The last Salem witch has been exonerated, thanks to an eighth ...

CNN —

It’s never too late to right a historical wrong – even if that restoration of justice comes nearly 330 years later.

Elizabeth Johnson Jr., a woman convicted of witchcraft during the Salem witch trials in the 1690s, was finally exonerated last week after years of petitioning by Massachusetts teacher Carrie LaPierre and her eighth-grade civics students. Justice came in the form of a brief addition to the 2023 state budget.

Johnson was accused of witchcraft in 1692 along with more than 200 other women and men in Salem. Of those convicted, 19 were hanged and four others died in prison – Johnson was set to be executed, too, but was later spared.

And yet, during Johnson’s lifetime and over the centuries that followed, her name was never actually cleared. It wasn’t until Carrie LaPierre, an eighth-grade civics teacher at North Andover Middle School, came across her story and involved her students in her case that Massachusetts legislators took notice.

How to exonerate a convicted witch, 300-plus years later

North Andover, a town in northeastern Massachusetts, is only about 40 minutes from Salem. But until she’d read a book on local witches by historian Richard Hite, LaPierre said she had no idea how the Salem witch trials reverberated in the North Andover area – and it was within those pages that she learned of Johnson.

While many other convicted witches were exonerated, many of them posthumously, the late Johnson – or “EJJ,” as LaPierre and her students called her – had “somehow been overlooked while all other convicted witches had been exonerated over the years,” LaPierre told CNN in an email.

Details of Johnson’s life are slim, but her family was a major target of the Salem witch trials, driven by hysteria, Puritanical rule and feuding between families. She was one of 28 family members accused of witchcraft in 1692, according to the Boston Globe.

In this illustration, a young woman accused of witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts, tries to defend herself in front of Puritan ministers. MPI/Getty Images

Johnson made a compelling confession during a court examination: She said that another woman, Martha Carrier, “perswaded her to be a witch” and that Carrier told her she “Should be Saved if she would be a witch,” according to a 1692 document digitized by the University of Virginia’s Salem Witch Trials Documentary Archive.

Some of the details of her story were sordid and mortifying to Salem’s residents: Johnson said the devil appeared to her “like two black Catts,” and she named several other people in Salem whom she said were involved in witchcraft. She also showed her knuckles, where it appeared fellow “witches” had “suckt her,” according to the 1692 examination document.

For her “crimes,” Johnson was sentenced to death at age 22, as the Boston Globe reported last year, but she was given a reprieve by the governor at the time (whose wife had also been accused of witchcraft).

In 1711, after state officials realized they’d had little evidence to convict and execute or imprison women (and some men) for witchcraft, they exonerated many of those who’d been convicted or even hanged, including John Proctor, later one of the protagonists in Arthur Miller’s play “The Crucible.”

Johnson’s name, though, was omitted from this list. So in 1712, she petitioned Salem to be included in the act, which provided restitution to families of the accused.

In the letter, she asked “That the Honourable Court would please to allow me Something in consideration of my charges by reason of my Long Imprisonment, which will be thankfully acknowledged as a great favour.”

Why, exactly, Johnson was left out is unclear. But LaPierre decided, after connecting with the North Andover Historical Society, LaPierre that taking up the case of a long-dead “witch” and clearing her name could be an engaging project for her students – a real-life application of civics in action.

Johnson is the last Salem witch to be exonerated

So LaPierre’s eighth-graders set out on exonerating EJJ, petitioning the Massachusetts legislature with the hopes that a lawmaker would introduce a bill to clear her name. Eventually, after three years and “numerous disappointments,” one state senator heard them – Diana DiZoglio sponsored an amendment to the state budget this year to add Johnson’s name to an existing resolution that exonerated other “witches” by name.

Some of the women who were hanged during the Salem witch trials have been memorialized. Stephan Savoia/AP/File

All that petitioning and bureaucratic navigating was instructive for her eighth-grade classes, but LaPierre said “the long-lasting lessons are probably more important: Standing up for justice, advocating for those who cannot do so for themselves, recognizing that their voices have power in the community and the world, and understanding that persistence is necessary to achieve their goals.”

The amendment adds Johnson’s name to a 1957 resolution that exonerated several people convicted of witchcraft – and so, finally, Johnson’s wish for absolution was granted.

But the work for LaPierre continues: She’ll have to find a new project for her incoming eighth-graders now that Johnson’s case is closed. She’s leaving it up to her students this year to determine the issues they care about and the courses of action they’ll take to address them.

Whatever her students choose to tackle this year, witches are likely off the table: Johnson is the final woman convicted in the Salem trials to be exonerated. And with that, LaPierre and her class ended a chapter in history that began centuries ago.

Why Connecticut is seeking justice for convicted witches | The Week ...

The names of people accused of witchcraft more than 350 years ago in colonial Connecticut may be cleared at last following a long-running campaign by their descendants and lawmakers.

The state’s judiciary committee is considering “wiping the slate clean” after hearing testimony last week about a House Joint Resolution that would exonerate those who were tried for witchcraft, said NBC Connecticut. Between 1647 and 1697, at least 34 people were accused, of whom 11 – nine women and two men – were hanged.

Addressing the public hearing, state representative Jane Garibay, who introduced the resolution, said: “These were not witches. They were people, women who were executed for electing to wear certain clothing or being too assertive.”

Along with murder, kidnapping and treason, witchcraft was among a list of 12 capital crimes adopted by colonial Connecticut in 1642. Five years later, a mother-of-once called Alse Young became the first person recorded to have been executed for witchcraft in colonial America. But now, said The Economist, “her absolution may be nigh”.

Allegations of witchcraft “could result from things like contracting an illness, having a crop failure or experiencing a marital dispute”, said The New York Times. “Women were the most often accused, and a single witness could be enough to accuse someone.”

Not everyone agrees with the reprieves currently being considered. Pointing out that the trials took place while Connecticut was under British rule, Republican state senator John Kissel said: “I’m concerned about the path we are taking if we have to go and redress every perceived wrong in our history.”

There is precedent for the historical redress, however. Two years ago, a class of schoolchildren in North Andover, Massachusetts, “led an effort that resulted in the exoneration of a woman who had been accused of witchcraft during the Salem Witch Trials”, said The New York Times. “Now it’s Connecticut’s turn to atone.”

Freed death-row inmate looks for new beginning

Natalie DiBlasio, USA TODAY

After serving nearly 20 years%2C Damien Echols finds a home in Salem%2C Mass.

%22It%27s the freakiness of it all%2C%22 he says of the historic city

Lead member of the %27West Memphis 3%27 is now free and reflecting on life as a persecuted outsider

SALEM, Mass.— He went from an accused devil-worshiping witch on Arkansas' death row to living in the land of persecuted witches.

For 18 years and 78 days, Damien Echols lived mainly on death row, a decade of that in solitary confinement, for one of Arkansas' most notorious crimes — the murders of three 8-year-old Boy Scouts. Echols and two other men convicted in the killing became known as The West Memphis 3.

Now 38, he's free again after DNA evidence shed new light on the case. He walks the streets of Salem, a community still shadowed by the Salem Witch Trials more than 300 years ago. Witch memorials and cemeteries stand between local businesses and restaurants. Here, he says, he fits in.

"It's the only place we considered living," Echols says, dressed in all black with tattoo-covered arms and dark sunglasses tucked behind his long black hair. "It's the freakiness of it all. Salem has an incredibly high degree of acceptance for anything outside the norm."

The murders of the three boys — Steve Branch, Michael Moore and Christopher Byers — continue to be a polarizing question for many. In July of 2007, new DNA evidence was presented that could not place Echols and his co-defendants at the scene. But it fell short of clearly exonerating them.

The state would not grant the three men a new trial. However, prosecutors offered Alford deals, meaning the men did not admit guilt but agreed that prosecutors had enough information to win a conviction.

Scott Ellington, a district prosecuting attorney for the Second Judicial District of Arkansas who handled the Alford plea deal, says no one can be sure of Echols' guilt or innocence.

"People are divided. A lot of people believe they are guilty and should still be in jail," Ellington says. "But many of those understand that retrying a 20-year-old case would be nearly impossible. ... It's probably 10 to 1. For every 10 contacts we have saying 'exonerate the West Memphis 3,' we get one saying 'How do you sleep at night knowing that you let three murderers go free?'"

And so, Echols has found his way here, to Salem. In the 17th century, more than 200 people were accused of practicing witchcraft and 20 were executed during the mass witch hunt hysteria in Salem. Following the trials and executions, many involved in the cases publicly confessed their errors and in 1957, the state of Massachusetts officially apologized for the trials.

Echols says he identifies with the witch trials, which for many, epitomize paranoia and injustice in the judicial system.

"Just the level of persecution," Echols says softly. "They sentenced me to death — and it was the exact same thing. They accused me of being a Satanist, of committing human sacrifices and all these things which were the exact same things as the people back then. Fortunately they weren't able to kill me like they were the people they hung here."

When he was 19, Echols was sentenced to execution by lethal injection for being the ringleader of the infamous West Memphis 3. His two friends, Jason Baldwin then 16 and mentally impaired, and Jesse Misskelly Jr., 17, were sentenced to life in prison. The three were let out of prison in 2011, after more than 18 years of incarceration.

Salem, Echols says, is a spiritual Mecca for people who are different. "Pretty soon after those trials, whenever they killed people that they accused of witchcraft, they realized pretty quickly afterwards – 'oh we messed up' and they're not eager to do the same thing again – it's like they learned their lesson back then."

Echols now lives in a historic 18th century home with his wife, Lorri Davis, 49, whom he met and married while on death row. Davis first reached out to Echols after she saw a documentary about the case. They married in a Buddhist ceremony in a prison visiting room in 1999. It was the first time the two had ever touched.

While Salem residents are overwhelmingly supportive of Echols, with some strangers even approaching him to ask for a hug, the 20-year-old controversial case still captivates the nation.

The 8-year-olds were found dead, naked and hogtied with their own shoelaces in the Robin Hood Hills area of West Memphis in May of 1993.

Prosecutors believed that the crime was part of a Satanic ritual which led them to suspect Echols, a teenager who practiced the Wiccan brand of witchcraft and who dressed in black. He had a passion for heavy metal metal and the occult.

The case garnered the attention of celebrities including actor Johnny Depp, Natalie Maines of the Dixie Chicks and Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder, who came out in support of the West Memphis 3. HBO produced a series of documentaries bringing the case into the public eye.

Despite intense pressure from celebrities and the public, the state would not grant the men a new trial. However, prosecutors offered the plea deal.

Echols says he was told, "You can sit in prison, hope you survive all this time and maybe have a chance of suing the state or you can sign the agreement and maybe go home before the week is out."

About a week later Echols walked off of death row and was a free man -- nearly. "We aren't really free," Echols says.

Echols, Baldwin, and Misskelley all have three murder convictions on their record as part of the conditions of the release. The criminal record restricts their right to travel and the Alford plea mandates that they are not allowed to sue the state for anything having to do with the case.

Todd and Dana Moore, parents of Michael Moore, one of the murdered Boy Scouts, maintain that Echols, Baldwin and Misskelley are guilty and should not have been let out of prison.

In November of 2011, the couple requested that a documentary about the killings be excluded from Academy Award consideration. They made the request in a letter sent Nov. 22 to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' documentary division. In it, the Moores argue that Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory glorifies Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley, who were released from prison in August after their sentences were set aside and they pleaded guilty to lesser charges.

"Because of public pressure that exploded due to gross misrepresentations of fact in the two previous documentaries, Michael's killers were unjustly able to enter into a plea agreement, were released from prison and now pose additional threats to society," the Associated Press quoted the letter as saying.

"We implore the Academy not to reward our child's killers and the directors who have profited from one of the greatest frauds ever perpetrated under the guise of a documentary film."

Nevertheless, life is moving forward for Echols and Davis in Salem. The couple is currently writing a book about their correspondence while he was in prison.

Tuesday, his new book, Life After Death, hits the stands, recounting his life story and detailing the trial and his years in prison.

Echols has also opened up a business just blocks from his home where he practices Hermetic Reiki, a form of energy healing, that he learned in prison.

"In prison there's almost no medical care, there's no dental care, there were times when I was in prison – especially on death row -- they aren't gonna spend a lot of time and money and energy on someone they plan on killing," Echols says. "There were times I got so sick I didn't think I'd make it through the night. The only thing I had to rely on was mediation and energy work."

Echols says his interest in alternative forms of spiritual practice stems back to his childhood and is one of the reasons he was targeted as an outcast in Arkansas.

"The reasons I was persecuted in the first place are what saved my life and are now what allow me to help myself and other people," Echols says.

For Echols, it won't be over until all three men are exonerated.

"I think it will eventually happen but it won't happen if we don't keep working for it," he says.

Now, Echols is pushing for an investigation into the murder of the three boys with the support of Lord of the Rings directors Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh, Steve Braga, Lonnie Soury and Rachael Geiser.

"I don't know who did this," Echols says. "We shouldn't have to say who did this. We should be able to allow the evidence to speak for itself."

NY attorney general's office says it's nearly done unraveling Trump's ...

New York CNN —

Lawyers for the New York State Attorney General’s Office said they are nearly finished with their civil investigation into the Trump Organization, after taking steps to unravel the real estate company’s assets that they described as being as complex as a “Russian nesting doll.”

They still want to search two cell phones belonging to former President Donald Trump and the laptop and desktop of his longtime executive assistant Rhona Graff, but investigators told a judge this week they’re moving quickly.

“The process is near the end,” Kevin Wallace, senior enforcement counsel at the New York State Attorney General’s Office, said Monday.

A third-party firm hired to search the Trump Organization’s files had identified 151 custodians, or people or entities, that might have documents sought by the attorney general’s office, but Wallace said they are focusing on the “most important outstanding pieces of information” because the clock is ticking for it to file a lawsuit.

The statute of limitations for various laws under consideration goes back several years, but the tolling agreement with the Trump Organization that paused the clock expires on Saturday. Even as the agreement expires, it could still be several weeks before the attorney general’s office decides its next step in the investigation.

The comments came during a court hearing Monday, when New York state Judge Arthur Engoron held Trump in civil contempt and fined him $10,000 per day for failing to comply with a subpoena for documents relating to New York’s investigation into the Trump Organization’s finances. (Trump appealed the order Wednesday.)

Lawyers for the New York State Attorney General’s Office provided a glimpse into their investigation, which has spanned three years, after the judge asked them to explain what is taking so long and where it is heading.

“Given the upcoming end of the tolling agreement we will likely need to bring some kind of enforcement action in the near future to preserve our rights,” Wallace said. He noted that before they file the attorney general’s office has agreed to meet with the Trump Organization attorneys and “allow them to make their case” and discuss what any “appropriate resolutions might look like.”

In addition to the tolling agreement’s expiration, evidence may become stale and memories may fade, Wallace noted. “Counsel is in favor of moving as quickly as we can.”

The civil investigation has been hanging over Trump for several years. He has been focused on the investigation that threatens his family business, calling Attorney General Letitia James “racist” and accusing her of pursuing him for political gain.

The attorney general’s office has already said in court filings that it believes there were misleading statements and omissions in Trump’s financial statements that were provided to lenders and insurers and used for tax benefits. Trump has called the investigation a witch hunt, and he and the company have denied any wrongdoing.

The judge previously ordered Trump, Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump to sit for depositions. The Trumps have appealed and it’s unclear when a decision will come. Eric Trump was deposed in 2020 and asserted his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination more than 500 times. Last month, at the attorney general’s request, the judge ordered the Trump Organization to comply with subpoenas by Friday.

Wallace said that since the Trump Organization isn’t cooperating with the investigation, the office started off with an “unguided tour” using the financial statements provided to Congress by Trump’s former personal attorney Michael Cohen in February 2019. What the lawyers found, he said, was a company that doesn’t have the processes and controls normally found in regulated industries, like banking. The Trump real estate business – which is large going by the amount of golf courses, condos, hotels and office space it owns – is run as a small family operation.

“The company relies more on its people than its systems,” Wallace said. There are 500 different entities, millions of dollars moving around and different accounting practices and statements depending on the business unit, he said.

The attorney general’s office served the first of six subpoenas to the Trump Organization in December 2019, Alina Habba, an attorney for Trump, said at the hearing Monday. To date, she said, millions of pages of documents have been turned over and 13 employees of the Trump Organization interviewed. Those include Allen Weisselberg, who served as chief financial officer for decades; Alan Garten, the Trump Organization’s general counsel; and Jeffrey McConney, the controller; along with McConney’s deputy and other employees in finance, according to court filings.

One example of the complexity of the business is Trump’s golf course in Jupiter, Florida. Wallace said they’ve been pulling on strands to understand whether it was “presented fairly” in Trump’s financial statements.

He said the golf club, which was purchased in 2012 for $5 million, was bundled in the financial statement in a $2 billion bucket of club assets. There were no footnotes detailing what was included in the bundle. The supporting papers indicated Trump valued the course at $46 million. Next, investigators searched to determine where the additional $41 million value came from, which he said prompted them to head down additional investigative paths.

“These issues repeat across clubs,” Wallace said. “Each of these assets is like a Russian nesting doll.”

Habba said, “There were multiple layers and multiple people because that’s how real estate companies operate.”

The financial statements at the heart of the attorney general’s investigation, she said, were an unaudited compilation by a family-owned company.

“These are sophisticated banks and companies,” she said. “No one was lending us money without their own vetting.”

“Quite honestly, I would love to go into the particulars of my client’s properties, some of which are grossly undervalued, but I don’t think we’re at that stage yet,” Habba argued.

District attorney investigation

Separately, a special grand jury in New York seated to hear evidence in the Manhattan district attorney’s investigation into the Trump Organization’s finances is set to expire at the end of the week and will not be extended, people familiar with the investigation told CNN.

The six-month special grand jury, which was empaneled in October, heard evidence late last year from several witnesses, including reporters to whom Trump boasted about his personal wealth.

Presentations to the grand jury were halted earlier this year after Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg was sworn into office and raised concerns about the strength of the evidence.

This story has been updated with additional developments Wednesday.

Trump indictment news: Trump court appearance set for Tuesday

Donald Trump's lawyer said Friday that the former president will surrender to New York authorities, but he won't consider a plea deal after his indictment by a Manhattan grand jury investigating a hush money payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels.

