublic information he had learned during official duties.
The Ethics Committee staff reviewed more than 25,000 pages of documents, the report said, and interviewed people including the congressman. It found Kelly had advocated for so-called Section 232 tariffs for the product the plant produced even after Mrs. Kelly held stock in Cleveland-Cliffs.
“He took several actions to specifically benefit Cleveland-Cliffs during the time his wife had a direct financial interest in the company,” it said.
Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick
The House Ethics Committee announced Friday it had unanimously voted to reauthorize an investigative subcommittee to examine allegations involving Florida Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick.
In May, the Office of Congressional Ethics referred several allegations to the House Ethics committee, including claims Cherfilus-McCormick, a Democrat, accepted campaign contributions tied to official actions and requested community project funding for a for-profit entity.
FILE – Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, D-Fla., speaks at an event, July 7, 2022, in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee, File)
The south Florida congresswoman has previously faced scrutiny over her campaign activities and the use of her congressional office. And earlier this year, a Florida state agency sued a company owned by her family, alleging it overcharged the state by nearly $5.8 million for pandemic-related work and has refused to return the funds.
In a statement, Cherfilus-McCormick underscored that the ethics panel had not reached any final decision and that the further review does not mean she made any violations.
“I fully respect the process and remain committed to cooperating with the Committee as it works to bring this inquiry to a close,” she said.
Rep. Henry Cuellar
The House Ethics Committee also reauthorized its investigation into Rep. Henry Cuellar over whether he engaged in multiple illegal abuses of his office. The committee launched its investigation into the Texas Democrat last year after the Justice Department indicted Cuellar on numerous federal charges, including bribery, conspiracy and money laundering.
FILE – U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, speaks during a campaign event, May 4, 2022, in San Antonio. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)
The committee said in its reauthorization that lawmakers are “aware of the risks associated with dual investigations” and cautioned that “the mere fact of an investigation into these allegations does not itself indicate that any violation has occurred.”
Cuellar’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Associated Press writers Joey Cappelletti and Matt Brown contributed.
We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking “Accept”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies.
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously.
Cookie
Duration
Description
cookielawinfo-checkbox-analytics
11 months
This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-functional
11 months
The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary
11 months
This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-others
11 months
This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance
11 months
This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance".
viewed_cookie_policy
11 months
The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data.
Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features.
Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.
Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.
Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads.