Trump faces multiple charges of falsifying business records, including at least one felony offense, two people familiar with the matter told The Associated Press.

The former president is set to appear in court in New York at 2:15 p.m. Tuesday. The unprecedented indictment represents the first criminal charges against a former U.S. president.

Prosecutors in New York investigated money paid to porn actor Stormy Daniels and ex-Playboy model Karen McDougal to keep the women from going public with claims that they had sex with him.

Trump's lawyer, Joe Tacopina, told NBC's "Today" show on Friday that Trump was initially "shocked" when notified of the grand jury's action late Thursday. But the 76-year-old Trump "put a notch on his belt" and vowed to challenge the criminal case, Tacopina said.

“President Trump will not take a plea deal in this case. It’s not going to happen. There’s no crime,” Tacopina said.

How Stormy Daniels reacted to indictment:Stormy Daniels said she'd dance in the streets if Trump was indicted. Now she's sad it happened

Trump indicted: How did Michael Cohen arrange hush payments to Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal?

Here is the latest on the indictment:

Trump campaign raises more than $4 million since indictment

Former President Donald Trump raised over $4 million in the 24 hours since the news of his indictment broke, according to a statement from his presidential campaign.

The campaign says the donations are a sign “that the American people see the indictment of President Trump as a disgraceful weaponization of our justice system by a Soros-funded prosecutor.”

Over 25% of the donations are from first-time donors, according to the Trump campaign.

-- Ken Tran

Recap:Grand jury indicts Donald Trump in New York, first time a former president is charged criminally

Attorney: Cohen’s testimony supported by ‘multiple sources’

Michael Cohen’s lawyer says everything that Donald Trump’s former fixer has testified about in the hush-money case is supported by layers of documents and corroborating witnesses.

“Everything is backed up by multiple sources,” attorney Lanny Davis, who is representing Cohen, said Friday on Meet The Press.

Cohen once served as Trump’s lawyer, and alleges to have engineered payments to silence two women who claimed to have had sex with the New York real estate mogul prior his 2016 White House bid.

Trump and his allies have argued the indictment is a political persecution and that Cohen acted on his own and is seeking "revenge" after serving time in prison over the payments.

But Davis said that ignores the legal evidence and misses the chief factual question at the heart of the case, which is jurors deciding whether Trump had a political motivation to direct the hush-money.

“There’s lots of testimony, lots of documentation about political motivation,” Davis said.

— Phillip M. Bailey

Fact check:Donald Trump ties George Soros to Alvin Bragg. Experts say connection is mischaracterized

Trump to fly up to New York on Monday

Donald Trump is making travel plans for his arraignment in New York City on Tuesday.

As of now, Trump is scheduled to ride his private plane from South Florida to New York on mid-day Monday and spend the night at Trump Tower, according to two campaign officials familiar with the planning.

Trump plans to arrive early at the courthouse Tuesday for his appearance in response to the indictment, officials said.

The details of his courthouse appearance are still being worked out; the former president is scheduled to be arraigned at 2:15 p.m. on Tuesday.

Trump is expected to travel back to his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla., right after the arraignment on Tuesday, one of the officials said.

– David Jackson

Presiding:Juan Merchan, judge in Trump Organization trial, expected to preside at Trump arraignment

Exonerated Central Park 5 member reacts

One of the men wrongly convicted in the 1989 Central Park Five case has one word for Donald Trump: “karma.”

That's the tweet Yusef Salaam — now a New York City Council candidate — sent out Thursday. He was one of five Black and Hispanic teenagers wrongly convicted of assaulting and raping a white woman in New York’s Central Park.

During that period Trump, who was a popular New York real estate mogul, bought a full-page newspaper ad demanding the state adopt the death penalty in reaction to the attack.

As president, Trump refused to apologize when the five were officially exonerated and evidence showed police illegally coerced a confession.

— Phillip M. Bailey

Previously:'They admitted their guilt': 30 years of Trump's comments about the Central Park Five

Stormy Daniels opts out of Piers Morgan interview

The woman at the center of the criminal investigation that led to Donald Trump’s indictment postponed what was being promoted as a blockbuster interview.

Stormy Daniels, an adult film actress, was set to do an interview with British TV personality Piers Morgan on Friday, which would have been her first in the wake of the former president being hit with unspecified criminal charges.

But Morgan, who was a guest star on Trump’s “Celebrity Apprentice” during its run on NBC, said she changed plans at the last minute.

“Unfortunately, Stormy Daniels has had to suddenly postpone our interview tonight due to some security issues that have arisen,” Morgan said via Twitter.

“Hope she’s OK.”

Daniels' attorney did not immediately respond to USA TODAY's request for comment.

— Phillip M. Bailey

Previously:Stormy Daniels said she'd dance in the streets if Trump was indicted. Now she's sad it happened

What is an arraignment?:What the legal proceeding means following Trump's indictment

Juan Merchan, judge in Trump Organization trial, expected to preside at Trump arraignment

The New York judge tentatively assigned to preside at next week's arraignment of Donald Trump is more than familiar with the players in the former president's orbit.

Manhattan's Acting Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan presided over the fraud trial of Trump's namesake real estate company and the related Trump Payroll Corporation ending in a December conviction and $1.6 million in fines.

Merchan also oversaw the sentencing of former Trump financial chief Allen Weisselberg, whose testimony in the fraud case helped secure the convictions.

– Kevin Johnson, Josh Meyer, David Jackson

Who will be judge at Trump arraignment?:Juan Merchan, judge in Trump Organization trial, expected to preside at Trump arraignment

Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg’s office: GOP House chairmen ‘baseless and inflammatory’

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office told three House Republican chairmen who have criticized his investigation of Donald Trump their dispute is “baseless and inflammatory,” and that Trump can now defend himself against criminal charges in court.

The three chairmen – Reps. Jim Jordan of Ohio, on the Judiciary Committee, James Comer of Kentucky on the Oversight and Accountability Committee and Bryan Steil of Wisconsin on the Administration Committee – asked Bragg to answer questions about his inquiry, which they said appeared politically motivated.

Bragg’s general counsel, Leslie Dubeck, rejected the request by saying the lawmakers had no legitimate basis to ask about a pending criminal matter. The chairmen wrote again saying they were justified in asking how a local prosecutor could alter a president’s policies by threatening criminal charges.

“Your second letter asserts that, by failing to provide it, the District Attorney somehow failed to dispute your baseless and inflammatory allegations that our investigation is politically motivated,” Dubeck wrote. “That conclusion is misleading and meritless.”

– Bart Jansen

Jailed Trump exec cuts ties with lawyers:Former Trump Organization exec Allen Weisselberg cuts ties with attorneys

Eric and Donald Trump Jr. outraged by indictment

Trump's sons Eric and Donald Trump Jr. expressed outrage that the Manhattan District Attorney’s office has obtained a grand jury indictment against their father, calling it a witch hunt and politically motivated prosecutorial misconduct.

Donald Trump Jr. took to the former president’s Truth Social media platform to describe the indictment as “Big news in the weaponization of our Govt against their political enemies.”

Eric Trump said the indictment came in response to his father’s third attempt to win the Republican nomination for the 2024 presidential election.

"This is third world prosecutorial misconduct. It is the opportunistic targeting of a political opponent in a campaign year," Eric Trump said in a tweet.

– Josh Meyer

Trump mugshot?:A Donald Trump mugshot? Fingerprints? What happens next after Trump indictment

Ivanka Trump on father's indictment

But Trump's eldest daughter and former White House advisor, Ivanka Trump, hadn’t said anything on social media until Friday morning, when she offered a cautious response.

“I love my father, and I love my country. Today, l am pained for both,” she wrote in an Instagram post shortly after 11 a.m. EST. “I appreciate the voices across the political spectrum expressing support and concern.”

After Trump announced his presidential candidacy last year, she suggested she'd be stepping back from her father's political career. “While I will always love and support my father, going forward I will do so outside the political arena," she said at the time.

– Josh Meyer

Jailed Trump exec cuts ties with lawyers:Former Trump Organization exec Allen Weisselberg cuts ties with attorneys

When will Trump be arrested?

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office acknowledged late Thursday that Trump’s lawyers had been notified of the indictment.

Details of the charges haven't been released. But legal experts said the charges could stem from the $130,000 payment former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen said he arranged from Trump to porn actress Daniels in exchange for her silence before the 2016 election. Cohen and Daniels have each appeared before the grand jury.

Trump's attorney Joe Tacopina said Trump was expected in New York by Tuesday for arraignment.

"We're working out those logistics right now," Tacopina told NBC's "Today" show, referring to Trump's surrender.

– Kevin Johnson

Alvin Bragg v. Donald Trump: Inside Manhattan DA's latest legal tangle with former president

How will Trump be arrested?

Trump’s lawyer has said he would surrender voluntarily to face the charges in New York.

When he is arrested he will be read his rights known as a Miranda warning, including the right to remain silent and the right to an attorney.

Trump is expected to be taken into custody and processed like any other defendant, according to law enforcement experts. The difference is that as a former president, his Secret Service detail will accompany him.

“There will still be a mug shot, fingerprints and lots of paperwork filled out as part of the booking process,” like other defendants, said former federal prosecutor Glenn Kirschner.

– Josh Meyer

How Trump's Republican rivals reacted:'An outrage': What Trump's potential rivals for 2024 are saying about his indictment

Biden: ‘No comment’ on Trump indictment

President Joe Biden stayed silent Friday about Trump’s indictment.

Reporters asked Biden about the indictment multiple times as he left the White House early Friday for a trip to Mississippi. “I have no comment on Trump,” he said.

Biden has nothing publicly about Trump’s legal troubles since the former president announced two weeks ago that he expected to face criminal charges.

– Michael Collins and Maureen Groppe

Biden refuses to talk Trump indictment:'No. I’m not going to talk about the Trump indictment': Biden refuses to comment on hush money case

Trump’s GOP rivals: Indictment an ‘outrage’ and ‘un-American’

Trump’s Republican rivals and potential opponents for the 2024 presidential nomination also slammed the charges as politically motivated:

Former Vice President Mike Pence, who is weighing a bid, told CNN the unprecedented indictment was “nothing more than a political prosecution” and an “outrage.”

Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley told Fox News Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg was trying to take “revenge.”

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is considering a run, said the “weaponization of the legal system” is “un-American.”

Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, another possible candidate, said Trump should have the “presumption of innocence.” He said Trump shouldn’t be the next president, but that the voters should decide.

– Rebecca Morin

Who is Michael Cohen?:Former Trump lawyer is a key witness in New York probe of ex-president

New York indictment one of 4 pending investigations against Trump

The New York indictment against Trump is one of at least four investigations against the former president.

In Georgia, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is investigating potential charges of election fraud for Trump’s call 2021 call to state Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.

Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith has a two-pronged investigation. He is reviewing Trump’s role in the Capitol attack on Jan. 6, 2021, and the discovery of classified documents at his estate Mar-a-Lago.

Potential New York charges such as falsifying business records are relatively mundane compared to allegations Trump tried to overturn the 2020 election. But Barbara McQuade, a former U.S. attorney and now a law professor at the University of Michigan, said the evidence for falsifying business records would be fairly straightforward based on documents and is a common charge in New York.

“It certainly does not raise the level of overturning an election, but this case is comparable to other cases that get filed on a regular basis in New York against defendants for falsifying business records,” McQuade told USA TODAY. “Trump should not get a pass on this case in New York just because he also faces potential charges in Georgia and in federal court."

– Bart Jansen

Other countries charge their leaders:Charges against Trump would be a first in US. But other countries? They routinely charge leaders.

Stormy Daniels: 'No joy' from indictment, lawyer says

Daniels said a few weeks ago she would “dance down the street” if Trump were indicted. But on Thursday, the woman at the center of the investigative storm feels bad that he was charged, although it means the judicial system is working, according to her lawyer.

“She was surprised, honestly, even though it was mostly expected,” her lawyer, Clark Brewster told USA TODAY. “But on behalf of Stormy and honestly myself, there's no joy in seeing the man indicted.”

Daniels wasn’t immediately aware of the indictment because she was out riding her horse.

“The fact is that she feels bad that the guy has been charged,” Brewster said. “But on the other hand, truly, she knew what the facts were and she wants him to deal with the truth as well. So from that perspective, there's a degree of feeling like the system is working.”

– Josh Meyer

How does hush money work?:Trump indicted: How did Michael Cohen arrange hush payments to Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal?

Go deeper

Robert Mueller testimony on Russia, Trump: 'It is not a witch hunt'

Former special counsel gives first testimony

Says Russian interference 'serious' threat to US

Trump 'not exculpated' on obstruction

Testimony largely sticks to report

WASHINGTON – Former special counsel Robert Mueller used a pair of long-anticipated appearance before Congress to drive home a central finding of his investigation: Russia's interference in the 2016 presidential election "is not a hoax," and is likely to be repeated.

Taking questions for the first time about his two-year investigation, Mueller challenged President Donald Trump's persistent criticism about the inquiry that cast a shadow over much of his time in office, telling lawmakers that "it is not a witch hunt."

Mueller delivered nearly seven hours of testimony to the House Judiciary and Intelligence committees during a pair of hearings that Democrats hoped could change the trajectory of Trump's presidency, even if they delivered few revelations. At times faltering, and at times facing sharp questions from Trump's political allies, Mueller mostly offered a terse confirmation of the central findings of his inquiry.

Mueller told lawmakers that the Russian government had sought to meddle in the 2016 election in a dramatic fashion, and that it did so with an eye toward benefiting Trump. He said Trump's campaign welcomed, even praised, that assistance, and while he said investigators did not gather sufficient evidence to prove a conspiracy, "problematic is an understatement" to describe some of Trump's conduct.

Such interference, he warned, seems likely to continue.

More:What we learned from Robert Mueller: Seven hours, zero bombshells and everyone declares victory

More:'It is not a witch hunt': Top moments from Robert Mueller's testimony before Congress

"They’re doing it as we sit here. And they expect to do it again during the next campaign," Mueller, speaking in a soft, raspy voice, told the House Intelligence Committee. His report, he said, is a "signal" to those in power "not to let this kind of thing happen again."

Mueller also reinforced his conclusion that his investigation had "not exculpated" Trump on the question of whether he sought to had attempted to obstruct justice by thwarting the special counsel inquiry.

As the hearing ended, Trump and his allies declared the episode closed.

"The American people understand that this issue is over. They also understand that the case is closed," Trump's attorney, Jay Sekulow, said. Trump's campaign manager, Brad Parscale, said Mueller's testimony was a vindication for the president and that Democrats were "trying to undo the legitimate result" of the election.

During his opening statements, Mueller, who led the FBI during the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, said Russia's "sweeping and systematic" interference in American elections is among the most serious challenges to democracy he has seen throughout his career in law enforcement. He also said his team's investigation of efforts to obstruct the inquiry into Russia's actions "was of critical importance."

"Obstruction of justice strikes at the core of the government's effort to find the truth and to hold wrongdoers accountable," Mueller said.

Quoted passages, terse replies

Democrats spent much of the day asking Mueller to confirm episodes detailed in his report, focusing on the president's efforts to thwart the investigation. Republicans sought to poke holes in Mueller's legal theory and air allegations of bias and wrongdoing. Both factions were eager to score points from Mueller's remarks, though many lawmakers appeared to have already made up their minds about the importance of what he might say.

Mueller, in terse answers, offered little for either side.

"The report is my testimony. And I will stay within that text," Mueller said at the start of day's first hearing, before the Judiciary committee.

Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said during his opening statements that the investigation revealed the president himself "knew that a foreign power was intervening in our election and welcomed it, built Russian meddling into their strategy, and used it."

More:Former special counsel Robert Mueller's testimony, like his report, promises an ink-blot test for partisans

More:Democrats betting on Robert Mueller's public testimony to make the case his report so far has not

"Worse than all the lies and the greed is the disloyalty to country," Schiff said.

Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., the Intelligence Committee's ranking member, echoed familiar accusations that the FBI investigation that later became the special counsel probe was "marred with corruption" and bias against Trump.

“It’s time to close the curtain on the Russia hoax,” he said. “The conspiracy theory is dead.”

At times, Mueller appeared to struggle to keep up with the volley of inquiries, asking that questions be repeated, appealing for help locating citations in the report. At other times, lawmakers raised their arms to flag Mueller's attention, as the questioning moved from one end of the dais to the other.

Asked by one lawmaker, Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., whether "you did not indict Donald Trump is because of (Justice Department) opinion that you cannot indict a sitting president, correct?" Mueller replied: "That is correct."

Mueller later clarified that answer during his testimony before the House Intelligence Committee, saying his team did not reach a determination on whether Trump had obstructed justice. He told another lawmaker that Justice Department rules allow the government to bring charges against a president once he leaves office, but he did not say Trump should be charged.

Hopes for a blockbuster

Democrats went into the hearings betting that the spectacle of Mueller's public appearance will carry far more weight than the report. They had hoped that words from Mueller himself would be pivotal and would make the case that the president's conduct should be punishable by impeachment or a 2020 defeat.

Republicans, who have long questioned the integrity and genesis of the Russia inquiry that they say exonerated the president, used the rare public appearance to highlight the lack of charges against Trump and the perceived political motivation behind the probe. The president and his allies have accused Democrats of trying to redo the investigation by staging a belated spectacle.

Rep. Jerry Nadler, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, began the day with a summary of Mueller's years in public service as a Marine officer who was awarded a Purple Heart and as director of the FBI.

"Director Mueller, we have a responsibility to address the evidence you've uncovered," Nadler, D-N.Y., said in a prepared opening statement. "You recognized as much when you said, 'the Constitution requires a process other than the criminal justice system to formally accuse a sitting president of wrongdoing.'"

Nadler said the hearing would highlight episodes in which Trump sought to thwart Mueller's investigation. "Any other person who acted this way would have been charged with a crime. And in this nation, not even the president is above the law."

Rep. Doug Collins, R-Ga., the panel's ranking member, emphasized that Mueller's investigation did not find that Trump or his campaign conspired with Russia. Trump's reaction to the investigation of him and his campaign was "understandably negative," Collins said, "but he did not shut down" the inquiry.

Mueller acknowledged early on his role as a reluctant witness, telling lawmakers he cannot answer questions central to ongoing investigations into the origins of the Russia inquiry and citing restrictions the Justice Department has placed on what he can and can't say. The department said in a letter to Mueller on Monday that his testimony "must remain within the boundaries" of his report and that information such as presidential communications, discussion about investigative steps and decisions made during the probe can't be disclosed.

Mueller largely rebuffed requests from Republican lawmakers to talk about their critiques of his investigation, some repeated by the president. He declined to answer questions about former British spy Christopher Steele, an FBI informant who wrote a "dossier" alleging Trump had plotted with Moscow to win the election. He sidestepped allegations of political bias, and declined to answer questions about how the FBI began investigating Trump, because he said the Justice Department, which is conducting its own review, asked him not to.

Throughout the hearing, Democratic lawmakers focused on the investigation's most damaging findings, flashing selected excerpts from Mueller's report on video screens on the walls of the hearing room in an attempt to bolster evidence that Trump had engaged in obstruction. In each case, Mueller acknowledged that underlying conduct by the president necessary to support had been identified, including an alleged "corrupt intent" by Trump.

Mueller largely responded with one-word answers as Democratic lawmakers asked him to confirm several instances when Trump sought to limit or obstruct the investigation.

"No," Mueller said when asked of Trump was totally exonerated.

"True," Mueller said when asked whether the president sought to have then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions to reverse a decision to recuse himself from overseeing the Russia inquiry.

"True," he said when asked if Trump had ordered White House counsel Donald McGahn to fire the special counsel.

"Yes," when asked whether obstruction of justice warrant a lot of jail time if convicted.

Challenges to the investigation

Republicans, meanwhile, stepped up their challenges to Mueller, suggesting that the special counsel went beyond his authority by indicating that Trump could not be "exonerated" from accusations of obstruction of justice. Stacking law books on the desk in front of him, Rep. Mike Turner, R-Ohio, called on Mueller to point to a specific provision in the law that allowed him or other prosecutors to make such a determination.

"I'm not prepared to have a legal discussion in that arena," Mueller said.

In one of the most animated exchanges of the day, Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, launched a broadside on Mueller’s investigation, questioning why prosecutors did not bring charges against a Joseph Mifsud, a Maltese academic who helped kick-start the Russian election interference inquiry in 2016.

Mifsud first alerted Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos that Russia had derogatory information on Hillary Clinton.

The Mueller report documents several false statements Mifsud made to investigators.

Jordan asked why the government choose not prosecute Mifsud, asserting that prosecutors chose instead to focus on Papadopoulos and other Trump campaign advisers.

“I don’t agree with your characterization,” Mueller said.

Pressed to respond, Mueller said, “I can’t get into that.”

“There seems to be a lot of things that you can’t get into,” Jordan snapped.

Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, questioned Mueller's relationship with former FBI Director James Comey, who Trump abruptly fired in May 2017. And he suggested that Mueller failed to act quickly when he learned that two former FBI officials working on the investigation, Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, had exchanged messages disparaging Trump.

Of Comey, Mueller described the former FBI director as a "friend and business associate."

Mueller said he first learned of the Strzok and Page communications in the summer of 2017 and “acted swiftly” to remove them.

Rep. Guy Reschenthaler, R-Pa., contended that Mueller should have been prohibited from sharing details about Trump's alleged obstruction when the special counsel chose not to make a determination that the president had committed a crime.

"This flies in the face of American justice," said Reschenthaler, a former military lawyer. "I find this entire process un-American."

Mueller, however, contended that the report was not written with the expectation that its contents would be made public. Barr ultimately decided to release a redacted version of the report in April.

Mueller defended his team under criticisms from Republicans that he hired a group of anti-Trump investigators.

More:Robert Mueller, in first public remarks, says charging Trump was 'not an option we could consider'

Like what you're reading?:Download the USA TODAY app for more

"We strove to hire individuals who could do the job. I've been in this business for almost 25 years. In those 25 years, I've not had an occasion once to ask about somebody's political beliefs," Mueller said.

Mueller also said that his team sought unsuccessfully to interview Trump and said a subpoena that the president was sure to fight would have significantly delayed the investigation. He acknowledged that Trump's written answers were not as meaningful as an interview would have been.

Even before Mueller's testimony began, Trump began issuing a series of pointed – and now familiar – critiques of the former special counsel and the investigation he ran. "Why didn't Robert Mueller investigate the investigators?" Trump wrote in an early morning tweet Wednesday, repeating unproven claims that Mueller had conflicts of interest and claiming that he had been the victim of "The Greatest Witch Hunt" in history.

The president has long contended that Mueller pursued the Russia investigation because Trump did not select him to succeed Comey as FBI director, whom Trump fired. But for the first time, Mueller said Wednesday that he never interviewed for the job and only met with Trump to advise him on the search of a new director.

Mueller spent two years investigating Russian interference in the presidential election and whether Trump obstructed the inquiry that consumed Washington. Trump and his allies spent nearly as much time questioning the basis of the investigation and accusing some of the investigators of spying and treason.

During his first and only other public appearance since his appointment as special counsel, Mueller did not clear Trump of criminal wrongdoing, but said charges were "not an option" because of Justice Department policy of not indicting a sitting president.

"If we had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said that," Mueller said during a brief news conference in May.

As soon as Mueller's testimony ended, Trump, again took to Twitter to proclaim vindication, tweeting in all caps, "Truth is a force of nature!"

Contributing: Bart Jansen

More on Robert Mueller and the Russia investigation:

Trump’s aides were eager to take Russian dirt on Clinton. But it wasn’t a conspiracy, Mueller report said

Trump repeatedly tried to impede the Russia probe, Mueller report said. Was it obstruction?

Trump took steps to fire Mueller, stop probe after campaign welcomed Russian dirt on Clinton, Mueller report says

Spying, treason and politics: President Trump ups the stakes in Russia probe battle despite scant evidence

Mail carrier legacy, pardoning a 'witch': News from around our 50 ...

From USA TODAY Network and wire reports

Alabama

Montgomery: The City Council has rejected 5-4 an anti-discrimination ordinance that would have protected LGBTQ residents and others, even as Mayor Steven Reed threatened to send businesses to Birmingham if the vote failed. Reed said the two-month process leading to the vote showed that he was wrong to tell companies how far the city has come. If the vote failed, he said, he would be forced to tell businesses that value diversity and inclusiveness that “maybe this isn’t the place for that project because I can’t stand behind it. Maybe this isn’t the place for what your employees are looking for because I can’t tell you in good faith that this city ... shares your values and your vision.” He also threatened to give Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin’s cellphone number to those businesses. Birmingham’s council passed a similar ordinance in 2017. “They’ve learned from their mistakes,” Reed said. Councilwoman Audrey Graham, who voted against the Montgomery ordinance, asked Reed if he’s serious about that threat. He responded: “Those individuals that ask me an honest question, then I’m going to give them an honest answer.” The ordinance would have made it illegal to discriminate against a range of groups in the areas of public accommodation, housing and employment, as well as in all city practices, including contracting.

Alaska

Anchorage: A federal judge on Wednesday threw out Trump administration approvals for a large planned oil project on Alaska’s North Slope, saying the federal review was flawed and didn’t include mitigation measures for polar bears. U.S. District Court Judge Sharon Gleason in Anchorage vacated permits for ConocoPhillips’ Willow Project in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska in a 110-page ruling. The Trump administration approved the project in late 2020, and the Biden administration defended the project in court. Rebecca Boys, a ConocoPhillips spokesperson, said the company would review Gleason’s decision “and evaluate the options available regarding this project.” Spokespersons for the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and the Interior Department said their agencies had no comment. The Bureau of Land Management conducted the environmental review of the project that Gleason found flawed. Conservation groups and Sovereign Inupiat for a Living Arctic, described as a grassroots organization, had challenged the adequacy of the review process. Karlin Itchoak, Alaska director for The Wilderness Society, in a statement called the ruling “a step toward protecting public lands and the people who would be most negatively impacted by the BLM’s haphazard greenlighting of the Willow project.”

Arizona

Bullhead City: Employees in a northwestern Arizona school district cannot discuss vaccination status or mask-wearing with students under a motion approved unanimously by the local school board. The edict from the Colorado River Union High School District Governing Board carries no repercussions for administrators, staff or teachers who violate it. That would be up to Superintendent Monte Silk, who supported the motion. The debate over masks and vaccines in schools has been heated. At least 26 school districts in Arizona have enacted their own mask mandates, even as Republican Gov. Doug Ducey has tried to prevent them and threatened schools with a loss of funding. Those school districts account for nearly 300,000 students and 450 schools, mostly around Phoenix and Tucson. The Colorado River Union High School District’s gag rule, however, is rare. Board member Ashley Gerich, who calls herself a “non-vaxxer,” requested the item be put on the board’s agenda this week. She said a couple of students, including her daughter, told her conversations about the vaccine made them feel uncomfortable, the Mohave Daily News reports.

Arkansas

Little Rock: Three parents are suing over a northwest Arkansas school district’s decision to require face masks after a judge blocked the state’s mask mandate ban. The lawsuit filed Wednesday over the Bentonville School District’s mandate argues the local school board had no authority to impose the requirement. The parents are asking a Benton County judge to temporarily block the district from enforcing the ban while they challenge it. The parents are “forced to choose either to exercise their fundamental liberty interests in refusing to place face coverings on their children against their will or for the children to face expulsion from school,” the lawsuit said. Public health officials have urged schools to require masks to prevent the spread of the coronavirus due to the highly contagious delta variant. Arkansas ranks fourth in the country for new cases per capita, according to figures compiled by Johns Hopkins University researchers. More than 70 public school districts and charter schools have imposed mask mandates since Arkansas’ ban against them was blocked. The requirements cover more than half of the state’s public school students. “Our legal counsel is currently reviewing the matter and we look forward to a vigorous defense of our district,” Leslee Wright, a spokeswoman for the Bentonville School District, said in a statement.

California

Los Angeles: A major Southern California water agency has declared a water supply alert for the first time in seven years and is asking residents to voluntarily conserve. The Los Angeles Times reports the board of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California took the step Tuesday, hoping to lessen the need for more severe actions such as reducing water supplies to member agencies. The move came a day after U.S. officials declared the first-ever water shortage on the Colorado River, a key water source for Southern California. “This is a wake-up call for what lies ahead,” said Deven Upadhyay, chief operating officer for the district that supplies water to 19 million Californians, from the Los Angeles area to U.S.-Mexico border. “We cannot overstate the seriousness of this drought,” he said. “Conditions are getting worse, and more importantly, we don’t know how long it will last.” Gov. Gavin Newsom last month asked Californians to scale back water use, and many of the state’s counties, mostly in Central and Northern California, are already under a state of drought emergency. Concern about water supplies spread to the state’s heavily populated southern region following a winter of low precipitation and shrinking reservoirs throughout the West.

Colorado

Glenwood Springs: Forest Service officials said Wednesday that Hanging Lake Trail, a popular tourist destination in western Colorado, will be closed for the rest of the summer season and likely beyond because of extensive damage caused by large mudslides in late July. The announcement came after a preliminary assessment earlier in the week that revealed damaged and destroyed bridges, as well as large sections of the trail blocked by debris and mud. “The Hanging Lake Trail is not safe and impassable in some areas and will remain closed for the foreseeable future,” said White River National Forest Supervisor Scott Fitzwilliams. “The debris flows we saw in July are probably not the last we will see, so there could be additional damage in the weeks and months ahead.” The trail leads to the emerald-colored Hanging Lake, which is designated as a National Natural Landmark and is about 1,000 feet up a side canyon of Glenwood Canyon. The lake was discolored by mud flows that resulted from a wildfire that torched the area last summer. “The good news is that the water in Hanging Lake is clearing from the debris flow, the boardwalk at the lake wasn’t damaged, and the fish are still swimming,” Fitzwilliams said.

Connecticut

Ashford: Ground was broken Wednesday at the Hole in the Wall Gang Camp for seriously ill children to replace buildings that burned to the ground in a February fire. The Feb. 12 blaze at the camp founded by the late actor Paul Newman destroyed a section of the eastern Connecticut camp that was made to look like the center of an Old West town. It had housed the camp’s woodworking shop, the arts and crafts area, the camp store, and its educational kitchen. Camp officials said they have received 4,500 donations for the rebuild, including a $1 million match from Travelers and the Travelers Championship golf tournament and a $1 million gift from Newman’s Own Foundation. That will allow the camp to build a new, accessible single-level “creative complex” that will not only replace what was lost but also include new features, such as a quiet sensory area for campers and dedicated space for parents and caregivers. “We want to dedicate this moment to everyone who helped us heal and made us whole again,” said Jimmy Canton, the Hole in the Wall Gang Camp’s chief executive officer. “Your kindness was the bridge that brought us from grief to gratitude, and your friendship is why we are able to celebrate this milestone.”

Delaware

Dover: Police are investigating after photos of two officers who appear to be sleeping in their patrol vehicles were posted on social media. Police said in a Facebook post Tuesday that the department was looking into the matter and that such “behavior is unacceptable to our agency, unfair to our citizens, and certainly outside of department policy.” One photo shows an officer leaned back in his driver’s seat with his eyes shut and his mouth partially open. The other shows an officer leaned back in a police SUV driver’s seat facing away from the car window and toward a computer screen. The officers, who have not been named, were scheduled to meet with command staff late Tuesday, police spokesman Sgt. Mark Hoffman said. The department’s code of conduct states that the health, well-being and overall safety of officers is a top priority. Police said in a statement that officers are encouraged not to operate vehicles when fatigued and urged to speak with a supervisor “so proper measures can be taken” if they feel unwell or unusually fatigued. “With that being said, there is no language that allows such activity,” the department said.

District of Columbia

Washington: Canceled because of the pandemic 16 months ago, Honor Flights to Washington resumed Wednesday, WUSA-TV reports. The program brings veterans from around the nation to D.C. to see the memorials built in their honor. The flights and tours are free. At the World War II Memorial, 113 veterans were visiting Wednesday from the Honor Flight hub in Chicago. “Probably the most touching moments are watching watching the veterans reflect as they look at the Wall of Stars,” said David Smith, president of the Honor Flight Network. “There are over 400,000 stars there; it represents those that were lost.” Wednesday’s visit honored three veterans from World War II, 34 who served in the Korean War, and 76 veterans of the Vietnam conflict.

Florida

Orlando: The number of U.S. tourists who came to Sunshine State in the second quarter of this year has returned to pre-pandemic levels, though the international market is still lagging, according to figures released Thursday. Florida received about 30.6 million domestic visitors from April through June, a 6% increase over the same time in 2019 and a 216% jump from the same time last year, during the height of COVID-19 pandemic closures, state tourism marketing firm Visit Florida said in a news release. Overall, the state had 31.4 million visitors in the second quarter of this year, an increase of 220% from the same period a year earlier. Florida’s international market has not yet recovered to pre-pandemic levels due in part to restrictions on entering the United States. Florida welcomed only 1.1 million visitors from overseas and Canada in the second quarter of this year, compared to 3.5 million visitors in the second quarter of 2019. During the spring of 2020, Florida’s major theme parks and hotels around the state were either shuttered or had limited operations due to the pandemic. As of Thursday, though, Walt Disney World is tweaking its face mask policy, allowing visitors to choose whether to wear face coverings in outdoor lines, outdoor theaters and outdoor attractions. Masks had been required previously.

Georgia

Atlanta: Health care providers at some of the state’s largest hospital systems warned Thursday about the increasing toll of the latest coronavirus surge on younger patients, hospital staffs and health care capacity as they implored people to get vaccinated, wear masks and avoid large gatherings. The guidance came as the state’s hospitals – already struggling with rising patient numbers – brace for even higher COVID-19 case counts that could surpass a winter peak. “The unfortunate thing is we don’t have the luxury of saying, ‘We’re full, and we’re closed,’ ” said Robert Jansen, chief medical officer at Atlanta’s Grady Health System. “We’re not a hotel, so people will continue to come and our staff will continue to cope, and we’ll continue to find places to take care of these patients, but it is going to be difficult, and it’s not going to be easy, and it won’t make people happy.” Jansen said the hospital’s emergency room is facing a “tsunami” of patients infected with the delta variant of the coronavirus, forcing staff to divert ambulances to other hospitals for quicker care. As at other hospitals in the state, the influx is primarily people who are unvaccinated.

Hawaii

Kailua-Kona: Officials on the Big Island are considering closing beaches and canceling the Ironman World Championship in response to a surge of coronavirus cases. “Right now our numbers are skyrocketing. It’s a shame because we as a county have been doing a great job,” Hawaii County Mayor Mitch Roth told County Council members. “But we let down our guards – I let down my guard.” The administration is revising its emergency rules and will submit the changes to Gov. David Ige for approval, West Hawaii Today reports. That revision could include a return to restrictions at parks and beaches that allow people to cross the sand only to get to the ocean to surf, swim or fish but not to gather or sit. Similar restrictions were enacted across Hawaii during the peak of the pandemic last year. The Ironman World Championship is currently set for Oct. 9 in Kailua-Kona. Roth said a decision would be made soon about whether the event could go on. “Unfortunately, it doesn’t look too positive for Ironman this year,” the mayor said. “The question with Ironman is what do you do with all the people who come to spectate.”

Idaho

Boise: Students across the state lost some academic ground during the coronavirus pandemic, with standardized testing scores dropping in math and language arts compared to 2019. The Idaho Department of Education released the Idaho Standardized Achievement Test scores Tuesday. The test – required under federal rules – is typically administered to students in third through eighth grades and 10th grade each spring. But the 2020 test was canceled after the federal requirement was temporarily lifted as schools closed amid the coronavirus pandemic. For the 2021 round of testing, students showed the biggest decline in math skills, with 39.6% of students testing at “proficient” or “advanced” levels this spring, compared to 44.4% two years ago. English language arts skills had a smaller drop, with just over 54% of students scoring as proficient or advanced compared to 55% in 2019. “The onset of the pandemic in spring 2020 disrupted the ISAT along with all Idaho school operations, so we weren’t surprised that scores did not continue the gradual upward trend of the previous few years of testing,” Superintendent of Public Instruction Sherri Ybarra said in a statement. “We expected an impact, and now we can use these results to move forward to rebuild academic performance.”

Illinois

Rockford: Some residents are crying foul over a proposed museum for women’s baseball in a city that had one of the sport’s most successful teams in the 1940s. A zoning board postponed a decision Tuesday on a permit for the project at Beyer Park. The Rockford Park District is willing to sell an acre of the park to the International Women’s Baseball Center. A group called Friends of Beyer Stadium said it supports the concept but has acquired land directly west of Beyer Park.“Shame on you,” said Greg Schwanke, president of Friends of Beyer Stadium. “I spent 14 years out there building this place and turned it into a national attraction for the city of Rockford. We’re not going down. We’re fighting all of the way.” The Rockford Peaches of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League played at Beyer Stadium. The team was featured in the 1992 movie “A League of Their Own,” with Tom Hanks, Madonna and Geena Davis. The International Women’s Baseball Center is launching a $10 million fundraising campaign for construction of a museum and activity center. “We’ve had people already calling us from outside the area asking us when the museum is going to open,” said Rosemary Collins, a retired judge involved with the group. “They will travel here to see it. It will have an economic boon for the entire area.”

Indiana

Indianapolis: Facing a pandemic unlike any his predecessors have seen, Gov. Eric Holcomb on Wednesday announced the formation of a public health commission that will spend the next year finding ways to improve the overall health of Hoosiers. While COVID-19 response will figure into the work of the 15-person commission, Holcomb said the panel’s scope would go far beyond this latest crisis. “We’ve got our game plan right now to continue to work through the pandemic,” he said. “That’s not what this commission or this task force is about. This is a long-term look at where we want our state to be decades from now.” Holcomb tapped longtime Republican politician Luke Kenley and former state health commissioner Dr. Judy Monroe to co-chair the body. The group will convene for the first time next month and is expected to issue a report by next summer, in time for 2023 budget discussions, Holcomb said. Over the past year, Holcomb has weathered criticism from all sides for his handling of the pandemic. Some have complained that he has not done enough to halt the spread of the coronavirus, lifting restrictions like the mask mandate too soon. Others have complained that he overreached his authority in taking steps such as that mask mandate.

Iowa

Des Moines: Gov. Kim Reynolds said the state would welcome refugees from Afghanistan who want to resettle in Iowa, saying their situation is much different from the immigrants coming across the U.S.-Mexico border whom the Republican governor refused to accept in April. Reynolds and U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst discussed plans to take refugees while attending the Iowa State Fair on Wednesday. “We’re working with the State Department right now; we’re offering our opportunity to settle here in Iowa,” Ernst said. The Republican senator said she is working with Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., to push the U.S. Department of State to allow as many people as possible to qualify for the Special Immigrant Visa Program, designed to aid people who worked with the U.S. military as interpreters or translators in Iraq or Afghanistan. The U.S. Bureau of Refugee Services has said Iowa could take as many as 2,000 refugees a year, and Reynolds didn’t disagree with that number. “We’ll work with them to determine what that looks like and just make sure we have a process in place and we have families and homes for them to go,” she said. “We want to be a partner, we want them here, and we want them to know that.” In April Reynolds said she rejected a federal request to accept migrant children from the U.S.-Mexico border, saying that “is the president’s problem.”

Kansas

Wichita: Officials in some communities are battling a rise in COVID-19 cases by mandating masks for kids, issuing emergency orders and requiring vaccines. The seven-day rolling average of daily new cases in Kansas has risen over the past two weeks from 605.14 new cases per day Aug. 3 to 797.14 new cases per day Tuesday, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. In the Lawrence area, Douglas County leaders approved a health order Wednesday that will require children ages 2 to 12 to wear masks while in indoor public spaces. The decision followed four hours of public comment that included jeering and interruptions from a largely maskless crowd, the Lawrence Journal-World reports. Douglas County’s health officer, Dr. Thomas Marcellino was momentarily drowned out by laughter and heckling from the crowd when he tried to explain the reasoning for the order. One person called him a liar and disgusting, and some in the crowd started chanting “no more masks.” One public commenter even compared maskless children being excluded from activities to racial segregation. There are various exceptions to the proposed order, including youth with a medical condition, mental health condition or disability that prevents wearing a face covering.

Kentucky

Pine Top: During a five-year span that ended last year, Kentucky State Police fatally shot at least 41 people – more than any other law enforcement agency in the commonwealth, according to a published report. Police declined to release the numbers, but the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting and the Marshall Project built a database using a combination of publicly available data and state police records, according to an article the entities published in partnership with the Lexington Herald-Leader. The report said Kentucky troopers killed more people in rural communities than any other department in the nation, according to the partnership’s analysis of data compiled by the Washington Post. None of the 41 fatal shootings resulted in troopers being prosecuted. Of those killed, about 75% were armed, and a majority were suffering from addiction or mental health problems, according to the investigation. Kentucky State Police investigate shootings with no outside oversight, a practice some experts and prosecutors say is problematic. “I don’t think it should be done,” said Dave Stengel, the former commonwealth’s attorney in Louisville. He said there is potential for conflicts of interest. “Everybody knows everybody else.”

Louisiana

New Orleans: A civilian Pentagon official ordered the Army Corps of Engineers on Wednesday to conduct a full environmental assessment of a $9.4 billion Formosa Plastics complex planned in the state, drawing praise from environmentalists. Jaime Pinkham, the Army’s acting assistant secretary for civil works, ordered the review after a virtual meeting with opponents of a Corps wetlands permit that allowed Formosa Plastics Group member FG LA LLC to build 10 chemical plants and four other major facilities on the Mississippi River between Baton Rouge and New Orleans. Critics praised the decision. “The Army Corps has finally heard our pleas and understands our pain. With God’s help, Formosa Plastics will soon pull out of our community,” said a statement by Sharon Lavigne, who founded the local group Rise St. James to fight the planned complex announced in 2018. Formosa, based in Taiwan, wants to produce polyethylene, polypropylene, polymer and ethylene glycol on 2,400 acres in St. James Parish. Dubbed the Sunshine Project because it’s near the Sunshine Bridge, the project is expected to provide 1,200 permanent jobs and up to 8,000 construction jobs, the state has said.

Maine

Portland: Several music venues plan to require vaccinations for concertgoers. State Theater, Thompson’s Point and Portland House of Music are among those in the city requiring COVID-19 shots or a negative test for the coronavirus. Elsewhere, the Opera House at Boothbay Harbor and Stone Mountain Arts Center in Brownfield are also requiring proof of vaccination. The marquee sign above State Theater says: “Vaccines are a gateway drug to concerts.” “We hope we can keep our doors open, and we need your support and understanding to do so,” the Portland House of Music said. The announcements come amid a surge in the delta variant of the coronavirus, which now accounts for virtually all infections in Maine. Meanwhile, the University of Maine System is requiring all students, faculty, staff and visitors to wear wear face coverings inside its buildings. The new policy applies to all, regardless of vaccination status. “With our classrooms and other indoor spaces no longer set up to impose social distancing, face coverings are an important strategy we can employ to effectively control the transmission of COVID, regardless of an individual’s vaccination status and testing participation,” Chancellor Dannel Malloy wrote. Bates College has adopted a similar requirement at its Lewiston campus.

Maryland

Salisbury: People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has filed a lawsuit against Shore Transit after the public transit agency refused to display PETA advertisements on its buses. The animal rights group applied to display two advertisements on Shore Transit buses in May 2020. Both advertisements read: “No One Needs to Kill to Eat. Close the slaughterhouses: Save the workers, their families, and the animals.” Shore Transit denied the application, saying the advertisements violated its advertising policy. The agency prohibits advertisements that are “political, controversial, offensive, objectionable or in poor taste,” according to the suit. However, PETA claims Shore Transit does not have any written guidance for following these terms. PETA alleges that by denying the application, Shore Transit violated the First and 14th Amendments. In July 2021, PETA renewed its application to advertise, and it says it has not received a response. PETA filed the lawsuit Tuesday in U.S. District Court. The American Civil Liberties Union is representing PETA. The suit names Shore Transit, Shore Transit Director Brad Bellacicco and the Tri-County Council for the Lower Eastern Shore of Maryland as defendants. Shore Transit offers public transportation in Wicomico, Worcester and Somerset counties.

Massachusetts

Boston: More than three centuries after a woman was wrongly convicted of witchcraft and sentenced to death, she’s finally on the verge of being exonerated, thanks to a curious eighth grade civics class. State Sen. Diana DiZoglio, D-Methuen, has introduced legislation to clear the name of Elizabeth Johnson Jr., who was condemned in 1693 at the height of the Salem Witch Trials but never executed. DiZoglio said she was inspired by sleuthing done by a group of 13- and 14-year-olds at North Andover Middle School. Civics teacher Carrie LaPierre’s students painstakingly researched Johnson and the steps that would need to be taken to make sure she was formally pardoned. “It is important that we work to correct history,” DiZoglio said Wednesday. “We will never be able to change what happened to these victims, but at the very least, we can set the record straight.” If lawmakers approve the measure, Johnson will be the last accused witch to be cleared, according to Witches of Massachusetts Bay, a group devoted to the history and lore of the 17th-century witch hunts. In the 328 years since a frenzy of Puritan injustice that began in 1692, dozens of suspects officially were cleared, including Johnson’s own mother, the daughter of a minister whose conviction eventually was reversed. But for some reason, Johnson’s name wasn’t included in various legislative attempts to set the record straight.

Michigan

Detroit: In need of quick cash and find yourself in a forest? Well, you may have an opportunity on your hands. The state Department of Natural Resources is offering $75 for bushels of pine cones for the month of September. The agency is in need of these for replanting purposes, refilling forests with new conifer trees. But the DNR is requesting a specific kind of cone: the red pine cone, marked by its craggy, reddish bark and 4- to 6-inch needles that grow in pairs. The DNR notes that Scotch and Austrian pine cones will not be accepted. Scotch cones are marked by their flayed and thick bark, while Austrian cones are more orb-like than red cones. Cones should be picked off the tree, as fallen cones are usually too old or wet. And one can tell the age of the cone from the way the scales are arranged. The scales should be closed with a hint of green or purple. All brown and they’re too far gone. The correct kind of bag is being distributed at select DNR locations. The cones will be processed in machines that harvest their seeds, which will be used to replenish the in-high-demand red pine, among other initiatives to refill Michigan forests.

Minnesota

Isabella: A wildfire in the Superior National Forest that crews have been fighting since the weekend has grown to 61/ 4 square miles, but U.S. Forest Service officials said Thursday morning that it grew little overnight. The Forest Service said lightning caused the fire first spotted Sunday near Greenwood Lake, about 25 miles southwest of Isabella. It grew from 5 square miles to 61/ 4 by Wednesday evening, after what officials described as a “very active” afternoon of expansion on its western flank. But in an update posted Thursday morning, Forest Service officials said there was no significant change overnight, which is often the case with forest fires. Thursday’s forecast in the area called for continued hot, dry weather, with thunderstorms expected Friday night and Saturday. The fire led authorities to evacuate about 75 homes Monday near McDougal Lake, just north of where the fire started. Many dwellings in the area, which is deep in the forest, are seasonal cabins. Some small portions of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area to the north and northeast have been closed as a precaution due to the blaze, and two smaller fires spotted over the weekend in the wilderness. No injuries or damage to structures has been reported. Crews are also fighting several smaller wildfires in northeastern Minnesota.

Mississippi

Jackson: The state’s only pediatric hospital is treating its largest number of COVID-19 cases so far during the pandemic, the hospital said Thursday. Children’s of Mississippi is part of the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson. “Today, Children’s of Mississippi and the University of Mississippi Medical Center reported 28 children with confirmed or suspected cases of COVID-19, the highest number of pediatric COVID-19 patients at the state’s only children’s hospital since the beginning of the pandemic,” the hospital said on Facebook. “Of these hospitalized children, 100% are unvaccinated. This number includes eight children in the ICU, including five who are too young to receive the vaccine.” Meanwhile, state health officials say almost 1,000 hospital beds that could be used to treat patients during the latest surge of coronavirus are unstaffed because of a shortage of health care workers. Mississippi is facing a record number of people hospitalized with the virus – 1,633 on Tuesday, according to the state Department of Health – and has the highest per capita rate of new COVID-19 cases in the United States, according to the Johns Hopkins COVID-19 case tracker.

Missouri

Springfield: Two employees are suing Springfield Public Schools over the district’s mandatory racial equity training, which they contend violates their rights and is an “unconstitutional condition of employment.” The federal lawsuit was filed Wednesday by Jennifer Lumley, a records secretary for the special services department, and Brooke Henderson, who works on plans for students with disabilities. Henderson is a member of Back on Track America and has frequently accused the district of inserting critical race theory into its training. Critical race theory, which studies America’s history through the lens of racism, is not mentioned in the lawsuit. But the women allege the term “equity” and other phrases used during the training are code for the theory, which they contend conditions “individuals to see each other’s skin color first and foremost.” All employees were required to take the training during the 2020-21 school year or lose pay. As part of the training, they were required to commit to equity and becoming “anti-racist educators,” according to the lawsuit. The lawsuit was filed against the district, its school board and four district officials. Stephen Hall, spokesman for the district, said the district is prepared to defend its equity efforts and is confident the court will find the lawsuit is without merit.

Montana

Bozeman: Montana State University and the University of Montana are telling everyone to wear masks indoors on campus. Montana State University President Waded Cruzado and University of Montana President Seth Bodnar both cited the highly transmissible delta variant of the coronavirus as one reason for their requests and also urged people to get COVID-19 vaccinations. Cruzado said Montana State’s decision would last through Oct. 1 but said in a message to students, staff and faculty that mandates “foment dissension and division.” She also said she understands people find pandemic-related mandates “odious,” and they require enforcement, so she is asking people to voluntarily wear their masks because it is the right thing to do. Bodnar also said UM is urging but not requiring masks, and he said the university will revisit its stance Sept. 20. He noted the uptick in cases in Missoula County had placed it in a “high risk” zone based on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and he pointed to advice from health officials that says masks can help slow the spread of the coronavirus.

Nebraska

Omaha: Officials are dealing with a COVID-19 outbreak at a state correctional facility as coronavirus cases surge statewide. After 33 inmates tested positive for the virus at the Diagnostic and Evaluation Center in Lincoln, officials paused all visits and volunteer activities there and asked county jails to delay sending new inmates if they can. All adult men who enter the state prison system go through the facility. Officials said all inmates who test positive for the virus are being housed away from other inmates to limit the spread of COVID-19, according to the Omaha World-Herald. The state Department of Correctional Services has also started providing bars of soap, which inmates had to purchase before the pandemic, and masks to inmates who request them. Officials say they have also stepped up efforts to disinfect spaces where people live and congregate in prisons. Department Director Scott Frakes said the increase in cases in the prison system – which lists 36 active cases – follows an increase in the community. “It is not a surprise that we have an uptick in cases now, especially at DEC which serves as the intake facility for all male inmates who are new admits or returning to us from the community,” Frakes said.

Nevada

Las Vegas: The U.S. debut of a long-established international food and beverage industry trade show could make Las Vegas a magnet for foodies and food product retailers, distributors and wholesalers, event producers and tourism officials said. An announcement Tuesday by Emerald Holding Inc. and Comexposium, owner of the SIAL brand of worldwide food shows, was timed as a topper to Emerald’s ongoing International Pizza Expo now at the Las Vegas Convention Center. “This partnership underscores the ever-increasing importance of creating a single event for the food industry,” Jessica Blue, Emerald executive vice president, said in a statement. SIAL, for Salon International de L’Alimentation, has a 50-year history and says it draws some 16,000 exhibitors and 700,000 visitors from 200 countries to 10 shows in France, Canada, China, India, Indonesia, Algeria and the United Arab Emirates. “We plan to bring a new international food exhibition to life in Las Vegas to enable comprehensive sourcing of new products,” said Nicolas Trentesaux, SIAL Network Global CEO. The announcement hosted by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority puts the SIAL America show on the Convention Center schedule for March 2022.

New Hampshire

Concord: A billionaire software company CEO has given a former hermit $180,000 to rebuild his cabin in a new location. Alexander Karp, CEO of Palantir Technologies, gave David Lidstone a personal check last week, Lidstone’s friend, Jodie Gedeon said on Facebook. A spokesperson for the data analytics software company confirmed the donation to the Concord Monitor. “How can I express myself and my gratitude towards something like that? I start to tear up whenever I think about it,” Lidstone told the Monitor. “For an old logger who always had to work, for anyone to give you that type of money, it’s incredibly difficult for me to get my head around.” There has been an outpouring of support for Lidstone since he was jailed July 15 and accused of squatting for nearly 30 years on property owned by a Vermont man. His cabin burned down this month shortly before his release, but he recently secured temporary housing through the winter. The location is being kept secret to protect Lidstone’s privacy, Gedeon said. But supporters will have a chance to meet Lidstone at a “thank you” event in Warner, New Hampshire, on Saturday. Lidstone has said he doesn’t think he can go back to being a hermit. “Maybe the things I’ve been trying to avoid are the things that I really need in life,” he said.

New Jersey

Manasquan: Huge gates that could be slammed shut when major storms approach would be built across the mouths of three inlets in New Jersey, closable barriers would cut parts of two bays in half, and 19,000 homes would be raised as part of a $16 billion plan to address back bay flooding, one of the major sources of storm damage at the Jersey Shore. After five years of study, federal and state officials unveiled recommendations Thursday that would drastically change the appearance of some iconic spots at the shore. It also would be one of the most ambitious and costly efforts any U.S. state has yet taken to address back bay flooding. The term refers to floods that are not primarily caused by waves crashing over ocean barriers but by stealthily rising water levels in bays along inland shorelines. Although ocean waves caused severe damage during Superstorm Sandy in 2012, back bay flooding also caused extensive damage in that storm. In numerous places, it was the primary source of property damage during Sandy. “To better protect New Jersey’s residents, communities, and economy, we must plan and prepare today for the climate change risks of tomorrow,” said Shawn LaTourette, New Jersey’s environmental protection commissioner.

New Mexico

Albuquerque: U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm heard from industry officials Wednesday about what it will take to boost renewable energy development in the state and across the nation as the Biden administration pushes its initiatives to reduce emissions and address climate change. Developers and policy experts said without more transmission infrastructure and a cohesive grid, renewable energy will be stranded in remote spots like rural New Mexico, and opportunities for economic development will be hampered as a result. “This stuff is as important as building highways. It’s as important as building hospitals and schools,” said Fernando Martinez, executive director of the New Mexico Renewable Energy Transmission Authority. “The only way we’re going to accomplish this … is that we really do need a predictable regulatory landscape.” He and others told Granholm about permitting bottlenecks that have slowed the development of major transmission projects in New Mexico. They said if the Biden administration wants to reach its goals, the U.S. can’t afford to take decades to site and build transmission lines. A major line to connect wind farms in eastern New Mexico to the grid, for example, is almost complete but needs the approval of more than 430 easements from ranchers and other landowners.

New York

New York: A group of restaurants asked a judge this week to block the city’s latest effort to curb the spread of COVID-19, calling the city’s mandate that customers show proof of vaccination “arbitrary, irrational, unscientific and unlawful.” The group argued that the new rules would severely harm their businesses and livelihood. The city’s proof-of-vaccination edict went into effect Tuesday and requires anyone dining indoors at restaurants, going to museums, attending concerts, working out at a gym or entering many indoor public venues show proof that they have been inoculated against COVID-19. The group of restaurateurs that filed the lawsuit in Richmond County, which encompasses Staten Island, said restaurants and other establishments included in the city’s vaccine mandate were unfairly targeted because many other places such as grocery stores, hair salons, churches, schools and office buildings were excluded from the mandate. “This vaccine mandate is arbitrary and capricious due to the fact that it targets certain establishments but not others with no rational whatsoever,” the lawsuit says. Mayor Bill de Blasio first announced the new rules Aug. 3. He said enforcement won’t begin until Sept. 13 to give businesses more time to prepare and people an opportunity to get vaccinated.

North Carolina

Chapel Hill: A college tradition has come under scrutiny after pictures the school posted on social media showed hundreds of students gathered at a campus landmark waiting to get a drink of water in the midst of a COVID-19 surge. Pictures posted to Twitter by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill showed a line of students approaching the Old Well on Wednesday waiting to get a drink and a picture. According to tradition, students who drink from the fountain at the well on the first day of classes will get good grades for the entire school year. It was first reported by The News & Observer of Raleigh. The tradition was canceled last year because of the pandemic. The resumption brought a thread of negative reactions. “Tradition aside, you couldn’t just find a couple paper cups for this? In the middle of the fourth wave of a global pandemic?” said one response. “It would have been a great idea to put this tradition on hold,” said another response. According to the newspaper, the university issued a statement saying it had consulted with public health experts who agreed it was OK to proceed with the tradition since there is little to no evidence of surface transmission of the coronavirus. Students who chose to participate were encouraged to wear a mask and maintain distance while waiting in line.

North Dakota

Bismarck: There are no current plans to bring any of the people fleeing the conflict in Afghanistan to the state, officials said. The North Dakota Department of Human Services, who oversees the Refugee Resettlement Program, said the process is actually quite extensive. It takes eight different government agencies and six background checks for a person to gain clearance for the Refugee Resettlement Program in North Dakota, officials said. The state’s refugee coordinator said the people being transported to the U.S. are classified as Special Immigrant Visa Holders. Each person will be resettled in an area of the country in which Afghans have already settled, KXNET-TV reports. “There are strong communities that have already been set up for individuals that have a successful history of gaining employment, assimilating within the community, learning English and, you know, really developing successful relationships with a variety of different community members,” Holly Triska-Dally said. The Pentagon said that over the prior 24 hours about 2,000 people, including 325 American citizens, had been flown out of the Kabul international airport on 18 flights by U.S. Air Force C-17 transport planes.

Ohio

Columbus: Whether because of a lack of computer access, lack of awareness or mistrust, about 180,000 children in the state are not benefiting from the government’s enhanced Child Tax Credit program. That’s the conclusion drawn by Alex Coccia, a senior policy analyst at the Center for the Study of Social Policy, a national nonprofit organization. On a conference call with several members of local and national nonprofits this week, Coccia said that through the first two months of the program, 2.151 million Ohio children have received the tax credit’s advance payments, but he estimated that 2.33 million children are eligible. The monthly payments of either $250 or $300 per child began in July and will continue through December, with another six months’ worth of money available upon filing a tax return in 2022. The payments go out automatically to the roughly 90% of eligible Americans who filed a tax return this year, but the concern is that the “non-filers” still may be unaware of the benefit. Those who do not file a tax return, because of very low incomes or several other reasons, must “opt in” through an online portal on the IRS website. And that’s where access issues begin. “We’re worried about non-English speakers, those who lack secure housing, and those with limited internet access,” Coccia said.

Oklahoma

Oklahoma City: The state’s school districts should have “the autonomy” to enact mask requirements, which are banned by state law, according to the superintendent of schools. “School districts deserve the autonomy to enact policies that protect our schoolchildren and staff from COVID exposure and infection,” Oklahoma Superintendent Joy Hofmeister said in a statement Wednesday. Hofmeister’s comments came after U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said in letters to her and Gov. Kevin Stitt that the ban may violate the American Rescue Plan Act that provided $123 billion to the nation’s schools to help them return to the classroom. Cardona sent similar letters to several other states with similar mask bans. Stitt’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment Thursday. A spokesperson for Stitt told the Tulsa World on Wednesday that the governor had not yet seen the letter. Hofmeister, whose recommendation for a statewide mask mandate in schools was rejected in July 2020 in a 4-3 vote by the state Board of Education, said vaccinations and mask wearing are key to keeping schools open for in-person classes. “I think Ronald Reagan was right when he said those closest to the problem are the ones best suited to address it,” Hofmeister said.

Oregon

Salem: President Joe Biden on Wednesday nominated Oregon resident and tribal citizen Charles F. “Chuck” Sams III to head the National Park Service. If confirmed by the Senate, Sams would be the first Native American to hold the position. He is Cayuse and Walla Walla and a citizen of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation. Sams has worked in state and tribal governments and the nonprofit natural resource and conservation management fields for over 25 years, White House officials said. “The diverse experience that Chuck brings to the National Park Service will be an incredible asset as we work to conserve and protect our national parks to make them more accessible for everyone,” U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, the first Native American Cabinet secretary, said in a news release. “The outdoors are for everyone, and we have an obligation to protect them for generations to come.” Currently, Sams is a member of the Northwest Power and Conservation Council, a role appointed by Gov. Kate Brown. The Democratic governor said in a statement Wednesday that it was a proud day for Oregon. She described Sams as a “passionate student and teacher of the history and culture of our lands and our people.”

Pennsylvania

Pittsburgh: Mister Rogers’ deliveryman’s son, who’s now a real-life mail carrier, briefly appeared this week on an episode of a children’s show based on one of Mister Rogers’ puppets. Alex Newell, 39, is the son of David Newell, who played Mr. McFeely on “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.” Alex Newell had a cameo on “Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood,” the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports. In Wednesday’s episode, Newell appears as a mail carrier ensuring a little girl’s care package has been delivered to a friend, according to the newspaper. David Newell said Rogers was the first person who came to visit him at UPMC Magee-Womens Hospital after each of his three children were born, including Alex. “In a way, Alex grew up in Mister Rogers’ neighborhood, in reality and in pretend,” his dad said. “He watched the program as he was growing up, and now he’s making a delivery on (‘Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood’). And that makes me so proud.” “Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood” features 4-year-old Daniel Tiger, son of the original show’s Daniel Striped Tiger.

Rhode Island

Providence: The cost of running the city’s guaranteed-income pilot program will be more than the total of cash payments given to low-income families. The 110 households selected to take part in the pilot will receive $500 monthly, adding up to $6,000 over the course of the one-year experiment. In total, $660,000 will be given away in no-strings-attached cash grants. Meanwhile, expenses associated with administering the program and researching its effectiveness are already expected to top $723,000, according to an estimate provided by Mayor Jorge Elorza’s office. While that means that the total cost of the pilot program will exceed the $1.1 million that Elorza had originally anticipated, none of that is taxpayer money. The pilot program is being fully funded by private donors, including Twitter and Square CEO Jack Dorsey. Joining a growing number of Democratic mayors nationwide, Elorza has championed the idea that a guaranteed income can help lift people out of poverty, pointing to Stockton, California, which found that many recipients used the money for basic needs and that they were more likely to be employed full time after taking part in the program. Providence is now encouraging anyone who makes less than 200% of the federal poverty level to apply before the Saturday deadline.

South Carolina

Myrtle Beach: The Myrtle Beach International Airport has been the busiest airport in the Palmetto State this summer. The airport set a record for passenger traffic with more than 500,000 total passengers in July, WBTW-TV reports. That’s the highest monthly passenger count ever recorded at an airport in South Carolina’s history. Total passenger traffic for July totaled nearly 550,000 – a 49% increase over July 2019, airport officials said.

South Dakota

Sioux Falls: The head of the South Dakota National Guard says Gov. Kristi Noem didn’t tell him she would use a private donation for the deployment to the U.S. border with Mexico until after the mission was already planned. Noem’s decision to accept a $1 million donation from a Tennessee billionaire last month was met with hefty criticism from those who said it allowed a private donor to commandeer a military force. But Maj. Gen. Jeffery Marlette told a legislative budgeting committee Wednesday that the donation was not a factor in planning the deployment. “Our National Guard is not for hire,” he told lawmakers. “Nowhere in this planning process was there a discussion of, ‘I’ll go send the Guard if I can find somebody to pay for it.’ ” The Republican governor last month described the $1 million donation offer from billionaire Republican donor Willis Johnson as a “surprise” that came as she was deciding whether to send police officers or National Guard troops, as well as how to fund the deployment. The state was responding to a request from Texas and Arizona to send law enforcement officers under an agreement between states to assist during emergencies

Tennessee

Nashville: Hospitals warned Thursday that the intensive care units are full in nearly every hospital in the state’s major metropolitan areas, pleading with Tennesseans to get vaccinated and wear masks while not going so far as to criticize Gov. Bill Lee’s executive order allowing parents to opt their children out of mask mandates in K-12 schools. Meanwhile, U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona warned Tennessee in a letter Wednesday that the order might violate federal law. The Tennessee Hospital Association said in its statement that the hospitals in metropolitan areas with full ICUs are the same ones that normally accept transfers from smaller hospitals of the sickest patients. “This means that if you or a loved one need treatment for any type of serious healthcare problem like a severe injury, heart attack, or stroke, you may not be able to access the care you need, when you need it,” the statement says. It cites Tennessee Department of Health data from May and July that found “at least 88% of these COVID hospitalizations and 94% of COVID deaths are among unvaccinated individuals.” And a Vanderbilt University Medical Center and Vanderbilt School of Medicine report released Thursday found hospitalizations have increased more than tenfold in a little more than a month, the fastest rate of increase of the pandemic.

Texas

Austin: The Austin City Limits Music Festival announced plans Thursday to require a negative coronavirus test or proof of COVID-19 vaccination for all patrons attending the event, scheduled to take place Oct. 1-3 and 8-10 in Zilker Park. While the festival will still admit children 10 and younger for free with a ticketed adult, the popular Austin Kiddie Limits section of festival programming has been paused for the 2021 event. Families attending the festival will be required to provide a negative virus test result for unvaccinated children. The festival also has added a “fan health pledge” to the website. It requests that fans skip the festival if they have tested positive or been exposed to someone who has tested positive for the coronavirus within 14 days of the beginning of the festival or if they experience symptoms consistent with COVID-19 within 48 hours of the festival. It also requests that fans do not attend if they “have travelled to any international territory identified by federal or applicable state or local governments as being subject to travel or quarantine advisories due to COVID-19.” The move comes as Austin grapples with rising coronavirus hospitalizations in the area. Music venues and industry leaders have been trying to figure out how to increase safety measures right as large events return.

Utah

Lehi: A teacher is no longer employed at a high school after a video of her sharing political opinions in class began circulating online, school district officials said Wednesday. The teacher at Lehi High School was initially placed on administrative leave after the video surfaced, but Alpine School District officials confirmed she no longer works there. District spokesman David Stephenson declined to say whether the teacher was fired or resigned. Video that appears to be surreptitiously recorded by a student in the classroom shows the teacher criticizing people who choose not to get vaccinated against COVID-19. The video was shared online by conservative activists who have led demonstrations against mask mandates and vaccines throughout the state. “I don’t have to be happy about the fact that there’s kids coming in here with their variants that could possibly get me or my family sick,” the video showed the teacher saying. “That’s rude, and I’m not going to pretend like it’s not.” She can also be heard saying that most students are smarter than their parents and that they don’t need to believe everything their parents believe. The Alpine School District, which declined to identify the teacher, said in a statement that the district disavowed her comments.

Vermont

Colchester: The state’s largest utility is reminding customers that they can apply for grant money to get caught up on past-due utility bills related to the pandemic. A total of $55 million in free grant money is available to help renters, homeowners, businesses and farms pay overdue utility bills tied to the pandemic, Green Mountain Power said in a statement Tuesday. “More than 20,000 GMP customers have fallen at least two months behind on their accounts during the pandemic, yet only about 2,000 have applied for these new assistance programs,” said Steve Costello, a GMP vice president. The Vermont Department of Public Service is taking grant applications through Oct. 25. The money, which does not have to be repaid, can go toward past-due landline phone, electric, natural gas and water service bills, the utility said.

Virginia

Newport News: A school board has voted to ignore state guidelines on protecting transgender students rather than change its policies as the law requires before the school year starts. The Newport News School Board voted 5-1 against the change with one member abstaining at a crowded meeting Tuesday, The Daily Press reports. Newport News is one of the largest districts in the state and among the first in Hampton Roads to refuse to follow the law passed last year. Under the law, school districts must adopt policies consistent with or more comprehensive than the model policies. They include allowing students to use school bathrooms and locker rooms that conform to their gender identity and allowing students to use pronouns and a name that reflect their gender identity. Most board members said they wanted more information, citing their discomfort with parts of the guidelines. Before the vote, Chair Douglas Brown said there’s nothing stopping the district from spending more time on the matter before revisiting it. Still, Brown said the law violates the rights of Christian parents like him who believe kids aren’t capable of making choices about their gender.

Washington

Seattle: Authorities say there are more people hospitalized with COVID-19 in the state than at any time during the pandemic. Cassie Sauer, president of the Washington State Hospital Association. said as of Thursday morning there were 1,240 people with the coronavirus in state hospitals. The previous highest number was about 1,100 in December. “Hospitals are still really, really full across the state,” Sauer said at a news conference. Hospitals are also seeing more people due to the effects of recent heat waves, smoke from wildfires and injuries due to summer activities. Sauer said until the recent uptick in cases and hospitalizations due to the delta variant, the COVID-19 hospitalization rate in the state had been holding steady at about 300 to 350 people. The numbers began increasing in early July and have been doubling about every two weeks. There has been a slight slowing in COVID-19 admissions recently, but Sauer said it’s too early to say if that’s a trend. To help free up capacity, Sauer said hospitals have been working with the state to move other patients who can be discharged into places like long-term care facilities. “We will have plenty of capacity if we can move patients out,” she said.

West Virginia

Charleston: U.S. Labor Secretary Marty Walsh toured an underground coal mine for the first time, joining U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin at a northern West Virginia facility Wednesday. Walsh did his best to signal that Democratic President Joe Biden’s administration won’t be an enemy of the coal industry as he and Manchin visited American Consolidated Natural Resources’ Golden Ridge Portal Mine near Wheeling. “It was quite the experience, I’ll tell you that,” Walsh said in a telephone interview on his way back to Washington, D.C. He described donning the proper safety equipment, taking an elevator ride down to the mine, and then a mantrip ride by rail to the longwall to watch a machine grind and extract coal from the seam. Walsh’s agency oversees the Mine Safety and Health Administration as well as the administration of benefits for coal miners disabled by black lung disease. “I felt it was really important for me to go down and get a feel for what mine workers do,” Walsh said. “I have a different understanding and appreciation of the work.” Democratic candidates for president have struggled in recent years to connect with voters in West Virginia, in part due to a push toward clean energy under the Obama administration. Still, despite his promises, coal did not come roaring back under Republican President Donald Trump.

Wisconsin

Wisconsin Dells: The Mount Olympus Water and Theme Park is building the nation’s first rotating waterslide as part of a $23 million expansion. The project includes a new 22,500-square-foot building attached to the indoor waterpark. The rotating waterslide, named Medusa’s Slidewheel, is a four-person raft ride that combines the rotation of a Ferris wheel with the propulsion of a waterslide, according to a news release from architecture and engineer firm Ramaker and Associates, which is working on the project. Outside the United States, the only other rotating waterslides are in China and Poland, the news release said. Mount Olympus announced the project on its Facebook page Aug. 6. Construction began in July and is scheduled to be completed by Memorial Day 2022. “It will be the coolest slide that ever hit the waterpark industry,” Mount Olympus CEO and owner Nick Laskaris told WiscNews. “Not just the Dells, but the industry as a whole.” In addition to Medusa’s Slidewheel, the indoor waterpark expansion project will include a large swimming pool area, Laskaris told WiscNews. The existing indoor waterpark will be remodeled to match the new addition, he said.

Wyoming

Cheyenne: Marijuana advocates plan to begin circulating petitions in September for two proposed ballot measures – one asking if the state should legalize medical marijuana, and the other if it should decriminalize pot. The Wyoming Attorney General’s Office this week approved the wording of the proposed questions. The Secretary of State’s Office has now begun the process of seeking bids for printing the petitions. The process ends Aug. 25. The Wyoming chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws plans to begin gathering signatures on or soon after Sept. 1. “We’ll be hitting events, going door to door. We intend to get it all wrapped up by February,” Wyoming NORML Executive Director Bennett Sondeno said Wednesday. The group has a “big list” of Wyoming events where it plans to gather signatures in the next few months, Sondeno said. February is the deadline to submit enough valid signatures to the Wyoming secretary of state to get the measures before voters in the 2022 general election, Sondeno said. Wyoming is among a minority of states that don’t allow cannabis in some fashion.

From USA TODAY Network and wire reports

'A nightmare': Man who nearly got death penalty for murder he didn't ...

A California man who spent nearly four decades in prison for a murder he did not commit was declared innocent Wednesday, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office.

"Maurice Hastings, wrongfully convicted of murder in 1983, narrowly escaped the death penalty & spent 38 years in prison, was found factually innocent by Judge Ryan today," Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón tweeted this week.

He said in a follow-up tweet that Hastings "survived a nightmare."

"We continue to work on correcting these injustices that many have experienced due to our current criminal legal system, including responses to requests submitted under prior administrations, such as Mr. Hastings,’" he tweeted.

Hastings' imprisonment came after the 1983 murder of Roberta Wydermyer, as well as two attempted murders.

He was charged with special-circumstance murder and while the district attorney’s office initially sought the death penalty, the trial resulted in a hung jury, the Associated Press reported. In 1988, Hastings was sentenced to life at a state prison without the possibility of parole.

Previous coverage: California man imprisoned for 38 years freed after DNA evidence points to another person

Ohio: Ohio man served 21 years for robbery that may not have happened. Now, he's getting $1.3 million

DNA evidence led to his exoneration

Hastings has long claimed his innocence, prompting the district attorney's office to launch an investigation.

The office's Conviction Integrity Unit interviewed witnesses and reviewed evidence, finding that Hastings is "factually innocent of the crimes" he was accused of, Gascón said in a news release.

And last June, DNA testing matched another person, Kenneth Packnett, who died in prison in 2020.

The district's attorney's office and the Los Angeles Innocence Project submitted a request to vacate Hastings' conviction and immediately release him from prison. In October, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge William C. Ryan approved the request and Hastings was freed.

This week, Hastings and his team asked a judge to declare him "factually innocent" to clear his name.

Paula Mitchell, director of the Los Angeles Innocence Project at California State University, Los Angeles, said Hastings' innocence was proven partially due to funding the school's Hertzberg-Davis Forensic Science Center received.

"This funding makes it possible to test DNA evidence in wrongful conviction cases with claims of actual innocence,” Mitchell said.

Includes reporting from the Associated Press

Saleen Martin is a reporter on USA TODAY's NOW team. She is from Norfolk, Virginia – the 757 – and loves all things horror, witches, Christmas, and food. Follow her on Twitter at @Saleen_Martin or email her at sdmartin@usatoday.com.

Governor's ball, tabernacle theft: News from around our 50 states

From USA TODAY Network and wire reports

Alabama

Florence: An attorney for an inmate who was the subject of a national manhunt after escaping with the apparent help of a jail official said he will ask to move his trial to another city. Mark McDaniel, an attorney representing Casey White, said he will seek a change of venue to move his upcoming capital murder trial and the separate escape case to a new location. When Casey White disappeared with jailer Vicky White, he was awaiting trial on a charge of killing a woman in 2015.

Alaska

Anchorage: The Biden administration is suing the state over fishing rights on a river that runs through a national wildlife refuge, saying Alaska is undermining federal efforts to limit harvests when fish numbers are low to residents in the area of predominantly Indigenous villages. U.S. Interior Department spokesperson Melissa Schwartz said the openings violated federal law and interfered with a priority for rural subsistence use under the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act.

Arizona

Phoenix: Gov. Doug Ducey is in Israel for five days of talks with political and business leaders. Ducey arrived in Israel on Sunday morning, accompanied by the heads of the Arizona Commerce Authority and the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Ducey spokesperson C.J. Karamargin said the Republican governor’s meetings would focus on trade, water and border security. Ducey has worked over his seven years in office to boost economic ties with Israel, which has a similar arid climate and water and security issues. His plans included meeting with Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and President Isaac Herzog, as well as former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He also was slated to meet with the U.S. ambassador to Israel, Thomas Nides; pay a Memorial Day visit to Israel’s 9/11 memorial in Jerusalem; meet with the city’s mayor; and visit some historic sites.

Arkansas

Charleston: The city honored the 1954 integration of its school district – the first public district to do so in the South – with a memorial celebrating the July 27, 1954, decision to desegregate Charleston Public Schools. The decision followed the May 17, 1954, U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka, which determined that segregation in public schools was unconstitutional. On Aug. 23, 1954, 11 Black students – three ninth graders and eight elementary school children – attended class alongside 480 white students. Barbara Dotson was one of the 11 Black students to attend school alongside white students. She became the first Black female student to graduate from the Charleston School District.

California

Sacramento: A school district has been unable to identify who subjected a Black assistant principal to racist graffiti and messages on social media even after a six-month investigation in which 45 witnesses were interviewed. Elysse Versher, assistant principal at the West Campus High School, told The Sacramento Bee she planned to resign, saying the Sacramento City Unified School District failed to protect her from the harassment and does not take incidents of racism and hate crimes seriously. Versher was made aware in November of social media posts by students calling her racial slurs and criticizing her enforcement of school dress codes. She found racist graffiti painted on a wall across from her parking spot. West Campus is a public college prep school for academic achievers. The school’s dress code states that students cannot wear clothing that promotes violence, drugs or alcohol or hate speech. Students cannot wear helmets or hoods that obscure the face unless required by the student’s religious practices. Versher said back in November that she has been disrespected and even threatened by parents of non-Black students and that non-Black students do not respect her authority. “They do not respect me as a human being,” she said. District officials expressed frustration over the results of their investigation.

Colorado

Rocky Mountain National Park: A climber was killed and two others were injured Sunday after a rock fall and avalanche in Rocky Mountain National Park, officials said. A woman suffered minor injuries, and a man who suffered more serious injuries was rescued by a Colorado National Guard helicopter using a hoist during a break in wintry weather, a park press release said. The park’s search and rescue team was looking for another man who was with the other two climbers near the Dreamweaver Couloir on Mount Meeker at the time of the avalanche Sunday morning, it said. Search crews found his body in avalanche debris about 5:15 p.m. Sunday, park spokeswoman Kyle Patterson said. The identities of the victims were not immediately released. The avalanche was witnessed by climbers in the area.

Connecticut

New London: The nation’s energy secretary and Danish wind developer Orsted say they want American union workers to build offshore wind farms to dot U.S. coastlines – the building trades workers who could otherwise be left out of a transition to renewable resources. The Biden administration wants to deploy 30 gigawatts of offshore wind energy by 2030, generating enough electricity to power more than 10 million homes. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm visited the New London State Pier facility this month to see how Orsted, energy provider Eversource and the state of Connecticut are transforming it into a hub for the offshore wind industry. At a press conference afterward, the Democratic governor and Democratic congressmen spoke about creating American jobs – messaging that will surely play into their reelection campaigns. Gov. Ned Lamont said there are “hundreds of good paying jobs right here,” and “we’re just getting started.” U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal thanked the unions, saying that “this is the future of energy in the United States of America right here.” U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney said they’re maximizing every opportunity for the state to grow in a sustainable way. U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy, the only one not up for reelection, echoed the same message, saying offshore wind is the “holy grail of public policy” because it creates jobs, helps the local economy, makes the country more secure and helps save the planet.

Delaware

Dover: State House leaders chastised a fellow Democrat who suggested in an online discussion that those who don’t support mask-wearing amid an uptick in COVID-19 cases but do support gun rights should kill themselves with their firearms. House leaders gave no indication, however, that they want to pursue formal disciplinary action against Rep. John Kowalko, who made the comment in a post following last week’s Texas school shooting but later deleted his Facebook comments and apologized. Kowalko, a Newark Democrat who once described himself as “your textbook liberal, progressive Dem,” made the remark about guns last week in an online back-and-forth with a conservative commenter over whether people should wear masks. Delaware House Speaker Pete Schwartzkopf, Majority Leader Valerie Longhurst and Majority Whip Larry Mitchell said in a joint statement released Friday that Kowalko’s comments were “offensive and indefensible.”

District of Columbia

Washington: Metro riders who take the Orange Line will have to deal with several station closures as crews work on reconstruction and improvements, WUSA-TV reports. The closures, which began Saturday, are expected to last more than three months. According to a release from the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, the closures will affect the New Carrollton, Landover, Cheverly, Deanwood and Minnesota Avenue stations until Sept. 5. WMATA said free shuttle bus services along three routes and free parking for Metro customers at the closed stations will be available. The closures are part of Metro’s “Platform Improvement Project,” which aims to reconstruct the aging concrete platforms at 20 stations. WMATA said 17 stations have completed the renovations over the past 21/ 2 years.

Florida

Tallahassee: There’s nothing to indicate the Florida Department of Health told an employee to falsify COVID-19 data, and she wasn’t fired out of retaliation, according to a state investigator’s report released this month. Former department employee Rebekah Jones received national attention when she raised questions about the state’s COVID-19 dashboard and claimed she was fired for exposing problems. The state said she was fired for insubordination after being reprimanded several times. An inspector general’s 268-page report found no evidence of wrongdoing or retaliation by the department. Jones, a Democrat who is running for the U.S. House seat now held by Republican Matt Gaetz, is also facing criminal charges after authorities said she illegally accessed the Department of Health’s computer system to send a message to 1,750 people and downloaded confidential data and saved it to her devices.

Georgia

Brunswick: Workers cooking burgers and tater tots in a Sonic fast-food kitchen fled after discovering a nonvenomous ball python hiding behind the deep fryer. Police Lt. Matthew Wilson found employees of the Sonic drive-in huddled in the parking lot when he arrived to investigate May 21. On the phone, they described the culprit as brown with diamonds on its back. “When I saw it, I could tell it was just a ball python and not a rattlesnake,” Wilson told The Brunswick News. He not only removed the large snake but also found it a new home with a friend who has a large terrarium and a fondness for snakes. Wilson said the python likely slipped into the Sonic’s kitchen through an open back door, finding a cozy spot for its cold-blooded body behind the hot fryer. Police don’t know where the snake came from, though Wilson said it had likely been a pet that got turned loose by its owner.

Hawaii

Honolulu: A contractor hired by the Navy is recommending a series of structural repairs to a massive fuel tank farm at Pearl Harbor to make sure the facility doesn’t leak petroleum when its tanks are drained, a report released Friday said. The recommendations for the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility came after the complex’s pipes leaked fuel into Pearl Harbor’s tap water last year, sickening thousands of military families. The Pentagon has since agreed to comply with a state order to drain the tanks and permanently shut them down. The Navy has a June 30 deadline to inform the state Department of Health when and how it plans to drain the fuel.

Idaho

Boise: A woman charged with killing her two youngest children and her new husband’s previous wife will be tried alongside her husband, and their trial has been delayed until early next year because the judge said that will give her attorneys enough time to effectively prepare a defense. Judge Steven Boyce ruled that delaying Lori Vallow Daybell’s trial another 90 days to Jan. 9 would not violate her rights for a speedy trial. Vallow and her husband, Chad, have pleaded not guilty and could face the death penalty if they are convicted.

Illinois

Chicago: The discovery of the bodies of three women inside a senior housing facility this month left the city looking for answers to questions that were supposed to be addressed after a far longer, hotter heat wave killed more than 700 people nearly three decades ago. The city is facing the reality that because of climate change, deadly heat waves can strike just about anywhere, don’t only fall in the height of summer, and need not last long. The Cook County Medical Examiner’s office has yet to determine the causes of death for the three women whose bodies were found in the James Sneider Apartments on May 14. But the victims’ families have already filed or plan to file wrongful death lawsuits against the companies that own and manage the buildings. It took the sight of refrigerated trucks being filled with dead bodies after Chicago’s 1995 heat wave to drive home the message that the city was woefully unprepared for a silent and invisible disaster that took more than twice as many lives as the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. That realization led to a system in which city workers call the elderly and frail and turn city buildings into 24-hour cooling centers when temperatures become oppressive. What happened this month is a reminder that the type of safeguards in place to make sure people don’t freeze to death because they have not paid their heating bills often do not exist to prevent people from overheating in their homes.

Indiana

West Lafayette: An agreement that will bring $75 million over the next 10 years to Purdue’s West Lafayette campus has officially been signed between the university and Rolls-Royce. Backed up by over 70 years of partnership, the relationship between Purdue and Rolls-Royce has been highlighted through millions of dollars invested in aerospace testing technology, graduate student research fellowships, and 600-plus Purdue alumni in Rolls-Royce’s workforce, according to a release from the university. The funds from this agreement will go toward gas turbine and electrical and digital technology research, with most of the investment going towards Zucrow Laboratories. In April, Purdue also announced plans for a $73 million, 55,000-square-foot propulsion laboratory for hypersonic technologies in Purdue’s Discovery Park District. “Purdue’s research partnership with Rolls-Royce will address some of the greatest technology challenges facing the U.S,” Purdue President Mitch Daniels said in the release. “Our faculty and students will work on advanced technology capabilities to ensure long-term national security. This will enhance the university’s role as a world leader in engineering research.”

Iowa

Des Moines: Families could soon be able to open-enroll their children in other school districts at any point during the year after the Legislature passed a bill last week that removes a March 1 deadline. Republicans framed the legislation as a way to give parents more choice about how their children are educated, while Democrats said it could undermine school districts’ ability to set a budget by April 15 every year, as they are required to do by law. The change was passed as part of the final budget bill of the year. The last-minute push to expand open enrollment in Iowa came after Republicans’ education agenda for the year largely collapsed. Just before the annual legislative session adjourned, House Speaker Pat Grassley, R-New Harford, said House Republicans lacked the votes to pass a proposal from Gov. Kim Reynolds that would have given families taxpayer-funded scholarships to pay private school expenses. Other GOP-backed policies that would have required schools to post their curriculum and library books online also fell by the wayside before the legislative session ended early Wednesday morning. Throughout the legislative session, Republicans have criticized school districts around the state for policies with which they say parents disagree, which they say show parents need other options.

Kansas

Topeka: Visitors to the Statehouse will soon be able to honor Gold Star families who have lost a family member in the line of military duty. Senate Bill 330 authorizes the construction of a memorial honoring Kansas Gold Star families. It passed the Legislature unanimously and was signed by Gov. Laura Kelly. The Capitol Preservation Committee is tasked with approving plans for a permanent memorial on Statehouse grounds. The monument will be on the Veterans’ Walk along the sidewalk at the southwest entrance. Public funds cannot be used for the project, which will depend on gifts and other funding.

Kentucky

Frankfort: Incoming high school seniors who have previously taken the ACT will be eligible to retake the standardized test for free, Gov. Andy Beshear said. A statewide ACT retake day will be held this fall on a date chosen by Kentucky’s Department of Education. More information on the date and locations will be shared with schools in the coming months, Beshear said.

Louisiana

New Orleans: Seventeen years after Hurricane Katrina flooded the city, the Army Corps of Engineers has completed an extensive system of floodgates, strengthened levees and added other protections. The 130-mile ring is designed to hold out a storm surge of about 30 feet around New Orleans and suburbs in three parishes. Congress provided $14.5 billion for what is formally called the Hurricane and Storm Damage Risk Reduction System and related projects. It included two features the Corps described as the world’s largest – a pumping station and a 1.8-mile barrier that can be closed against storm surges. The levees stood up to Hurricane Ida in 2021, though some suburbs outside the system flooded.

Maine

Augusta: A settlement approved for the University of Maine at Augusta president who bowed out amid controversy ensures he will be paid at least $235,000 in the first year. Michael Laliberte will receive an additional $30,000 for a housing allowance on top of his $205,000 salary, which will be paid in a lump sum July 1, the Kennebec Journal reports. If he fails to obtain another job, then he will receive his full salary for another two years, or he will receive the balance if he receives a lower-paying job. University of Maine System Chancellor Dannel Malloy was taken to task for failing to disclose to a search committee that Laliberte was the subject of no-confidence votes in his previous job, at State University of New York at Delhi. Malloy has found himself on the receiving end of several no-confidence votes since the controversy began. Malloy, a former Democratic governor of Connecticut, has apologized for the handling of the job search, and Laliberte announced he was declining to take the job as scheduled Aug. 1. The settlement isn’t sitting well with some, especially after nine faculty members were cut the University of Maine at Farmington.

Maryland

Annapolis: Gov. Larry Hogan announced vetoes of 18 bills Friday, including a measure that would have allowed voters who forget to sign their mail-in ballot envelope to do so after mailing it to get it counted. The Republican governor also vetoed a bill that would have allowed union dues to be tax-deductible, as well as a measure that would have stayed eviction proceedings against tenants who could show they are awaiting a determination about rental assistance. The Maryland General Assembly, which has a supermajority of Democrats, won’t have the chance to override these vetoes when lawmakers convene in January for their regular 90-day session because it is the last year of the term.

Massachusetts

Boston: It took more than three centuries, but Elizabeth Johnson Jr., the last Salem “witch” who wasn’t officially pardoned, has been cleared of her supposed crime. Massachusetts lawmakers on Thursday formally exonerated Johnson, clearing her name 329 years after she was convicted of witchcraft in 1693 and sentenced to death at the height of the Salem Witch Trials. Johnson was never executed, but neither was she officially pardoned like others wrongly accused of witchcraft. Lawmakers agreed to reconsider her case last year after a curious eighth grade civics class at North Andover Middle School took up her cause and researched the legislative steps needed to clear her name.

Michigan

Lansing: Two more Republican candidates for governor are suing to get on the Aug. 2 primary ballot, just days before the lineup must be settled. James Craig filed a lawsuit Friday night in the Court of Claims, while Michael Markey went to the Court of Appeals on Sunday. They were declared ineligible last week, the result of a tie vote by the Board of State Canvassers. State election officials said they didn’t meet the 15,000-signature threshold because of fraudulent signatures on petitions. Perry Johnson and Donna Brandenburg also didn’t make the ballot. Johnson filed a lawsuit Friday. There seems to be no dispute that fraudulent signatures were turned in by paid circulators, though there’s no evidence that the candidates were aware of the scam. The candidates want courts to order the board to put them on the ballot. They said the elections bureau should have inspected petitions line by line. In Johnson’s case, the appeals court said it could make a decision Tuesday. Five other Republican candidates landed a ballot spot, including Tudor Dixon, a former conservative TV news host who has the backing of Betsy DeVos, head of the U.S. Education Department during the Trump administration.

Minnesota

Lafayette: The owner of a rural weekly newspaper in southern Minnesota is looking to give his publication away so he can travel to Ukraine. Minnesota Public Radio reports Lafayette-Nicollet Ledger owner and publisher Lee Zion is willing to dig trenches, teach school or fight in Ukraine. Before he leaves, he wants to give the newspaper away for free. Zion produces the newspaper by himself, reporting, editing and laying out pages for about 500 subscribers, and wants to make sure a person committed to local journalism takes over. He said the towns he covers would suffer if the newspaper disappeared.

Mississippi

Jackson: Troublesome incidents involving female ride-share passengers and drivers have increased enough to prompt a local entrepreneur to come up with a new business, WLVT-TV reports. Literally Just Ladies is the first of its kind in the Magnolia State, Leigh Sullivan said, and she hopes it will offer safer transportation. She said an app for the company is being developed. Sullivan has been a ride-share driver in Jackson’s metro area for more than six years after doing the same work in her native New Orleans before coming to Mississippi. “And every single time I pick up a female at night, early morning, trying to get to the airport trying to get home from the airport, the first words I hear are, ‘I’m so glad it’s a woman. Thank God, it’s a woman,’ ” she said. Sullivan said she had tossed around the idea of an all-female wing of her transportation business for a while because of the feedback she was getting from her passengers. “And then Nov. 2, my friend Brandy got shot here in Jackson. She got shot seven times. And that was probably the defining moment, like, OK, now is the time.” Brandy Littrell, 36, a Lyft driver, was kidnapped Nov. 2, taken to a wooded area and shot seven times, miraculously surviving the attack.

Missouri

Springfield: A swastika was painted on the outside wall of a historically Black church in southwestern Missouri, and police are investigating the vandalism as a hate crime. Pitts Chapel United Methodist Church in Springfield reported the swastika was spray-painted on the building May 18 or 19. The NAACP and the Missouri chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations condemned the vandalism. A county parks crew removed the swastika. Pitts Chapel is Springfield’s oldest historically Black church, the Rev. Tracy Wolff said. It was founded in 1847 by a group of enslaved Africans.

Montana

Billings: A federal judge has given U.S. wildlife officials 18 months to decide if wolverines should be protected under the Endangered Species Act, following years of dispute over how much risk climate change and other threats pose to the rare and elusive predators. The order from U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy came after environmentalists challenged a 2020 decision under the Trump administration to withhold protections for the animals in the lower 48 states, where no more than 300 are thought to remain. Wildlife officials have previously estimated that 250 to 300 wolverines survive in remote areas of Montana, Wyoming, Idaho and Washington state. The animals in recent years also have been documented in California, Utah, Colorado and Oregon.

Nebraska

Omaha: Police arrested a 20-year-old man who had been going door-to-door with a chain saw after he caused a disturbance near a local school. Police said the man was about a quarter of a mile west of the Omaha Veterans Administration Center with the chain saw Friday morning in what they called an attempt to “make money.” Police said a homeowner confronted the man. They argued, and the man threatened the homeowner, who then chased the man. The man dropped his chain saw, but the homeowner tackled him another quarter of a mile to the west, near Holy Cross Catholic Church and its school. Police said the man tried to enter the school to get away from the homeowner, with no intent “to cause harm to anyone inside.” Police said they found several drug pipes on the man. He was arrested on suspicion of disorderly conduct and possessing drug paraphernalia.

Nevada

Las Vegas: A high school honors student said in federal court that he’s being bullied by students and harassed by campus administrators who search him for a gun every time someone identifies him on a state hotline that invites anonymous reports of school threats. “I’m a student, not a threat,” Reno High School junior Lucas Gorelick, 16, told the Associated Press. “I have rights. I want people to know what is happening, and I want to ensure safety for all future students.” A lawsuit filed May 23 in U.S. District Court in Reno argued school district officials have violated Gorelick’s constitutional rights to equal protection and freedom from unreasonable search and seizure. He said his backpack and pickup truck were searched five times in two weeks based on anonymous tips, but no weapon was found. He also noted he has been the target of other incidents he termed “bullying situations” that he traced to his Jewish heritage, his work with Democratic party candidates and his school achievements. His father, Jeff Gorelick, characterized a state Department of Education hotline called SafeVoice – established in 2017 after approval from the Legislature – as “an unthinking system” that grants anonymity to bullies.

New Hampshire

Concord: Gov. Chris Sununu signed into law a $100 million fund to settle sexual and physical abuse claims at a state-run youth detention center. The Legislature approved creating a fund to compensate those who were abused as children at the Sununu Youth Services Center, formerly the Youth Development Center. The Manchester center has been the target of a criminal investigation since 2019, and 11 former workers were arrested last year. Nearly 450 former residents have sued the state, with allegations involving more than 150 staffers from 1963 to 2018. Victims of sexual abuse would be eligible for payments of up to $1.5 million each, while payments to victims of physical abuse would be capped at $150,000. The center is named for former Gov. John H. Sununu, the current governor’s father.

New Jersey

Trenton: The state Department of Environmental Protection will distribute $21.4million to counties and municipalities as part of the Clean Communities program to reduce litter and beautify the Garden State. The funding includes just under $19.1 million on the municipal level and $2.3 million awarded to the state’s 21 counties, said DEP Commissioner Shawn LaTourette. The money represents an increase of about $700,000 over the $20.7 million allocated for the 2021 fiscal year. The additional grant funds will help communities improve their local environments and improve quality of life by removing litter, including from roadways and around stormwater collection systems, LaTourette said. “These community-level efforts have far-reaching impacts across the state, from beautifying neighborhoods to improving water quality and enhancing wildlife habitats,” he said. Counties and municipalities can use the grants to promote litter-related activities such as cleanups and to purchase equipment for the activities. The money can also be used to adopt and enforce anti-littering ordinances and boost public information programs. “We are grateful for funding that helps keep New Jersey litter-free,” said JoAnn Gemenden, executive director of the New Jersey Clean Communities Council.

New Mexico

Santa Fe: Students at Mora High School laughed and danced during their prom with Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham at the Governor’s Mansion on Thursday night – a silver lining for students during a tumultuous end to the school year. Many students were forced to flee their homes by the Calf Canyon/Hermits Peak Fire in recent weeks, and some had only recently returned. Some students arrived decked out in suits and gowns, while others stuck to their roots, showing up in cowboy hats, jeans and boots. Spanish and country music boomed through speakers as students two-stepped across the governor’s back patio. Lujan Grisham said she couldn’t throw a party and sit on the sidelines, so she jumped in to dance the “Cupid Shuffle” with students, state Sen. Leo Jaramillo, D-Española, and U.S. Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández. “I’m just elated that we could do this for the kids,” said New Mexico Education Secretary Kurt Steinhaus. “I’ve chaperoned a lot of proms – this one’s a little different than I’ve done before.” Lujan Grisham told the Albuquerque Journal a lot of work went into making sure students knew they had a “whole state that cares about their happiness and well-being.”

New York

New York: Police say someone busted into the altar at a Brooklyn church, stole a $2 million gold relic and removed the head from a statue of an angel at some point late last week. The incident happened between 6:30 p.m. Thursday and 4 p.m. Saturday at St. Augustine’s Roman Catholic Church, known as the “Notre Dame” of Brooklyn’s Park Slope neighborhood. The church was closed for construction at the time. Camera recordings from the church’s security system were also stolen, the church’s pastor said. The Diocese of Brooklyn called it “a brazen crime of disrespect and hate.” The diocese said the thief or thieves cut through a metal protective casing and made off with a tabernacle dating to the church’s opening in the 1890s. The tabernacle, a box containing Holy Communion items, was made of 18-carat gold and decorated with jewels, police and the diocese said. It’s valued at $2 million. The diocese said it is irreplaceable because of its historical and artistic value. According to a guidebook posted on the church’s website, the tabernacle was built in 1895 and restored in 1952 and 2000. It’s described as a “masterpiece and one of the most expensive tabernacles in the country, guarded by its own security system,” which involves an “electronically operated burglar-proof safe” and 1-inch-thick steel plates that “completely enclose the tabernacle.” Holy Eucharist, bread consecrated as the body of Christ, was taken from the tabernacle and thrown on the altar.

North Carolina

Wilmington: New Hanover County School Board member Nelson Beaulieu might be out of a job in November. With all absentee and provisional ballots counted, Beaulieu fell behind newcomer Jennah Bosch for the final Democratic nomination for the school board race this fall. But it’s still unknown if that result will hold. Beaulieu is only behind Bosch by two votes, with not even 0.01% of the vote separating them. Beaulieu held a three-vote lead at the end of election night with all precincts reporting, but Bosch overcame that during the official canvass when absentee ballots were counted. With the canvass complete, the results are official, and as of now, Bosch will join Judy Justice, Dorian Cromartie and Veronica McLaurin-Brown as the Democratic candidates in the general election for school board in November. Beaulieu said he has not decided if he will demand a recount. Candidates are allowed to demand recounts if there is less than a 1% split between themselves and the lowest prevailing candidate. With such a slim margin between the candidates, a recount could change the result.

North Dakota

Bismarck: The latest U.S. Drought Monitor map showed 19% of the state in some form of drought, down from 21% two weeks ago and 80% three months ago, The Bismarck Tribune reports. Three-fourths of the state was suffering through either extreme or exceptional drought in May 2021. The western fourth of the state is still abnormally dry, but no severe, extreme or exceptional drought conditions exist anywhere in the state. Most of the state saw at least a half-inch of rain over the past week, which has helped improve conditions in western North Dakota.

Ohio

Columbus: Gov. Mike DeWine announced plans Friday to spend “a significant amount of money” on efforts to ensure every school building in the state is properly protected against an attack. The Republican governor said he has asked the state schools superintendent for an assessment of which schools need such infrastructure additions within the next few days. DeWine did not name a figure but said: “This is not going to be cheap.” He also did not detail the types of security measures, which based on measures some schools already have in place might range from metal detectors to classroom barricade devices.

Oklahoma

Taft: Authorities said a 26-year-old man was in custody after one person was killed and seven people were injured in a shooting early Sunday at an outdoor town festival in eastern Oklahoma, where witnesses described frantic people running for cover amid gunfire. An arrest warrant was issued for Skyler Buckner, and he turned himself in to the Muskogee County Sheriff’s Office on Sunday afternoon, the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation said in a statement. OSBI said those shot at the Memorial Day event in Taft, located about 45 miles southeast of Tulsa, ranged in age from 9 to 56. A 39-year-old woman was killed, OSBI said. The injuries of those wounded were considered non-life-threatening. OSBI had earlier said two juveniles were injured in the shooting but said Sunday afternoon that only one juvenile was injured. Witnesses said an argument preceded the gunfire just after midnight, the agency said. About 1,500 people attended the event in Taft, which usually has a population of just a few hundred people. Members of the Muskogee County Sheriff’s Office were in attendance and immediately began rendering aid, OSBI said. Gov. Kevin Stitt said on Twitter that he was grateful for the OSBI’s “swift response to assist local police.”

Oregon

Salem: It could be a dangerous boating and floating season on the North Santiam River. Downed trees have created one complete blockage in the river and two other major hazard points between Stayton and Jefferson. There haven’t been many incidents so far this season due to cool and wet weather, but with the river running higher than normal, warm weather approaching and potentially good fishing on the way, officials are warning boaters about the hazardous locations as the summer float season gets underway. “The amount of trees in the North Santiam has increased significantly this past year, and there are a fair number of obstructions,” said Brian Paulsen, boating safety program manager for the Oregon State Marine Board. “With high and cold water, there’s a high risk for everyone.” Many of the hazards come from numerous trees killed in the Labor Day fires that have been washed downstream and gotten trapped in certain areas of the river, particularly between Buell-Miller County Park boat ramp, Greens Bridge and Jefferson. The logs can capsize boats and sweep people into “strainers,” where strong current traps people against branches and limbs, sometimes leading to drowning. All reported obstructions statewide can be pinpointed on the Marine Board’s reported waterway obstruction dashboard.

Pennsylvania

Dent’s Run: A scientific analysis commissioned by the FBI shortly before agents went digging for buried treasure suggested that a huge quantity of gold could be below the surface, according to newly released government documents and photos that deepen the mystery of the 2018 excavation in remote western Pennsylvania. The report, by a geophysicist who performed microgravity testing at the site, hinted at an underground object with a mass of up to 9 tons and a density consistent with gold. The FBI used the consultant’s work to obtain a warrant to seize the gold – if there was any to be found. The government has long claimed its dig was a bust. But a father-son pair of treasure hunters who spent years hunting for the fabled Civil War-era gold – and who led agents to the woodland site, hoping for a finder’s fee – suspect the FBI double-crossed them and made off with a cache that could be worth hundreds of millions of dollars. The newly revealed geophysical survey was part of a court-ordered release of government records on the FBI’s treasure hunt at Dent’s Run, about 135 miles northeast of Pittsburgh, where legend says an 1863 shipment of Union gold was either lost or stolen on its way to the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia.

Rhode Island

Providence: U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi asked Brown University graduates Sunday to “hold on to your hope,” even when faced with darkness in the world right now. “Amid the darkness, it would be easy to descend into apathy or despair. But we can’t. We can’t,” Pelosi said at the Ivy League school in Providence. The California Democrat referenced the “senseless” shootings at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, and a supermarket in Buffalo, New York – as well as the COVID-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine, the looming U.S. Supreme Court ruling on abortion rights, the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection and voter suppression. “You’re graduating into a vastly different world,” she said, congratulating the students on their bravery and resilience. Referencing President Abraham Lincoln’s efforts to unite the country during “one of America’s darkest hours,” Pelosi called on the graduates “to help summon the better angels of our nature to help heal America’s fractured soul.” Pelosi was the principal speaker for the Class of 2022 commencement ceremony and one of nine people to receive an honorary degree during the three-day commencement weekend. Recording artist Shaggy was also honored Saturday for his work as a musician and a philanthropist.

South Carolina

Columbia: Scientists are looking for volunteers to help them study the differences in heat across short distances in the city. A sensor will be put on the car window of volunteers who will then drive certain routes to get exact temperature readings, University of South Carolina professor Kirstin Dow told WLTX-TV. Dow is part of a mapping project paid for by the National Integrated Heat Health Information System to identify and research heat islands, or small areas that are hotter than their surroundings just feet away. That data can help determine the best materials to use for buildings or ground cover or how important trees are to cooling off as temperatures are expected to get hotter. A similar mapping project was done in Charleston last summer and determined the influence of the sea breeze doesn’t extend far inland, said Scott Curtis, the director of the Near Center for Climate Studies, which helped Charleston with the study. “One of the areas that was the hottest was the port. And not because it was near the water – because there is lots of asphalt, lots of concrete, there’s just no vegetation at all,” Curtis said.

South Dakota

Sioux Falls: More than 60 Indigenous students celebrated their high school graduation in a special ceremony Friday. The Sioux Falls School District has held a senior honoring ceremony specifically for Indigenous students for at least a decade, said Anna Brokenleg, instructional coach and teacher on special assignment for the Office of Indian Education for the district. A total of 90 Native American students will graduate from Sioux Falls public schools this year, Brokenleg said, counting 60 who were able to attend Friday night’s ceremony, ahead of graduation for all four public high schools Sunday. “Historically, when you look at graduation rates for Native students, they’re often very low,” Brokenleg said, explaining why it’s important to honor these students in a culturally relevant manner. “Hearing from a variety of elders and professionals allows them to see a mirror of the kinds of things they can be in life … and to have a gathering for families to be able to celebrate with them, and the hard work they’ve put in … it’s a really important thing to do.” The honoring ceremony started with an opening prayer, songs by Crazy Bull, and a presentation of the U.S. and South Dakota flags, as well as an eagle feather staff, by veterans. Three speakers gave addresses, then a group of student leaders carried in their tribal flags.

Tennessee

Nashville: Gov. Bill Lee has signed off on a new campaign finance and ethics face-lift, bucking objections from some of the state’s most influential advocacy groups who opposed the measure. “I think that transparency is a good idea,” Lee told reporters earlier this month. “I think that whenever we have transparency into organizations that politically lobby, that’s a good thing.” The Republican governor signed the measure Friday. The move comes as a federal investigation has hovered over the GOP-controlled General Assembly for over a year that has so far led to one Republican lawmaker pleading guilty to a federal wire fraud charge over allegations she helped carry out a political consulting kickback scheme. However, even as the statehouse’s top legislative leaders called for campaign ethics reform amid the ongoing investigation scandals, so-called dark money groups have remained fiercely opposed to the new changes. Many argued the law will result in them disclosing donors. Opponents include Americans for Prosperity, Tennessee Right to Life and the National Rifle Association. Supporters counter that the new law will shine a light on expenditures, not donors. Specifically, certain politically active nonprofits must disclose spending totaling at least $5,000 within 60 days of an election on communications that contain a state candidate’s name or likeness. The measure also states that political committee leadership must provide identification.

Texas

Austin: A man has been sentenced to six years in prison for setting fire to the Travis County Democratic Party office in downtown Austin. Federal court records showed Ryan Faircloth, 31, of San Antonio, was sentenced Friday to 72 months in prison after pleading guilty in January to arson for throwing a Molotov cocktail into the office in September. An attorney for Faircloth did not immediately return a phone call for comment Saturday. Faircloth, who was arrested days after the attack, had faced up to 20 years in prison before reaching a plea agreement in the case. No one was in the office when it was attacked about 2 a.m. Only a small stack of papers caught fire, officials have said, and the blaze was quickly extinguished by employees of a neighboring business.

Utah

Syracuse: Ninth graders at Syracuse Arts Academy asked a science teacher whose gender transition they witnessed to be their graduation speaker. Bree Borrowman began transitioning two years ago, when the students were seventh graders, and they supported her at every step in her journey, she said. So she was especially touched when student body officers asked her to be the one to send them off on their own new journey. As as far as she can tell, she may be the first transgender person ever to speak at a graduation event in Utah, The Salt Lake Tribune reports. “Each one of you is absolutely brilliant, beautiful and wonderful,” Borrowman told the group of 132 ninth graders at the public charter school. “However, feelings of shame and guilt from outside influences can often make us feel less than and unloved. … You are not alone. I love you. And my door is always open.” Parents, administrators and former students waited in a group around Borrowman after the ceremony to thank her for her speech. Some said it made them think of how they can be more supportive of their family members and friends who are LGBTQ. Borrowman, 65, grew up in Bountiful and has lived in Utah nearly all of her life.

Vermont

Weybridge: The remains of a Revolutionary War soldier are being moved to a resting place elsewhere in the state because erosion threatens some of the graves at an old cemetery near a riverbank. Josiah Clark, who fought in the 1775 Battle of Bunker Hill in Massachusetts, was buried in the Stow cemetery in Weybridge in 1835. Erosion over the years left his grave perched on the edge of a steep eroding bank, so his bones were exhumed in 2019. This month a horse-drawn wagon carried a flag-draped coffin containing Clark from the congregational church to another cemetery nearby for a reinterment ceremony. The rest of the roughly 20 graves will also be moved to the Old Weybridge Hill Cemetery eventually, including the remains of Revolutionary War soldier William Haven.

Virginia

Richmond: Legislative leaders are proposing a new criminal misdemeanor in state law for possession of more than 4 ounces of marijuana in public. The Richmond Times-Dispatch reports the proposal is included in a new two-year state budget plan, which became publicly available online Sunday evening. The General Assembly will meet Wednesday in special session to consider the budget. The language on marijuana – like much of the budget agreement – followed discussions that were not held in public. The budget compromise backed by House Appropriations Chairman Barry Knight, a Republican, and Senate Finance and Appropriations Chair Janet Howell, a Democrat, would write into law that anyone caught in public with more than 4 ounces of marijuana would be guilty of a Class 3 criminal misdemeanor that carries a fine of up to $500, plus a criminal record. A second or subsequent offense would be a Class 2 misdemeanor punishable by up to six months in jail and a fine of up to $1,000. Chelsea Higgs Wise, executive director of the group Marijuana Justice Virginia, along with heads of other organizations, blasted the proposal in an email sent to Howell on Sunday evening. “Please stop finding more ways to criminalize Virginians,” she wrote.

Washington

Seattle: Gov. Jay Inslee’s appointments to an obscure regulatory panel have cost the state $70,000 in a public records lawsuit settlement and forced the governor to name new appointees. The dispute centered on Inslee’s handling of appointments to the Washington State Building Code Council, which establishes minimum standards for new construction, including rules for energy efficiency, plumbing and fire safety, The Seattle Times reports. State law says two of the council’s 15 members must be nominated by trade associations representing residential and commercial builders. But Inslee last year ignored builder group recommendations and instead named two of his own picks. The Building Industry Association of Washington and the Associated General Contractors of Washington sued over the appointments and filed another lawsuit saying the governor’s office failed to turn over relevant documents after a public records request. The state later admitted that a member of Inslee’s staff had made a material false statement in a sworn court declaration by saying one of Inslee’s nominees had been put forward by another building trade group, when he had not.

West Virginia

Charleston: After more than a half-century of carrying visitors on scenic round-trip journeys to the depths of two river gorges, the aerial tramways serving Hawks Nest and Pipestem Resort state parks soon will be replaced. West Virginia State Parks officials are hopeful new, improved aerial tramways will be operating at the two parks next year. The Hawks Nest aerial tramway has been closed since June 6, when a routine morning inspection by the state park’s staff turned up a safety issue that required substantial remediation. “Since then, we’ve shuttled 7,600 people down to the marina to ride the jet boat,” said Joe Baughman, the park’s superintendent. The shuttle involves a van trip from Hawks Nest’s lodge to Ansted, about a mile to the east, followed by a 4-mile descent to Hawks Nest Lake on Mill Creek Road. The Hawks Nest tramway, which opened in 1970, typically carries more than 45,000 visitors annually on steep, 800-foot descents from the lodge to a marina on Hawks Nest Lake at the base of the New River Gorge. The aerial tramway at Pipestem, which began operating in 1972, carries visitors nearly two-thirds of a mile, descending from the rim of Bluestone Canyon and crossing the Bluestone River before arriving at Mountain Creek Lodge. The trip involves an 1,100-foot drop in elevation and six minutes of sightseeing time.

Wisconsin

Madison: When Wisconsin Republicans asked the public to report concerns about the 2020 election, voters flocked to the web to submit tips – often about the very officials conducting the probe. “There is a very disturbed man ranting like a lunatic and telling provable lies about the election in order to undermine election integrity,” one person wrote in April. “Not only that, he’s stolen hundreds of thousands of dollars from taxpayers by pretending to do a legitimate investigation. This is fraud at the highest levels and he literally advocated nullifying the votes of Wisconsin. Please stop this flagrant fraud asap.” The submission was similar to dozens of others filed over the past year that taunt Assembly Speaker Robin Vos of Rochester and former state Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman for budgeting $676,000 for a review of a presidential election that recounts, court decisions and independent studies have concluded was properly called for President Joe Biden. Few submissions contained concrete tips about the way the election was run. Some were vague. Others were unhinged. The messages were submitted over the past year to a wifraud.com, a website set up by Gableman. He recently shut down the site but continues to maintain two others, wielectionreview.org and wispecialcounsel.org.

Wyoming

Casper: Organizers of a planned abortion clinic say they won’t be deterred by last week’s potential arson. When they settled on a summer opening for the women’s health clinic earlier this year, they felt upbeat about their plans even as they knew they would face opposition to what will be the only such clinic to offer abortions in the state. There were the expected protests and harassing messages. Things got more tense after a leaked draft of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that, if finalized, would likely make abortions illegal in Wyoming and half of the states. Then last week, their building was damaged by a fire police believe was deliberately set. None of it has derailed plans to open the clinic – a rarity in heavily Republican parts of the United States where most abortion providers at the moment are fighting just to stay in business, let alone expand services. “We can’t be bullied into submission,” Julie Burkhart, the clinic founder, said as she watched from across the street as Casper police and firefighters investigated the blaze.

From USA TODAY Network and wire reports

Debra Milke's new world after a half-life on death row

Michael Kiefer

The Republic | azcentral.com

In September 2013, 2 1/2 weeks after being released from custody, Debra Milke had a hearing in Maricopa County Superior Court.

She had spent 24 years behind bars and her eyes were wild, like those of an animal, as she backed into the corner of a crowded elevator, hugging the walls and shaking.

“I was trying to get used to people,” she told The Arizona Republic in an exclusive interview last week. “I was trying not to hyperventilate.”

RELATED: Arizona Supreme Court lets Milke ruling stand as precedent

Milke was a celebrated murderer, convicted of arranging the 1989 murder of her 4-year-old son, Christopher.

Christopher was told he was going to the mall to see Santa Claus. Instead, he was taken into the desert by Milke’s male roommate and one of his friends, and shot in the head.

Milke denied that she had any part in the murder, but a jury thought otherwise. She was sent to death row in 1991 and languished there until March 2013, when a federal appeals court threw out her conviction and her death sentence — not because she was exonerated, but because her constitutional rights had been violated. The prosecution and police had refused to turn over the spotty personnel record of a Phoenix police detective who claimed Milke had confessed to the arranged murder. There were no recordings or witnesses to prove the confession took place.

Nineteen months after the federal appellate decision, an Arizona appeals court determined that it would constitute double jeopardy to retry her for the murder.

Now she lives free in a tile-roofed stucco house in a cookie-cutter development on the fringes of suburban Phoenix.

Her eyes have calmed, her face relaxed as she sits in a darkened room, shades drawn against the light.

She has gained 38 pounds.

“They don’t have ice cream in prison,” she said.

She speaks easily. She is friendly and talkative.

She was 25 and youthful when she went to prison. Now, at 51, she is white-haired and matronly.

RELATED: Debra Milke speaks out after 23 years on death row

“Half my life,” she said, sighing. “I don’t really mourn over that. I can’t get the years back. I accept that. I accept my life as it is now.”

Phoenix is a very different place than it was in 1989. Its population has swelled. So have its boundaries. The freeways baffle her. The supermarkets seem surreally large.

Technology has created gadgets that could not have been imagined in 1989.

Milke is trying to gain insight into who and where she is, like a time traveler from the 1980s who suddenly materialized in the second decade of the 21st century.

She still professes her innocence. Milke claims that she had nothing to do with her son’s murder. But there is no evidence to show she was not involved.

She feels as if she straddles a fence on the death penalty, “a victim on both sides of it,” calling herself the mother of a child who was murdered, who then spent half her life facing execution.

She doesn’t need to see her co-defendants executed.

“It’s not going to change anything,” she said. “They’re going to die in prison.”

She feels she was treated unjustly by the legal system, and even the criminal-defense community is bitterly split on whether she is innocent or guilty.

This is not the story of that argument. Only Milke and the two men who took her son to the desert and killed him know what happened. And even then, they may have differing views. But they aren’t talking anyway. While Milke is free, the other two remain on death row with little legal recourse standing between them and execution.

This is Milke’s story about being inside, and then about being outside.

“Just imagine being locked in your bathroom for 24 years and no one will let you out,” Milke said. “Just as I had to adapt to prison, now I have to adapt to freedom.”

Learning to live in prison

In December 1989, Milke was recently divorced, and she and Christopher were living in Phoenix with a would-be suitor named James Styers.

In one version of the story, Milke wanted the hyperactive child out of her life, and in another version, Styers wanted him gone to improve his chances with Milke. So Styers enlisted a friend named Roger Scott, and on Dec. 3, 1989, they took the boy into the desert and shot him.

Styers and Scott drove to Metrocenter Mall in northwest Phoenix and told a security guard that the child was lost in the mall. Police didn’t believe the story and Scott confessed, implicating Milke. Then he led police to the boy’s body.

RELATED: Murder charges formally dismissed against Milke

Milke was arrested at her parents’ home in Florence and interrogated by Phoenix police Detective Armando Saldate. He claimed that Milke confessed her involvement in the murder. But there was no tape or video recording of the confession and no one else had witnessed it. Milke flatly denied she had confessed or that she had arranged her son’s death.

Eventually, Deputy Maricopa County Attorney Noel Levy persuaded the jury to bring back a guilty verdict against Milke, and Superior Court Judge Cheryl Hendrix sentenced her to death.

Scott and Styers were also sentenced to death.

Milke no longer remembers which law-enforcement agency came for her on that February day in 1991 when she was taken from a Maricopa County jail to the Arizona State Prison Complex– Perryville in Goodyear.

She was a nervous wreck, and a jail doctor gave her an Ativan tablet to ease her anxiety before they loaded her into a car and drove her west on Interstate 10.

“I just remember the freeway seemed endless,” she said.

As she was led in handcuffs across the yards into the prison, she thought, “I’m not going to die here. I’m not going to live the rest of my life here. I’m going to get out.”

She cried all through her first night, angry at “God and everybody.”

Then she began to learn to live in prison.

Technically, she was on death row, but there was no such place in Perryville and she was its only occupant, and even then, it was only semantics. The next woman on death row, Wendi Andriano, who beat her husband to death, would not arrive until 2005. The third, Shawna Forde, an anti-immigrant vigilante involved in a double murder, followed in 2011.

So in 1991, Milke’s cell-block neighbors were general-population prisoners who were being disciplined in maximum security: prostitutes and gang-bangers — bad girls, career criminals. Though officially deemed an ogre, unlike the others, Milke was a middle-class girl who had never been in trouble before.

She saw drug overdoses and fights.

“I’ve seen inmates on fire,” she said, women who lit themselves in desperation and craziness. “I’ve seen a lot of crazy stuff.”

Today, death-row prisoners, especially the men, spend 23 hours a day locked in their cells with little contact with other prisoners or the outside world.

Milke had a cell with a window in its door, and anyone in the unit could walk up to it and talk to her. She had two windows to the outside world on the other side of her cell, one of which opened about two inches.

She was treated like a trustee. After 2 in the afternoon, she was allowed to stay out of her cell until 9 p.m., even going outside in a fenced-in part of her unit. She was allowed to help the correctional officers with dinner. She took correspondence courses.

That changed after 1997, when corrections Officer Brent Lumley was murdered by a male inmate. Afterward, a new wing bearing Lumley’s name was built at the Perryville prison, and the male prisoners were moved to Arizona State Prison Complex–Lewis near Buckeye.

Milke had to learn to live in lockdown.

“I had to have the window open around the clock,” she said. “Otherwise I felt claustrophobic. I used to listen to the traffic on I-10 and watch the airplanes and wonder where they were going or coming from.”

Even if she knew what day it was, she lost all sense of time, describing the days as a conveyor belt with one rolling into the next. She built a routine: writing from 5:30 to 6:30, then showering, cleaning supplies, TV shows, reading.

She taught herself algebra. She read books she should have read in school, by Leo Tolstoy and Nathaniel Hawthorne.

She became friends with Andriano, and the two talked through a vent between their cells. They would pass coffee or tea to each other during shift changes, when they were less likely to be seen, by rolling up pieces of paper and telescoping them together until they had long wands that would reach from one cell to the next.

“Every year it was all the same,” she said. “It just melted one into another.”

Appeal victory

Milke’s case tracked through Arizona state courts without relief and then, as happens with capital cases, it bounced into federal court. Her attorneys had uncovered the sordid record of Detective Saldate, who had been fired from the Phoenix Police Department for his bad acts.

In March 2013, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals threw out Milke’s conviction and death sentence and ordered that she either be released or retried. The ruling noted that Saldate had a long history of misconduct that called his credibility into question.

On March 14, 2013, Milke said, she was lying on the floor of her cell talking to Andriano through the vent when a female correctional officer came with the news that one of her lawyers, Lori Voepel, was on the phone.

The first thing she said was, “We won.”

“I just started shaking on the inside,” Milke said. Voepel started to explain the ruling. “It went in one ear and out the other,” Milke said.

It took until July before the state of Arizona decided to retry her and transfer her to a Maricopa County jail. The case went to the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office, and County Attorney Bill Montgomery vowed to continue to seek the death penalty and send Milke back to Perryville.

Milke learned of the transfer the night before she would go. She packed some things, donated her TV and radio so that some other prisoner could have them and was sent to the Estrella Jail in south Phoenix.

Life in jail is harsher than life in prison — no windows, no TV, no clocks.

“You would ask what time it was and no one would tell you,” she said.

She could not stomach the food. She was stressed by the noise. And when she would be taken to her court hearings, she looked as haggard and unkempt and wild as a witch in a fairy tale.

But on Sept. 6, 2013, Superior Court Judge Rosa Mroz ruled that Milke could be released on $250,000 bond. She was taken to Lower Buckeye Jail, where she changed into street clothes. Then her other lawyer, Michael Kimerer, secreted her away by car to Voepel’s office, where a court officer affixed an electronic monitoring device to Milke’s ankle.

“This bracelet means freedom to me,” she told the officer.

She snacked on a vegetarian sandwich that had been brought in for her, because she craved vegetables. And on the way to a welcome-home party at a friend’s home, they drove through a Starbucks restaurant because she had heard in prison that the coffee was wonderful.

“It was gross,” she said.

Welcome to the 21st century, Debra Milke.

European backing

Unlike many inmates released from prison, Debra Milke has a strong and wealthy support system, and it is centered in Europe.

Milke was born in Germany, and her parents moved back there and then on to Switzerland, where they lived the last of their lives. Milke’s mother died after Milke was released from custody but before all charges were dropped, so she was not allowed to travel to Switzerland to see her mother on her death bed.

Capital punishment is illegal in Europe, and Europeans are stridently against its use elsewhere. There have been books and movies about Milke, and the French- and German-speaking media have assiduously followed her case.

In effect, she is perceived in Europe as Amanda Knox is perceived in the United States: a poor, innocent woman caught up in some unjust foreign judicial system.

(Knox and Milke, incidentally, have met.)

Subsequently, Milke’s European supporters footed her bond, and she is living in the Phoenix-area home of a German friend.

But on her first night out of custody, she might just as well have still been on the inside.

She ventured timidly out into the house’s backyard. The next night she dared step into the front yard. And on the third day, her German friend took her for a walk around the block.

“It was strange. There were all these houses and cars,” she said.

She was overwhelmed the first time she went to the supermarket. “I was amazed at how huge the stores had become and became panicky.”

When she saw a woman and a young boy in one aisle, and heard the child say, “Mommy, I want this,” she fell apart.

Her first trip to Walmart was worse. And the first dinner out at a sports bar was unbearable for the noise, the talking and the overstimulation. She panicked at the State Fair.

She couldn’t bring herself to read or watch television because she had done so much in prison.

She bought a computer but left it in the box for a month, bought a flip phone and then eased into a smartphone but can’t fathom the things she can do with it.

“It was odd to see everyone walking around with a phone, and strange and annoying walking around listening to everyone’s conversations,” she said. “I wanted to just turn around and tell them to shut up.”

Because she was in isolation for so many years, she never got sick. Now she falls victim to every flu bug and suffers from allergies.

After 24 years of waiting to get back to life, it was difficult to know what to do because she was overwhelmed by options.

She got a dog. She toils in the garden of her friend’s house.

Her attorneys persuaded her to go back to work and she found a job as a bookkeeper five days a week.

Mulling name change

In September 2014, the Arizona Court of Appeals dismissed all charges against Milke, ruling that retrying her would be tantamount to double jeopardy. The Arizona Supreme Court let the lower court decision stand. That freed Milke to travel and to move on in her life.

She will spend the next month in Europe, visiting with her remaining relatives there, fulfilling contractual obligations with German media, and traveling to Switzerland to visit her mother’s grave and tend to her estate.

She has filed a lawsuit in federal court against the city of Phoenix, Maricopa County, County Attorney Montgomery, disgraced Detective Saldate and other police officers, alleging malicious prosecution and civil-rights violations.

She is considering changing her name. She wants to fade into the world but is worried that going to court to change names will call more attention to her and reveal her new identity anyway.

She says she knows where she wants to live — but won’t tell so that she can become anonymous.

She is seeing a psychiatrist.

“I’m trying to figure out who I am today,” she said. “I’m trying to figure out how to pick up the pieces and move ahead.”

On the beat

Michael Kiefer is a senior reporter who has covered courts, justice and Maricopa County government issues for The Arizona Republic since 2003.

How to reach him: michael.kiefer@arizonarepublic.com

Phone: 602-444-8994

Twitter: @michaelbkiefer